That's a Wrap for CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying (sort of)

Here’s how the final Hex table looks like:

Our boys in first place for the third straight time!! Only two losses, both of which were away, helped us secure the top spot. Costa Rica finished second and the third and fourth place teams were determined last night. And what a crazy night it was! Honduras was the only team that had world cup hopes secured; no matter what happened they would at least go to the play off games.

And the night started when Panama scored in the 18^th minute to lead the US. They were still in fifth place and out of world cup contention as all Mexico needed was not to lose. Then Costa Rica scored in the 25^th minute to send Mexico home and Panama was in fourth place. Mexico was out of the world cup for 4 minutes when they tied the game and gave themselves a little bit of breathing room. It was half time and Mexico was in fourth place and Panama in fifth place. Then came the second Costa Rica goal in the 64^th minute which gave Costa Rica the lead 2-1 and kicked Mexico back out. But WAIT!! US scores!! Michael Orozco, the one who scored against Mexico to help the US win in the Azteca, has just tied it for the US! A Mexican American inadvertently helping Mexico. Mexico is back in. With Mexico losing in Costa Rica for the first time in 21 years, their world cup hopes are kept alive by the US!

Then comes the Panama goal in the 84^th minute to give Panama the lead once again. Panama is back in fourth place and Mexico is kicked out again! It seemed like it was all over for Mexico. They were out for another 6 minutes when the US scored!! Zusi with the second goal for the US, but it didn’t end there! Johannsson adds a third to end the game 3-2!! US wins and Mexico fans celebrate! “USMNT scores in stoppage time to save Mexico’s world cup hopes!” Headlines all over Mexico thank the US. They know that Mexico did nothing to keep their world cup hopes alive. All they had to do was not lose, a place where they had not lost in over two decades. And the tweet heard around the country:

Mexico and FIFA owe the US big time! $600 million are kept alive. I think US should get a share of that maybe to help pay the government debt? Now Mexico has another chance to go to the World Cup by beating New Zealand, a team that just played to a draw against Chivas USA.

I wonder if Mexico will build Zusi a statue like Honduras did for Bornstein. Mexico relied on our boys and our boys showed why they deserve to be on top of the hex. US showed pure class and gave a lesson in fair play. They had a chance to eliminate their biggest rival and nothing to play for. Well at least the team as a whole didn’t, but the individual players did. They are all fighting for a spot to play in next year’s world cup.

For those of you upset about Mexico, don’t be. The comeback from our USMNT was unbelievable!! The video that shows the excitement on the TV Azteca announcers was awesome but unfortunately taken down. And that ladies and gentlemen is why all the games are played at the same time.

The Importance of Michael Bradley

I just read an article by John D. Halloran over at Bleacher Report called “Why Michael Bradley is Key to USMNT’s World Cup Success.” I could not agree more with what was written. When Jozy Altidore was ruled out due to injury, I had confidence that our team would pick up the slack and we would be fine.  When minutes before the Costa Rica game, Michael Bradley picked up that ankle injury, I was officially in panic mode. The loss in Costa Rica only confirmed it, Bradley is the best player in the US team and his presence is essential for the team. During the post match interview, Donovan and Klinsmann confirmed that losing Bradley definitely had an impact on them and all of the players. Add the fact that it was minutes before kickoff, only made it worse.

Maybe it was the fact that the team lost a player right before game time or (most likely) the fact that the player was Michael Bradley, that the US team did not play like the team had a 12 game win streak. Yes, they were playing against Costa Rica in Costa Rica, where they have never won, and we all know that they have one hell of a good home advantage, but that does not make them unbeatable. What would have been the outcome with Bradley on the field? We will never know.

Bradley is our playmaker. He creates space, he moves our players, and like the article stated he can play a number of roles. He can play with anyone you put alongside him. The pair up with him and Geoff Cameron in the Panama game in Seattle was great and hope it repeats itself. You can tell that Cameron, just like the rest of the team, respect and look up to Bradley for leadership. There’s a reason that many want Bradley to be the official captain,;we all know that he’s the captain on the field without the armband.

Every time I see Bradley play, I think of the time when ignorant people would say that the only reason he played for the USMNT was because his dad was the coach. How could you not see the talent he has?!

If the USMNT wants to win a world cup, they will need a player like Michael Bradley. At 26, he most likely has 2 World Cup appearances left. Focus is now on Brazil, and like John said, “There won’t be a more important player on the field for the USMNT.”

Soccer has arrived in America

"Soccer has arrived in America," what a lot of people said after having trouble getting tickets to the last two World Cup qualifiers for the United States in US soil. I have two problems with this statement. One is the more geographical problem in which the United States is referred to as America when geographically speaking countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico (yes Mexico) are considered part of America as well. But I will let that one slide because as a United States citizen, I do call myself American as well and soccer is the biggest sport in those countries. (Is United Statesian even a word?) The biggest problem I have is the "arrived" part. If I remember correctly Major League Soccer was created back in 1993 and there was a short lived league before then. This means that at least there were people that realized that soccer was awesome and needed to be brought to the States. Thus, that's when it actually arrived. Also, didn't the United States Soccer Federation just celebrate 100 years?! To me that doesn't qualify as arrived, this is called growing.

As for the two qualifiers, Mexico in Columbus of course was to be expected. One of the biggest international rivalries in the world. 9,000 tickets sold to supporter groups, others were part of the Columbus Crew Season Tickets, and the rest were raffled among over 40,000 applicants. All in order for the US to have home advantage. As for Kansas City, they were sold out in about five minutes. Both stadiums have capacities averaging 20,000. With so many stadiums bigger than that, why pick such small venues? Many people argue that they rather have a packed small stadium than a half full higher capacity stadium. To me, that does not say "Soccer has arrived in America" in the way that people are using it. It's been here for years and it's growing at an amazing pace. We are moving in the right direction in that there definitely is more interest in soccer in the United States. You could tell by the viewership on TV, ticket sales, jersey sales and World Cup interest. (American Outlaws has three planes filled with supporters and hundreds on a wait list while world cup ticket applications are one of the highest for the United States)

I hope that one day I can turn on my TV and see soccer just like I see Basketball, American Football, Baseball, and even Golf. When we don't have to worry about playing in big stadiums because all the tickets might not sell, or we won't have home advantage; that's when I'll join everyone in saying "Soccer has arrived in America."

MLS Headline of the Year (so far): Clint Dempsey to Seattle Sounders

After all the transfer rumors lead to #Dempseywatch, it was finally confirmed; Clint Dempsey will play the next four years with Seattle Sounders. Reports are Seattle has guaranteed Dempsey $6-8 million per season over the next four seasons. This makes him the most expensive player in league history. Yes, beating David Beckham’s base salary of $5-6 million (other areas of his contract are what helped him earn over $200 million in his years with LA Galaxy).

This transfer created a lot of headlines and contradicting opinions. Is this good for MLS? (hell yeah!) Is this good for Demspey? (debatable) Will this hurt the US National Team? (depends)

Most fans identified with one of the following: 1) What is Dempsey thinking?! He can still give so much in the Premier League. Worst Decision Ever. 2) Dempsey is 30 years old, not 25. He wants to come back home to finish his career.  It only made sense. 3) Dempsey is coming to MLS in his prime! He wants to prove that MLS is a very competitive league and wants to help the league grow. Best Decision Ever.

In my opinion, this is definitely good for Major League Soccer. Dempsey is one of the biggest names in US Soccer and Seattle has proven to be a real soccer city. After Beckham and Henry, he is the biggest name in the world to sign with Major League Soccer after playing in Europe. He has scored huge goals against teams like Manchester United and has a great resume.

Yes, he won’t be playing against teams like Manchester United but at least he will be playing. At 30 years old, I’m with the group of people that thinks Dempsey was still able to compete in Europe.  In Tottenham, though, he wasn’t consistent enough and with Seattle he is assured 90 minutes of playing time. That is why I believe it was a good move on Dempsey’s part. As a USMNT supporter, I would rather see Dempsey playing than on the bench. On the other hand, I understand when people say they would have rather see him play in another European team to get ready for the World Cup.  Most of the opponents you will face in a World Cup play in Europe, especially getting into the final rounds.

In the end, Dempsey has proven to be a quality player for the clubs he has represented and for the USMNT. He is right by Donovan in the top players for the US.  The MLS did not hurt Donovan; I don’t think it will hurt Dempsey.

Mike Magee Petition

So I decided to do a video for this post because I feel really strong about this. I would love to see Mike Magee get called up to represent the USMNT.

But the US is doing so well, why do we need to add another player?!
To me, the best problem that Klinsmann can have is a deep talent pool. I would rather it be hard for him to decide who to take to the World Cup because he has so many talented players to pick from, instead of it be hard for him because he doesn't feel that all the players are equally as talented.

If you feel the same, spread the word. #magee4usmnt #givemageeachance

Here is the video:

Analysis of “US Soccer’s Secret Scouting Network” Part 2

So I wanted to dedicate a whole blog post to my favorite part of the article: the last quote. “It’s hard to hide good players. If you’re a good player we’ll find you.” Really?! It’s impossible to hide talent? So all these years we’ve had the most talented players represent us? I’m not just talking about the national level here, I’m talking U-23s (Olympic age), U-20s, U-17s, age groups where we have failed to qualify to world cups and failed to make it to the Olympics.  If talent can’t hide, then that means we have always fielded the best players that we have in the country. In that case, why the need to expand the scouting network? We should have just kept it at 3, because I’m sure they would find all the talent that there is in this country since there is no way to hide it.

The article states, “US Soccer quietly built an expansive scouting network to remedy this deficiency and patch the many cracks through which talent flowed away from its player pool.” This deficiency refers to the USSF not doing a good job in, “unearthing talent from the underprivileged inner-city areas.” HOLD ON. I thought you couldn’t hide talent.  What is falling through the cracks then?! The article mentions the pay-to-play model which can exceed $10,000.  Easily at least half the salary of many people. How can the underprivileged ever afford that? It’s impossible.  The article doesn’t really get into how they are finding these underprivileged players, except for tips that the scouts get from certain coaches.  Again it goes back to what many people see as the deficiency in US Soccer scouting, it relies on who you know and money.

There was a comment in the article from a 23 year old that lives in San Antonio. He goes into how there is no Major League Soccer team and a NASL team was just introduced there. He writes that it would be impossible to cover every square inch of the United States or at least a lot of money would need to be spent to cover areas such as San Antonio. Somebody responded to his post and said that he was old enough to get himself into a position to be seen by the right people. “Even if you have to fly to get there.” This is the problem. Some people think that it’s easy to just pack up and leave. To leave everything and everyone; that we have parents to lend us the money.  There shouldn’t have to be a choice between trying to follow your dream and paying your bills or helping your family.

It’s frustrating because I know that our country has at least 11 players that have the talent to beat any team from any other country. There shouldn’t be a reason why our only expectation should be to get out of the group stage of the World Cup. The problem is looking in the right places to find these players AND develop them. I’m one who believes that you are either born to play soccer or you are not. Those that are born to do this sometimes are not so lucky and get pushed to do other things for whatever reason.  We need to be able to help these players develop without them having to sacrifice something else.  

We DO have the talent in this country, we just NEED to come up with a way to stop it from falling through the cracks and not just pretend that it’s not falling anymore.

Analysis of “US Soccer’s Secret Scouting Network” Part 1

Part 1 of a 2 part post.  
 
A few weeks ago, I read an article on Fox Soccer titled “US Soccer’s Secret Scouting Network”. It talked about a “secret” scouting program that was not so secret anymore. Why did it all of a sudden come out? I don’t know.

Within the last five years, USSF has expanded its full time youth scouts from 3 to 9 and its per diem scouts from 20 to 80. The article made it sound like it was such a great accomplishment. It used the words “trebled” and “quadrupled” in the hopes of making it sound better. Yes, I guess we are moving in the right direction in that we are ADDING scouts, but the numbers and map blew everyone’s minds away, and not in a good way.  9 full time scouts for a country that holds over 300 million people. I can’t even put my mind around only having 3! The article uses the number 25 million as the number of soccer players in the US. How that number was figured out, I’m not sure.  If it’s just players in organized leagues and clubs, then that is not an accurate picture at all.

The article did not get into the strategy of the placing of scouts and there were a lot of comments regarding the map and the supposed disbursement. If that is the actual placements of scouts, it doesn’t seem to be an accurate representation of the population and the potential talent that could be discovered. The number of scouts per state should be treated a little bit like the House of Representatives, the number in each state being decided according to the population. It doesn’t make sense to spread them out geographically if there are more people in one state than another. The logical idea is that where there are more people, you have more eyes. Of course that means additional scouts, and thus the issue of money comes up. That would be a huge INVESTMENT. I emphasize the word investment because that is essentially what it is or at least the way that it should be considered. It’s not something that you lose and never get back. Being able to have more scouts increases the possibility of finding that talent, of being able to field a team that could win games, a championship team. What does a championship team bring in? MONEY. Money to be able to continue having the best team in the world.  

The thing that bothers me is that a lot of the times, scouts look at a player once and make their decision off that one day. To me, it seems a little unrealistic to be able to decide if a player is talented in one day. I mean, how many times have we not seen professional players have an off day? And these are professional players, people who get paid to play and who have already proved themselves in some way.  They are not some guy who is trying to prove that he has what it takes to be given a chance to represent his country. A guy who knows that everything he does that day is going to make it or break it for him. The odds of him getting another chance are small.

I kind of wish the article would have gone a little deeper into what they plan to do next, because I hope they don’t plan to stop here.

2022 World Cup in the United States, anyone?

Wow. Just wow. Then again, I don’t know why I should be surprised, I mean it's Sepp Blatter we are talking about here, the person who criticizes women’s soccer and denies that there is still racism on the field.

 

“The World Cup in Qatar can only take place in the winter. In this heat, you cannot play in the summer. And we have to consider the players.” You mean players can’t play in 120 degree weather? And fans will have an unpleasant time watching it happen? What happened to the air-conditioned stadium?s Oh, it’s impossible to air-condition an entire country? You don’t say! Why couldn’t he think about this before they decided on Qatar?  It took him almost 3 years to figure out what the rest of the world knew. Oh yeah, he was too busy filling his pockets with money. Whoever thinks that FIFA is not corrupt must live under a rock and can’t see it or is as corrupt as they are.

First they decide to change the set up of rotating continents. Then when Sepp Blatter starts thinking that it might be time for him to leave, (Finally!) he decided to have two world cups decided at the same time, that is more than 11 years in advance! Why? Again so that he can reap any of the benefits associated with it.  I’m actually surprised that they haven’t decided on the hosts for the 2026 and 2030 World Cups. Maybe that would be a little bit too obvious.

 

In theory, it would be cool for every country to be given the opportunity to host the biggest sporting event in the world, but it just doesn’t make sense!

One of the things that frustrates me the most is that FIFA does a sort of “screening” for each country where they look at readiness with regards to hospitality, safety, etc. At the time of the bid, USA and England scored the highest, meaning they were the less risky options, and if I remember correctly Qatar and Russia scored the lowest. So a test created and administered by them has no weight even to them? Wow. Just wow.

Rant over. (For now)

This interview made me laugh when I first saw it, and again today. Enjoy.

 



 

That Amazing Feeling

For the longest time, I debated whether I should start this blog. Would people read it? Would people care? Even after I made the Facebook Page for it, I wasn't sure. I then started watching videos that I've seen dozen of times before. I then got to this one.

The video above sums it up. Everyone remembers where they were when Donovan scored the game winner that sent us to the next round in the 2010 World Cup. Imagine that feeling of joy and excitement multiplied a thousand times over. The USMNT scoring the game winner at a world cup final. It's a dream that millions of fans have for their national team. Being crowned the best team in the world.

We are lucky to have a team that represents us in the World Cup. There are millions of people who watch the world cup and don't have any real ties to any team, but we do. A team that everyone knows but isn't ever really considered a contender. Only getting out of the group is expected. That needs to change. There is no reason why the US should not be crowned World Cup Champion.

First Post

Welcome to US Will Win the World Cup and my first ever blog post. Well, many of you may ask what this blog is all about.

The women’s soccer national team has proven that they are the best team in the world. Most recently winning the 2012 London Olympics and making it to the Final in the 2011 Women’s World Cup.  Well, now it’s the men’s turn.

I decided to write this blog because like all US fans and supporters out there, I want to see the USMNT win a world cup in my lifetime.  I remember that a few years ago, I heard that the likelihood of this happening was higher than ever before because the level of play had gone up. I believed it then but now not so much. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that it’s still possible and that it will happen sometime, but certain changes NEED to happen as soon as possible so that it could happen in our lifetime.

Yes, the US has accomplished some pretty cool feats recently with winning its first ever game in the Azteca and just recently getting its 2^nd point ever in world cup qualifying in the Azteca as well.  It won in Jamaica for the first time in World Cup Qualifying and just trashed Guatemala in San Diego.

If there is something that everyone can agree on, though, is that the US needs to be more consistent. I would love to see that team that beat Spain in the 2009 Confederations Cup. A team who gave their hearts out on the pitch. A team who scored two goals against one of the best goalkeepers in the world. A team who stopped the likes of Torres, Iniesta, and Ramos. A complete team: goal scorers, defenders, and a great goalkeeper.  

Like Landon Donovan said when they won the ESPY for the Best Upset in 2009, “We look forward to the day that other teams are winning awards for upsetting us.”

I’m going to use this blog to write about what I believe needs to change and my random thoughts on anything US Soccer. I hope to come up with posts at least once a week.  Make sure to follow the blog or like our Facebook page to be updated on when new posts come out. I hope to keep everyone interested and would love to hear everyone’s opinions on any of my posts.