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Your Empty Seat Confederations Cup Preview

June 14th, 2009 | By: Brooks Peck | 15 Comments »

Between the maddeningly constant buzz of those awful horns and the fact that two-thirds of the seats at the Spain vs. New Zealand match were empty, I’m thinking Sepp Blatter might be regretting this South Africa business right now. But their inability to sell $8.75 tickets isn’t our problem. No, our problems are Italy, Brazil, and Egypt (and Bob Bradley, but we’ve already covered that).

Obviously we’ve got a tough group and obviously we shouldn’t expect to make it to the semifinals, but still…I’m excited/nervous/curious/aroused(?) to see how we do against top notch competition outside our friendly home boarders.

On the whole, the US MNT has gotten it done in CONCACAF and performed respectably in friendlies since the last time they performed on a world stage in 2006, where they coincidentally also shared a group with Italy. And since that 1-1 draw that went down to 9 vs. 10 men, it seems like the World Cup champions have stagnated a bit, while the US has improved (sometimes? maybe?).

Perhaps evening up this matchup a bit more is the fact that Fabio Cannavaro will not play due to a hamstring injury and the next name on Italy’s depth chart at CB, Nicola Legrottaglie, is also doubtful due to injury, which puts Fiorentina’s more than serviceable Alessandro Gamberini in line for a possible start.

On our side, Bocanegra is also being listed as doubtful as of this writing because of that hamstring injury of his own that he suffered against Honduras last week. Jay DeMerit will probably be his replacement.

Italy is coming off a friendly against New Zealand last week that they eked out 4-3 (highlights) — and this is a New Zealand team that went on to get criminally assaulted by Spain (5-0) today. Good sign for us?

We’ll see.

[Photo: AP; From Spain vs. New Zealand 6/14/09]

Tags: Carlos Bocanegra, Confederations Cup, empty seats, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP THE HORNS, Italy

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Comments

By Troy | June 14th, 2009 at 8:09 pm

Spain put a royal beat down NZ. I saw where Torres’ hat trick was the fastest in the history of the Confederations Cup, his ‘trick came in 17′ minutes, while the next to closes was like 57′ minutes.

Anyway, we have a hard one lined up for us tomorrow.

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Posted from United States

By Troy | June 14th, 2009 at 8:10 pm

And to add to my last post, those horns are freaking annoying… Someone please destroy them.

Posted from United States

By Juan | June 14th, 2009 at 8:26 pm

I’m so glad I’m not the only one that noticed the incredible emptiness in the stadium (I barely saw any team colors in the stands… it was just a bunch of people dancing).

I think Spain is on a whole different level than every other team in this tournament. Both Brazil and Italy are still building their squads for next year, and the other teams aren’t viewed as contenders to win.

That being said, I have hopes for the US for two reasons:

1. Although the 4-3 win against NZ doesn’t necessarily mean they’re are a weak side at this point, Italy has had a few shaky performances in recent matches.

2. Italy are known for starting out tournaments very slow and picking up steam later.

Unfortunately we have to deal with the fact that Bob Bradley is the USMNT coach, and if he doesn’t change the way he’s been running the team it’s going to be a very long 90 minutes tomorrow.

Posted from United States

By Elliott | June 15th, 2009 at 12:11 am

Wow, some serious Bradley bashing going on around these parts. I recall 2006 when Bruce Arena similarly got some harsh words from time-to-time. Are there any specific decisions Bradley has made (mistakes from which he has not learned) or just his decision-making process? I am skeptical of the Beasley-leftback idea and Conor Casey is not international calibre, but on the whole his staring elevens have been respectable.

By Weston | June 15th, 2009 at 7:12 am

Italy sent out their B team to play new Zealand as Spain did not, and this tournament is basically a big friendly and not many people would pay to see new Zealand. (although for $8 and some change I’d go!) does anyone know how many people went to the small games at the last confederations cup?

Posted from United States

By Dennis | June 15th, 2009 at 9:53 am

Will be difficult no matter who Italy sends out, Italy knows we can play them close, but our group is maddeningly difficult, and I’d be happy if we came away with a win, because a win against Italy, Brazil or Egypt, that would be superb. Not convinced by Conor Casey though…

Fingers crossed.

And those vuvuzela horns have to go. Even with a non-sellout crowd to see the full strength european champions, they were still loud, those damn horns are like a swarm of angry, annoying bees. Drums and trumpets are okay, at least it’s music, it gets you into a frenzy or a singing/dancing mood, this is just one loud repetitive noise.

Friend of mine got back from Joburg a week ago, said he doesn’t know how they won the WC bid…

By Eric | June 15th, 2009 at 11:24 am

Saw in the Washington Post’s soccer blog that ESPN2 is showing a replay of the match at 10:00 in case you are stuck in the office like me.

Part of me is in the mindset that we can’t be happy for draws anymore if we are to develop and play with the big boys of the world, but a bigger part of me would be pleased with 1 point.

Posted from United States

By Nicholas | June 15th, 2009 at 12:54 pm

Starting lineup is out….

Jozy Altidore
Jonathan Bornstein
Michael Bradley
Ricardo Clark
Jay DeMerit
Clint Dempsey
Landon Donovan – captain
Benny Feilhaber
Tim Howard
Oguchi Onyewu
Jonathan Spector

Probably a 4-5-1….
—————Altidore—————-
Donovan—————Feilhaber—————–Dempsey
————–Bradley————Clark——————-
Bornstein—-DeMerit———–Onyewu———–Spector
————————Howard—————————

Posted from United States

By Matt | June 15th, 2009 at 1:15 pm

You can watch it online here: http://www.goal2net.com/live1.html

Posted from United States

By Daryl | June 15th, 2009 at 1:18 pm

We’re also LiveBlogging here:

http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-football/italy-v-usa-confederations-cup-liveblog.html

For anyone interested.

By TGos | June 15th, 2009 at 4:22 pm

BAN THE DAMN HORNS!

Posted from United States

By DAinLA | June 15th, 2009 at 4:24 pm

Did you see those brilliant moves Bradley made at halftime to reconfigure the team to deal with being a man down and one goal up?

Yeah, me neither.

He’s an idiot.

Posted from United States

By Weston | June 15th, 2009 at 9:39 pm

Well what would YOU do???

Posted from United States

By erik | June 15th, 2009 at 11:46 pm

yeah, what was with no subs at half? change the damn lineup, its a totally different game when you are 1 up, with 10 men.

While the italians made some stupid mistakes on their part, what was with all the missed kicks by the US players? We had 2 of the very same opportunities on goal(which should have been easy ins) and they were both miss kicked by two different players.

I know the boys were tired playing a man down, but that is when you cannot make mistakes and ball control/possession is of the utmost importance(when isn’t it though).

Hope they looked more focused next game!

Posted from United States

By quinn | June 22nd, 2009 at 2:06 am

Jay DeMerit makes me want to shoot myself in the foot.

Oh man, I can only dream of tickets as cheap as that in the states for national games.

Comments are closed