World Cup Profile: Qualifying only part of ambitious year for United States

A 3-2 friendly victory over Sweden was an encouraging start to an ambitious year for the United States.
Yet in a year with the Gold Cup, Confederations Cup and especially World Cup qualifying, the January 24 win served only as an opportunity for players to impress coach Bob Bradley; midfielder Sacha Kjlestan certainly didn’t hurt his cause with three goals.
A much more important test will come February 11 — the quadrennial World Cup home confrontation vs. Mexico in Columbus, Ohio.
That match could very well set the tone for both countries this year. A U.S. win would extend its home supremacy. A Mexican victory would give them some much-needed confidence playing north of the Rio Grande. A draw probably would settle nothing, except restore some Mexican pride. The Americans haven’t lost to the Mexicans on U.S. soil since a 2-1 defeat in San Diego on March 13, 1999. Since then, the U.S. has won eight and drawn two at home against its archrival.
Mexico barely reached the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, clinching its place in the last match and on goal difference. Recently, the team has been hampered by injuries. But despite those problems and the U.S. dominance over Mexico at home, Bradley isn’t taking anything for granted.
"Mexico has a deep pool of talent, but the players [who could miss the qualifier] are good players," Bradley said. "Nonetheless, we play a game that, as the first game of qualifying, you expect Mexico to come in organized and ready to give everything they have to make it a hard game. The respect that we have for Mexico is always going to be the starting point when we prepare to play them.”
The United States’ challenge in 2009 is immense. Its schedule includes 10 World Cup qualifying matches, three-to-five games in the Confederations Cup in South Africa in June, and another three-to-five at the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the United States in July.
The heaviest period will be from June 3 through July 27, when the Americans will play at least eight highly competitive matches, and as many as a dozen in three competitions over 55 days in three countries over two continents.
In World Cup qualifying, the U.S. will visit Costa Rica on June 3 and then will host Honduras in a qualifier at a site to be determined on June 6.
After that will be the FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa, a rehearsal for next year’s World Cup. The U.S. will play a minimum of three group games — against world champion Italy, European champion Spain and African champion Egypt. If it reaches the semifinals, the Americans will place twice more.
And finally, there’s the CONCACAF Gold Cup at home. The two-time defending champ has never failed to advance to the quarterfinals, which means a minimum of four games. Only once has it failed to get past the quarterfinals, which likely means five games and possibly a sixth if it reaches the championship match.
The Americans captured the 2007 edition of the Gold Cup, which opened the door for them to play in this year’s Confederations Cup.
Bradley is expected to follow a similar strategy he deployed in 2007 when he used entirely different teams in the Gold Cup and Copa America. He can’t afford to take players away from Major League Soccer teams – which will be in the middle of their season — for more than three weeks.
As important are the Confederation and Gold Cups, the U.S.’s ultimate goal is qualifying for an unprecedented sixth consecutive World Cup. That entails two-leg encounters against familiar opponents:- Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Trinidad & Tobago and, of course, Mexico. The top three CONCACAF finishers will qualify for South Africa with the fourth-place team taking on the fifth-place side from South America for a berth.
Anything less than booking a spot in South Africa would be considered a colossal failure.A 3-2 friendly victory over Sweden was an encouraging start to an ambitious year for the United States.
Yet in a year with the Gold Cup, Confederations Cup and especially World Cup qualifying, the January 24 win served only as an opportunity for players to impress coach Bob Bradley; midfielder Sacha Kjlestan certainly didn’t hurt his cause with three goals.
A much more important test will come February 11 — the quadrennial World Cup home confrontation vs. Mexico in Columbus, Ohio.
That match could very well set the tone for both countries this year. A U.S. win would extend its home supremacy. A Mexican victory would give them some much-needed confidence playing north of the Rio Grande. A draw probably would settle nothing, except restore some Mexican pride. The Americans haven’t lost to the Mexicans on U.S. soil since a 2-1 defeat in San Diego on March 13, 1999. Since then, the U.S. has won eight and drawn two at home against its archrival.
Mexico barely reached the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, clinching its place in the last match and on goal difference. Recently, the team has been hampered by injuries. But despite those problems and the U.S. dominance over Mexico at home, Bradley isn’t taking anything for granted.
"Mexico has a deep pool of talent, but the players [who could miss the qualifier] are good players," Bradley said. "Nonetheless, we play a game that, as the first game of qualifying, you expect Mexico to come in organized and ready to give everything they have to make it a hard game. The respect that we have for Mexico is always going to be the starting point when we prepare to play them.”
The United States’ challenge in 2009 is immense. Its schedule includes 10 World Cup qualifying matches, three-to-five games in the Confederations Cup in South Africa in June, and another three-to-five at the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the United States in July.
The heaviest period will be from June 3 through July 27, when the Americans will play at least eight highly competitive matches, and as many as a dozen in three competitions over 55 days in three countries over two continents.
In World Cup qualifying, the U.S. will visit Costa Rica on June 3 and then will host Honduras in a qualifier at a site to be determined on June 6.
After that will be the FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa, a rehearsal for next year’s World Cup. The U.S. will play a minimum of three group games — against world champion Italy, European champion Spain and African champion Egypt. If it reaches the semifinals, the Americans will place twice more.
And finally, there’s the CONCACAF Gold Cup at home. The two-time defending champ has never failed to advance to the quarterfinals, which means a minimum of four games. Only once has it failed to get past the quarterfinals, which likely means five games and possibly a sixth if it reaches the championship match.
The Americans captured the 2007 edition of the Gold Cup, which opened the door for them to play in this year’s Confederations Cup.
Bradley is expected to follow a similar strategy he deployed in 2007 when he used entirely different teams in the Gold Cup and Copa America. He can’t afford to take players away from Major League Soccer teams – which will be in the middle of their season — for more than three weeks.
As important are the Confederation and Gold Cups, the U.S.’s ultimate goal is qualifying for an unprecedented sixth consecutive World Cup. That entails two-leg encounters against familiar opponents:- Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Trinidad & Tobago and, of course, Mexico. The top three CONCACAF finishers will qualify for South Africa with the fourth-place team taking on the fifth-place side from South America for a berth.
Anything less than booking a spot in South Africa would be considered a colossal failure.A 3-2 friendly victory over Sweden was an encouraging start to an ambitious year for the United States.
Yet in a year with the Gold Cup, Confederations Cup and especially World Cup qualifying, the January 24 win served only as an opportunity for players to impress coach Bob Bradley; midfielder Sacha Kjlestan certainly didn’t hurt his cause with three goals.
A much more important test will come February 11 — the quadrennial World Cup home confrontation vs. Mexico in Columbus, Ohio.
That match could very well set the tone for both countries this year. A U.S. win would extend its home supremacy. A Mexican victory would give them some much-needed confidence playing north of the Rio Grande. A draw probably would settle nothing, except restore some Mexican pride. The Americans haven’t lost to the Mexicans on U.S. soil since a 2-1 defeat in San Diego on March 13, 1999. Since then, the U.S. has won eight and drawn two at home against its archrival.
Mexico barely reached the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, clinching its place in the last match and on goal difference. Recently, the team has been hampered by injuries. But despite those problems and the U.S. dominance over Mexico at home, Bradley isn’t taking anything for granted.
"Mexico has a deep pool of talent, but the players [who could miss the qualifier] are good players," Bradley said. "Nonetheless, we play a game that, as the first game of qualifying, you expect Mexico to come in organized and ready to give everything they have to make it a hard game. The respect that we have for Mexico is always going to be the starting point when we prepare to play them.”
The United States’ challenge in 2009 is immense. Its schedule includes 10 World Cup qualifying matches, three-to-five games in the Confederations Cup in South Africa in June, and another three-to-five at the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the United States in July.
The heaviest period will be from June 3 through July 27, when the Americans will play at least eight highly competitive matches, and as many as a dozen in three competitions over 55 days in three countries over two continents.
In World Cup qualifying, the U.S. will visit Costa Rica on June 3 and then will host Honduras in a qualifier at a site to be determined on June 6.
After that will be the FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa, a rehearsal for next year’s World Cup. The U.S. will play a minimum of three group games — against world champion Italy, European champion Spain and African champion Egypt. If it reaches the semifinals, the Americans will place twice more.
And finally, there’s the CONCACAF Gold Cup at home. The two-time defending champ has never failed to advance to the quarterfinals, which means a minimum of four games. Only once has it failed to get past the quarterfinals, which likely means five games and possibly a sixth if it reaches the championship match.
The Americans captured the 2007 edition of the Gold Cup, which opened the door for them to play in this year’s Confederations Cup.
Bradley is expected to follow a similar strategy he deployed in 2007 when he used entirely different teams in the Gold Cup and Copa America. He can’t afford to take players away from Major League Soccer teams – which will be in the middle of their season — for more than three weeks.
As important are the Confederation and Gold Cups, the U.S.’s ultimate goal is qualifying for an unprecedented sixth consecutive World Cup. That entails two-leg encounters against familiar opponents:- Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Trinidad & Tobago and, of course, Mexico. The top three CONCACAF finishers will qualify for South Africa with the fourth-place team taking on the fifth-place side from South America for a berth.
Anything less than booking a spot in South Africa would be considered a colossal failure.