USA moves on to the hexagonal.

[Burr]

They destroyed Panama 6-0 tonight to be the first team to make it to the final round of World Cup Qualifying in CONCACAF.

Landon Donovan had a pair of goals and Eddie Johnson had a hat-trick to make 4 goals in only 2 international appearances for him.

The result stretched two remarkable streaks for the Americans, who are 8-1-5 this year: They have not lost in 28 matches to a CONCACAF opponent and are unbeaten in 12 straight games.

Niiiiiccceee... :-D

U-S-A! U-S-A!

[Burr]

Eddie Johnson gets another goal as USA eliminates Jamaica from World Cup qualifying by holding them to a 1-1 tie. The final hexagonal qualifying round contains the following 6 teams now:

United States
Guatemala
Mexico
Trinidad & Tobago
Costa Rica
Panama

I think we're gonna see a repeat of the same three teams from CONCACAF as in 2002. USA, Mexico, and Costa Rica. Trinidad & Tobago might have an outside chance at the third spot but I don't see Guatemala or Panama being a real challenge for anyone. It's nice to have the thorny Jamaicans out of the way who also could have been a threat if they moved on.

[Arandar]

Isn't the next World Cup in 2006 though? It seems a little early to be having qualifying matches already, but oh well. Its kind of a suprise though. I mean for a country that really just doesn't give a damn about soccer we sure seem to be doing pretty damn good at it lately. It would be kind of funny if we did win the World Cup. I think Europe would be super pissed though since the American public as a whole aren't very big fans of soccer and over in Europe soccer is life, especially in England and Italy. Either way though go USA. I should really watch one of these matches sometime, I love soccer, although I never was a huge fan of watching it on tv for some reason. I guess I just prefer to play the sport instead of watching it.

[Burr]

Well FIFA recognizes more countries than the UN, so they have to go through several rounds of qualifying to weed it down to 32 nations for the World Cup. In some regions like ours, powers like USA and Mexico get to skip the first couple of rounds (so we don't have to play minnows like Cuba, Bermuda, Bahamas, St. Kitts, etc.), but in others they've been playing qualifiers since last year. South America probably has the most rigorous qualifying campaign. Everybody just plays each other several times and the top 4 in the standings advance, the 5th place team gets to go to a playoff against the winner of Oceania (usually Australia).

[Burr]

Eddie Johnson scored in his 4th straight game to take USA past Trinidad & Tobago, 2-1. Where the hell did this kid come from? He's amazing. Thankfully we avoided embarassment after nearly having to use replacement players for this game because of the labor dispute between USSF and the players. We haven't lost to a Caribbean team in over a decade.

Up next we get to play Mexico in Mexico City on March 27th in the high altitude of Estadio Azteca where they are 0-7-1. Oh joy.

[Burr]

USA lost 2-1 to Mexico in that game. Kind of a disappointment. They are good enough to beat them anywhere they play. It was two monumental brainfarts on defense that allowed Mexico to take a two goal lead, but after that USA was really outplaying them and managed to close within one thanks to an Eddie Lewis goal.

Fortunately they followed up with a 2-0 romp over Guatemala that should have been an even bigger rout if not for some unfortunate misses and bad calls by officiating. Eddie Johnson had his 8th goal in 8 games for USA. Incredible.

USA is now a point behind Mexico, good for second in the CONCACAF standings, after the latter blew a 1-0 lead late in the match to Panama (an amazing bicycle kick goal BTW).

[Burr]

*bump*

Forgot to note a pair of 3-0 wins against Panama and Costa Rica in June that has us keeping pace with Mexico, just one point behind for the lead and solidly in second place (5 point lead on 3rd place Costa Rica), meaning our chances at qualifying are quite good right now.

Anyway a reminder that now that the Gold Cup is over with and USA are champions, a return to qualifying matches is coming up this Wednesday against Trinidad & Tobago @ 8 PM ET on ESPN2.

In another interesting development, whoever ends up 4th in this qualifying tournament may end up having a two-leg playoff against Kuwait for a spot in the World Cup if that team can at least get a tie with Uzbekistan.

[Burr]

1-0 win for the red white and blue. Crappy finishing and a bullshit offsides call cost us from making this a rout. Oh also real convenient how a Mexican referee was officiating this game just before our encounter against Mexico in September. Nice work handing out cards to make sure some of our best players won't be able to play in that matchup. Yay for conflicts of interest in officiating. :rolleyes: