International embarrassment awaits
June 22 - 2007
A special room in hell was created for 95% of mainstream American soccer media this morning when Argentina released their Copa America roster: it’s stacked like an improptu cheerleading pyramid at the Source Awards.
US Soccer long ago made the decision to send a reduced strength roster to Venezuela in order to beat mediocre opponents in the Gold Cup. Everyone from Jeff Carlisle to Andrea Canales gave that plan the reacharound, saying that South American countries would also be sending reduced rosters to Copa America. And therein lies the danger of allowing people that know very, very little about soccer to take paychecks for spouting off about it. Feast your eyes on this “reduced” roster:
Goalkeepers: Roberto Abbondanzieri (Getafe, Spain), Juan Pablo Carrizo (River Plate), Agustin Orion (San Lorenzo).
Defenders: Javier Zanetti (Inter, Italy), Roberto Ayala (Valencia, Spain), Gabriel Heinze (Manchester United, England), Gabriel Milito (Zaragoza, Spain), Daniel Diaz (Boca Juniors), Hugo Ibarra (Boca Juniors), Nicolas Burdisso (Inter, Italy).
Midfield: Luis Gonzalez (Porto, Portugal), Juan Roman Riquelme (Boca Juniors), Javier Mascherano (Liverpool, England), Esteban Cambiasso (Inter), Fernando Gago (Real Madrid, Spain), Juan Sebastian Veron (Estudiantes, Argentina), Pablo Aimar (Zaragoza, Spain).
Forwards: Lionel Messi (Barcelona, Spain), Hernan Crespo (Inter), Diego Milito (Zaragoza), Carlos Tevez (West Ham, England), Rodrigo Palacio (Boca).
Perhaps something was lost in the translation from Spanish, but ”reduced” apparently means “good enough to use the USÂ national team as a semen-sock.” And yes I’m pissed 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 Gold Cup, as if she were part of some realpolitik that only a press pass could help you understand.
I do a great deal of thinking about the blogosphere. Every time an someone important mourns the loss of “expertise” to the “cult of the amateur”, I get uncomfortable. I worry Soccernista is part of the problem. But days like today make me realize: while the majority of soccer writers were sitting in journo class, or building a CV at some shitty local paper, folks that write soccer blogs (or comment on them) were either on the field playing or in front of a televised match pounding lager. And so when Jeff Carlisle, or Sunil Gulati or whoever else, craps out some uninformed opinion that will have an impact on the future of America as a soccer playing nation…well…someone should say something, even if that something is preceded by video of a dude pantsing a linesman and even if that something is read by only 27 people.
OK, enough aggrandizement. For their part, US Soccer seems to be scrambling as they have twice postponed the hour of announcement for the Copa America roster. Supposedly it’s coming out at 4pm ET, so perhaps there will be more to say then.
Well said.
Its incredible how little American soccer journalists and management know about the game.
Its borderline embarrassing to listen to them or read what they have to say sometimes.
As for the Copa, I honestly don’t think it would matter even if we were at full strength. Letting a team like Canada stay in the game with us is unacceptable and Argentina would use us as a “semen sock” anyways.
Regardless, we should still be playing a full strength squad there and its incredible that people would argue against that. There is no cohesiveness to our team and that is extremely evident…a different set of guys seemingly playing all the time.
Complacency is killing American soccer. Until we get some continuity in our roster and play good competition outside of just Mexico on a regular basis, we will continue to shit the bed in the World Cup every 4 years guaranteed, and that’s ultimately all that matters.
I’m looking forward to watching Lando and the gang completely disappear in big World Cup games…can’t wait.
Garth, do you know of any other websites/publications that cover American soccer aside from ESPN that aren’t total garbage. You are pretty much the only person I read. I throw up in my mouth a little every time I read an article by Andrea Canales. Seriously, is she retarded or something?
Comment by Art Vandalay — June 22, 2007 @ 2:05 pm
I think US Soccer is making a last ditch effort to try and convince Landyc….err Landon and a few others to give the Copa a go. “Hey, you can be on the same field as Messi and Tevez!”
Comment by ian — June 22, 2007 @ 2:09 pm
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: Andrea Canales is dumb as shit. And Jen Chang thinks you can pay Beckham an infinite amount of money, and your investment will still bear fruit (also an idiot).
Ian Penderleith at ussoccerplayers.com is one of the few who’s worth a damn.
Comment by Nordy — June 22, 2007 @ 3:00 pm
“Ian Penderleith at ussoccerplayers.com”
Second.
Comment by garth — June 22, 2007 @ 3:16 pm
Grant Wahl at SI is also good. He understands the game and performs some actual journalism every once in a while (i.e. finding facts). The rest publish (piss poor) opinion pieces or puff pieces disguised as reporting.
I used to think that maybe I didn’t know my ass from my elbow when I was reading some of the aforementioned idiots, but then I realized that they just don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about.
Soccer journalism has some way to go in the U.S. Read someone like Phil Ball, Steven Wells, or Rob Hughes and you realize what a worthless bunch of hacks we have here (Wahl and maybe a few others excepted).
Comment by Derek — June 22, 2007 @ 4:51 pm
Oh, and the plan to focus on the Gold Cup over Copa America, just plain stupid. Our second team could have reached the finals of the Gold Cup. Copa America would have provided a much better testing ground for our A team.
Comment by Derek — June 22, 2007 @ 4:54 pm
I think a good counterpoint that isn’t going to be mentioned is that victory in the Gold Cup gives a birth in the Confederations Cup, which will be a better chance to see what we have just a year before the World Cup, and is also held in South Africa. It wasn’t likely we could beat Mexico with our reserves, nor that we could win the Copa with our best team.
I don’t think we need to send our “B” squad to the Copa either, but maybe we can give some of the European based players that haven’t seen much time in the Gold cup. Guys like DeMerrit, Spector, Simek, and Feilhaber need the chance to battle, because they should be included in the next World Cup
Comment by Justin — June 22, 2007 @ 6:19 pm
Oh yeah, I should have given Grant Wahl some props, too. I like him.
In other news, the roster is worse than I feared. Lambs to slaughter.
Comment by Nordy — June 22, 2007 @ 9:04 pm
It looks like Lalas is going to get an opportunity to see how MLS really compares with the world’s best. 15 of the 22 players come from MLS rosters. I just pray they don’t completely embarrass themselves.
The thing that bothers me most about them sending a crappy roster to Copa America is that it totally shows USSA’s willingness to crap on real football fans in the States. I’m excited about Copa America because it’s a presitigous international competition and an opportunity for US soccer to show what we’re about on a world stage. Instead they take a crap roster and the US fans get dumped on again. It just shows that Sunil is afraid to put our best against the world’s best. The USSA has created a culture of building facades of excellence when any discerning football can can see that we’re merely whipping up on crap squads.
Comment by Josh — June 23, 2007 @ 12:29 am
Justin….noone cares about the Confederations Cup except the USA and Mexico….no one puts in a full squad. Stop making excuses for idiots. Anyways…the US journalist are also morons because they make it seem like Brazil is bringing in a B Squad…. LOL….Did any of these guys actually look at who is playing for them?? Take a look at their squad its fully loaded with the exception of KAKA and Dihno. They unlike the USA…have a backup called Diego who is AWESOME. Well, technically he starts as a withdrawn wing. Anyways….STUPID decision by Bradley and Sunnil.
Comment by Juan — June 24, 2007 @ 8:38 am
You can call it a dumb move, and say that nobody cares about the Confederations Cup, but you can’t say that no one puts out their full squad, because that is a lie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_FIFA_Confederations_Cup
In a paragraph in which you call people idiots, you really shouldn’t make such a mistake.
Comment by Justin — June 24, 2007 @ 4:52 pm
Its a dumb move, no one cares and I will continue to call the individuals who saw this as a smart move, very idiots. To my knowledge the only ones who lined up with a full squad were Brazil (in the final), Mexico and the US. Brazil did it because they wanted to avenge the drubbing they took at the hands of Argentina weeks earlier. If you actually watched the most games, the more well know footballing nations were experimenting with different lineups and personnel packages. Please stop making excuses for idiots. WOOOhoooo we won the Gold Cup…..beat Canada and Panama. Excluding Mexico, please look up how many WC victories those teams have together. Terrible soccer nations and no challenge. Sorry stating the truth. Winning the Gold Cup is like hooking up with the ugliest girl at the bar…… But hey, it might get you to hook up with her BFF…seriously….
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