Excitable Boy They All Said
So much for clearing things up today in the World Cup Qualifying. Almost every game that could make things fuzzier than Woody Allen's vision did. Yeah, that's a dated analogy but I'm feeling rather 1990 right now. :)
Not since we threw down the gauntlet in 1990 with the "shot heard round the soccer world" has the United States team made such a dramatic statement. Sure we broke the gauntlet in 1998 but we've obviously bought a new one. The 2-0 win over Mexico in Columbus, Ohio in front of a sold out stadium (it will be good for the rest of the world to see a full stadium here in the states for a qualifier) was saying, "we're contenders in Germany, you better look out."
Now I don't want to get too excited since for the first 45 minutes I was glad I didn't hype the match to my non-footcer friends since it was ugly. But in the second 45 we really did what the top teams in the world do, we finished our chances. Though what was DaMarcus Beasley doing in that chance to make it 3-0. He needs a little work on his chip shot. Good to know he'll have a chance to golf back in Holland on Wednesday as opposed to going down to Guatemala.
About the only thing that was done to embarass us were Landon Donovan's post game antics. I understand he's excited because he needed to "put up or shut up" after his various pontifications throughout the leadup.
Call me blinded by the FIFA Fair Play type stuff (not that chippy Mexico follows them) but this was a little inappropriate:
I mean sure Landon's young but that's pure high school. ;)
Though I do have to agree with his sentiment, screamed into the microphone accidentally after the match when he just summed it up perfectly with a "fuck yeah." That must be the first time that's ever been heard on ESPN Classic. So, I shouldn't give Landycakes too hard a time.
And his tribute to New Orleans was pretty touching (walking around shirtless wearing a stars and striped Doctor Seuss hat). Though I don't think anyone's going to be throwing any beads at him any time soon.
---
As I began before Landon Donovan (who really wasn't that much of a factor this match) distracted me, the rest of the world's results were not so cut and dry. Romania and Senegal were the big culprits today to muck things up, both keeping themselves alive through impressive wins.
Senegal's 1-0 win at Zambia put them temporarily on top of Africa's Group One - with Bolton's El Hadji Diouf sealing the win. Togo still has a game in hand but the Lions of Teranga (one of the greatest national team nicknames on Earth) are obviously not going to be left out of Germany without a fight.
Romania's win in Constanta (a beautiful city on the Black Sea which I highly recommend visiting, if you want, I'll e-mail you pictures from my trip there in October of 2003) against a highly favored Czech Republic similarly makes Europe's Group One confusing. Romania vaulted to second place in the group with two games in hand with a 2-0 win. Adrian Mutu, fresh back from a drug suspension, showed why Romania was considered a contender in one of Europe's groups of death (there are three) when he plays.
Suddenly, the Czech Republic is the team with their backs to the wall. Romania has actually won three in a row by a 7-0 aggregate since losing 0-2 to The Netherlands back on June 4. The Czechs on the other hand who had scored 28 goals in their first eight games and were being mentioned in the same breath with Brazil and Argentina as one of the best offensive teams on Earth were held scoreless.
The central Europeans (ask any Czech and they'll confirm that, ahem, they're not eastern Europeans) country has a very difficult remaining group of fixtures. On Wednesday they play at home to Armenia. But then to close out it's at home to Holland and away to Finland (who practically eliminated themselves tying Andorra 0-0 and that's just the worst result any team can muster anywhere in the world). If Romania can win their last game in Helsinki on October 8, they will put pressure on the Czech Republic to win out. Tying will not be an option. It would be a shame to lose one of the best teams in the world. But, if you're looking for any underdog to pull for, look no further than the Romanians.
Meanwhile, speaking of upsets, Scotland pissed me off today tying Italy 1-1 to keep their hopes alive for second in Group Five. Sure they'll still in fifth place behind a perennial power like Belarus - but don't tell that to a scot. In the match that really mattered in that group, Norway beat Slovenia 3-2 (did I not say it was the match of the day in my preview?) on a goal in second half injury time by Fulham's #1 hated man (for the goal he scored for Blackburn to give them the win back in EPL week two) Morten Gamst Pedersen.
---
And now it's time for the testimonial portion of this entry. While only the Ukraine and United States booked their tickets to Germany today, many teams we knew and loved throughout qualifying can cancel all plans for the 2006 World Cup (as they've been officially eliminated). In South America, only Bolivia's gone and Africa would take too darn long with all the teams gone.
So here's a run down of the eliminated list from UEFA (in the interest of time). Everybody bow your heads for a second and remember the following teams who could have been contenders (well, at least before the first ball was ever kicked):
Group One: Armenia, Andorra, and Macedonia. Finland can only come in second and the magic number to eliminate them by Holland, Czech Repubic, or Romania is one.
Group Two: Georgia (who did put a scare into Ukraine today) and Kazakhstan. Albania and Denmark are only still alive for second.
Group Three: Estonia, Liechtenstin, and Luxembourg. Latvia can only come in second.
Group Four: Faroe Islands. Cyprus is mathematically still alive for second which shows how close this group is.
Group Five: Not a single team is eliminated and that's weird. Moldova can only come in second.
Group Six: Azerbaijan, Northern Ireland, and Wales (finally, thankfully on those last two because someone had to put them out of their misery). Austria can only come in second.
Group Seven: Belgium and San Marino. The fact that the Belgians are eliminated this early is surprising, not so for the small principality.
Group Eight: Bulgaria, Iceland, and Malta. Iceland went down fighting taking a 1-0 lead over Croatia before getting dominated the rest of the game and losing 1-3.
---
Alright, I know there is some dispute in the world that Ukraine also qualified tonight so I put on my research cap and tried to figure out how (also read as went to bigsoccer.com and posted the question in the Eastern Europe forum). They eliminated Turkey from taking away their first spot when the Turks tied Denmark 1-1. But, I know what everybody is saying, "Greece has a game in hand and are nine points back, they could still win the group."
The answer is yes and no. By some sort of tie-break mechanism, Greece can not qualify ahead of Ukraine if they finish on equal footing. I'm not sure how. But since I like the Ukraininians, I'm going with the fact that they qualified because every major source in the world says they did.
Yeah, I'm scratching my head too but I'm too ecstactic over the United States qualifying for certain to want to think about it too much. :)
Not since we threw down the gauntlet in 1990 with the "shot heard round the soccer world" has the United States team made such a dramatic statement. Sure we broke the gauntlet in 1998 but we've obviously bought a new one. The 2-0 win over Mexico in Columbus, Ohio in front of a sold out stadium (it will be good for the rest of the world to see a full stadium here in the states for a qualifier) was saying, "we're contenders in Germany, you better look out."
Now I don't want to get too excited since for the first 45 minutes I was glad I didn't hype the match to my non-footcer friends since it was ugly. But in the second 45 we really did what the top teams in the world do, we finished our chances. Though what was DaMarcus Beasley doing in that chance to make it 3-0. He needs a little work on his chip shot. Good to know he'll have a chance to golf back in Holland on Wednesday as opposed to going down to Guatemala.
About the only thing that was done to embarass us were Landon Donovan's post game antics. I understand he's excited because he needed to "put up or shut up" after his various pontifications throughout the leadup.
Call me blinded by the FIFA Fair Play type stuff (not that chippy Mexico follows them) but this was a little inappropriate:
"I think that's what angers them about us, because we have lives beyond soccer and many of them don't...That's why they talk and say the things they do, because they can't do it on the field."
I mean sure Landon's young but that's pure high school. ;)
Though I do have to agree with his sentiment, screamed into the microphone accidentally after the match when he just summed it up perfectly with a "fuck yeah." That must be the first time that's ever been heard on ESPN Classic. So, I shouldn't give Landycakes too hard a time.
And his tribute to New Orleans was pretty touching (walking around shirtless wearing a stars and striped Doctor Seuss hat). Though I don't think anyone's going to be throwing any beads at him any time soon.
---
As I began before Landon Donovan (who really wasn't that much of a factor this match) distracted me, the rest of the world's results were not so cut and dry. Romania and Senegal were the big culprits today to muck things up, both keeping themselves alive through impressive wins.
Senegal's 1-0 win at Zambia put them temporarily on top of Africa's Group One - with Bolton's El Hadji Diouf sealing the win. Togo still has a game in hand but the Lions of Teranga (one of the greatest national team nicknames on Earth) are obviously not going to be left out of Germany without a fight.
Romania's win in Constanta (a beautiful city on the Black Sea which I highly recommend visiting, if you want, I'll e-mail you pictures from my trip there in October of 2003) against a highly favored Czech Republic similarly makes Europe's Group One confusing. Romania vaulted to second place in the group with two games in hand with a 2-0 win. Adrian Mutu, fresh back from a drug suspension, showed why Romania was considered a contender in one of Europe's groups of death (there are three) when he plays.
Suddenly, the Czech Republic is the team with their backs to the wall. Romania has actually won three in a row by a 7-0 aggregate since losing 0-2 to The Netherlands back on June 4. The Czechs on the other hand who had scored 28 goals in their first eight games and were being mentioned in the same breath with Brazil and Argentina as one of the best offensive teams on Earth were held scoreless.
The central Europeans (ask any Czech and they'll confirm that, ahem, they're not eastern Europeans) country has a very difficult remaining group of fixtures. On Wednesday they play at home to Armenia. But then to close out it's at home to Holland and away to Finland (who practically eliminated themselves tying Andorra 0-0 and that's just the worst result any team can muster anywhere in the world). If Romania can win their last game in Helsinki on October 8, they will put pressure on the Czech Republic to win out. Tying will not be an option. It would be a shame to lose one of the best teams in the world. But, if you're looking for any underdog to pull for, look no further than the Romanians.
Meanwhile, speaking of upsets, Scotland pissed me off today tying Italy 1-1 to keep their hopes alive for second in Group Five. Sure they'll still in fifth place behind a perennial power like Belarus - but don't tell that to a scot. In the match that really mattered in that group, Norway beat Slovenia 3-2 (did I not say it was the match of the day in my preview?) on a goal in second half injury time by Fulham's #1 hated man (for the goal he scored for Blackburn to give them the win back in EPL week two) Morten Gamst Pedersen.
---
And now it's time for the testimonial portion of this entry. While only the Ukraine and United States booked their tickets to Germany today, many teams we knew and loved throughout qualifying can cancel all plans for the 2006 World Cup (as they've been officially eliminated). In South America, only Bolivia's gone and Africa would take too darn long with all the teams gone.
So here's a run down of the eliminated list from UEFA (in the interest of time). Everybody bow your heads for a second and remember the following teams who could have been contenders (well, at least before the first ball was ever kicked):
Group One: Armenia, Andorra, and Macedonia. Finland can only come in second and the magic number to eliminate them by Holland, Czech Repubic, or Romania is one.
Group Two: Georgia (who did put a scare into Ukraine today) and Kazakhstan. Albania and Denmark are only still alive for second.
Group Three: Estonia, Liechtenstin, and Luxembourg. Latvia can only come in second.
Group Four: Faroe Islands. Cyprus is mathematically still alive for second which shows how close this group is.
Group Five: Not a single team is eliminated and that's weird. Moldova can only come in second.
Group Six: Azerbaijan, Northern Ireland, and Wales (finally, thankfully on those last two because someone had to put them out of their misery). Austria can only come in second.
Group Seven: Belgium and San Marino. The fact that the Belgians are eliminated this early is surprising, not so for the small principality.
Group Eight: Bulgaria, Iceland, and Malta. Iceland went down fighting taking a 1-0 lead over Croatia before getting dominated the rest of the game and losing 1-3.
---
Alright, I know there is some dispute in the world that Ukraine also qualified tonight so I put on my research cap and tried to figure out how (also read as went to bigsoccer.com and posted the question in the Eastern Europe forum). They eliminated Turkey from taking away their first spot when the Turks tied Denmark 1-1. But, I know what everybody is saying, "Greece has a game in hand and are nine points back, they could still win the group."
The answer is yes and no. By some sort of tie-break mechanism, Greece can not qualify ahead of Ukraine if they finish on equal footing. I'm not sure how. But since I like the Ukraininians, I'm going with the fact that they qualified because every major source in the world says they did.
Yeah, I'm scratching my head too but I'm too ecstactic over the United States qualifying for certain to want to think about it too much. :)
posted by incendiarymind at 6:40 PM
5 Comments:
Wonderful run down of the WCQ. I think I figured out the whole Ukraine thing. Incase of a tie, here is the order of tie breaking:
1-Points between the teams in question (the ones that are tied)
2-Goal difference (in case of a tie between the teams in question)
Ukraine and Greece tied (1-1) on Oct 9, 2004 and won 1-0 on June 8, 2005. So even if Greece tied them on points, Ukraine get by on goals, 2-1.
Like you, I'm happy to see Ukraine go through. As for the number two spot in the group, I'm hoping for Turkey.
Thanks. The Ukraine thing was confusing as I've never seen head-to-head mentioned anywhere as a UEFA criteria.
I'm also hoping for Turkey as Greece at the World Cup would make it nearly as boring as the late rounds of Euro 2004. Though I would like to see Denmark pull the shock and sneak in over Turkey and Greece, it's a little too late.
Odd fact: besides the United States, only Denmark has two Fulham players on their national team usual 22-man roster.
It seems so terrible that 2 of your best are playing for Fulham, who are destined for Championship football next season.
Dom. McBride is one of our best players, Bocanegra not so much. :)
But, I can't believe I have to keep saying this with how much worse Portsmouth, Sunderland, and Wigan are playing this season (and Michael Owen can't save Newcastle United single handedly) - Fulham is staying up. Barely. But they're staying up.
The two goals they got beat by at Blackburn were #1 and #3 on the goals of the month recap on the EPL's review show. You take away the Blackburn loss, make it a draw (or a win) and Fulham would be cruising.
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