HexagonalBlog

Costa Rica mauled by Ukraine

The most stunning thing about Ukraine's rout of Costa Rica is that Andriy Shevchenko didn't even play.  There is a lot more to Ukraine's team than Sheva, to be sure, but he has always been such an influential player during his career.  As for the Costa Ricans, what can you say?  They really need to get their heads in the game if they want a credible result against Germany in two weeks.

UPDATE: That defeat went down as well as you might expect in Costa Rica.   "Shame", "disgrace" , "embarrassment", "ridiculous"...there is the palpable feeling of dread among sportswriters, coaches, and fans, roughly in that order.  The next warmup match is Tuesday against the Czechs, who have some offensive weapons of their own.  As the first article in Nación says, things can't possibly get any worse.  But oh, how they can.

A sparring match

The USA's final match against Latvia wasn't all that exciting to watch - maybe it was, but I only watched the second half and it was clear that the USA was running out of steam.   I felt that Convey and Lewis played very well from the wings, and Donovan provided some passes that opened the Latvian defense.  O'Brien played fine as well, but any knock that he gets is going to give Bruce Arena some heartburn.  Up front, the strikers are going to have to convert their chances.   McBride is certain to be at forward position, but I don't think the second striker has been decided upon.   From what I've seen, Ching has impressed me more than Johnson.

On to Germany! 

Better

I didn't watch the second match of the Send-Off Series against Venezuela, but it was nice to read about an improved production by the men up front.  Arena will have the same questions about defense, midfield, and forward, and I don't think he will decide on a final lineup until 24-48 hours before kickoff against the Czech Republic.  Claudio Reyna didn't play this match and won't play the next one, which doesn't surprise me.  Cory Gibbs suffered a knee injury, which was really unfortunate for him, and Gregg Berhalter will take his place.  Berhalter's omission from the final 23 was probably the most controversial decision, and his experience in Germany could be beneficial.

Costa Rica crashes to Cataluña

Since they arrived in Europe a week ago, Costa Rica's national team had been training rather casually for the World Cup finals.  If Guimaraes has not been able to get his squad to focus on the challenge to come in two weeks, he definitely has their attention after the 2-0 defeat against the Catalonian regional side.  The Costa Ricans played rather badly at all parts of the field, but especially in the back where both goals were the result of grave defensive errors.   

Like the USA, it's perhaps better to have a poor match now than two weeks from now.  But the Costa Ricans will play friendlies next week against Ukraine and the Czech Republic, two sides with even more lethal strikers than Catalonia's.  The Ticos need to focus, and focus quickly.

Well that stunk

That was not a good performance by the USA against an experimental Morocco, to put it mildly.   Sloppy in the back, disjointed in midfield, and wasteful up front, the USA looked liked a side that had not played together in months, because it was.   It looked like the Americans might have gotten away with a 0-0, but the long clearance off the corner found Morocco on the break, and when Cherundolo lost a possession that he could ill afford to lose, the winning goal was almost preordained.  I'm not sure if Morocco deserved to win the match, but the USA didn't deserve to win it, either.

Landon Donovan said during the ESPN telecast that Eddie Johnson had the potential to be top scorer in the World Cup.  Eddie had better improve  his technique in front of goal if he wants that to be true.   As a matter of fact, the entire team needs to improve its technique - there were way too many errant passes and lost possessions on the field.  The only players who acquitted themselves well, in my opinion, were Convey and Wolff.    More than anything, this team needs Reyna, and hopefully his hamstring problem isn't serious. 

The only good news from this match is that Bruce Arena knows which problems to fix with his team.  The bad news is that he doesn't have much time.

How CONCACAF will live in Germany

Germany's a land full of historic castles, chalets, hotels, and other works of architecture.  And the 32 finalists are staying at a variety of locations all over the country.  Here are the base headquarters for the CONCACAF representatives.

First, there's Mexico:

Next, Costa Rica:

Now, Trinidad & Tobago:

And finally, the USA's headquarters - an American deluxe hotel chain:

Awaiting the roster...

I'm watching the 5pm CDT version of ESPN SportsCenter right now, and I can just hear many in the US Soccer Nation screaming at their TVs, "Get on with it already!!"  And adding a few words to that statement for emphasis.

The folks at ESPN sure are stretching it out.  My guess is that they'll switch to Bruce Arena five minutes before the end.

UPDATE:  Well what do you know, they're announcing the names right now (5:35pm)

Midfielders: Donovan, Dempsey, Reyna (c), O'Brien, Olsen, Beasley, Mastroeni, Convey.

Strikers: McBride, Johnson, Wolff, Ching.

Defenders: Bocanegra, Cherundolo, Conrad, Gibbs, Hejduk Albright, Lewis, Onyewu, Pope.

Goalkeepers: Keller, Hahnemann, Howard.

Alternates: Meola, Reis (keepers);  Berhalter, Dunivant (defenders); Armas, Klein, Noonan, Ralston, Zavagnin (midfielders); Twellman, Casey, Rolfe (strikers).

I had written some initial thoughts down, but they were lost due to Typepad's server problems.  Twenty-four hours have passed, but some of them still hold up:

• There are very few surprises by this list.  I guess you could say that Ching, O'Brien, and Conrad are surprises, but Ching and Conrad have played well over the past year and O'Brien has experience at the international level.
• Ben Olsen is the one player who did the most to get himself in the final 23.  He didn't play in the qualifiers, but his play in the friendlies was enough to convince Arena to select him.  It looks like a good choice right now, and I hope it holds up in Germany.
• Near the end of the 2005 MLS season, I thought that at least one of the Twellman-Noonan-Ralston trio would be in Germany the following year.  None of them made the final 23 (although they are alternates).  A lot can happen in six months...
• I was surprised at first to see almost a 50/50 split between European- and MLS-based players.  But after checking the 2002 roster, I think that was close to a 50/50 split as well. 
• On the whole, Arena has stuck to his word -- he has, for the most part, selected players who are getting regular time with their clubs, but he has also selected a few players who are recovering from injury yet have a lot of talent.  Arena has 30 days to find the right starting XI for the opening match against the Czech Republic.  Hopefully it's enough time.

 

Trinidad's list

Here it is.

No real suprises, as far as I can tell.   Beenhakker only has to cut one player to reduce the final number to 23, so I'm guessing that it will be a striker who misses the final cut.

Mexico's World Cup roster

Ricardo LaVolpe culminated "The Process" with his 26-man list for the World Cup, to be pared down to 23 by the 15 May deadline.  The big news is that Cuauhtemoc Blanco is not on the list, ostensibly because of a poor working relationship with LaVolpe.  Yes I know, it's absolutely shocking that an Argentine coach would leave out a talented player for off-field reasons, but this is big news.

I'll have more to say later.  A lot more, in fact.

CONCACAF referees for the World Cup

The referees list for the World Cup was announced a couple of days ago.  I was in Atlanta on one of my business trips but I did notice that there were no Americans on the final list.  When I returned and found the official list on FIFA's website, and CONCACAF's representatives were the following:

Benito Archundia (Mexico)
Carlos Batres (Guatemala)
Peter Prendergast (Jamaica)

As you can imagine, I was quite shocked to see Prendergast's name among the final list.  Those who have read previous posts of mine would know that I do not think he is a good referee for CONCACAF, much less at the Olympic or World Cup levels.

In the end, I wish them well and hope that there aren't any major screw-ups.