Pay the goddamn electricity bill...
My thoughts on the Match:
It was a night where the only thing harder to see then a clean challenge was.... the field itself. In front of 24 thousand and change in Guatemala, the USA kicked off the semifinals of its World Cup Qualifying on a field obscured (to the television viewer at least) by very poor lighting. Now I missed the beginning of this, and I never got in explanation, but I'm sure I wasn't alone in thinking it was very difficult to make out who was who. Which is one of the more interesting aspects of playing your qualifying largely in tiny, money strapped Central American and Caribbean countries.
Regardless, the US finished out a gritty second half to snatch a 1-0 road victory that puts them in the advancing portion of the table with a road game to Cuba upcoming in a few weeks. The team looked piss-poor throughtout the opening minutes of the second half as they allowed their left flank, anchored by Heath Pearce, to be continually exploited by a high paced Guatemalan attack. The US looked to be in serious trouble in the 60th minute when Steve Cherundolo disgracefully reached out and grabbed the ankle of Freddy Garcia, who had just swerved around him, much like one of the curveballs he used to gun for the Seattle Mariners back in the late 90's. Fortunately, the Guatemalans showed some poor sportsmanship of their own, with Eddie Lewis being blindsided by the forearm/elbow of soon to be red carded Jose Manuel Contreras.
Three minutes later, a well-placed Onyewu (Standard Liege, Belgium) header off a set piece was nudged over the bar to set up a corner that Captain and ex- Fulham boy Carlos Bocanegra headed home for the game winner. It was a clean delivery from DaMarcus Beasley (Rangers) to set up the captain, who it must be said had just slightly more disruption from Guatemalan defense on the goal than I did. What do all the names mentioned in this paragraph have in common? Oh right, European club experience. Where were strikers Landon Donovan and Brian Ching? We can blame the faulty lights, but I sure couldn't tell. Landon Donovan looked to be catching an earful from Bob Bradley about his inability to recognize the danger posed by the Guatemalans early in the second half, and certainly didn't look like a player that had any real interest in scoring or defending throughout the match.
Onyewu and Bocanegra were solid throughout the last twenty minutes despite facing a barage of charging Guatemalan attacks that players like Michael Bradley seemed incapable of disrupting.
And of course, Tim Howard (Everton... hmm.. more Europe) had an excellent game at the back, despite picking up a yellow card for threatening to dismember various members of the Guatemalan side after recieving a kick to the head while smothering a cross in that had gone to ground.
Pluses: Bocanegra, Onyewu, Howard, team posession after the goal.
Minuses: Donovan, Cherundolo, team possesion before the goal.
But hey, its great to have meaningful football back, yeah?
It was a night where the only thing harder to see then a clean challenge was.... the field itself. In front of 24 thousand and change in Guatemala, the USA kicked off the semifinals of its World Cup Qualifying on a field obscured (to the television viewer at least) by very poor lighting. Now I missed the beginning of this, and I never got in explanation, but I'm sure I wasn't alone in thinking it was very difficult to make out who was who. Which is one of the more interesting aspects of playing your qualifying largely in tiny, money strapped Central American and Caribbean countries.
Regardless, the US finished out a gritty second half to snatch a 1-0 road victory that puts them in the advancing portion of the table with a road game to Cuba upcoming in a few weeks. The team looked piss-poor throughtout the opening minutes of the second half as they allowed their left flank, anchored by Heath Pearce, to be continually exploited by a high paced Guatemalan attack. The US looked to be in serious trouble in the 60th minute when Steve Cherundolo disgracefully reached out and grabbed the ankle of Freddy Garcia, who had just swerved around him, much like one of the curveballs he used to gun for the Seattle Mariners back in the late 90's. Fortunately, the Guatemalans showed some poor sportsmanship of their own, with Eddie Lewis being blindsided by the forearm/elbow of soon to be red carded Jose Manuel Contreras.
Three minutes later, a well-placed Onyewu (Standard Liege, Belgium) header off a set piece was nudged over the bar to set up a corner that Captain and ex- Fulham boy Carlos Bocanegra headed home for the game winner. It was a clean delivery from DaMarcus Beasley (Rangers) to set up the captain, who it must be said had just slightly more disruption from Guatemalan defense on the goal than I did. What do all the names mentioned in this paragraph have in common? Oh right, European club experience. Where were strikers Landon Donovan and Brian Ching? We can blame the faulty lights, but I sure couldn't tell. Landon Donovan looked to be catching an earful from Bob Bradley about his inability to recognize the danger posed by the Guatemalans early in the second half, and certainly didn't look like a player that had any real interest in scoring or defending throughout the match.
Onyewu and Bocanegra were solid throughout the last twenty minutes despite facing a barage of charging Guatemalan attacks that players like Michael Bradley seemed incapable of disrupting.
And of course, Tim Howard (Everton... hmm.. more Europe) had an excellent game at the back, despite picking up a yellow card for threatening to dismember various members of the Guatemalan side after recieving a kick to the head while smothering a cross in that had gone to ground.
Pluses: Bocanegra, Onyewu, Howard, team posession after the goal.
Minuses: Donovan, Cherundolo, team possesion before the goal.
But hey, its great to have meaningful football back, yeah?