A hearty congratulations to El Tri

Definitely not the result I wanted (as detailed by my previous posts on this site!), but a well-deserved result for Mexico at Azteca yesterday.

Very enjoyable game by two well-matched sides. Among the few things I noticed while watching on mun2:

() Phil Schoen again showed me that he is the best soccer play-by-play guy in the US. If you don't have GolTV, get it now. I know it's a physical impossibility, but if it were up to me, Schoen would broadcast every single soccer game I can ever watch. He's that good. Marcelo Balboa, on the other hand, who I generally am OK with, did not have a good game. Listening to him, I was starting to get altitude sickness. Enough already.

() Very pleasantly surprised to see Stuart Holden hit the field. Even more exited to see him play well. His cross to Davies was a thing of beauty. If Charlie's noggin connects, we're talking about a different game, that's for sure.

() I thought Aguirre's move to sub out Blanco very early in the second half was a stroke of genius. After going the full 90 here on Sunday and then coming back and playing very well in the first half (assisting on the goal), it's clear he was going to be a liability as the game went on. Nice move there.

() I thought Brian Ching had a substandard game, but then again, it's not like he got much in the way of delivery.

() We all know Mexico was going to dominate possession, but the US' constant clearances to nobody was very irritating. The handful of times the US put together 3-4 passes in succession, they looked dangerous. The whole rest of the time, it was frustrating in its ineffectualness. Boys, see those other guys in the white shirts? Yes, pass to them. (Here's your chum.)

() Someone else posted this (somewhere), and it's a minor point, but I kind of wish Bob Bradley would wear a suit on the sidelines. He looks like a college coach out there. Maybe that's just me.

() Best news about the whole thing, with Honduras' 4-0 thrashing of leader Costa Rica, The US is still in second place in the Hexagonal. Standings here. Brian Zygo mentioned that he would like to see Mexico play the CONMEBOL fifth-place team in a qualifier. And while that might be throwing cold water on El Tri fans after yesterday, I have only one thing to say: Better them that us. Read more!

Snakes in the snow, plus Rico strike

Studio 90 updates the progress of the guys on the frozen tundra of central Ohio prior to tomorrow night's rivalry game. They look like a relaxed, confident group to my untrained eyes. And Rico's strike at the end of the clip is a great sight for these orange eyes to see.

Go Snakes! Read more!

US/Mexico preview I

Thought you'd like to see this one. I think Shaka is right on with this one.

And you know, watching this show, as much as it pains me to admit this about a former FC frisco player, I really like Shaka Hislop. The guy withstands the barbs thrown his way by Smythe and presents some pretty good points. Read more!

Midweek musings, scattershot style

Wow, what a week that was, in no particular order:

The Turks... Petr Cech... Ching's brace, then hat trick, then brace again but in a different way... 8-0!!!!...Couldn't Matt Reis have been called up before last Thursday rather than the day after? He's the best freakin' goalie in North America. Guzan who?... Ching released back to Dynamo today... Whoopee, now can we get teh Canadians to do the same for DeRo and Onstad?... Michael Ballack's blast to sink Austria and his trash talk afterwards. Clearly, repeated airings of The Sound of Music are getting to Ballack and he's had enough... El Tri barely beats Belize??! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Bienvenidos a Mexico Sven.... Borgetti to Dynamo rumor. Say it ain't so Golden Boy. Please..... Telling my son on Father's Day no less at the 85 minute mark: "Petr Cech is one of the best keepers in the world. Watch him back there. He's in total control." Thanks Petr. Thanks a lot..... A wild, funky, weird Euro tournament... Viva Oranje! (Euro edition)... The Turks!!!... Matt Reis' from the gut holler after stopping Stuart Holden's brain dead shot to the left... (Non-soccer note) Tiger Woods' win with a bum knee was beyond amazing... Thierry Henry's career as one of the world's best is now officially over, not that Barca seems to know that... The Turks should win Euro 08, if for no other reason than to give the other half of Crete something to celebrate after Euro '04... Yes, but Holland have it in the bag now.

Work is once again taking up most of my time this week and for the next couple of weeks to come so that's the most you'll see from me today. More to come when I get to it.

In the meatnime, this is cracking me up from Coldplay's Chris Martin as reported by the always astute SF over at The Offside Rules:

Q:"What do British people do when they have finished winning the World Cup and the European championships?"

A: They turn off the Playstation."

Read more!

The big blue and white

Well, with Dynamo getting rained out last night (and does anyone have video of that, by the way? I can't seem to find any.) in DC, the big highlight from yesterday was Argentina's 4-1 shellacking of Mexico in San Diego. (Great story about it here.)

The best headline I saw was from Luis Bueno's Siddeline Views: "Sven me from the mess."

Erikkson has his hands full with that team. Too many prima donnas. No cohesiveness. And now they expect to all come together under a guy who is just now in the process of learning Spanish (though to be fair, when he learns it, it'll be, what, his sixth tongue?)? El Tri is in dire straits.

Next up for the Argies is our very own U.S. Snakes Sunday at Giants Stadium. Hopefully, all that goal scoring in San Diego tired them out, or it could be the capper of a very long two weeks for the US squad. Will the US finally score in the run against the big three of England (2-0), Spain (1-0) and Argentina? I don't want to seem unpatriotic or anything, and it pains me in the extreme to write this, but if I had to bet, I'd have to say the chances don't look good.

Still, go US! I'm with you all the way. Read more!

Hugo, we hardly knew ye (though here in the US, we liked what we saw)

So I wake up this morning and what do I see,
Hugo Sanchez' mug staring back at me.
Is he on the sideline? Is he scoring a goal?
Nope, that's him lining up now for the dole.

Is anybody really surprised by the fact that Sanchez was fired yesterday? El Tri under Sanchez was known for lofty expectations, solid, sometimes spectacular, midfield play, and finishing that looked like my son's 8-year-old team over at the YMCA.

Chalk this one up to yet one more example of an immensely talented athlete who is a washout as a coach (except for his time with Pumas, I'll grant). How many times have we seen this, almost too many to count. And yet, how many times have we seen the exact opposite? So few that the few who do stand out (Preki? too early to tell I suppose but the results are promising. And Jason Kreis, we'll have a book on you soon enough.)

I've read a few snarky comments about maybe an MLS team will land Sanchez as a coach, and truly, my main thought on that is you Galaxy fans are damn lucky that this did not happen last fall (as it could have) or he'd be over there presiding over your nightmare instead of Ruud Gullit. You laugh, but with Lalas at the controls, you know all too well that it's possible.

Now, not to just pile on a bad situation for a guy, my heart goes out to anyone who's been fired. So Hugo, even though I have thoroughly enjoyed our US Rattlers taking you down to the tune of a 2-0-1 mark (and one disputed offsides call from being 3-0-0), I think you'd really want to be remembered more for the following.

Read more!

How good is the Mexican League? Muy Fantastico!

Continuing the theme of Mister3D's excellent post from below, check out this video of the best goals from FMF's Apertura 07. MLS is awesome and is easily among the top regional leagues now, but this fascination with Europe is depriving American fans of some truily amazing futbol over on Univision and Telemundo, as well as GolTV. A feast for the eyes:

Read more!

US/Mexico recap and the future

So there were seventy thousand, one hundred and three people at Reliant Stadium last night and Playtherapy, Mister3d and I were the three. After the game, as we were walking to the car, I turned to Mr3d and said, "You know, even though I know the focus is on all the analysis and the who did what when and how well stuff, one thing about tonight was, Man, that was fun!"

And it really was. It was the first live action I've seen since Dynamo's 2-0 win over Wizards in the Western Conference Final, and what a time we had. Here are some random memories:


LONG LIVE THE SNAKES We were lamenting the absence of a good nickname for the US team. The Three Lions, les Blues, Azzurri, El Tri, these are great, great nicknames and US has nothing. But thank you to Nike for the new Don't Tread on Me commercial. We're going to start calling the US team, The Snakes! I am completely down with that name and the logo.


DEUCE'S TRAIN GANG The chants of "3-2! 3-2! 3-2!" on the train after the game. What a horrible, horrible call on Dempsey. Offsides had nothing to do with that play. We were right behind that goal watching Clint turn on his defender, go left, two steps, then a rocket of a shot. If that's offsides, then I'm Pavel Pardo's abuelita. That was definitely NOT the Clint Dempsey that showed up in MLS Cup 2006, and a good thing for Dynamo that. Geez mareez, if Deuce was still with the Revs in '07, how would they have ever lost a game? (And when was the last time you had a guy with the nickname of "Deuce" not have No. 2 on his jersey? Obscure is the new cool.)



JINX MAINTAINED? I SAY SI Playtherapy had the theory, which I'll let him explain in his own post, that the 2-2 (official) result nullifies the jinx Mexico has had against us. I see it differently. Above and beyond what the score should have been, over the last 10 games on US soil, the Snakes (see how I'm already working the nickname into the post) are 8-0-2 against El Tri. That "0" has not changed after yesterday and Mexico is one badly-officiated call away from it being 9-0-1. In any way that the jinx is real (whether it is or not is subject to a debate elsewhere), the continued presence of that "0" makes it continue to be real. In any draw, both sides can lament lost chances and near misses, but with the way Mexico simply carved us up in the midfield in the second half last night (more on that below), I'll take the draw. You can even say they dominated the midfield in both games of 2007 as well, so what exactly has changed? When it comes to results, the US is dominating this rivalry north of the border and nothing that happened last night alters that in any way just yet.


VERY VERDE The sea of green in the stands. This photo doesn't really do it justice, but it was a sight to behold (and if you verrry closely behind the right side goal there, you might just see the three of us!) I've heard tell of the "Sea of Red" at University of Nebraska football games and other places like that, but that was a remarkable display of green in the stands. And on the two Mexico goals, that was some kind of noise, intense and loud! Wow.



TEEN SCREAM All three of us were really doubting early on whether or not Jozy Altidore belonged on the team after he was getting abused, it looked like. Then he scored and shut us up. JO-ZY! JO-ZY! JO-ZY! Alright already. Altidore is clearly the real deal, and the fact that he's only a teenager still is just wicked scary. Forget Freddy Adu, who we thought played OK when he came in. An up top pairing of Dempsey and Altidore might just be the thing that gets us beyond the group stages in South Africa. You almost certainly didn't read that here first, but I can almost guarantee it won't be the last.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION We were sitting with Sam's Army, which means we were behind the goal that saw four of the five goals. (I'm counting Dempsey's. No doubt about it.) Worth every penny.

THE ABUSED Speaking of getting abused, if Bobby Convey and Eddie Lewis never play another game for the US, that is perfectly alright with me. Talk about non-factors. They were terrible. There was one particular sequence where Ramiro Corrales and Convey were trading little back and forth passes deep in Mexican territory in the first half, twice Convey was free to deliver a cross. The first time he sent it back to Corrales in traffic. The second time, he just lost it. Someone, please, step up and replace these guys on the wing.

NO MO MOOR Speaking of never playing another US game, I'm talking about you Drew Moor. It was Moor's poor marking on Jonny Magallon (Jonny Magallon!!!!) that led to both of Mexico's goals. Now, he made up for the first screw-up for assisting on Altidore's header. But one shiny penny in the sea of poop that was his night does not a continued presence on the first team make. Typical FC Dallas. I can't wait until April 6 here at Robertson Stadium so I can abuse him personally. I will always cherish the look on his face last November when he got sent off 2 minutes before the end of Dynamo's crushing of the candystripers. And one reason I'll remember it was it was the exact same look he had after screwing up on marking Magallon twice. Seeing the Mexican attack focusing on Moor sent shills down my spine for the entire second half. At least three times, Onyewu and Bocanegra bailed him out. (And you will note I am not posting a picture of him here because I now shun his very presence.)

OUT OF TUNE BUT OK All three of us were singing the national anthem loudly before the game and we even remembered the words. We were remarking on how it was the first time we had done THAT in a long while, but if you're not going to sing it at that game, then when? Read more!

Pre-match thoughts and predictions on U.S./Mexico

The Internet (or at least the US Soccer blogosphere sectors of same) is awash regarding prospective lineups for tomorrow night, youth vs. experience, the US/Mexico rivalry, etc. etc. And to add to all of that here would seem to be folly of the highest and blogoincestuous (my new word) order. (One notable exception is Bernardo Fallas' blog at the Chronicle, whose latest entry here is chock full of US MNT camp notes, a mini interview with (prospective Dynamo?) Ramiro Corrales and the above video.) So let's just skip to the chase here and offer predictions on the result.


Personally, records like 8-0-1 in the past 9 meetings on US soil for the US team just serve to make me nervous, or at least as nervous as the numbers "19-0" should have made any Patriots fan before Sunday. (And during that game, I have to admit to a certain satisfaction to seeing Robert Kraft have the exact same look on his face in that owner's box as he did at RFK in November. Personally, I have no great antipathy for the Revs and really enjoy some Rev-oriented blogs like Jimmy Chowda et al.'s Blue Blooded Journo, but seeing Kraft squirm brought up wonderful memories of November and had me looking for Dwayne De Rosario on the screen rather than Eli Manning.)

OK, enough tangentials, so let's get down to cases. My prediction is a 1-0 U.S. win. I honestly think that losing Andres Guardado is going to be a big deal for the Mexicans and El Tri, and Hugo Sanchez in particular, have shown me nothing to make me think that they are not as spooked by us as they have always been this decade.


And the spook factor is, I believe, the key. When they spend the prematch interviews talking about how annoying Landon Donovan is to them (hey, join the club pal) and how the US dominance is entirely due to us playing the games here in the US, how Argentina and Brazil are their yardsticks and how they are still the top team in CONCACAF despite them not winning a single CONCACAF anything in how long has it been again, it's clear they are already thinking about losing again. We are in their domes as surely as the Giants were in Tom Brady's on Sunday, and that, my friends, is death on the pitch.

That being said, El Tri are a damn good team made up of a wonderful series of playmakers and futbol artistes. I respect them utterly, and I believe that the US team does as well, even and especially Donovan. And that, I think, is what gives the US an advantage.


So my pick is 1-0 US and the goal will be scored by Nacogdoches' own Clint "Deuce" Dempsey and assisted by Landon Donovan. Below is, of course, what happened the last time the Mexicans took the US team lightly.



And then there was Chicago:

Read more!