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Copa América Centenario Concerns The Von Trapps are fast approaching their Copa América Centenario campaign. I know it’s basically the most hyped grouping of friendlies in the history of soccer, but I firmly believe the United States is forcing everyone’s hands though. The USMNT is always in a tough spot because this is America, if there is an American flag on the jersey, we expect to win any and all competitions that we enter. I hope this puts pressure on other countries to show up as well.

A great example of underestimating the Stars and Stripes was the 2009 Confederations Cup Semifinal, where Tim Howard earned that famous clean sheet and The Yanks won 2-nil. We ultimately lost the final to Brazil but anyone who had anything bad to say about the US Men, it was followed with a strong rebuttal that “we beat Spain!”

Then as time passed, the trolls, devil’s advocates and negative people started clarifying that European’s don’t take The Confederations Cup seriously. People even said Spain didn’t call up their best players. Looking at the Spanish roster, I have to disagree with that analysis.

However, there is one thing I will say that gives me cause for concern. It’s not that the US fields very MLS heavy sides. My fear is when I look at our players who playing in the highest level of the sport, I don’t see anything impressive. Aside from Pulisic, we have Timmy Chandler, in a relegation battle, Brad Guzan, relegated, Deandre Yedlin, in a relegation battle, Tim Howard, lack luster bottom half finish with Everton. The positive here is that iron sharpens iron and a relegation fight is better than mid-table complacency. However, then I look at the team who beat us in the 2015 Gold Cup, Jamaica, led by captain, Wes Morgan. The captain of Jamaica, Wes Morgan, freaking won the Premier League. These are the benchmarks that the USMNT needs to be groomed for better success. We have several bright spots in our team though, first, Darlington Nagbe (scored the friendly match winner against Ecuador, completed every pass in that match as well), Christian Pulisic (showed some amazing ball handling skills), and Bobby Wood is probably the replacement for Altidore as a target forward. All in all, I have realistically high hopes for this team. It’s a great balance of experience and solid younger talent. I could see the USMNT making a deep run in this tournament, thanks in large part to the other teams not having as much skin in the games.

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This was a crap goal... according to NE Revolution supporters. I’m not sure Barmby meant to bounce the ball off the pitch, but I’m sure that was the difference between Shuttleworth letting the ball in or not. 

I’ll be honest, the draw was a punch in the gut though. I was a little butt hurt (rightfully so I believe), that the Revolution got a crap goal off of an own goal. They put a lot of pressure on the Timbers and maybe it was ebbing away at our confidence. If it wasn’t an own goal, it probably would have gone in anyway. It was just too much penetration in the box and Gleeson over committed outside the post. 

In the end, a point on an away match is not terrible. But I can’t get shake the thought that we left 2 points on the pitch. 

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It’s been a growing trend for awhile but it was only a few months ago that small to mid level regional craft breweries on the east coast started introducing “sessionable” craft beer making it a full blown trend. I really dig Full Sail’s take on it, plus their session brews are only $5.99, unlike say Stone Go To IPA that is the same price as their IPA but half the ABV. A lot of bars and breweries charge less for lower abv beers so for Stone (and most other breweries making session craft beers) it seems like a ripoff.

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Brasil just broke 200 million hearts

Brasil, the heartbreakers. As Germany was comfortably up 4-nil I thought, Brasil cannot comeback. But for good measure, I thought Germany needed one more goal just to really drive the nail in the coffin. Maybe they had lost the match before the first whistle was blown though. Not because Neymar or Silva were out, but because they dwelled on some great injustice, David Luiz and Julio Cesar holding up their fallen teammates jersey during the national anthem, like Neymar had died or something. I thought at that moment, "really? Get over it, move on guys. These are the cards you were dealt." Germany didn't injure Neymar, and Germany has crucial injuries as well. 

Brasil's next mistake, was coming out pedal to the medal. Brasil's fans sounded like the game was won every time Germany turned the ball over or Brasil stole it away. Yet only 10 minutes in and Brasil giving it seemingly 110%, Brasil found themselves down 1-nil on a Thomas Müller goal. That's gotta hurt a bit, right? But rub some dirt on it and go on. To Brasil's credit, they did. Brasil, still giving it 110%, attacking forward (getting no shots on goal though) but still fighting. Down but by no means, not out. After all, this is the mighty Brasil, the only international team with a winning record when conceding the first goal. 23' in and Klose scores to pass Ronaldo for all time world cup goals. Concern starts creeping in for Brasil. One minute later and Tony Kroos scores his first of two goals within 2 minutes. Which by then Brasil were just done. I think other teams may have responded differently. Why? Emotions. This Brasilian team is known to be a very emotional group. The opposite reaction? To be irrational. When you're down 4-nil, would you rather be emotional, or irrational? I'd rather be irrational. Irrational behavior says, "hey Germany scores five goals in 29 minutes, there's plenty of time for us to score five ourselves." I mean obviously it's not that easy. When emotions dominate? You cry foul, dive, sulk, and foul. I lost a lot of respect for David Luiz today. It was pathetic of him to lash out at Müller in front of the ref. It was not just Brasil though, Germany took the chances that Brasil gave. Brasil wanted to attack full steam ahead, Germany was happy to eat up the counter attacks. They kept their composure, played as a team and played with class. Müller kept his flopping and whining down to a minimum because he knew Brasil was going to foul like crazy, no need to oversell. 

Finally, because it's the U.S. and they have to insert themselves into the conversation even though they do not deserve it. The answer is an unequivocal no. The U.S. 1-nil loss to Germany does not look better after today. Germany barely showed up to the group stage match. The US side barely showed up for that game either. Both teams knew they were into the knockout round and played a friendly scrimmage. For Germany that includes some scoring. The same is not true for the US who were happy to back into the knock out round. More on that later.

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Euro 2012 Rundown

My great dismal Champions League prediction helped me make the decision to not announce my Euro 2012 prediction, although I do have strong allegiances. Here's my rundown of the tournament so far.

1. The competitiveness is keeping the intrigue high, only Germany has solidified a spot in the knockout stage. 2. Euro 2012 Football Daily's commentary. From an American perspective, it's fascinating hearing references like "Germany and the Netherlands have played each other 7 times... since the war".  3. Alexi Lalas is the perfect American perspective (the perspective of not having a chance of winning) analyst. 4. Russian Fans: Their uncanny ability of making Americans look like saints. Can we relinquish the "Ugly" adjective and bestow it upon Russian football fans? I was disgusted by the arrogance of Russian supporters to unfurl a banner that stretched from the last row of the upper bowl, into the lower bowl that read of extreme borderline militant statements and depictions. I think the camera operator who panned to the banner should be fired.   5. Russian Football: If your fans are jackasses, even though they were wrong, I think it's a requirement to back it up on the pitch. A 1-1 draw against Poland showed the teams true character, no substance.  6. France and England's 1-1 draw: despite what Alexi Lalas said, Englad's conservative playing for a draw was a weakness and they probably won't keep up with the big boys. 7.  Franck Ribéry is a true frenchmen. 8. Irish National Football Team: Ireland is a beautiful country, but their Association Football team leaves fans wanting. On further investigation, Association Football isn't the most popular sport in Ireland, that honor goes to "Gaelic Football".   9. All is well in the Football world (for now), France beat Ukraine.  10. Portugal gets no love because of Ronaldo, however, they are arguably the most deserving team in the Tournament (based on having never won the Euros).

(Bonus 1, the most exciting teams: Germany, Portugal, Spain, and Poland. Bonus 2, Greece has been the biggest disappointment).

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Team USA V Canada

Tomorrow the US Mens National Soccer Team will play Canada in an international friendly. While this might be labeled "friendly", it will hopefully be anything but. It's not a do or die situation. It's a match for Canada to get ready for the Olympics. The USMNT of course will be playing only for revenge. Canada didn't totally kill our 2012 Olympic chances back in March when they beat us during the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament, it was actually a draw to El Salvador that accomplished feat. 

Canada who was once known simply as, America's Hat. 

Has no had our number in several key sporting matches.

In most recent mind, they beat us in hockey for the gold medal in 2010, and then basically robbed us of Olympic Qualification in March.

So while Sports Illustrated says this is "The Last One that Doesn't Count [until World Cup Qualifiers]"

So for the fans sake, I hope the US comes out ready to get a big win. None of this 1 - nil, or a heaven forbid, a draw stuff, I want to see a 3 - nil win or better match. Klinsmann says they don't matter but they matter to us, and I'm tired of seeing the US lose to Canada.

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The Pope in Milan

Apparently Pope Benedict XVI is in Milan for an event. He took the time to mug for the camera with Inter captain Javier Zanetti and his new born child. Good times.

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Inter Reflections

I

t was a rough campaign for Inter.

Here’s my rundown of the campaign that was.

Inter seemingly had the will to win, often jumping to 1-nil leads. I know a lot of people are placing blame on Inter’s aging personnel. For me, I’m not going to bang on Lucio or Samuel. It’s not their fault that they were asked to go the distance so often. Some of the bambinos were the weaker links. There were two matches specifically at the end of the campaign that really highlighted the problem. First was against Cagliari and second verse Parma. If you can watch the replay of the Parma match, there was an obvious weak link, Ricky Alvarez. I know some supporters are fans of Alvarez, but personally, I’m not. I thought it was a mistake to start him so often and an even bigger mistake to keep him in for so long. He has little confidence, no poise, bad ball handling skills and when he made mistakes (which was often) he didn’t hustle to rectify it. Maybe these are areas where he can improve, but Stramaccioni definitely relied on him too much. On one of the goals in the Parma match, his poor ball protection was the beginning of at least one of Parma’s goals. His errors were so blatant it was hard to miss. 

It will be interesting to see what kind of additions they make. The rumor mill is spreading that Wesley Sneijder and Diego Milito might consider leaving after Inter’s failure to make the Champions League. In addition to those two possible departures, it’s looking like Diego Forlan is on his way out too. 

The one bright spot, is the slim chance that Luis Suarez might come out. If that’s the case, maybe Forlan will stay. Suarez would be a great addition to Obi, Zarate, Cambiaso and Nagatomo. However, Inter is in desperate need of some legs on defense that can give Lucio and Samuel some rest.

Overall, I think Inter was able to salvage their season, 6th place isn’t a great finish but it was looking a lot worse prior to Stramaccioni taking over. 

Anyone want to defend Alvarez? I know he has some fans out there. 

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When the US Men's National Team beat Algeria...

...  

It apparently was a big deal.

The guys who caught the final ball from the US v Algeria World Cup match have come forward and decided to reunite the team and Landon Donovan with the ball. When I watched the match, I thought it was kind of sad that it took 91 minutes to put Algeria away. But alas the ball's an instant relic because if Donovan hadn't salvaged that late win, we wouldn't have made it through group stages, and on top of that, we finished ahead of the prized FA. That was huge, because even in 1950 when we beat England, they still finished ahead of us in the group (neither advanced though).

Well as Indiana Jones always said about historic relics, "it belongs in a  museum", so to is this famous ball (once there is one).

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Prediction Friday

This post is going to be short and sweet. The Champions League final is tomorrow, Bayern Munich v Chelsea. I think the best thing about this game is that the competition isn't totally one sided. If it had been Real Madrid v Chelsea, it would have been like bringing sheep to a slaughter. In the end, I'm predicting that Bayern Munich will get the win, 2-1. Questions, comments concerns?

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Manchester City, the Villains

"Yea but, Manchester City BOUGHT the title".

Here’s a list of campaigns that all have something very annoying in common, ’92-93, ’93-’94, ’95-’96, ’96-97, ’98-’99, ’99-’00, ’00-’01, ’02-’03, ’06-’07, ’07-’08, ’08-’09, ’10-’11.

Well if you know about football, especially English Football, those are all the years that one team has won the premier league. If you want to add in the 7 additional titles from the Premier League’s precursor for good measure, you’re welcome to. I’ll grant English football some grace with their long standing history of having championships hoarded by one club. It’s actually a problem throughout football. That’s not my issue today though. My issue is the running snub that City bought the Premier League championship. Manchester City had not won a title since 1968. Their journey from ’68 to present saw them being relegated in 1996, they fought their way back to top flight status for the 2000-’01 campaign, only to be relegated again by the season’s end. Counting the campaign they were relegated after, they have averaged 60 points. Which may not have even qualified them for the Champions or Europa League Tournaments. Even if I don’t count their relegated campaign points from ’00-’01, they still only average 62 points, which again does not put City in the top 6 in the latest season.

This is all to say that, to buy a crappy club and run it like the previous owners is probably the worst idea an owner could come up with. Apparently, that’s what the masses would do. Perusing a Manchester United message board, many claimed that the purchase of the club and ensuing transfer spending spree was “ruining football”. I’d argue from an outsider’s perspective, English Football was broken and it’s just now rebuilding. Finally, one of the big four didn’t win the title, this hasn’t happened since 1994-95 when Blackburn Rovers won. Do I want City to usurp it’s way into the Big Four and win every championship? Absolutely Not. However, I don’t see a point in having a league that is merely fighting to get 2nd place. I’m also tired of seeing football grow in popularity in America, having more and more American’s jump on board and decide their team is Manchester United based on the number of championships they’ve won, we’re a nation of band wagoners after all.

So to Manchester City Football Club and their supporters, be proud. You didn’t buy the championship, you turned the system upside down and denied the empire another ‘bloody’ title. I hope United gets used to looking up.

(Posted by Brian, May 16th, 2012)