U.S./Guatemala running blog

World Cup qualifying action begins anew, folks.


------------------------Howard-------------------------
Cherundolo---------Onyewu------Bocanegra ------Pearce
-----------------Bradley--------Mastroeni------------------
----Donovan--------------------------------Lewis-----------
--------------Dempsey------------Ching---------------------

LD is interviewed talking about how qualifying isn't easy. Well, Mexico not making the Olympics might attest to that, but we'll see.

Guatemala

Ricardo Trigueno
Yony Flores, Gustavo Cabrera, Mario Rodriguez, Freddy Garcia, Guillermo Ramirez,
Luis Rodriguez, Fredy Thompson, Jose Manuel Contreras, Carlos Ruiz

David Beckham and England already played, of course. He assisted on a goal. Now the other two members of the Galaxy face off.
Guatemala's fans look pretty ardent in the stands. There's a shot of Ruiz carrying his soccer escort. I don't know what that's about. Stage fright?
The sound is cutting out. I thought Harkes was awful quiet. There's a lonely little American fan holding his flag out. Oh wait, there's a little group singing along to the anthem. Nice. They get soundly booed, but are otherwise left alone.
Carlos and the Guats are singing along to their anthem, a pretty bouncy tune, if a bit repetitive.
Kickoff!
1- Is Harkes doing commentary by phone? His voice is very disembodied and the sound doesn't match Glenn Davis.
2 - FK for the U.S. - LD takes, but a foul in the area leads to a mishit header by Bradley and a foul. Goal kick.
3 - What the heck happened to Gooch? The facial hair looks like a mangy animal attacked him. Pearce is fouled by Ruiz.
5 - Harkes predicts, shockingly, that the U.S. will win.
6 - Lewis is down after a deep run on the left.
7 - Dempsey tries to go around his defender by pulling his shoulder, but Harkes, for some reason, harps on the fouling tactics ofGuatemala.
8 - Or maybe he was being prophetic, as Pando brings down LD. Lewis serves the ball in, but Guatemala clear.
10 - Ramirez with about eight dribble moves too many and then a horrible shot from outside that misses badly. That should look familiar to Galaxy fans, circa 2005.
11 - Ruiz is barking at the ref already. Harkes means to say "resort", but it comes out "result".
12 - Nice flick from Dempsey to LD, but a desperate tackle saves Guatemala there.
13 - Davis and Harkes debate the LD as right midfielder issue. Davis is subtly skeptical of it.
Ruiz gets called for offside.
14 - Mo Edu bench shot, and his transfer comes up. The pride of the IE now plays for Rangers.
16 - I can't believe Davis just said the U.S. has started well, and Harkes agrees. No they haven't. They're created very few chances and imposed no superiority at all.
17 - And now 'Dolo picks up a silly yellow, tossing the ball away after a foul. Dude, that's just lame (Dolo knows what I mean, he's from San Diego).
18 - Harkes gives Arena his endorsement, refers to him and Dave Sarachan as "winning coaches". Yes, they are - winning coaches who were fired from New York and Chicago, respectively.
20 - LD crosses - it's out for a corner. The U.S. take it, Trigueno pushes the ball away. Harkes calls him "stone hands".
21 - Loco Rodriguez gets behind the defense, but touches the ball too far. Goal kick.
23 - Davis can't wrap his head around "anthracite" so he calls the U.S. uniforms gray that looks like dark blue.
Harks correctly diagnoses that Bradley and Mastro aren't shutting down the midfield.
24 - LD steps on Pando. And the picture cuts out briefly.
25 - Rodriguez gets behind the defense again, but Boca cuts off his cross.
26 - Boos rain down as the U.S. passes the ball around in the back.
27 - Dempsey from distance, it was Pando-like. Speaking of Pando, he tackles Dempsey late and Clint, sock-pushes him. Pando goes down like he's been shot. Both get yellows. Demps follows Pando around a bit, but they eventually hug it out.
29 - Bradley from distance. Trigueno isn't that bad of a keeper.
30 - Howard catches a Guat cross. I think Guatemala has gotten more crosses into the box than the U.S. has.
31 - Ching is offside - which is the first mention of his involvement, really.
34 - Mastro gets a yellow for a tackle on Ruiz.
38 - Ching earns a free kick. It's deep, but I mention it because, well, he was mentioned.
39 - And Ching gets a shot off, taking the ball off his chest and turning to shoot. Not too close as it whizzed over the bar, but the closest chance of the game thus far.
40 - Guatemala fans want a handball called on Pearce, but the ref waves play on.
41 - Ball in the box, but Dempsey can't get a shot off. Better from the U.S., though.
43 - Boca screws 'Dolo by keeping a Gallardo onside, but then makes up for the gaffe by disrupting the cross to Ruiz.
44 - Trigueno makes a shaky basket catch in the box.
45 - Ruiz tries to find the outlet man, but Pearce gets in the way.
Halftime
It's not that the U.S. is tied that's the problem. It's that they've looked pretty poor going forward, really. Three U.S. players also have yellow cards, and that's just asking for trouble in the second half.
49 - Guatemala has come out tough in the second half. The U.S is countering when they can.
50 - But now Guatemala counters and the ball gets into the box, where Boca again gets a timely toe on a ball meant for Ruiz.
52 - FK for the U.S. It's a ways out, but the U.S. sets up in the box. The ball gets there, but Guatemala heads it away.
55 - Howard grabs a long pass away from Rodriguez, who has some serious wheels. Harkes bawls out Pearce for turning his back on the keeper.
56 - Rodriguez gets a shot off, Howard dives and misses but the ball is wide.
57 - Now Guatemala is just teeing up on Howard. That shot just misses. The U.S. midfield isn't holding the ball at all.
60 - Another FK for the U.S. as 'Dolo commits another foul - ooh, it's a yellow, which means 'Dolo is gone. I knew that earlier card was a stupid move on his part. Now the U.S. might pay dearly. They've been pushed back even while the numbers were even.
62 - Lewis is down, with blood everywhere. He got to the ball on a header, and I don't know why Cabrera even went for the ball - he wasn't even close.
64 - Well, now Cabrera pays the price. He gets red and is gone. His elbow came up on the play. Teams are even steven again.
66 - Lewis trudges off to the lockers. He was stretchered off the field.
68 - Contreras gets yellow for not backing up ten yards on the FK. LD serves it in well, and Gooch sends a header to goal. Trigueno pushes it over the bar.
69 - GOAL! Bease sends in the corner and Boca gets to it, even as Gooch is pulled down hard. Boca nails his header into the corner of the goal. 1-0, U.S.
73 - Didn't mention it before, but Hejduk is on, as is Damarcus Beasley.
74 - Off a corner kick, Guatemala's Flores strikes - over the bar. Wow.
77 - An energetic attacking sequence by Guatemala results in a corner.
78 - Maurice Edu comes in for Mastro. The Ck goes to Castrillo, who shoots hard, but Howard is on it.
80 - Boca slips! Ruiz nearly through.
82 - Ruiz goes into the ball after Howard has claimed it, gets him on the head. Howard gets up and goes after Ruiz, gets a yellow.
84 - Ching hits a square pass to Edu, who shoots with his left. It's wide but it was a half-decent chance to put the game away.
85 - Who's your Pappa? Marco's just come on for Guatemala.
88 - Pappa shoots high. The U.S. is holding on for a historic win.
89 - Or not. Guatemala has a corner. Pappa with another shot, but Howard scoops it up.
90 - Rodriguez kicks the ball right into Pearce, who looks worn out by chasing him. Guat fans want a handball.
90+ Guatemala attacking furiously. The U.S. is trying to clear, but the ball isn't getting out very far.
U.S. is yielding everything but goal area to the Guats. Gooch cuts off a pass to Ruiz with a defensive header. Bradley cuts off a pass and relieves the pressure on the U.S. briefly.
Final whistle! Guatemala run out of time.
The crowd is screaming bloody murder. Flores is furious. It doesn't amount to much, though. The U.S. team goes to wave at their little group of fans.
The defense got it done tonight, specifically Boca with the goal and Howard with a few timely saves. It's interesting that the U.S. finally win in Guatemala in a game where they didn't play all that well. They gutted it out, though, and that's what road World Cup qualifying games are all about.

Capture the flag

I had an assignment for a soccer match today, but it wasn't Chivas USA versus the Revs. I was covering the Guatemala/El Salvador friendly for the Associated Press. It was my first AP assignment, and I was too nervous to even keep a running blog.
That's because this exhibition had no one taking stats like at MLS games, so I had to track everything myself. Turns out that there was only one main stat that mattered - 0 - as in zero goals. A scoreless draw.
But there was a little extra action in the match. At the start of the game, fans from both teams presented giant flags as part of the on-field ceremony. The flags were then sent into the stands to travel a bit before being displayed near the main fan sections so they could be called into service for celebration whenever either side scored.
That was the idea, at least, but the fan groups were very mixed and El Salvador's decided not to cooperate. They wouldn't pass the Guatemalan flag at all. It didn't get very far in the journey of the stands. The El Sal fans pulled it down and tried to stuff it under the seats. The PA announcer asked for people to pass the Guate flag back to the front so it could be displayed. A few Guate fans tried to transport it and were hit with beer cups for their efforts. The flag was also doused with a lot of beer by the Salvadoran fans. A big tug-of-war broke out for the flag and part of it tore. Finally, one guy just stuffed the entire flag into a huge pile and walked away with it. I still don't know if he was rescuing it, or taking it to burn in a bonfire or what. The Guatemalan flag didn't reappear, though. So while the match was a scoreless draw, the game of capture the flag had a clear winner, even if they won by being bad sports.
El Salvador flag


Both on display
The Guatemalan flag didn't survive much longer than this

Guatemala wons

It's not often that Luis and I both miss an international match played in LA, but we weren't at the Coliseum for this one.

Argentina's near

Earlier this week, Argentina released their roster for an upcoming friendly against Guatemala. On Feb. 6, Argentina will play Guatemala at the LA Memorial Coliseum.

Argentina spared no expense in calling in a star-studded roster, which includes Juan Roman Riquelme, Javier Mascherano and Sergio Aguero, not to mention up-and-comers in Gonzalo Higuain and Fernando Gago, among others. The match falls on an international fixture date, which allowed Argentina to call in a mostly European-based squad.

I'm hoping to be at the game as it's not often you get to take in Argentina in person, at least not here in the United States.

Still, I can't help but thinking... the U.S. is playing Mexico that same night, in Houston. Wouldn't the U.S. be better off playing Argentina than Mexico? Sure, a rivalry match is always an enjoyable one but why not test your mettle against one of the best nations in the world?

U.S.-Mexico will undoubtedly be a good game. There will be moments of drama and (probably) pulsating goals. The action will likely go back and forth and few will complain about the entertainment value of the match once its over (though the result will likely irritate one group of fans).

But Argentina is Argentina, and wouldn't a friendly against them be better for the U.S. than another match against Mexico?

Now, I've often been supportive of U.S.-Mexico games, and still am. I think it's one of those things that you can't get enough of, for all the things I've said prior. But Mexico is close by. A two- or three-hour flight from Mexico City to American soil is usually all it takes for El Tri to arrive. Argentina is quite a bit further, especially when you consider most of their players are based in the Old World. That Argentina is willing to come to the United States to play against Guatemala seems a bit strange. I mean, if they are willing to come play Guatemala - all the way in Los Angeles - surely they'd be willing to play the United States here, no? Why didn't the U.S. make a greater push to play against Argentina?

Anyway, here's what the U.S. missed out on:

Goalkeepers: Oscar Ustari (Getafe, Spain), Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar, Netherlands).

Defenders: Pablo Zabaleta (Espanyol, Spain) , Ezequiel Garay (Racing Santander, Spain), Federico Fazio (Sevilla, Spain), Martin Demichelis (Bayern Munich, Germany), Cristian Ansaldi (Rubin Kazan, Russia).

Midfielders: Fernando Gago (Real Madrid, Spain), Ever Banega (Valencia, Spain), Jose Sosa (Bayern Munich, Germany), Javier Mascherano (Liverpool, England), Damian Escudero (Velez Sarsfield), Juan Roman Riquelme (Boca Juniors).

Strikers: Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid, Spain), Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid, Spain), Angel Di Maria (Benfica, Portugal), Ezequiel Lavezzi (Napoli, Italy), Marco Ruben (River Plate).

Technicality

Toward the end of Wednesday's Mexico-Guatemala match, I looked at a list of Mexico's all-time results to see previous Mexico-Guatemala results. I couldn't remember a time that Guatemala had beaten Mexico and then I figured out why. The last time Guatemala beat Mexico was in 1969, a bit before my time.

I spread the word to other reporters so we could all use that little bit of info in our stories. Apparently, though, someone disputed that with Jaime Cardenas of the LA Times. Seems that some Guatemalans reminded Jaime of Guatemala's win over Mexico in 1998. My first reaction was "Shit! How could I have gotten that wrong?"

But I hadn't.

I don't remember the game but the readers said Guatemala beat Mexico in penalties in 1998. On that list above, it has a game in 1998 that ended in a 2-2 draw. Technically, games that go to penalties are draws regardless of the outcome.

So I didn't screw it up after all. Though they both count as draws, penalty-kick wins in tournaments are one thing but to win a friendly in PKs is hardly a win.

Not so peor

What was that about Guatepeor? Guatemala was better than Mexico for one night. It was Guatemala's first win over Mexico since 1969, a bit before my time.

Match reports from Jaime Cardenas of the LA Times, Ivan Orozco of the Daily News and yours truly for the Press-Enterprise.

Crazy

I guess that would sum up the match. Crazy. Six red cards. Each team ends up with nine men. Guatemala scores early, Mexico answers, Guatemala ties it and then wins it while a man up and Mexico's late rally falls short.

Of course, I had Mexico winning 2-0. Guess I'm glad I didn't put any money on it.

Coliseum crowd count

The attendance for the Mexico-Guatemala match: 42,349.

That's 15,349 more than Home Depot Center but this game would have been waaaaay better at HDC. I mean, it's better to have 100 percent seats filled instead of 50 percent of them sitting empty.

"For being such a good girl, honey"

I guess the people running the stadium sound system here wants to lull the crowd somewhat.

After Guatemala and Mexico took the field, some Shakira songs came over the PA system.

Kinda strange seeing Mexico and Guatemala running through their pre-game warmups with Shakira's "Underneath Your Clothes" playing loudly.

Fight on

I have my camera with me but I got a new memory card recently and for some reason I can't download it directly to the laptop. I have to use the base and a lot of wires and crap that I don't have, so you might have to wait a day for some pictures.

But I can tell you about my first impression from the stadium here as we get ready for Mexico-Guatemala. If my kiss of death earlier doesn't sink Mexico in, perhaps the locals' will. The huge "Trojans SC" logo is quite visible in the center circle as are the "USC" marks on each end zone.

The collegiate football hosts here have played like crap recently right here in this building, and perhaps that my carry over to the "hosts" in the futbol soccer part.

There's quite a few blue flags here right now so at the very least we should have a good atmosphere. I'm a bit disappointed, however, that a somewhat small crowd is expected. The chatter here is that there will be somewhere around 30-40,000 here tonight. I was thinking upwards of 50,000 or more but apparently Hugo Sanchez's first game as Mexico coach in LA isn't as big as I assumed.

GC Obit: Guatemala

Guatemala is out of the Gold Cup. The chapines' final performance was awful as Guatemala lost 3-0 to Canada. But overall Guatemala showed that they have the makings of something decent.

The main reason to have hope is Hernan Dario "Bolillo" Gomez who knows how to manage international teams at the highest level. In 1997, Gomez guided his native Colombia to the 1998 World Cup finals. But Gomez had a far more challenging task ahead of him when he took over as Ecuador boss in 1999. Ecuador had virtually no soccer history at the time but Gomez achieved what had never been done before as Ecuador qualified for its first-ever World Cup.

Like in 98, Gomez's team did not survive the first round in 2002. But in Japan, Ecuador did well nonetheless. The team was outclassed in an opening 2-0 loss to Italy. Against Mexico, Agustin Delgado scored early but Mexico came back and won 2-1. Ecuador had no chance of advancing out of the first round by the team they lined up against Croatia but Ecuador didn't just roll over. They beat Croatia 1-0; had Croatia won, they would have advanced.

Gomez left Ecuador after the 2004 Copa America but he didn't leave the cupboard bare. Ecuador reached the second round of the 2006 World Cup before losing to England 1-0.

Gomez may be one of the top coaches in CONCACAF. He's led two teams to the World Cup finals and knows what that involves and how to prepare a team for qualifying.

One critique Gomez had of his team after Guatemala's 1-0 loss to the U.S. was the team's fitness level. That may have factored into the loss to Canada as perhaps four games in a 10-day span was perhaps too much to overcome.

Fitness is not the only aspect that needs improvement. Guatemala needs more of its players on foreign leagues. Carlos Ruiz (FC Dallas) and Pablo Melgar (Antofagasta, Chile) are the only two players from its Gold Cup roster that play outside of the country. It's unclear how much influence Gomez has in sending players abroad; perhaps that's something the federation has to pursue but regardless that is vital to their future success.

Still, with one year remaining until the start of World Cup 2010 qualifying, Guatemala is in as good a position as they could hope to be.

Floppin' Fish

Carlos Ruiz was asked about the United States' central defensive pair of Carlos Bocanegra and Oguchi Onyewu. He didn't exactly man up to his dives.


"If I wasn't getting knocked down by Bocanegra, I was getting knocked down by Onyewu."

Post-match thoughts

The U.S. started defense of their Gold Cup title successfully with a 1-0 win over Guatemala. But there is plenty of room for improvement going forward. The game wasn't pretty and by the end it seemed the U.S. just wanted to escape with their three points, which is what ended up happening.

Some thoughts on the match:

- Oguchi Onyewu did not play a great game. Even before his second yellow, he wasn't the force he needed to be. At times he killed Guatemalan chances but other times he was in bad positions and let himself get into a bad situation on the second yellow. The U.S. will miss his athleticism against Trinidad.

- Carlos Bocanegra wasn't exactly a pillar of strength either. He had a bad clearance attempt that nearly was a Guatemalan goal early in the match. He lost his head a bit and saw yellow after giving away a free kick late in the game. The call was for fouling Carlos Ruiz, a call that was absolute garbage, but Bocanegra needs to be better than snapping at the referee especially while wearing the captain's armband.

- Taylor Twellman got the start for a couple of reasons. First, Bradley said he wanted Eddie Johnson to have a couple more days to rest up for Trinidad even though he came on late in the match. He was probably planning on starting one forward in one game and another in the other. He also said that the Guatemala game was "tailor-made for Taylor," then laughed and apologized for the pun. It really was a game that Twellman could have shined in. He had a great assist on Dempsey's goal but Twellman missed an open header late in the first half that could have broken the game open. Landon Donovan crossed into the box and Twellman ran onto it and slammed a header on frame but the ball went over the crossbar. I contended that if he was wearing a Revolution jersey, there is no way that ball wouldn't have found the back of the net. For some reason, though, that stuff happens to him in a U.S. jersey. He could be such a dangerous weapon for the U.S. if he could put shots on frame.

- I don't know if it was intentional but Landon Donovan out on the right was not as effective weapon he could have been had he roamed more. I don't know if he had the freedom to move around or not but he stayed on the right side quite a bit. Overall, the flank play was the difference in the game so it could have had an overall positive affect but Donovan seemed to be too tied down to that side of the field. There's no way of knowing what would have happened had Gooch not got sent off but I think Bradley was going to put Donovan up top when he subbed in Steve Ralston and maybe that could have led to a late counterattack opportunity for Donovan. Still, he had some good crosses and runs and he did well on the set pieces.

- The young guys held their own. Michael Bradley, Benny Feilhaber and Jonathan Bornstein all played well enough to maintain their starting spots - fitness setbacks aside - for Saturday's match. Bradley was very active in the middle of the field and Feilhaber did well on the ball while Bornstein did a good job on, uh, that Guatemalan forward, whatever his name was, number 11 I think. Bornstein gave away a few inches and pounds to that guy but still did well. He also started the goal-scoring play when he fed DaMarcus Beasley, who then fed Twellman and then Dempsey.

- The crowd was very loud and very pro-Guatemalan. Frankie Hejduk, though, didn't mind or notice really. He told the San Diego Union-Tribune's Mark Zeigler: "I'm so used to it by now. It doesn't even faze me. I'd rather have 20,000 Guatemalans and have a full stadium than have 5,000 people here and the stadium be empty. This is what we play for. This is what we live for, having a little pressure."

Respect for the rival

Guatemala coach Hernan Dario Gomez has some deep respect for the U.S. national team.

"I always say that this rival is one of the best I’ve faced. I like watching the United States play. It’s an opponent who is tactically sound and very fast and they know how to play with the ball."

He also said he took his lumps like other countries had but his were not quite as bad.

"Ecuador came here and got a beating. Mexico came here and got a beating. China came here and got the same. I also took mine but at least I lost by just one and that’s going to help us going forward."

Fightin' Fish

I followed Andrea's lead and scoured the web for some of Guatemala's thoughts on their encounter against the U.S. I found a good story on prensalibre.com about Carlos Ruiz, a player I've interviewed many times. I know Galaxy fans will always have fond memories of "Pescadito" for what he did in 2002 and during his entire time with the Galaxy.

In fact, his MLS career apparently led him to gain quite a bit of respect for the U.S.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised then when he told Prensa Libre that the U.S. es la mejor seleccion de la CONCACAF por mucho.