Monthly Archives: July 2010

The Yanks In South Africa: What Went Right, What Went Wrong

July 8, 2010
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I thoroughly enjoy sports for many reasons, but probably the most prominent is the raw emotion they evoke. Certain events do this better than others and the World Cup is right at the top of the list for me. When I undertook the task of recapping the USMNT’s run through the tournament, I thought about the single most striking aspect of the two weeks they spent in South Africa. There are plenty of stories: Landon Donovan’s true breakthrough, successful auditions for major clubs from guys like Dempsey and Bradley, the early goals, the thrilling comebacks. However, the emotions are what will stick with me from this World Cup.
Nervous, eager, dismayed, shocked, delighted, angered, hopeful, proud. Doubt creeped in regularly, only to be replaced by thrilling joy and relief most of the time. There was aggravation when the officials made astounding decisions, yet a prideful triumph when it wouldn’t hold this team down. In the end there were hopes unfulfilled and thoughts of what might have been. At first I thought the worjst part was that the US had a favorable path to play on the last weekend, but for me at least it’s really that we will all have to wait another four years for this.
More than a week has passed since Ghana dispatched of the Yanks, so the emotions have subsided a little and provided a chance to think about the actual soccer. What did we learn about US Soccer in those two weeks? What is worth looking back on? There are times I can only remember the good: 86 minutes holding England scoreless after the early goal, probably our best 45 minutes in the second half against Slovenia, and the 91st minute against Algeria. “Oh, can you believe this?!” Other times it’s all Ricardo Clark?!!, early goals, and bad finishing. It’s all important, so let’s take a look and get the bad stuff out of the way first.
What’s up with all the early goals?
Honestly I don’t know, question guy.  If I had to float a couple of theories I would say the breakdowns occurred due to a lack of continuity in the lineup and some nervousness. Jay Demerit was the guy who started in the middle of the back line for every match. He was paired with Onyewu for the first two matches and Bocanegra for the last two. In an interview Jay did before the World Cup he explained the difficulty in a lack of familiarity playing with your partner in the middle and I think it showed. Just like we saw when Holland had to make a pre-match change against Brazil, it can lead to major gaps in the defense. If Gooch is 100% he starts all four matches in the middle and I think it would have been ironed out by the end. Don’t underestimate the nerves either. A split second is all it takes to run after the wrong guy or react too slowly to a long ball and create a dangerous chance. Read more »

Spain/Germany Rematch 2008 Euro Title Tilt

July 7, 2010
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In the first semifinal of the World Cup yesterday, healthy doses of luck and precision got the Dutch by a feisty Uruguay sqaud 3-2. I have to admit that I am a little sad to see La Celeste’s run end yesterday. I fell for them from the get go and early on in the competition touted them as a candidate to get as far as the semifinals. Their defensive style may not have been pleasing for some to watch, but combined with the lethal striker duo of Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez, they were fun for me to watch. They had a formula and they followed it nearly to the letter and brought them a berth in the final four of the world’s most important tournament.

That said, the better team won yesterday. Maybe its a different story with Suarez and Lugano playing, but dont forget the Dutch had two important people out yesterday with yellow card suspensions, so both teams had to dig deep into the bench to survive. I do wonder if Uruguay would have had a better chance had their fullback Lugano had a chance to play. He hurt his knee in the Ghana game and could not make a go of it. They needed him going up against the all star caliber offense of the Dutch. Instead they tried checking the Dutch with a substitute defender who hadnt played yet during the entire World Cup.  But, with both teams down two starters, the deeper and more talented team should survive and advance and thats exactly what we saw yesterday. Holland advances, putting the Orange on the verge of their first ever World Championship in this event.

They will play the winner of today’s game, the marquee one of the two semifinal matches: Spain vs Germany. It’s the Bundesliga vs La Liga. With rare exception every member of Germany and Spain play in their country’s domestic league. National and club pride–not to mention World Championship stakes–are on the line. Oh, and its a rematch of the 2008 Euro Cup finals, won 1-0 by Spain.

Throughout this run, Germany keeps getting better and better. Meanwhile, Spain hasnt lived up in terms of style points, but dont mistake a series of 1-0 outcomes as a sign that Espana is not playing well. Spain was the betting co-favorite with Brazil when this tournament began. Brazil is out. Spain is still in. They must be doing something right. Read more »

Is The Golden Boot David Villa’s To Lose?

July 6, 2010
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We’re not only trying to determine the World Cup Champion over the next few days, but we also have to award the Golden Boot to the tournament’s top goal scorer. The four teams remaining each have two games left, no more or no less. And, the leaderboard contains snipers from each outfit. We’re a few hours away from the first semifinal game between Holland and Uruguay. In the interim, let’s take a look at the contenders for the Golden Boot still standing and what their odds were for winning the Golden Boot both right now and also before the tournament even started.

David Villa, 5 Goals, Spain

Pre-Tournament Odds: 7.5/1 (+750)

Current Odds: -187

Spain may not be earning any style points during this tournament with their series of one-goal wins, but you can hardly blame David Villa for the Spanairds lack of flair. He’s scored five of the team’s six goals during the finals. That includes tallies late in the second half to break scoreless ties against Portugal and Paraguay in their first two Knockout Rounds. Let’s see, he’s scored in four matches in a row, has most of his teams goals and have scored critical, game winning goals in back to back elimination games. Sounds like an MVP performance to me.  Not that anybody should be surprised. He’s been one of the hottest strikers in the world for years. During his 5-year career with Valencia, he has tallied 129 goals, including 28 in 45 games this year in leading his club into the Champions League. He’ll be playing for Barcelona this season where he will team up with Lionel Messi. Dont expect Villa’s scoring run to stop anytime soon, be it in his last two World Cup matches or this season in La Liga. He offered a generous payout in excess of 7/1 odds to be the top scorer when the tournament began, but is now heavy chalk to retain his goal lead and win the Golden Boot.

Wesley Sneijder, 4 Goals, Holland Read more »

World Cup Semifinal: Light Blues And Orange

July 5, 2010
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My pet theory that we can claim a measure of American progress during the World Cup because all their games really have been the best in the whole tournament took a big hit over the weekend, didnt it? The team photo for top games in this field got a lot more crowded after the quarterfinal round delivered a run of drama that frankly made that phases of the tournament before it somewhat irrelevant.  Holland came from behind to beat Brazil, topple the world’s top ranked team and overcame the Brazilians amazing 34-0-2 record when leading at the half of a World Cup game. How do you say meltdown in Portuguese? Spain got another late, second half goal from David Villa to finally beat a Parguay team full of fight and refusing to back down. Uruguay and Ghana was anybody’s ballgame giving us one of the craziest endings in World Cup history, offering more dramatics than even the closing minutes of the Algeria/US game did. And while the Germans ended up blowing out Argentina, that game stayed relevant and close for almost 70 minutes and even after the rout was on you couldnt take your eyes off it just so you could take in Diego Maradona’s response, which boiled down to staring into space like a kid who dropped his ice cream cone on the ground while offering up no tactical counter to the German offensive. Oh, but he threw in some sparring with German fans for good measure.

The result is a pair of great semifinal matches–Netherlands vs Uruguay and Spain ve Germany. Three of those clubs you’d expect to make a deep run in this field with the South American Uruguay the upstart entrant. La Celeste is the final South American team in the field, a surprise development considering we looked to be on a verge of a complete Latin American rebellion in South Africa when the Knockout stage began. But South American teams went 0-3 agasint Europe in the quarterfinals, reasserting that they’re still the top continent. While Brazil and Argentina fans may relish the other’s failures in the quarterfinals, those of us who enjoyed the rise of the South American teams the last month are a little disappointed. I wanted an all-Guay final. Or a major tete-a-tete between Brazil and Argentina. For that clash of Titans, we’re left to wait for next summer’s Copa America, played on the Argentine’s home turf. And as for a total storming of the World Cup gates for South America, we will have to wait until 2014 when Brazil plays host.

Getting back to the semis, the marquee match is Spain/Germany. It’s La Liga versus the Bundesliga. A rematch of the 2008 European Championship that Spain won. But that game is tomorrow. We have time to get into that game. Lets discuss today’s game between Holland and Uruguay.

Holland reminds me a lot of the Swedish National Hockey team. Whenever the bigtime hockey teams get together on the international scale, everyone swoons over the Canadiens and Russians, with a whole lot of talk about the Americans and, especially when Hasek was at the height of his powers, Czechoslovsakia thrown in. Nobody would mention the Swedes. Until, of course, the action finally got underway. Then people remembered just how much NFL talent the Swedes bring to the table.  In soccer, the Dutch are never considered the favorite, lurking instead as a darkhorse. But, man, there arent too many other teams with less talent. The Dutch are loaded with good to elite players from the English Premier League, Serie A and the Bundesliga. Toss in a handful of players from the three best clubs in their own Eredivisie and you have a roster thats tough to out talent. The Dutch have critical players from such bigtime club teams as Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Liverpool. When I sat down to watch their first game against Denmark, I blurted out at least five times ‘holy hell they have that guy too.’ Which happens to be something I say a lot everytime I watch the Swedes play hockey. Of course the big difference in the comparison is the fact that the Swedes have won Olympic gold and World Championships. Netherlands soccer has not. Maybe a better comparison would be with the proverbial best-golfer-to-never-win-a-major. We’ll see if this ends like Paul Azinger at the 1993 PGA or Stewart Cink in the 2001 US Open.

What intrigues me about the club is they dont seem to really like each other, but have great team chemistry on the field. Even though they’ve won all their games, scoring multiple goals in all but one contest, there has been a fair amount of squabbling and finger pointing at times. Robin van Persie is frustrated and frozen out. He and Wesley Sneijder have squaked at each other over playing time. Watching Dirk Kuyt play you know he’s pissed off players in training with his style of play. And how many players on the team quietly fist pumped when Melo stomped on Arjen Robben’s leg? I’m setting the bar at 4. But none of that seems to matter on the pitch where they’ve become a better team with each game. These guys love playing for their country and they are more than savvy enough to know what kind of history they’re on the verge of completing. They will go back to being hated club rivals later this summer, but right now everything is first and foremost about the Orange. Read more »

World Cup Roundtable: Quarterfinals Edition

July 2, 2010
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Here we are, down to eight teams remaining in the World Cup field. Quarterfinal action kicks off today, and we have a great quartet of games to keep us entertained and glued to our vuvuzela-fuled television at the start of this holiday weekend. We have a couple of game that look like they ought to be played Championship Sunday. We have upstarts, ancient powers back in the limelight, an African hope and nearly all of South America. Among all the storylines, perhaps my favorite is the fact that of the teams remaining, four of them have never won a World Cup. Only seven countries have done so, but Holland, Spain, Ghana and Paraguay remain alive and kicking to joing the rarified air of the Big Seven. I cant begin to hit all the crititcal elements of these matches, so let’s turn it over to our roundtable for an extended discussion.
Jamie Mac: Before we move on, let’s address the end of the US run in South Africa. Rate their performance for me, be it on 1-10 scale, a letter grade or however else you see fit to do so. Was the game with a Ghana a situation where if the  match is played 10 times, it’s a 5/5 split and Saturday just wasnt the Yanks day? Or was there something in that game that showed there is still some gap to make up between the US and even the group of squads just below the elite contenders?
SteveY: It’s a difficult task to rank the US performance against Ghana. It was pretty solid most of the match, I thought; but when you have such significant breakdowns, those are killers. C- is a good grade I think. NOT GOOD ENOUGH as the annoying masses say. I think the United States wins that game at least six times out of ten. Ghana scored its first two non-penalty goals in the World Cup in a long time in this match. When the US scored the penalty, it looked like they were sure shots for the quarterfinal. The US midfield is world class, in my e-pinion. The gap remains in the back and up top. Jozy Altidore has the potential to dominate matches, but the back line is so suspect. Need to get some more young fullbacks over to Europe, stat.
Mad Magician:  I’d give it a B+.  One fact that gets reinforced every World Cup: it’s hard to get out of the group stage. Especially so in 2010, as former pushovers like Japan and Australia continue to develop better talent and three points aren’t guaranteed against any opponent. So unless you’re a traditional power like Brazil or Germany, getting out of the group stage is an accomplishment worth celebrating. The U.S. performed to their expected level; they could have progressed further, but they could have gone out earlier, too. Such is life.
Chitownblue: A 6/10? B? I think, at this point, getting out of the group stage is the “expectation” for the US and anything beyond that is gravy – so they met expectations, and didn’t really exceed them. I guess it was basically a toss-up. Ghana looked much better for the first 45 minutes, and the US better in the latter half, but didn’t we lose the same way we always blow games, by letting up an early goal? Clark made a terrible play, Demerit was too slow to get onto The Prince, and god knows what Bocanegra was doing on Ghana’s second goal. In other words, it seemed close, but the things we did to lose seem to be symptomatic problems with this iteration of the team. Also:  it’s worth noting that we were even with Ghana while their superstar watched from a luxury box. Read more »