FIFA recently released it’s updated Men’s World Rankings and they did not go easy on Mexico, United States, and Costa Rica.
The rankings showcase who are the best teams in the world, and take into account friendly fixtures and competitive fixtures. Teams accumulate points throughout.
The Gold Cup's group stage was pretty noneventful until last night's game between Mexico and Trinidad & Tobago.
Wait, let me rephrase. The Gold Cup's group stage was pretty noneventful until the second half of last night's game between Mexico and Trinidad & Tobago, because this goal from Paul Aguilar was all that happened in the first.
A draw against Panama has pushed USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann to revise his current roster in the Gold Cup and bring in players who he believes is best fit for the job. Jozy Altidore, Greg Garza, and Alfredo Morales have been exchanged for DaMarcus Beasley, Joe Corona, and Alan Gordon.
The USMNT tied Panama 1-1 in the last match of the Gold Cup group stage. The U.S. had already wrapped up the group, having won their two previous games, so there wasn't really any pressure on them.
Blas Perez scored for Panama in the 34th minute and Michael Bradley scored for the U.S. in the 55th minute.
USA center back John Brooks received a yellow card, his second of the tournament, which means he will miss Saturday's quarterfinal contest.
In a game that left many disappointed, Mexico struggled to a 0-0 draw with Guatemala, a team Mexico were expected to beat easily, and a team that was down to 10 men for the final 15-ish minutes.
Mexico's Andres Guardado was named man of the match, but had a close-range volley saved that would have put Mexico ahead.
Guatemala's Jose Contreras was shown a second yellow in the 76th minute, forcing Guatemala to go down a man.
Mexico couldn't finish, shooting 19 times and controlling about 80 percent of the possession but still failing to find the net.
The United States Men’s National Team was always supposed to beat Haiti, the 79th ranked nation in the world. They should have beat Haiti like they should have beat Honduras, except even more so.
So when Friday night’s match in Foxborough, Massachusetts finished 1-0, it was hard to not feel a little let down. The result was a mediocrity, but luckily for us, the result was not the only thing that mattered.
It's actually sort of a slight on Mexico that they didn't beat Cuba by more last night.
El Tri had 44 shots on the night, but only sic of those went in.
Oribe Peralta had a hat trick for Mexico, with Carlos Vela, Andres Guardado and Giovani dos Santos also scoring.
Cuba was down to 16 players after six players (plus the manager) were held up in Cuba and one defected after arriving in the United States.
Poor Cuba. This always happens to them when they come to the U.S. Perhaps they thought it would be different now that relations between them and the U.S. are on the up and up, their players wouldn't defect during the tournament.
A delusion, if you ask me.
According to NBC Soccer, six Cuban players and head coach Raul Gonzalez are waiting for some VISA issues to clear up, and therefore will not be available for tonight's game against Mexico.
You missed it, didn’t you? You missed CONCACAF soccer. Nothing makes you appreciate the quality of soccer around the world like the lack of it in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. That might seem harsh, but after seeing the USA play poorly in its most difficult group game and still win, there can be no doubt that it is the truth.
With the Gold Cup fast approaching, the 23-man roster for the USMNT has been set.
After a recent run of good form, beating the Netherlands and reigning World Cup winners Germany, anything less than a win would be a disappointment for the USA.