World Cup Qualifying Report
now that's more like it. i missed the live broadcast so i had to watch the replay on Telemundo, but the USA totally demolished Guatemala in a game that could have been 8-0 instead of 2-0. i still would have liked to see the offense a bit crisper, especially with the passing, but the Guatemalans looked like a high school side out there against a relentess US attack. Brian Ching should have had about 5 goals (not including his errant bicycle kick - 1 of 2 attempted by the US. sweet!), but it was still nice to see some different players getting a chance. even better when they score like Steve Ralston did in the 2nd half at the culmination of one of the nicer build-ups of the night.
Eddie Johnson once again proved that if there's a player to be excited about on this team, he is the one with a goal and an asisst.
elsewhere, the Mexicans and Costa Ricans both faltered on the road, tying Panama and Trinidad respectively with Mexico even blowing a 2nd half lead, so the qualifying table looks quite a bit better than it did at the beginning of the week with the US comfortably ensconced in 2nd place after three games.
no games until June, so we'll check back in then. here's the remaining qualifying schedule:
June 4 v. Costa Rica
June 8 @ Panama
August 17 v. Trinidad & Tobago
September 3 v. Mexico
September 7 @ Guatemala
October 8 @ Costa Rica
October 12 v. Panama
Comments
Too much of this 2-0 when it should have been 8-0 this week, cf. the England Azerbaijhan contest. By the way, i have no idea how to spell Azerbaijhan.
Posted by: WisdomWeasel | April 1, 2005 01:28 PM
i didn't watch the game because of a previous commitment. sounds like it would have washed away all of the bad taste left in my mouth from mexico.
south america is looking exciting, as well. ecuador is representing fairly well. now i have two countries to be a nervous wreck about.
Posted by: Alex R. Johnson | April 1, 2005 01:53 PM
Jaime--Didn't realize you were this much of a devotee. Looking forward to watching games together when we move back to NY.
Again missed the game because i stupidly moved to the west coast. but it sounded great on the play-by-play I was following on the internet.
Posted by: Dave Nelson | April 1, 2005 08:45 PM
i've always loved the World Cup, but my interest has grown stronger after being in Europe during the '98 edition and then sacrificing a month worth of sleep in '02. soccer has continually sucked up more and more of my attention as basketball and hockey have falln by the wayside. and yes, we'll have to watch some more games together when the chance arises. we'll just miss being in the LA area for the 8/17 game.
Posted by: jamie | April 4, 2005 01:00 PM