DC United's own Bobby Convey scored twice in a 2-0 blanking of that soccer powerhouse, Canada (no offense to my Canadian friends). This follows a 4-3 defeat of Panama earlier in the week. Despite the crowd in Zapopan, Mexico booing Team USA, and the U.S. national anthem (maybe a little jealousy remaining from the Americans crushing the Mexicans in the World Cup?), it has been a good tournament so far for them. They have a semi-final coming up against the tough Hondurans. If the U.S. gets past Honduras, it is going to once again be another battle against the winner of the Mexico/Costa Rica game, who play tonight. Imagine the reception the Americans will get if they end up playing the Mexicans in their own backyard. U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
... and yes, I am absolutely biased about my country winning and going on to Athens.

Group A Standings
Country P W D L F A Pts
USA 2 2 0 0 6 3 6
Honduras2 2 0 0 4 0 6
Canada 2 0 2 0 2 1 0
Panama 2 0 2 0 3 5 0
Group winner plays runner-up of Group B, Group runner-up plays winner of Group B

Group B Standings
Country P W D L F A Pts
Costa Rica 2 2 0 0 7 0 6
Mexico 2 2 0 0 7 1 6
Jamaica 2 0 0 2 0 7 0
Trinidad & Tobago 2 0 0 2 1 7 0
Group winner plays runner-up of Group A, Group runner-up plays winner of Group A

Interesting win on Tuesday vs. Panama...

The US was up 3-0 at halftime, but gave up 3 goals in the second half to tie the score at 3-3. Bobby Convey broke the tie with his second goal of the match.

Also, I think it will be interesting to see how US coach Glenn "Mooch" Myernick deals with the injury problems his team is having. Missing from the squad is Ricardo Clark, a Metrostar who played in the U-20 world Championships in November 2003. Edson Buddle is out too. Also, Liverpool defender Zak Whitbread was injured against Panama, and Ed Johnson may be out as well after sustaining an injury against Canada.

And the US finishes the group stage with a 3-0-0 record, as an Alecko Eskandarian hat-trick and a goal by Kyle Beckerman lead the US to a 4-3 win over Honduras. The US will now face Mexico in the seminfinals, which is an interesting setup. The US now has the chance to knock Mexico out of qualification for the Olympics, as only the top two teams qualify from CONCACAF.

[ February 07, 2004, 05:50 PM: Message edited by: metromathis13 ]

Team USA defeated Honduras 4-3 in the "A" group. That's the good part. Costa Rica won the "B" group with Mexico as the runner-up. What does this mean for the Americans? USA has to play Mexico (who is still deeply pissed off about us knocking them out in the last World Cup) in front of 50,000+ Mexican fans on Tuesday. Anybody want to go to the game wearing red, white, and blue? eek!

The US should be prepared to face an hostile crowd...

The Mexican people are practically equating this with war! eek!

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/10/sports/s.../10MEXI.html?th

Good luck, Team U.S.A.!

I thought one of the ESPN networks might consider showing the game against Mexico tonight, but both networks appear to have basketball. The last time the Americans played in Guadalajara they had batteries, bags of urine and feces, etc. thrown at them, in addition to the racial epithets. Nevertheless, a victory tonight lets them play in friendlier confines this summer (Athens).

Well... Like the US baseball team, there will be no Summer Olympics for the US soccer team this year as the US had its worst international defeat in years to Mexico, 4-0. At least the crowd didn't get too personal as they were taunting the players with "Osama! Osama!" .

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/11/sports/s...cer/11SOCC.html

Sad day...

Let's just keep our hopes up that Mia Hamm, Briana Scurry, and the other US women can qualify. Their qualifying tournament begins February 25, in Costa Rica. They have been drawn into the same group as Haiti, Trinadad and Tobago, and Mexico.

If the women don't qualify or don't get the gold medal, expect to see coach April Heinrichs be fired...

Without being able to see the actual game, I could only read about this week's debacle down in Guadalajara. However, the media that was there all pretty much said that you could chalk this loss up to inexperience. I think the Americans were just intimidated from the very start--having our National Anthem booed to having profanities screamed at everyone of their names to the "Osama!" chant thing--which I have noticed has apparently been picked up on the "Politics and Religion" thread. It will get better with time. And as my friend from Spain always reminds me, Olympics will always be number two in soccer to the World Cup.

As tasteless as the crowd seemed to be, I understand that it's common practice in Central America to hurl ballons filled with urine at teams from opposing countries.

The US women get off to a strong start in their Olympic Qualifying tournament in Costa Rica. Shannon Boxx, the US's top defensive midfielder, scored her first international hat-trick, and earned an assist as well, as the US steamrolled Trindad and Tobago 7-0. Mia Hamm also played a big role, scoring two goals and two assists. The US women play Haiti on Friday.

Match Facts from ESPN

Women's Olympic Qualifying continues...

Cindy Parlow notched her 7th career hat-trick for the US they hammered Haiti 8-0. Shannon MacMillan, Aly Wagner, Lindsey Tarpley, and Abby Wambach also found net, with the final goal coming off a Haitian own goal. The US women face Mexico in their last group stage game on Sunday.

Canada also got a strong start, taking down Jamaica 6-0. University of Portland star Christine Sinclair scored a hat-trick for Canada.

After the group stage wrapped up (a 2-0 win for the US over Mexico and a 2-1 victory for Canada over Costa Rica), Mexico came up with a huge upset. Facing Canada, who finished fourth at last year's Women's World Cup, Mexico managed to score two goals through former Atlanta Beat star Maribel Dominguez. Mexico did not qualify for the 2003 Women's World Cup, losing a playoff against Japan.

The hosts Costa Rica, even with the crowd pumped up by Mexico's win, could not pull out a win. The US dominated, winning the match 4-0. Goals were scored by Aly Wagner, Abby Wambach, Shannon Boxx, and Kristine Lilly. Lilly, the all-time leader in international appearances, scored her 95th goal. 5 more goals would make her just the sixth player to score over 100 international goals, and the first to score number 100 since Mia Hamm and Michelle Akers did so in 1999.

With today's results, 5 teams are now known to be playing in Athens in August. The US and Mexico join Germany and Sweden (UEFA qualifiers who were determined by their Women's World Cup finish) as well as hosts Greece. Expect China and Brazil, as well as Nigeria, Japan, and Ghana to join the 10 team Olympic pool.