Gold Cup

The Gold Cup starts today with a match against Granada in Seattle starting at 6:00 PM Pacific. It's on FSC and Telefutura if you aren't there.

It's be a chance to see several Pilot alumns. Heath Pierce, Steve Cherundolo, and Louis Robles were all originally named to the team.
Conor Casey was added after Concacaf allowed 7 extra players because the US played in the Confederation's cup.

Only 18 players will suit up for each game.

Luis got the start in the 2-2 tie with Haiti... It was a pretty mishmash starting group, included 4 players with their first CAP

Not sure if anyone watched this, but wow a thrilling conclusion. US took the lead in the 5th minute and dominated play in the first half. Luis had a couple excellent saves in the first half, definitely showed his quickness and athleticism. Then Haiti came back and scored 2 goals in the first 3 minutes of the 2nd, I'll admit I missed the first one (had flipped to the Fire/Crew game), but on the second one the defender didn't hear a crashing Robles on the ball and weakly cleared it into the middle, leaving the goal WIDE open for the Hatian attacker. The US equalised in the 2nd minute of stoppage time off a wicked 25 yard strike from Stuart Holden...

After the 2nd goal Haiti went with the bunker style defense and started grabbing, flopping and crawling, but couldn't quite eek it out.

Haha I'll take the tie with the rag-tag group of players they had out there, but wow Haiti... really??

DaTruRochin wrote: but wow Haiti... really??

Wasn't Haiti the last team to defeat Spain before their torrid 25 game win streak??? No, ok, nevermind.

Javier Aguirre got a three game suspension for his Bruce Lee antics in the Mexico-Panama game. No word on whether Phillip's ban will be vacated.

(i'm going with "no" on that one)

This is interesting. If Mexico doesn't make the semi-finals of the Gold Cup, he will still be banned when the US plays Mexico in the WC qualifier in the Coloso de Santa Ursula.

Could be fun.

Purplegeezer wrote:Javier Aguirre got a three game suspension for his Bruce Lee antics in the Mexico-Panama game. No word on whether Phillip's ban will be vacated.

(i'm going with "no" on that one)

This is interesting. If Mexico doesn't make the semi-finals of the Gold Cup, he will still be banned when the US plays Mexico in the WC qualifier in the Coloso de Santa Ursula.

Could be fun.

Javier or no Javier...we always struggle in Azteca. Our record in D.F. is pretty miserable. All the same, history has to change eventually, right?

Heath Pierce player in the USA Panama game. He played good defense and had a couple of good scoring chances pushing forward, especially late.
USA advanced to the semi's on a 2:1 result against Panama.
I didn't see the whole game, but I think we might have gtten the good end of a PK call for once.

Another former Pilot also played otday for Canada. Josh Simpson had several dangerous crosses and to pretty good header tries from his left side forward position, but even though Canada was the aggressor, Honduras got lucky on a VERY dubious PK call and Honduras triumphed 1:0.


So Canada is out

5-0 loss to Mexico (at last count - there's still a minute or two left, so who knows where it will go.) The team held even in the first, then completely fell apart in the second half. I couldn't watch any more.

Admittedly, it's not the team that will play in the qualifiers, but it's a thorough shellacking nonetheless. None of the guys out there made a case they should be promoted. One wonders how many should be allowed to wear the shirt again.

The next game in the Azteca should be interesting. The USA has never won there.

Even if it was a young US Team, we got bleeping whooped! You're right, Geezer, the August 12th game at Azteca will be amazing. Time for to make carne asada...literally porque es tan rico! and figuratively...time to beat Mexico in Mexico!