HexagonalBlog

07.13.07

That's when David Beckham will be officially introduced as a member of the Los Angeles Galaxy.  I also imagine that will also be the day the Galaxy unveil their rebranding that has been rumored.

Copa América, Day 3

Tonight at the Copa América...Paraguay routed Colombia 5-0 on the strength of a hat-trick by Roque Santa Cruz.  Colombia had a chance to take the lead on 28' via a penalty, but Alvaro Dominguez's shot was weak and easily saved by Justo Villar.  Two minutes later, Santa Cruz took off on the left side and slotted the ball past the Colombian keeper to give Paraguay the lead.  It was 2-0 almost immediately after the second half kickoff when Santa Cruz broke away again and cooly finished.  In the last 10 minutes Colombia's defense disintegrated as Cabanas scored a pair and Santa Cruz added his third.  A comprehensive victory by Paraguay, and a comprehensive collapse by Colombia.

I'd write something about the USA-Argentina game, but I need to collect my thoughts and post something tomorrow.  Besides, it's late, I have a 7am flight tomorrow, and I want to hit South Beach one more time.  Later.

Copa América, Day 2

Wow.  What an incredible day of matches at the Copa América today.  First, Chile came back twice from a goal down and scored two goals in the last ten minutes to defeat Ecuador 3-2.  The difference maker for Chile was Carlos Villanueva, who came on in the final 20 minutes and set up the tying goal and scored the equalizer from a sublime freekick.  I was only able to watch the last 20 minutes and the commentators said that the score did not reflect the match as Ecuador did more than enough to gain at least a point.   It certainly didn't look that way toward the end; the Ecuadorean players lacked a sense of urgency after the third Chilean goal in a way that was shocking to me. 

(There seemed to be a delay in the start of the match, or some disruption that kept it from completing on time.  I'm not sure what the cause of the delay was.)

The second match had an even more incredible result - Mexico defeated Brazil 2-0.  Nery Castillo opened the scoring with a goal that was simply exquisite -- he received the ball from Juan Carlos Cacho on the right, flicked the ball over the Brazilian defender's head, and poked the ball past the advancing Doni on the volley.  One of the best goals I have ever seen in the Copa América.  Mexico extended the lead when Ramon Morales struck a curling free kick over the wall and into the near corner.  Doni was so stunned by the trajectory that he motioned toward the ball, then stopped and watched it settle into the net.  Mexico had enough holes open up in the back for Brazil to score and perhaps equalize, but the Brazilians never found their rhythm.  They did come close several times, hitting the crossbar, a Mexican player on the line, and Mexican 'keeper Guillermo Ochoa himself.  But as the frustration mounted, the more disorganized and disjointed the attacks became. 

So now, Mexico and Chile lead Group B with three points, and Ecuador and Brazil trail them with none.  Mexico play Ecuador on Sunday, while Chile go up against a very motivated (and angered) Brazil.

Not surprising, but very interesting nonetheless

I read the news of the ratings for the Gold Cup final (hat tip to Chuck Pearson), and I have to admit that I'm pleased but not surprised.  Soccer on Univision, and occasionally on the ESPN family as well, has achieved better ratings than NHL matches in the past.   I would imagine that this occurs a lot more often now that the NHL is no longer on ESPN and is coming out of a very self-destructive lockout.  USA vs. Mexico matches rate especially high - I don't have the stats in front of me, but I would not be surprised that at least two of those matches are among the highest-rated telecasts in Univision's history. 

I also would not be surprised if the ratings measure Latino audiences only.  You could end up with big ratings points, but translated to number of viewers is much smaller than the average audiences for mainstream cable TV.   We have no way of knowing how many Anglos tuned into Univision just to watch the final (and there were some). 

Nevertheless, I think the ratings will be interesting to some, and will give Univision a good feeling heading into the SuperLiga.

Copa América, Day 1

Peru sprang the first big upset of the Copa América by defeating Uruguay 3-0.  The result may come as a surprise to most of the world, but probably not to a lot of Uruguayans.  I once had a conversation with a colleague from Uruguay in which I expressed my surprise that Uruguay wasn't able to achieve much success on their national team with the stars that they have.  My friend responded, "Well, the problem is that they only meet each other on the plane!"

In the second Group A match, Bolivia came back twice to draw with Venezuela 2-2.  I expected Venezuela to win this match, so this match could be seen as an upset as well. 

After driving around a bit through downtown Miami and then South Beach last night, I'm realizing that watching the Copa here will be much much easier than I thought.  So I'll watch tonight's matches across the street from my hotel.

Let the Copa begin

The Copa América begins...well, now.  And I haven't been able to write much about the players who are sitting out, the protests that are banned, the overheated response to the typical travel advisory, but I guess I have now.  And I'm just finding out that tonight's matches are on Telefutura, which is not on my hotel's cable system (which does have Univision and Telemundo).  I can never have it all.

Even so it should still be an interesting tournament.  Argentina hasn't won a major title in 14 years and really wants to win the Copa this year, but Brazil, even without their star players, could make it to the final.  And there should be some interesting subplots along the way, too.  I still don't know if Mexico and the USA have strong enough teams to advance out of the first round, but at the moment I like Mexico's chances better than the USA's.  And if the USA does advance to the quarterfinals, or even to the semis, it would be a much greater accomplishment than their fourth place finish in 1995.

So let the Copa begin.  I'll try to watch it somewhere, which shouldn't be too difficult in Miami.

To the folks in Miami

That guy you saw skipping through the terminal at the airport, pumping his fist and laughing hysterically?  That was me.

I still haven't seen the match yet, and I don't think I'll be able to see it soon.  Hopefully after watching the highlights and reading the match summaries I'll have something to say.  From first impression, it was the best match both teams played during the Gold Cup and probably the best USA-Mexico match in a very long time.

Photo: Tasos Katopodis/AFP/Getty Images

In the airport

Greetings from the Orlando airport, where I'm waiting for my connecting flight.  I haven't found a TV that's showing the Gold Cup final, but thanks to wireless internet I'm able to follow the USA-Mexico match.  It reads like it's a very entertaining game.  Both teams have had their chances, but Mexico has had more of the possession.  Crowd is very pro-Mexico and borderline anti-US, as expected.  A typical USA-Mexico match, then.

I'll be in the air during the second half...but it's possible that the match may not have a winner by the time I land.

And I'm off

I'm gone to Miami for a week starting tomorrow, so I won't be able to liveblog the Gold Cup final.  I am pretty sure that I will be able to watch the opening matches of the Copa America (especially Argentina-USA -- Miami is like north Buenos Aires now), so look for some posts about that. 

Enjoy the final between USA and Mexico tomorrow.  Neither team is playing at the peak of their potential, and I'm not expecting a good final.  It will be close, but I think Mexico will pull it out this time.

The Copa America lineup

As you all know, Bob Bradley has made his selections for the Copa América, and it was notable for who was absent.  No Donovan, no Dempsey, no Onyewu, not even Michael Bradley.  When you look at the list, some observations stand out:

• Out of the 22 player roster, THREE have never been capped.
• Another FIVE players have only one cap.
• FOUR more have 2-5 international caps.
• The average number of international appearances in the squad is 11.4, and the median is much lower (3).

I recognize that Bob Bradley was in a very difficult situation.  His position has been that the Gold Cup is the more important of the two competitions -- it's the USA's continental championship, and victory gives entry to the Confederations Cup in South Africa.  And this Confederations Cup would give its participants an important head start by acquainting them with playing conditions in southern Africa.  But at the same time Copa America not only carries more prestige but also offers a higher level of competition than the Gold Cup.  So it would have been nice to have more experienced players in the lineup. 

Ives Galarcep was apoplectic about the selections at first, then calmed down later and said that this lineup still has a chance to reach the second round.  They could advance as a third-placed team, but I'm not very optimistic.  The Argentina game is as good as lost, Paraguay will be difficult, and Colombia may or may not matter by that point.

So color me underwhelmed about the Copa América selections.  And the sooner the North and South American confederations merge, the better.