USA vs. Costa Rica Recap

Hi! We’re the Red, White and Blues Brothers and this is our color-coded U.S. Soccer blog. Chip writes in red and Danny writes in blue. We cheer for the U.S. and you better too! 

Here's our Recap from USA's Matchday #2
Friday, March 22, 2013,  Commerce City, Colorado (Denver)
USA 1 Costa Rica 0

Photo by Bryon Hetzler, USA TODAY Sports

What a game! Playing a soccer game in a snowy-white blizzard would have been a dream come true for me! That seems like a heck of a lot more fun than playing in driving rain on a muddy field. What a spectacle for both the 19,000 fans in the stadium and also for the TV audience! The game between Russia and Northern Ireland was postponed on both Friday and Saturday because of snow and icy conditions on the field in Belfast but the field in Denver was snow-free until right before the game so the officials felt it was safe enough to go ahead with the game.
It is now being called the SnowClasico. The U.S. did the right thing by getting on the board early. Clint Dempsey got the U.S. goal in the 16^th minute. Even if the game was called at halftime or in the 55^th minute when they appeared to discuss that option, the game would have picked up from where it was left off, with USA leading 1 to 0. They continued the game and Costa Rica filed an official protest with FIFA and is asking for a rematch.
Watch the SnowClasico highlights HERE
The big concern to me was that the U.S. had only 1 shot on goal and 6 total compared to Costa Rica’s 5 shots on goal and 8 total. They also had 4 corner kicks to the Yank’s 2. The fouls were called pretty even with 16 to the U.S. and 15 to Costa Rica. Fortunately, no cards were given out to the good guys in the white shirts, so we’re not losing anyone to yellow card suspensions for Tuesday’s Mexico game. What did you think, Chip?

Well folks it wasn't pretty, but as they say.... a win is a win.... the defense got a shutout, which was most important in my opinion. Jurgen pulled a surprise by playing DaMarcus Beasley in the back. He made some nice plays and it may be a good move in the end. He definitely has the speed to cover mistakes made by our inexperience. It MAY be a good move? Jurgen is looking like a genius with that move! The Beez was The Budweiser Man of The Match, and he plays professionally in Mexico, so playing in weather like that was a huge change to what he’s used to.  We will know more on Tuesday when we play Mexico. It is hard to judge how much progress we made, playing in a snowstorm and all. We definitely showed some grit, and that makes me happy. We will need a lot more grit if we are to win in Mexico. One goal most likely will not be enough to win… maybe a draw, but not a win. I want a win in Mexico to solidify USA as the team to be reckoned with in CONCACAF. Our boy, Clint Demsey is now leading all goal scorers in CONCACAF with 7 for World Cup qualifying for 2014. The main goal is to make it to Brazil for 2014, but if we can't win the CONCACAF qualifying, then we most likely won't win the World Cup, and that is the ULTIMATE goal! On to Mexico!

Photo by John Todd/U.S. Soccer

DANNY'S TWO CENTS
In our last post I referred to players who wear fluorescent yellow boots when yellow isn't one of their colors as"flashy, attention-starved prima donnas." Here's a look at the U.S. starting XI before Friday's game. Now as you can see most of the players are wearing fluorescent yellow shoes or laces. Since it was snowing and they even played with a high-visibility yellow ball, I'm ok if the players wore yellow boots to give their teammates a high-visibility target of where to pass the ball since their white shirts made them look almost invisible on the snow-covered field. But I'm guessing that's not the real reason. I really am a fan of flashy boots, but if you look close at the photo there are two players who are wearing really cool blue and red shoes... goal scorer Clint Dempsey and Man of the Match, DaMarcus Beasley. Do I need to say more?  I actually like the centennial kit more than I thought I would. The big USA crest is pretty cool, but if you're going to go retro, I say go all the way! Bring back black soccer boots, or at the very least, get some red, white and blues in them shoes!

CHIP'S SOAP BOX 
This week on Chip’s soap box, Chip goes after TV analysts (and former US players) Alexi Lalas and Taylor Twellman. They’ve always been a bit controversial and outspoken, but this time they got under Chip’s skin.

Alexi Lalas and Kasey Keller at the SnowClasico

Alexi Lalas is an "abominable" snowman, and I am not just talking about his hat. Let me preface this by saying I loved Alexi as a player and I think he is an adequate announcer and analyst. But, Come On Man!! The things he and other USA soccer "people" say post game just annoy me! First thing he talked about was..."As long as we are winning, the game should go on" (not an exact quote). It implies that if we were losing or tied, we would want the game to be stopped and cancelled! That doesn't say much for our team if that is true. Of course, I don't believe for a second that the team would have wanted to stop the game regardless of the result. Maybe they shouldn't have played at all and rescheduled, but that is difficult to do with a looming game against Mexico and schedule problems in the future.

The second thing he said, and again these are not exact quotes but the context is close enough.... "Why did we waste a win in Mexico on a friendly".... that implies that we can't go down to Mexico and win for a second time. If we can't beat Mexico 2 or 3 times in a row, then we will never be fit enough to win a World Cup! And that is a problem for me. I want the USA to WIN the World Cup, not just make a showing. To win the World Cup we have to be a GREAT team 97% of the time and play our best games against the best teams. I want a win in Mexico!! Period!

At the end of the post game Taylor Twellman even threw in "is it bad that I don't even care about the Mexico game"? Saying that he was so happy we got 3 points that the Mexico game doesn't even matter. That’s very sad to me to hear that from top American players and announcers. Even the British announcer, Ian Darke, questioned Tayor on how the Mexico game didn't matter? Again, if all we want to do is qualify for World Cup and make a showing, then I agree that the Mexico game has little to no bearing on that. If we want to go to Brazil and WIN a cup, then the Mexico game is extremely important to that result! This is the problem with soccer in America to me. We don't think we can really win a World Cup, otherwise we wouldn't be saying these post game comments! Do you think you would ever hear a Spanish team or Italian team say "our game against Brazil or against Holland doesn't even matter?" CRAZY!!

Now I will give props to Alexi for pointing out that it is a skill to win games by adjusting to conditions, crowds and adversity. The Americans certainly did that on Friday night and deserve kudos for getting the 3 points, when it could have easily been a draw or even a loss with the snow playing havoc. We can't assess our true "soccer" performance because of the conditions, but we can assess our mental toughness. We need skill and toughness on Tuesday night in Mexico... Go USA!!!

Chip and Danny welcome replies to their rants.