June 8, 2007
Steven Goff - Washington Post Soccer Insider
Soccer by Ives - Running Diary
Soccer by Ives - The Day After
The good news: The US got the win thanks to a nice passing play between DeMarcus Beasley and Taylor Twellman that ended with Clint Dempsey unloading a shot into the back of the net.
The bad news: The US let Guatemala hang around (Twellman likely is still having nightmares about his header that went just over the bar in the first half) and Oguchi Onyewu collected two yellow cards and will sit out the T&T game tomorrow night.
The key was that the US got the win and it looked like they made it out of the game without any serious injury issues (although it doesn't appear that Carlos Ruiz is on Landon Donovan's Christmas card list now.....). As long as the US can take care of business tomorrow vs T&T and Tuesday vs El Salvador, then they will achieve their first goal of winning their group and move on to the knockout phase of the tournament.
Some other good Gold Cup stuff
- Marc Connolly with a solid preview of the US's group. Marc points out the obvious that the US isn't in the hardest group in the world, but isn't it about time that a US team didn't get a bad draw?
- Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle has a great interview with the always quotable Eric Wynalda. There doesn't appear to be anything in there that will land Wynalda in hot water with ESPN, but it's got some good stuff. I liked the part about who would win the Gold Cup.
- Don't forget to check out US Soccer.com's USMNT Summer Blog.
California gets their first Victory in home win over Vancouver
It appears that the California Victory may be that team that always gives the Vancouver Whitecaps fits. Not only did California get their first ever win last night over Vancouver, but they also got their first ever point in Vancouver in their inaugural match on April 28th.
That means that 4 of California's 5 points so far this season have come at the cost of the defending USL 1st Division champs.
Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmm.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and not necessarily those of the Rochester Rhinos or SoccerSam.com. Feel free to send any comments or complaints to news@soccersam.com. James promises to read (but not to respond) to all of them.
