We are very fortunate to live in a country that does not care about soccer for the most part. After beating Antigua 3-1 the crowd cheered them off the field like it was a peewee soccer match and the play-by-play guy on ESPN said "Mission accomplished" or something silly like that. Meanwhile Mexico beats Guyana by the same score and the Azteca crowd whistles and boos them off the field as if they lost the game. As I said in another thread... ...God help them if they lose to El Salvador on Tuesday. Their fans and media will eat them alive. Speaking of El Salvador they tied Costa Rica 2-2 and have the Tico fans really worried. Costa Rica now have to hope for positive results in El Salvador and Mexico to help them through... ...which is doubtful. And the shocker in my mind was Honduras losing at home to Panama. Now I thought they could draw... ...but lose? Panama has loads of confidence now as the Honduras fans and media are crucifying them. So before you complain about our chances and say things about our team always remember it could be much , much worse. We could be living in a Nation that cares.
the truth is qualifying is always challenging and US fans still dont get that. I think we are used to how our basketball team does...honestly its challenging and I thought the US did fine. we won about as well as I thought we would. Mexico meanwhile did not look good. but they struggled at home.
I think it would be a good thing if the US team felt more media pressure, maybe they would be more concerned and step it up after laying an egg against Canada for example. A&B played well, but i do honestly believe 9 times out of 10 we should beat them more than 3-1. It easily could have been more last night, if Herc had better luck or LD decided to shoot more etc.
It does have its pros and cons. Sometimes pressure inspires teams to wake up and play better. But I rather be in our shoes going into Guatemala with relatively no pressure than Mexico's going into El Slavador with all the pressure in the world to get a victory. It all can change on Tuesday though. That is why they play the games.
Thank you for that dose of reality. I did have some serious concerns about our quality last night and still do, but then you have to take a step back and realize that this is qualification and in the grand scheme of things I don't really care how the us gets to Brasil. Just punch the ticket. I'm not sure we're yet a nation that can squawk about good results looking bad. It's like me looking at a golf shot that hit the green and complaining I'm not closer to the pin. While we can hope for better quality, when we're missing a couple of really integral parts of our attack and lose another in game and still grind out a 3-1 win, so be it. A tie or better at Guatemala will put us in the driver seat to enough points for the hex.
before entering this topic i thought it was going to be about new zealand's recent loss to new caledonia
We bossed the whole game. they kept 9 men behind the ball the whole time. relax people. Even minnows in euro world cup qualifying give top sides in europe tough times. perspective is lost on people here.
This is nice and all, but this doesn't change the fact that the game was rather lame and reflects poorly on the players and the coaching staff. I will say that yesterday has been a day to forget for USA and Mexico fans though.
it reflects poorly that we won 3-1? sweet lord. people underestimate Antigua and barbuda. we basically played a club team and bossed the whole match. just because US sucks at finishing (always has really) and has a tough time breaking down 9 in the box (most teams do) doesnt mean winning 3-1 is such a bad deal. reflects poorly? remind me how many times we have won the world cup again?
[R-EUROS!!!] [Don't Look!!!! if you do NOT want to hear about the EUROS!!!] I think what's scary is looking at how this team has played when you compare these teams to a Netherlands or Denmark. Or look at how Russia smacked Czech down. That wasn't that bad of a Czech team. Russia was just a team that could move the ball around quickly, accurately, and with a sense of purpose. So can the Dutch and the Danes. And then it worries me more because we have one of the oldest WC caliber teams in the world. We have got to get our kids to step up.
I see your point OP, but I honestly don't care what the other teams did. We are not CR, Honduras or Panama and I will sure as hell not set our expectations to be the same as them. We should have done better, much better that is all. Don't try saying that Antigua is a good team because they are not. We didn't play horribly but we didn't play well. We should expect better and the team should do better.
Actually Czech lost cause our coach decided to play ultra attacking and had no one checking back to help the defense and multiple times Russia had more numbers on the break. The first twenty minutes our fullbacks were wingers and our CMs were attacking mids always leading to really good counters for Russia. What I realized is, we play a lot like Czech. We pass the ball really well but nothing ever really comes of it. We are susceptible to the counter and we won't do that well with this tactic.
This to me seems a bit like we were playing to the competition, which is fine as long as we get the W. It's is frustrating only to get three goals against A&B, but in the end we won. In the end, we will be fine against Jamaica and Guatemala, it's just a matter of making sure we do it in such a way that we get out of our group excited, energized, and ready to beat the rest of the teams into the ground.
I think this has more to do with Mexico's sporting culture than America's lack of interest in soccer. Mexico has always felt they are so superior to all other Concacaf teams that they deserve to beat a minnow like Guyana by at least 5 goals. Don't get me wrong their are a lot of delusional American fans that think the same thing, but they are in the minority in both the fan base and media unlike in Mexico.
I'm anticipating USA, Jamaica, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Canada... With USA, Mexico, Panama moving on. I really don't see a lot of surprises happening this time around.
i'm going to bet that El Salvador knocks out Costa Rica. And if Guatemala manages to get a result against the US in Guatemala then i think they'll go through.
After the tie, it really could be either one of them. As for Guatemala, they're going to have to get a result against us if they want to advance...
They're going to have to win this week if they want to advance. Guatemala hasn't beaten us in a competitive match in decades. It's a tall task for them.
There is an ENORMOUS difference between our poor performance in a 3-1 win and Mexico's... One of the two teams recently beat Brazil... And it wasn't us.