Suck it, Mike

Oh, Mike.

Mike, Mike, Mike.

Resident USA hater Martin Fabricio, a.k.a. Mike "Mister Man" Herrmann, just didn’t believe in magic. Either that, or he provided some nice bulletin-board fodder for the Yanks, who just blanked Spain, of all teams, in the Confederations Cup.

USA 2, Spain 0 is your final from South Africa, and the Americans will head to the final.

USA caused one of the biggest surprises in international football history by beating European champions Spain to reach the Confederations Cup final.

Jozy Altidore scored the opener when he turned his marker Joan Capdevila to fire in from 15 yards.

Fulham’s Clint Dempsey doubled the lead when he converted Landon Donovan’s pass from close range.

Tim Howard saved from Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas before USA's Michael Bradley saw red for a tackle of Xavi.

Sounds like the U.S. side actually mounted up a bit of defence, not to mention some offensive firepower. I have not seen the game yet, but it sounds like goalie Tim Howard and the American defence were the keys to the match. It also sounds like we mounted a better all-around game, as the New York Times notes:

Tackling by the United States was superb, deference was nonexistent, recovery was vigilant and dramatic:

A muscular shoulder halted a Spanish run. A head arrived just in time to clear a ball away. A desperate slide smothered a shot. A leg raised at the last second deflected a threatening pass.

After a 3-0 win over Egypt on Sunday and an unlikely advance to the semifinals after defeats to Italy and Brazil, the United States’ previous caution became assertiveness. Against a team so secure in possession of the ball, the United States dictated the action at times, while Spain seemed back on its heels, out of sorts, its players grumbling and frustrated, raising their arms and leaning their heads back in exasperation.

The United States sent its captain into the lineup for the first time in the tournament. Carlos Bocanegra, who had missed the first round with a hamstring injury, returned Wednesday, this time at left back instead of his usual position in central defense.

The Americans preached patience and resilience.

With the win, the Americans prevented Spain from setting a new world record of 36 games without a loss.

I suppose Mike might log on and defend his lameness, but then again, he's probably "too busy" to blog.

Hold On There, Chachmo!

"All of the critics in America who said we were no good after losing to Italy and Brazil, let's see what they say now," Michael Bradley said.


Umm, the US soccer team still sucks and will not score more than 3 goals in the World Cup.

That's what they say now.


Let me put this into perspective for you. Michael Bradley, a previous reserve for team USA, is boasting after this victory. This was a victory by FIFA's #14 ranked team, USA, over FIFA's #40 ranked team, Egypt. He seems to also be taking credit for Brazil's huge victory over Italy.

The fact of the matter is this. I am thankful that I will be in the timezone, and potentially, in the city, when we fail to score in most of our games and fail to advance past the group stage. It's much better than waking up at 3:30am to see that.


*As a preemptive strike against the barrage of slurs about to come my way for not posting...SUCK IT! (some people have to work for a living!)

Insert Terry Gilliam reference here

I was looking in on the ESPN “gamecast” of yesterday’s Confederations Cup match between the USA and Brazil as it happened, but last night I got to watch a bit of it on my DVR.

Now, we all knew what the outcome of the game would be. (It ended up being 3-0 Brazil, but I expected worse.) I don’t think any of us entertained any serious notions of the Yanks pulling off the upset of the powerhouse that is Brazil, with their Kaká and their Robinho and their Fabiano. (Not to mention their goalkeeper, Júlio César — as my friend Dave said, is he going to get stabbed in the back by one of his teammates? “Et tu, Kaká?”)

What I didn’t expect was for us to look completely and utterly incompetent. I mean, yeah, I expected the time of possession to be heavily in Brazil’s favour, but I did anticipate some sort of defence out of the U.S. side. Then again, we were missing defenders Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo and Frankie Hejduk, so there was a mountain to climb by itself.

And also for us not to give up the ball on ridiculous miscues just when we get an offence going. It looked like a case of being star-struck, or stage fright, or something.

Some thoughts:

• Landon Donovan played well, and even had some good moves in the forward area.
• Brazil’s first goal came on a free kick from about 20 yards out, but that free kick was based on a foul that shouldn’t have been called. Not that I’m making excuses (plus, it was beautiful ball placement by Maicon), but still. Giving up a goal in the first six minutes is a definite killer.
• U.S. goalie Tim Howard had no chance on the second Brazil goal, a breakaway by Robinho in the 19th minute.
• Things settle down a bit in the second half (hey, we held them to one goal!), but I didn’t bother to watch. So I didn’t see what the fuss was about when Sacha Kljestan was sent off in the 56th minute.
• Speaking of time of possession, the U.S. had only three shots (none on goal) in the first half, notching only two more (again none on goal) in the second. I think a couple may have hit the crossbar. Brazil had 14 shots, eight of which were on goal.
• DeMarcus Beasley sucks.

So, the Seleção continue to own our asses, and this game exposed some pretty big weaknesses. We have a lot of tinkering to do before the World Cup.

You Cannot Stop Tim Cahill, You Can Only Hope to Contain Him

And Japan didn’t.

In front of nearly 70,000 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground – Australia came back from a 0-1 halftime deficit to see Tim Cahill score twice in the second half to top Japan 2-1. With the victory, Australia now sits atop the Asian qualifiers for the World Cup.

I made my way to The G well before kickoff – arriving at 7:30 pm for a late 8:20 pm kickoff – just to take in the atmosphere. Melbourne has a pretty sizeable Japanese student population – and they came out to support their team in force.

But, um, it was a little unstable.

I saw not one, but two young Japanese male fans dressed as…um…well, there’s really no other way to say it…

Kamikazes

It was very, very unstable – and I think I did a triple take.

Is 65 years a little too soon?

Anyway – the game was great, the atmosphere terrific, and I am now even more excited for the South Africa trip. I was sitting in the nosebleeds with several friends – without Herrmann of course – he had a “conference” for the “tourism industry” and “couldn’t make it.”

Whatever.

I had the 1974 retro Australia jersey – the first time the team played in the World Cup and an Aussie soccer scarf I bought back in 2006 when Australia played Greece in a pre-Germany 2006 friendly. I can’t wait to wear them again.

I’m fully onboard the Aussie bandwagon and can’t wait for South Africa.

Oh, and one other thing to the FGOC guys. I say we offer a few ground rules for the World Cup.

#1: There will be an official one beer penalty for anyone that participates in the Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi cheer. Terrible.

The Diving Divas

While we await Drew’s recap of Australia’s 2-1 win over Japan in World Cup qualifying — he was there, live and in person, in Melbourne — here is a little humour.

We at FGOC hate the Italian team. Well, at least I do. This is for them:



Hat tip to my pal Dave for sending this to me.

South Africa in 2010 – Australia in 2022?

As the world takes a somewhat early glimpse into South Africa 2010 with this week’s Confederations Cup, countries around the globe are tarting up like an 18 year old freshmen girl at SMU Rush Week to be chosen as host nations for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Australia launched its “audacious” bid at the nation’s capital on Sunday, replete with more politicians trying to get on TV than a…well, a bunch of politicians at a World Cup launch.

Pretty much everyone agrees that England will be awarded the 2018 Cup – they are the home of the game, haven’t hosted since 1966, the EPL is the “premier” league, and Europe will have gone two World Cups without hosting by 2018.

But 2022 is a different ballgame. Russia, the US, and Australia all are considered the top countries. I don’t see how Russia could get it after England, so you have to figure that my two home countries are in the running. USA 94 saw the largest crowds in World Cup history and the largest market was wrapped in World Cup glory that glorious Summer. But, despite its’ best intentions, Major League Soccer is still a very distant fifth sport in the US and soccer still hasn’t cracked the public consciousness – and probably never will.

So, I say we support Australia’s bid. The country will need to build several new World Cup worth stadiums, the time zones suck, and the sport is still relegated behind Aussie Rules, rugby, and even cricket – but with the success of the Socceroos in 2006 and the growing popularity of the domestic A-League, soccer is on the rise. Plus, Aussies absolutely love a bandwagon to jump on and if the World Cup powers that be can take the competition to places like South Korea and South Africa – why not here?

Oh, and check out the official Australia “Come Play” video. Pretty cool except for the absolutely blatant product placement of a certain company from Oregon.



And, it kinda reminds me (a lot) of this commercial from that same company – guess there’s only so much you can do with a soccer ball.



To see more on the Australia World Cup bid – check out the official site and join me in bringing the great game Down Under – we’ll be happy to host you here in Melbourne.

It’s Official

Australia’s going to South Africa, and so is FGOC!

Following a circle jerk, 0-0 tie in Qatar, Australia became the second team to secure a ticket to South Africa.

It was a ho-hum game and pretty uneventful here in Australia, mostly because it happened in the middle of the night our time and it didn’t have the same suspense as 2006 – but that’s a good thing.

The Boys From Oz played a 2-0 victory over Bahrain to a pathetic 39,000 “strong” crowd in Sydney last night to further strengthen the #1 Asia position as many second teamers trying to gain coach Pim Verbeek’s affection.

Let’s just say that next week’s Australia – Japan match at The G should be a more exciting game. It’s a chance to shore up that top ranking, to beat a world class team, and to play before the best sports crowd in Australia.

I’ll be there wearing the green and gold and getting in some practice for South Africa. Plus, I’d love to see some Japanese ass getting kicked.

Speaking of – I received a full package (mark that) of stuff from Tourism South Africa to start planning our trip. It was great. Three random posters in a shipping sleeve – some random waterfall and two safari pictures, a hotel guide from 2004, and a general “Welcome to South Africa” brochure from a few years ago. Thought it was great that they sent so much stuff and I can’t wait to get more.

Maybe we can put up one of those Tourism South Africa posters at the new Bonza Bike shop in Melbourne with a big countdown calendar – 364 days to go!