Thursday, May 04, 2006

Gearing up for the World Cup


4 years ago I sat with my German colleague in the garden at Jáma, where we were amongst mostly Americans, and watched the US squad lose to Germany in the quarter-finals of the World Cup. There was only one other German in the crowd of about 30, and the two Germans celebrated their own victory, but also graciously congratulated the Americans on getting so far in the tournament.


Europeans are pretty snobbish about football (soccer) and think that the Americans work hard, but that football is not really our sport. I think they’ll be in for a surprise this year.


The US team has qualified for its 5th straight World Cup tournament and is now ranked 4th in the world by FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association – the international governing body of football). Football is stronger in Europe than in North America, but a lot of our players play professionally in Europe.


The squad for this year’s World Cup has just been announced. This is what it looks like:


Goalkeepers:

Kasey Keller - Borussia Mönchengladbach

Tim Howard - Manchester United

Marcus Hahnemann - Reading



Defenders:

Chris Albright - LA Galaxy

Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham

Steve Cherundolo - Hannover 96

Jimmy Conrad - Kansas City Wizards

Cory Gibbs - ADO Den Haag

Eddie Lewis - Leeds United

Oguchi Onyewu - Standard Liege

Eddie Pope - Real Salt Lake



Midfielders:

DaMarcus Beasley - PSV Eindhoven

Bobby Convey - Reading

Clint Dempsey - New England Revolution

Landon Donovan - Los Angeles Galaxy

Pablo Mastroeni - Colorado Rapids

John O'Brien - Chivas USA

Ben Olsen - DC United

Claudio Reyna - Manchester City



Forwards:

Eddie Johnson - Kansas City Wizards

Brian McBride - Fulham

Brian Ching - Houston Dynamo

Josh Wolff - Kansas City Wizards



The US is in Group E for the first round of the World Cup tournament. This is the schedule:


  • 12 June v Czech Republic in Gelsenkirchen
  • 17 June v Italy in Kaiserslautern
  • 22 June v Ghana in Nuremberg


I hope that some of you lot in The America will watch our team in the World Cup next month. It promises to be a very exciting tournament and this may just be our year.


http://www.ussoccer.com/


http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

As I reorganized my flat and did the spring cleaning, I found my Czech flag! You know how hard it is to get a Czech Flag? After a conversation at the law firm I used to work at about me wanting a Czech Flag and having looked in every souvenir flag shop in Prague and Brno and not finding one, my Czech colleague found one for me in a shithole town on his way to Moravia. I was going to buy the textile material and sew one up for myself!
I couldn't find it for the Eurocup a couple of summers ago. This year I am going to hang it from my balcony. There are barely or no Czech fans in Montreal. If the Italians, Greeks or Portuguese win they call all their relatives and drive their cars around honking their horns around the city. Unfortunatley I live within the vicinity of Little ITaly and the Portuguese quarter right in the Greek hood. Not only did the honking drive me nuts at Eurocup, but I was so mad and looked every where for my beloved Czech flag. I love my Czech boys!
It's comin out this year!

6/5/06 04:34
Monkey's Max said...

And yet you deny being Czech.

I guess the Canucks didn't make the World Cup then?

8/5/06 18:54
Tits Malone said...

MM,

I have no idea if the Canuks are in the World Cup but it would be a welcomed break from hockey talk.

Why is hockey endless??

9/5/06 22:53

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