Day -326 WorldCup2018
The CONCACAF Gold Cup second semifinal is on right now. It's ten minutes in and Mexico are, as the commentators' cliche goes, really taking the game to Jamaica.
It's a funny thing the Gold Cup. The winners can claim the right to be called the best team in North and Central America and the Caribbean. But the tournament sort of gets lost in the packed summer football calendar. Mexico are playing with a B team. Only one player in the team plays his club football outside of Mexico, and he plays for Houston Dynamo. Mexico concentrated on the Confederations Cup. Now most of those players are back training with their clubs, or playing pre-season friendlies. The Americans only called up some of their more experienced players once they had made it to the quarterfinals. There is a feeling that them and the Mexicans are more concerned about the World Cup qualifiers at the end of the summer.
Then you have teams like Martinique and French Guiana, who aren't Fifa members, playing in the tournament. Between the two biggest countries not taking it very seriously, the participation of non-Fifa members in one of the Confederations that is part of Fifa, the number of European teams playing friendlies in the US and taking attention away from the Gold Cup, the regular play in the MLS while a major international tournament takes place in the same country I almost feel a degree of sympathy for CONCACAF that ithey can't even get their showpiece tournament its' own spotlight.
Oh,and look at that. As if to add to the surrealism of it all the cameras just showed us a shot of a smiling Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, sitting in the stands all by himself. What's he smiling about? Laughing maybe? And why does nobody want to sit with him?
The match is being played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. It was the venue for the 1994 World Cup Final. It's sadly a lot emptier than it was for that match. It feels like a Mexican home match but when you think that Barcelona or Manchester United can attract crowds of 80,000 for a friendly in the US, it must be odd for the organisers that they cannot sell out a semifinal featuring Mexico, just outside of Los Angeles.
I hope that the Gold Cup does get more recognition because this match, like many others, has been very entertaining. The players on the pitch obviously want a win. They're not thinking about the bad timing of the tournament.
Yes, I have spent the whole first half writing this but it's taken me a while because I've had to stop many times to see what the commentators have been getting exciting about. Mind you, I should say "the commentator" because the technical commentator, Steven Caldwell doesn't get excited about much. The ex-Sunderland, Burnley, Birmingham and Toronto FC Scottish defender does his job of being technical a bit too seriously. Throw in some oohs and aahs there, Stevo!
Halftime, 0-0. It's perfectly set up for a winning goal in the second half. Right? That's me drawing inspiration from a former Maltese coach who told his TV audience that to win a football match you have to score more goals than your opponent.
The CONCACAF Gold Cup second semifinal is on right now. It's ten minutes in and Mexico are, as the commentators' cliche goes, really taking the game to Jamaica.
It's a funny thing the Gold Cup. The winners can claim the right to be called the best team in North and Central America and the Caribbean. But the tournament sort of gets lost in the packed summer football calendar. Mexico are playing with a B team. Only one player in the team plays his club football outside of Mexico, and he plays for Houston Dynamo. Mexico concentrated on the Confederations Cup. Now most of those players are back training with their clubs, or playing pre-season friendlies. The Americans only called up some of their more experienced players once they had made it to the quarterfinals. There is a feeling that them and the Mexicans are more concerned about the World Cup qualifiers at the end of the summer.
Then you have teams like Martinique and French Guiana, who aren't Fifa members, playing in the tournament. Between the two biggest countries not taking it very seriously, the participation of non-Fifa members in one of the Confederations that is part of Fifa, the number of European teams playing friendlies in the US and taking attention away from the Gold Cup, the regular play in the MLS while a major international tournament takes place in the same country I almost feel a degree of sympathy for CONCACAF that ithey can't even get their showpiece tournament its' own spotlight.
Oh,and look at that. As if to add to the surrealism of it all the cameras just showed us a shot of a smiling Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, sitting in the stands all by himself. What's he smiling about? Laughing maybe? And why does nobody want to sit with him?
The match is being played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. It was the venue for the 1994 World Cup Final. It's sadly a lot emptier than it was for that match. It feels like a Mexican home match but when you think that Barcelona or Manchester United can attract crowds of 80,000 for a friendly in the US, it must be odd for the organisers that they cannot sell out a semifinal featuring Mexico, just outside of Los Angeles.
I hope that the Gold Cup does get more recognition because this match, like many others, has been very entertaining. The players on the pitch obviously want a win. They're not thinking about the bad timing of the tournament.
Yes, I have spent the whole first half writing this but it's taken me a while because I've had to stop many times to see what the commentators have been getting exciting about. Mind you, I should say "the commentator" because the technical commentator, Steven Caldwell doesn't get excited about much. The ex-Sunderland, Burnley, Birmingham and Toronto FC Scottish defender does his job of being technical a bit too seriously. Throw in some oohs and aahs there, Stevo!
Halftime, 0-0. It's perfectly set up for a winning goal in the second half. Right? That's me drawing inspiration from a former Maltese coach who told his TV audience that to win a football match you have to score more goals than your opponent.
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