The Drubbing

Dear US, prepare to be dismantled. Love, David Villa.

The United States Men’s National Soccer Team find themselves in the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup in South Africa.  However, when they meet Spain on Wednesday in Bloemfontein (a completely real city, despite its seemingly fictitious name) they will not subsequently find themselves advancing to the finals.  Anything can happen in sports, but the fact that the US are in the semi-finals is a bit of a false indicator to the lay soccer fan.  In all honesty, they made it here by mistake.

The Confederations Cup is essentially a dry-run tournament for the country hosting the next World Cup.  With the World Cup a year a way now, it is a great time to test the infrastructure, logistics and crowd control that will make the worlds largest sporting event one equally large cluster-f***.  Why not have a mini-tourney to rile things up?

The US has been righteously sucking wind in its World Cup qualifying rounds and although it will make the tournament, the team has had less than dominating performances against teams supposedly fair inferior in their CONCACAF region.  Add to that the first two games of this Confederations Cup where they were tested by two of the best in the world in Italy and Brazil and failed miserably, losing 3-1 and 3-0 respectively.  While living life at the bottom of their group going into their final game the idea was to have a solid showing against Egypt to save a little face and end on a high note.  A decisive 3-0 victory there gave the US a life-line as they garnered enough goals to place second in their group on a goal differential technicality.  Welcome to the next round Bob Bradley and crew!

Of equal but opposite intrigue is that of a Spain side who has lost zero games in their last 35.  That is exactly zero games lost since November 2006.  They are the reigning UEFA Euro 2008 winners, and sport one of the more ridiculously star-laden rosters in the world.  What is most remarkable is the fluidity with which Spain play, and that will be quite the contrast to what we see out of our Yanks.

When it is boiled down, this tournament doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things.  However, it is a great indicator as to when it is alright to make a mountain of a problem out of a molehill of a tournament. The United States needs to get better.  They need to get better at player development, playing the world’s game, but more importantly finding their own game – one that involves a cohesive footy-unit on the pitch.  Tomorrow’s match will be a showcase of how strong Spanish football has been and will be and consequently a stark realization as to the gap that still needs crossing to get the US onto the same competitive playing field.   Please, Mr. Bradley, have your troops surprise me.  I won’t be upset if you don’t, though, I already know the reality. I just hope it gets better before the world stage gets bigger next year.