They always have been good on the ball. I know they were skilled. Sawker or futbol, it doesn't matter. They still don't have anywhere near the overall talent or experience that the US has.
I agree, Mexico outskilled the USA - no question. I'd be interested to know if they're as young as they look - most of them look like kids. The Mexican team also outskilled Canada by a lot, but Canada's offence was more productive than the USA (obviously) and their defence was tougher as well.
Italy are technically 6th in UEFA. They won the repechage for quarter-final losers, not the UEFA tournament. 4 teams qualified from UEFA (5 including hosts Germany) ahead of Italy.
You are exactly right - Sweden, Norway, England and France all qualified ahead of Italy, and Germany qualified as hosts, but are generally regarded as the best in UEFA anyway.
Wow, mexico to the world cup. A lot of new teams this year compared to 2007. You've got France, Mexico, one coming out of Africa, and one potentially out of South America. Either womens soccer is finally growing or we are in for some blowouts at the world cup.
I like Italy's chances. They are quite good at playing the kind of possession football that frustrated the United States tonight.
France qualified already in 2003. Mexico also qualified in 1999. At least they have some experience to draw on...
Oh it matters. That's that why the US' game plan was to simply kick the ball to the player furthest up the pitch. If not that, just kick the ball toward the goal and have somebody chase after it. That is soccer! Futbol is entirely different game and the other nations know this. Mexico played some good futbol tonight..the Mexicans players were talented enough to be a team of slow, experienced grannies w/o losing their composure and for that, I salute them!
New teams that weren't in 2007. Usually in the WWC, teams pretty much stay the same so for me at least seeing potentially 4 new ones is a pretty big deal.
That's where the experience comes in. Canada was the more experienced side and used that to their advantage. I'm not completely familar with Team Mexico but those girls looked pretty young, which make tonight's win more impressive, IMO.
Sorry - I pressed submit before my message was complete... I meant at least France and Mexico have some experience at World Cups to draw on, unlike the South American and African new teams.
Making nice passes doesn't make them a better team. But like was said before, Mexico pinged the ball around nice versus Canada and still lost 3-0. US has always been a 'route 1' team. Don't get me wrong, I salute Mexico. They outplayed the US tonight. But the US has always had the better team. The all time goal record vs the US tonight was 106-9 according to CONCACAF.
Brazil played their first qualifier today in Ecuador - beating Venezuela 4-0. They've got Colombia, Paraguay and Uruguay to play in their 5-team 1st round group. The top 2 from this group play the top 2 from the other group (Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia) in a final 4-team group, with the top 2 from this going to the WC2011.
The US has a better record against pretty much every team on the planet. But this didn't help them tonight. Teams are learning how to play the US, and it's showing signs of working, as we saw tonight. I think they'll have too much for Costa Rica though, though they did take their time in finishing them off in the group stage.
Even though i'm from the USA, i've never liked watching them play. There is no flair or creativity, it's just solid play and hard work basically. They don't really have a weakness, but there's nothing to me at least that sticks out especially when you get to the world cup. If they get there, they'll most likely do well but I think Germany and Brazil are better teams creatively and have more talent.
Eh...and the best team doesn't always win! I'm not saying Mexico is the best team(although, they were the better team tonight). My point is that Mexico has plenty of talent players and to suggest otherwise is just ridiculous.
I watch the United States a lot, and I have to disagree. All of the problems we saw tonight -- lack of pace, mediocre touch, laughable marking, tactical naivete -- have been evident for some time. We have been spared any major humiliation in all of the friendlies over the last two years because we were playing sides that were experimenting with tactics and lineups rather than looking 100% to win. But the problems were there to be seen all along, and it didn't actually shock me to get such a poor result in a match that actually meant something.
How many play professionally in WPS or Scandinavia/Germany? Not insulting, just curious. I know Dominguez was with Barca and theres a player on Stanford. But that's all I know. I remember they had a center half, Gonzalez I think, that was pretty good.
Ocampo played for Atlanta last season.She was very talented, not sure if she was in the lineup but she had the skills.
Then I must catch up on the US team. I knew they didn't have much touch or tactical/technical skills. I was under the impression that Pia remedied that a little. But I thought they had better pace and good marking at defense. So they lost those, too? What happened?