Considering Thanksgiving is less than a week away, maybe I ought to serve myself a nice piece of pie. No, get your minds out of the gutter all you old WWF fans of The Rock.
The pie on the menu today is humble pie. (Mmm...you can taste the nutmeg.)
This morning most of the 2009 fixture list for the U.S. senior national team was released and perhaps its a good thing most of our American heroes aren't getting too much burn in leagues across Europe.
The Nats' calendar is about as clogged as my arteries if I ate a Burger King Steakhouse burger every day for a month.
Let's break it down, 10 World Cup qualifiers beginning Feb.11 at home to Svennis and Mexico. These run all the way to Oct. 14 at home to Costa Rica.
Sandwiched around these finally meaningful, well in CONCACAF terms, matches is:
1. The Confederations Cup in South Africa where the U.S. happens to play Italy, Brasil and Egypt. This runs from June 15 through June 28, assuming the U.S. somehow advances...and South Africa is still able to host the tournament.
2. The CONCACAF Gold Cup, which starts in early July.
So long story short, perhaps U.S. coach Bob Bradley wasn't totally crazy for playing every Dick and Tom with a pair of cleats over the mostly meaningless 2008 international calendar. Come summer it's going to be all hands on deck.
Let's collectively pray that unlike in 2007, the USSF treats the Confederations Cup with a tad more respect than it did for the Copa America. Put it this way, why even bother spending the money to go to South Africa if you're bringing a C team. Leave the up-and-comers, MLS grinders and fringe veterans for the Gold Cup.
Here's a simple equation that I'd wager a steak dinner with Sunil Gulati that most people that care about the USMNT team -- the idiots like me that watch pointless matches on ESPN Classic, that are willing to drive 10+ hours to see a game, the people who scan the stats of the Allsvenskan to see how Americans are doing -- want to see. (Not the Landon Donovan t-shirt jersey crowd.)
Quite simply, results and or positive showings vs. Italy and Brasil = steps in the direction
Winning the Gold Cup = running in place with a couple yawns along the way unless the final is against Mexico.
The biggest losers in the U.S.'s massive schedule is going to be MLS. Like it or not Bradley is going to have to mine the domestic league for live bodies. Meanwhile MLS teams are going to have to plug along many weekends without perhaps their best players. In his state of the league yesterday, MLS commish Don Garber said it's not economically viable for the league to shutdown for international games and that does make some sense. Still, come July MLS teams are certainly going to feel the crunch.
If anything good comes of this, like it or not, Freddy Adu is going to have to play a major role at some point, especially now with Landon Donovan on loan at Bayern Munich and possibly going well over a year without any break. The same could be said for Michael Bradley, DaMarcus Beasley, etc. Bob Bradley must choose wisely, or face the prospects of going into 2010 with his players legs falling off or worn to the bone.
Let's all hope by the November 2009 it's still us eating that ever-tasty humble pie instead of Bradley.
The pie on the menu today is humble pie. (Mmm...you can taste the nutmeg.)
This morning most of the 2009 fixture list for the U.S. senior national team was released and perhaps its a good thing most of our American heroes aren't getting too much burn in leagues across Europe.
The Nats' calendar is about as clogged as my arteries if I ate a Burger King Steakhouse burger every day for a month.
Let's break it down, 10 World Cup qualifiers beginning Feb.11 at home to Svennis and Mexico. These run all the way to Oct. 14 at home to Costa Rica.
Sandwiched around these finally meaningful, well in CONCACAF terms, matches is:
1. The Confederations Cup in South Africa where the U.S. happens to play Italy, Brasil and Egypt. This runs from June 15 through June 28, assuming the U.S. somehow advances...and South Africa is still able to host the tournament.
2. The CONCACAF Gold Cup, which starts in early July.
So long story short, perhaps U.S. coach Bob Bradley wasn't totally crazy for playing every Dick and Tom with a pair of cleats over the mostly meaningless 2008 international calendar. Come summer it's going to be all hands on deck.
Let's collectively pray that unlike in 2007, the USSF treats the Confederations Cup with a tad more respect than it did for the Copa America. Put it this way, why even bother spending the money to go to South Africa if you're bringing a C team. Leave the up-and-comers, MLS grinders and fringe veterans for the Gold Cup.
Here's a simple equation that I'd wager a steak dinner with Sunil Gulati that most people that care about the USMNT team -- the idiots like me that watch pointless matches on ESPN Classic, that are willing to drive 10+ hours to see a game, the people who scan the stats of the Allsvenskan to see how Americans are doing -- want to see. (Not the Landon Donovan t-shirt jersey crowd.)
Quite simply, results and or positive showings vs. Italy and Brasil = steps in the direction
Winning the Gold Cup = running in place with a couple yawns along the way unless the final is against Mexico.
The biggest losers in the U.S.'s massive schedule is going to be MLS. Like it or not Bradley is going to have to mine the domestic league for live bodies. Meanwhile MLS teams are going to have to plug along many weekends without perhaps their best players. In his state of the league yesterday, MLS commish Don Garber said it's not economically viable for the league to shutdown for international games and that does make some sense. Still, come July MLS teams are certainly going to feel the crunch.
If anything good comes of this, like it or not, Freddy Adu is going to have to play a major role at some point, especially now with Landon Donovan on loan at Bayern Munich and possibly going well over a year without any break. The same could be said for Michael Bradley, DaMarcus Beasley, etc. Bob Bradley must choose wisely, or face the prospects of going into 2010 with his players legs falling off or worn to the bone.
Let's all hope by the November 2009 it's still us eating that ever-tasty humble pie instead of Bradley.
Labels: bob bradley, Soccer, USMNT, world cup qualifying
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