Alain!!!

(Thanks to east river for tipping us off to this)

Alain Nkong is a hero. That's official. The well-traveled Nkong came off the bench for his native Cameroon and scored the match-winner in Cameroon's 1-0 win over Ghana on Thursday. The win propels Cameroon through to the final and knocks out the host nation in gut-wrenching fashion.

Nkong, of course, was not good enough to play for the Colorado Rapids but helped Atlante win the Mexican First Division title. Atlante, though, rewarded him by sending him to Leon of the second division, apparently unhappy with Nkong's call-up to Cameroon's national team. However, Nkong balked at the move and will return to Atlante upon completion of the African Nations Cup.

Good for Nkong. It's good to see him succeed, for both club and country.

Road trip!

Galaxy at San Jose - Saturday, June 14 and Sunday, Aug. 3.
Galaxy at Salt Lake - Saturday, May 3

Chivas USA at San Jose - Saturday, Oct. 11
Chivas USA at Salt Lake - Saturday, Sept. 20

Anybody planning on going on any of these road games? I might have to squeeze in the Galaxy-San Jose game on Aug. 3.

For planning purposes

Well, the MLS schedule is out so now we know each respective SoCal team's path to the playoffs or to nowhere.

Here's a link to the full league schedule.

Some of the HDC highlights include:

Chivas USA vs Galaxy on Saturday, April 26; Thursday, July 10 and Thursday, Aug. 14. Interestingly, the teams will meet only three times this year as opposed to five times in '05 (four league games plus an Open Cup) and four times the last two years.

Chicago at Chivas USA, Thursday, June 19

Chicago at Galaxy, Thursday, Aug. 21

No scheduled league games at HDC between July 10 and Aug. 14.

Also, thought this was interesting. On Wednesday, Aug. 20, Chivas will play at Houston and D.C. United will play New England. That looks like they're setting up those four teams to participate in the Champions League.

As far as Champions League goes, MLS didn't do Chivas USA any favors. Now, I'm assuming Chivas will have to compete in the preliminary round. So they'll have a game Aug. 26-28 and another Sept. 2-4. Well, they play Wed. 8/20 at Houston, Sat. 8/23 vs San Jose, then a Cup game, Sat. 8/30 vs Toronto, the second leg on 9/2-4 and then AT Toronto on Sat 9/6. So they could conceivably play a Wednesday game in Central America and a game four days later in Canada. Nice. Then, if they advance to the group stage, they could be faced with some adverse travel itineraries. They play at New England (9/11), at Salt Lake (9/20), at DC (10/4) and at San Jose (10/11) during the group stage.

The Galaxy's schedule is fairly consistent. That is, it's not spring-light, fall-heavy like a year ago.

When next they meet

The United States and Mexico might not play again this year. With World Cup qualifying taking up a chunk of the fall, and other friendlies against other opponents slated for the spring and early summer, it's doubtful the U.S. and Mexico would line up another friendly in 2008. Of course, I can't rule anything out because they seem eager to meet these days, and by "they" I mean the respective federations.

But there will be two U.S.-Mexico games in 2009. Barring an unforeseen and improbable collapse in the semifinal World Cup qualifying phase, the U.S. and Mexico will meet twice in the CONCACAF hexagonal. One game will probably be in Estadio Azteca and the other game will probably be at Columbus Crew Stadium. History would suggest as much.

Now, the draw for the final phase won't be held until the end of this year or early next year, but we already know the dates for all the hexagonal matches. I'm calling my shot right now and expect for the U.S. and Mexico to meet again in March and September, much like they did in 2005. The first matchday is on Feb. 11, but that seems way too soon to have them meet. Plus, it's in the middle of the week and it seems more likely that the first game would be on a weekend. Now, in 2001 the first US-Mexico game was in the middle of the week, but I can't see that happening again.

Much could change between last night's game and the next match. Some players will develop, others will fall off the picture and still others will cement their status as starters. Regardless, the match should have more anticipation and buildup than yesterday's did, as it will be a World Cup qualifier.

For now, CONCACAF's two best sides will be busy with other regional rivals, but 2009 will hold a pair of these rivalry matches so start saving your dollars now if you want to go.

Touching a nerve

I guess I pushed some people's buttons with my latest SI.com piece.

I wrote this column on the new CONCACAF Champions League last week for SI.com but the messages keep coming. Some of them have been positive but most haven't been. Some people are just sensitive. I guess that's my conclusion after this wave of responses.

In case you haven't read the column or don't want to click on the link, I wasn't very favorable towards the new tournament. I think it's a flawed tournament and I think it's unnecessary. But I do think it's got its good points as well. It will give the chance for some area clubs who don't get publicity or the chance to play against better-known clubs opportunities unseen in parts of this region. I think Chivas or America at some obscure Honduran club could be a good draw for the Central American side. But overall I think the negatives outgain the positives.

Here's just a sampling of the response I got (I'm saving some of the better ones for my next SI.com piece):

(This one just came in on Wednesday night, from some irate fan in D.C.; not sure how the national teams came into play)

You're an ass. Your contempt and lack of respect for the MLS is not too obvious. Look at the Super Liga results when the MLS teams were not in preseason. If it were not for some fortunate refereeing, the mexican teams would have been shut out completely. Oh, did I hear somebody whine about it being the Mexican preseason?? How does a league that has only been in existense for 11 years compete on par with the "mighty" mexican league? Are you feeling good about the 2-2 tie agianst the US? Got news for you. The first Mexico goal was offsides and the call on the Dempsey goal was crap. One more thing...2-0....bite me.

(Here's a pleasant succinct response, from some person in Alaska)

Bueno, you are an absolute idiot, go back to mexico.

(Note: I would, but I was born in Orange, California, so I suppose I should go back to the OC)

(This reader, from Baltimore, apparently felt I was too mean to the Guatemalan defense; I don't know, I'd call it a bit dead-on, considering Wednesday's result)

"This new tournament, though, has far more questions than answers and more holes than the Guatemalan national team's defense." -- Try to keep your derogatory comments for yourself.

(This reader, from Virginia Beach, actually put some thought into his response, unlike the Alaskan)

I'm pretty sure that you will offend some supporters of the MLS so let me give you credit for a good observation. While MLS has represented themselves well on "Friendlys" against European teams it has not collected any hardware since I don't know when (I just know it was the Galaxy a while back). We still don't know what the criteria for representing MLS in the Superliga but some how LA Galaxy will fit in. It is obvious that the goal of this tournament is more commercial than seeking a true champion of the region. With that said, how are the teams that will partake on the current championship format will do? I mean does it have any value of importance now that a bigger tournament with the same purpose will be played later year?

(And I get some support, from a reader in Dallas)

Nice article, I couldn't agree more! I think the big reason that MLS has so many spots is $$...CONCACAF has this tournament in mind (like most) with an eye towards what Mexico and the U.S. prefer. If you aren't one of those two countries then you're probably going to have any requests and hopes fall on deaf ear. I for one, really enjoyed the "Superliga" matches between Mexican sides and MLS sides and I thought the U.S. sides acquitted themselves nicely in that competition.

(But easily the best response comes from John, location unknown. John, your strength and courage in sending me this is admirable; I mean, it takes a man to send this type of response to someone)

Fuck off beaner.

(Some people take this stuff just a little too seriously)

Schedule coming soon

The U.S.-Mexico game is behind us now and we (MLS fans) can start to turn our attention back on our league. There won't be any games today but today is nevertheless a big day. MLS will release the schedule for the 2008 season.

Off the top of my head, here are some of the games to be played at HDC that I'm most looking forward to.

- Chicago Fire vs. LA Galaxy - I've had this game circled on my calendar since the Fire visited Chivas USA last season

- Chicago Fire vs Chivas USA - A Blanco double dose and one of Chivas' few guaranteed sellouts

- Chivas USA vs LA Galaxy - Four times is too many for this rivalry. I'd love to see just two of these games a year, so the electricity and anticipation builds up. Still, the games should be good.

- Red Bulls vs Chivas/Galaxy - Jozy! Angel!

- Houston vs Chivas USA - These matchups are always good. Let's hope it comes earlier in the year than last season, when Houston closed out the year here.

- DC vs LA Galaxy - Last year's league matchup stunk but the SuperLiga was a memorable one. It'll be strange to see DC visit without Christian Gomez pulling the strings.

Anyway, there is always one thing I look forward to when the schedule is released. I always hope that MLS does not overload the schedule when the US national team plays. Now, friendlies can fall out at any time and if MLS games are already slated to be played, there's not much that can be done. But in November I posted this item about CONCACAF's World Cup qualifying schedule.

To refresh everyone's memory, these are the dates for World Cup qualifying slated for this year:

Sunday, June 15
Wednesday, Aug. 20
Saturday, Sept. 6
Wednesday, Sept. 10
Saturday, Oct. 11
Wednesday, Oct. 15
Wednesday, Nov. 19

(There's one more fixture date sometime in June, US at Barbados/Dominica, not sure if that's been finalized)

So let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that the dates don't conflict with MLS games.

My guess is that they will have a full weekend of games on all the Saturday/Sunday fixture dates. Let's hope MLS proves me wrong.

Media reports

Some stories from last night's match.

Grahame Jones of the LA Times writes about Jozy Altidore and his beauty of a goal.

Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports also penned his column on the young Red Bull star, and lets us know what Altidore said to Rafael Marquez to draw a smile from the Mexican defender.

The Houston Chronicle provides quite a bit of coverage on the match, which drew 70,103. Bernardo Fallas provides the match report while they also provide a photo gallery as well as a short video with interviews of players and fans. Not sure why they only talked to Stuart Holden (who didn't play) and Rico Clark but it's worth a watch.

And here's SI.com colleague Grant Wahl's take on the match.

And here's Jaime's match report from the Argentina-Guatemala contest. The game drew around 35,000 which is a lot more than I'd expected. I wasn't there, but I'm guessing the crowd didn't seem as big, as the Coliseum holds around 95,000 or so. Had the match been at HDC, it would have been a sellout and the stadium would have had a great atmosphere, more than (I'm guessing) there was at the game last night. Oh well.

HDC qualifier

In the run-up to the U.S.-Mexico match, I missed this note and hadn't had a chance to put it up until now.

The U.S. will host a World Cup qualifier on June 15 at Home Depot Center. The match will be against either Barbados or Dominica, neither of whom apparently have an overwhelming population of ex-pats in Southern California. Otherwise, the match may have been elsewhere.

This could be the only World Cup qualifier the United States plays, if results don't go the United States' way. Of course, the odds of that happening would be around 150000 to 1.

Other CONCACAF games

U.S.-Mexico may have dominated most of our thoughts tonight but there were other regional games of interest. Okay, "of interest" might seem too strong a phrase but nonetheless here are the scores.

Unlike U.S.-Mexico, these weren't friendlies but rather World Cup qualifiers. Not that any of these teams have a chance of making it...

Belize 3, St. Kitts and Nevis 1
Netherlands Antilles 1, Nicaragua 0
Dominica 1, Barbados 1
Antigua and Barbuda 3, Aruba 0
Turks and Caicos 2, St. Lucia 1
El Salvador 12, Anguilla 0, yes, 12

And other friendlies involving CONCACAF nations

Jamaica 1, Costa Rica 1 (Tyrone Marshall with the late equalizer for Jamaica)
Haiti 1, Venezuela 1

Honduras 2, Paraguay 0 (Amado Guevara with a goal)

ADD: Okay, that last result surprised the hell out of me, so I wanted to find out the lineups and who played in that game. Here they are. The game was in San Pedro Sula, incidentally.

Honduras: Gaston Bodden; Victor Bernardez, Sergio Mendoza (Mariano Acevedo, 61), Mayner Figueroa; Osman Chvez, Ramon Nunez (Jhony Calderon 84), Amado Guevara (Carlos Oliva, 70), Hendry Thomas, Danilo Turcio (Melvin Valladares, 78); Carlos Costly (Wilmer Brown, 78), Walter Martinez.

Paraguay: Aldo Bobadilla; Marcos Caceres (Enrique Meza, 58), Julio Manzur (Dario Veron, 68), Paulo da Silva, Edgar Balbuena (Carlos Bonet 68); Sergio Aquino, Victor Caceres (Edgar Gonzalez 77), Jonathan Santana, Nelson Romero, Oscar Cardozo (Pablo Zeballoas, 64), Dante Lopez (Manuel Maciel 56).

LATE ADD:

Here's a complete shock to absolutely nobody.

Argentina 5, Guatemala 0. Goals from Higuain (2), Lavezzi, Ruben and Maidana.

5. Argentina: Oscar Ustari; Pablo Zabaleta (m.67, Jonathan Maidana), Martín Demichelis, Federico Fazio, Damián Escudero (m.86, Angel Di María); Ever Banega, Javier Mascherano, José Sosa (m.46, Cristian Ansaldi); Juan Román Riquelme; Gonzalo Higuaín y Ezequiel Lavezzi (m.84, Marco Ruben). Seleccionador: Sergio Batista.

0. Guatemala: Luis Pedro Molina (m.46, Ricardo Trigueño); Yoni Flores, Pablo Melgar (m.73, Cristian Noriega), Jaime Vides (m.56, José López), Gustavo Cabrera; Leonel Noriega, Fredy Thompson, Rigoberto Gómez (m.60, Selvin Motta), Marvin Ávila, José Contreras; y Mario Rodríguez. Seleccionador: Hernán 'Bolillo' Gómez (ECU).

Post-game

First off, thanks to Andrea for a great running blog.

The result, of course, was 2-2. Not sure if the U.S. deserved the win but ultimately I too felt it was a pretty fair result. Mexico had the majority of possession and the U.S. barely had enough energy to finish the game. Their possession was non existent the last 15-20 minutes, really.

As far as the U.S. goes, I think there were more negatives than positives. Ramiro Corrales and Drew Moor had a collectively terrible game, and upped the stock of Jonathan Bornstein and Steve Cherundolo, respectively. Corrales was shaky with the ball and was lost at times while Moor was downright ineffective on the set pieces. Moor did serve a nice ball to Altidore, however, but his defensive shortcomings were not canceled out on that one play.

Landon Donovan was nowhere to be found. I don't remember him doing anything worthwhile the last 60 minutes or so. Clint Dempsey was ineffective as well. However, I'm still waiting to see a replay of his goal to see if it was really offside. Michael Bradley was also ineffective.

Oguchi Onyewu showed his downside as well, giving up fouls outside the box. He's still a good central defender but isn't the pillar of strength Carlos Bocanegra is.

Tim Howard showed why he's the number one goalkeeper. His diving, twisting save on Fernando Arce's shot was class.

As far as Mexico goes, Guillermo Ochoa is still young. I'd fault him for the first goal, as he wildly came off his line and was in bad position overall on Onyewu's goal. He couldn't do a damned thing on Altidore's goal so that one's not his fault.

Pavel Pardo upped his own stock. His set piece ability is still there, but I'm not sure I like him paired with Gerarod Torrado in the middle of the field.

Adolfo Bautista also breathed life into his own national team future. He was a beast out there.

Jonny Magallon is the defensive revelation under Hugo Sanchez. Obviously, he's not a goal scorer but his ability on set pieces showed.

Mexico had plenty of possession but again slipped into their previous mode of relying on set pieces for offense. Mexico had often relied heavily on corner kicks and free kicks instead of mounting attacks and scoring in the run of play. Part of that was Tim Howard, as he made some good saves, but Mexico should have created more chances and scored at least once in the run of play.

Overall, the match was entertaining and lived up to the hype, though the U.S. could have shown better for itself. And now the series has its first draw since 2003, and the first 2-2 draw since 1997. Four goals is the most that have been scored between the two teams since the aforementioned match, a World Cup qualifier played in Foxboro, Mass.

U.S. Mexico running blog

Anthems. The Mexican fans in the stadium sing along. Now it's the U.S. - I hear a few fiesty voices singing.

--------Altidore-----Dempsey-----------
Convey---------------------------Donovan
------------Bradley----Clark-----------------

Corrales------------------------------Moor
----------Bocanegra---Onyewu------------
-----------------Howard-------------------
BENCH- Guzan, Parkhurst, Edu, Feilhaber, Lewis, Adu, Noonan

Mexico
-------------Bautista----De Nigris-----------
Vela--------Pardo-----Torrado---------Arce
Castro------Marquez--Magallon----Salcido
------------------Ochoa----------------------
BENCH- Michel, Rojas, Pinto, Cacho, Dos Santos, Naelson, Villaluz

I'm happy to see Vela and Altidore start. Hope to see Gio and Freddy before this finishes.

I'm also watching Univision, so if the U.S. commentators say anything lame, I won't know it. Right now, the Spanish announcers are calling the teams "the eternal rivals". Huh, I don't think eternal counts the 50 years or so Mexico racked up tons of wins.

Kickoff.

2- Ricardo Clark from long-range. Ugh. He took too long for that shot, and the rebound fell to Mexico.

4- Bofo with a chance, or would have had he been able to reach the ball, Gooch, shoulders him off.

6- Mexico is drawing fouls, the U.S. lack rhythm.
Mexico tries to build an attack - ball is out for a goal kick.

8- Castro breaks up a good US attack taking the ball off the foot of Convey.

9- They're making fun of Landon's shoes on the freekick. Donovan then lays the ball off for Dempsey, but his shot bounces out to Vela for a counter. The defense manages to scramble back and cover.

11- The U.S. is breaking up the Mexico attack, but not generating any of its own.

13- The announcers are discussing Rafa Marquez. Apparently he's more mature and composed these days. Clint with a tricky, scrappy play. The announcers get confused and call him Convey.

14- Rico with a nice attack, but loses the ball on the cross.

15- In honor of Taylor Twelman, who strained his groin and can't play, Vela is wearing his jersey kinda tight.

16- Jozy runs over Rafa Marquez. He's such a big kid. A great threat up top. The foul negates the breakaway.

17- Long ball over the top for De Nigres. Bocanegra is defending and Tim Howard cleans him out making the grab. Ouch.

20- Ramiro Corrales fouls Bofo - FK about ten yards from the box. Chance for Mexico. Howard was pissed - the wall of Rico and Jozy didn't move for the longest time, though he was yelling at them. The crowd noise might have drowned him out.

22- Nice shot from near the top of the box - Salcido, but Howard saves. De Nigris takes a shot soon after, slips his defender and shoots, but another save by Howard.

24- Vela slips in, gets the ball right in front of goal to Bofo, who tries a cheeky backheel shot that rebounds from Bocanegra to DeNigris, who shoots, hits a defender and the ball goes over the goal. Corner for Mexico. Cleared.

25- No one in the middle of the field is holding the ball for the U.S. Mexico is running the game right now.

27- From a Donovan free throw, Dempsey (I think) takes a shot from a tough angle. Memo saves with confidence.

28 Donovan sends a pass in that Jozy strains his head, but can't quite reach. Corner for U.S. Cleared.

29- GOAL! FT taken by Gooch. He heaves it toward Jozy, but the ball bounces out to Landon, he turns and serves it high back into the box, where Gooch arrives to send a looping header into the goal off the post. Memo didn't have a chance there.

32- Vela into the box before he gets stoped and rolls around for a while. The U.S. counter fizzles.

34- GOAL! Another off a set piece. Corrales gets called for another foul outside the box. Pardo serves a good ball and Jonny Magallon beats his defender, Drew Moor, to the shot, sending it to the roof of the net.

This is like watching the primaries last night. Tit for tat. Round by round.

38- Fernando Arce with a shot after good buildup by Mexico. Howard saves well, full stretch.

40- The action is fierce. Houston is getting compensated in spades for that scoreless match years ago, even if the game remains tied. Mexico is laying seige on Howard's goal. Finally cleared for a counter.

GOAL! Convey passes to Drew Moor, who crosses the ball in and Jozy levitates, heck, he nearly clears out his own teammate, Dempsey, going for the ball. He heads it in past a helpless Memo.

2-1

41- Arce with a shot, Howard full stretch saves.

42- Dempsey! But the goal is waved off, the flag is up.

43- Corrales gives up another FK in the same spot. Howard catches, but I'd bet he's unhappy about those fouls.

45+- Jozy with a sweet turn on the right, but not much of a cross. Just before the whistle, Michael gets called for a foul - drawing yellow.

The Univision reporter is struggling - no one on the Mexican team wants to talk to him.

Halftime - Republica Deportivo's Fernando Fiore is talking about what a great game this is.

Hugo Sanchez isn't making any changes - he says his team is playing well.

2nd Half

46- Like they did in the first half, Mexico comes on on fire early, advancing the ball. Vela takes a shot from near the top of the box. It's wide, though.

47- GOAL! Another attack from Mexico leads to a corner, even as it looks like Bofa put his hand on the ball. The corner is served in and deja-vu. Moor lets Magallon through and he sidefoots it into the goal.

50- I just switched to the ESPN broadcast and the emotion and excitement of the game dropped by 88 percent.

52- Howard catches a long cross, though De Nigris tries to rattle him.

53 - Donovan in the corner, lays the ball back for Moor to cross, Altidore elevates, and it's wide.

54- Howard and De Nigris tangle up, and shove each other. Either the ref doesn't see it, or he lets it go because both players got hits in.

56- Arce with a shot gets Howard diving, but it's wide.

58- De Nigris is providing Mexico with some muscle. He just shoved Gooch, and not a lot of players do that.

60- Bradley with a poor pass, though he wasn't under pressure. Bautista takes advantage, and when Clark comes to help Bradley out, he eludes them, draws a foul. Good place for a FK.
Howard saves it well, though.

62- Vela and Bautista hook up well in the box, but the shot is deflected. Mexico corner. Cleared out.

63- Dempsey and Bradley are out, Freddy and Feilhaber are in.

65- Jozy with a bit of a chance, but the over-the-top pass is too far out and Memo catches it.

68- De Nigris out, Juan Carlos Cacho in.

70- Onyewu tries to tackle the ball away, break up Mexico possession. He gets rung up for a yellow. Convey out for Eddie Lewis. Dangerous FK for Mexico. Bautista out, Zinha in.

71- Marquez gets the free kick through the wall, but the shot is wide.

72- Gio comes on for Vela.

73- Mexico is holding the ball better than the U.S., working the ball around for their chances.

74- Feilhaber holds ball well, draws KF, leads to Landon earning a corner, Adu takes it - gets cleared.

76- Altidore gets a yellow - he's getting frustrated.

77- Mexico with a good run of possession. The U.S. is chasing almost constantly.

78- Bocanegra, last man back, barely gets to a cross to nod it to Howard.

79- Maurice Edu comes in for Rico

80- Onyewu offsides on the free kick.

82- Corrales having a tough game. Landon has also been quiet, but to be fair, he hasn't had much time on the ball on the right.

84- Lewis was offsides, took a tumble, but looks ok. Arce is down now. Feilhaber hurt his hand.

86- Donovan sends in a free kick, it gets cleared for a throw - Onyewu takes it. Lots of scrappy play in the midfield. Arce robs Landon on the wing. More Mexico possession leads to a cross floating out over the goal line.

88- Gio with a great run up the right - Corrales with a hard challenge - gets a yellow. Dangerous FK for Mexico.

90- Onyewu clears it, but Mexico keeps possession.

90+ Villaluz gets a few pity minutes from Sanchez. Watch, I say that, and then he'll score. Gio draws another foul. He's such an exciting player. Great to watch.

Speaking of great to watch. Corrales finally gets a pass up to Freddy, who beats two guys to draw a foul outside the box. Donovan serves the ball in, Magallon, the hero of the night, clears the ball for Mexico, and the final whistle blows.

2-2 A fair result. Mexico looked better much of the game, but they got very lucky that Dempsey's goal was called back.

Jonny Magallon is being interviewed on ESPN. That's cool.

Gio's time has come

He'd like to end the U.S. run.



Talk about how important it is for Mexico to have more European players to face the United States, since they have so many players in Europe.
I think it’s important for our team, to have players developing at that level. For Mexico, it’s important to be able to count on quality players. Everybody has been working very hard and I think that’s good for the team.
A big threat from the U.S. is set pieces, don’t you think?
For the little bit I’ve seen, I think Mexico is solid when defending set pieces. In a game, a lot can happen. I do think that for the U.S., a set piece is a weapon that they put into practice during a game. We have to defend well and concentrate throughout the game.
What does Mexico have to do to beat the U.S.?
We need to defend well and worry about our own game. I think we have great players who are in good form. If we concentrate on our work, we’ll do well.
It’s your first US/Mexico game, your first classico with the senior match with the team, and Mexico hasn’t been successful in those lately.
Yes, well, the truth is that that it’s been hard for Mexico, because we should win. It’s a game that for years has been complicated with losses, and now I think it’s a good time to change that.

Jovenes

Much has been made of Mexico's young stars ahead of tonight's game. Giovani Dos Santos and Carlos Vela have been slapped with the can't-miss tag since 2005 while Nery Castillo, Andres Guardado and Guillermo Ochoa have also been handed the task of carrying this team forward.

But I'd also throw Cesar Villaluz into the mix. Villaluz, who was called in to replace Andres Guardado, is quite a talented player who was also on the 2005 Under-17 team. Villaluz isn't in the same class as Gio and Vela in terms of popularity but is quite a talent. He'll be a dangerous player tonight if he gets the call. He's short but very quick and agile and is could be a handful for U.S. defenders.

As it stands, Zinha is the only player on the Mexican roster to have scored a goal against the U.S. And it's no coincidence that the only Mexican to have scored against the U.S. on American soil since 2000 is Guardado, and that the assist came from Castillo.

Here's a story on the youngsters and what Bob Bradley thinks about them, from Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports.

Golden boys on both sides

Mexico's young players are known as the "Golden Generation". Chief among these guys is Barcelona's Gio Dos Santos. There's also Carlos Vela and Cesar Villaluz.

The U.S. has its own trio of young guns, though. Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore, and Michael Bradley.

I called Thomas Rongen, the U.S. U20 coach who had all these players under his charge at the Youth World Cup this past summer, for his take.

Do you think Freddy and Jozy, in particular, are ready to contribute?

We’ve seen Freddy and Jozy play a big role with the Olympic team, so too some other players who have played well with the Under-20 team, some really exceptional players have moved on to the senior level. I’m pleased to see that Bob has continued to look at younger players and given them an opportunity to be the core group for the next World Cup.

Can you compare them to Gio and Carlos Vela? Any similarities?

They’re a little different. Barcelona plays with three up front. Dos Santos usually plays on one of the two sides. He has a good dribble on the ball. He’s similar to Freddy there. Vela is more of a typical goalscorer. He’s kind of like Jozy there. There are some similarities there. I would like to see how they get utilized by Hugo Sanchez on this team. Systematically, Barcelona plays completely differently than most national teams, so it will be interesting to see if Gio plays up top, if he plays wide, if they are starters or guys that are brought in to increase the pace and represent their country late in games. It will be interesting to see where Sanchez is in terms of where he sees young players, whereas Bob has already done that with Freddy in South Africa.

Does it give Freddy and Jozy an edge - that they've already had senior team experience?

Not necessarily. Experience is big, obviously. It’s important that those players have played with the team to get an understanding of what that level is like, but more so to blend with the group philosophy, both on and off the field. It helps them to fit in, which I think they will. Every time they’ve been challenged on a different level – I think of the Switzerland game - they've learned. They’ll get their number called eventually. It will help them at all levels.

Do Jozy and Freddy understand each other well on the field from their U20 experience?

Yeah. I’d add Michael Bradley to that group – Michael has played with the u20s as well. All three are Bradenton products as well. They’ve played some important youth national team games through the years. Michael is emerging as a proven goalscorer, and could be a provider for Freddy and Jozy as well. If you look at the Brazil game, Freddy had an assist on all of the goals, you hope that that will continue on the next level. But both national teams, they don’t play a lot of games together. These guys come in on Monday and play a game on Wednesday. You’ve got to rely on the player’s understanding of the game in general. At the end of the day, that’s what those guys will use.

Going both ways

In Spanish this time.

The lines that separate us

As a soccer fan, I'm always on the hunt for soccer, whether it's online, on television or in print. Of course, it's always a hunt because if I rely on the typical and popular sports outlet, I'll be left with nothing.

As a soccer journalist, my livelihood depends on the beautful game. My way of life revolves around soccer and I will spend much of my time between now and November around the game.

I find it strange/ironic/irritating that 90 percent of Americans couldn't give a shit about the beautiful game, which is my passion as both a fan and reporter.

At no time is that more pronounced than today, game day of a U.S.-Mexico match. These are special days to me. They don't happen very often (once or twice a year isn't very often) so I treasure them. I can't remember where I was each of my last 10 or 15 birthdays or the details of Thanksgivings or Christmases over the last decade-plus but I can recall with great clarity where I was for every U.S.-Mexico game since 1995. The emotion and passion and electricity produced by these games is, to me, unmatched.

Yet here we are, preparing to go out in the world or deeply immersed in it already, surrounded by people who honestly could not care less. The lady at the front desk, the guard who stands watch over the parking lot, the annoying guy in the next cubicle, the lady at the checkout counter, your boss, none of them gives a rat's ass.

I guarantee most people out there don't even know it's going on, don't know the hatred many Mexican fans feel toward Landon Donovan, don't know that Mexico draws tens of thousands of fans to these games but still can't beat the U.S., don't know that Hugo Sanchez is 0-2 against the U.S. and that Ricardo Lavolpe, Javier Aguirre and Enrique Meza all failed to beat the U.S. on American soil as well, don't know the emotions this game can produce. They don't know what it feels like when your team's ball hits the back of the net and you vibrate in unending joy, or when the other team scores and you feel like your favorite toy just got smashed to a million pieces.

I've been consumed by this game for weeks, by the rivalry for more than a decade. I've been along for the ride in person and via television, as have many of you. I guess that's why I feel a kinship with you guys, because we both understand what this games means. We both get it, even though many of our friends and co-workers most certainly do not.

Whatever happens tonight, whether you are a US fan or a Mexico fan, it's going to be a great game and a fantastic and memorable ride. Dinner, kids, homework, spouses, chores, bills, everything will take a back seat for a couple of hours. We'll all be immersed in the game, and everyone else is just missing out.

Round-up of stories

Just a sampling of the stories out there previewing U.S-Mexico:

- Landon hate is alive and well, according to Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle.

- "A see of green can't drown out Mexico's blues," says Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

- Mexico's the most popular soccer team in the U.S., says Grahame Jones of the LA Times. (link fixed)

- Mexico's new generation may upend the U.S., says the other Luis (or am I the other Luis?), Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune.

- "Wake up, America. You're missing a great rivalry. The United States vs. Mexico, in soccer." Paul Oberjuerge of the San Bernardino County Sun tries to tell non-soccer fans what us soccer lovers are well aware of.

Baby steps

Nike is looking to sell its hockey-equipment division even as it increases spending and investment in soccer-related merchandise. Hmm.

Who is the Giant?

I don't think there's any giant any more - unless they are Gemini giants. But I didn't put together this ESPN Deportes report on the topic.



Desk announcer: Let’s go to our special report on “Who is the Giant of CONCACAF?”
Voiceover: The reality of the past ten years is forceful. The United States has gotten the better of the Mexican team. Coaches from Manuel Lapuente to Hugo Sanchez have been in charge, and none has stopped the domination of the North Americans, who have won eight of the last nine games in their territory.
Daniel Guzman: They’d used to say, “You’re playing the U.S.” and we’d laugh, because we expected to win easily. Now, if we’re talking about the U.S, there’s a little fear and respect. They’ve grown a lot – not only the U.S., but other teams in Central America.
VO: The growth of the U.S. is based on their ambitious focus.
DG: Without a doubt, it’s a great example of their consistency, their perseverance – the project has been to better than any team in the Americas and reach on to be world champions.
VO: Oswaldo Sanchez suffered through the two most recent losses to the U.S. One was in the debut of Hugo Sanchez as coach, the other was in the final of the Gold Cup. The Santos goalkeeper recognizes the improvement of the North Americans.
Oswaldo Sanchez: Yes, in truth, yes. They’ve got a competitive league. For years, we could score many goals against them and now it’s not so easy.
VO: The United States has qualified for the last five World Cups while Mexico, in that same period missed Italy ’90 in the scandal of using overage players. But it’s also a realit that the neighbors of the U.S. have continued to grow their level of soccer.
Miguel Calero: Obviously. The whole world grows. Their soccer has grown, as has that of Costa Rica, Honduras, Salvador, Guatemala, everybody has grown.
Andres Chivita: Sure, everyone has gotten better – the little teams have grown. So it gets more complicated to play them every time.
Fausto Pinto: yes, they’ve grown and worked and have improved. I think Mexico has grown as well. They’ve put themselves closer to that top level of teams in all of the Americas, teams like Argentina. We’ll all growing and doing things better.
VO: In the last few years, the matches between the two teams have been so hotly contested that they’ve become the “classico” of CONCACAF.
OS: Playing against the U.S. is to the death. You’ve got to win that regional matchup, it’s clear. I’m not lying.
Oscar Perez: Yes, but not only against the United States – against Costa Rica, with Honduras – you have to play those to the death, with everything, or it’s going to go over your head. With that mentality, that’s how all the players have to think.
Jose Pekerman: I see a individual competition there that has leveled out recently.
Joaquin Beltran: I do think there’s parity between the U.S. and Mexico. It’s clear that both sides have players in Europe in good leagues, that they have intense games, all the way down to the youth levels.
VO: Despite the statistics, Fausto Pinto believes that the U.S. hasn’t reached the level of Mexico.
FP: I think on the league level, on the national team level, that Mexico has greater importance. We’ve done good things and have worked hard. But they’ve improved a lot in a short amount of time. We respect that. In terms of soccer, though, I still think Mexico is better.
VO: Mexico has the chance to reverse recent poor results against the U.S. Wednesday. Hugo Sanchez has the team capable of doing that.

Debate among the commentators follows.

First day stories

Galaxy opens camp and the local media is there to cover it.

Billy Witz of the Daily News and Grahame Jones of the LA Times were out there, as well as Damian Calhoun of the Orange County Register. Also, Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports was there, though I only caught him from a distance.

It was nice to see the fellas out there, and it was also nice to be one of the smaller guys for a change!

Anyway, there weren't any fans there to get autographs, at least none that I could see. Anyone could have gotten some prime face time with David Beckham and wouldn't have had to have muscled anyone out in the process.

Obviously there was a lot of media there (compared to Chivas' camp where there were four reporters). TV crews were out in full force and there were dozens of reporters. One fellow writer said he was expecting more, however. I think we may get a surge of reporters in the summer, once the Premiership season is over. Euro 2008 will draw British media but with England not around, they may divert some of those resources for Beckham and the Galaxy.

I don't, however, think Beckham will be the media magnet he was last summer, which is a good thing for the Galaxy. Yes, they'll get attention because of Beckham but it won't go from three reporters in one media session to 500 for a press conference a few weeks later.

Put it this way, if Monday is as bad as much of a circus-like atmosphere as it gets this season, it is a good thing.

Leftovers

Didn't get to use this for any stories and the quality of the audio sucks so here's a bit of what David Beckham had to say yesterday about not being in the England squad for Wednesday's game.

I half expected it because I know what Fabio Capello is like as a manager. If he thinks you're not fit and you're not ready to play then he won't put you on the team. I totally respect that and I totally understand that. A lot of the Premiership players have played about 15 games the last two months and I haven't played a game since December, so to be brought into the squad is probably unfair. I've done everything I could to make myself available.

Cardozo in town

Jose Cardozo will be at training today, unless he pulls another no-show. Cardozo was supposed to be at training on Monday but wasn't there. He's supposed to be there today. I can't be there today, however. It would have been nice to talk to Cardozo after training yesterday to see what he's got left.

I'm still skeptical about the whole Cardozo trial but if he's anything Claudio Suarez, who I thought was washed up well before he got here but has proven me quite wrong, then Chivas USA will have themselves a good forward in tow.

Their forwards could actually be a strength. Ante Razov and Maykel Galindo are back, Alecko Eskandarian and Atiba Harris joined and now Cardozo if he makes it can add some punch as well. There's also Anthony Hamilton who just has some raw talent and ability, and Suzuki is there on trial as well. That's good depth to have especially when you consider the busy summer/fall the team will have to contend with.

Trailists

Guys on trial in Galaxy camp. Don't have any more info than names, but maybe someone knows something about these guys.

Gabriel Aikhena, Fed Bianchi, Prince Daye, Richard Duru, Bryan Jordan, Jordan King, Chris Sharpe, Josh Wicks.

My guess is all these guys will be gone sooner rather than later, but it's always good to have guys like these around, for those reserve league games when only five or six healthy bodies are able to participate and you need to fill out the roster, if nothing else.

First day story

It's hard striking a balance sometimes between the two local MLS teams, and it's even more tricky when I have to write one story for both teams. That's what happened yesterday.

Before David Beckham, it was easier to go to two practices. I'd just finish up with one and catch the stragglers from the second. Usually one team starts at 10 and the other at 10:30, so there is time to do both. But now that Beckham is here, I've got to make sure I make it there when he speaks. Otherwise, I miss out.

I barely made it yesterday. He'd already talked to the print media but I jumped in amidst the TV crews. I had to sit through some lame questions but I got what I needed.

In case you're wondering, the lame questions:

- David, you are one of the most famous people in the world. How do you handle that?
- You missed out on the chance to play for your football team but did you watch our football championship yesterday?

Transfer saga

Here's my writeup on the Brad Guzan deal for The Press-Enterprise.

I hope Brad reads this blog, because if he does I'll tell him right now:

DON'T SIGN ANYTHING.

Brad holds all the cards. Barring a catastrophic injury or a severe falling off of form, Guzan will attract a lot of interest overseas. He'd be very attractive next year if he can join a club on a free, and he's under no obligation to help out MLS by signing a contract just so the league can get a transfer fee.

Brad's kind of a company man, always putting the team and club first. It's an admirable quality to have as a teammate but if he carries that over into contracts and business and the like, it wouldn't be beneficial to him at all.

Reunited and it seems so weird

Sampson: That rivalry is always something special. You never know what’s going to happen.
Lalas: It’s more than a game. It’s more than that for the players, for the fans, for the public of both fans. It’s incredible.
Voiceover: 1999 – the year that Mexico last won on American soil. The U.S. Mexico game is now the most important one in CONCACAF and one of the biggest rivalries in the entire continent. Steve Sampson and Alexi Lalas explain why the U.S. dominates locally.
Sampson: Well, first of all, if it’s an important game, the U.S. never plays in Southern California, because there are a lot of Hispanics there. In the second place, the level of the U.S. players has grown substantially. In the third place, it’s not a friendly. They are always games with a lot of importance. So they come with good concentration and they’ve risen to improve the rivalry between the two countries.
Lalas: When Americans want to do something, on the field or off, we do all we can. Now we have player playing in some of the best leagues in the world. We have teams here, in our league, MLS who can play with the top teams in the world. Every year we get better.
Voiceover: The former coach of the U.S. and the former central defender have a favorite game in the rivalry.
Sampson. When we played in World Cup qualifying in 1997,
Lalas: We arrived in Mexico City and we played in Azteca.
Sampson: We played in front of 120,000 people. That was a great day for the U.S., because we had to get at least a point to advance to the next round.
Lalas: We were playing with only ten men early in the game.
Sampson: We tied the match and we achieved our goal of moving on.
Lalas: It was an incredible point. It was an important point, every important.
Sampson: I had goosebumps.
Voiceover: US, mexico, Mexico versus U.S. A rivalry so fierce that it crossed oceans, when the teams met in Korea. It was the most painful loss and the sweetest victory.
Lalas: We won 2-0 at the World Cup. They couldn’t say it wasn’t an important game, they couldn’t say that it wasn’t the strongest team. They can’t say anything. 2-0. Thank-you. Goodbye. Ciao!

New Galaxy go-to guy?

No Joe Cannon. No Chris Albright.

We're left with Peter Vagenas and Chris Klein as the best options to get a sound bite from. I should say too that Landon Donovan is always good to talk to if he's around, of course.

I didn't see Pete on Monday (I got to the Galaxy training a little late). Chris Klein was around, so I said hey and chatted with him for a few minutes. Audio of it here.

No sign of Cubans

Lester More and Osvaldo Alonso aren't part of Chivas USA any more. The two were not among the players in camp on Monday nor are they expected to join camp at any point.

More and Alonso made headlines a year ago when they defected during the Gold Cup and it seemed a natural fit for both after countryman Maykel Galindo had succeeded with Chivas USA.

More and Alonso trained with Chivas USA for the latter part of 2007 but won't be back with the club.

Preki audio

Preki took time out to talk to us today. He talked about Wicky, Cardozo, Panchito, etc.

Here's the audio. The first question is about Raphael Wicky.

First day with Chivas

It was nice to see the guys again. I got a chance to say hello and talk to Ante Razov, Jonathan Bornstein and Jesse Marsch as well as Preki. The team had a lot of new faces and, well, a lot of faces in general. Before I start writing my Press-Enterprise story on the opening of camps, just wanted to get out quickly what struck me the most from Chivas' first day (I did make it to the Galaxy camp and got some stuff from them so that's coming).

- Jose Cardozo was a no show. Preki said he didn't know what happened. He said he was expecting Cardozo to arrive over the weekend and be at training this morning. Preki said he hoped Cardozo would be there on Tuesday or Wednesday.

- Raphael Wicky was there and as Andrea mentioned he's official now.

- Takayuki Suzuki was there too. He's on a trial, unlike Wicky. He scored a goal in the 2002 World Cup for Japan. He was last with Yokohama Marinos, and he's a forward.

- I wanted to talk to Alecko Eskandarian but he slipped by when I was chatting with Razov. Alecko's hair is longer than it has been so I had a hard time finding him during the training session. Plus I kept looking for the guy with the headgear but he didn't have it on.

- Aside from Brad Guzan, there are no goalkeepers on the roster. None of the goalies out there are there because they have a contract.

Girls gone wild

No, it's not that sort of post, and I do realize this is a soccer blog, but I'm a sports fan in general, and I always watch the SuperBowl. This year, though, was the first time I watched it with only female friends.
"You're actually going to watch the game?" Kim said incredulously.
"Isn't that the point?" I was confused.
"I never watch the game - I just visit and try the food," Kim stated.
Rachel was more willing to give the NFL a try. "Who do you want to win?" she asked me.
"The Giants," I answered, then left the room to bring in the mango salsa. When I got back, she was hanging up the phone, telling me she'd just placed a bet with her brother-in-law on the outcome.
"Who did you bet on?" I asked.
"The Giants, of course. You're the sportswriter, so I figured you'd know."
"Rachel, you didn't ask me who I thought was going to win," I protested. "The other team is undefeated this season."
"You didn't tell me that! What's the name of the other team?"
After establishing that Peyton wasn't playing, that the reason the other quarterback looked familiar was because they're related, and yes, Gisele is dating the other quarterback, on the other team, we moved on to the trivia of what downs actually mean.
I decided metaphors were easier than repeating the rules again and again.
"American football is like a sporting pageant of war, like chess. Think of the touchdown zone like the castle, where the opponents on offense try to storm in and the defense tries desperately to keep them out. The coaches are like chess players trying to figure out the the best way to break down their rivals, the guys on the line are like really big pawns doing the grunt work, and the quarterback is the most versatile and important player."
"So Tom and Eli are queens?" asked Kim.
Metaphors work until they break down.
My friends followed the action well enough, though, and we were a pretty glum bunch when Tom Brady marched the Pats mercilessly downfield to take the lead with only a few minutes left. When Eli Manning scrambled to make that pass to David Tyree, Rachel couldn't believe it. "How is he still standing?" Then we were both more amazed at the catch. The final touchdown play was almost easy by comparison.
"I watched the game," said Kim in disbelief. "That never happens, but it was good."
Rachel, meanwhile, was gloating on the phone, collecting her bet.

Right - finally

When Raphael Wicky trained last year with Chivas USA, it seemed everything was moving swimmingly - he liked the club, they liked him. I wrote then that he was coming to the team because it seemed it would happen.

Except it didn't.

Until now. Wicky comes on board as the team's latest international player - but not a DP. Chivas sold their DP spot to New York, remember?

That also caused me to remember what Wicky said about Benny Feilhaber at the time - that he needed to be somewhere where he could play. Problem is, it's still not really happening at Derby.

Where were you?

As we prepare for another U.S.-Mexico match, just wondering where you were in 2002 when the historic World Cup game was played.

I was in Kobe, Japan. It was quite a few hours before the start of Brazil-Belgium, which I was slated to cover. I didn't have enough funds to get over to South Korea and already had agreed to cover the knockout games in Japan. So I watched it on TV like millions of others. However, it was the afternoon for me and not the middle of the night so I didn't have the trouble of staying awake.

I remember the big story among the journalists who watched the game (mostly Europeans) was the cards handed out by Victor Melo, whom I quickly learned was nicknamed Melo Yellow. There were quite a few cards handed out that day.

Anyway, if you wanted to take a stroll down that lane feel free to share your thoughts.

Guzan's deal

Another thought on Brad Guzan, and I expanded a whole lot more on this in my PE column for Tuesday.

Brad's contract runs out at the end of the year. If he is still with Chivas USA at the end of the year, he'd be able to leave on a free transfer in January 2009.

It's amazing to think that a player like him could walk on a free transfer, but don't think it can't happen. After all, Carlos Bocanegra joined Fulham on a free transfer four years ago.

Monday plan

I'll be out at the opening of MLS camps for both Chivas USA and the Galaxy. My task might have been a bit easier had Fabio Capello called on David Beckham but as it stands I'll have to make sure I hit up both camps while training is dying down. Chivas will start at 10 while the Galaxy starts at 10:30 so I'll be able to pull it off, hopefully.

Then, I've been asked to appear on another radio show. I'll be calling in to the American Soccer Show which airs on the Champions Sports Radio Network. The show is taped today and broadcast tomorrow I believe. I'm like Brad Guzan that way, in high demand. Only difference is he'd get a ton of cash while I get to plug my appearances here on the blog.

Unfortunately, I won't have my camera with me. No, I didn't break it - Andrea's the one with a penchant for breaking things! My brother's first child was born on Friday and I let him borrow my camera, so it's tied up.

Anyway, check back later for audio clips and tidbits from each respective camp.

More Guzan

Here is some more of Brad Guzan's conversation with us regarding his failed move to England. About seven minutes here and three or so minutes here.

Off with a draw

CONCACAF started its World Cup qualifying slate of games with a match between the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

Not exactly a matchup of powerful teams, or even ones with any real chance of qualifying for 2010, but it's a start nonetheless. The game ended 1-1, but you wouldn't know it by reading this story on FIFA.com. The score is never mentioned.

Hype vs hyper

It seems to be a subdued U.S.-Mexico match this time around. There isn't the excitement of Hugo's first match, no title is on the line, and it's not a World Cup qualifier. Even though the Mexican media hypes up the clashes between the teams more than anyone, they usually get a bit of help from the Mexican team, or maybe Landon will say something that everyone goes crazy about.

However, Sanchez, for once, isn't making a big deal out of the game. I think that's partly his strategy. Managing expectations helps his players stay loose, and also leaves him a bit of an out in case the team loses.

Speaking Spanish

Unless Brad Guzan has gotten a lot better, Landon Donovan and his former San Jose teammate, Ramiro Corrales, are the only ones on the current U.S. roster who speak Spanish. They're probably going to be swamped with requests once they get to Houston.

Here's the video one of our readers alluded to earlier, where Landon addresses the Mexican public. What's funny is that his first mistake is one I still make sometimes - trying to say, "They don't like me," it comes out, "I don't like them." It's weirdly easy to do that in Spanish.




Hi, everyone in Mexico. I know that you I don’t like – er, that you don’t like me very much, but that’s fine. I respect your team, and especially all of you as people. If you want to support your team in the stadium, that’s good. If you want to yell – if you want to yell stuff at me, that’s ok, but if after the game, there’s respect, that would be nice.

Voiceover: Landon Donovan is one of those persons that Mexican fans don’t like very much. His way of acting on the field, the way in particular that he refers to Mexico, and more than anything, the goals he has scored against the Tricolores, have hurt deeply the team’s fans.

The reasons that we win versus Mexico: 1 – we know how Mexico plays. 2 – We have a mentality, in each game, how to play – how we want to play the game. Every time, we do that, and then we win.

Voiceover: The U.S. player knows that, like any streak, the longer it continues, the closer it is to ending one day.

There are lots of times where Mexico can win. Perhaps with a little more luck in the last five or six games for Mexico. . . It’s going to happen one day – that Mexico wins in America against us, but at this moment, we’re just about equal, and it’s always a good game.

Voiceover: For the game on the sixth of February, Donovan won’t prognosticate. He does have a certain desire, though.

If we win, that’s great. If I score a goal, that’s even better. But if I don’t score a goal and we win, I’ll be very happy.

The rest of the clip is the commentators arguing about which team is better, the U.S. or Mexico. They generally agree with Landon's analysis of why the U.S. has been winning.

The insider

Roberto Abramovitz has looked at both sides of the symbiotic relationship between U.S. and Mexican soccer for some time. He's my editor at Futbol Mundial.

Adam Spangler of This is American Soccer has an in-depth interview which covers a lot of interesting ground.

Zinha zings Landon

Contrary to what this clip is titled by ESPN Deportes, Antonio Naelson doesn't say that Landon Donovan plays dirty (sucio). Mostly he talks about Hugo Sanchez calling him in to the national team. The bit on Landon comes at the very end.

Translated:

The interviewer asks, "What do you think of Landon Donovan, as a Mexican?

He’s a load – he’s someone who lacks respect, who doesn't have a conscience when he speaks. He provokes rage, he provokes feelings where you want to do something if he’s nearby – but that’s football. We’ve got to win – only by beating him will we shut him up.

Translating Landon

I couldn't make it to Landon Donovan's press conference this past Wednesday, but I have a few quotes from him about the upcoming Mexico game just the same. That's because I was running tape while a Spanish-speaking reporter was asking him about the match after the recent Sweden game. Minus a couple of sentences I'm using for my latest espn.com piece, here's the translation.

Reporter: How do you feel when playing Mexico?

LD: It's always an exciting game. The fans help make it special.

Reporter: For this game, who would you like Mexico to put in goal?

LD: Well, it'd be best if they didn't put anyone - that would make the game a little easier for us.

Reporter: If Oswaldo Sanchez plays, what will you do?

LD: I'll try to score against him. He's a good goalkeeper, but I've done it before.

Reporter: What about Memo Ochoa? What do you think of him?

LD: He's a good young goalkeeper. Very talented. We'll play hard against whoever is in goal.

No Andres

My current fave on the Mexican squad, Andres Guardado, isn't going to play versus the U.S. He created a lot of problems for the Americans in the last friendly, with his speed and fearless attacking style. Guardado is an exciting player to watch.

Oh well, perhaps another one of El Tri's young talents will step up.

The list

The U.S. players going to Houston.

Have some fun and put together a starting lineup from that. If your guess matches Bradley's exactly, you'll win - yikes - um, well. Fame and glory?

Brad speaks

Brad Guzan and Preki addressed a few of us scribes today. I recorded the whole thing and will post audio accordingly. I've got plenty to say about this and will do so over the next few days but for now here's just a snippet of the mini-presser.

Rico forgot, too

I had to chuckle a little at this story on mediotiempo.com .

It gives a rehash of the last friendly that the U.S. and Mexico played. Without translating the whole thing, it says that Mexico played far better and the U.S. was lucky to win. It describes the first goal of the United States (Jimmy Conrad's header) as the first time the U.S. even got near Mexico's net. The second goal is blamed entirely on the referee, Mauricio Navarro, as the writer says that Navarro deflected the ball directly to Landon Donovan. (The writer also perpetuates the myth that Landon was running and teasing the Mexican players before he scored. He uses that logic to explain away Oswaldo Sanchez kicking Eddie Johnson.)

Navarro didn't get the ball to Landon. Pavel Pardo sent a pass that hit the referee. The ball bounced into the path of Ricardo Clark, who took one look up and hit a perfect short pass to Landon, who was off to the races.

I brought the pass up to Rico in our interview yesterday. "That's right," he said, smiling. "I forgot about that. That was my first assist."

You forgot?

"It hit the referee," he said, recalling the moment. "It was just one of those things. I saw that (Landon) was through and I was lucky enough to get the ball in a good position and send him on his way. I was thankful to get my first point, first statistic with the national team."

Anyway, to refresh everyone's memory:

Back of the Net

Got an invite from Andrew Dixon of the Black Athlete Sports Radio Network. Dixon hosts a show called Back of the Net and I'm slated to be on tomorrow sometime in the 7 p.m. PT hour.

Andrew was worried that I'd actually have something going on Saturday night but since I have two kids, my social life is nonexistent.

I'm looking forward to it, as the topic will be U.S.-Mexico. I'm supposed to be on for 15-20 minutes and might even take some phone calls. I've done radio shows in the past before and they're always interesting. I generally have fun, even though I usually get a bit nervous. But once I'm on and we start talking soccer, I forget all about my nerves.

The show, Andrew explained to me, is geared toward introducing the Black Community to the game. And I'm all for opening the world of soccer up to people who have yet to experience it, regardless of ethnicity or gender or age or whatever.

So check it out.

Camera has been taped together

Too bad my camera's not black instead of silver - then the electrical tape on it now would almost match. Anyway, here's a few shots. The U.S. Soccer website is really running their own press now, though; they have pictures and video of much higher quality than mine, so there's probably not much point to me taking shots these days. I think I'll save the camera for other events.

El Tri's roster

Here is Mexico's full roster for next week's game against the United States:

> Goalies: Luis Michel (Guadalajara), Moises Munoz (Morelia), Guillermo Ochoa (America).

> Defenders: Israel Castro (Pumas), Jonny Magallon (Guadalajara), Rafael Marquez (Barcelona), Fausto Pinto (Pachuca), Oscar Rojas (America), Carlos Salcido (PSV).

> Midfielders: Fernando Arce (Santos), Andres Guardado (Deportivo), Antonio Naelson (Toluca), Pavel Pardo (Stuttgart), Gerardo Torrado (Cruz Azul).

> Forwards: Adolfo Bautista (Jaguares), Juan Carlos Cacho (Pachuca), Giovanni Dos Santos (Barcelona), Antonio de Nigris (Ankaraspor), Carlos Vela (Osasuna).

I'm a bit surprised to see Bofo Bautista on the list. I'd seen him as more of a part of the old regime, along with guys like Omar Bravo, Kikin Fonseca and Jared Borgetti and not so much a Hugo guy. I honestly don't know how useful he is at this stage. Antonio De Nigris is a bit of a surprise too if only because he hasn't gotten a sniff of the team in quite some time. De Nigris scored one of Mexico's best goals in a while in 2001 against Brazil but hasn't anything since. Well, he went on a world tour and has played in Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Turkey since

Overall, this is a good roster. It's got experience and youth, talent at every position and players who have done well under Sanchez. Yeah, there's no Nery Castillo, but there are still plenty of options available.

Capello doesn't call Becks

Still waiting on cap 100, but in the meantime, Becks is back in LA.

First, but not really

When I saw Mexico's roster for the U.S. match, the first thing that caught my eye was the inclusion of Antonio Naelson "Zinha" who drew criticism from Hugo Sanchez when Zinha was called in by Ricardo Lavolpe.

Zinha, of course, is Brazilian by birth and Mexican by naturalization.

Now, while I think it's hypocritical of Sanchez to have criticized such a move several years ago and now count on him with the team, I can't say I'm surprised. One of the first things Sanchez said when he was hired was that he would not close the door on any Mexican player, including foreigners. So again, this isn't really a surprise.

Of course, this is being spun around the world as Sanchez's first call-up of a naturalized player. Which, of course, is not.

United States-born Edgar Castillo has a couple of caps for Mexico. What makes Zinha more of a foreigner than Castillo is beyond me. I mean...

Zinha + not born in Mexico = foreigner
Castillo + not born in Mexico = foreigner

Maybe the international wire services forgot about Castillo. Even some of the Mexican press said this move was a way of paving the door open for naturalized players, such as the return of Guillermo Franco (which I would never have thought possible) or even Leandro Augusto, the Brazilian-born Pumas standout.

I didn't really want to get into a rant about foreigners but here goes. I don't see what the big deal is about using foreign born players in any national team, whether it's Mexico or France or Germany. Zinha is a quality soccer player and will help Mexico. He's lived in Mexico for years and honed his skills in his trade in that country. Why not pay his new country back in some way?

Anyway, I'll cut my rant short. I just wanted to point out that Edgar Castillo was the first naturalized player Hugo Sanchez called upon and wound up talking about El Guille. Sorry.

Catching up

I didn't have a chance to blog much yesterday. When the Guzan news broke, I was only able to jot a few things down on my phone as I wasn't near a computer all day. Winter sucks, and it's not just the weather.

Anyway, I will be out at US training on Saturday and Guzan will be there to talk about the events of the last weeks or so and his near-miss at going to Aston Villa. I can already predict what he'll say:

'I'm happy that Aston Villa and Celtic showed interest in me and it was unfortunate things didn't happen but I'm also excited to be back here at Chivas USA and with my teammates here. My focus this year will be with this club and the U.S. national team and I won't let anyone down.'