"I’m pissed. If you’re an American and you’re not pissed then there’s something wrong with you."
By So opined Forward Brian Ching, following the US MNT’s convincing roll over and die act on Sunday in the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. To the main rival.
As I was well off the grid for a couple of days, I didn’t see the game at all, and only learned about the debacle not long after it ended, when a good friend rang my US cell number as I emerged from the darkness. I didn’t even have cell coverage for most of that time. Therefore, I don’t have much to comment on the game itself beyond what anybody can read / watch in the MSM or on the blogs. I can discuss the merits of Bradley’s strategy of going with a younger squad for this tournament; we knew that he was going to do this before the Confederations Cup kicked off.
I understand and to a limit accept this strategy. However, that limit is is crossed with the final — the benefits of winning this tournament outweigh what might be observed in the understudies. The United States does not play competitive matches against class opposition nearly enough. There’s not much quality in CONCACAF outside of the top two or three sides, and friendlies suck (did either England or the US learn much of anything in England’s 2-0 victory over the US at Wembley in May of 2008?)
The Confederations Cup provides such a venue, and Mexico will learn from the experience, not the US. Actually, “Mexico, as winner of the 2009 Gold Cup, gets precisely doodly-squat”, to quote a commenter. I was wrong, and I knew this too, just overlooked it. Damn me to the eternal flames of hell. It’s the ’07 and ’11 (etc.) Gold Cups that progress to the Confed Cup — but this only recently changed as the Confed Cup used to be every two years.
I’m not going to suggest that the US would have won if a stronger squad was sent out, but the way Mexico have been playing of late, a stronger squad would have seriously improved the probability of a victory. And arguably, given the 30 man squad named for this tournament, one of the weakest starting XIs was sent out to face Mexico from within the tournament squad. Indeed, only three of the 18 named to the match day squad against Mexico are based outside of the MLS (and of that, two in the Norwegian league, one in the Danish league).
So I was disappointed when I learned the result. Then I wandered over to USS Mariner and read this first line: “Now that Erik Bedard is back on the DL and the season is basically toast . . . “
Excellent.
