 |
| Any last requests? "For Pipita (Higuain) to shoot!" |
The Copa America Centenario has come and gone and, as predicted correctly on this blog, Chile has successfully defended their title by defeating Argentina. And that's why you come to the IMOTGP blog, to get blunt honest predictions unlike FOX sports idiots telling you that the United States would beat Argentina!
The biggest story to come out of Sunday's final was that Lionel Messi claims he is done playing for Argentina. The truth is nobody really believes it, with numerous other Argentine stars claiming they will retire as well due to a dispute with the federation. It takes the gloss off a final that will be best remembered for Pippa Higuain's astounding miss in the first half, prompting the need for the cartoon you see above. It's yet another Pippa failure in a big spot.
After Argentina demolished the insipid Americans, many saw them as a shoo-in for the trophy. Thse who attended Wednesday's dispatching of an overrated Colombia team like your fellow blogger suspected otherwise - that the battle-hardened Chileans could once again claim the trophy. And between Higuain's shocker and some misfires from Kun Aguero, history repeated itself once again.
THE UNITED STATES CLEARS THE BAR, THEN PROMPTLY LOWERS IT
And what to say about Jurgen Klinsmann's U.S. team - the outlier among the semi-finalists. The semifinals was the team's stated goal and the team delivered with wins over Costa Rica, Paraguay and Ecuador.
Yet the utter humiliation suffered in the Argentina semifinal seemed to send the U.S. fan base into revolt. Klinsmann threw the players under the bus, saying they were not good enough and had to step on the toes of their opponents more.
That created a hostile environment for Saturday's third-place rematch against Colombia after the South Americans won the tournament's opening match 2-0 and Klinsmann hailed a strong performance by his side.
The coach was even more complimentary after Saturday's loss, hailing an effort in which the U.S. failed to score. Tim Howard talked about how great the U.S. was as well.
The problem is that the numbers indicate that the United States isn't actually better in Klinsmann's tenure. Yes, we don't have the players these top sides do. But as Matthew Doyle indicated in the above link, we used to be more competitive in those games while not so under Klinsmann - the highest-paid soccer coach in the history of the country.
Sunil Gulati originally stated some unhappiness after the Argentina game, although he backtracked after Saturday, somehow bizarrely tying in the 2009 Confederations Cup win that ended Spain's 35-match unbeaten streak with Bob Bradley coach to friendly wins over second-string Germany and Netherlands squads. The IMOTGP blog can't make sense of that connection so we will defer to you readers to explain it.
The bottom line is that the U.S. didn't embarrass itself in this tournament like Mexico did, although keep in mind that beating teams you are supposed to beat on home soil shouldn't be considered too amazing. We know Klinsmann will be there in Russia, where the United States will be knocked out in the round of 16 and he can hail it as another sign of progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment