Switching Gears

With the US National Team’s improbable Confederation’s Cup run, the CONCACAF Gold Cup on the horizon, and the second half of World Cup Qualifying coming up, the Nest Liner is going to take a look at the US National Team.

Confederation’s Cup

After getting waxed in the first two games, the US was just looking for some respect before they headed back to the safe confines of CONCACAF.  But the miracle dual 3-0 matches put them into the Quarterfinals against the almighty Spain.  If you’ve watched the US over the last couple of months you’ve probably noticed that they’ve been missing some ‘spark.’   A lot of this is due to a ‘character’ deficiency in the current makeup of the team.  Gone are Earnie Stewart, John Harkes, Kasey Keller, etc.  Guys that can takeover a locker-room and either fire up a team, or instill calm.  You see that particularly in the first two games against Italy, and Brazil.  The US got poked a little and just fell to peices.

But that changed in the Spain game.  The US came out and played as they could play…..and upset the #1 team in the world.  The key, though, is that as soccer fans, we’re not looking for ‘good enough’ or ‘moral victories’ we want results.  And that doesn’t mean beating one good team, that mean’s beating several good teams and not doing it in style.

The US almost did that.  Then the second half whistle blew in the Confederation’s Cup final.  Brazil got one goal back to half a deficiet early, the US got a couple of good opportunities to put Brazil back down by two (Donovan and Dempsey) and failed.  Then just had to absorb the pressure from Brazil.  This is where the team character failed, once again.  They couldn’t react when Brazil got the energy from their first goal in such a way to negate the coming surge.  They couldn’t get the third goal, they couldn’t find a defensive solution, they couldn’t rally as a group, they resorted to individual desperation, and it just wasn’t enough. 

What was missing?  Sure there’s a gap in talent between the two clubs, but the real difference was in the belief in themselves.  Brazil did, the US did not.  Landon Donovan had one of his best series of games in recent history (maybe the Beckham garbage in LA has helped him), but those are the types of performances that he needs to have on a regular basis.  And other players need to rise to the challenge as well.

We’re not looking for moral victories these days.  This isn’t 1995.  We want wins.  We want quality wins. Valuable lessons can be taken from that game, but it leaves a sour taste.  Hopefully, though when those players are put into a similar situation in 2010, they can reflect upon that game and react accordingly.

Gold Cup and Beyond

Every four years, every FIFA region crowns a champion.  CONCACAF does it twice.  What would be great is if the regions had their championships on the odd year without a World Cup (like UEFA).  Then the following year, the victors meet for the Confederations Cup, then we’d have the World Cup.  But, this is CONCACAF.  The regional championship is on the line (yet again), but this time, it’s pretty much for bragging rights as there’s no other tournament to get into.  But that shouldn’t take too much from the importance.  The team isn’t going to rely on the players that just played in two World Cup Qualifiers and the Confederations Cup, but rather guys that just missed out on that roster, or on players that were out of the picture but have forced the team to take another look.  Enter Santino Quaranta.

Yeah.  His comeback story has been well documented, and it’s great that he’s worked himself back into consideration (though it was a no brainer, since he’s easily been one of the best American born players in MLS over the last 12 months).  But he brings some of that savvy that other National Team players just have been missing.  Hopefully, the players seize the opportunity and force Bradley to include them on future teams.

Something is on the line, though.  Something big.  It’s not directly associated with the Gold Cup, but with the US’s run in the Confederations Cup they’ve moved up to #12 in FIFA’s (usually meaningless) rankings.  But the rankings are a big part (along with A LOT of politics) of World Cup seeding.  It would also mean avoiding Brazil, Argentina, Spain, etc, in World Cup Group play, making entry into the later stages less difficult.  If the US finishes out the year strong (Gold Cup and World Cup Qualifying) the US would have an outside chance of snagging one of those spots.  Yeah, it’s an outside chance, and maybe one of the big Euro powers may need to miss the World Cup, but it’s still a chance and the outcome of US matches will play a part.  So no game is meaningless from now until the World Cup draw.

So go out this weekend, celebrate the Birth of the US (with a United victory over Columbus), then continue your patriotic duty by supporting the National Team on this final push towards World Cup 2010.