The Soccer Thread (Version 7.0)

I am ready for the Brad Guzan era to begin. I love him.

 

Brad Guzan was magnificent. Very encouraging to see that kind of depth (still) at goalkeeper. That last save he made, when he was screened, was a hell of a lot tougher than it looked.

Matt Besler and Omar Gonzalez were awesome in the middle of the defense, and while Beasley was shaky after the yellow card for the rest of the first half, he was pretty good in the second half. But the way Gonzalez and Besler played, what may have been the team's biggest weakness all of a sudden looks like a strength.

Would have liked to seen more from Altidore, Johnson and Dempsey, but overall, I can't be upset with a point at Azteca.

El Tri is reeling right now. Four dropped points at home, and you can't have that in World Cup qualifying. Mexico still has to go to Costa Rica and Columbus. If they don't steal a couple road wins, Mexico could be looking at fighting for its life.

The Hex is a clusterfuck right now. If the USMNT can get a draw or win in its next game, they are looking at four of its final six games at home, and would be in great shape to qualify.

 

Thrilled with the effort tonight. Just a gritty performance in the back. I can't say enough about DeMarcus Beasley. Not exactly Plan A back there.

Things certainly looking better from a qualification standpoint, but it's extremely tight from first-sixth. All six teams capable of qualifying.

 

ESPN stats tweeted USMNT at 77.5 percent to qualify now.

 

What I saw, I didn't like...seems like the U.S. was just hanging around, looking for a draw.
But I didn't see a lot of the game, so I'm sure I missed a lot of chances.

 

I saw part of the first half, all of the second half. There were no chances during that time.

I get that it's the first point for the US in Azteca in WCQ since 1997, and that they came away with a point when they very easily could have gone home empty handed. Still, hard for me to get enthusiastic as others on this one. There were some good performances on defense and Guzan is tremendous right now. Still.. that was utter domination by Mexico, and they missed out on the win because of a horrendous non-call on a PK. But, you know, a point is a point.

I will say this: I did like the fact that Klinsmann had an aggressive sub strategy, looking to generate offense instead of strictly turtling up on defense. It didn't make a difference, but I'm happy he wasn't willing to go entirely negative.

 

There is never any shred of doubt that the U.S. will qualify. Three teams (out of six) make it, the fourth gets a playoff. Percentages and odds and such, no big deal. We will never again fail to qualify in our comparatively weak region.

This result didn't matter that much to the U.S. as far as the standings. A loss at Azteca is usually a fait accompli, and the Costa Rica win put the team back on track to qualify with most of the home sked coming up. An extra point shouldn't make a big difference when all is said and done.

But to go into Azteca against a struggling Mexican team desperate for a win against its rival, have an untested backline and goalie come up huge (and have the ref miss Edu's usual costly mistake) . . . this is the type of stretch of results that get a Mexican National team coach fired. Or at least, makes his seat very hot.

And with a Mexico team that is legitimately talented (much more talented than the U.S., but we also didn't lose every game to them in the 1990s either when our talent wasn't at their level either), but still trying to find its way, it was great to see our guys take advantage of that.

Ecstatic to see Gonzalez play so well in the back, and Guzan look so poised in goal. Hopefully going forward we have not only our new Bocanegra and Howard, but also a dude in Gonzalez who tonight played as well as the excess hype always said Onyewu would.

Pragmatic (read: smart) soccer is seldom a bad thing. They sought the draw, and achieved it. Didn't just sit back, but certainly didn't seek to take the game to Mexico.

The only thing that matters is final score. Do not care how the result was achieved.

What is "negative"?

Losing is negative.

Sure, they got outplayed. Never really threatened to score. Didn't matter. Survive and advance.

 

Didn't see the match, just read what happened on here. In my opinion, given where they were playing and the lack of success they've had there, I'll take the one point and go to the house with it. Yeah, Mexico isn't playing well right now, but that's not the U.S.'s fault. They did what they needed to do to get some sort of result. As the Jay-Z song says, 'On to the Next One.'

 

Unless the distribution of qualification places is changed. I'd imagine it's unlikely to fall below three, but you never know with FIFA.

 

You never know, but I can't ever see FIFA dropping it below 3. Every region except Oceania has at least 3.

 

It would take several World Cups worth of underachievement, that's for sure, especially given FIFA's desire to diversify the World Cup.

 

At this point, I think the qualifying teams will be the USMNT, Mexico and Honduras, with Costa Rica in the playoff against New Zealand.