CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying Preview: Guatemala v. USA
In the opener of Group B play, the Americans travel to Guatemala City looking for the full points.
Guatemala v. United States
When: 10 pm ET, Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Where: Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City, Guatemala
The United States begin the semifinal stage of its World Cup qualifying campaign with a match against a Guatemalan team they have never lost to in qualifying, posting a 4-0-4 record.
All 18 players on Bob Bradley’s roster for the game were part of the US’s 8-0 throttling of Barbados in June. DaMarcus Beasley, who’s in the final stages of returning from a knee injury, was the last man added to the squad. Four players – Michael Bradley, Maurice Edu, Brad Guzan, and Sasha Kljestan — from the occasionally inspiring but ultimately disappointing US Olympic team are making the trip to Guatemala.
On paper, the Central American side shouldn’t pose much threat to the US CONCACAF juggernaut. The home crowd will bolster the Chapines, but not enough to put the outcome seriously in doubt.
Full Steam Ahead
The US, looking to start off the semifinals with a result on the road, brought its A squad. Simply put, American soccer doesn’t get any better than the team that will be on the field at kickoff.
Still, the Red, White, and Blue enter the game with questions it needs to answer to have any hope of success in 2010. As the talent level on the US national team improves and qualification becomes easier, these types of games become places to find such answers. Not surprisingly, goal scoring is the team’s biggest deficiency.
With Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore, and the younger generation of US strikers not quite ready, Bradley has tasked Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Brian Ching, and Eddie Johnson to provide the scoring punch. LD is always dangerous (at least in North America), but someone else will have to step up — if not necessarily against the Chapines, certainly against CONCACAF’s better sides, such as Mexico and Costa Rica, in the Hexagonal round.
Can Johnson return to his brilliant 2006 qualification form? Will Dempsey learn to focus his dance moves on the ball towards goal? Can Ching make an impact on an international game? Or is it time to abandon these three projects and call in the kids, as many US fans want? This match could go a long way toward beginning to answer these questions.
Something Fishy
Guatemala doesn’t have much in the way of a concerted threat. What they do have, though, is Carlos Ruiz. The squad, which has never made the World Cup finals, will look to El Pescadito for a much-needed scoring punch. The Guatemalans have not found the back of the net against the United States during the two teams’ past six matches.
Young Jose Manuel Contreras is another option. The Arsenal di Sarandi midfielder is only 22, but already has 22 caps for his country, and he will have to be on his game as the Guatemalan team fights an uphill battle to advance from the group, much less qualify for South Africa.
Player to Watch: Maurice Edu. Impressed by his solid Olympic tournament, Glasgow Rangers just paid $5 million for Toronto FC’s maybe-he’s-a-midfielder-maybe-he’s-a-defender talent. Given Bradley and Pablo Mastroeni’s presence on the roster, not to mention an insane couple weeks of travel that saw the 22-year-old rack up passport stamps on three continents, the former MLS No. 1 draft pick might have trouble getting on the pitch in this game. But with Benny Feilhaber’s regression and a solid but aging backline of Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo, Oguchi Onyewu, and Heath Pearce, Edu’s time in the spotlight is approaching faster than anyone thought.
Prediction: US 2-0 Guatemala
Ref From goal.com
