U.S. National Team Tourney News

It’s been an interesting week for American international football. Last night the United States squeaked by the Canadian national team in a 2-1 thriller that is already generating controversy in conspiracy circles. At the very end of the game (there must have been ten seconds or so left) Canada scored what looked to be a very good goal that would have tied the game at two goals a piece. The goal was ruled offsides (although no one can see where the offsides were) by the Mexican Referee, and now thus the U.S. will play (surprise!) Mexico in the hotly anticipated final this Sunday on Fox Soccer Channel at 3PM EST. That game should be great fun, in fact, and it is my only recommended game of the weekend. As I said last week, we’ve really entered the lean times in terms of good soccer matches.

I don’t want to look too far ahead when we’ve got such a great game coming, up, but Sport’s Illustrated’s Grant Whal had a nice piece this week that mentioned some of the men who will be playing for Argentina next week against the U.S. in the opening match of the Copa America. Just a few of the Argentineans who will be suiting up in the powder blue stripes to play against the Americans: Lionel Messi, Hernán Crespo, Carlos Tévez, Javier Mascherano, Juan Román Riquelme, Fernando Gago, Diego Milito and Pablo Aimar. Now that, my friends, will be a fun game to watch. It starts Thursday.

Programming Note

Just a reminder to all of you out there that the U.S. Men's National Team will be playing footballing and geopolitical powerhouse Guatemala tonight at 9PM in a Gold Cup Match. The game will be broadcast on Fox Soccer Channel. I encourage you all to watch.

USA Re-fights Mexican-American War (at least according to ESPN)

A few quick thoughts on last night’s USA-Mexico game…

• Overall, it was an entertaining game that was fun to watch; as many commentators noted, the U.S. team played particularly well, and it was good to see Landon Donovan play aggressively. His assist on the corner kick was nice (although some credit must be given to the lackluster Mexican defense) but his second, charging goal was great and really cool to watch.

• Bob Bradley should be safer now after this resounding win; as almost every commentator was saying this morning, it looks like the interim tag in front of Bradley’s title should be eliminated; it is better in the long run to have a coach in place now than hold out hope for a big European name. Personally, I was hoping we would get Carlos Queiroz and expected that we would get Jürgen Klinsmann; but we have Bradley and he has done a good job; he should get extended and get his system in place now.

• ESPN went, as I predicted yesterday, completely over the top. One of my friends compared it to the Super Bowl. I am glad ESPN hypes the sport and makes the game seem like a big one, but really, we need to remember that this was still just a friendly against Mexico. Yes, the Mexico fans are passionate; although certainly less so than virtually any group of national or club fans in Europe; and yes, the fans give the players a hard time; prank calls at three in the morning, for instance, but no death threats and attempted beat downs, a la’ Argentina. In the end, it was a good game. There’s no need to oversell it. People who like the sport will watch it, but those who do will know what real soccer passion is all about.

• On that note, I can’t wait until ESPN starts coving every David Beckham match in the MLS live. I’m sure they won’t sell those too hard.

• It was…interesting to listen to the announcers last night. Eric Wynalda sounds good on TV but added nothing of substance the whole game; if he didn’t keep repeating things he picked up from Kobi Jones he would have nothing to say. I thought Bruce Arena was insightful; he correctly predicted exactly what the U.S. team would do on setpeices, but then he should since he was coaching the team a few months ago. In contrast from Wynalda, however, Arena gives off a creepy serial killer vibe both when he’s shown and when he speaks (in that spooky monotone) on television. When he was holding that unblinking, Jack Nicholson-as-the-Joker smile during the intro I almost left the room I was so frightened.

Friendliness

There are some pretty interesting international friendlies that will be played over the next few days, including France v. Argentina. The three games that will be easiest for fans in the U.S. to watch, however, are as follows:

Brazil v. Portugal

3:00pm EST, Tuesday, FSC

Should be an interesting game with some big names, although traditional stalwarts of the two teams, including Figo, Ronaldino, and Ronaldo will not be playing. It will be a good chance to see Kaka, Adriano, Robino (if he plays) for Brazil as well as Christiano Ronaldo for Portugal, who has become one of the best players in the world over the past few months. Presumably there will be no winking during this game, and one thing we know for sure is that Wayne Rooney will not be around to stamp anyone’s nuts. Shame.

England v. Spain

3:00pm EST, Wednesday, FSC

Lots of big names like Raul, Rooney, Owen, Cole, Terry, and Beckham will not be playing, but still enough star power to make this fun. We’ll see how Steven Gerard takes to wearing the captain’s armband, and see how the English team as a whole does when half their team is out injured. The bloodthirsty English press is already calling this a make-or-break game for manager Steve McCalren, but that is probably just typical bluster from a news corps that wouldn’t know moderation if it was, say, kicked in the nuts by it. In the form of a maniacal Wayne Rooney.

USA v. Mexico

9:00pm EST, Wednesday, ESPN2

For the grand championship of North American soccer! (South of Canada, at least.) Bob Bradley looks to be going with a fairly experienced squad for tomorrow night’s match, presumably because he would like to shed the ridiculous “interim” tag and just manage the U.S. team without worrying about being replaced in three months. Personally, I’m all for it. He seems like a good man for the job and, more importantly, he actually wants the job. Anyway, seems like an entertaining enough match that, I’m sure, ESPN won’t try to oversell at all. After all, they never do.

U.S. Youth Movement and Some Fanciful Predictions

Sports Illustrated writer Greg Lalas (Alexi’s brother) has an article on the recent U.S. men’s national team win in a friendly over Denmark, which can be found here:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/greg_lalas/01/22/us.youth/index.html

Greg makes the point that the U.S. has a number of up-and-coming young players who will now have the benefit of a solid pro league in which to develop; this, he believes, will lead to success in the World Cups of ’10 and ‘14.

Good article, Greg. You had me up to there. Bu the U.S. team hasn’t showed any indication of progressing on the national stage. The 2002 World Cup is looking more and more like a fluke, as the team was woefully under-powered in Germany this summer. That generation of players (including Landon Donavan and Brian McBride) were as golden to our country as England’s were to theirs; both, however, met with failure, and it is probably over-optimistic to think that anything will change with the passage of a few more years.

With all that said, still a good read, especially as a means of keeping an eye on good young American talent, some of which will be on display in the MLS this summer.