Pues, es imposible que yo escriba este articulo totalmente en Castellano, entonces voy a escribir en Ingles, la idioma de los EEUU!!!!
So it all comes down to this; a tournament filled with B to C squads for all the major nations involved ends up the way we were all hoping it would- USA vs Mexico. And guess who's going? ME, along with Mr. Poeltl himself and possibly the Gersh as well as my two older brothers. I must say this final will be of substantially less quality than the 2007 final, but still I am expecting a hotly contested game. I mean it's USA-Mexico. Mexicans resent us for many reasons, and we resent Mexicans for almost no reasons- but regardless of reasons or lack there of, the resentment itself is what I am getting at. These two nations don't like each other one bit. It's going to get nasty at the final.
On to game analysis/previewing:
We get to see the "next generation" Mexicans (including Dos Santos, Vela, and Ochoa, among many others who play in la Primera de Mexico and therefore I know nothing about them) vs the "has beens, never was, and/or never will bes" of the USA. While that may sound a little harsh on the US players, it's kind of true. We do have some players in this tournament whom I rate very highly (Holden, Beckerman, Rogers) but none of them are forseeably going to earn a starting spot in the National Team (for more in-depth coverage of this topic, download our PODCAST from July 20th!).
I would fully expect, without doing any kind of matchup analysis, that Mexico will be fielding a better team than we will. I know others will disagree, but Dos Santos and Vela, though unproven in the Premiership, are players who I believe to be talented and prepared enough for regular time in the English top flight, and therefore will probably be the two most talented players on the field on Sunday. Ochoa is the Brad Guzan of Mexico, although he is much further along in the process of inheriting the throne of number one for his country than Guzan is. But regardless of comparisons to gringo keepers, Ochoa is a shotstopper of the highest quality, the type of keeper who knows where to position himself, knows when to act and how to act, and he has the reflexes of a cat... a wild cat. Other than that I know pitiously little of the Mexican team in this tournament, really the Mexican team in general- I will make it a goal of mine to follow el Tri more closely in the future, as they are our closest and most hated rival.
Moving on to los jugadores estadounidenses, look for Stuart Holden to play a huge role in this match. Leading the team in goals and assists for this tournament, Stuey has been a force on the right side of midfield, though I would hesitate to call him a "winger" per se. His style of play is not to fly up the sidelines like Sean Wright-Phillips or Aaron Lennon- Holden almost reminds me of a CM playing out on the right (which, depending on who you ask, he is). I've been impressed by Holden's passing in this tournament, as well as his SICK equalized in injury time vs Haiti (http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/2934542/). He is doing his best to break into the A team for the United States. He really could not be making much better of a case for himself, but to be honest he just won't be able to break into the middle (our depth at CM is incredible) and with Dempsey and Donovan on the wings, there is no room for Stu to boogie (if you get that reference... you ROCK. Also for more on this topic, once again download the PODCAST!!!). As for Kyle Beckerman, I expect to see very much a similar player to Holden in the final, only playing in the center of the pitch. These two would make a very interesting reality TV show pairing, like on the Amazing Race or something- somebody should get on that.
Right, well I am exhausted and cannot finish this post right now, but rest assured, I will give a detailed account of my trip to the Gold Cup final on here, and hopefully my tale will have a happy ending... Brian Ching will lift (or attempt to lift) the Gold Cup in victory!
To arms!! To WAR!!
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1 comment:
reading this is depressing. thankfully our A squad was not on the pitch, cus if mexico go that result against our nation's best, we'd have some serious problems in the years to come..
this summer was a success based on getting to two tournament finals, but the bitter taste of 5 mexican tea bags all over america will take long to wash away..
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