Gold Cup: Day 8

So last night was finally the second last day of group stages.  Group B was set to come to an end with Guatemala taking on Grenada and Jamaica against Honduras.  For the games taking place at Red Bull Arena the stakes were pretty simple.  In the first match Guatemala needed to win by 3 goals to ensure that they would go through as a best placed third team (or even get second in the group) and if Grenada wanted to advance they were going to need to win by a landslide and then get a lot of help from group C results, so basically Grenada were done already.  In the second game of the night both teams were already through to the next round, barring a very lopsided win by Jamaica, so it was basically a battle for top spot as Jamaica would go through in first with either a win or a draw.

The night kicked off with Guatemala taking on Grenada and this match raised the interesting question of which team is worse, Grenada or Cuba?  They were the first two teams sent packing from the tournament and lets be honest they never even came close to taking a point in this thing.  In this one Grenada looked completely outclassed and their defence seemed incapable of slowing down the attack.  As a result Guatemala got goals in the 15th and 21st minutes and despite leading 2-0 at the break they really should have been up by a few more goals.  The good news for Guatemala was that with a 2-0 lead their goal difference was up to 0 and that had them even with El Salvador and they would have known that one more in the second half would almost certainly see them advance.  They got that goal in the 53rd minute from Carlos Ruiz, who finally got on the score sheet, and then for good measure they ensured their progress with a fourth goal this time from Carlos Gallardo.

With a 4-0 win in the bag Guatemala had ensured that they would be in the next phase of the competition.  They have 4 points but their +2 goal difference is better then El Salvador's goal difference of 0 and that means that regardless of the results in the last 3 games the worst they could end up is as the 8th team to get through.  For Grenada the loss just further illustrated that the team that they brought here was just not up to par.  Like Cuba they struggled to score goals and were conceding them at an alarming rate.  I guess Grenada can be proud that they did not finish last overall since they conceded one less goal then Cuba did and had one less player defect.  On a completely unrelated note I would like to urge Grenada to start paying their coach enough that he can afford to get a suit and tie.  He looked terrible in that track jacket, cheap ball cap, and purple piny.  At least if you are going to get destroyed in three straight games you can try and look like you are somewhat professional.

The second game of the night was a real letdown to me.  I was expecting to see Jamaica and Honduras battling it out with top spot on the line but instead with both teams having already sealed their progress they seemed to already be thinking about the quarterfinals and not to interested in trying all that hard in this game.  Jamaica did have a fair bit more life to them then Honduras to be fair and they were the better team in the first half creating a couple of chances and forcing a couple of good saves out of Valladares.  Jamaica would get the only breakthrough of the match in the 35th minute when Ryan Johnson fired a shot in from 20 some yards out that smashed off the crossbar but he got a bit of luck as the ball rebounded off of Valladares' back and into the net.  Johnson's strike was worthy of a goal but the Honduran keeper was a bit unfortunate to be charged with the own goal on that one.  Honduras got a bit more into the game in the second half but the only major moment was a decision to hand Jamaica a penalty.  The call was the correct one but the excitement came from the fact that Valladares got a bit of revenge on Ryan Johnson by doing really well to get down and turn his spot kick away.

In the end the game wound up 1-0 and though it was lacking some of the spark and the goals that I was expecting from these two teams it was probably a fair result.  The result means that Jamaica goes through Group B in first place having collected 9 points.  Honduras will go through in second having collected the same 4 points as Guatemala but their goal difference of +5 is enough.

I will be back later on with another blog setting out the task that faces Canada as they look to advance from group C and also what they are going to need to happen if they are going to be able to avoid a quarterfinal date with highflying Mexico.

Gold Cup: Day 5

So I have gotten a little bit behind on my Gold Cup reports but this morning I am going to power through them all and get to previewing what challenge Canada is going to face if they want to get through to the next round.  So lets get down to it then!

Day 5 of Gold cup action saw Jamaica take on Guatemala and Grenada take on Honduras at FIU Stadium in Miami.  The night kicked off with Jamaica looking to claim a second win which would basically assure them of a place in the next round of play while Guatemala were looking to build on their surprise draw from the opening round of play.  The first half of the game did not have all that many talking points with Jamaica holding a slight edge in the run of play but the best chances of the half for both teams went to waste as no one seemed interested in getting their shots on target.

This started to pick up in the second half of the game and Jamaica almost opened the scoring thanks to an impressive run through the defense by Jason Morrison but the Guatemalan keeper Jerez came out well and managed to stop the shot with his legs.  Minutes later another good run through the middle of the field by Jamaica forced a second good save as it appeared that Jamaica had taken the initiative in the second half.  It took until the 65th minute for Jamaica to finally get the breakthrough they were looking for as Demar Phillips slid a shot in off the far post from a very tight angle.  The keeper almost got enough of his toe on the ball to turn it wide but in the end Jamaica took a 1-0 lead.  The talking points would not end there but instead the goal seemed to ignite the game.  On 70 minutes the referee was sadly fooled by a flop from the Jamaican attacker who was looking to win a free kick against the last man back.  The referee bought his very soft fall and ended up sending off Cristian Noriega with a second yellow card.  The diving of Jamaica had seen Guatemala reduced to 10 men and from then on it looked like there was only going to be one winner.  Jamaica began to push forward even harder and on 78 minutes Demar Phillips was in the middle of the box to tuck in his second goal of the game which was enough to see Jamaica cruise to a win.  Their 6 points from 3 matches have them top of the group now and in position to advance.  For Guatemala though things are not looking as good with only 1 point from their opening two matches.  If they want to make it out of this group then they are going to need to be Grenada in the third round of play.

Speaking of Grenada, they took to the field in the second game of the night to play Honduras.  Grenada came in to this one with a single Gold Cup goal to their name and found themselves with the unenviable task trying to slow down a Honduran team who were sure to be frustrated after their opening match ended in a draw.  The match could not have started better for Grenada though as they finally ended their goalless drought in this competition with Clive Murray hitting the crossbar but then following up on his rebound to slot home his teams first.  Sadly though if you love Grenada or like me just enjoy cheering for the underdog it was all downhill from there.  Honduras would respond with 2 goals in the 27th minute and another in the 36th.  By the time that halftime arrived I had almost forgotten that Grenada had been in the lead and had started so brightly. 

The second half was all Honduras as they would build on their 3-1 advantage with Carlos Costly scoring in the 66th and 71st minutes to round of his hat trick having scored one in the first half.  Escobar and Ramos would both come off the bench to get involved in the scoring and help to round off a dominant 7-1 win.  Grenada put up such a good fight for close to half and hour but once Honduras got rolling it was clear that they did not have an power to slow them down.  The Honduran onslaught is not only bad news for Grenada but also for the rest of the teams in the Gold Cup since if this signals a turnaround for the team they will be much more of a force as the rounds move on.  The defeat all but seals Grenada's fate as they have no points and a -10 goal difference so unless they destroy Guatemala in the final game they will be going home.  For Honduras though the final match day will be a big one as it will determine who is going to come out of group B in first place.  A Honduran win sees them take first place in the group but any result for Jamaica sees them go through in first.

Gold Cup: Day 2

Last night was Day 2 of the Gold Cup and with the games being played all the way across the continent in Los Angles the kickoffs were a bit later.  The first game kicked off at 9 PM EST and the second one at 11 but I am glad that I stayed up to watch the second one because it was a highly entertaining match.

First off I would like to vent a little bit about the awful commentary that was provided for the games on the CONCACAF website last.  I do appreciate that they are providing free streaming but it would have been nice if they got someone with a bit of experience and quality to commentate on the matches.  Even the majority of local broadcast journalism students in LA would probably have done a better job.  I turned the audio off and just watched the video feed and it made things a lot better.  The other problem I had was with some of the kit choices.  It was a bit of an assault on my eyes trying to watch the bright yellow and green of Jamaica taking on the green and red of grenada so at least all the blue and white of the second match between Honduras and Guatemala was a nice change.

As I just mentioned the first match was between Jamaica and Grenada and it continued the trend of lopsided score lines.  Jamaica were the clear favourites for this one since unlike Grenada they have actually scored a goal in the Gold Cup before.  The match followed the expected script as Jamaica were in control of things from start to finish as they only allowed Grenada one shot the entire match and even that was a fairly speculative effort.  Jamaica in the end scored 4 goals of their own but that was a fair few less then they probably should have been able to net based on the run of play.  They scored 4 chances but I can think of a handful of other chances that they wasted so I am not exaggerating to say that they probably could have won this match by 6 or 7 without much difficulty.  Ryan Johnson of San Jose was probably at the centre of most of the games excitement as he was one of 4 different scorers for Jamaica and also guilty of missing some real good chances as he managed to take 5 decent chances.  

The lack of conversion did not cost Jamaica at all though as at the end of the day the 4-0 win is going to be enough to see them sitting on top of Group B after the first round of play.  They will need a better effort in their next two games though as Grenada are clearly the weakest team of the bunch and will be lucky to even come away with a single point.  Personally I will be cheering for them to at least get one goal before the end of the group stage so they can put that behind themselves.

In the late game Honduras took on Guatemala in what was by far the best game of the 2011 Gold Cup so far.  It was certainly worth staying up to watch if you enjoy a good intense matchup between two teams that were going all in for every tackle and loose ball.  After seeing 14 goals in the first three matches it was nice to finally see a close contest.

The opening moments of the game saw what would be one of the best chances of the match as Carlo Costly missed an open net in the first minute for Honduras before Carlos Ruiz almost opened the scoring for Guatemala at the other end.  I quickly found myself getting behind Guatemala in this game as they were the underdogs and they were giving Honduras everything they could handle in this one.  Both teams were tackling hard and fighting for the ball so it was kind of surprising that the first half ended with no cards being handed out.  It was a half where as I was watching it I expected a goal to come at any moment as both teams were fairly open and the play was quite fast paced and back and forth.  The second half once again lacked for goals but it had a bit of everything else but shamefully Mr. Gutiérrez stole the show in the second half with the cards he handed out.  Personally I think that the red card which he gave to Guatemala's Gustavo on 61 minutes was more then a little harsh.  Gustavo did make a hard tackle but he got a lot of the ball and though I can see it being a foul and maybe a yellow card it was certainly very harsh to send him off for that.  Guatemala were just trying to hang on from then on but a second yellow card for Medina saw them go down to 10 men for the final 15 minutes of the match.  Guatemala did manage to find a way to hang on even if I was less then impressed with some of the stalling that they engaged in with several players going down like they were shot and spending several minutes on the ground.  In the end the game was 0-0 but it was a more exciting match then any of the high scoring games were.

For me the Honduras-Guatemala match was the real start to the Gold Cup.  Watching such an intense battle between two teams who clearly don't like each other got me really fired up for tonights 1812 Derby between Canada and the United States.  Then when the ref came in and ruin the game with a needless sending off I got even more fired up with memories of 2007 coming flooding back.  Remember the Carlos Bocanegra tackle on Julian De Guzman that was not a red card, well that tackle was about 20 times worse then last nights.  And that is not to even mention this:

Game Day!  Let's Go Canada! Go all 1812 on the Americans!

8 PM EST on Rogers Sportsnet One.  You better all be watching!

Gold Cup: Day 1

The central story line of day 1 at the Gold Cup has got to be the very lopsided score lines.  To me the games really served to illustrate just how large the gap now is between the top teams in CONCACAF and the teams that are just barely able to make it into the Gold Cup and will be among the first ones out of World Cup qualifying when it starts in the fall.  On the other side of the coin Mexico and Costa Rica both showed that they are going to be tough teams to beat and that should set up a good clash between the two of them with top spot in the group likely on the line.

There was some good news for Canada on Day 1 as the lopsided score lines mean that the team that finishes third in group A is likely to have a bad goal difference.  That is good for Canada in case they finish third in group C since in the Gold Cup the top two teams advance and then the 2 best third place teams also make it though.  So unless we get a lot more one sided scores then its not looking for great for who ever ends up third in group A, but lets not get to far ahead of ourselves with that since it was only the first day of the tournament.


The games themselves were entertaining affairs unless you are a fan of either of the losing teams in which case they were probably about as much fun as getting a root canal. The tournament opened with Costa Rica taking on Cuba in front of a decent crowd at Cowboys stadium. The crowd was no where near the kinds of record numbers that the new Cowboys Stadium is none for but at least the place was not dead and anyone who stayed to watch both matches were treated to a lot of goals. Costa Rica stole the show in the opener with their 5-0 win over Cuba thanks to getting goals from 4 different sources with
Marcos Urena, a Russian Premier League player, netting a pair.  The game was fairly close, on the score sheet at least, through the first 40 minutes but that is when Costa Rica put the game out of reach.  A goal just before half was followed up by a shocking 2 goals in the first 2 minutes of the second half to put this one beyond doubt.  The 5-0 scoreline in the end was nothing more then Costa Rica deserved as they completely controlled the match and Cuba never even looked like a threat to score while their back line seemed completely outclassed and unable to stop the constant attacks.

The second game of the night was not much different which I sure pleased the largely pro-Mexican crowd that was in attendance.  The Mexican fans would have come into the match expecting a comfortable win over the much weaker El Salvador and would probably have been very uncomfortable with their teams first half performance.  At the break the match was 0-0 and Mexico was failing to make anything of the number of chances that came their way.  The second half was a completely different story though as they found their stride and under the leading of Javier Hernandez, the Manchester United striker, they found their scoring boots.  Chicharito scored a hat trick which was capped off with a 93rd minute penalty after Juarez and De Nigris had each scored to give Mexico a 2-0 lead.  Again the 5-0 score line was probably a deserved result as the Mexicans completely dominated to run of play firing 20 shots towards the net and constantly threatening the back line of El Salvador.

Things that I will be taking away from the first round of matches is that:

- Costa Rica and Mexico are the two teams almost certainly going to be fighting it out for top spot in group A.  

- Mexico are deserving of being labelled as pre-tournament favourites, along with the States, and will be a force to be reckoned with

- Javier Hernandez is going to be a force in this tournament having spent all season causing some of the world's best centre backs problems his pace is just going to be too much for most teams

- We might just be in for a treat this year in terms of the number of goals scored

Day 2 is likely to be a bit less exciting in terms of the number of goals scored but Jamaica-Grenada and Honduras-Guatemala should still be interesting matches.  Honduras are probably the team to watch in group B as I would consider them the favourites to win it and the one team in the group that could provide a shock and go far in this tournament.

Results before Support: More Thoughts

I have spent a lot of time thinking about the comments that are made all to often that the Canadian Mens National team will get more support when it starts to get better results.  That has led to me trying to figure out where the line is going to be.  What does the team have to do to win over enough support to even fill up half of BMO field?

Let us imagine for a moment or two that Canada makes it to the finals of the Gold Cup or even wins it and along the way they beat a team like Mexico or the United States.  Would that be enough to win over any new supporters?  I would say no.  That might seem like the pessimistic answer but with the Gold Cup receiving limited coverage in the Canadian media, granted Sportsnet, the Score and CBC are all putting in a real effort, not enough people are going to realize that Canada is involved in a major tournament this month.  It is shocking how many people who play soccer and claim to like the sport I have come across that don't even know that the Gold Cup is underway right now.  So that is why I think that even winning the Gold Cup will not do that much to boost the support for the team.  I hope I am wrong and that a good showing this month means a few more people will come out and support the team this fall when it begins its world cup campaign but unless the team gets a lot more attention in the news people will continue to be oblivious to the fact that they are already now worth supporting.

I will say that if Canada wins somehow this month, or even makes a good run, it should still have more of an impact then the runs of 2000 and 2007 because the coverage is improved since then.  The games are all being shown on TV even if its on Sportsnet's alternate channel and a dedicated group of journalists and bloggers are doing their very best to get the word out.  That will all help, even if it is only slightly, and at this stage every extra fan that can be won over is going to be a boost in the long run since they might one day bring a friend along to see a match and that is the best way for support to grow in numbers.

Now to get back to my original point of what would it take to get a decent amount of support for the team across the country and in the Toronto area.  I think it would take the team making a serious push towards World Cup qualification.  If they were to make it to the final stages and for example have a match at BMO field against either the United States or Mexico with a spot in the WC on the line then that stadium would be packed.  Maybe even if the same spot is on the line and we are hosting a match against Costa Rica or Honduras we would see a full stadium with most of the crowd being pro-Canadian.  But the fact of the matter is that Canada is still probably some ways off from making a serious push to qualify for the world cup and any such push is going to require the team being almost unbeatable at home.  That creates a sort of catch 22 for the program since they need strong support to provide that much needed home field advantage but they clearly need to win more before they are going to receive that kind of support.

I guess the best that we can hope is that the group of people already dedicated to the cause continue to put in the hours of tireless work trying to support the team and with each passing game the crowd grows slightly larger.  It is going to take a lot of time but since support helps with results we need to give the best support possible to the team so that in the future more fans will come out who have been waiting to see results first.  Sadly though the people waiting to see results first are going to be missing out on a lot of good matches and great times.