Freddy Garcia had an excellent game tonight for Guatemala against Steve Sampson's Costa Rica in the UNCAF Nations Cup (the Central American qualifying tourney for the Concacaf GC), including a brilliant FK goal: http://www.concacaf.com/news/article.page/1214 He took the FK from a spot right at the top of the penalty area. It was a laser - CR's goalie had no chance. He was also very effective all night along the left flank. He almost set up Pescadito for another goal off a near-perfect cross through traffic. I think he was easily Guatemala's man of the match tonight. If he provides service like this for the Crew this season, McBride, Cunningham, and Buddle will rack up some very nice numbers. ... Btw, the Panama nats for this tourney include only two players on Deportivo Arabe Unido (Crew's first round opponent in the Concacaf Champions Cup) - make of that what you will. Full rosters here: http://www.concacaf.com/news/article.page/1207
Man, last season his free kicks left alot to be desired. It would be nice if we had someone who could step up and take those. Remember for a time last season when Oughton was the man taking them? ugh.
From the Guatemalan website, it seems that Fredy was his usual self up and down the left wing. "Started with an early cross to Ruiz for a header that was saved." "Most of Guatemala's play came down the left flank as Garcia continued to feed crosses to Ruiz and Acevedo." "Beautiful free kick over the nine-man wall and into the top corner by Fredy Garcia beat the Costarican keeper to tie things up." "Garcia almost gave Guatemala the three points in the 82nd minute but his one-timer off a Dennis Chen center slammed against the post."
Last UNCAF game for Guatemala is scheduled for 2/23: http://www.concacaf.com/news/article.page/1156 If you have Galavision, Guatemala v Panama will be on Sunday 2/16 at 7 pm ET.
Thnaks, anderson. I was hoping he'd get some more practice time with the Crew before the 1st DAU game. He should be match fit though.
He will be match fit. He's been working out all off-season with his former club and it showed in the first match against the Ticos. The opposite was true for the Fish who's had a leisure of an off-season and people on the Guatemala boards are pissed off at him. He had two clear chances to finish off Costa Rica and missed them both. The ratings I saw had Freddy with 7 of 10 (third best on the team after Pando Ramirez who plays in Mexico, and one of the defenders) while Ruiz had a 5 of 10 (only the guy who had the handling call for the Tico PK had a worse rating). Maybe we can get Jeff, McBride and Freddy each with at least 10 in the net next season.
Just an update from the Central American Nations Tournament. After tying Costa Rica on Fredy's free kick, Guatemala suffered an upset at the hands of host Panama. Two counters in the first half gave the hosts a 2-0 win. Fredy was "a shadow of the player in the Costa Rica match". The whole team fell apart in the heat (35 degrees Celsius at game start time). Today, they're up 2-0 at the half. Fish with the brace, both late in the half. 1-0 on a free kick top corner. Fredy gets the assist on Ruiz's header for the 2-0 as he sent a beautiful cross far post. The same combination almost worked 10 minutes earlier but the keeper got his hand on the ball and forced a corner. Fredy is playing like against Costa Rica. They'll need him as Pando Ramirez is out on a red card received just before the second goal fell.
Final: Guatemala 5 Nicaragua 0 Fredy with an assist and his second goal of the tournament. Ruiz got the first three before Fredy scored and Figueroa got Guatemala's 5th. Fredy was substituted late in the second half after the 5th goal fell. Ruiz picked up his second yellow and joins Ramirez on the bench for their game against the leaders from El Salvador on Thursday. Panama and Honduras play later tonight.
He should have no fitness problems up here in March. He'll probably need a fleece vest to keep moving.
Re: Re: [R] Freddy Garcia in UNCAF Copa de Naciones [R] They tried but ended in a 3-5-1 after one of their players was ejected.
SS has been getting some heat from the Costa Rican press. They apparently expected the Ticos to walk in there and rack up some big scores, at least against the traditional minnows. It'll be interesting to see how an American coach handles actual scrutiny from a critical media.
Guatamala vs. El Salvador 19 th minute - goal by some clod off a nice assist from Freddy Garcia. Garcia is playing center mid, is wearing number 10 AND has the armband.
Ruiz is out with the yellow card accumulation and he usually wears the captain's armband. The other one out is Ramirez who usually is the a-mid moving Freddy to the left. Ramirez plays in Mexico. The goal was scored by Alegria on Freddy's second assist of the tournament. Bill, what happened early on (in the first 10 minutes) where the radio commentators were almost celebrating a gol by Guatemala. Freddy served a throughball to Figueroa on the right, then I thought I heard heel pass and someone took a shot that deflected or was saved for a corner. I'm not sure if it was Freddy taking the shot or Alegria. Freddy seemed to be very active early on but I haven't been able to listen continuously since so I'm not sure if he's kept it up.
One touch back to Freddy who hit the post so squarely it bounced right back to him at about 20 yards. I was with the announcers - I thought it was in also. Keeper completely beaten. Freddy IS very active. (I envy you - you can understand the announcers) Takes most of the free kicks and clearly the offense is running through him. Not carrying much, one touch up, some very nice balls. At the first sign of pressure he fills a lane on the left side, a couple decent balls from there as well. One in particular I'd lay odds Ruiz would have buried. 50 minutes, still 1 - 0.
It's tough as they go at the speed of a very good auctioneer. They do use the full names on most players; i.e. Freddy Alexander Garcia. But I do hear what you're seeing. The offense is going through Freddy and he keeps the ball flowing with quick passes to the wings. I just got back to the match full (81st minute or so). Another pass by Garcia to the left wing and a bad touch gives El Salvador the ball back. One minute later, three more mentions of Freddy's name.
Bill do you think Freddy could do the a-mid role for the Crew in case of injuries to Martino? Let me know your feedback from the second half. My understanding is that the PK was a soft-chip right down the middle. Red card to Thompson in the 90th minute, Guatemala down to 10 but end up with the 2-0 win.
You guys have an incredibly good player in Garcia. Here at the Burn, we always seem to generate a lot of discussion about Vaca, and to be quite honest I don't see him shining for his Bolivian team, much less the Burn, the way Freddy is doing it for his national team. And his play in the final of the US Open wasn't too shabby either. Maybe you guys could spend less time beating that dead horse called McBride, debating whether Buddle will amount to anything and start gloating about a very promising player who's actually accomplishing something. Congrats. I'll be watching him this season.
Dennis, there's no question in my mind that he could do the job in the middle. In our situation we're obviously better off having him on the left since the ability to spread the field laterally was an absolutely huge part of our late season run last year, but you're right - he's a very viable option. I would only say that MLS defenders will body him up more than El Salvador did, particularly in the middle. But that's something Martino is going to have to show he can handle as well. That said, what struck me most tonight was an incredible field vision that I didn't know he had. Even when he missed, usually because he was trying to do too much with a ball when he might have had a simpler option, he was being EXTREMELY aggressive. And it was obvious his forwards believed in his awareness as, when the ball was headed for Freddy, they broke for space like their pants were on fire. On the PK, he was working two opponents at the top of the area. He beat both of them, got spun to the ground, got up, KEPT POSESSION and beat one of them a second time, leaving Freddy literally a second or two away from a point=blank shot on the leeper. The defender then had no choice but to foul him. Very impressive. Soft little chip after a hip fake that froze the keeper and it was 2 - 0. I'll also be happy to say that there's no way on Earth I'd swap him even up for Beasley. Not a chance. Great night for La Rata.
I thought I heard that he was fouled once or twice before the PK but it's tough to keep track of it on the radio. It became clearer in the post game interviews where the coach was all over the fact that he kept his feet to earn the PK. They asked Freddy about the goal scoring race (he's tied with Ruiz at 3 goals) and he just shrugged it off and just said that the goal is to win the Cup (which is in Costa Rica's hands) and, if not, qualify for the Gold Cup. Neither has been accomplished yet. ES 5 Games, 9 Points, +2 Guatemala 4, 7, +5 Costa Rica 3, 7, +2 Panama 3, 4, +1 Honduras 3, 4, +1 Nicaragua 4, 0, -11 Next matches: Tonight: Costa Rica vs Honduras Tomorrow: Panama vs Nicaragua Saturday: Costa Rica vs Panama and Guatemala vs Honduras