Mexican B Team?

I think we can put to bed the notion that the team Mexico fielded in the Gold Cup final was a "B" team as we were endlessly told by pundit after pundit. As you can see here, 12 of the 20 players from the Gold Cup final will take part in the match at Azteca Stadium on August 12th. With Heath Pearce and potentially Brian Ching (unlikely) and Stewart Holden (maybe) on the bench the US will have 1 or 2 players on the roster for their "A" team. It's clear that Mexico took the match a lot more seriously than the United States, as I noted in a post yesterday. It makes me feel a bit better about the upcoming match but also still a bit concerned at the same time. Mexico will likely field the same attacking group of veterans and youngsters like Vela and Dos Santos--- and will be full of confidence as well as likely not be rusty at all since they just played several matches together. In the context of yesterday's El Tri squad release it's clear that the Gold Cup final was a Mexican A- team versus a US C+ team at best. It will be interesting to see how the young and talented Mexican attack holds up against the top US defensive pairing--- hopefully Guch doesn't display is slow and lacking AC Milan form.

Gold Cup Second Guesser

I typically take the side of Bob Bradley in just about any decision. Contrary to those who constantly want his head I feel he's done a fantastic job heading Uncle Sam and deserves the right to continue to helm the team into next year's world cup. That being said I just can't understand the decisions behind the Gold Cup roster in lieu of the Mexico throttling. Yes, it may be 20/20 hindsight and I do realize the same roster made it all the way to the final, but the 5-0 scoreline makes you wonder, what was the point?

One thing I'll never understand is the inclusion of players who will never play in a World Cup qualifier not to mention never get close to playing in the World Club. Players such as Jay Heaps, Davy Arnaud and Jommy Conrad. I can understand getting quality time for young players like Stuart Holden who have the ability to not only occupy a roster spot but get real quality playing time for the US in the future. It was pretty clear that even prior to the Gold Cup there was no way a player such as Heaps or Pause we're ever going to play a legitimate role in any US world cup run. This is coupled with the decision to send Charlie Davies, Jozy Altidore, Jonathon Bornstein, Freddy Adu, etc back to their clubs. The Gold Cup was the perfect opportunity to give the above mentioned players significant playing time in front of large crowds. The Gold Cup was a fantastic opportunity to play a B team...not a C- team.

Beyond the roster decisions the loss also gives El Tri some confident prior to the massive August 12 qualifier at Azteca Stadium. The US has a real opportunity to finally win in Mexico City. The confidence that Mexico gained with the Gold Cup drubbing doesn't help.

Oh, and one more thing. What is the point of Brian Ching? It's pretty obvious that with the development of Davies and Altidore that Ching is no longer a reality for the US first team. Why even give him a Gold Cup match? It was yet another opportunity to give Kenny Cooper some real playing time and assess him as a realistic option for the US first team. Instead Bradley chooses to continue with Ching and his horrible first touch. There were multiple opportunities on Sunday where Cooper may have had an opportunity to take a long ball and make something of it-- in situations where Ching clearly couldn't. By the time Cooper did come on it was clearly too late.