2010 World Cup Qualifiers

N

Napoleon

2,500+ Posts
Tomorrow (Saturday) the USA plays El Salvador AWAY. Our starting goalie (Tim Howard) is out with yellow card accumulations, but we're pretty healthy besides that. (Gooch has been sitting out practice resting a sore knee, but he's a green light for game day.)

Then we play again (T&T) next Wednesday in the States.

In other games... and the #1 focus in the Southern Hemisphere is Argentina vs. Venezuela. Why? Well it sure as hell isn't because Venezuela is a traditional power, but rather because it is the first (non-"Friendly") match for Argentina featuring Diego Maradona as coach. (DT- Director Technical)

The different sports channels, as well as some of the news channels, have been running interviews with the players, Diego, past players, fans... the commentators have been talking about this, that, the other. No Riquelme. What's it like with Diego? Is the team "tranquilo"? What does playing for the national team mean to you? Who's going to wear the #10 when the team steps out onto the field on Saturday night?...

It's really pretty incredible. All futbol, all the time. And since there aren't any Copa Libertadores games or league games or any games leading up to this weekend, they've been showing "Classic Games" or repeats of this past weeks "Serie A" matches, because people don't know what to do if you can't flip the channels and watch un partido de futbol. It doesn't matter WHO is playing, just as long as there's a game on.

And a soccer nut, I have to admit I do love this.
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So who's following which games?

PS- Nery Castillo, you're still ugly as sin, but bravo for bitching at the Mexican media!
 
I'll be at the T&T game with my usual Texas and "Come and Take It" flags. Can't wait.

I haven't checked the FSC or GolTV lineups yet but I'm hoping to see some other good games besides our game.
 
Larry, I believe both U.S. MNT matches will be televised on ESPN2. They'll also be carried on Spanish-language cable networks (thought not the same one).

The Link

(Go to the above link, and on the right side, beneath the video and MatchTracker apps, is a box with three tabs. Select the right-most tab--"TV Schedule"--and that should tell you everything you need to know.)
 
I've been up until after 4am the last couple of nights reading

about soccer stuff. Whether it's:

ESPN's Soccernet
CNN/SI's Soccer section
Truth & Rumors (FANNATION)
Big Soccer
US Soccer

or even occasionally:

espndeportes
BBC Sport: Football

Of course, this being Buenos Aires, I didn't get home Wednesday night until ~3:45am, so staying up until after 4:00am wasn't much of an achievement. I also usually have whatever soccer game the local channels have running in my bedroom with low volume. This allows me to wander in there anytime I hear "gooooooooooooooooooooooooooolllllllllll".
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I really wish that Landon had stayed at Bayern Munich because they literally show them almost every week. They show two Bundesliga games a week and the Bayern one is almost always one of them and then one is picked from the other 8 games.
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I am so ready for some futbol!
 
What did Castillo say?

According to USSoccer.com, the El Salvador game will be on ESPN2, although my Time Warner box doesn't list it (last I checked). It says drag racing, or worlds strongest man, or some ** like that.

The Iran-Saudi game will be on FSC, also Russia-Azerbaijan (get to root for Guus), Slovenia-Czech, and there might also be a Japan-somebody game that I didn't set to record.

Also - The first WPS game will be on Sunday, and ex-UT defender Jill Gilbeau is on the Washington team. I don't know if she will play or not, but I think she played 90 minutes in an exhibition game, so hopefully so.
 
He arrived late from the Ukraine, and the FMF didn't inform the reporters of the tardiness, so they speculated it was because he arrived drunk.

Castillo called out the media in Mexico for wanting the Tri to lose. It's completely true. I watched Mexico beat brazil in the RGV so I got to see it on Televisa. After the game, the commentators had nothing to say, much less congratulate Mexico on a fine win. It was comical.

Mexican media reports speculation as truth. They criticize everything, including aspects of players personal lives. The put the piss in yellow journalism.
 
Nothing too shocking out of Europe today. Northern Ireland beating Poland is mildly surprising, and I suppose the Portugal-Sweden tie was also unexpected, but that's about it.

Our national side is set to get under way with El Salvador in about 15 minutes (ESPN2). Hopefully, the Nats will play well and come away with three.
 
The U.S. MNT narrowly avoided being the day's top story. Down 2-0 at the 75 minute mark, the Nats rallied with a pair of late goals to escape San Salvador with a point.

Inspired play from the El Salvadorans, and--for most of the match--sloppy, disorganized effort from the U.S.
 
I had no idea so much soccer would be televised until I turned on the TV yesterday and happened to check the channels on my DirecTV sports package, looking for a replay of a Longhorns football game. There were four live matches televised. The camera shots of the stands during Iran vs Saudi Arabia recalled The Longest Yard - no females available but plenty of female wannabes showing off their winsomeness, western blue jeans hugging their slim hips as they gently undulated to the rhythm of the crowd chants. Ahmadinejad was there, flanked by an enormous billboard of Ayatollah Khomeini, who presided in spirit over this strange amalgam of machismo and homoeroticism.

Mercifully Wales vs Finland kicked off on another channel.

The next live game was the Czech Republic vs Slovenia, which I quit watching when Spain vs Turkey came on. The Turks were missing some key players, but still put up a good fight. I was surprised that Silva, who played an important role during Spain's EuroCup triumph last summer, did not make an appearance until the second half. Overall the Spaniards seemed just a little off their game. They still pinged the ball the way only Spain can ping the ball. One second a Spanish possession seems to be in trouble, with defenders swarming the ball. Then ping, ping, ping and next thing you know Spain possesses the ball in space and is mounting an attack.

Spain won 1-0, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Turkey wins in Istanbul on Wednesday.

As for the Americans, heck of a comeback. All in all just a heck of a day for international soccer.
 
For starters, I thought the US looked really strong at the start of the game, but they just couldn't score. Then they gave up a goal on ****** defending and a solid strike. And then El Salvador seemed a little more confident after that. I ended up having to leave my computer for nearly an hour and got back right after the second US goal. Basically about the time 7 minutes of stoppage time was being added on to the 2nd half. (And some posts made it seem like it should have been closer to 15.)

In reply to:
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Agree with the poster who mentioned that we did in fact start strong in the match. However it seemed like as soon as ES scored, we crawled back into our shell of boring cautious soccer. After the second ES goal, I definitly did not anticipate gaining a point from the match, and was glad to see us show some heart to salvage a point.

*Apparently El Salvador doesnt hydrate well before their games
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Messi had two ridiculous runs at the end of the Venezuela game that were classics. Granted, at the end of a 4-0 game in stoppage time Venezuela didn't really want to do anything but leave, but they were made to look silly.

The reason David Silva didn't start Saturday against Turkey was because he's been hurt lately, along with his Valencia teammate David Villa. Spain was playing with only one true winger with Santi Cazorla (who played terrible) and had no width. Once David Silva and Mata came on it allowed Xabi Alonso to slide back inside and they played much better.

The game today they put out a much more traditional lineup with David Silva and Riera playing out wide.
 
Bolivia get a great home field advantage because of the altitude of La Paz, but that no where near explains the Argies losing 6-1.
I'd love to see Maradonna fail miserably like this all the time.
 
Argentina went with 4 fullbacks today and that meant that they started a guy named "Emiliano Papa" started. That guy is absolutely worthless. He's small left back, but he's slow and gives the ball away... so that's nice. Then they also started another sack of **** in the defense named Martin Demichelis who plays for Bayern Munich. Another worthless defender. Absolutely horrible. I've seen him play for both club and now country and I can't believe he's on either squad, much less starts. (He didn't start against Venezuela.)

Adding to Argentina's woes is the fact that their goalie sucks ***. When you have two crappy defenders, it's not good to have a ****-*** goalie, but that's Argentina's #1.

Throw in bad passes all day long, high altitude, bad attitude... Just ugly. A friend that works in an office here was occasionally singing "Don't cry for me Argentina..." which didn't go over well. But he's English, so he had a good day. (Though his mom was born here and he has dual citizenship so he's actually an Argie fan as well.)

But I would start by lopping the head off of Papa, Demichelis, and the keeper. Then go to the USA and beg any top 10 keeper who likes empanadas and overcooked pasta to come to Argentina and play for the albiceleste.

The USA literally has at least 5 keepers who could start for Argentina if not 10. They SUCK!
 
Telemundo and Univision need to go HD, or if they're already HD, Dish Network needs to pick them up. Watching Mexico-Honduras is painful in SD after watching US-TandT in HD. Actually, SD is being generous. Its like watching the game on a 70s model Zenith.

But yeah. Tres a cero. GOOOOOOL!!! El Tri misery is almost as sweet as aggy misery.
 
On the subject of the U.S. MNT, Wednesday's performance was markedly better than the dog____ effort they put forth Saturday.

Not sure if Beasley is gonna cut it at left back, but I like the outlook of starting two forwards and Donovan staying at LM.

Interested in seeing how the identical lineup and formation would fare against a more aggressive opponent. Too bad we'll have to wait until June to find out.
 
MORE ARGENTINA NEWS:

A friend of mine is working for the AFA (Argentine Futbol Associacion) and she told me that she was the one who booked the flight to La Paz for the team. She asked them several times if they were SURE that they wanted to arrive up there just 2 hours before the game. (Diego's decision) They said yes.

So they land in a city that is over 2 miles above sea level and then play a game 2 hours later. BRILLIANT!!

My friend didn't go on the flight, but she had to wait at the headquarters (near the airport) until the team got back and she said that it was not a pretty sight. (But she's English, so she thought it was pretty funny.)

She said that several of the players were sick on the flight back to Buenos Aires. (I don't know if that means they threw up, or if it means that they just didn't feel well. She wasn't on the plane, so she might not officially know either until Monday.)

They shouldn't have lost 6-1, but they also should have gotten to La Paz long before they did. In fact, they should have flown a few hours after completing their game last Saturday. Being in La Paz from Sunday through Wednesday night would have made a huge difference. But they won't have to play there again for 4 years, so I guess it doesn't matter too much.
 
Not to mention, what happens if the plane gets delayed? Would they have had to forfeit? Of course, in retrospect, a forfeit might have been better.
 
Did the Argentines try the same altitude strategy at Ecuador? Not quite as bad a result as at Bolivia, but the same zero points.
 
If only he would step down and the coach of Rosario Central would take up the job (at least short term) for the last two matches, everyone thing would be a whole lot better.

Diego is arguably the biggest disaster in the history of top notch soccer. He can pick from a talent pool in the #3 to #6 best in the world and yet he's not even certain to come in 5th in his own region.

He's just an f'ing disgrace. It's totally depressing as a fan who wants to live through an exciting World Cup here.

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Another thing about that Hand of God game, Diego's other goal is arguably the greatest goal in the history of the World Cup. Period. P-E-R-I-O-D !!!! G-R-E-A-T-E-S-T.... E-V-E-R!!!

And considering he got the ball on the Argentine side of the center strip and then dribbled through nearly the entire English team, he wasn't off-sides.

That being said, he can't coach worth a damn. I'm starting to think that "Doctor's Orders" will lead to him resigning...

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