Sadly, I should be at this game, but just couldn’t afford the time off from work since we’re swamped. I can afford the afternoon off, and will take the kiddies up to the local Soccer pub and scream at the television from there.
History is not with the USA in this one, but the weather may be breaking slightly in our favor. Neither team has really been on a good run of form in terms of qualification, although USA are much better positioned at this point. US is coming off a big loss to Mexico in the Gold Cup final, although there are only 2 or so players from that team on this squad, and they may not see the field. Gio Dos Santos (sp?) is proving the Mexicano to watch. The USA midfield is their strong point, the backline could be the weak link against the quick play of Mexico. As in most CONCACAF qualifying, the referee should be the wild card.
I can’t claim to be the biggest soccer fan in the world but I was looking forward to watching this one. “Was” because I see it is not being shown here unless you pay for the Spanish language package. :mad:
Team quality-wise, the USA should have it’s best chance ever to win in Mexico, but 7000 feet is still 7000 feet. Much as I’d like to see a US win, I think the edge still goes to Mexico for this one.
As far as watching the game, pretty much every major cable and satellite provider is providing mun2 (and Telemundo) as a free preview for today. More than likely, you can still see the game.
That’ll be cool if they do. I tried to schedule a reminder for it on Mun2, and it told me I couldn’t mark it because I don’t get it, but maybe the system isn’t that smart yet.
Good luck on that. I’m recording the Spanish channel, it’s a basic cable channel here, but I assume they’ll have the English feed at the pub. I’d actually rather watch in Spanish, since Marcelo Balboa is the English language announcer, and his observations sometimes make my ears bleed.
Also, from what I understand, most cable systems, along with Direct TV and Dish Network, are offering Mun2 for free today. I’ve already checked, and its coming through just fine on my system.
. . . Getting psyched for game day! I usually hate the USA - Mexico home tie because there is so much pressure on the Yanks to take the points, but for the return leg in Azteca, the pressure’s always off. C’Mon You Yanks!
I dunno, I’ve got a feeling about this one. Although I wasn’t too worried about the game at Saprissa and that still turned out how history would predict.
Landon Donovan has been on a tear for a while now and he always plays well against Mexico. Dos Santos is going to be up against Jonathan Spector, not Jay Heaps. Michael Bradley is a maniac and I don’t think he’s terribly pleased about the US getting embarrassed in the GC. Mexico has their backs against the wall. If they lose this game they’ll have a hard time qualifying. I’m expecting a crazy, physical game. I’ll go 3-2 USA win. Donovan with two, and Onyewu off a corner.
Snarky, I agree Donovan has been playing beautiful football recently; however, I’m afraid with his reliance on speed the altitude and smog could easily make him look average.
FWIW, I understand you can get a Telemundo feed on your computer at Terra.com. As the last person in America without cable, that may well be how I’ll end up watching.
I know I"m spoiled by HD coverage of most sporting event, but the picture on the SD broadcast from Telemundo is horrible. The shadows don’t help. I’m guessing the feed is being provided from a Mexican television network?
As I understand it, Telemundo has exclusive TV rights to soccer games within Mexico. They offered the broadcast to ESPN at 5X the usual going rate and ESPN said no. That’s their right, I suppose.
What is aggravating—besides the lackluster, passive US play and atrocious officiating—is that I understand that Telemundo is affiliated with NBC, and yet NBC can’t provide a quality English broadcast of this match in the US. I’m not saying that they needed to cut into Days of Our Lives or Maury, or whatever they’re showing now, but couldn’t they have shown this on USA Sports, like they do during Thursday and Friday for the US Open? “Mun2” is not a comparable good, sorry.
Depressing to watch after the first US goal, as the US team decided to turtle for 80 minutes. The yellow card disparity was hilarious, and I was wondering if there was going to be a riot during the Davies foul/Feilhaber & El Tri yellow cards sequence. It would be nice if the US team could string three passes together too.
I’m disappointed, but not too bad. We’ve never won at Azteca, pretty much nobody wins at Azteca. Bradley and Clark messed up on both goals. I don’t see how somebody on Mexico wasn’t sent off. There were probably 4 or 5 possible yellows that weren’t called and then the one guy grabbed Feilhaber by the throat… If we play them in the World Cup I’ll be pretty confident in a US win.
I’d say that second goal is on DeMerit. You don’t leave your guy unmarked in the middle of the box to lunge at the feet of a guy who is just about to run out of play and has a horrible angle to shoot, which Donovan and Howard had covered. First Mexican goal was on Clark and Bradley, but was really just a fantastic shot.
The CONCACAF referees are such a joke, especially when we’re playing Mexico, as the only decent regional refs can’t cover our games. I’m hoping someday FIFA will start to review games for simulation and dish out harsh suspensions to players that go down without a touch, or grasping a part of their body that had no contact. Whatever Dos Santos was selling, the ref was buying. The worst part of all those BS yellow cards, besides tying the players hands for the rest of the game, is that a lot of those guys might now miss a later, key match due to accumulation.
I have a problem with the yellows not called on Mexico, but I think the three on the U.S. defenders were legit. The last in the first half was a bit soft, but not unreasonable.
I’m not too upset about the yellows. They were on the soft side, but they were still yellows. It’s just that Mexico did the same thing and nothing was called. And then all the ball grabbing and shoving when no time was even being wasted…
Which shouldn’t really be the main focus. It makes the US fans sound like whiners. Even with some bad calls I think Mexico was the better team.
I’m not sure about that being on Demerit. That’s a dangerous position for a cross. I think Bradley was too intent on getting into the goal mouth rather than watching the play. It was a pretty unlucky deflection too.