Early there was hope that an upset of the highest order could have been in progress. The US has gone up against Argentina within 10 minutes.
That hope didn’t last long at all, Argentina equalized almost right after they went down on the Eddie Johnson’s PK. Then there was a long time that either team could have added a few but no more goal came in the first half. The US looked pretty good and at time like the much better team, but couldn’t add another goal.
In the 64th minute Crespo broke through for Argentina to score his 2nd goal of the game, the one that would prove to be the winner. From that point on it was all trouble for the US who eventually game up 2 more goal for the final score of 4-1.
Usually I like what Justin Mapp does on the field for the US. I just shook my head each time he tried to take on Zanetti down the left wing. I don’t think it ever worked out in Mapp’s favor. I don’t know if no one told Justin who they were up against. I guess its good to try though. At times I was frustrated with Johnson and his un-willingness to take on Argentina’s defense.
The US team started out an inspired team that was not going to be intimidated by Argentina, almost as if no one had told them how big underdogs they were supposed to be. But sometime in the 2nd half they realized that they were playing one of the best teams in the world, and their play showed it. Suddenly Argentina was controlling everything that the US was doing a good job at in the first half.
Hopefully Monday will bring better things versus Paraguay.
I’m going to say this just a few hours before US MNT takes on Argentina tonite in Venezuela. Remember that it is a young US team that will be playing tonite.
Last nite Mexico beat Brazil who is ranking #3 by official FIFA rankings. We can say that would make Mexico the #2 team in the world. Mexico also happens to be the #2 team in CONCACAF, who recently lost to the United States who then becomes the #1 team in the world.
I refuse to believe it isn’t true until I see someone beat them. So far Bradley has 9 wins and 1 tie. Thats a pretty good run for sure.
The nominees in the category of Best Major League Soccer Player at the ESPYs have been announced. I don’t know how much of a season these awards are supposed to cover. Being that the award show takes place on July 16th it seems odd that they would be based on this current season, and it is kinda late to give awards for last season, so maybe it covers anything that happened in they year 2006, or possibly just the past year since July 2006.
The nominees are Jeff Cunningham, Christian Gomez, Landon Donavan and Matt Reis. If the award covers the past season, I think it goes to Jeff Cunningham. Gomez was the MVP last year, but that is different than a best player award. Cunningham was the leagues top goal scorer on a bottom of the league team.
The LA Galaxy sent Santino Quaranta to the Kansas City Wizards for a future draft pick. Good deal for the Wizards probably. Hopefully after the Copa America the Wizards, with the addition of Quaranta, can change this last weeks form. Losses to the Crew and Dynamo don’t seem like the Wizards we’ve grown to know at the beginning of this season.
Way to go DC United, now every team in Major League Soccer has a win. Before this weekend Real Salt Lake was the only team without a notch in the W column. I don’t know if you guys felt bad for them or what is going on. And what was up with scoring the goal at the very end of the game like that? Why not just give them the shut out as well? Well done Robbie Findley, they should build a statue of you outside the stadium there in Salt Lake. Quite a way to make an impression with a new team, 2 goals that lead to the first victory of the not-so-young-anymore season. Sorry but that wouldn’t have been quite as impressive if you had been traded to someone like the New England Revolution and done that. The should be setting up their teammates and winning games. Real Salt Lake shouldn’t.
Too bad the Galaxy didn’t have Robbie Findley still on their roster for their loss to the mighty Columbus Crew. Some recent acquisitions paid off in this game as well. Alejandro Moreno scored the game winning goal for the Crew, and Edson Buddle scored a late consolation goal for the Galaxy. Not worth anything really, but it was a goal and I’m sure Galaxy fans have to take what they can get.
Moreno’s old team, Houston Dyanamo have been hot this week scoring two big wins. Well beating Chivas maybe can’t be considered real big, but they also went to Kansas City and took a one nil victory from the powerful Wizards, who also lost to the might Columbus Crew last week.
So the Crew and Dynamo win 2 games this week. Dynamo fans probably expect a lot of this, and Crew fans will probably never forget this week. The Wizards drop 2 games that a team so close to the top should expect to win. DC United’s great run comes to a screeching halt. But most importantly, the US is Gold Cup Champions!
When the all star game comes around this year, the New England Revolution’s Steve Nicol will be in charge of the MLS all stars that will face Scottish Champions Celtic. The Revolution head coach got the job because his team has the most points per game in the league right now. The job would have been given to Bruce Arena had the Revolution not beat Toronto FC this weekend.
I used to not really enjoy the format of this all star game, but since the MLS all stars beat Chelsea I’ve been a fan. With a small league it works for me. The single all star team will draw just as many fans as 2 all star teams will, but their opponents will bring some more attention to the game and also make it a little bit more competitive. You can always argue that Chelsea was (and Celtic will be) in pre-season playing a meaningless game, but no European team is going to want to come into the US and lose to an all star team from a league most of them probably view as second rate to wherever they are coming from.
Well that can’t last too long, because soon those big clubs will not have any reason to come to the US and lose to the MLS all stars. Then what will we be left with? The regular old boring no-defence east vs west completely meaningless just like baseball or basketball all star game. I don’t want that, so I hope the all stars take it a little easy on Celtic.
Guatemala Trinidad & Tobago El Salvador Panama Canada Mexico
Gold Cup Champions – USA
It was one of the most exciting games in recent history. What could be better than USA vs. Mexico for a major trophy like the Gold Cup? I’m really feeling regret that I did not make the trip to Chicago to see this game and even the game against Canada last Thursday.
The US went down right before half time on a terrible piece of defending but Bob Bradley did not give up and made sure at half time that his players would not either. Brian Ching battled his way into the box and got fouled which set up Landon Donovan’s record tying goal. He beat the Mexican keeper to the keepers left for his 34th international goal which tied Eric Wynalda’s record for US goal scoring history. Later Benny Feilhabor pounded in the poor clearance from a corner kick. It was a thing of beauty and stood up to be the game cup winning goal!
Late in the game there were chances for both sides to add goals. Tim Howard came up with a spectactular save and Beasley blew a completely open goal by knocking it off the crossbar after Landon sent him a perfect chance. Ching also worked hard to create a great chance which he knocked up the near upright. In the end it didn’t matter as Tim Howard saved the day and kept Mexico in 2nd place.
Well besides Chivas USA and whoever the Galaxy are playing against, who can score goals in LA? The Galaxy sure don’t do a good job of doing that, but their newest teammate hopes to change that and coach Yallop thinks he has got the guy to do it.
Carlos Pavon signed with the Galaxy today and will be available for the rest of the season. The Honduras international striker recently struck 4 goals in a Gold Cup game vs Cuba which Honduras won 5-0.
Is Pavon going to be able to turn things around in LA?
