Just to stick my vote in, not panicked, but concerned. I'm super duper curious as to what the line up will be for Costa Rica. Can't wait for the game to get here already!
Very good point. All of the hex proyections had Mexico easily qualifying in first with an almost perfect record. They will still probably qualify in first place, however, every point they drop is a point another team has won that will make it harder on the US to qualify.
Or.....................people are vastly over-estimating the gap between Mexico & the rest of the hex teams. "Projections" is another way of say "We don't know what the hell's going to happen, but our best guess is this.................." Mexico played worse at home against Jamaica than we did on the road against Honduras. And yet the story I'm hearing on these boards is "We're concerned about qualification for the US.......but Mexico will be fine."
In a large sample size, the team with the most talent will almost always come out on top. Now, the hex is only 10 games, it is not that big of a sample size, but then again, you don´t need to come out on top to qualify, you just need to be in the top 3. My point was that the proyections had Mexico getting between 26 to 28 points, if in reality they get only 18, then they will still qualify but that means there are an extra 10 points up for grabs, which will make it harder on the US. The degree of that gap is not that important, we know Mexico has superior talent, and that will be enough to qualify. The US needs to hope Mexico wins all of their game exept for the two against the US.
This is stupid. We should just concentrate on ourselves. Win our home games, tie our road games. Its that simple.
Agree. And of the two "win your home games" is much more important. The fact that we rarely drop points at home is why we've always risen to the top three in the modern World Cup Qualifying format.
Hi everyone The US teams never had great talent, the US always had more discipline than the other teams in concacaf, with the exception of Mexico. What we have now is that concacaf is catching up, it's not so easy anymore. The US could always rely on Jamaica to make silly mistakes. Any organized team in concacaf will be trouble for the US, given the speed and skill of the rest of the concacaf. I will go as far as saying that the US will be one of the teams battling for that 4th spot.
With the parity that has become CONCACAF there probably won't be many points separating the #1 spot and the #4 spot. I think we finish top 3 no matter what. We should win all our home matches.
This is the issue. How many home matches has the USMNT lost in the last three hexes? I believe our record is 13 wins 1 draw 1 loss. [loss to Honduras in 2001]. There's no reason to panic after one loss on the road. If we lose against Costa Rica at home, then people can panic. Concern is fine at the moment...............but panic is premature.
Posted in another thread, but if we lose to anyone not named Mexico at home that's immediate grounds for firing IMO.
Correct. Too early for Panic. That said, I am becoming sceptical of JK's ability to build a consistent and good team. That is, I'm suspecting that what we've seen of the USMNT under Juergen is pretty much all we're going to see.
Well it can all change with some guy named Donovan. You know, a player we have not seen in qualifying yet.
If we lose to Coast Rica at home I will panic. Other than that no. I'd even allow myself to be strung along with a tie to Costa Rica.
Welcome. However, your assessment is much too realistic for these boards. Watching Jamaica against Mexico last week was like getting a cold splash of water in the face, mistakes and all. I must say, tho, many of us who put the USA loss at the Office down to conditions - reasonable enough - had doubt planted in our mind by the way Jamaica played against us in the return match when they went down and dropped the defensive posture and began attacking Klinsmann's weakness - the defence, where his team building efforts have been distracted from success, with the hex now upon us. Next time they may go at us from the get go.
It is time to be concerned. We will know more following the Costa Rica match in Denver. I am hopeful that we will employ a lineup geared to get results. It's time for the experimentation to stop. Qualification is at stake. Btw, Mexico has always had trouble with Jamaica. The athletic mismatches would give the Mexicans nightmares, as the Jamaican counterattack troubled the Latinos on Wednesday. Jamaica, right now, is the major dark horse. And they expect to be adding additional players following the Premiership season.
Hitler reacts to USA loss at Honduras: http://meemsy.com/v/6852 could not get this video into U-tube, so it will not embed.
I believe we should have in the return. We had no reason not to go all out attack in the return game. We were leading the group. I strongly believe the next time Jamaica faces the US we will come out guns blazing instead of parking the bus. Interesting stuff awaits