Thursday, September 08, 2005
alemania 2006
Viva Estados Unidos! The US beat Mexico 2-0 in Columbus Ohio Saturday night to clinch a berth in the next World Cup. They were the first to clinch a berth from our region (although Mexico also qualified on Wednesday night by pounding Panama 5-0), and did so on US soil, against Mexico and by the same score that the US beat Mexico in the Round of 16 in the 2002 WC. Life is good. Just for the record, this was the first time the clinching game for the US was shown on live TV. The previous 3 (for the ’90, ’98 and ’02 World Cups) were not shown live for one reason or another (Tape Delay, Tape Delay, Live coverage on ABC is preempted by coverage of the invasion of Afganistan, game is shown on Tape Delay later).
Qualifying this early leaves the US with 3 games remaining where Coach Arena can experiment with the fringe players who are all competing for a spot on the final 23 man roster. Oh what luxury. It also means that the top US players in Europe won’t have to pull any of the 3 games in 8 days including a 72 hour visit to the US (or worse, Panama or Costa Rica) and then back to the home club for a match. Really good stuff for everyone involved.
Our Spanish lesson for today is that Alemania means Germany. Do you find it at all humorous that the word for Germany is ‘ale mania’? I didn’t think so….neither did I.
Viva Estados Unidos! The US beat Mexico 2-0 in Columbus Ohio Saturday night to clinch a berth in the next World Cup. They were the first to clinch a berth from our region (although Mexico also qualified on Wednesday night by pounding Panama 5-0), and did so on US soil, against Mexico and by the same score that the US beat Mexico in the Round of 16 in the 2002 WC. Life is good. Just for the record, this was the first time the clinching game for the US was shown on live TV. The previous 3 (for the ’90, ’98 and ’02 World Cups) were not shown live for one reason or another (Tape Delay, Tape Delay, Live coverage on ABC is preempted by coverage of the invasion of Afganistan, game is shown on Tape Delay later).
Qualifying this early leaves the US with 3 games remaining where Coach Arena can experiment with the fringe players who are all competing for a spot on the final 23 man roster. Oh what luxury. It also means that the top US players in Europe won’t have to pull any of the 3 games in 8 days including a 72 hour visit to the US (or worse, Panama or Costa Rica) and then back to the home club for a match. Really good stuff for everyone involved.
Our Spanish lesson for today is that Alemania means Germany. Do you find it at all humorous that the word for Germany is ‘ale mania’? I didn’t think so….neither did I.
