Friday, January 23, 2009

Contrast in styles

My latest column for SI.com.

I took a look at how much of a contrast the US and Mexico are right now, less than three weeks away from their Feb. 11 matchup. Now, that doesn't mean the US has it in the bag; no way, far from it. But as I say in the story everything is falling into place for the hosts.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mexico will not go down like a bitch.

That said, they're probably going down.

"Sven has a surprise for the Americans?"

Hmm, IKEA giftcards?

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, everybody everywhere is saying the US will win, they better not get overconfident, that is what sometimes kills teams.

Anonymous said...

Overconfidence will be the reason why the US will LOSE to Mexico.

DrewVT6 said...

Kind of funny to see the same players who have complained about Americans being racist and/or hating ALL Mexicans clamoring for NO naturalized players in the Mexico lineup.

Joel Aceves said...

Despite all the mounting evidence againt the Tricolor; I must ask when has Mexico ever played spectacular during WCQ?

The last time they dominated qualifiers was when they played all games at home; road to ARG78 where they finished in last place.

Mexico has shown to play better when there is less pressure or they are expected to lose.. .

Anonymous said...

USA will lose.

Anonymous said...

Drew Brow:

I suggest you go back to school and learn how to read or at least learn how to think for yourself and form your own opinions.

Memo Ochoa was the one who made the comment about having a limit on how many foreign players can play for the national team.

Pavel Pardo and Oswaldo Sanchez said the opposite. They defended the rights of naturalized Mexicans to wear the national team shirt.

See that? That's your half ass asumption flying out the window.

And Luis, I don't know how and where you did your research but Salcido is a starter for PSV and has been all season, despite his problems with Stevens, he even scored the opening goal during today's PSV-NEC match. He reported late to PSV's training camp earlier this month because of issues with his son's visa.

Osorio is still a starter for Stuttgart and has been training with them, Pavel and Leandro have both played with their respective teams the past 3-4 weeks and will play against Sweden. Giovani just came back from injury and even though Redknapp doesn't really rate him, he played in today's FA Cup match against Man U. Vela is slowly progressing at Arsenal and makes the bench for every game and will usually get 10 or 20 mins every other game or so.

Not to mention that after that lack of cohesive team play that plagued the team during the last round of WCQs, Sven vowed to build the base of the team around players from the Mexican league.

C'mon Luis, if you need help writing your articles shoot me an e-mail, I would gladly give you a hand.

;)

Anonymous said...

The person above me is right, Luis your slippin'.

L.B. said...

Maybe I've been reffing too many games

Anonymous said...

No worries, we still love you. lol.