Messi vs. Albright
February 15 – 2003
According to Bob Bradley, the US will need to prioritize which international tournament it tries to win this summer. The decision? How ’bout sending a “B” team to play Argentina, Columbia, and Paraguay in the Copa America, while keeping the big guns fresh in order to face the French Region of Guadaloupe in the Gold Cup. (Good news, I suppose, if you happen to hold a grudge against Guadaloupe for their…er…um…actually there’s no reason to hate Guadaloupe. Sorry.)
I’ll grant the Copa America and Gold Cup fall too closely together for the national team to challenge for both, but you’d have to come up with a pretty damn compelling reason why the US wouldn’t throw their weight behind a South American cup-run. Jeff Carlisle at Soccernet went looking for such a reason, and found this:
The opportunity to play in South Africa at the Confederations Cup will not only provide the U.S. with three more competitive games, but it will give the USSF a chance to work out any logistical kinks one year ahead of the World Cup.
Oh, that explains it; we need to be sure the Cape Town Ritz Carlton has an adequate continental breakfast. With no fewer than 22 blueberries per muffin. And that the shuttle from the practice fields to the hotel comes every half hour, rather than every 45 minutes. Vital stuff.
Clearly, this isn’t Bradley’s doing; an interim coach would never be allowed to make a decision of this magnitude. So who did? I’ll wager my unborn child it was everyone’s favorite pencil-pushing uber-nerd, Sunil Gulati. He’s the reason the US first team will be playing cushy games at home against the same old CONCAcrap, rather than getting hit in the head with bottles of Venezuelan rum in games that actually matter.
What’s ultimately at stake here is World Cup preparedness; it’s just that an Economics professor will have a different definition of “preparedness” than will someone who knows the first thing about football. If the US hopes to compete in the world’s largest international tournament, it might be a good idea to cut your teeth in the world’s third largest international tournament. How this escapes even nerdfest Gulati is beyond me.
In all likelihood, the decision probably has more to do with federation sponsors demanding US Soccer field a top team for an event on US soil. So while Chris Albright will take on Lionel Messi, Steve Cherundolo will take on Rando Honduran in an event sponsored by Sierra Mist. Well pardon me if I say so, Professor Gulati, but you need to stop making decisions with your economics brain, and check to see if you’ve got some balls hidden under those poorly tailored trousers. If you happen to find some, give ‘em a good rapping and send our best boys down to South America.
The “logistics” in South Africa will likely be a crap-storm anyway, so we might as well be prepared for what goes down on the field. OK, Nerdy?
Wtf wtf wtf. Following American soccer can be truly maddening, although in this case I’ll wait to pass judgment until the decision to send our ‘B’ team of Albright and co. to Copa America is set in stone. Meanwhile, I’ll laugh myself to sleep to the sounds of Messi megging Albright 4 times in one run down the wing.
Comment by jobicoppola — February 15, 2007 @ 11:57 pm
Piss on it all you like, but the Gold Cup is our region’s championship. While the glory of playing South American Olympic teams would be something that we’d cherish for centuries, get over it.
Comment by tj — February 16, 2007 @ 11:29 am
Remember that these days the Copa doesn’t attract most countries A teams. I doubt Brazil and Argentina will be bringing along the likes of Ronadlinho, Robino, Kaka, Messi, etc…Not that an Argentina team composed entirely of Boca and River players couldn’t whoop up on our b squad national team, because they definitely could.
I’m just excited to see what happens if the US and Venezuela play each other. Will Chavez show up? What would he do to the gringos if we won?
Comment by ian — February 16, 2007 @ 12:06 pm
I think it boils down to one question, and one question only: which matches will best prepare the team for the World Cup?
The Gold Cup lies safely in the comfort zone. We’ve been there, done that. Playing Argentina in Caracas (even their B team) is a tougher test than playing Guatemala in Columbus, OH.
If the US walks through the Copa America and then looks crap in 2010, we can all have this discussion on equal footing. Until then, the 2006 debacle should have us all asking for something, anything, everything new.
Comment by garth — February 16, 2007 @ 12:30 pm
I guess it would be too much to ask that our B team is composed of the Benny Feilhaber’s of the world, but of course it will just be shit MLS players. And I concur with your hate of Professor Gulati. US Soccer almost makes the English FA look functional. (Almost.)
Comment by Spectator — February 16, 2007 @ 12:50 pm
“Will Chavez show up? What would he do to the gringos if we won?”
Reason #311 why we should send an “A” team.
Comment by garth — February 16, 2007 @ 1:09 pm
Totally maddening how US Soccer continues to not learn from its mistakes…
A team of shit MLS players in a great tournament in South America it is (why do they continually neglect the young guys playing overseas, ie Benny)…while our ‘A’team is playing a Jamaican squad at the Home Depot Center with Landon Donovan praying before taking a spot kick.
There’s no way in hell that this group will be any more prepared for South Africa than we were last summer…Its going to be the same bunch of misfits playing low level competition heading into the World Cup, while inexplicably some of our countries best players playing abroad will be absent from the squad for purely political reasons (see Major League Soccer).
If Sunil Gulati were a man…I’d punch him…punch him right in the mouth.
Comment by Tom — February 16, 2007 @ 5:33 pm
[...] Andrea Canales of Soccernet fame has come out in favor of Bob Bradley’s plan to prioritize the Gold Cup over Copa America. Since I endorsed the opposite, I feel compelled to respond crap all over her argument. [...]
Pingback by soccernista.com » — March 1, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
[...] about it, because the journalists’ support of US Soccer included off hand dismissals of internet crazies who thought the plan was crap. Canales even referred to “sniffy attitudes”among those questioning the value of the [...]
Pingback by soccernista.com » International embarrassment awaits — June 22, 2007 @ 1:26 pm