MLS Cup kicks off in about two hours, featuring the back-from-the-dead L.A. Galaxy, last year’s dysfunctional laughing stock, vs. hot-at-the-right-time Real Salt Lake – they of the many merry midfielders. The news from Seattle is the locals have embraced the championship with nearly as much vigor as they took to their Sounders this year, and 40,000 are expected despite the crap weather. Good news for MLS. Even better news if the Galaxy pulls it off – what a fitting final chapter to this whole Beckham Experiment thing. But Salt Lake has only beat two of the supposedly best/most talented teams in Columbus and Chicago to get here, and anyone who’s watched them the past month knows they are fully capable of controlling play and scoring goals.
Of course Beckham is carrying an injury (say this for the man – he knows drama) and could be fairly limited. He’s likely one crunching Kyle Beckerman tackle from being out. The real key to this match of course is league MVP Landon Donovan. Salt Lake will be completely fixated on denying him the ball, but that might not be enough. And maybe it opens the way for someone like Mike Magee or Alan Gordon to be the hero. I’ve been predicting L.A. would win it all for months (just thought they’d be playing the Fire) so I won’t change my pick now.
In other news, FIFA denied Ireland’s request for a reply against France after now-infamous Hand-of-Frog, featuring Thierry Henry (video after the bump). Of course what else are FIFA going to do? Admit that it’s time to employ instant-replay and other technology to prevent these kinds of mistakes? Yeah, right. It’s going to take something like this at the actual World Cup before they move forward. Read the rest of this entry ?
An eventful week for the US Men’s National Team saw qualification for next year’s World Cup overshadowed by the terrible news of a deadly car wreck that left promising forward Charlie Davies severely injured and a young woman dead. Much has been written about this, so I won’t add to it; suffice to say that our thoughts go out to the affected families.
So Team America battled to a 2-2 tie against Costa Rica in D.C. Wednesday. It was an emotional and error-plagued performance that really means nothing in the grand scheme other than putting the more-deserving Honduras in the World Cup instead of the Ticos. The U.S. wins the hexagonal for the second straight cycle, which is the rough equivalent of winning your low-major conference tournament by 20 in March: you still know you’re going to get a crappy seed. Also the U.S. lost defender Oguchi Onyewu to a knee injury that will keep him out for several months and puts his Milan career in doubt. Read the rest of this entry ?
Team America is World Cup bound. All the teeth-gnashing and hand-wringing about the squad’s inconsistent play, their inability to score goals from the run of play, Coach Bob Bradley’s squad selection – it can all go away, at least for a little while. The US beat Honduras 3-2 Saturday night in San Pedro Sula, the only team to win down there during qualification. And they did it by battling hard, refusing to quit even after going down a goal, and riding the superior skill and tireless efforts of one Landon Donovan.
I ended up watching this game on my computer via alternating webfeeds from Central America and Iraq (of all places). The quality was bad and the feed lagged at times, but at least I was able to watch. Five point in your bound-for-South Africa Pentagram…
In a strange and annoying turn reminiscent of the mid-90s, US Soccer has managed to not have the second-to-last World Cup Qualifier broadcast tomorrow. Oh, the game is available for viewing, via closed-circuit TV in a handful of bars across the country, but no pay-per-view, no web-cast, nada. For me, this would mean a drive to Chicago if I really wanted to watch this game. And I really want to watch this game – just not enough to spend six hours in the car.
It’s an important, vital match. Win or tie and Team America is in the World Cup. Lose and the last game against Costa Rica in D.C. next Wednesday becomes scary. Just to review: tomorrow I can watch Bahrain v. New Zealand or Denmark v. Sweden, or even freaking Liechtenstein v. Azerbaijan. But no USA v. Honduras. Read the rest of this entry ?
With a 3-1 (oops, I mean 2-1) victory over El Salvador in Utah, Saturday night, Team America remains in the mix to win the hex. Here are the standings with three more to play – one game on Wednesday and two more in October: Honduras – 13 pts, USA – 13 – pts, Mexico – 12 pts, Costa Rica – 12 pts. Trinidad & Tobago and El Salvador are both virtually eliminated with 5 apiece. The top three teams qualify automatically for South Africa, while 4th place is a play-in with the 5th place team from South America. As that could be Argentina the way things are rolling, the USA would do well to avoid the drama.
It's a goal for Jozy!
Wednesday we travel to Trinidad in a game we should win and the chance for some breathing room. As we have two of the more difficult matches next month – at Honduras and home against Costa Rica – you take your three points from the Soca Warrior if at all possible.
Against El Salvador, Coach Bradley trotted out the more attack-oriented lineup many of us we’re hoping to see. Finally, we saw Altidore and Davies starting up top with Feilhaber, Donovan, and Dempsey in the midfield. The result was some attractive soccer at points, as well as some defensive lapses. Five points in the pentagram…
Well, you win some, you lose some. At Azteca, you mostly lose. But that doesn’t mean you have to like it. Sure there are a few positives: the continued ascent of Charlie Davies, who scored the first goal at the Azteca by Team America in many moons, the fact that we’ve been able to take the early lead on Italy, Brazil, Spain, and Mexico in Mexico. But… We’ve only managed to hold that lead in one of those games, and let’s face it – luck was with us that day. A troubling trend.
It’s not the fact that Mexico beat us on their home soil. Again. No, it’s the way the USA played after conceding that first goal, attempting (ineffectively) to bunker 70 minutes on the road, unable to string together passes, and conceding possession at all turns. You could claim that both of Mexico’s goals were fortunate (and they were) but that’s the beside the point. El Tri carried the play, dominated possession, and deserved their day. Now with Honduras’ victory over Costa Rica, we have a logjam at the top the standings for the region. Costa Rica with 12 points, Hoduras and the USA with 10 points, and Mexico with 9. Five points in the Pentagram…
Saturday was an official soccer day in Beemsville, starting with last-minute preparations for our trip north to Chicago for the World Cup Qualifier. But before that, my daughter’s team had one last youth soccer game.
The Bandits have made some progress over the last few months, notably in advanced tactics such turning and going the right direction and actually passing it to someone open. Yeah, someone should give that coach a raise…
After that it was northward to Chi-town. The typical road construction, multiple stops, and general procrastination meant we were way behind in our pre-game plans. Didn’t make the pre-pub and march to the stadium or the tailgate, which sucked. I never fail to underestimate our ability to get around in a city like Chicago. Of course we were heavily outnumbered at the game. Hondurans made up, I would guess, about 70% of the crowd. I read that a lot of folks planned or incorporated family reunions with this game; that’s how important it was to them.
3-1 loss for the good guys in San Jose, which makes Saturday’s game in Chicago against Honduras even more important. A loss or tie at home would really set qualification into a tailspin, while a win keeps us right near the top. It was pretty much a crap performance from start to finish. So without further adieu, five points to the pentagram.
The latest round of World Cup qualifying for Team USA yielded a 2-2 tie in El Salvador and a 3-0 win against Trinidad and Tobago in Nashville. That’s four points in two games, good for the lead atop CONCACAF qualifying. All according to Bob Bradley’s strategy and the mantra for making the World Cup since the 90s: win at home, tie on the road.
So, everything’s cool, right? Could be a lot worse. Like, to pick a totally random example, say, Mexico (coach fired, foundering in 4th place). Or perennial World Cup qualifier/underachiever, Portugal (in third in their group and in real trouble). Or usual World Cup participants like the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Turkey (all in danger).
After all, the kid just scored a hat-trick – the youngest American to achieve such a feat. Jozy Altidore, step right up…
And DaMarcus Beasley just turned in the first effective performance by an American playing left back in many-a-game. No one’s suspended for the next match in Costa Rica (currently in second). Veterans like Frankie Hejduk and Pablo Mastroeni continue to step up, while youngsters like Jozy and Jose Torres continue to show promise. Let’s be frank: we’re going to qualify. But that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of room for improvement. Five points to your Pentagram…
Because we can, and because it was in many ways an epic roadtrip, we bring you some excellent video clips from the World Cup Qualifier in Columbus and the 2-0 U.S. victory. Note: these aren’t our clips; we’re just linking to them for the benefit of all.
MLS Cup kicks off in about two hours, featuring the back-from-the-dead L.A. Galaxy, last year’s dysfunctional laughing stock, vs. hot-at-the-right-time Real Salt Lake – they of the many merry midfielders. The news from Seattle is the locals have embraced the championship with nearly as much vigor as they took to their Sounders this year, and 40,000 are expected despite the crap weather. Good news for MLS. Even better news if the Galaxy pulls it off – what a fitting final chapter to this whole Beckham Experiment thing. But Salt Lake has only beat two of the supposedly best/most talented teams in Columbus and Chicago to get here, and anyone who’s watched them the past month knows they are fully capable of controlling play and scoring goals.
