HexagonalBlog

Base camps for the CONCACAF finalists

Last week FIFA announced the list of base camps for the 32 finalists at the World Cup in South Africa.  You can find the list here. 

Honduras and Mexico will stay in Johannesburg -- Honduras at the Indaba Hotel, and Mexico at the Thaba Ya Batswana hotel south of the city.  The USA will stay close by in Pretoria (Irene Country Lodge).

If there's a theme to describe the base camps, I would have to choose the words "quiet and isolated". 

FIFA World Cup Trophy tours CONCACAF

With all these trophy tours hitting North America, it's a good time to mention Coca-Cola's tour of the FIFA World Cup trophy throughout the CONCACAF region.  The trophy will visit Panama on 24 February, Honduras (Tegucigalpa) on the 27th, and Mexico (Monterrey and Mexico City) on 2 and 5 March.  It will be back in North America at the end of April when it visits Toronto on 29 April and somewhere in the USA on 2 May.

Four CONCACAF reps in FIFA World Cup referee list

Referees from Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador are among the 30 match referees selected by FIFA for the 2010 World Cup finals.  There were 38 referees on the provisional list in October 2008, five of whom were from the CONCACAF region, and Marco Antonio Rodríguez (Mexico), Benito Archundia (Mexico), Carlos Batres (Guatemala), and José Aguilar (El Salvador) made the cut.  Jair Marrufo of the USA was not selected.

I had thought that the refereeing teams would all be from the same countries as the referees.  But when I look at the list of the referee trios, it's clear that's not necessarily the case.  That is especially so in the Asian, African, and North American regions.  There are assistant referees from Canada, Honduras, and Costa Rica, but none from the USA.  

Any way you look at it, it's not a good moment for American refereeing.

World Cup Qualifying 2010 Review: The Hexagonal

[This is the fourth in a multi-part series on the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.]

The CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers started out with a preliminary round of 22, then another round of 24, followed by a group stage for 12.  We now reach the final group of six - USA, Costa Rica, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Trinidad & Tobago.  I expected this Hexagonal to be the most competitive and closely-matched of all the previous Hexagonal groups.  It did not disappoint in the slightest.  The bare facts say that USA and Mexico clinched places in the World Cup finals with a round to spare.  In reality, everyone had to sweat as the fortunes of each participant swung on finely poised matches decided under dramatic circumstances.  How much closer could you get than a goal scored on the final kick of the final game in the final matchday that would change the destiny of two national teams?

World Cup Qualifying 2010 Review: The Semifinal Round

[This is the third post in a multi-part review on the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.]

After the first two rounds, the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers entered the first group phase in which the 12 semifinalists were divided into three groups and the top two in each group advanced to the Hexagonal.  The strength of the groups varied from a moderately balanced Group 1 (setting the USA aside), a highly competitive Group 2, and a pathetically unbalanced Group 3.  (I also labeled the groups A/B/C instead of 1/2/3 that FIFA used, so if I lapse into doing that my apologies.)

World Cup Qualifying 2010 Review: The Second Round

[Continuing a multi-part review on the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.  In this post I review the second round.]

In the second round the World Cup qualifiers started for everyone else in the confederation.  For the Big Two (USA and Mexico), the second round is never going to be very stressing. At least, it shouldn't be very stressing.  USA put eight goals past Barbados in Los Angeles without much trouble, and the away leg in Bridgetown felt like a scrimmage.  The 1-0 scoreline was met with grumbles in a few quarters (some of whom commented on this site), but the first leg had made the second match unimportant.  Mexico, in contrast, made their first leg against Belize harder than it had to be.  It didn't help that Belize's 'keeper Shane Orio had a tremendous game to limit Mexico to just a pair of goals.  The series was put beyond any doubt in Mexico City, but it was the start of a very unpleasant ride for the Mexican national team.

Press reaction to the World Cup draw: Mexico

It's been almost a week since the draw, but its results are still reverberating throughout the world.

Medio Tiempo had a roundtable of pundits and a "voice of the fan" on their site to discuss the draw and the possible outcomes.  What I gathered as the consensus was that (a) Mexico's group gave them good chances to advance, (b) their toughest rival in the group would be France, and (c) a run to the quarterfinals may not be beyond the realm of possibility.  It could have been worse, as Guardado recognizes, and Guille Franco, in meticulous fashion, explains that the group is not without its pitfalls but is winnable.  Mexico know that the opening match against the host country will never be an easy one.  (Although I have to wonder if South Africa's Matthew Booth has ever heard those buzzing horns in Azteca.)  Javier Aguirre was happy that Mexico didn't draw Brazil or Spain, but he wasn't thrilled about having to play the hosts in the opener, either.  But managers can never be happy, even when they are.

The view from Uruguay range from it being a favorable draw to one that is a difficult group, but difficult for everyone.  Ovación Digital (which is El País' sports page) had their own panel of pundits and opinions were very divided on La Celeste's chances -- "A mission possible, but complicated".  El Espectador asks if Uruguay's group was "A group of death, or a group of luck".  La República pointed out that this group is identical to the one that Uruguay faced in 1966, when they played France, Mexico, and the host country (then England).  

As for France, the opinion of the press is that the group doesn't present many difficulties for the French handballers.  Raymond Domenech sees it differently and forecasts three evenly-matched games.  That appears to be the view of some of the French players as well, but others see it as favorable.  And if you read French you can read their roundup of the reactions from the other three countries.

If the view of the draw from the other Group A participants was guardedly optimistic, South Africa's view of the draw is very different.  The players know that it is a difficult draw, and Carlos Alberto Parreira -- in his second spell for SA -- will have his work cut out for him to form a competitive side.  And the South African soccer hierarchy is doing their part to rally behind the Bafana Bafana cause.

Press reaction to the World Cup draw: Honduras

A lot of deadlines are coming together right now, and a lot of posts for the blog keep piling up.  I hope I can get through it all before the Christmas holidays.

I continue with press reaction to the World Cup draw.  The view from Honduras is of a group that marches to a Latin beat, and of sides that align closely with the personalities of their managers.  First there are the precise and disciplined Swiss with their disciplinarian manager, then the lively and unpredictable Chileans directed by the esoteric and enigmatic Marcelo Bielsa, and the masters of Europe led by a man used to leading star-studded teams to glory.  There are a lot of memories of 1982 among the last Honduran World Cup players, but this Spanish side has shaken off the famous underachievement of previous editions.  Mother of all rivals, indeed.  Rueda said that Spain are the one side that he feared to be paired with, but perhaps Honduras are fortunate to face them at the start of the tournament.  

The view from Spain is of a draw with looming threats -- after Spain pass out of the first round.  The headline in MARCA says "A comfortable group and a threat".  In the lead-in to the draw, the Spanish press feared a group with the USA, and there had to have been sighs of relief to have drawn the CONCACAF side not named Mexico or the United States.  The tips for Spain to either reach the final or leave South Africa with the World Cup trophy are piling up, from Ottmar Hitzfeld to Radomir Antic and Steve McManaman.  Vicente del Bosque, the Spanish coach, is having nothing of it and is putting out the standard coaching statements of needing to prepare well for all three rivals.  Most of the articles that I've read seem to identify Chile as Spain's chief concern in the group, and that's about right in my opinion.  Spain's base camp will be in the north of the country near Johannesburg.

Chile's reaction to the draw is generally positive, Manuel Pellegrini says that the group gives opportunities for Chile to advance, while Iván Zamorano warns to be aware of Honduras' capabilities.  Honduras has played Chile well in recent history, including a 2-0 defeat in a friendly last January.  Actually, all of Chile's rivals in Group H have beaten Chile in previous matches.  Honduras won't play Chile next month as originally planned, and instead will play matches against Argentina and the USA.  Chile will base themselves in Nelspruit, as Bielsa wants to base themselves in the city where they will play their first game.

Press reaction to the World Cup draw: USA

EASY.  England, Algeria, Slovenia, Yanks.  That four-letter acrostic sums up the English view of yesterday's World Cup draw.  All of the press say that England will have a comfortable start to the group phase, and in some quarters, there is already talk of a deep run through the knockout phase all the way to the Final on 11 July 2010.  Even though a couple of columnists say a run to the Final won't be that easy, no one is predicting any difficulty in the group stage.  Well, almost no one -- Henry Winter in the Telegraph argues that the England-USA match is critical to both teams in avoiding a potential second-round clash with Germany.  At any rate, it might be best to hold on to this post and to these links in case reality proves something different.  You have to say that the draw has given the Fleet Street tabloids a chance to come up with some clever headlines, like "The best England group since the Beatles".  Of course, Fabio Capello is being a lot more circumspect about the draw, but that's his job. 

Slovenia and Algeria recognize that it will be a tough group but still like their chances, and the Slovenians have already started to wind up Wayne Rooney.  What I find interesting is that, from the press reports I'm reading, the USA doesn't appear in neither Slovenia's nor Algeria's calculations at all.  

England may have been celebrating the draw, but the Americans were celebrating it, too.  This is probably the most favorable group that the Americans have faced since 1994 (and that was with a national team that was not entirely professional), with perhaps the weakest of the seeds, one of the more lightly regarded European sides, and perhaps the weakest African side not named South Africa.  However, we're talking about a side that went undefeated through qualifying, another that knocked off a more talented and favored Russia, and a team that knocked off the reigning African champions in a winner-take-all playoff.  All attention in the States is focused on the opening match against England, and that Saturday afternoon match could break viewership records in the USA.  Landon wants to square off against David.  Dempsey, Howard, Altidore, and others relish an opportunity to face opponents who they see (and play with) week after week in England.   It's hard not to talk about 1950 if you're an American, but 1950 is history.  It's time to create a 2010.  And let's not get too cocky out there.

I'll have more tonight on the Honduras and Mexico groups.

South Africa 2010: The Final Draw as it happened

We know the 32 teams that will make up the World Cup in South Africa.  We already know which group South Africa will go to.  Today we will find out the destinations of the other 31 teams.

I'm going to skip the dignitaries, the bubble-headed celebrities, and Sepp Blatter (but I repeat myself) and just display the results of the draw when the luminaries make themselves useful.  Of course special attention will be given to CONCACAF's representatives -- Honduras, Mexico, and the USA.  I will highlight those groups when they are revealed.

1020: Okay, I'm back from going out to grab some coffee and pastries.  Turning on Univision to watch the draw, since my satellite package doesn't include ESPN2.

1026: And now Blatter's placing the World Cup trophy on the dais.  The República Deportiva team is blathering on about something.

1028: The US Soccer twitter feed asked if people were nervous about the draw.  I'm more fatalistic about it than anything else -- whatever happens will be.

1037: If you haven't used the bathroom, or fixed yourself breakfast or lunch, now might be a good time.  It doesn't look like they'll start the main event for a while.

1056: Is that Charlize Theron?  Does she always appear like a total airhead?

1058: Well, after that painstaking explanation, it looks like they're ready to go.

1102: To perform the draw will be a range of African stars from various sports, and David Beckham.

1127: And that's it for the draw.  I'll let you all digest the draw, and I'll be back later with a post.

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
South Africa	Argentina	England	Germany
Mexico	Nigeria	USA	Australia
Uruguay	South Korea	Algeria	Serbia
France	Greece	Slovenia	Ghana

Group E	Group F	Group G	Group H
Netherlands	Italy	Brazil	Spain
Denmark	Paraguay	North Korea	Switzerland
Japan	New Zealand	Ivory Coast	Honduras
Cameroon	Slovakia	Portugal	Chile