US, Costa Rica 0-0 tie

Went to the CONCACAF Gold Cup matches at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA last night with Coach Mom. We arrived early wearing our DaMarcus Beasley shirts & camped out in the parking lot for an hour of fanwatching. The sun was hot but it was not humid and only about 80 degrees. Thank heavens the game wasn't on Monday, when temps were in the high 90s. The salsa music was blasting and the smells of propane and grilling smoke wafted through the air. Definitely going to be a Costa-Rica dominated crowd. Ticos! Ticos! Ticos!

Our next-door car was from New Jersey. The chatty fan told us that neither Donovan nor Beasley would play (he was wrong on both counts). He was going to the World Cup qualifier v. Mexico in Columbus on September 3rd and we encouraged him to go the Soccer Hall of Fame on August 29th, when John Harkes, Tab Ramos and Marcelo Balboa will be inducted. We are going to all the Gold Cup games on the east coast except for the finals, which are on the same day as AC Milan-Chelsea at Foxboro. Our neighbor informed us that the Gold Cup game would be a much better game. Hah. Better than John Terry, Frank Lampard, Damien Duff, Hernan Crespo, Andriy Shevchenko, Cafu, Paulo Maldini, Kaka, Christian Vieri? I don't think so.

The gates opened at 6:00 p.m. Security was a joke. I walked through the line for searching people with bags. A young security officer (female) looked into my binocular case and glanced at my unzipped purse, not touching either. I could have had a gun or a knife or just about anything. Surprising given this is just days after the London bomb attacks. The stadium had blocked off the stands behind the benches so the 15,000 or so fans were concentrated on one side. We walked up the ramp with a man carrying a heavy marching band style snare drum with metal posts to stand it up. We couldn't bring an umbrella, but this somewhat inebriated fan could have a drum. He sideswiped Coach Mom as we turned the corner & apologized. We watched another drunk fan, running backwards to take a picture of her friends, trip and fall, her digital camera breaking into pieces on the concrete.

Our seats were great, 25 rows up on the 18 yard line. Foxboro also has the silly "take away their soda bottle caps" rule, but at least Gillette, a modern stadium, has cupholders attached to the seat in front of each seat. (And I still have two caps in my purse from our last trip to Giants Stadium!)

The game was a lackluster affair. Keller was a rock in goal, and the defense was OK. Hedjuk played well until he got a silly yellow card late for diving, which means he will miss the quarterfinal game on Saturday. Jimmy Conrad, making his 3rd national team appearance, played very well at the back. He looked a little shaky on his first touch, but after that he made no major errors and won some nice balls in air. Sadly, Tony Sanneh has lost a step & I will be surprised to see him on the World Cup roster. Cherundolo is also a marginal player on the world stage. I see our World Cup back line as Hedjuk, Conrad, Gooch (Oguchi Onyewu), and Bocanegra. Here's my projected World Cup starting 11:

--------------------Keller-------------------

Conrad-----Gooch-----Bocanegra---------Hedjuk

----------------------Lewis-----------------

Donovan-------------------------------Beasley

-------------------O'Brien-------------------

---------------Johnson------McBride-----------

I'd give Spector a chance to crack the back line, but Arena doesn't seem to be giving him the chance to do so. Arena will probably play Reyna over Lewis, but I think Claudio's lack of pace will make him a liability. (Coach Mom would switch Donovan and O'Brien, but otherwise she is OK with my lineup.)

The offense couldn't finish. Not only couldn't we finish, no one wanted to shoot. Too many good offensive sequences ended with a pass that should have been a shot, a dribble into the corner, or just a giveaway. Our best offensive chance happened in the 2nd minute when John O'Brien backheeled the ball to Pat Noonan who smartly crossed the ball which Dempsey slotted in. Unfortunately Noonan was offsides and the US had little more offense until Arena put in Beasley, Donovan, and Wolff for the final 20 minutes.

The Costa Rica crowd was loud and boisterous. We cheered each US effort and apparently annoyed some CR's behind us, who began shouting "Beasley sucks" and "puta" (do you speak Spanish?). However, the CR fan sitting next to Mom was a nice man & they agreed on a few blown offsides calls by the line judge. We shook hands after the game.

U.S. Draws Costa Rica 0-0, Wins Gold Cup Group

Tie with Costa Rica goes to the U.S.
The United States wins Group B based on its plus-5 goal-differential and now moves to Saturday's quarterfinals.

CONCACAF Gold Cup Notebook: Dempsey continues to impress coach


The temps quickly dropped between games, and we were happy to have brought beach towels in case of rain. Perhaps 4000 fans stayed for the second game. A group of 12 Cubans stood at the rail below us, and about 8 Canadians were over in the Sam's Army seats. I joked about Cuba needing to win or this would be their last day to defect, then read this today:

Cuban soccer player hopes to defect to U.S.

Canada won 2-1 so both teams are likely eliminated. The US will play one of the third place teams. Which team they play will be decided when the hurricane-postponed final group games are played in Miami tonight. Saturday's games are Honduras-Panama at 1:00, US - TBA at 4:00, and the Revs v. FC Dallas at 7:00. If it's 95 degrees as predicted we may only go to the last two games. Have to save our energy for the semis!