Who Will Make it to South Africa?

by Sean Heffernan

This week we saw all over the world a number of countries beginning to make their way toward South Africa, where in 272 days, World Cup 2010 will begin. The United States took two steps closer to qualifying with two hard fought victories against El Salvador and Trinidad & Tobago. Many complained about the Americans difficulty defeating two teams who on paper were significantly inferior, but in World Cup Qualifying a win is a win. It was a great week in the Beautiful Game. So without further adieu here are my thoughts...

 1. Will the World's Two Best Players Miss Out on the World Cup?

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are widely regarded as the two best footballers in the world, but it is very possible that they won't take part in the upcoming World Cup. Messi's Argetina lost twice last week at home to Brazil and then again days later away to Paraguay. As for Ronaldo, his beloved Portugal won a crucial game against Hungary 1-0, but will have a tough fight in the coming months to earn a playoff spot in their group if they want any chance of making it to South Africa. Argentina is currently in fifth place in South America and would have to face the fourth place team from the US's group in a playoff if they held their current position.

Who doesn’t want to see the best players on Earth play on the biggest stage there is in sports? Each player led their clubs to the last two Champions League Championships. Ronaldo is the most complete attacker in the world. He can score in any way imaginable on the pitch:  the run of play, free kicks, long range bombs, headers, etc. The 24-year-old just left Manchester United for Real Madrid on $132 million deal making him one the richest athletes on the planet. Messi won the Champions League with FC Barcelona over Manchester Untied this past season displaying his world class playmaking abilities. Messi can change direction with the ball like Barry Sanders and create scoring opportunities out of nothing. Despite both players brilliance, their countries are in real danger of not qualifying. It would be a shame if these two athletes, in their primes, on top of the world with their clubs, don't even make it to South Africa.

2. Remaining Questions for the USMNT

The United States should always beat El Salvador and Trinidad & Tobago, but US fans can't expect them to blow them out every time they play. The US on Wednesday won a crucial match against T&T in the Port of Spain 1-0, putting themselves on top of their group. The top three teams make the World Cup automatically in the region and with Costa Rica looking terrible the US are pretty much are a shoe in for 2010.

At left back the US continues to struggle and former Mexican international Edgar Castillo, who was recently cleared to play for the United States, should get a real shot at the position. The only viable option head coach Bob Bradley has is moving over Carlos Bocanegra over to left back and playing Jay DeMerit in the center with Oguchi Onyweu. Jonathan Borenstien's ill fated clearance gave El Salvador an early lead last Saturday. The US cannot afford mistakes like that in the future. To Borenstien's credit he did have a better game against T&T, but not good enough to inspire any kind of confidence in US Soccer fans. Bradley could consider some new faces from MLS like Tim Ward of the Chicago Fire or Todd Dunivant of the LA Galaxy, but the coach doesn’t have a whole lot of time to make up his mind before next summer.

The US needs to improve on how they start games. They have given up to many early goals in qualifying and against better teams they won't have a chance at coming back. The second half of the T&T game was the first time in as long as I can remember that the US really possessed the ball for long periods of time. Once the Americans started sitting on the ball they took control of the game which resulted in the lone goal from Ricardo Clark. After a frustrating first half, Michael Bradley stepped up his game, distributing the ball out of the midfield with accuracy and grit. If the US can possess the ball consistently good things will happen.

3. The Battle for the Midfield

The other position battle is in the middle of the field, where US coach Bob Bradley's son Michael Bradley has been a constant in qualifying. Ricardo Clark, Benny Feilhaber, Maurice Edu, and Jose Francisco Torres have also been in the mix for the position in the past year. Clark scored the crucial goal against T&T on a wicked bending ball from outside the penalty box and is rumored to be moving abroad after this season with Houston. Feilhaber could be the best passer the US has outside of Landon Donovan, but looked better on the wing as a substitute against T&T as he did when he started against El Salvador in the middle.

There is a growing movement within US fans who want to see Jose Francisco Torres play more. The Mexican-American has been a solid contributor down in Mexico for his club Pachuca and showed promise when he's donned the Red, White, and Blue.  Torres really can play anywhere in the midfield for Bob Bradley which helps his chances of making the team in 2010.

Former Toronto FC man Maurice Edu was making his case earlier this year for as he worked his way into the starting lineup at Rangers. Edu was part of the Rangers squad that won the league title and the domestic cup in Scotland this past season. However, Edu had surgery on his knee in the off season and is slowly making his way back to the field. If Edu wants to be considered for the US team he will have to get healthy as soon as he can and get back into the Rangers roster.

The wild card in the battle for central midfield is German born Jermaine Jones, who is on the verge of becoming eligible to play for the United States. The 28-year-old is one of the best defensive midfielders in Germany with a knack for shutting down the center of the field and just being a bad ass. He's also known for speaking his mind freely and we shall see if his personality fits into Bob Bradley "group" mentality. To get an idea of both the good and the bad that comes with the Schalke midfielder check out this video.

In 2007 Jones helped Schalke advance to the quarterfinals of the Champions League. From the video you can tell he has a temper as in one clip he freaks out after being given an unjust yellow card for a superb tackle he made and earns himself a red card for dissent. Jones is coming off a hair-line fracture in his leg and has recently returned to training with Schalke and could be available for the US's trip to Honduras on October 10th.

We obviously have a real depth in the central defender role and we don't have anyone in our player pool who can be a Xavi or Steven Gerrad so why shouldn't Bob Bradley play two central defenders in the midfield. I almost wish Bradley would play a 4-3-3 with Jozy Altidore, Charlie Davies, and Clint Dempsey up top and Donovan in the midfield with two central defenders ( i.e. Bradley, Jones, Edu, or Clark). I'd rather have Dempsey up top where he's more comfortable than have him doing tricks with the ball in the midfield. I doubt that Bradley would veer from the 4-4-2 with less than a year to go to the World Cup, but it’s just a thought. The left back spot no matter what will be a question mark going into South Africa, but the race for the central midfield will be the most interesting by far on the US national team.

4. England Continues to Dominate

With England's thrashing of Croatia 5-1, the Three Lions are through to the World Cup with Wednesday's victory. One thing England really has going for them is that they have two of the best midfielders in the world in Steven Gerrad and Frank Lampard. You know Lampard and Gerrad are going come through for their squad whether it’s for club or country. They both just have a hero quality to them that few players truly have. The duo had two goals each in the drubbing of Croatia (whom happens to be ranked 9th in the world by FIFA). England was expected to win at home in Wembley, but not by that margin.

One question mark is finding a striking partner for Wayne Rooney. Manager Fabio Capello has been starting Emile Heskey who has only scored 7 times in 56 appearances for England. One would think Jermaine Defoe would be considered in that role as the Tottenham man has been red hot of late for both England and Spurs. Defoe has scored 11 goals in just 36 appearances. He's smaller than the physical Heskey or 6 ft 7 Peter Crouch, but if he keeps scoring goals the way he has than I don't know how Capello can keep him off the pitch.

Now that the English are qualified for the World Cup, it will be interesting to see how Capello experiments with his team for the rest of their games. There’s still a lot of time from now until next summer, but presently England looks like a force to be reckoned with.

5. Knock, Knock. Who's There? (Slap) KGB! We Shall Ask the Questions!

The Russians are coming! Andrei Arshavin and company defeated Wales and Lichtenstein over the weekend putting them second in the group behind Germany. If Russia can win at home against the Germans they’ll have a very good chance of winning the group. In what could prove to be a crucial blunder Germany tied Finland 3-3 last October currently leaving Russia just one point behind the Die Mannschaft. Russia’s captain, Arshavin is playing brilliantly for Arsenal and looks to be worth every penny the club spent on him. Striker Roman Pavlyuchenko has been on form for his country scoring 5 goals in World Cup qualifying wile Zenit St. Petersburg's Konstantin Zyryanov has been a creative force in the midfield for the Russians. Look for Russia to surprise a lot of people next year in South Africa as they did at Euro 2008.

Do you have any thoughts on the Beautiful Game? Please share them below.

In 26^th minute in Sunday’s Confederations Cup Final the United States Men’s National team was on top of the world. Landon Donovan had just extended the Americans lead to 2-0 over five-time World Cup Champions Brazil with a truly world class goal. ...Donovan quickly retrieved the ball from Ricardo Clark off a Brazil’s faltered attack, passed a brilliant ball ahead to striker Charlie Davies, ran the course of the field, expertly handled the return pass from Davies, tip toed the ball around the defender, and hammered the goal into Brazil’s net leaving keeper Julio Cesar looking helpless in the net. With Donovan’s goal it appeared that United States was on its way to upsetting its second world power in a row, but in the second half the Americans dream were crushed as Brazil showed its true character scoring three unanswered goals to claim the Confederations Cup for the third time.

After a goal by Luis Fabiano in the opening minutes of the second half you could feel the weight of Brazil begin to fully register on the backs of the Americans. The Green and Yellow then released an onslaught on the American defense similar to the one the US had survived in their historic win over FIFA number one ranked Spain earlier in the week. Unlike in the miracle win over Spain the Americans just didn’t seem to have the legs to withstand barrage after barrage of attacks from the likes of Kaka, Fabiano, and Robinho. US goalie Tim Howard pulled off a few dazzling saves, but eventually found himself at the mercy of Brazil’s sheer talent.

Brazil’s bench consisted of millionaires some of whom didn’t get a sniff of the field throughout the entire tournament. US second half substitute, Sasha Kljestan, makes a humble base salary of $170,000 playing in the MLS, but battled Sunday against Brazil’s Kaka who was just sold to Real Madrid for $92 million. US Soccer fans should stick out their chests with pride as their team almost defeated the world’s two most talented teams in Spain and Brazil in the course of a few days.

The Americans were not satisfied with their surprise run to the final as Donovan told the media after the game, “We’re at the point where we don’t want respect, we want to win. There’s no guarantee that we ever get back to a final game like this so it’s disappointing.”

What we can take from the US’s Confederations Cup is that they will return next year as a team that can compete with the best in the world. It is safe to expect the Americans to advance out of their group stage in World Cup 2010. As we learned from this tournament anything can happen in the game of soccer. This team has found itself in the past two weeks representing the United States above and beyond the call of duty. The US squad may return stateside with broken hearts, but have surely won over the respect of the soccer-loving world.

The Americans’ defeat of the best soccer team in the world (Spain) today in Bloemfontein, South Africa will go down as one of the greatest sports victories internationally in the history of our country. The 2-0 victory in the semifinals of South Africa’s Confederations Cup is being dubbed “The Miracle on Grass” in honor of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” over the Soviet Union at the Winter Olympics. ......

Like in 1980 the Americans were giant underdogs going up against a much more talented, experienced opponent, but with a fighting spirit and a refusal to quit the US was able to do what was thought to be impossible.

Sports pundits in this country aren’t forced to talk about soccer often so when confronted with the world’s game they typically resort to negativity. When the US Men’s National Team snuck its way into the semifinal game of the Confederations Cup in South Africa across the American sports media cited a sketchy rule in the tournament that allowed the US to advance. It was a miracle in itself that the US made it to the semifinals after losing their first two games of the tournament to Italy and Brazil respectably. It took a gutty 3-0 win against the champions of Africa, Egypt, and help from the Brazilians defeating Italy by the same score line to send the Americans through on goal deferential.

Unlikely as it was, the United States was set to face the FIFA ranked #1 team in the world with a chance to make the final. Spain had not lost a game since 2006 and in the Confederation Cup’s group stage they had not allowed a single goal. Spain’s starting eleven consisted of players from some of the best teams in Europe all of who get paid millions of dollars to play professionally. The arguable best player on the US, Landon Donovan, only makes $900,000 a year with his MLS side LA Galaxy. Spanish strikers Fernando Torres and David Villa are two of the most dangerous forwards in the world. It was expected by every sound soccer mind that the Spanish would pass the American defense to death.

US Coach Bob Bradley instructed his players to adopt a “bend but not break” attitude to containing the fearsome Spanish attack. From the kickoff Spain controlled the possession of the ball, but the Americans stayed true to their game plan. US goalie Tim Howard was tested early and often, but kept himself always in good position denying the defending champions of Europe again and again. In the 30th minute the US took a 1-0 lead when Clint Dempsey played a ball into 19-year-old forward Jozy Altidore who out-muscled defender Joan Capedevila and sending the ball off keeper Iker Casillas’s fingertips into the Spanish goal. In the second half Spain stepped up the onslaught on the United States defense.

The eleven Americans ran, jumped, slid, and dived all over the pitch to keep their opponents out of their net. It was evident that US squad began to believe more in themselves as the minutes ticked by drawing them closer and closer to sports history.

In the 73rd minute Clint Dempsey, who against Egypt helped the US out of the group stage scoring a late header, struck again as Landon Donovan crossed a dangerous ball into the Spanish box where Dempsey dislodged the ball from center back Gerad Pique and buried it into the net putting the underdogs up 2-0.

Though Spain continued to attack the Americans after going down by two you could almost see the air go out of the number one team in the world as they were unable to find a way past the gritty US. When the official’s final whistle blew in the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein the crowd comprised of mostly South Africans applauded the United States for pulling of a historic upset.

The US will face the winner of Brazil and host nation South Africa on Sunday. When asked to express his feelings after the game Tim Howard struggled, “I can’t explain anymore than you can. Sports is funny sometimes, but when you put your mind to something you can achieve it.”

This victory doesn’t instantly push the United States into the upper echelon of soccer countries, but it does prove the point that the Americans can play with the best in the world on any given occasion and sometimes even beat them. Today is a great day to be a US Soccer fan and for anyone for that matter who takes pride in the good old Red, White, & Blue.

The U.S. are in the group from hell featuring Italy (defending World Cup Champions), Brazil (currently ranked 5th in the world by FIFA), and Egypt (the champions of Africa). If the United States somehow musters itself out of the group stage.

U.S. head coach Bob Bradley redeemed himself after a woeful loss against Costa Rica last Saturday with a hard fought victory over Honduras in Chicago. The U.S. head coach is bringing most of the team from the past two qualifiers to South Africa, but it will be interesting to see who gets the start in the opening game against Italy on June 15 (All games will be aired on ESPN or ESPN2). Here is my starting 11.

Goalie - Tim Howard
No surprise there. Guzan makes me nervous.

Center Back - Oguchi Onyweu
Gooch is investing a lot in this tournament professionally as his play might dictate what kind of offers he gets from European clubs this summer. The former Best 11 defender in the Belgian league is currently a free agent. In the game against Honduras Gooch looked much better than he did during the chaotic match in Costa Rica.

Center Back - Carlos Bocanegra
Captain Carlos earned his stripes on that corner kick sacrificing his face for the game winning goal in Soldier Field where he use to suit up for the Chicago Fire. Hopefully Boca is recovering from the injury and will be fit to play in the Cup.

Left Back - Jonathan Borenstein
Borenstein is certainly not a sexy pick, but the kid did enough against Honduras to earn the next start. The Chivas USA standout combined well with Landon Donovan on the left and worked hard the entire match.

Right Back - Jonathan Spector
Though I may be bias because I grew up in the same town as the West Ham defender, but Spector played a great game on Saturday. He may not have the killer instinct nor the intangibles of a healthy Frankie Hedjuk, but he has great technique, gets forward, and knows how to cross a ball better than anyone we have at right fullback.

Left Mid - Landon Donovan
A lot of commentators said before the Honduras game that Donovan needed to show up and show up he did. As the game progressed he displayed that his skill set was a grade above the majority of the players on the pitch that night. Donovan tied the game up with a vicious penalty kick and delivered the corner kick that resulted in the second goal. That's the Landon Donovan we all want to see.

Right Mid - Clint Dempsey
Though "Deuce" had a few missteps in Chicago his header set up the winning goal and he was on the offensive all night with he ball. His backheel to Ricardo Clark was sick. The U.S. is going to need some more magic from Clint if they want to advance.

Center Mid - Michael Bradley
Coach Bob Bradley's son is a lock in the middle of the field for the national team with his consistent play and aggressiveness on the ball. Growing up around the sport Bradley has a really high soccer I.Q. and a leader on the field even though he isn't much more than a teenager.

Center Mid - Ricardo Clark
The Houston Dynamo midfielder was all over the field on Saturday night. He covers more ground than any holding midfielder in the U.S. player pool. Though not the most dangerous attacker we have Clark was robbed of a penalty in the box against Honduras.

Forward - Jozy Altidore
The 19-year old has already scored 6 goals for the U.S. in his international career. Altidore is the future of the U.S. attack, but his lack of fitness was evident in the qualifiers. I can't wait to see him when he's in form with both club and country simultaneously.

Forward - Connor Casey
The Colorado Rapid did a decent job filling for Brian Ching. Missed a couple of key opportunities, but I liked his pressure on the ball. I would prefer Kenny Cooper, but Bradley didn't call the FC Dallas forward in for the tournament. However, if Casey gets some quality service from the midfield he could light some defenders up.

Bench

DeMarcus Beasley
Jose Francisco Torres (or Freddy Adu)
Benny Feilhaber
Jay Demerit
Brad Guzan
Charlie Davies