World Cup qualifying: USA-Mexico report card

Posted by Creaven on August 12, 2009 under USMNT, United States | 11 Comments to Read

So many of the United States’ players played so poorly, it’s somewhat amazing the U.S. was less than 10 minutes away from leaving Azteca with a draw.

But, predictably, the U.S. ran out of gas (altitude matters) to lose the Concacaf World Cup qualifier, 2-1, against Mexico. A draw would have been a fantastic result and would have kept Mexico’s World Cup chances in serious jeopardy. In the end, though, the loss doesn’t mean a whole lot for the U.S. — they’ll qualify anyway. But getting a point would have been a huge confidence boost.

To the grades…

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USA-Mexcio: What Bradley will do and why it won’t work

Posted by Creaven on August 11, 2009 under USMNT, United States | 11 Comments to Read

It’s easy to talk yourself into the United States having a real chance at leaving Mexico City with at least a draw Wednesday. The U.S. will field nearly the same team that beat No. 1 Spain and nearly knocked off Brazil; Mexico is struggling is qualifying, standing in fourth place in the six-team group; The U.S. has the best player on the field with Landon Donovan; All the pressure is on Mexico.

That all sounds good, but there’s one tiny-weeny problem — Mexico always wins at home. The U.S. has played Mexico away 23 times, losing 22 matches and tying one. In the last 40 years, El Tri has lost once in World Cup qualifying on Mexican soil; it’s the home field advantage of all home field advantages. Remember how good Costa Rica looked when it beat the U.S. 3-1 in June? Five weeks earlier Costa Rica had its date at the Azteca and Mexico cruised to a 2-0 victory. Which was expected, because — Mexico always wins at home.

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Concacaf World Cup qualifying: Mexico is still in good shape

Posted by Creaven on June 8, 2009 under World | 2 Comments to Read

After watching the United States beat Honduras Saturday night I quickly turned the channel to see how Mexico was doing. The Mexcians were down 1-0 to El Salvador but the world seemed to be back in order after Cauthemoc Blanco booted home a penalty, tying the match in the 71st minute. With a tie looking inevitable, a handball in the Mexican box gave Eliseo Quintanilla a chance to give El Salvador its biggest victory in a generation and Quintanilla slammed home the game-winner.

Watching this upset from my California couch, I thought to myself, “wow, could Mexico really not qualify for the World Cup?” After some research, the answer is yes, they could not qualify, but it’s still unlikely.

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CONCACAF World Cup qualifying is incredibly predictable

Posted by Creaven on June 1, 2009 under USMNT, United States | 4 Comments to Read

If you didn’t know any better you might think the United States’ match against Costa Rica Wednesday night actually means something.

ESPN writes about how this could be a make or break week for the U.S., Sports Illustrated writes about the struggles of the U.S. in Costa Rica and Yanks Abroad tells us to prepare for the worst.

But none of these stories mentions what is so obviously true — it doesn’t matter.

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