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Pittsburgh Gunny
I am a huge supporter of Arsenal. I also support the Pittsburgh Penguins, US Men's National Team and the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. My current AGM project is to help build the pages for Hockey, Football(soccer) and Alpine Skiing.

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The Hexagonal Opens in Columbus

by Pittsburgh Gunny
created February 10, 2009, last edited July 16, 2009
6
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The final phase of qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in CONCACAF is set to start this Wednesday evening.  For the United States their opening match will be played at Columbus Crew Stadium against the old enemy, Mexico.  The other matches for the region see El Salvador playing host in San Salvador to Trinidad and Tobago, the third match sees Costa Rica hosting Honduras in San Jose.

Unfortunately I will be unable to attend the match at Columbus as I did the last time the US played Mexico in World Cup qualifying on US soil but my heart will be there with the boys as they take the pitch.  US Soccer did send me a nice post card inviting me to the match but it was a bit too late for me to rearrange my schedule on short term notice.  The postcard had a nice little passcode on it that allowed me to purchase tickets prior to them being available to the general public.  US Soccer reported that the tickets sold out within 90 minutes of going on public sale.  I love the fact that US Soccer finally decided on Columbus as the venue.  Columbus does seem to pull in a goodly amount of US fans, the most rabid of which stand behind the goal and sing their wonderful hearts out.

Qualification for the United States to the big event in South Africa should not be extremely difficult but a good showing against the ancient enemy will make the whole process a great deal less stressful for all those involved.  For CONCACAF the final phase of qualification consists of a six team single table called a hexagonal.  Each teams plays the other twice, once at home and once on the road for a total of 10 matches each.  The top three finishers in the hexagonal automatically qualify for South Africa.  The fourth place finisher must then enter a two match, home and away, playoff with the fifth place finisher in CONMEBOL.  CONMEBOL is the region that consists primarily of the South American nations.  CONCACAF has seen the US and Mexico become the two big guns in the region so both should go through but like I said I would love to see the US stuff El Tri.

The US Squad looks like this for the match;

POS Player Club
GK Tim Howard Flag of England Everton F.C.
GK Brad Guzan Flag of England Aston Villa
D Carlos Bocanegra Flag of France Stade Rennais
D Jonathan Bornstein Flag of the United States Chivas USA
D Danny Califf Flag of Denmark FC Midtjylland
D Frankie Hejduk Flag of the United States Columbus Crew
D Oguchi Onyewu Flag of Belgium  Standard de Liege
D Heath Pearce Flag of Germany Hansa Rostock
D Marvel Wynne Flag of Canada Toronto FC
MF DaMarcus Beasley Flag of Scotland Rangers F.C.
MF Michael Bradley Flag of Germany Borussia Monchengladbach
MF Ricardo Clark Flag of the United States Houston Dynamo
MF/F Clint Dempsey Flag of England Fulham F.C.
MF Sacha Kljestan Flag of the United States Chivas USA
MF Robbie Rogers Flag of the United States Columbus Crew
MF Jose Francisco Torres Flag of Mexico Pachuca
F Jozy Altidore  Flag of Spain Xerez C.D.
F Brian Ching Flag of the United States Houston Dynamo
F Charlie Davies Flag of Sweden Hammarby IF
F Landon Donovan Flag of Germany Bayern Munich

A nice looking squad from what I can see.  Of particular note is Jose Francisco Torres.  Torres had the option of playing either for the USA or Mexico, he has a Mexican father and American mother.  It caused quite a stir when he decided to play for the United States over Mexico I'm hoping he has a great match.

C'MON YOU RED, WHITE AND BLUE!


Enable Comment Auto-Refresher
SSreportersLegend
290 days ago
Score 2+-
This isn't a guarantee, but I don't think Mexico will qualify for the World Cup. Their squad struggled in the last group stage and basically were lucky Jamaica didn't run rampant on Canada.


The US should win this game, and anything less than that should be a disappointment. A loss for the US means less than a loss for Mexico, but it's still a bad start.


Bocanegra is just crap, I don't know why he plays at all. Outside of him, I like this squad very much, I predict a 3-1 win with goals from Donovan, Ching, and Dempsey.
Permalink | Reply
Pittsburgh GunnyMajor Leaguer
290 days ago
Score 1+-
Well Mexico does have Sven Goran Eriksson going for them as manager....oh, wait, nevermind.....heh heh heh
Permalink
RawbeezeitzMajor Leaguer
290 days ago
Score 1+-
Mexico always struggles in Columbus. Good decision by US Soccer to stage the game there. Good fans out there as well.
Permalink | Reply
Pittsburgh GunnyMajor Leaguer
290 days ago
Score 1+-
I agree Rawb, I just wish that US Soccer would have firmed up the Columbus date a bit sooner so that I could have rearranged my schedule. That last USA-Mexico match in Columbus was nuts.
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Categories: Opinions | Opinions by User Pittsburgh Gunny | February 10, 2009 | February 2009 | Soccer Opinions | FIFA World Cup Opinions | United States National Football Team Opinions | Mexico National Football Team Opinions | CONCACAF Opinions | Jose Francisco Torres Opinions

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