Springfield MO Soccer

I took the time this weekend to settle in and watch the two specials on ABC that I wrote about late Friday. Full of commercials from the usual suspects (Nike, Gatorade, Adidas, Pumas) it was also great to feel the excitement building for the games. Saturday’s show featured highlights from the Top 10 greatest moments in US Soccer and then moved to Sunday’s preview of the World Cup. Heck, KOLR10 even showed a clip of the festivities that began Sunday in Germany (a nine hour parade!) on the late news.

Eric Wynalda predicted the US would reach the semifinals. Alexis Lalas, fresh from playing for the LA Galaxy Reserves, was only willing to predict that as long as the boys get a point (or more) in their first match, they would move on to the 2nd round. Asst Coach Glenn Myernick’s take on that? He compares the game against the Czech Republic to the game against Portugal in 2002 when the US was facing the squad that had won the U21 Championship and considered the finest group to ever come out of Portugal. Result? A 3-2 US win, all of the US goals coming in the first half (thanks to Oscar - host of SoccerBlogs!.

Landon Donovan was the centerpiece of the show on Sunday and the young man is showing some attitude which is great. His take on the US chances? “Except for Brazil, we can compete with anyone” while he deflected every attempt to talk about him to discuss how tight the team is and his feeling that it is the most significant advantage the US has. That plus his frank discussion of the fact that when he was younger, he didn’t think a Coach could make a difference. Playing for Arena, and seeing how he has learned from the mistakes he has made, has changed his opinion. Landon emphasized the confidence Arena instills in him and his teammates and that he knows what his role is. There are no question in his mind that every player on the team is aware of their role.

In terms of players, Landon picked Claudio Reyna #1 and John O’Brien as #2 in terms of skills and their ability to see the game and their ability to create opportunities for Landon and the rest of their teammates. Arena specifically mentioned Donovan, Oneguchi Onweyu, Demarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey and Eddie Johnson as potential impact players. Remarkably absent from the discussions otherwise was Claudio, I attribute that to his injury status when the piece filmed, probably a couple of weeks ago. He’s right behind Arena as they arrive in Germany however, so Buddy should be happy. Also missing, despite being featured prominently for his rapping skills, was Clint “Deuce” Dempsey.

I’m not going to delve into my thoughts beyond pointing to a few players I’m going to be watching - DeMarcus “Run DMB” Beasley and Carlos Bocanegra are boys I consider my home boys from the Chicago Fire where they developed and became the impact players they will be. And Brian McBride is the one we will be counting on in the box. Chicago, SLU, Columbus and now Fulham.

Your thoughts? There is going to be a lot to take in and enjoy in the coming weeks. I invite each and every one of you to submit your thoughts and opinions. Want to be be published on SGFsoccer.com? Send me your article on a topic of your choice. We’ll determine if editing is needed and timing. Use the Contact form above. Help build the Springfield Soccer community by contributing. Now!