USA Flying High While Mexico Struggles

The World Cup qualifying rounds are starting to get exciting in the Central and North America’s.  USA won their recent two matches this round, with a 2-1 result at Jamaica and a 2-0 win against Panama at home.  However their neighbors to the south, Mexico, haven’t been having a great amount of success on their road to Brazil. 

With five draws out of their first six games in qualifying and only two more home games left, the Mexican team is going to need to make some sort of change if they plan on advancing.  Prior to their most recent 0-0 draw at home against Costa Rica, the manager didn't seem very confident or like he had a plan.  He was saying things that gave the message: it doesn't matter how we play, we just need a result.  If you aren't concerned with how your team is going to play a game, especially at such a high level, your team is going to look sloppy on the field. In the game, Mexico looked unorganized going forward with no real style of play.  The offensive tactics weren't the only thing that appeared to be nonexistent in the game, though.

When a coach makes these comments, it can only lead to negative attitudes from players, coaches, and even fans.  The Mexican players never looked like they had any fire or competitive edge in the game.  The only feeling that came from the players, and really the entire stadium, was a feeling of desperation and defeat.  In their previous draw at home against the USA, the Mexican fans were obviously upset which was demonstrated by all of their 'Boos' and whistles after the game.  After the draw against Costa Rica, the fans were silent.  They are scared and don’t know what to expect of their team. 

On the other side of the border, American soccer fans are feeling great right now. They are top of the table through the first half of the final qualifying round, and still have three games to play at home.  Not only are the results starting to go in favor of the Americans, but they are finally playing an entertaining brand of soccer.  They keep possession and pass the ball around well, and there are incredible improvements in the creativity in the offensive third.

The players have been showing confidence and composure from the first whistle, making their presence in the game known early.  USA needs one more thing (provided they advance like they should) in order to have a chance to do well in the World Cup: consistency.  If the players can keep their current level of form for the next year and if they can keep a consistent group of players together from now to then, they will surprise many opposing and doubting nations in Brazil 2014. 

USA plays their sixth game of the final qualifying round against Honduras on June 18 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  A win will almost guarantee qualifying to the World Cup, but the match will be a much bigger test for the Americans then their previous two.  Mexico doesn't play another game for qualifying until September, so the time off (and their time at the Confederation's Cup this summer) should provide an opportunity to get organized before then.

Celebrating a Century of U.S. Soccer

The United States took on Germany in an International Friendly this weekend, and the game marked 100 years for the United States Men’s National Team.  With it being a milestone, and with qualifying right around the corner, the match was very important to the United States.  However, with a poor result against Belgium in their other friendly earlier in the week, this looked a tough match for the American team.  

Germany (currently ranked second in the world) fielded a team with some big names like Miroslav Klose, Lucas Podolski and Per Mertesacker.  For the most part though, their starters in this match haven’t been getting consistent minutes in their recent qualifying matches.  The team that USA fielded looked very close to their optimum starting line-up with stars like Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey, and Jozy Altidore. 

Altidore opened the scoring early, when he was able to volley home a great cross from Graham Zusi.  Altidore had been showing great finishing abilities for his club team in Holland, but had a long goal drought playing for his country.  It was important for team USA to get their center forward back into scoring form, after not getting a goal from him in over a year and a half.  He also had the assist to the 3^rd goal, another nice cross to Clint Dempsey which he volleyed home. 

Dempsey scored the third and fourth goal for the United States in the match, the fourth proving to be the winner.  His game-winner was a nice curling left-footed shot to the far post from about 25 yards. That fourth goal was also the US strikers 35^th for his country, sending him ahead of Eric Wynalda on the all-time goals list.  Landon Donovan still remains 14 ahead of Dempsey as the all-time leader.

With a 4-1 lead late in the game, team USA looked to be getting complacent with their lead and let Germany back in the game with lazy defense.  The Germans were able to score two quick goals, making the rest of the game very nerve-wrecking for the American supporters.   In the end, USA was celebrating their 100 years with a 4-3 win, and more importantly gained momentum going into the next round of qualifying matches.

The Americans have 3 matches coming up for World Cup qualifying against Jamaica on June 7^th, Panama on June 11^th and then Hondurus on June 18^th.   If the USA can keep their form and momentum from the win against Germany, they should be able to get positive results from these next matches.  However, they shouldn’t be extremely overconfident considering the quality of players that didn’t actually play for the Germans.  USA beat the second ranked team in the world, but keeping things in perspective, it was more like the second team of the second ranked team.