World Cup right around the corner!

The USA opens it's first match against England on Saturday June 12th, 2010. There are a lot of questions entering the match. The biggest one is USA ready to play with one of the top teams in the world. They need to come out with confidence and most of all they need their stars Landon Donavan, and Clint Dempsey to step up. England has a good attack and if Tim Howard is not on his game this game could be over quickly. The main goal of course is to get out of group stage and that would involve us defeating Algeria, and Slovenia. With this in mind the England game is not as big as it is made out to be. A lose would hurt but they would not be done yet.

USA draws england for World Cup

APE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- The United States will face England at the World Cup for the first since a famous upset 60 years ago, then play Slovenia and Algeria in the first round of next year's tournament.

The U.S. opens against England in Rustenburg on June 12, the teams' first World Cup matchup since the Americans' 1-0 victory at the 1950 tournament in Brazil.

The United States then meets Slovenia at Johannesburg's Ellis Park on June 18 and completes the first round on June 23 against Algeria in Pretoria. The U.S. has never played either nation.

"This is the best draw we've ever had in any World Cup," said former U.S. forward Eric Wynalda, now an analyst for the Fox Soccer Channel. "No disrespect to England, but this is an ideal group for us."

Several U.S. players are well known to England because they play in the Premier League, including goalkeeper Tim Howard (Everton), midfielder Clint Dempsey (Fulham), defenders Jonathan Spector (West Ham) and Jay DeMerit (Watford) and forward Jozy Altidore (Hull). U.S. captain Carlos Bocanegra played for Fulham.

"It will be like a Premier League game," Fulham manager Roy Hodgson said. "The USA is like a team you meet every week. It's better than meeting North Korea and a style of play you're not used to."

The game could feature a matchup of Los Angeles Galaxy teammates Landon Donovan playing for the U.S. against England midfielder David Beckham. Donovan shrugged his shoulders when the U.S. was picked to play England. "It never ends," he said -- apparent reference to his connection to the English star.

"This is going to be awesome," Donovan said. "I can't wait. This is going to be great."

The U.S. has beaten England twice and lost seven times in nine meetings. The other victory was 2-0 in a 1993 exhibition at Foxborough, Mass. In the most recent matchups, England won 2-1 at Chicago's Solider Field in 2005 and 2-0 at Wembley last year.

The only official match between the teams was at the 1950 World Cup.

"It's a tough game," former England manager Terry Venables said. "They will be very well organized and very fit. They won't outplay us but they could out-strength us.

"They won't give in until the last but we do have a bit more."

Mexico was drawn Friday to meet South Africa in the tournament opener on June 11 in Johannesburg. El Tri then plays France and Uruguay in Group A.

In the other groups it was:

Group B: Argentina, Greece, Nigeria, South Korea;

Group C: Algeria, England, Slovenia, United States;

Group D: Australia, Germany, Ghana, Serbia;

Group E: Cameroon, Denmark, Japan, Netherlands;

Group F: Italy, New Zealand, Paraguay, Slovakia;

Group G: Brazil, Ivory Coast, North Korea, Portugal;

Group H: Chile, Honduras, Spain, Switzerland.

AP Sports Writers Ronald Blum and Dave Skretta in New York contributed to this report.

USA World Cup Update

Team USA is in a good spot to qualify for the world cup. Not a great spot considering how close all of the top 4 teams are but good enough. We are leading the group with 16 points and only the top 3 get in and the 4th team has to qualify another way.

US beats Panama 2-1

USA started this match short handed. They lost a few players becuase they went back to there club teams which really hurt us. Blas Perez put Panama ahead in first-half stoppage time. Later on Beckerman tied the score in the 49th min of play. Kenny Cooper converted a penalty kick in the 105th minute of play. Which gave the US a 2-1 victory over Panama and a semi-final berth against Honduras, Honduras beat Canada 1-0.


Other News:

Sunday matches:

Guadeloupe vs Costa Rica

Mexico vs Haiti

USA Finishes first round of Gold Cup Play

USA played its last match of the first round in gold cup play with a tie against Haiti. The USA came out quick in the match when Davy Arnaud gave the usa a 1-0 lead in just the 4th min of play. However just before half time Haiti responded with a goal by Vaniel Sirin in the 45th min of play.

This goal gave Haiti a big boost coming out for the second half. They showed this by how they responded with a quick goal in the 49th min by Mones Chery. The USA looked a little stunned and for the rest of half it was kind of scarey to think we could lose it. The USA sqaud got there shot in the 90th min and they took it when Stuart Holden put in a goal. This tied the score at 2-2.

The score ended 2-2 and now we just have to wait to see who we get in the second round of the cup.


Here is the final standing for each round of the gold cup. Note* Group C has more games to play so there standings are not final.

Santino Quaranta scores a goal in the 75th min to break a tie at 0-0 to put usa up 1-0. It didnt stop there. In the 79th min Brian Ching put in a goal to put the usa up 2-0 and that finished hondouras off. All in all it was a great game for the USA. They hope to win there group which they are currently leading with a 6 goals for 0 goals against 2-0 record.


League Standings

There next match is against Haiti.


A tie would clinch there ticket to the next round.

Gold Cup

USA beat Grenada 4-0 in the first match in the gold cup. Goals were scored by the Freddy Adu in the 6th min and Stuart Holden in the 31st minute. Later on Robbie Rogers who assisted on both the first 2 goals scored in the 60th minute and Charlie Davies finished the night off good in the 68th min with a nice goal for him self.


Here is a link to the gold cup standings.

As you can see USA has got a good shot to win this cup again. Even if this is there B team playing in the cup it is good to get to see new faces playing for us and they well be our future stars.

Usa vs Brazil

Brazil 2 time champion of the Confederations Cup. USA never made a finals apperance. Brazil never trialed this whole tournment. USA got into the Semi-finals by pure luck. USA shouldn't of been in the game. We have never been in the finals of any Fifa tournment, we have only beat Brazil once in our history, just last week we were killed by the great brazil team 3-0.

With all that said. You would think Brazil would come into the game and take care of buisness. Beat us and win another Confederations Cup to add to there collection. From the start USA came to play. In the 10th min Clint Dempsey flicked a great cross into the back of the net. That was followed by Donovan in the 27th min with a great pass from Charlie Davies to put us up 2-0. The rest of half USA defended for the most part and Tim Howard was huge! Tim Howard made save after save after save AFTER save.

The 2nd half Brazil responded early with a goal in the 46th min by Fabiano which gave him 4 goals in the Confederations Cup and that is the most by any player in the tournment. ( Dempsey is in a tie for 2nd with a few other players at 3 goals) The USA defended for most of the start of the 2nd half. In the 57th min Brazil almost put in a corner kick. My heart stopped when i saw it happen. We got a lucky break on the play. In the 60th min Tom Howard came up HUGE !!! He made a great save when he pushed the ball into the cross bar then got up and grabbed it. Once again my heart stopped! After further review i think the ball mave have cleared the line which would have tied it 2-2. The refs didn't think so but i am not so sure yet. I watched it over and over on my TV and i don't know, that ball seemed it mave have crossed the line, but good job by Howard to get the ball out of there. Donavan had a shot pushed wide in the 64th min and later Dempsey had a shot in the 65th min which was pushed wide for a corner. The corner didn't create any thing else for us though. In the 70th min Tom Howard ran out and grabbed the ball before anything could happen but then screamed at his defenders for some help. Brazil had lots of chances so far in the half but only one of them had gone in.

Fabiano scored a header 74th min. Which gave him his 5th goal of the tournment and a tie with USA. The USA players were stunned by this and Tim Howard was mad. He saved the first shot but the header came to Fabiano and Howard couldn't do anything about it. In the 84th min Brazil put the game to bed with a with a goal by there captain Lucio. USA was deafeated 3-2 in the final. All in all it was a good tournment for the USA they got runners up and played well.

Most Important game in USA Soccer History?

There have been articles written about this game being the biggest game in the history of USA soccer. In the USA soccer has been overshadowed by other sports such as football, basketball, and baseball. Many think that a win here would make soccer big in the USA. With all that preasure riding on our team how will they overcome it? Who will step up? I don't know if the USA has a big star like a Kobe Bryant type guy that will take over the game when they need it. The closest thing to that we would have is maybe Landon Donavon or maybe the keeper Tim Howard. Last game against Spain it was Tim Howard that stepped up. Now I know he needs another big game but Iam looking for Donavan to play big as well. Game is on ESPN on Sunday June 28th at 2:30.

USA To Face Brazil

The USA has reached the Finals of the Fifa Confederation Cup after beating Spain 2-0 after two goals by Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey. There they will face Brazil who beat host South Africa today 1-0 with a beautiful shot off a free kick in the 88th minute by substitute Daniel Alves.

The game between the USA and Brazil would normally be a no-brainer for analysts, Brazil wins. But it's not the same this time. After a resounding 3-0 loss against Brazil in the Group Stage the Americans look poised to make a better impression, especially following the emotional high from the stunning victory over ranked #1 Spain. Brazil itself looked rocky against South Africa just managing to get away (and unlike USA-Spain it was back and forth the whole game) in the 88th minute. The key for the USA will be getting back on Brazil's well known counter-attacks. The US will be playing without coach Bob Bradley's son Micheal Bradley, who was issued a red card in the 86th minute in the game against Spain.

The game will be shown on ESPN at 2:00 ET on Sunday. So go to church (if you must) but hurry home and watch our boys attempt to win their first ever Fifa Confederation Cup. If they manage to do it they may easily be known as the best American Team we have ever seen.

Good Luck USA!

~Swede