Soccer in the midwest

What an excellent Gold Cup final today. This was the most exciting CONCACAF match I've ever seen.

Mexico started strong and definitely had the better possession and looks on goal in the first half. Their goal was a deserved one, with Guarado completely unmarked. Spector, who should've had Guarado, was forced to cover the center striker, while the right mid (Dempsey, but maybe Donovan at that point--they switched partly through the half) didn't make the adjustment for the open man.

I must say that even within the first few seconds of the game, I thought Spector looked shaky. He's got talent for sure, and wasn't directly responsible for the goal, but he looked positionally confused several times, and Guarado ate him up. Nery Castillo, for his part, ate everyone else up. He downright embarrassed defenders with his dribbling footwork.

The second half was much more balanced. Oswaldo Sanchez's individual heroics kept the States out of the net on one sequence. I thought Ching, who was unable to do much more than holding up the ball in the first half, was much more effective in the second. The PK he earned I thought was legitimate. I think Sanchez knew Donovan's tendency to shoot down the middle, because the GK hardly moved on the subsequent PK. Credit Donovan for not only changing his pattern, but also for making a quality kick. Of course, Feilhaber's volleyed goal was faultless. An outstanding finish from distance, and well timed.

Ching earned himself another goal, but was unlucky with the woodwork. Donovan later had a breakaway that should have led to a goal when he passed the ball to a wide open Beasley, but DMB hit the crossbar in a pathetic display of technique. It was an absolutely abysmal, but luckily unimportant error. I had heard one person opine a few months ago that Beasley should play left back rather than mid. I thought that ridiculous, but he does have good defensive skills, is a good crosser, and his speed would be an asset. And that non-finish tonight is fittingly for a defender. Maybe he SHOULD drop back...

And while I'm grumbling, I have to note that Dempsey, as talented and creative as he is, is running the risk of being labeled all flash and no substance. He can execute the tricks, but he has trouble leveraging those tricks into functional moves that benefit the team. Hopefully time will cure that ill.

At any rate, the game was exciting and Mexico played their best game of the tournament. Had they played like this earlier, then their quality wouldn't be questioned like it had been. In this game, they finally played with a passion that led me to think their one goal would stand (or would lead to others). The US had troubles at first, but soon showed they could compete with a quality opponent. (The turnaround started with Rico Clark's introduction; was he part of that solution?) The match ended as I hoped it would; but more importantly, the US was able to beat a spirited and quality Mexican squad. The teams just need to learn how to shake hands afterward.

Dynamo take their fifth win in a row
The excitement of the Gold Cup final was matched by the boredom of the Dynamo-KC game, I'm afraid. In front of a crowd of dozens at Arrowhead Stadium, the two battled hard against each other and the heat. (And they complain about OUR heat.)

I only saw most of the first half in passing as I packed for a business trip this week. (So-Cal, here I come!) I felt that defensively we were stout, but our passing was choppy and our forwards were dropping too far back into the midfield. Was it just me, or did our forwards also have an aversion to taking the responibility of shooting at goal? Mullan and Ngwenya both had chances where they should have pulled the trigger but paused or passed and gave the defense time to organize. Here's a telling stat: we had 6 shots; KC had 14.

Appropriately, a defender scored our goal. Outstanding header from young Ianni, and all props to him.

You know, it's been an outstanding month. We've gotten 15 points this month, winning every match since our loss to DC in May. We have 22 points and are only 3 points behind Conference leader, FCD -- and we have 2 games in hand. Our goal differential is now +5, which is the best in the Western Conference (tied for 3rd overall). Next week we face FCD in Frisco. It'd be nice to close out the month with a sixth win.

Today it was nice to have the Canadians back. They had an outstanding Gold Cup run and I know they'd prefer to have been playing in the Cup final, but it was good having the solid Onstad in the back and the passionate DeRo doing his thing (albeit for only a bit) up front. Next week we'll still be without Clark, but Ching returns. Today reinforced for me that the more I see Ching play, the more value I realize he brings to Dynamo as well as the national team. Overall, the offense is more potent with him on the field and he does something that so few forwards do nowadays: he makes his teammates better. It's unfortunate that so few people seem to realize his value.

As I'm driving around the Mojave Desert this week, I hope everyone stays cool here in H-town and that we (Dynamo included, natch) ready ourselves for a solid showing versus our neighbors to the north. Here's hoping that the hotel has Telefutura so I can watch the US-Argentina match on Thursday. (Or do I want to witness that?)