Confederations Cup Final: So Close yet So Far

I never expected the United States to do the unthinkable again and beat Brazil after knocking off Spain, but after going up 2-0, it feels much more devastating knowing the team had a legitimate chance to actually win. Still, nice job to the boys for making it this far and performing well in their first ever FIFA cup final. However, I would like to congratulate Clint Dempsey for winning the Bronze Ball award (third best player in the tournament, after Kaka and Luis Fabiano) and Tim Howard for winning the Golden Gloves award as the best goalie (and he let in 3 goals in 3 separate games...and still played out of his skin). But in the end, Brazil was simply too good. We can play with them, but they are so much more talented and have game changers at every position.

Roll on next summer!

A Marvelous Victory: USA 2-0 Spain

Today, I witnessed something that I didn't even imagine was possible when I woke up this morning. The United States Mens National Team - yes, the same team that looked so uninspired against Brazil and were dominated by "world powerhouse" Costa Rica recently - pulled off an improbable upset of no. 1 ranked Spain in the Confederations Cup. Yes, they beat Spain, who hadn't lost a game since November of 2006. And they fully deserved the victory.

Jozy Altidore, who has been slagged for missing chances and not doing enough on the pitch throughout this tournament, hushed all of his critics with a skillful turn around Joan Capdevila and fired a shot which Casillas could only parry into the corner of the net on 25 minutes. Then Clint Dempsey, who had his best game for the United States in a while, beat Sergio Ramos to a deflected cross and slotted home while falling over in the second half. These were the only two shots on goal that the Americans had, but it was all they needed.


The back line played out of their skins for 90 minutes, keeping Fernando Torres and David Villa, the world's most explosive and dangerous strike partnership, at bay. They received a lot of help from the midfield, and together the United States was very organized defensively. Tim Howard commanded his box and made several game-changing saves to preserve the US lead. The first ten minutes of the second half especially when Spain was on the attack, it seemed like the US was flying into tackles and blocking every shot that Spain could muster. Even after Michael Bradley was sent off late, Spain couldn't find a way through to score. A heroic effort all around.

I asked the question in my last USMNT post - could the United States string two good performances in a row? The answer is a resounding yes. The team will take on the winner of South Africa and Brazil (played tomorrow) on Sunday. The US is already assured of their best finish ever in a Confederations Cup. They were never expected to come this far, yet now they're 90 minutes away from possibly achieving something spectacular.

United States Recovers, Somehow Advances in the Confederations Cup

Soccer is a funny game, innit? The United States loses to Italy courtesy of 2 goals of an American-born Italian (bastard), gets crushed by Brazil, and then comprehensively dominates Egypt, who had already beaten Italy and had scored three goals against the Brazilians. And this win for the Americans improbably puts them into the next round of the Confederations Cup. Now does that make any sense?

The Americans needed to beat the Egyptians by three to give themselves of any shot of advancing. and Charlie Davies, a player I would like to see more of in an American shirt, scrambled with defenders in the six yard box to deflect a shot off of the hapless goalkeeper's hands to score the first goal. After what should've been a penalty (the Egyptian defender cleared the ball off the goal line with his arm), Michael Bradley slotted home a shot in the 63rd minute (Happy Father's Day, Pops!) before Clint Dempsey headed a brilliant goal in the 71st minute to confirm the United States' spot in the semifinals.

Even though he botched several golden opportunities to score, Landon Donovan had himself a marvelous game. He stretched the field with his quickness on the ball, put defenders on their back foot, and distributed the ball well to his teammates (except in Egypt's penalty box). Dempsey, who has been understandably slagged as a weak link in the team of late stepped up in what otherwise was another sub-par performance, stepped up to score the goal that kept the United States in the tournament. It was his first goal since September 10th, a run of 8 matches with the team.

Bob Bradley has also been the subject of much criticism for the team's recent performances. I haven't been openly been questioning his team selections or tactics, but I also haven't been his biggest fan. Today's team performance, however, was inspired from the opening kick. He got the team to find its rhythm and play a free-flowing game, which stretched the African champions and made them resort to become overly physical just to compete. Bradley wouldn't look as good as he does now if Brazil didn't beat Italy in the fashion they did, and for that he surely is grateful. But the defense was solid, the midfield dominated, and the forwards constantly pressured the Egyptian goal. We've been waiting a long time to see this team perform to it's potential, and today we all saw what it was capable of doing.

Next up for the Americans? Spain, who have won 15 straight games, a new world record, and not lost in 35 straight games, tying them with Brazil (not the current Brazil squad I must clarify) as the record-holders there. It'll be a daunting task for the Americans, but they will play another match regardless of win or loss. Now, I see this tournament as more of a test of consistency. We'll see next Wednesday if the United States can put together two great performances in a row. They'll need to in order to have a chance at beating the best team in the world.

Also, is it too much to ask for the god damn fans to stop blowing those annoying horns? I really hope this isn't what next summer's World Cup is going to be like...

United States' Red Card Performance Thus Far in the Confederations Cup

For the second game in a row, the United States conceded three goals against tough competition. For the third game in their last four, the United States conceded a goal very early in the game. Unlike all of these other games (except for Costa Rica, but we can partially excuse that for the hostile environment and the crummy playing surface), the United States today was downright terrible. Not that we had been playing our best soccer these last couple of weeks, but today's performance made those other games look very good indeed.

From the very get-go of this game, the United States never looked like they would be able to contend with Brazil. To their credit, not many teams can. Still, going down 2-0 inside of 20 minutes when both goals could've easily been prevented is not how you go about playing any team, and certainly not Brazil. The first goal (a point-blank header from a set piece) could've been avoided with better marking. The second goal (a break-away from a USA corner) should never be allowed to happen in a college game, let alone an international game. For the third goal, the ball took an unfortunate deflection away from Tim Howard, and the result of a goal from that play seems harsh on the United States defense. The United States looked much more lively in the closing stages (hitting the crossbar twice), but their efforts were never going to threaten Brazil's lead in the game, especially considering the United States also had Sacha Kljestan sent off.

This loss puts the United States with one win and three losses in their last four games, and they're surely out of the Confederations Cup now. Even if Egypt manages to beat Italy this afternoon to keep the United States alive in the tournament, they would somehow need to overturn their -5 goal difference against Egypt, who managed to score three goals against the team who just crushed us. And we've only played one decent half in the tournament thus far, which was the first half against Italy.

Here are some worrying statistics from the last four games against Costa Rica, Honduras, Italy and Brazil:
- We've conceded 12 goals while only scoring 4
- Only 1 of the goals we've scored has come from open play (Landon Donovan scored the other 3 from penalty kicks) - that's 1 non-penalty kick goal in 360 minutes of soccer
- We've conceded 3 goals in 3 different games within the first 6 minutes of the game

Comparing the US line-up in our last game in the 2006 World Cup against Ghana to today's game against Brazil, only 4 players started both these games: Onyewu, Donovan, Dempsey and Beasley. The latter two players had little or no impact on the game. We have a young and very inexperienced squad assembled at the moment, and it has showed in these last few games that they're nowhere near ready to compete at next year's World Cup. I'll hold off on judgment of Bob Bradley, but it sure seems like we haven't made any progress as a team on the world stage. The Gold Cup next month will be very telling to see how this team responds on home soil against far inferior competition. It'll also be interesting to see who Bradley drops, if anyone, from his squad (I expect Beasley will be the first one to go).

Overall, the poor performance from the United States today was simply a continuation of our form of late. It's very worrying because we're already less than a year away from the 2010 World Cup. Let's at least hope for a better performance against Egypt.

I Hate the Azzurri, and I Really Hate Giuseppe Rossi

Before the 2006 World Cup, I didn't have any reason to dislike the Italian national team, but I certainly didn't consider myself a fan. After the Italy vs. United States game in the World Cup, I developed a strong dislike for the Azzurri and Daniele de Rossi after his violent elbow to Brian McBride's nose. After they beat Australia, the only team remaining who I was rooting for, in a penalty shootout, I was heartbroken. And when Marco Materazzi hit the deck after Zidane's headbutt in the World Cup final, I lost all remaining respect for the team.

And then 22-year-old Giuseppe Rossi, a born and bred American with an incredible amount of talent at a position the United States national team sorely needed skill at (striker), left to play for Italy, an established world soccer powerhouse and, of course, the reigning World Cup champions.


So when Giuseppe Rossi, who only has one goal for Italy in five previous senior team appearances, comes on as a second half substitute and scores two sublime goals against the country of his birth (and then dedicates his two goals to his American family members ), it left us American fans both fuming and envious. US public enemy no. 1 Daniele de Rossi's game winning goal in the 71st minute was the icing on the cake for a defeat that will be hard to swallow. No one really expected the United States to win, but this is just plain cruel.

Ricardo Clark's harsh (in my opinion, at least) straight red card in the first half made sure the United States would be playing down a man for the second time in as many games against Italy, making an already tough task even tougher. Even so, a Landon Donovan penalty before halftime put the United States shockingly ahead going into halftime. The Rossi's, however, made sure that an upset would never happen.

Now, the United States has got to play Brazil and Egypt. Great.