Match Recap: USA 2 - 2 Mexico

This was a very different match compared to the last two in the series between Mexico and the USA, I can tell you that. Unfortunately, I am not really sure as to how the differences came into play. Different players obviously and different venue have to be mentioned, but the match really had a different feel to it.

On the one hand, you have Mexico, whom has had a huge monkey on their back where it comes to playing the USA outside of Mexico. This match they came out like they did last February and started to push their weight around and put on a display of force. Maybe it is because the Mexican players are all in one way or another, in season; but they were much faster on the ball and quicker with their man marking than the USA.

A much bigger difference between this match and the one last February is that Mexico put away their chances on goal, something that hasn’t exactly been their MO when playing us in the last few years. Although they put away their chances, I do have to question on whether or not their goals were more a result of a better Mexico offensive performance or a result of a pretty poor performance by the USA?

That leads me to the other hand, the USA played a pretty poor match in my opinion. Yes, Onyewu’s goal and Altidore’s goal were great and I honestly think that Deuce was robbed of a goal in the first half (even though he was offsides); the USA didn’t look good pretty much over the whole field.

Our passing and set piece passes looked like they were taken by guys who were too scared to commit the kicks. Michael Bradley spent a lot of the first half making pretty weak passes, a lot of them being ones that lead directly to a Mexico attack.

Our defense, central defense (Gooch & Carlos) looked very uneasy, but then again, the main problem for them was that they were getting run at a little too much, as Bradley and Clark really failed to show that well in the central midfield. I really can’t blame them, they both play the same position and one was really needed to have stepped up to play the offensive midfield position that Benny Feilhaber stepped into once Michael came off the field.

Drew Moor didn’t show me that much, beyond his great pass on Altidore’s goal. He was directly responsible for the two Magallon goals. He failed to stay with Magallon on both set pieces; burn you once, shame on you… burn you twice, shame on Bradley.

Bobby Convey really didn’t show me anything on the left side of the field that should have DMB worried. Convey has a great cross, I know, I have seen him do it once or twice, but he didn’t do anything tonight. His pace was way, way off and he looked like he wasn’t sure what to do with the ball once he got it.

All in all, despite the fact that I think that the USA played poorly and looked at times completely out of sorts and out of sync with itself, I think that this result against Mexico, in the USA, is a very good thing for the USA. First off, it gets that idea that if we face Mexico outside of Mexico we will always win, out of our minds. This is a good thing, especially where it comes to the younger guys. Adu, Edu, Bradley, Feilhaber, Altidore, Moor, and the rest really need to have a different mindset that the other players. They need to know that they are in for a real fight every time they face Mexico. The fact that we didn’t beat them tonight, hopefully it will make a change in their minds.

I am also thinking that this is a good result for the coaching staff. Last season, we went 10-0-1 until the Copa America, which was essentially mailed in anyways (as I think it should have been, it was to give guys overseas experience). Hopefully the coaching staff will be much harder on their preparation for the next few matches, hopefully they will be able to iron out the kinks that we all saw with our defense and passing.

As this match is a perfect simulator for World Cup qualifying (short gathering time for the players and coaching staff) the coaching staff should have a huge amount of info to work on with the players. The result wasn’t great, but it is definitely something that the players and coaching staff can build on.

Let’s just hope that they do.

All in all, a poor performance by the USA and a pretty inspiring performance by Mexico. Mexico played much better tonight than they did 12 months ago. A 2-2 draw isn’t the end of the world. A loss wouldn’t have had Bob Bradley fired, but I wanted to see a much better performance by the USA. They have a few more matches to get their shit together before the matches really start to count.

USA vs. Mexico: USMNT Roster

Bob Bradley released his final roster over the weekend for this Wednesday night's match against Mexico. He called in a few more Euro based players than expected.

GOALKEEPERS: Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Tim Howard (Everton FC).

DEFENDERS: Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham FC), Ramiro Corrales (SK Brann), Drew Moor (FC Dallas), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Michael Parkhurst (New England Revolution), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock), Eddie Robinson (Houston Dynamo).

MIDFIELDERS: Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Bobby Convey (Reading FC), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Eddie Lewis (Derby County).

FORWARDS: Jozy Altidore (New York Red Bulls), Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Pat Noonan (Aalesund FK).

With injuries aside, I can only think of two other players who I would have liked to be brought it, but as Kenny Cooper doesn't really look like he is on the USMNT radar, this is the strongest line up I can think of for this up coming match. The other is Eddie Johnson... yes, I am actually asking for Eddie to be called in. His speed against the Mexican defense, (even if he doesn't take a shot) would cause problems that would have been able to open up things for Deuce and Donovan. However, as Eddie has just made the move to Fulham, he looks to be best served with being left out to take care of his affairs in London.

With this line up, my starting 11 would be:

Howard

Parkhurst ------- Onyewu ------- Bocanegra ------- Pearce

Adu ------- Bradley ------- Edu ------- Convey

Donovan ------ Dempsey

I would like to see Feilhaber and Altidore get some time on the pitch for this one, but considering that Benny hasn't played regular minutes for Derby and Jozy only has a few caps under his belt, seeing them play Wednesday night isn't that big a shot IMHO.

With Feilhaber not expected to start, I had trouble selecting who player were in the midfield. As Donovan is listed as a forward, I put him up there, but I can easily see Freddy and Landon rotating back and forth from midfield to forward through out the match. I like the idea of Freddy on the right, as his left foot cutting across the goal could provide some pretty good sweeping crosses.

Last year, when Bradley called in only four Euro based players for this match, I expected a loss to our neighbors to the south. Instead we saw an inspired defensive performance and that all too familiar score line in a USA vs. Mexico match: 2-0. As we have what looks to be a much stronger looking squad being brought in for this match, I fully expect to see us pick up our second victory of the new year.

Ok, I'm Back....

I need to find a new job that doesn't get in the way of life, but pays better.

Anyways, alot has happened over the last week.

Kaka wins Ballon D'Or
Was there any doubt that Kaka wouldn't win this award? When he dropped his two goals on Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League, it wasn't that much of a shock. Ronoldo had a wonderful season and is still holding to that form, but Kaka was huge last season and Milan won the Champions League, so it had to go to him.

Arsenal win Copa Nissan Sudamericana
Arsenal won the Copa Nissan Sudamericana last night, defeating Club America on away goals, after losing 2-1 at home. Arsenal won the first match in Mexico City 3-2. This win caps a very, very strange year for Argentine football. Arsenal wins the Copa Nissan Sudamericana, Boca wins the Copa Libertadores, Estudiantes won the Clausura championship and Lanus just won the Apertura championship. Talk about spreading the wealth.

On a different note, Club America came a goal from keeping the title in Mexico. It is a positive sign for CONCACAF that for the third straight year, a Mexican club reached the final and has actually made a match of the final series. Pachuca heads into the FIFA World Club Cup knowing that they are still the only Mexican club to have won the Copa Nissan Sudamericana.

Mexican Playoffs finals set
Pumas are back in the Mexican League playoff finals since 2004 and will face Atlanate, who denied Chivas de Guadalajara a second straight championship. The first match is tonight. The winner will take part in the 2008 CONCACAF Champions Cup.

UEFA Euro 2008 Draw held
Still drunk from the previous day of drinking beer and watching way too much college football, I did wake up and watch the ESPN2 telecast of the Euro 2008 draw. I actually thought I was hallucinating when they announced that France, Italy and Holland were in the same group. I feel bad for Romania and they "appear" to be the lone whipping boy of that group. This is the very definition of group of death. I am looking forward to watching the matches this summer.

DC United announce first two league matches of 2008
DC United announced that they will be starting their 2008 defense of the Supporters Shield on March 29th against Kansas City...in a baseball stadium. They return home the following week to host Toronto FC at RFK stadium. Will we see Gomez, Moreno, Emillio, Fred & Veron all wearing the Black & Red at the start of the season? I doubt it.

News & Notes 11/14/2007

USMNT announce date with Mexico
The USSF officially announced the February 6th match with Mexico. It will be held in Houston at Reliant Stadium. The USMNT has faced Mexico there once before, playing them to a 0-0 draw in what was seen as Tim Howard's coming out party on his way to being signed by Manchester United.

I have said it before, I like that we seem to always play Mexico each year. It marks the best type of regional competition that we can get and it is always a heated match. I don't really like the fact that we always play them in the USA, with the one trip to Azteca every four years being the exception to the rule. I understand that even in the southern USA, when we play Mexico, it is a pro Mexico crowd, so home field advantage isn't "as" strong (when was the last time they beat us here???) but playing Mexico in Mexico is an entirely different beast. That is one beast that we should see more of. Hell, losing to Mexico might actually do our guys some good.

America advance to Copa Sudamericana Finals
America of Mexico (Blanco's former club) has advanced to the finals of the CONMEBOL Copa Nissan Sudamericana, winning their series with Millonarios of Colombia 5-2. They won the first leg 3-2 in Columbia only to return to Mexico and win 2-0. They will face either River Plate or Arsenal in the finals. That series is tied 0-0 going into tonight's match.

It is good to see another CONCACAF club is crashing the party down south. As the Mexican clubs continue to flex their muscles with the CONMEBOL clubs, MLS will sooner or later have to increase the club salary caps to allow for deeper rosters and the ability to sign the best young domestic talent.

Chris Armas Retired
Chris Armas of the Chicago Fire retired yesterday, after capping a 12 year MLS career with a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals. Armas player the last 10 years with Chicago, winning one MLS Cup and four US Open Cups.

I will give props to the guy, he had a great MLS career. Best of luck to him in the future.

Luis Bueno: Beg to differ.

I was checking CNN/SI today and came across Luis Bueno’s article on Pachuca. Luis covers Mexican soccer for Sports Illustrated and does a very good job at it. I like that he calls out the Mexican players and Hugo whenever they produces excuses instead of results. IMHO, Luis is one of the better soccer writers on the net.

I disagree with him in his latest article, the end of the article that is.

Luis claims that with the breakdown of the USA vs. Mexico at Azteca Stadium;

“…Mexico supporters are left with essentially the same type of match. After all, Mexico replaced an opponent with no chance of winning in the Azteca with another opponent that has no chance of winning in the Azteca.” - CNN/SI.com

While I agree that Panama will be an easy match for Mexico, even if they field a group of younger players as reported; I do not agree that the USMNT would be “an opponent with no chance of winning in the Azteca.” A few years ago, maybe, but not any more. Azteca Stadium is the single greatest case of home field advantage that exists in World Football. If I am not wrong, I can count on one hand the number of time Mexico has lost an international match within the not so friendly confines of Azteca. That said, with the proper preparation, I give the current USMNT a 50/50 shot anytime they ever go there now.

My reasoning is because of how we did in 2005 and how we have done against Mexico over the last few years. With the exception of the shotty 10 minutes in which Mexico dropped a deuce on the USA, the World Cup Qualifier in Azteca was a very competitive match. The USA even scored there for the first time in how long? I honestly think that the mystique of the stadium is beginning to wear off. Hell, didn’t Paraguay beat them in Azteca?

Another reason is because outside of Mexico, the USA owns El Tri. We haven’t lost to them since March of 1999 in matches held outside of Mexico City. We’ve played them twice this year, both times we have beaten them 2-0 n Phoenix (in front of a totally pro-Mexico crowd) and 2-1 in the Gold Cup Finals. The Mexican National team doesn’t know how to beat the USA anymore, unless they play in Azteca. Why do you think the match was going to be played there? It was their last gasp for hope that they would be able to defeat the USMNT.

I agree that the Mexico team that plays anyone in Azteca is a different beast than the one that plays anywhere else. I also agree that when the USA has played there, we haven’t done that well. I see a different trend coming up with the USA vs. Mexico rivalry that is closely getting as heated as Barcelona vs. Real Madrid. The USA is getting a swagger that the Mexicans are scared of and their only hope is to bring the USA into Azteca to see if they still got it.

I have been on the fence as to if the third act of USA vs. Mexico should have been played this year. Now, after reading this, I wish that we still had the match and that we stuffed the all too familiar score line right down the collective throats of the entire group of Mexico supporters, including Luis. 2-0.

Soccer News & Notes: 8/12/2007

Wayne Rooney Breaks foot, Manchester United held.
Manchester United were held 0-0 today against Reading at Old Trafford. Despite something along the lines of 70% of the possession during the match, United were unable to crack the Reading defense. Considering that Reading were able to hold United 1-1 twice last season, this seems like a fair result. United shouldn't have that much of a problem in the rest of the league.

Then again, with Wayne Rooney breaking his foot during the first half against Reading, the entire outlook for United might have to be re-examined. The addition of Carlos Tevez seems to be an even brighter point in the summer transfer market action now. During the match the announcers were listing off that Saha & Ole were down with injuries, so adding Rooney to that list isn't promising for Sir Alex Ferguson.

Steve McClaren is probably the only person who is going to be in more of a bind than SAF will be, as England really haven't any other options for striker in their upcoming Euro 2008 qualifiers. The return of Michael Owen might be able to ease the pain of losing Rooney, but Owen has his own injury demons to deal with.

Bayern Munich start off Klose; 3-0 victory over Rostock
A very much retooled Bayern Munich dropped Hansa Rostock 3-0 in their Bundesliga opener Saturday behind two goals by new striker Miraslav Klose and one goal behind Italian striker Luca Toni. The Bayern defense looked very good in the match.

The inclusion of Ze Roberto, Frank Ribery, Toni and Klose showed to be an excellent grouping. Ribery was excellent in the midfield, especially working with German International Bastian Schweinsteiger. I'm not the only one picking Bayern to win the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the UEFA Cup this season.

USA vs. Mexico off; USA vs. Brazil on.
According to Washington Post uber Soccer Guru, Steve Goff, the September 9th away match in Azteca Stadium for the USA vs. Mexico has been canceled. Due to the cancellation, the USSF has been able to pull of a major coup and schedule a match in Chicago's Soldier Field against Brazil.

If this is in fact true, and Steve is rarely, rarely wrong, it is interesting. I have just as much mixed feelings about its cancellation as I did when the match itself was announced. The idea of getting our new guys and new look squad an away match in Azteca, in front of 110,000 Mexican fans would be huge in the way of getting them all ready for World Cup Qualifying and for playing in the World Cup. That said, having a third match against Mexico in one calendar year is a little over kill.

Playing against Brazil is another matter. I like this. I wish it could be held in Europe, but getting the Copa America Champions is a great match to line up. I am hoping that the USSF still gets a match scheduled for the Sept. 12 match date as well. Even if the match in the USA, get a match scheduled.

USA vs. Mexico: Round III

Here is the funny thing, USMNT matches are usually never a surprise once they are actually announced by the USSF. We mostly hear rumors at first of the USA playing matches in Tampa or in LA or some place. We had two recent rumors that the USA is scheduling a trip down to South Africa to face the 2010 World Cup hosts in November and the September 9th match in Mexico City against our southern rivals, Mexico.

Well, the Mexico trip just became a reality as the USSF announced the match today. Add this to the confirmed/rumored scheduled and we now have five away matches scheduled for the rest of 2008, which is a drastic change from last year and the beginning of this year. Unfortunately, this match doesn't really get me that excited as the other ones do and this actually bothers me.

Yes, playing a match against Mexico in any situation is a good match for the USMNT. Mexico is not only the other top side in CONCACAF, and as they finished third in the Copa America, one could argue that they are honestly the third best side in the Western hemisphere. Playing against Mexico in Mexico City, Azteca no less, is a golden opportunity for the USMNT, if for nothing else than the chance to get the younger guys used to having bags of urine and batteries tossed at them before they have to go there for World Cup qualifying.

So why am I not as excited as I should be, or others are?

I guess it is because this is the third act of the same dance that we have had this year with Mexico. Yes, I understand that the venue change makes it an entirely different ballgame, but I think that we might have short sighted ourselves by getting another Mexico friendly in the same calendar year. Couldn't we have called up Peru and seen if they wanted a visitor on the 9th? How about another match in Europe?

Don't get me wrong, I am happy that this match has been scheduled. In fact, if the USSF worked it out that every year (minus World Cup Qualifying years) USA and Mexico have a home/away series of friendlies, I wouldn't be upset. I just think that as we have already danced twice this year, there has got to be other dance partners out there that we haven't seen before? Maybe try and see if Iraq wants to meet up in Rome or something. We are probably going to play them in the Confederations Cup in 2009 anyways.

In any case, I am happy to see that the USSF has scheduled another match for the USMNT and that this new match will be outside of the USA. Matches like these should be scheduled. Playing away from home gives guys a different feeling and prepares them better for the World Cup qualifying.

Now I gotta figure out how to get my company to pay for me to go to Mexico....

Match Recap: USA 2 - 1 Canada

A couple of days ago I wrote this little piece about the growing complaints from losing players and coaches about how they felt that CONCACAF had rigged the Gold Cup to get the dream match up of the USA vs. Mexico in the tournament final.

After watching the USA vs. Canada, I think I need to change my position. The USA were gift wrapped that match tonight. Sure, Hejduk's goal wasn't something that the ref manipulated, but that second and game winning goal was definitely one that a PK was questionable on. Yes, there were stretches of the match where the US played very strong soccer, but the better team was Canada.

Yes, Michael Bradley had been given a 1 match vacation due to his horrible, horrible tackle late in the second half, which if the ref was under orders to favor the USA, he might have not given a red card for. However that was a situation where the ref had no choice and had he not given a red card, it would have been the smoking gun. It is a shame too, Bradley had been playing a really great match in the defensive midfield role, up until he completely lost his mind and decided to hack a guy.

Well, CONCACAF have half of their dream final, now Mexico has to take care of business; or the refs, who knows?

Yet again, Eddie Johnson shows why he is a shitty US forward. He is slow with the ball, doesn't know how to make a decision to save his life and shoots like a 3 year old; I take better shots with Vodka. He doesn't even have the understanding of his position to know that if two of your teammates are making a 2 on 1 run with the ball at goal, you run you dumb ass after them to be in a position to collect a rebound. Beasley tried to pass to Donovan who wiped big time yet still kept the ball. If Johnson had a fucking clue as to what his job on the field was, he would have been an other option for Donovan to pass to, instead, EJ was no where to be found and yet another US attack flamed out.

Somebody get him a copy of the 2002 World Cup Final. Ronaldo score one of his goals off of a rebound that Kahn did not smother. Goals come from rebounds, but they only come from rebounds when a player actually gets into a scoring position.

As for the rest of the side...I am not sure. Deuce still created alot of plays for the US, but when he was in on goal, it seemed like a hip hop track went off in his head and he got the urge to dance and be a disco star. Shoot the damn ball!

Hejduk scored a great goal, but he has a vacation this Sunday as well. Pablo "Hulk Smash" Mastroeni played a great game and with Bradley out for the final, whatever was making him limp had better get cleared up soon.

Donovan did pretty good, but at the end when he was the only guy running the right side, I hoped he would have made better runs with the ball. It was only around the 86th minute that he started running for the corner, which I think he needed to do sooner.

Beasley needed to get into more of the game. Canada did a very good job of clogging the midfield, which limited DMB's chances.

Overall, it wasn't a great performance by the USA. I am still waiting for full effort by the entire side. Maybe Coach Bob needs to finally settle on 11 guys and put them out there.

So, they are in the final, which we all expected...but this US team is not the one that we all expected. I guess this is a sign of the changing US Soccer landscape. A few years ago we expected tough games in our region, then we started to roll the other teams and now we expect, damn near demand them to walk over the little CONCACAF nations. I remember all sorts of people demanding that we send our second string team to the Gold Cup as the competition was light. I for one am glad we didn't, as we wouldn't be in the final.

A note for the future: Canada is for real. That is a side that will be one of the toughest CONCACAF opponents we face in qualifying. Playing them at BMO Field will be a war. Guatemala will be tough in qualifying, as will Panama and Mexico. Now the big question: Are they all going to be tough because they are getting better, or because we are getting worse?

Copa Oro Rigged? Say it ain't so!

So after the weekend of Quarter Final action in the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup, new complaints were heard from losing teams that CONCACAF has rigged the tournament to ensure that the USA vs. Mexico dream final will take place. Costa Rican head coach, Hernan Medford stated that CONCACAF had already determined when and where the two teams would be playing their Quarter Final matches before their last group phase matches took place. So based on that, he feels that CONCACAF are favoring the two teams.

Panama seems to be feeling something of the same poison. Ives highlights this on his site, as the Panamanian captain, Felipe Baloy says that the calls were all going the USA's way in their match up on Saturday. He says that the USA vs. Mexico result is what CONCACAF wants.

So, is that happening?

I am not sure, but I doubt it. I do think that CONCACAF, in order to get the most out of their little regional championship, does want and hope that the final match up will be the USA vs. Mexico. That is the biggest draw in the region and should provide the most revenue. So I think that they would want that result to happen.

Are they actively manipulating the events of the matches and the final results? I don't think so. CONCACAF and its refs can give penalty kicks, but they still don't account for the other 7 goals that the USA has scored in the tournament thus far. Yes, the second goal on Saturday was off of a free kick, which if you want to say was due to the ref giving the call, but the USA still had to convert the free kick, which Bocanegra did very well.

As for the cards issue, didn't Gooch get tossed from the first game? Haven't there been at least 7 times a USA player has been called offsides when it is clear as day that he was still onsides? If anything, the officiating thus far in the tournament has been negative against the USA. The same complaints that Medford brought up from the Costa Rica/Mexico match were brought up after the USA vs. Guatemala match. Guatemala were tackling just as hard as the USA, but the US players were getting called out for fouls and given cards.

I think that the biggest problem in this tournament (and I have already brought this up before) is that with the exception of the Mexican ref Benito Archundia, CONCACAF doesn't have good officials. Their experience is limited to piss poor leagues and the majority of the refs that called up for international duty are not international quality. You rarely see a UEFA ref allow a match to get so out of hand that they are handing out Yellow Cards like they are dinner rolls, yet in a CONCACAF match, it is damn near common practice.

Because of the poor officiating, the teams that can actually adapt to the horrible calls are the ones that can actually rise to the occasion. So in a sort of twisted way, all those years of the USA getting the short end of the stick while playing in CONCACAF has sort of trained us to expect bad calls and to have our team adapt to them. Add to this the fact that our squad has probably become the fittest squad in the region and probably has more talent in our B Squad than most Q Squads, the other nations have to result to a more physical type of play, which as in the case of the Panama match, plays right into the poor officiating of the CONCACAF refs. As we watched the match on Saturday, my girlfriend asked me why Panama was playing like a bunch of thugs, always chopping down guys. I told her I thought it was the only way they felt that they could handle our players, as they couldn't match their talent or work rate.

Is CONCACAF trying to ensure that the final has USA vs. Mexico? I doubt it. I think we would have seen several more PKs called in the Mexico matches than we did. The fact that we have only seen one PK for Mexico (and it was in their 2-1 loss to Honduras) makes me feel that CONCACAF isn't trying to get the Mexicans into the final. The only real way CONCACAF has affected the tournament was when they announced that there would be no invited guests. Considering that in past tournaments, the USA or Mexico have pretty much only been ousted from the tournament by an invited guest, CONCACAF went a long way towards stacking the deck against the rest of the region.

FIFA Rankings: USA #16?

FIFA released its June rankings and other than Brazil dropping to #3, the biggest story is the USA moving up from #29 to #16. It is speculated that the large jump is due to the strong start to the Gold Cup, as official tournament matches have more weight than friendly matches. Mexico on the other hand, dropped six spots to #26. Poor Mexico.

Ok, does anyone out there really think that wins against Guatemala, Trinidad & Tobago, and El Salvador along with a friendly win over a less than experienced China warrants a 13 place jump? Are these FIFA rankings the same inflated/bloated ones that had had the USA ranked #5 in the world?

Assuming we make it to the Gold Cup finals, our run here should help offset any problems we get from the performance in the Copa America.