Quick look shows two Revs games in this time, @ DC, and home against Colorado. Draw: Group A: France, Colombia, Japan and New Zealand. Group B: Brazil, Cameroon, Turkey and United States. Schedule, could be amended, but here it is as of now. http://www.fifa.com/confedcup/2003/Confed_sched.pdf US/Turkey, June 19th, Thursday, in St. Etienne, 7 pm US/Brazil, June 21, Saturday, in Lyon, 9 pm US/Cameroon, June 23, Monday, Lyon, 9pm Semis on the 26th Thursday, Lyon and Paris 3rd place on the 28th, Saturday, St. Etienne Final on the 29th, Sunday, Paris Monty
seems awfully one sided... could call group a the We Dont Want to Get Knocked Out in the First Round Like at the World Cup Group. It'll be very exciting to see the US play those teams however.
tough draw I wish we'd be facing Columbia or Japan or New Zealand. This group may be too difficult to advance from- The Brazil game is a loss. The Turkey game will be key, hopefully they'll be looking past us for a rematch with Brazil, and we can catch them early like we did with Portugal. It will be interesting to see what Cameroon team shows up.
Anyone think we'll be sending any Revs to the tournament? I'll guess not. Perhaps an outside chance for JMM if he's in top form.
Re: tough draw The most important thing is the experience they draw from this, not advancing (although that would be an accomplishment). They are assured of 3 great games, at the minimum.
Passing of the torch My guess is that we'd be more likely to see Twellman play in this tournament than JMM. And I don't think Ralston will be in the mix either, which is OK by me. Club before country, at least during the season. Tom
As was pointed out to me.... Group A: 1 round of 16; 1 didn't score a goal in 1st round; 2 not even in WC 2002 Group B: Winner of WC 2002, 3rd Place, 2 Quarterfinalists
Swissman, I think you have your Africans mixed up. Senegal made it to the Quarterfinal and Cameroon didn't make it out of the Group stage, losing out to Ireland and Germany. But still, your point is valid You can also look at it this way: Group A: Host country who we want to make sure goes as far as possible in this tournament just to save face; Round of 16; 2 not even in WC 2002 Group B: Winner of WC 2002; 3rd Place; Quarterfinalist; Eliminated after 1st round Tom
If you just want them to win games, I coach a U5 team that would love to play a friendly. As Rick Flair said... "To be the Man, you've gotta beat the Man." Think how high the US would go in the ranking if they went 5-0 over there. Although, knowing the way the FIFA rankings work, they would probably drop 10 places.
Re: Re: tough draw Couldn't agree more. I always want the US to win, but tougher competiton here does more to help get the US ready for 2004-5 WCQs, and on a player by player levels, advances their international games/awareness faster. Give us a tough Gold Cup Draw too, seriously. The tougher teams we play, the better US players get, and the sweeter it is to win in the end.
The US needs to play the best, as often as possible, to make the next leap forward. It's got to become a routine match, playing a world top 10 opponent. I thought the US improved tremendously DURING the match against Argentina. In the 1st 30, they were overwhelmed. Then they managed to stabilize their defending somewhat. Down the stretch they were attempting (with some success) the clever heel passes that the Arg's were using so well against them. That was a BIG "growth" game!