Posts Tagged World Cup

John Harkes/John Terry and Rio Tinto proposed as Jamaica Venue

A couple of interesting reads:

First, I watched Eric Wynalda on the Fox Football Fone-in show, but didn’t understand the context.  It sounds like the US had it’s own scandal analogous to the one that England is going through with the situation where Captain John Terry has been reported to have had an affair with the girlfriend of teammate Wayne Bridge.  It seems that the US dealt with a similar situation for the 1998 World Cup:

Breaking more than a decade of silence, former U.S. soccer coach Steve Sampson said Tuesday he dropped John Harkes from the national team roster two months before the 1998 World Cup because the American captain was having an affair with the wife of teammate Eric Wynalda.

Second, Match Fit USA has an interesting proposal for setting 8 fixed locations for the US to play CONCACAF opponents in order to maximize home field advantage.

Jamaica- Sandy, Utah: An overwhelming majority of the Jamaican population in the United States is split between Florida and New York. So, let’s go a couple of thousand miles west of both of those places and play the Reggae Boyz in picturesque Sandy. The fans in Utah have supported the Yanks well in the last two qualifiers there (though their showing at Rice-Eccles Stadium in 2005 was much more impressive than last year’s match), and the location would make it very difficult for hordes of Jamaican fans to support their team in person.

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VIDEO: Bradenton Days 2006

Must see video of Beckerman, Donovan, Beasley, et al, during their Bradenton days talking about the 2010 World Cup.

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Findley/Beckerman start in USMNT debacle

Real Salt Lake teammates Robbie Findley and Kyle Beckerman were both given the nod in tonight’s friendly match between the US and Honduras in Carson, California.  The pair had decent, but not spectacular performances, while the team as a whole had a miserable outing against their CONCACAF nemesis.

Findley did little in the first half, but helped to create some dangerous moments late in the match including drawing a free kick from just outside of the penalty area, and providing a perfect opportunity to Conor Casey via a headed pass.  Unfortunately Casey’s shot went wide to the right.  The team really failed to use the speed of both Findley and Jeff Cunningham who started up top alongside each other.  Both were playing well back toward the midfield line, with a number of defenders behind them.

Beckerman on the other hand played fairly well throughout.  It took him a few minutes to get his rhythm, but he soon began to spread the ball around the field, and had good composure on the ball.  Prior to being yanked midway through the second half, Beckerman also managed a shot from 25 yards out.  He had plenty of space, but didn’t strike well and it didn’t have the pace to challenge the keeper.

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