With J Hutcherson -- What does it take for the US Soccer Federation to treat the Confederations Cup seriously? You might have seen the articles that are already putting over the Confederations Cup as one of the highlights of a year that will gift the US home and away Qualifiers against Mexico. Then again, this is the same leadership that decided to put its focus on the Gold Cup rather than the Copa America in 2007.
Granted, that would strongly suggest that the real target is the Confederations Cup, using it as the best possible warm-up for the World Cup. Then again, that carries with it a lot of significance.
The available excuses decrease the stronger the build up is for this summer in South Africa. Throw in a few not-so-likely choices in terms of personnel as well as tactics, and it's a version of what happened in Venezuela. No matter what the US players on the field might have been able to accomplish, the excuses were already in place when the squad was announced.
Last summer, the US did the European road show against England and Spain, returning to North Jersey for a game against Argentina. Though I would argue the US showed well in two of those three games, that ended up not being the majority opinion.
I still point to that Spain game as the follow-up to the bright spot from the '06 World Cup. That would be the Italy game. The US showed they could take a stronger team out of its game, play disruptive soccer, and almost pull off a win against an eventual champion.
Group B would need a couple of those performances within three days of each other. Maybe the Bob Bradley regime lets it roll, names the best US eleven available, and puts the Confederations Cup up with qualifying. At this point, there's not enough history to take that as a given.
On TV
Nothing on the schedule for today. All Times Eastern
The Wonderful World of Soccer Media: Europe
Credit crunch will hit Premier League clubs -- from The Times' Kevin Eason: Rumours swirl that Arsenal will bid a club-record fee to woo Carlos Tévez from United, while Liverpool have been associated with many big-name players.
Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Chelsea showdown leaves Didier Drogba’s future unclear -- from The Telegraph's Steve Wilson: The meeting had been designed to address simmering unrest within the squad but appears to have done little more than highlight differences between some squad members and management.
Tottenham fail with £30m offer for Pompey trio -- from The Guardian's Stuart James and Dominic Fifield: It remains to be seen whether Tottenham will now attempt to force Portsmouth's hand and return with an improved offer.
The Wonderful World of Soccer Media: Americas
Clippers, Crew pitch low prices -- from The Columbus Dispatch's Bill Rabinowitz: Crew general manager Mark McCullers thinks affordable seats will serve as a buffer for his team as well, even though the Major League Soccer champion is raising prices.
Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves. Please, tell me all about it.
