Australia beat Iraq 1-0 last night to qualify for Rio.
That’s what Dempsey should do tonight. Get suspended for Costa Rica and be safe for Mexico.
There may be a dumber rule in sports, but I don’t know what it is. Suspending a player for a World Cup qualifying match because of something he did over a year ago is stupid. If he’s since gone six or seven games without a card there is no reason for him to still have something like that hanging over his head.
BTW, I agree with you about the shirt thing. Just don’t do it. My question is why does that rule exist in the first place? Boxers and swimmers compete without shirts. Cyclists barely have a shirt on when they climb. What’s the big deal about seeing a man’s chest?
So once the US clinches (at about 16-17 pts) beat the fucking shit out of the next team, get all 9 (or however many there are at that point) suspended for one game and move on. It’s a dumb rule because it can be manipulated this way by a good team, but hurts a not-so-good team disproportionately.
It’s a show-boating thing.
You should see some of the choreographed dances the Central and South American teams get away with after goals.
Tahiti had a nice one after scoring on Nigeria yesterday.
BTW, Australia, Iran, and South Korea all qualified today.
USA 1 Honduras 0
I caught the second half tonight. I know very little about soccer, but Team USA seemed to have a major speed advantage over Honduras. That guy on the left wing was just blowing by the defenders at will. Lots of missed opportunities, but a solid win.
About the short thing, regularly it would take the player a few minutes to get the damn thing on again. Especially if there were undershirts involved. You can probably find some clips of players mucking about with a sweaty heap of polyester, while two teams are waiting for the game to restart (including solutions with scissors etc.).
Footballers aren’t the smartest lot, just look up Balloteli trying to get on a training jersey ;).
To be fair, there was some solid goal keeping from the Honduras keeper, Noel Valladares.
Very tense win for the men’s team last night. That’s three straight now and all without the team’s best known player on the pitch. If Landon Donovan comes back to the team and is able to fit in with the rest of the team (very big ifs), the team will have the most dangerous striking power I can ever remember it having.
I have become a massive Michael Bradley fan during this hexagonal. His game just keeps getting better.
My hope is that Klinsi liked what he saw out of Fabian at left back with Eddie Johnson in front of him so much that we never have to see DaMarcus Beasley at left back ever again. It’s just not his position in the first place, and he’s too old besides. The team we saw last night is very close to what I hope our starters in Brazil will be, with just a couple possible changes…
4-2-3-1
GK - Timmay! or Guzan, I’m OK with either
left to right backs – Fabian Johnson, Besler, Gonzalez, and any of Evans, Cherundolo or Chandler (whichever’s on his game a year from now)
Bradley and either Jermaine Jones or Geoff Cameron at defensive mid
Zusi on the left wing, Landon on the right (yes, I think he’ll be back and we’ll be better off with him there)
Jozy up top, Dempsey tucked in behind.
I would comfortably call that the best team the USA have ever fielded, but it will be very interesting to see what the next year brings. Does Evans move to right back for Seattle, even part time? Does Jozy leave AZ, and is it the right decision? Does Timmy Chandler get over whatever it is he needs to get over? Is Landon still Landon? So much to pay attention to in the next 12 months.
He was one of our best players in South Africa and he’s only gotten better. His time in Italy has really served him well. Whenever he gets possession of the ball, I’m never in fear of a bad turnover. He might be my favorite player at the moment.
I’m not sold on Gonzalez yet. Getting the to central backs lots of playing time together is crucial, but I hope Klinsi made the right choice in Gonzalez.
Nothing against Jones, but I’m starting to buy into the opinion that Cameron is a better fit with Bradley. I prefer Bradley with more freedom to go forward. And yeah, it was only one game with Cameron in that spot. And it was only Panama, Cameron could look a lot different against non-CONCACAF opponents. But I’m not a big fan of Bradley getting the ball so deep in his own half (as safe as that is).
Has anyone done the math…is it possible to clinch a spot with a win in Costa Rica?
Bradley is going to be US captain for a decade. He’s been one of the top 3 US players for probably 4 or 5 years. It’s kind of unfortunate that his father was the coach because he has not gotten nearly the attention he deserves.
Yes.
It was really lucky for the USA that they hit a purple patch when they had 3 qualification matches in less than two weeks - after 4 points only in their 1st 3 games, the 9 points have sent them rocketing to the top of the hex. It’s pretty much impossible they won’t qualify now.
Best US team ever? I’m not sure that his team is quite as good as the 2009 Confederations Cup finalists: the back 4 is definitely weaker, I don’t think 2013 Bradley is necessarily better than 2009 Bradley (tbf he was monster in the 2009 Confederations Cup). Obviously 2013 Altidore is a marked improvement on 2013 Altidore and 2009 and 2013 Dempsey are fairly even. The big difference apart from the attack is that Donovan isn’t there in 2013 and it’s highly doubtful if he plays in 2014 that he’ll be good as he was in 2009.
As you point out, that team had Bradley, Dempsey, Altidore and Donovan. To my mind, Bradley and Dempsey are in their prime with way more experience at the highest levels of soccer, Donovan may very well have been better then (who’s to say at this point) and Jozy is just unquestionably better now. But the rest of that team? Certainly better in central D with Onyewu and Bocanegra, but if DeMerit and Spector were so good they’d both still be around (full disclosure - I thought Spector would start for this team for a decade, but it just hasn’t happened). Ricardo Clark starting in midfield? Charlie Davies looked like he was gonna be great too - one car crash later, not so much.
That team made the Confed Cup Finals, and nearly won the thing. On the other hand, they also lost the first two games and probably never should have made the semifinals in the first place. Bottom line, for me, is that while that team probably was better defensively, this team can control the ball and create scoring opportunities in a way that no other USA team ever could. Watching the Honduras game, I felt like I was watching US versus someone like Costa Rica on the road twenty years ago, but in reverse. One team clearly in control, but struggling to solve a team that has packed it in defensively and is trying for a scoreless draw while secretly hoping to steal a goal on a late counter-attack. It’s amazing how far we’ve come since '94, to be the other team on the field these days - at least against a depleted Honduras, at home. 
I agree with absolutely everything about this, including the “yeah, but” parts. I suppose, however, that the thinking is that we should be better defensively with Jones in and Bradley staying back, but better on O with Cameron in and Bradley charging forward. Which leaves the question - which part of our team needs more help right now? Any other time, ever, in the entire history of US soccer I’d say we need more offense; but right now, with Besler and Gonzalez a work in progress, and with the offense doing a solid job of creating goal-scoring opportunities, I think Bradley staying back might be for the best. For now, anyway. I sincerely hope that a year from now those two are so solid and comfortable with each other that bringing in Cameron and sending Bradley is a more viable option.
Having said that, how nice is it to be grappling with the choice between Good Option A and Good Option B for once? It’s like the soccer equivalent of a First World Problem.
I think he is.
I don’t think I’d replace a single starting 2009 defender with their 2013 counterparts. Obviously Clark was not that great - I felt Davies was overrated a bit by US fans in 2009, but I’d still take the 2009 iteration of Davies over any 2013 stirker bar Altidore (if you don’t include Dempsey natch). Dempsey and Bradley are more experienced and both play for ‘big clubs’ in ‘big leagues’, but not sure they’re better. Bradley we’ll see because it’s possible this season could be another breakout season for him.
What made US team in 2009 is in Dempsey and Donovan they had two players capable of sucker-punching any team in the World on the counter as showed when they did exactly that against one of the best international teams of the last 30 or 40 years (i.e. Spain), they had a back four of player, who were in many ways limited, but who were great at backs-against-the-wall defending and were prepared to get the win against more talented teams by working harder than them as exemplified by Bradley.
The current US team may be able to control the game better than in the past and in particular manufacture goals from the run of play, however there are quite a number of teams in the World who can do this better. In the Hex controlling the game and winning from the run of play will serve them well (let’s be honest they should not have struggled as much as they have in the past to get wins on the road in the Hex), but the teams in the Hex aren’t that great. When it comes to the World Cup and serious competition against top tier teams they’re not going to be able to control the game and have much of the run of play - when that happens their defence may let them down.
I think it’s wait and see. He’s shown he deserves to be at Roma, but in 2009 he was particularly good, which is why I’m not sure. Let’s see what he can do this coming season if De Rossi moves.
Oops, I completely missed the US getting crushed by Costa Rica in revenge for the snow game. Next match is vs. Mexico at home on Wednesday, 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. I believe that if we win we’re guaranteed in (although, correct me if I’m wrong, we’d still want to win the remaining matches to get a better seed in the draw for groupings?).
Assuming I’m reading the Wikipedia article right, 5 teams are qualified so far: Brazil (the host) and four teams from Asia: Japan, Australia, Iran, South Korea.
England seems to be looking solid, on top of its group. Any other interesting stories around the world?