Wonce Again (Azteca)

Tomorrow, there is an important football match. And, for once, it is happening in North America. And this isn't important in the way I'd say the MLS Cup is important, and perhaps someone reading in Europe would laugh and mutter "those crazy Americans" (or whatever that is in Finnish) ((yea, I see you Finnish guy that reads this shit)). This is some genuinely important shit. Mexico desperately needs a win to avoid some disastrous shit in their quest for World Cup qualification, the US needs some sort of a result as a benchmark for their growth as a team. Basically? Stakes is high.

Both sides enter the match happy with recent developments, in an odd sort of way. Clearly, the Americans' run at the Confederations Cup is seen as a potential turning point in their quest for...relevance. Mexico sees their 5-0 victory against the US as a huge confidence boost after a difficult year or two. So these are two teams that ought to be playing at something near their best after a summer where they both tinkered with things quite a bit, and seemed to somewhat find what the hell worked.

Of course, actual results from this qualifying cycle haven't left us with any real reason to believe this match will be much different than normal. Mexico's won their matches at home, and the US has been mediocre at best away. Pretty much same as always. So why think this match will be any different? Well, I don't know, really. It probably won't be. But, you know...huzzah for false hope.

US-B into Gold Cup Final; consider seceding

Following (another) 2-0 win over Honduras, the United States' team hodgepodge of...stuff have reached their third consecutive Gold Cup final, where they'll meet Costa Rica or Mexico. Stuart Holden was once again key in midfield, and has probably gained the most in terms of having a place in the "legit" national team from this squad.

The US' success in this competition brought up a (sort of) interesting conversation between me and a friend: could the US qualify two teams to the World Cup. If that weren't, you know, illegal. I said no, as I'd be surprised to see this team get a point away in CONCACAF and I think they'd also have trouble against the a-sides (not to be confused with A-Teams) of the less-crap CONCACAF teams at home. But it does seem like this B-side is less horrible than previously thought, and probably wouldn't be too shabby with a couple additions. We could even leave Jay Heaps! Or not. Preferably not. Actually, there are like four or five of the whole group that have a chance of breaking into the 23 for South Africa. But, still: less shitty than expected. Huzzah for low expectations.

The Mourning After

Alright, the obligatory preface: I went into the tournament expecting losses to both Italy and Brazil, a close match with Egypt,and an early trip home. After the first two matches I thought Egypt would win the final group match easily, and the US would go home as the only team in the tournament without a point. So, to beat Egypt and miraculously get into the semifinal was great. To beat Spain was astounding. But this still sucked. Losing sucks. Always.

Coming into the final, I really had no idea what to expect. Brazil's an especially awful matchup for the US. In addition to being really, really good, os verde e amarelo have always produced a style of play which has confounded the Americans, and the US had only managed one win against the Brazilians in 13 tries, coming into this tournament. The 3-0 loss a little over a week ago didn't do anything to change the perception that the US could very well get slaughtered in the final. But after the win against Spain, things just seemed different. It was impossible to tell whether the US would come out confident and committed, as they did against Spain, or timid and unsure, as they had in the second group match.

So, yea, I guess the start was kind of good. Brazil had most of the possession, and did well to work the ball around, but the US mostly avoided giving up any brilliant chances. They even attacked, occasionally. The first goal was just...I don't know, weird. A great cross from Spector, and a perfect touch from Dempsey to send it creeping between Julio Cesar and the far post. It was pretty cool, but my immediate reaction was "alright, hold on". And, you know, 80+ minutes is a long time to hold on. And Brazil continued to have chances after the goal, but the US held their ground, and avoided completely retreating into the defensive shell we've seen before. Tim Howard made good saves, but wasn't forced into any Kasey Keller in the Gold Cup type stuff.

The second goal was pretty fucking brilliant. Rico Clark gets the ball off a misplaced pass, places a perfect ball to Donovan with his first touch, and Donovan and Davies work it back and forth to create the chance. Donovan collects Davies' pass, avoids Ramires with a perfect first touch, and slides the ball far post past Julio Cesar. An absolutely perfect counter attack. One of the best US goals in recent memory, and at the time one of the most significant. It was up there with Feilhaber against Mexico, anyway.

So, after that, things looked pretty nice. For a while. Halftime just seemed...bad? I don't know. But I knew coming out of halftime that things would be different, and I'm not sure why. Luis Fabiano's early goal proved me right, unfortunately, and from there defeat sort of seemed inevitable. It wasn't, of course, and I thought the US actually responded fairly well. They occasionally attacked, but their defending continued to be pretty strong, and despite giving up some pretty good chances they avoided conceding the equalizer. For a while, at least. Brazil "scored" what seemed to be their second goal, as Tim Howard hit the ball out from behind the line on a shot from Kaka. But the referee allowed play to go on, even as Brazil's stars contested the decision, and at that point I thought maybe the football gods were acknowledging that they owed us one for Germany in 2002.

But, it wasn't to be. Luis Fabiano scored his second goal, on a rebound off the crossbar in the 74th minute. Lucio's headed goal on a corner was more or less the end, even though Oguchi Onyewu had a half chance on a late corner that went just over the bar. The heavily favored Brazilians came out ahead, again, and denied the US victory in their first FIFA tournament final. Or FIFA final tournament. I'm not sure which way it goes, after listening to John Harkes and JP Dellacamera yesterday.

Anyway. This could end up any number of ways for the Americans. It could have helped the team in a variety of ways, many of which are obvious. Hopefully they now realise that FIFA refs are very much willing to show them red cards, and that makes things just a bit harder. Obviously, playing four very good teams (three in the top 5) before the World Cup is immeasurably more telling than games against Haiti and Granada (huzzah for the Gold Cup), and hopefully Bradley will have somewhat figured out what works and what doesn't (doesn't=Sacha Kljestan, by the way. just so you know). The loss could keep the team "hungry", as the disappointment at full time was evident. Clint Dempsey's tears as he accepted the Bronze Ball showed just how much this tournament meant to the players, despite the naysayers' insistence that it was merely a warm up exercise for the World Cup. Which it is, to some extent, but so is everything else in international football. The World Cup is IT, and national teams mostly exist in order to get there and show the world what they can do.

So, although a second place finish is obviously a very nice achievement for the Americans, we won't really be able to judge the extent to which this tournament was a success until next summer. Having showed an ability to hang with the "big dogs", the pressure will be on to recreate these performances against the powerhouses they will inevitably face next summer. Perhaps even more important, the US will have to recreate the attacking display against Egypt in games where they aren't prohibitive underdogs. And while qualification (including a certain match at Azteca) and December's draw still lie ahead, the focus now turns towards recreating the magic of 2002 and this summer in about 346 days. Oh, and Grenada. Always Grenada.