CONCACAF - North America - Recent posts
Viewing all posts which authors have tagged ‘CONCACAF - North America’.
You can also subscribe to this tag's feed.
When a politician suspends his or her campaign, it effectively means the end of the campaign. Even
if it is restarted, all of the momentum generated has been lost and almost impossible to recover.
Sports league operations are no different, and especially soccer leagues in the USA. So the news
today that Women's Professional Soccer has suspended operations for the 2012 season is very bad.
Both sides of the Clásico Regiomontano experienced different emotions during the weekend. CONCACAF
club champions Monterrey were knocked out of the FIFA Club World Cup by Japanese champions Kashiwa
Reysol, 4-3 on penalties after the match finished 1-1 at the end of 120 minutes. Reysol took the
lead through their star midfielder Leander Domingues, but the Rayados equalized through Humberto
Suazo five minutes later.
Club América had a disastrous first half of the Mexican season, finishing second-from-last in the
Apertura tournament. It represents a total collapse for a side that finished consistently in
Mexico's top six over the last two seasons. (However, América have not won a domestic title since
the 2005 Clausura and have not advanced beyond the quarterfinals in three of the last four short
tournaments.
Scary scenes in Torreón last night as the Primera match between Santos and Morelia was abandoned
due to a gunfight between drug cartels and Mexican police. It happened around the 40 minute mark of
a match that was 0-0 when the sounds of gunfire could be heard. Players, referees, and technical
staff ran for the tunnels while spectators crawled into the spaces in front of the seats.
A look at Jürgen Klinsmann's selection list for the USA friendly match vs Mexico reveals a high
level of turnover from the squad that faced Mexico in the Gold Cup final. Some of the changes were
forced by injury (Zach Loyd), others by the start of the European domestic season (Clint Dempsey)
or by players' unsettled situations at their clubs (Michael Bradley).
I've held off on making comment about the dismissal of Bob Bradley and the selection of Jürgen
Klinsmann to the head of the US national team until today's introduction to the media in New York
City. I wanted to hear from Gulati, but more so from Klinsmann, about the reasons for this change
and the overarching vision for the US national programs in the coming years.
US men's national team coach Bob Bradley has been relieved of his position by the US Soccer
Federation. A replacement has not been named at this time, but the Federation says that it will
have a "further announcement" tomorrow, whatever that might mean. The US do have a big friendly
match against Mexico in two weeks' time, but the selection of the national team coach should not --
must not -- be dictated by that event.
Before a packed crowd at Estadio Azteca, Mexico's U-17 footballers fulfilled the wishes of an
entire nation and won the World Cup for their age group, 2-0 over Uruguay. Uruguay played a tight
defensive match, faithful to the style of the senior charrúas, but the Mexican juniors found their
legs and took full advantage of a set-piece to open the scoring.
Bob Bradley was never anyone's first choice for the US men's national team, but nevertheless I have
been a defender of him since he was installed in his post. I felt that the national team had made
some positive improvements under his leadership during the 2010 qualifying cycle, while at the same
time being aware of his limitations.
Five players on Mexico's national team were suspended from the Gold Cup, and from international
football, because of positive results from a doping test conducted on 21 May. The implicated
players are Francisco Rodríguez, Antonio "Sinha" Naelson, Edgar Dueñas, Cristián Bermúdez, and
Guillermo Ochoa.
Pumas of UNAM won their seventh Mexican league title after defeating Morelia 2-1 at Ciudad
Universitaria today to win the final series 3-2 on aggregate. After both teams traded goals from
the penalty spot, the winning goal was settled in dramatic and thrilling fashion. Javier Cortés,
Pumas' 21-year-old striker, took the ball at the right flank just outside the penalty area,
maneuvered around three Monarcas defenders and slotted the ball past Féderico Vilar.
Club Tijuana won passage to the top division in Mexican football after defeating Irapuato 2-1 at
home today to win the promotion final. (The first leg finished 0-0 in Irapuato.) Tijuana led
throughout before a capacity crowd thanks to the contributions of American player Joe Corona, who
scored once and created the other Xolos goal.
I've been so busy with the other site and some other things that I can't write about right now, so
much to the point that I almost forgot to give a recap of the Mexican Clausura playoffs. The
semifinals start tomorrow, but before that let's review how the semifinalists came about.
Guadalajara rode a 3-1 first leg win over league leaders Tigres and never looked back, as their 1-1
result in Nuevo León sent them through 4-2 on aggregate.
At the other end of the Mexican league table, the fight over who replaces Necaxa in the elite
division of Mexican football is heating up. Club Tijuana won the Torneo de Ascenso Apertura
tournament, and they now have progressed to the semifinals of the Clausura. The quarterfinal round
concluded this weekend with the following results: Cruz Azul Hidalgo 2-7 Club Tijuana (2:2, 1:5)
Sinaloa 1-1 Irapuato (0:0, 1:1) (Hidalgo pass on better regular-season record) Correcaminos
(Tamaliupas) 1-2 Toros Neza (1:1, 0:1) The semifinal round starts this weekend with the following
matchups: Club Tijuana - León Toros Neza - Irapuato All.
The final eight of the Torneo Clausura have been determined after this weekend's matches. Newly
installed CONCACAF champions Monterrey scored a 3-2 win away to Guadalajara to clinch second place
in Group 1, which caused Chivas to slip all the way down to eighth. Only Atlas' 0-3 loss at the
hands of league leaders Tigres prevented Guadalajara from missing the playoffs all together.
With one round of the 2011 Torneo Clausura remaining in Mexico, only three clubs have clinched a
spot in the league playoffs. The two university clubs -- UNAM Pumas and UANL Tigres -- have been
top cats over the regular season, and Morelia have fluttered along and settled into third place
overall that ensures them at worst a wildcard spot.
There has been considerable head-scratching at Monterrey manager Víctor Vucetich's early
substitutions of Luís Pérez and Aldo De Nigris in Wednesday's first leg of the CONCACAF Champions
League Final. I've read other commentators accuse him of being arrogant and disrespectful toward
Real Salt Lake with his double substitution.
Monterrey will be without the services of two of their players -- Aldo De Nigris and Jesús Zavala
-- in the second leg of the Champions League final due to yellow card accumulation, but last night
it looked like they would be without three additional players due to injury. Luís Pérez went off
due to a hamstring injury, and Sergio Santana and Osvaldo Martínez picked up similar injuries.
Canada was awarded the rights to host the Women's World Cup in 2015. There was no doubt that Canada
would win it; the only other bid was submitted by Zimbabwe which was barely competitive. Two days
before the vote, Zimbabwe withdrew to leave Canada as the only bid in the competition. (FIFA may be
willing to place World Cups in the desert under 50C heat, but not even FIFA will consider a World
Cup in a country with hyperinflation and barely functioning infrastructure.
I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that tonight is the 10th anniversary of the original Cold War
match between the USA and Mexico. It was the first matchday of the 2001 Hexagonal and the USA had
experienced a bruising semifinal round that saw them play in the steaming Guatemalan jungle, a
hellish Saprissa environment, and a bumpy pitch in Barbados (just 25 minutes away from being
eliminated!
Santos Laguna manager Rubén Omar Romano has been fired by the club with immediate effect, for
"conduct against the values of Santos Laguna". Romano made verbal and non-verbal actions toward the
home fans during and after Santos' 2-0 defeat to Querétaro on Saturday. I haven't seen any
descriptions of what he did, although I'm willing to make a few guesses, but he did say the
following after the game: Esta gente no tiene memoria, jugamos dos finales en un año y hoy no lo
recuerdan.
The friendly match between Egypt and the USA scheduled for 9 February is off, for obvious reasons.
The political crisis is Egypt is very fluid and there was no way that the match would have been
played. And after all, it's just an exhibition match. It's too late to schedule a match at short
notice, so this international date is lost to the federation.
Mexico coach José Manuel de la Torre has announced his first list of call-ups since his
appointment as national team coach this summer. It is an entirely domestic-based list, but more
players from Europe will be called up next week. There aren't any players from Jaguares de Chiapas,
San Luís, or América because of their clubs' participation in Copa Libertadores, but it's
possible that they would appear in the friendlies against Venezuela and Paraguay.
