CONCACAF (soccer)

Kekeke was in work elevator with someone this morning who kept trying to explain to a basketball goon that he didn't really follow sports other than soccer. Goon kept asking, "So uh do you PLAY soccer? Not much going on for you this time of year, eh? Hey, are you gonna go out for the company softball team?"

Moor and the other outside back really did look terrible.

i only saw univision highlights but it looks like our boys lucked out

whatever happened to Freddy Edu? is he in the MLS?

Freddy Adu plays for Benfica. Maurice Edu plays for Toronto FC.

On October 24, 2007, Adu played his first UEFA Champions League game for Benfica against Celtic FC in a 1-0 victory in Lisbon. He became the youngest American to play in the competition when he entered in the 61st minute[

Freddy Adu plays for Benfica. Maurice Edu plays for Toronto FC.
and they both came on as subs last night.

Adu looked as scared against Mexico as he looks cocky at Estadio da Luz. The sight of Rafa Marquez hunting him down like a small, cute animal was, uh, memorable. That said, he ripped the right side of the Mexican defense a new one in the closing minute, and he hit a far nicer dead ball than Donovan, who seemed to take nearly every free kick or corner kick.

Edu: something about his obvious anxiety reminded me of the kind of basketball player known for alwaysmissing the front end of one-and-ones late in close games. Maybe that's what playing for Maurice Johnston will do to you.

what about Demarcus Beasley, was he playing last night or is he completely clapped out? one incredible season there for PSV it was a shame he had such a crappy World Cup.

btw a side note out of interest, who would you folks rate as the greatest american soccer player?

cobi jones

Beasley is injured right now, out for the season (w/ Rangers). He was missed last night.

cobi jones

seriously?

nah
http://www.sporting-heroes.net/files_footballworldcup/LALAS_Alexi_19940220_GH_R.jpg

cobi jones
roffle

It's impossible for me to hear that dude's name without singing it to the tune of "Casey Jones".

"the greatest american soccer player?"

OWEN HARGREAVES

Heheh some bookies apparently got a bit BURNT by their pricing of Nicaragua vs Netherlands Antilles -- offering in the vicinity of six to one on the Antilles ("well Nicaragua is a Proper Country innit"), not realizing that both teams are EQUALLY RUBBISH. (Yes NeAnt won 1-0, no this is not your regular aftertiming, I was not in on it at the time sadly.)

CONCACAF first round, first leg results:

Dominica 1 - 1 Barbados
Turks and Caicos 2 - 1 Saint Lucia
Bermuda 1 - 1 Cayman Islands
Aruba 0 - 3 Antigua and Barbuda
Belize 1 - 0 St Kitts and Nevis
El Salvador 12 - 0 Anguilla
Nicaragua 0 - 1 Dutch Antilles

1st legs still to be played:

Bahamas vs British Virgin Islands
Puerto Rico vs Dominican Republic
Grenada vs US Virgin Islands (one leg only - USVI does not meet CONCACAF's very low threshold for an acceptable ground - what is it, an all-guano pitch?)
Montserrat vs Surinam

i thought hargreaves was a canuck

It bears mentioning that Montserrat won ie lost the last (I believe? not sure if it's been repeated) Other Final of the World Cup.

I'm have a vague, forboding feeling about the two-leg USA vs winner of Dominica vs Barbados. If we (being the US) don't win, no group stage.

What makes me worry isn't that Barbados may recruit Harewood, Ifill, and Boyce , but that I just noticed Dominica's goal scorer yesterday, Havant & Waterlooville's Richard Pacquette.

Michael, why do you bother me with details?

Ah yes, Havant and Waterlooville, upset merchants par excellence. Do not worry Mr Pike, we won't hold your nonqualification against you, we'll just snigger discreetly when we are sure we don't hurt the feelings of any usanians within hearing range.

Also, they have the world's second-largest boiling lake!

US considering 6 sites for World Cup qualifying semifinals

Bridgeview, Ill.; Columbus, Ohio; Commerce City, Colo.; Frisco, Texas; Seattle; and Washington, D.C., U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati said Thursday.

If the U.S. advances, it would have home games Sept. 10 (most likely against Trinidad and Tobago), Oct. 11 (most likely Cuba) and Nov. 19 (most likely Guatemala).

I assume that a grass pitch would be laid down in Seattle over their "fieldturf" plastic field? Or will we have to put up with a repeat of that battle the Russian FA had to fight, just to watch an inferior game? It's a great stadium, though.

RFK Stadium: terrible for World Cup games. I went to both the Honduras (2001) and Jamaica (1997) games there, and the size of that place allowed away fans to grab about half the tickets. No surprise that those two games (a loss, the first US home qualifying loss since 1989, and a draw) were two of the worst home results we have had in the last twenty years. Now that one end of the lower bowl has been ripped out, the atmosphere will be even worse. Until DC United manages to build their own stadium, there's no way they should host anything but friendlies.

I'm much more in favor of playing those games at the smaller MLS parks in the first four places. Cuba in Columbus or Chicago, and Guatemala at "Dick's Sporting Goods Park" in Denver, sounds like six sure points to me.

The USSF loves money, though, and has no problems sacrificing the advantage of home support for more dollars.I expect at least one of those games to be at DC or Seattle, even though the big stadiums should be used only for friendlies.

TAMPA, Fla. -- The day after five members of Cuba's under-23 national soccer team left their hotel with the intention of defecting, two more players disappeared Wednesday night.

Yendry Diaz told ESPN International on the phone that he and Eder Roldan also had left the Cuban team.

Diaz and Roldan are with friends in Tampa, but intend to join their fellow defector teammates in Lake Worth, Fla., according to the Miami Herald.

The original five -- Jose Manuel Miranda, Erlys Garcia Baro, Yenier Bermudez, Yordany Alvarez and Loanni Prieto -- left Tuesday after a 1-1 draw against the United States in an Olympic qualifying tournament in Tampa.

The five already are in Lake Worth, a town north of Boca Raton, according to The Herald, which reached the players by phone Wednesday.

"'We're fine, calm, feeling hopeful about our new lives," Bermudez told The Herald. "Of course, we're nervous because we're young, have no family here, and we don't yet know the way of life here, but we hope the Cuban and American communities will help us get started."

Their first order of business when they got away from the hotel on Tuesday was to buy a cell phone, contact a lawyer -- and celebrate with a Cuban meal, according to The Herald.

"Of course, my heart will be in Cuba with my family, but I want to have the freedom to better my life, to play professional soccer, to be the best I can be, and for that we had to make this sacrifice," Bermudez said in The Herald. "The key now is to get the legal paperwork out of the way as quickly as possible so we can get on with our plans."

Luiz Muzzi, general manager of United Soccer League club Miami FC, told The Herald that he was planning on hosting a tryout for them next week, after he was contacted by a friend of the players'.

"I watched their game against the U.S. on TV, and I thought the Cuban team played very well," Muzzi said. "We were kind of scouting that game because anytime a Cuban team comes to the United States, there's a chance someone might defect."

Bermudez told The Herald that he has contacted Lester More and Osvaldo Alonso for advice; the two had defected in 2007 during the Gold Cup in Houston.

"They told us they're happy for us, and that we have to be patient, but little by little, everything will work out," Bermudez said in The Herald. "Even though we are a little nervous, we know there is a very large community of Cubans here in South Florida, and that makes us feel more at home. We hope to make them proud."

An on-the-field issue is whether the Cuban team will have enough players to compete in Thursday afternoon's game against Honduras at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

If the seven players do not return, Cuba would be left with an 11-man squad, but only 10 would be available to play, because Roberto Linares is automatically suspended one game for receiving a red card in Tuesday's game.

Cuban sports officials were stunned Thursday by the desertions. "We feel really badly," Antonio Garces of the Cuban Soccer Association told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "It's not known if the boys can continue in the tournament."

Raul Gonzalez, coach of the Cuban national team, confirmed to ESPN Deportes that there was no security plan in place around the Cuban team to avoid defections. The team was staying at the Doubletree Hotel Tampa Westshore Airport.

Zachary Mann, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, said it's unlikely the agency will learn the men's whereabouts until they come forward. The players likely would be granted political protection under the United States' "wet foot, dry foot" policy that allows Cubans who reach U.S. soil to obtain asylum.

Tampa police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said Wednesday the agency had not received any missing persons reports from the team, and officers were not called to the team's hotel to investigate the disappearances

Yes, several of the girls at the pub on Tues were hoping the keeper would be joining us on our native soil any day now.

Just about everyone I know who watched the game called this! Ives predicts the goalkeeper is playing for Chivas USA by 2009.

This could kind of screw team USA, since if Cuba forfeits that's 3 free points each for Panama and Honduras.

Basically they just screwed all their teammates whose families were being held hostage as guarantees against their cooperation, no?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3067/2330739643_497e478041.jpg

Cuba started with 10 men v. Honduras and lost 2-0, but what an effort!

they started with 10 men on the field?

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/7908098/Honduras-beats-Cuba-2-0-in-Olympic-qualifying

I came across something earlier that said the rule is you can start with as few as 7!

http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/images/2008/03/14/cubandefectors_ap.jpg

will these cubans end up in the usa soccer system?

I read that they already had tryouts with the Miami USL team. Dunno if they're going to try for citizenship or not, I think if they've already been capped they're ineligible.

Here are highlights of Mexico's 5-1 win over Haiti, which from all accounts was one crazy game of soccer. Still not enough to for Mexico to qualify for the knockout round, amazingly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul410gUwv3k

went to Mexico vs. China (1-0 Mexico) last night in Seattle. What a great vibe, 95% Mexico fans, 5% clueless folks and more Tibet flags than China flags.

took this:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3021/2420858799_8d6908c6a9.jpg

I watched the first half. Mexico was just toying with them, it seemed, and with an all-FMF team nonetheless.

is that where the new mls team will play? looks pretty nice.

yeah it is. they'll close off the upper bowl though so it'll seat about 25k (last night's reported attendance was 56k). the turf needs work though.

I watched USA 1-0 Guatemala (first win there since 88) in a bar with exactly 1.5 other interested people, one patron and one busy bartender. People kept asking if it was the Olympics.

Mexico 2-1 Honduras
Canada 1-1 Jamaica
T&T 3-1 Cuba
Haiti 2-2 Suriname
Costa Rica 1-0 El Salvador

Still USA, Mexico, Costa Rica I'd guess.

wow Guatemala

http://www.soccerbyives.net/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/20/policia.jpg

shit

http://www.soccerbyives.net/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/20/policia.jpg

I saw Canada and Jamaica last night in Toronto. It ended in a tie, although Canada really needed the win, and should have beat them. It was perhaps the liveliest crowd I've ever seen at a sporting event in this city. And that includes the SkyDome back when the Jays were winning World Series'. It was bedlam. I thought the stands were in danger of collapsing at some points. The Jamaican fans were out in force too.

I WANTED TO WATCH THAT but it was so late and I didn't know where to go (ie what bar). I love my supporters club but they plan their activities at the WORST bar in order to accommodate people from New Jersey. I need an obliging alternate venue that'll put games on a tv.

C-CAF Champions League (ugh, that NAME) kicks off tomorrow!

http://www.concacaf.com/competitions/champsleague/index.aspx

I'm not sure who to support in this. I suppose one of the MLS teams, but New England and DC are definitely out, Houston probably too, so that leaves Chivas USA... On the other hand, MTL is second-division, so that's cool, and the Mexican sides are probably going to be the most fun to watch.

All of this is going to make for some pretty hilarious fixture congestion down the road. The team that can deal with that aspect will have the best shot.

I saw USA v. Trinidad & Tobago last night. Pretty sad that only 11,000 or so came out for the first home game of the qualifiers, but those that were there were decently loud. 3-0 is nice but not much to be proud of against such a small country. There was a decent amount of away support for the Trinis, which was cool to see.

If Brian Ching is still starting at lone striker in 2010 I am going to shoot myself.

That Concacaf lyfe

Referee Fernando Hernandez gets a 12 game ban for kneeing a Club Leon player in the junk during a Liga MX game. I’m surprised this hasn’t happened sooner with the amount of ref swarming you get. Not saying what he did was right, but he was driven to this pic.twitter.com/wiJDCKHBvo

— Brian Sciaretta (@BrianSciaretta) April 6, 2023

refs very much in character