Adventures in US World Cup Qualifying

:xmas-smiley-033:
HOTEL BOOKED:
Doubletree Guest Suites Columbus
50 S. Front Street
Columbus, OH 43215-4145 US

"River view" 2 double bed suite with sofa bed for $135/night
Check in: Feb 10, 2009
Check out: Feb 12, 2009
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FLIGHT BOOKED: $230 RT w/ tax included
Depart: Feb 10, Tue, Flt 522, Depart Los Angeles (LAX) at 8:20 AM
Arrive in Columbus (CMH) at 4:45 PM

Return: Feb 12, Thu, Flt 1622, Depart Columbus (CMH) at 12:40 PM
Arrive in Chicago (MDW) at 12:50 PM
Change planes in Chicago (MDW) Flt 1763, departing at 3:50 PM
Arrive in Los Angeles (LAX) at 6:25 PM
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Lads and Ladies,
This is for the home leg of the US vs Mexico qualifying for the 2010 World Cup. It will be in very very cold Columbus. In 2001, the on field temperature in the Columbus leg was 29F, about -1C, right? The game has been called "La Guerra Fria" in the Mexican papers since. The USA hasn't lost to Mexico at home in years...

In return, the US get to play the away leg at the invulnerable fortress of Mexican soccer Estadio Azteca. Mexico has never lost, at least to the US, there. Ever. But I think THIS year will be the year the US finally defeats Mexico at Azteca.

I will be going to that game, too. Estadio Azteca will be insane...but first things first: Columbus Ohio in February.

I'll post some pictures and blog a bit here over the months on our qualifying. In all truth, the US has already qualified, but the question is now what position, plus we get all the drama of the two big teams in CONCACAF slugging it out.

 

Everyone's going to stalk you now. Watch out!

I have to say that going to Azteca is surely a crazy experience and I think that's going to be crazy, but hope you enjoy them!!!

 

So far it looks like I got 6 people in my room already...

Bring it on. I'm way creepier than any stalker.

 

With thanks to Isaac:

 

Mexican winger and Deportivo La Coruna standout Andres Guardado is set to miss six weeks after suffering a ruptured tendon in his left leg during Depor's 5-0 smashing by Barcelona on Saturday.

Add another win to the books .. knock on wood

 

Rafa Marquez was hurt yesterday, too. The canut.

The big problem I see with this match is that have all sort of pencilled in the 'W'. We have the home field, we have all our best players, we have momentum and chemistry, Mexico is in disarray, Sven Goran Erikson is clueless about Mexican football and the players aren't really responding to him...

Overconfidence is the only thing I am worried about.


I can't tell you how fun it will be to heckle their keeper in my worst spanish, a patois of things I learned on Sesame Street, on gang banger movies and through horribly inaccurate stereotypes.

 

sven goran erikson is playing the ultimate ruse. pretending to be inept so that when he wants to turn it on, the effects are devastating

 

The Swedish rope-a-dope?
Who da rope? Who da dope?

 

I just bought one of these for the game in Columbus, Ohio:

The parka, not the distinguished gentleman.

 

German club friendly score from today:
Mainz [0 - 5] Bayern Munich
4' [0 - 1] M. Klose
55' [0 - 2] L. Toni
70' [0 - 3] L. Donovan
72' [0 - 4] B. Schweinsteiger
90' [0 - 5] L. Donovan


For those paying attention, this is GOOD.

 

Now only if Adu could figure out which way the feild was in Monaco

 

Sacha Kljestan stepped up big in today's game vs Sweden...maybe we don't need Adu who A-hasn't.

 

Maybe not.. we'll see if that game helps his chances landing a contract with the Bhoys,, or else where in europe

 

In a few short hours, I will wake up and get on a plane to the godforsaken place known as Columbus Ohio.
The following day, the United States will take the field in the most anticipated match on US soil: US v Mexico.

The US holds the advantage, but the weather, and expectations, weigh heavily on the USA...the Mexicans are primed for an upset.

One thing is for certain, I will be drunk more often than not over the next 72 hours.

The USSF asked the USA supporters to wear Red for the game. What that means to your average LA Riot Squadder is "ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WEAR RED, unless it is really funny".

EDIT: The flight out:

 

Make sure to document the trip for us and post a blog in the fan diary section.

 

Yet another 2-0 win over Mexico in meaningful play.

so awesome...

I am exhausted and it is near 2am and I've been drinking since noon.

last beer was in the players hotel bar with coach Bob and his son two goal scorer Michael.

More later.

EDIT: added photo of the boys.

 

Always rated Michael Bradley, you heard it here retrospectivally.

 

Didn't you slate Bob for picking his own son? Or was that just me.

anyways - congrats on the good result and - I expect - fantastic experience.

 

Looking forward to the detailed report Fitzy old boy. I read a superb report on the game on the USSF website, not sure if they were describing a game of football or not though!

 

Just got home after one last pint with the boys...
I recorded the game and started watching it. Mexico has a corny ass National Anthem, and the little nazi-esque salute they do doesn't help the comedy factor.

We flew out and met up with a few hundred of our close US supporter buddies at a bar and drank the night away Tuesday. One of my travel partners could expense anything he did on the trip for business so I drank virtually for free, which is dangerous.


We wrapped up about 1am, while some of the younger boys went to the Westin where the Mexico team was staying for 'Project Mayhem' which involved waking up the Mexican team, but the weather thwarted them...

The Weather! It was very strange...

 

2 weeks ago temps dropped to 0°F, with a -15°F wind chill where it stayed for a week of an absolute dump of snow, much like you all got there in London, except 4x more and way colder...

We were fully expecting that weather, and the travelers all went out to get the right cold weather gear.

However, in the days right before, the temps warmed up, up up...it was actually 55 °F the day before and was scheduled to be 60 °F the afternoon of the game. Suffice it to say that is extremely unseasonably mild for an Ohio February. Sounds great right?

Well half the reason we choose to play in Columbus is too force the Mexicans to play in weather they unaccustomed to be playing in...the other half is that Columbus is nearly the only place in the USA we can get a crowd that is balanced in favor of being a USA friendly crowd. Such is the nature of soccer in the US.

So...We were torn about whether we wanted it to be bone snappingly cold or mild for our own California asses.

In the end, no one could have predicted what actually happened...

 

The evening we got there, we frankly overdrank in excitement and waking up Wednesday morning was tough. I got up at 10. I'm a breakfast guy, so we left the non-eaters and grabbed coffee and sangwiches around the corner.

About 11, we started to make our way back to the hotel and noticed quite a few Mexico fans roaming the streets downtown wearing jerseys and light jackets in the mild sun of Columbus...however, we noticed a change in the air. It got humid and breezy. We checked the weather and found a huge band of a violent thunderstorm headed our way with very cold air behind it.

In the US midwest, when cold air and hot air meet, usually in the summertime, you get tornadoes. Yes, Tornadoes. Those big twisty things that carve up towns and drop houses on witches in Oz.

Ohio was put under Tornado watch through 9pm, and the game was scheduled to start at 7pm. There was strong consideration towards canceling the game, which REALLY would have sucked ass for us travelers.

 

i hate it when you get ready for a game only for a tornado to wreck the evening. typical

 

Our hotel was alking distance to the pub from which we were scheduled to to take a shuttle up to the Columbus Crew Stadium. On the way, crossed into the part of Clumbus known as The Brewery District.
EDIT:add photo.

It was where all the beer was brewed in the pre-refrigeration era, and I assume most of the buildings stood idle for years as Bud and Miller took over the planet. In the era of gentrification and micro-brewing, the area has emerged again as a destination for beer drinking and brewing. A sign on the way indicated we were close to Columbus Brewing Company, a well known brew-pub in the city.

We veered off the path and went there instead, which would have fateful consequences later on. As we walked in, the sky above began to darken and the stiff breeze was blown away by straight up wind.

Entering the brewpub, the first thing that struck us was the modern decor and the aroma of woodfire used to bake pizzas in a brick oven. It was delightful, with cheery waitstaff, excellent food, and a strong selection of refined craft brews.
I with the scotch ale, Oz with the stout.


The Argentina-Brazil game came on and we drank and ate pizza until 3:30. We wanted to get back to the bar went to the night before because at 4pm, there was scheduled to be a free keg of Carlsberg tapped, donated by the US Soccer Federation, and we needed to get shuttle tickets ebfore the first bus left at 5pm for the stadium.

We made our way to the bar after paying our tab, crossing through a supermarket parking lot which gave us the idea to buy six packs of beer to bring to the Stadium. When we arrived at the bar, I bought the last two shuttle tickets. There were 6 in our small party. I tried for fifteen minutes or so to see how I could get 6 people on with 2 tickets, but in the end, sold them to a couple and we decided to take a cab over. The bar was a zoo filled with drunken New Yorkers, Portland Timbers 'Timber Army' logger types, rowdy Crew fans who think they own the world because they won the cup, a bunch of underage military guys who drove up from North Carolina, a gaggle of spoiled underage LA kids who occasionally show up at Galaxy games, some Revolution fans and god knows who else. It was a madhouse, and we had ZERO chance at a free beer, and very little chance at reaching the bar to buy a pint. I'm pretty sure the fire marshal would have shut the place down for overcrowding.

So needing beer and only being a walk across a supermarket parking lot from some of the best craft brew in Ohio, we left. As we got in, we saw a bit of tape from England Spain (sorry) and finished watching Messi and co decimate the Frenchies. See attached for our group portrait in CBC. That was good beer.

The barmaid's changed shifts and we got a saucy soccer hater who loudly declared soccer was boring and that she liked baseball. She had no idea why there was soccer on the tv and started to switch it. To her (and my) surprise a loud protest came up out of what I thought was a sparsely attended bar full of locals. It turns out nearly 25 other USA fans had found the place but their colors were hidden under raingear. A USA fan of African descent began an ultimately successful debate with the barmaid on how baseball is far more boring than soccer. It was nice.

My buddy took off to grab some beer from the supermarket.
Meanwhile, the Emergency Broadcasting System interrupted the Arg Fra post game show to show us a red line of wind and rain minutes away from Columbus. They mentioned tornadoes again a few times that got us talking abot cancellations and the damn barmaid tried to scare us with her weather stories.

It looked ominous and soon the stiff wind turned into strong wind, which then turned into incredibly hellacious wind. I'm talking street signs teetering 2 feet one way and then 2 feet the other way. Tree branches snapping off. Horizontal rain. One of my buddies started quoting Forrest Gump: "There's all kinds of rain. Fat rain, skinny rain, sideways rain and rain that...just comes up out of the ground!" I got video of the wind which I will post when I get a chance to upload it.
EDIT: 5 second video here of one of my idiot partners...note the street sign behind him that would have chopped him in half had it let loose:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2R_snCoRow

As 5:30 rolled around, we got a text from a partner who got on the shuttle who told us it was terribly backed up with traffic on the way to the stadium and that we had better get our taxis sooner than later. We ordered our taxi and it appeared in the torrential downpour at the same instant our buddy came back holding 36 twelve oz soldiers who would not make it to see the next day.

As we got into the taxi pleasantly drunk, and the weather got worse, I wondered, will I?

 

One of the hallmarks of the Mexican footballing attitude is total delusion that their team is the greatest on the planet BAR NONE. Better than Italy, better than Maradona's Argentina, better than Pele's Brazil. THE BEST.

Few are realists in Mexico's football culture.

There is however a great cartoonist there who tells it like it is, and here is his take on the game:


Translation:
Mexico under sombrero in pine box: Well, at least I'm comfortable in this coffin.
US: Of course, I've got you all sized up.

 

As we were headed out in the taxi, the shuttle arrived at the stadium, and my partner texted back that it was raining and hailing ruining what would otherwise be good tailgating time. We should have been hanging out with the locals and other travelers shring beer, singing songs and heckling the Mexico fans, but instead the Stadium had announced that everyone should seek shelter from the lightning and fingertip sized hailstones.

EDIT: video on youtube of the parking lot hail storm.

Furthermore, the typical parking is on grass fields next to the stadium that kids use for league soccer, but due to the recent snow, the recenter thaw and the even recenter torrential downpour, the fields looked like the sort of thing you see blown out panzers stuck in Russian tundra circa 1943. they made everyone park down the street in some museum parking lot and walk in. It was chaos. A muddy, soggy desparate drunken slog in for the lads, but they made it. Here are the shuttle takers who got dropped off in a sparse lot during the downpour.

 

Our cab driver said it took ten minutes to get to the Stadium when he picked us up, two minutes later we hit traffic, and I asked him to revise his estimate. He deadpanned 'Twelve minutes'. It took 30 to go 4 miles. People getting out from work, the game and the weather conspired to confound the cabbie. Finally, he got on the shoulder, drove a half mile to the next exit and took surface streets in. We stopped at the corner near the stadium and joined the masses walking in bearing 36 bottles of beer and no opener. We did a macgyver routine rubbing two bottle tops together to get them to come off and it worked. We sang songs as we met up with other fans, looked at a very busy traffic cop who seemed like he really wanted to confiscate our beer (which is what is usually done) but he let us go by as we sang "Ay! Yi, yi, yi....somebody stole my sombrero...the dirty old rat has stolen my hat, and now I have nothing to wear-ooooooo...." It's fun in a crowd but really doesn't mean anything.

It was getting darker, but the weather miraculously ceased blowing and raining on the walk in. As we walked up to the gates, it was now 6:30, a hlaf hour from kickoff. We hurriedly polished off a few brews, I sold a spare ticket at a small loss, and realized I had gotten quite pumped up for this match. At 6:40, it started pouring again and that spurred us to go in and shelter under the stands until the game started. We made our way in, got frisked for bottles, (I got the guy but all my buddies got the girl, isn't that the way it always is?) and saw a lot more Mexico fans than expected. I expected about 10% Mexico to 90% USA, but it was closer to 20% and they all wore green so they were easy to spot.

We made our way under the stadium to the North Bleachers and when we emerged, the rain had stopped again though everyone and everything was soggy wet. The wind fell off to a steady breeze blowing straight north into our faces.

When we got to the stands, the crowd was immense! The bleachers were jampacked terrace style with people standing on the tops of the bleachers, precariously perched on the slippery son*****es, most 6-12 beers deep already.

We tried to find a spot, but the stands were packed so as we got so far up the aisle, dozens more trapped us from below and then the anthems started. We were stuck right where we were and that's where we watched the game...right there in the aisle.

As we sang and jumped, they wobbled comedically and people kept falling, but no one got hurt much and nobody complained.

Attached is a view across the North Bleachers from my spot in the aisle.

 

Fascinating stuff Fitz and a cracking read. Keep going mate.

 

We sang a thunderous Star Spangled Banner after the goofy and strangely inappropriate sounding Mexican National Anthem. Mexico does a naziesque salute during their anthem, holding their hand to the chest with the palm down very militaristically. Very odd and it makes me want to beat them badly. Click here to see it on youtube.

The game got underway with some of us up in the aisle, others texting us from various spots around the bleachers their locations, but no one was going to move now...

We sang a Here we go here we go here we go and then at the end of the 3rd minute, Timmy Howard makes the save of the game that had me checking to see if the wet on my pants came from above or inside. I thought "Oh goddammit...it's going to be one of those games..!"

 

The game went back and forth with the following things standing out.

The weather had totally completely stopped being crazy the moment the National Anthems were sung.

The US midfield did a great job of possessing the ball and Mexico who usually beats us in this department could barely keep it for some reason.

Mexico did almost nothing to worry me the rest of the half.

Landon Donovan worked hard and made two or three El Tricolore players follow him.

Brian Ching, who is not very well rated by me personally yet continues to get starts, probed and drew defenders who battered him physically all night. It wasn't until after the game when I realized he had a role and it was to physically hammer Mexico's defense with his body to make room for the real attack which would come from midfield.

Oguchi Onyewu, a fan favorite and Mexico killer, was not crisp.

Heath Pearce, a hopeful for the future, made bad passes and had poor touches all night. It's even sadder personally, because he is a friend of my teammate's who played with him in High School. I think he has walked himself out of the team.

Da Marcus Beasley was quick but ineffective in the attack, considered the ONLY aspect of his game up to now... yet, he defended with zeal. Quite a surprise.

Sacha Klestjan, whom I usually hate and shout the most wicked evil things at since he plays for the hated Chivas, was decent, but didn't have the magic touch like I had hoped he'd have.

Dempsey was decent as well.

Bocanegra was good and mistake free.

But then there was Columbus Crew captain Frankie Hejduk...playing right back, he made mad dashes up the wing on overlapping runs, playing like a madman. He is 34 and was the oldest player out there for both teams, I think, but he won ball after ball, made hard tackles with no fouls and was really impressive. In 1998, when the US team phoned it in as Steve Sampson demonstrated no ability to coach them, Frankie hejduk was the only guy who made it his mission to doggedly play every second of every game winning our eternal loyalty with his. Eleven years later, here he was again just as fit and fiery as ever.

Frankie is the MAN. Check him out here, serving a one game suspension for red card accumulation, hanging out and watching that week's Crew game in the parking lot with the supporters: LINK

Just before the first half ended, he chased a ball downfield and earned a corner. In the scrum, Michael Bradley finds the parry off Mexico's senseless witless keeper and stuffs it up his ass.

A view from a Riot Squadder's camera who inexplicably chose not to sit with us, the prawn sangwich barsteward.
First goal in the 43'.

USA 1-0 Mexico

I started singing Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" since we were 'halfway there' to the end of the game and 'halfway there' to a 2-0 win, the score by which we traditionally beat Mexico...sadly, no video exists of this moment.

 

At half time, the crowd thins a bit to take a restroom break or fortify themselves in the beer line, so we aisle standers make our way to the texted coordinates of the rest of the group, just behind and to the left of the goal. My doppelganger shows up with a beer for me and before you know it, the teams are out again and now we have Timmy Howard in the nets right in front of us. Standing on the bleachers proves treacherous, as previously noted. Drunken Crew chicks behind us keep falling onto us nearly, but not actually, causing a domino effect of people tumbling down the stands. Literally some girl pushed me like 15 times causing me to grab the shoulders of the guy in front of me...it was a disaster waiting to happen that never happened.

DOUCHENOZZLERY: Part UNO
The Mexican team came out a little frantically and the tense energy and being a goal down got to be too much for the C*UNT known as Rafa Marquez. He challenges Tim Howard as he's pulling down a looping pass. Marquez' 65' challenge was a body bump in mid-air with a studs in kick to the thigh.

During the game, we couldn't tell exactly why the card was given since we were at a bad angle, but the ref had a perfect view and dished it straight away.
Nevertheless, 65' RED CARD FOR RAFAEL MARQUEZ.

Classy behavior, and sadly very typical of Mexican soccer players behavior during USA/Mexico matchups. This would not be the last of the douchenozzlery Mexico would pull that night, but it would be the last on field...

 

Mexicoach Sven Goran-Erikson's plan was not apparent during the game. I don't know if it was because it was a stupid plan or if the Mexican's didn't follow it or didn't understand it or didn't like or any and all of the above, but it didn't work.

It was sort of a 4-5-1, which Mexico never ever plays. Mexican false bravado makes you play a 4-3-3, even if it is the stupidest thing ever based on the matchups and players available. I'm guessing once Sven announced the layout, the players checked out.

Taking the Rafa Marquez lynchpin out of the 4-5-1 made it a 4-4-1. Up to this point, the Mexico's midfield was being pwned by the USA, and losing Marquez made it worse.

Now they were stuck going for lobs and quick counters while bunkering down. They actually played better with Marquez out posessing for long stretches before a premature squirt of a pass or shot would turn it over.

Time wound up and with about ten minutes left, Ching-a-ling came out and Jozy Altidore came in to the great approval of the USA fans. He was bad.

The first thing he did was brazenly stand on the ball which allowed Mexican defender to just take it as he flailed away on the ground. He made a run or two that kep the defenders honest, but he didn't do much. He needs to play in Spain badly, not just hang out on the field with the hermanos.

Three minutes of stoppage time were called, and Mexico made a last ditch try, but no go. Bradley stepped up and delivered a shot that careened off the hands of "Dirty Sanchez" the Mexican goal keeper and into the net!

USA 2-0 Mexico

Pandemonium broke out as we had nailed in the prophesied second goal making it 2-nil or....
DOS a CEROS
in Spanish.

We serenaded Mexico, yet again, with "DOS A CE-ROS, DOS A CE-ROS, DOS A CE-ROS, DOS A CE-ROS, DOS A CE-ROS, DOS A CE-ROS, DOS A CE-ROS" until time ran out.

Just like 2005 World Cup Qualifier in Columbus, DOS A CE-ROS to the USA.
Just like La Guerra Fria in 2001 in Columbus, DOS A CE-ROS to the USA.
Just like Jeonju in the 2002 World Cup, DOS A CE-ROS to the USA.

After the whistle, the USA congratulated themselves and went, as usual, to shake hands with their opponents, who, as usual, refused and went into the locker room. The sole exception to this is Nery Castillo who made a good effort to shake all the USA players and coaches hands. Take one off the C*UNT rolls, please.

After the Mexican'ts left the field, the USA players came over to the North Bleachers where we were and clapped and pumped their fists.
Donovan:


At least half the players took off their kits and threw them into the stands, and Tim Howard threw his keeper gloves into the stands, and then they made their way off the field while we stood around basking in the glory of the win and the very sudden turn to 2-0.

 

DOUCHENOZZLERY: PART DOS

As the US players made their way into their locker room, a Mexican Assistant Coach (who many believe is the real coach, unlike the foreign non Spanish speaking figure head Sven is) confronted stud of the match and Columbus Crew captain and fan favorite Frankie Hejduk, slapping him in the face in the tunnel. A straight up b1tch slap sucker punch.

This seems hard to believe, doesn't it? Like impossible even. Like it's a rumor started to besmirch the good name of the fine Mexican footballing establishment, doesn't it?

What if I showed you a video tape of it? Then would you believe it?

 

OK: here it is...

http://www.univision.com/content/videoplay...tml?cid=1835906

Look on the right side of the page for the video called "agresion de paco ramirez a hejduk".

Mexican sportsmanship is just dreadful.

Viva Mexico,
viva Mexican people,
viva Mexican culture and history,
viva Mexican food,
viva Mexican beer,
viva Mexican tequila,
viva mexican music,
viva Mexican dancing,
viva Mexican beaches,
viva Mexican invention of progestin found in the birth control pill,
viva Mexican pottery and crafts,
viva Mexican telenovelas,
viva 'Hecho en Mexico',
viva Mexican vaqueros,
viva Mexican saints,
Viva Mexican pyramids and Aztec spirits,
viva Mexican-Americans...

BUT SCREW MEXICAN FOOTBALL


We are SOOO much classier.

 

As Frankie was getting slapped in the tunnel, we stood about snapping photos of ourselves and just feeling the glory of DOS A CEROS.

...and the rain started falling again.
...and the wind started blowing again.

By the time the bleachers cleared and we made our way up the stairs to get out of the stadium, the wind was back up to 30+mph.

Quick 5 second Video of the post game wind: here

I'm a very considerate and non-confrontational person, but on the way out, I couldn't help chanting "Dos a ceros" to the Mexican fans who had their heads hung low after the defeat.

By the time we left the stadium to find a cab, rain was steady and wind was getting crazy again. My clever partner stowed the last of the 36 twelve ounce soldiers in the back of someone's truck. We got there 2 minutes before the truck's owner showed up to drive off with our beer. We looked around for cabs and saw none. We watched as the shuttle with our friends drove off. We watched as the parking lot emptied. Soon there were just a few stragglers like us and two cars. We stood between the two cars for shelter...which was good timing as the wind picked up a 55 gallon drum used to hold garbage and tossed it across the parking lot. If that thing hit you, it would knock you the ***** out. Even the locals were looking at it with their jaws slack saying "Did you see that?!"...

I finally realized there were no cabs around as the euphoria faded.

Somewhere deep in the back of my mind, I recalled that someone had told me that a taxi could be called in Columbus by calling 444-4444. I don't know how I remembered it, but it worked, once I asked a local what the area code was.

I was further amazed to see the taxi pull up in like 90 seconds. Well actually, it didn't pull up, it drove by us on the street next to the parking lot. As soon as I saw it, I ran towards it and my four friends following. It slowed and we got in as some 15 other zombie-like USA fans ran up just a touch too late as we scrambled in.

A rather truculent guy came up and demanded that we get out of 'his' taxi. While we were sorting it out, one of my partners ambled up who was supposed to be on the shuttle. Apparently, they wouldn't let him on as the bus was already full, so he got kicked to the curb. So he's 6'6" and 280 lbs. and when the aggressive guy saw him, he dialed it down a notch. We got the taxi, the big fella took the front seat, and we left as the rain and wind kicked asses and took names.

About an hour had elapsed after the game and we were on the way back to the hotel, and hopefully more beer somewhere.