A Gold Cup to Remember – And Have Nightmares About

Blake Here:

So how about that Gold Cup? There have only been a few sporting events that left as bad a taste in my mouth as that one did in the end. The 69 Super Bowl when the Jets beat my beloved (and heavily favored) Baltimore Colts 16-7. The 69 World Series when the Mets beat my beloved (and heavily favored) Baltimore Orioles 4-1. The famous Kings-Lakers series when David Stern called the refs after the third quarter of the sixth game and told them “Make sure the Kings Lose”. And now this. Losing to Mexico. On home soil. For the first time in 11 years. 5-0. 5-0! Are you kidding me – that was perhaps my lowest moment as a U.S. National team fan. Worse then going out in the first round or the World Cup in 2006 and knowing we could have done better. Worse then all those defeats in Azteca in qualifying. But in the end perhaps not entirely unexpected. We had seen signs of cracks in this team. Going down 2-1 to Haiti in group play. Giving up goal early in the 2^nd half to Panama. And seemingly after each game, additional members of the squad released. Steve Cherundolo released back to Hannover 96. Freddie Adu released back to Benfica. Charlie Davies released to his new club Sochaux. Benny Feilhaber released back to AGF Aarhus. And so in the finals we are playing a team of which a grand total of 3 maybe 4 have a chance of traveling to South Africa should the U.S. National Team qualify. Those 3 would be Ching, Pearce and Holden with Robbie Rogers having an outside chance. And if anyone says what about Kenny Cooper, despite scoring 2 goals, he demonstrated again why Bradley doesn’t call him in on a regular basis. He came in against Mexico and did what?

The worst part about the game was that every time the U.S. wasted a scoring chance against Mexico in the first half (and their were 5 or 6 chances simply wasted) the feeling of dread gnawing at my stomach got worse. And then the horrible penalty call was made. As Greg Seltzer (of No Short Corners and Soccer365 blogging fame) put it “since when is being elbowed in the mouth a penalty foul?” Which takes me back to that infamous Kings-Lakers game 6 when Mike Bibby was given a foul for hitting Kobe’s elbow with his face. In both cases I knew the gig was up if for completely different reasons. Once the foul was called and the PK made, the air went out of the U.S. National team and they looked collectively like a deer in the headlights. Defenders almost colliding trying to mark their men, Mexican players with time in the middle to take a nap and then keep dribbling. It was an astonishing collapse. And after the game they had an interview with Brian Ching and he could barely contain his anger. Now I am not a big Ching fan, but that anger was what this whole team needed after the PK. I don’t want to hear about tired legs and B team or C team. This is Mexico. We haven’t had a loss that bad on home soil since 1985 (a 5-0 drubbing by England). And to Mexico? Our biggest and most hated rival? And the worst part of it all was having to listen to the egregiously bad FSC announcers. I tried watching with the sound off, but just like being unable to look away from a bad accident, I kept turning the sound back on.

And what exactly was Bob Bradley doing with the team roster. Increasing the level of difficulty for each match by letting good players leave? Thumbing his nose at all his critics and saying “I’ll show you – I’ll get to the Gold Cup final with a sandlot team and recreate the “Bad News Bear”? I recognize that this is not a sanctioned tournament and particularly for the European players being in camp for pre-season is important. But Jay Heaps? And I am a NE Revolution fan. I love Jay – but he is not a right back for the national team. If you’re going to bring in a Revolution player to get beat for goals why not Kevin Alston? He at least has speed to cover for his mistakes (and they would be many). And he has potential for 2014. Or course as the Marvell Wynne experiment proved, that might have turned out to be a worse disaster. But really 5-0, 6-0, 7-0? At that point, what is the difference? Why not Geoff Cameron? After watching him in the MLS All Star game, he has some definite potential. Why not Edson Buddle? Why not Jeff Laurentowicz? If you’re going with the sandlot team lets go all out. Now it is nice that Jay Heaps got 4 caps with the National Team, but I don’t think he’ll be telling his grand kids the story of the 5-0 defeat at the hands of Mexico.

So what if anything good came out of this Gold Cup. Well – we did get to the finals with a sandlot team. We gave Stuart Holden and Robbie Rogers a taste of what it’s like to play in a high stakes final in front on a hostile crowd. We gave Sam Cronin some baby steps in the national team mix. We gave Heath Pearce another 6 games to work out his kinks (and hopeful land a playing gig in Europe). And maybe with any luck the game will leave such a bad taste in the collective mouths of the U.S. National Team that they will take it out on Mexico in Azteca.

And as bad as it was – at the end of the day on Sunday I was able to shrug it off and go cook dinner because I am 40 years older then the kid who was crushed when his favorite teams lost in 69 and bad as the ref was, he did not steal the game like the refs did in that infamous Kings-Lakers game 6.

A tie that felt like a loss and a tough win away

Blake here

Well the Toronto game was irritating although less irritating then it might have been. With the Revs having yet another starting lineup with Heaps back and the new striker (Edgaras Jankauskas) healthy. Have the Revs started the same lineup for two games in a row once this year? As it turned out we would get a chance to see Edgaras Jankauskas for a full a game. I have to say I was generally impressed. For a big man he has really good footwork. Unfortunately (though not unexpectedly) he didn't always seem on the same page with Dube and Ralston and there were a couple of times in the first half where it seemed he was looking for the pass which wasn't there, rather then his shot. Still and all, I look forward to seeing more of him. I think once he gets on the same page with his teammates, he will be much more productive.

The Revs actually started well, but the extremely physical challenges by Toronto seemed to take the starch out of the Revs attack. Then again when you're getting kicked in the back of the leg every time you receive the ball and calls are only made on the most egregious fouls, that's not surprising. The center ref (Terry Vaughn) seemed to have decided he would only call fouls when he could issue a yellow card. Ali Gerba in particular was a beast - and not in a Conner Casey use your body and physical strength to control the ball and generate chances way, but in a I'm going to knock you down or throw you out of the way and since Terry Vaughn is the ref it won't get called kind of way.

The second half started much the same with Joseph replacing Dube at the start of the second half. Chad Barrett picked up a second yellow in the 50th minute and with a man advantage for 40 minutes, well, I believed the Revs would pick up a couple of goals and get the win. But for the first time in three games the introduction of Joseph did not have the desired effect. It seemed as if he and Jankauskas kept getting in each others way. Chances were wasted and every decision in the final third seemed the wrong one. After Barret was sent off Videra replaced Osei as the Revs went to a three man back line, but still the attack faltered in the final third. It seemed as if everyone was having a bad decision night. Laurentowicz had more then a few chances for one of his trademark blasts from outside the penalty area but passed them up. Mansally took pointless shots when he had viable targets in the box for a cross. And Ralston, Joseph and Jankauskas all seemed more interested in an assist then a goal. Finally Heaps combined with Joseph and Jankauskas with Jankauskas scoring the tying goal. But a second goal proved elusive and the Revs had to settle for a tie. With a man advantage for 40 plus minutes this felt like a loss.

On the other hand the win in Houston against a Dynamo team that hadn't lost at home all year was the kind of tough gritty win that the Revs used to specialize in. The defense was solid all game an in the closing minutes Alston found Ralston with a beautiful pass splitting the defense and Ralston chipped it over Onstad for an easy tap in by Dube. Onstad had kept Houston in the game while the Revs back four (Alston, Barnes, Osei and Tierny) shut down the Houston attack all game. The injection of Joseph at the start of the second half seemed to spark the Revs offense and they were able to get some much needed points on the road. With a couple of games in hand, if the Revs can get full points from those games, they are right in the thick of the playoff picture potentially holding down one of the two automatic conference games.