We're not playing Barbados anymore, I don't think Guatemala has to put up ads looking for players on their federation website.
The semifinal round of CONCACAF qualifying begins tonight, with the US playing probably its most difficult game of the round first. Guatemala should advance with the US into the Hex, and this game will be a chance to gauge where both teams stand.

Dell'Apa:
This U.S. team is steamrolling foes right now. But wiping out Barbados and defeating Guatemala, Cuba and Trinidad & Tobago is not a good measure of the team's progress.

It is time for another charge from the hosts in this live online and radio commentary World Cup 2010 qualifier between the United States and Barbados live for another trip to the World Cup as they attempt to improve their standing in the world game yet again. There is no doubting that they have huge potential to do better in soccer and in this live online streaming match, as there must be an abundance of talent available in the country.

  Eddie Johnson and Brian Ching celebrate a goal against Barbados, the only game which a current US striker has scored a goal in the last 14 months for the national team. Bob Bradley's tenure as United States National Team manager has gone about as well as can be expected: A CONCACAF Gold triumph, several [.

A couple days slimming his roster down to 12, it looks like US coach Bob Bradley is about to fatten things up with the addition of a bunch of MLSers.
Various reports have Bradley calling Drew Moor (FC Dallas), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake), John Thorrington (Chicago Fire), Chris Rolfe (Chicago Fire) and Chad Barrett (Chicago Fire).

US vs. Barbados
5p ET/2p PT
TV: ESPN2
Internet: ESPN360
Text call: Matchtracker
The US is less then an hour away from starting their long road to South Africa and Bob Bradley has released his lineup. Needless to say, there are a couple surprises. First of all, Guzan will start in goal instead of Tim Howard.

US 8-0 Barbados
Anyway you look at this, it was a great way for the US to start their World Cup run. This was the expected result and the team lived up to it, but that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. With that in mind, here are the player grades:
Starting XI
Brad Guzan (GK) - What a boring way to up your international appearance numbers.

Mike Ashley will face a very unhappy squad if Newcastle United do not succeed in efforts to keep Kevin Keegan at the club. Mike Ashley - in America - and then off to Barbados The Daily Mirror is reporting today that Kevin had two meetings with the club's board yesterday in an attempt to work something out [.

The lone American goal scorer from World Cup 2006 now has consistently played so poorly for the national team if the opponent is not Barbados, that his presence seems to actually help stagnate the side. Dempsey's last good performance for the National Team against a decent opponent was last October in Switzerland.

The United States begins its quest for qualification for South Africa 2010 when they host Barbados in Carson, California Sunday afternoon.

The US Men's National Team cruised to an easy 8-0 victory over Barbados on Sunday afternoon at the Home Depot Center to start World Cup Qualifying with an impressive display.

Steve Davis is grumbling about the U.S. left back conundrum, but I think Heath Pearce has stepped up to the role quite well. He's fast enough to limit attacks, he's scrappy on tackles, and he gets forward well. Plus, his crosses are some of the best I've seen from any U.S. player rotating into that position.

US coach Bob Bradley has released 10 players from camp ahead of their second leg match against Barbados. Most of the players are MLS based, so this is not much of a surprise, however I kind of thought he would keep Guzan around in case Howard is still having back issues (plus if Guzan still wants to move to England, he needs more international caps).

La siguiente fase de los juegos de clasificación de la Concacaf para el mundial Sudáfrica 2010 están a punto de comenzar y esta nota va al caso por que sucedió en un partido clasificatorio, tal vez el mas extraño y loco de todos los tiempos.
El juego clasificatorio fue para pasar a la siguiente ronda para el mundial de 1994:

El equipo de Barbados tenía que ganar por dos goles de diferencia, pero Granada pasaría aún si perdía por un gol de diferencia.

So, I see we picked up an international friendly against Poland on March 26 - and that's good so far as it goes. It wasn't till I read My Soccer Blog's post on the U.S. Men's National Team's (Yanquis) schedule for 2008 that I got to thinking we really need another couple games. [...]

Brian Ching is not the answer: Ching scored twice, but one was a deflection off of his back from a Pablo Mastroeni shot (yes, you read that right). You can score two goals by accident if you play ninety minutes up top against Barbados. I mean, Eddie Johnson even scored in a ten-minute cameo. Ching just wasn't at the same level as the rest of the US attack and you could see it when at lot of the attacks broke down once the ball was played to him.

It starts here.

Did that get you in the mood for today's U.S.-Barbados qualifier at Home Depot Center?

The game begins at 2 p.m. live on ESPN2 and Galavision.

Here's a game preview from the U.S. perspective and another from the view of Barbados wherein we learn the name of Barbados' playmaker: Norm.

US head coach Bob Bradley has announced his 21-man roster for the American's first game of their 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign against Barbados on Sunday.

The second leg of Concacaf World Cup Qualifying swings into full gear this weekend as 24 teams look to advance to the first group phase. Although there are strong favorites in just about every one of these contests, the constant possibility of an upset will be present. Who knows, an early surprise goal or red card could kill a team's dream.

US 1-0 Barbados
In a game that saw the favorites look tired and even more defensive minded then normal, the underdogs had their chance to run the game. But unlike the Italy-Spain Euro match, the US was able to see their opposition out of the competition.
Yesterday's game was a flashback for me as right from the opening moments, it reminded me of some late-80's games due to the horrible video production.

Wow. If I hadn't read this MLSnet.com fluff-piece on Khano Smith, I wouldn't have known that the preliminary qualifying round for CONCACAF had started this past weekend. Obviously, given Smith's name coming up, Bermuda was one of the participants. Since the article was written on Friday, there's nothing in there about whether Bermuda beat the [.

USA vs. Barbados
Sunday - 2:55p ET/11:55a PT
TV: ESPN Classic & Galavision (Spanish)
Bob Bradley has released his 18-man roster for the second leg of the US-Barbados World Cup Qualifier. With the US up 8-0, the starting lineup is likely to include a number of younger players.

The United States has called in a host of new players for the second leg of its clash with Barbados in Bridgetown this Sunday.

Under Bob Bradley the USMNT has become reliant on set pieces for scoring and quite possibly more dependent on its center backs than any top 50 national team/photo from US Soccer

For all the criticisms of Bob Bradley's tactics by commentators including myself, the continued success rate the United States enjoys on set pieces is remarkable.

After last week's defeat against England, the U.S. is ready to get back on the field against fourth-ranked Spain this Wednesday, June 4. The team arrived in Santander last Thursday, and has been training just outside the city during the buildup to this week's match. All 17 European-based players from the England squad traveled to [.

Should the US qualify for its sixth straight World Cup in about eighteen months' time, the team may point to last night's entertaining and at times electrifying scoreless draw at a packed Giants Stadium as the shot of confidence needed to conquer CONCACAF.

Note only did the Yanks battle toe-to-toe with the world top-ranked Argentineans, but strong individual performances from Tim Howard (who stood on his head to keep a clean sheet), Landon Donovan (in his 100th US appearance) and DaMarcus Beasley (his best game since returning from a long injury) should carry the US past through the fall qualifying sequence with ease.

> A shock result in Paraguay today as a ten-man Paraguayan team demolished Brazil 2-0 in World Cup qualifying. Not-so-shock result in Los Angeles, as the US men took down Barbados, 8-0, after opening the scoring in the 55th second. (Yes, second.) Damn, I love being in CONCACAF. World Cup qualifying is underway, [.

Some match reports from several different outlets on Sunday's 8-0 US win over Barbados:
- Grahame Jones of the LA Times talked to Barbados goalkeeper Alvin Rouse after the match. I think he was the only one who stopped Rouse, who had one great save off an Oguchi Onyewu header but otherwise was helpless to stop the U.

Barbados 0 - 1 U.S.A
Chances are that about 15 months from now, the U.S. will be celebrating its qualification to the 2010 World Cup. When that day comes, Sunday's 1-0 win over Barbados -- one in which the U.S. prevailed 9-0 on aggregate in their World Cup qualifying series -- will be largely forgotten.

Barbados-USA was a dead rubber, and the less said about the match the better. It made for a good treatment for insomniacs, although once again the match demonstrated that Freddy Adu is one of the few dynamic American players. Barbados will take a smidgen of consolation from Emmerson Boyce cracking a shot against the crossbar, and might even view a 0-1 defeat as a bit of a victory, but in the end the Bajans will wait another four years for a shot at the world stage.

Just shy of two years from the day they crashed out of the 2006 World Cup in the first round, the US Men's National Team will start the long process of qualifying for South Africa 2010 this Sunday. The first leg of the two-legged second stage of CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying is against Barbados (2pm [.

Once the ugliness that is Turkey-Czech Republic is over, I'll be liveblogging the USA World Cup Qualifier against Barbados. So check back at 4:45 Eastern time.

Just another thought here. Excepting today's rout of Barbados it seems that the USMNT is still lacking a consistent finisher up top. Does Buddle deserve another look?

I have to say that Eddie Johnson has been unimpressive as of late. He's a bit lumbering. And Ching, while providing a great target in the air, is not as impressive in creating chances.

Here's a selection of post-game quotes from the U.S.-Barbados World Cup qualifier (and no, none from Coach Bob Bradley - he's a terrible quote):

Brian Ching on the importance of the opening goal in the first minute:

Clint (Dempsey) opened them up in the first minute. ... We capitalized on that the rest of the game.

Landon Donovan was the last player out into the mixed zone after the Barbados match, because he'd been picked for the random drug testing FIFA requires. Players have to give a urine sample after a match, and that's not easy to do after losing fluids sweating during a game played in the hot SoCal sun.

Barbados' coach said prior to the match that the longer the game remained scoreless, the better the chances for his side to surprise the US in the first match of qualifications for the 2010 World Cup. That lasted less than a minute. Clint Dempsey's early strike (one of two for him on the day) was the first of [.

Sunday:
Trinidad & Tobago 1 - 2 Bermuda: The Revs' Khano Smith started and went the full 90 minutes for Bermuda, tallying an assist on John Barry Nusum's first goal with a nice cross. Trinidad & Tobago were heavy favorites in the match, especially since they were playing at home.
USA 8 - 0 Barbados: Matt Reis was on the bench, but saw no time after his surprise call-up due to Tim Howard's injury.

Freddy after the Barbados match explained that going in for Mastroeni was unexpected. He recovered, though, and went on to play well in the second half of the match.

It turns out that Ugo Ihemelu won't be a Canadian international after all. Deep down in this press release from the Canadian Soccer Federation amid news of the team's recent victory in a pre-World Cup qualifier is the fact that Ihemelu is on his way back to DSG Park following a FIFA decision he cannot play for Canada in the next World Cup.

The U.S. destroyed Barbados by an 8-0 score on Sunday. Though it reflects what should happen when a good opponent faces a substantially inferior opponent, it also shows somewhat how far the U.S. has come. It's the largest margin of victory ever for the US, let alone qualifying.
It also got qualifying off to a good start, which is expected nowadays but wasn't always the case.