We’re less than 3 weeks away from the start of the World Cup finals in South Africa, the biggest event in all of sports. While the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL crown their winners as “world champions”…the winner of the World Cup is literally “THE WORLD CHAMPION” of the world’s greatest and most popular sport.
Two weeks ago, coaches released their preliminary 30 man roster, and last week all national teams started their official training. This week starts the first preliminary games where coaches see who’ll make their final 23 man roster, which is due next week.
So far this week, four teams of note took the field for the first time: England, Portugal, Mexico, and the United States. My quick thoughts on all of them…
United States
Tonight, the United States lost 4-2 against the Czech Republic, a team that did not qualify for the World Cup. Unlike Portugal, England, and Mexico, the United States did not field their top team, with coach Bob Bradley giving stars Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey, and others the night off. Bradley instead wanted to give the “fringe” players, players who are on the borderline of making the 23-man roster, a chance to make their case to go to South Africa. Yes they lost, but dont read too much into it.
The biggest weakness and uncertainty for the Americans has to be the defensive unit. The three top defenseman are all recovering from various injuries: Captain Carlos Bocanegra had minor sports hernia surgery a couple weeks ago, Oguchi Onyewu hasn’t played in a competitive match since last October after rupturing his patellar tendon, and Jay Demerit is suffering from vision problems after eye surgery from an infection. If all three are healthy and ready for South Africa, Onyewu and Demerit would be able to play the center defensive positions, with Bocanegra taking the left back spot (and Jonathan Spector) taking the right. However, if one of these players isnt fit, the two other players would play the center, and the left back spot would have to be filled by either Jonathan Bornstein or Heath Pearce or even Damarcus Beasley (a natural midfielder). As we saw tonight, Bornstein and Pearce were just plain bad, and neither one should be the starting left back on a team with high expectations for the World Cup. The next couple weeks will be very interesting to see the match fitness of Onyewu, Demerit, and Bocanegra. If they are ok to go, the United States will be ok in South Africa.
For other players, I think Bradley will take Brian Ching and Hercules Gomez, the leading scorer in the Mexican Leagues this year to South Africa.
I’m also pretty confident that Maurice Edu and Demarcus Beasley booked their tickets to South Africa as well.
England
The English team had one of the best qualifying campaigns going 9-1 (their only loss being a 1-0 defeat to Ukraine who ended up finishing 2nd in the group). However, like the Americans, this is a team that is striving to get healthy. The Manchester United duo of Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand fought hard this entire season to stay healthy during the club season, and both are fighting hard to gain fitness in time for the World Cup. Also, Ashley Cole is just starting to get back into form after fracturing his ankle back in February.
Then you have John Terry, who was stripped of the captaincy (and given to Ferdinand) for his affair with the ex-girlfriend of teammate Wayne Bridge, who then proceeded to resign from the national team since he claimed he couldn’t play with Terry ever again.
The English opened up their exhibition season with a 3-1 victory against Mexico at Wembley Stadium. At times, the English looked really good. Wayne Rooney and Peter Couch were both effective as forwards in the first half of the game before they were substituted out. Theo Walcott showed flashes of brilliance, but also displayed poor judgement in his decisions with the ball. Only 21 years of age, he could already be playing in his 2nd World Cup next month.
However, the English were lucky to escape with a 3-1 victory as I thought Mexico actually outplayed and outperformed them. Like the Americans, the English’s defenses were exposed by a great passing team like Mexico. Way too many times did the Mexicans find holes in the defense and attack. Similarly like like the Americans, the left back position is one of the biggest question marks for the English team. Leighton Baines looked extremely shaky in the game against Mexico and was lucky that the Mexicans couldnt capitalize on all of his mistakes. If starting left back, Ashley Cole, cant get ready in a month (and with Bridge not available), Baines will definitely need to step up his game.
The X-factor for this team has to be the fitness of Wayne Rooney, my favorite player in the world. He injured his ankle in Manchester United’s Champions League quarterfinals match against Bayern Munich, and he’s re-injured it way too many times at the end of the season. England’s hopes for success in the World Cup depends on whether or not Rooney will be fit. He claims that he’ll be 100% ready to go by June 12 against United States. If he, then the Lions have a decent chance of progressing far in the tournament.
Portugal
On Monday May 24th, Portugal, the #3 team in the world, only managed a 0-0 tie against a team from The Cape Verde Islands, who are ranked #117. Eh? Yeah I never knew this country had a soccer team to begin with. Heck I didnt know this country even existed. This should have been a walk in the park for Portugal, who started their strongest team of Ricardo Carvalho, Miguel Veloso, Nani, Deco, Liedson and Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably one of the best players in the world. Yet even with such a strong lineup, they couldnt even score one single goal.
This definitely has to be cause of panic for all Portugal fans, especially since they’re playing in “The Group of Death” with Brazil, Ivory Coast, and North Korea in South Africa. This was also the same team that only had a 2-0 win against China a couple months ago. While Ronaldo may be the best player in the world, the rest of the team is inconsistent and unpredictable. This is also a team that struggled mightily in the European qualification stages. It will be a shame if they dont get out of the group stage at the World Cup, though its very likely.
Mexico
I’m not too familiar with the players on the Mexican national team, but from what I saw against England, this is a very strong and disciplined team. Even though England won 3-1, the Mexicans had many more scoring chances and held possession of the ball for a longer period of time then the English. They had good ball movement, passing, and scoring chances, but just couldn’t not capitalize on these chances as well as they would have liked.
The Mexicans are in a group with South Africa, France, and Uruguay. It’s very likely that the Mexcians can get out of the group stage, and if they do, they’ll be a very dangerous team to play against.
Upcoming Schedule
Wednesday: Netherlands vs Mexico. France vs Costa Rica
Friday: Paraguay vs Ivory Coast
Saturday: Hungary vs Germany. Spain vs Saudi Arabia. Slovakia vs Cameroon
Hopefully I can catch a number of these games and get a chance to see how teams look before they get to South Africa.
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