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Border battle

Filed under: Soccer

U.S. faces Canada tonight with Olympic birth at stake

The U.S. is yet to deliver a convincing performance in Olympic qualifying. The team staggered to a 1-1- draw against Cuba, then added 1-0 victories over CONCACAF minnows Panama and Honduras. Even more troubling the Americans scored just one goal from the run of play during those three matches. But the squad's lack of dynamic, attacking soccer will be irrelevant if they can knock off Canada tonight (8 p.m. CST, Fox Soccer Channel) in Nashville and claim a spot in Beijing. The other semifinal will feature Guatemala and Honduras (5:00, FSC)

The Canucks advanced by crushing Guatemala 5-0, in the process (hilariously) eliminating Mexico. So the Americans will be a facing a border rival this evening, but it won't be the one that everyone anticipated. Midfielders Freddy Adu and Stuart Holden (pictured above) have been the most impressive attacking players for the U.S., while Chad Barrett and Eddie Gaven have been notably poor. The former has displayed feet of stone, while the latter seems to lack sufficient mettle for international competition. Jonathan Spector, who lately has been starting for West Ham in the EPL, has joined the squad in Music City to bolster the defense. He'll likely be paired with the promising Michael Orozco in central defense.

Folks in the Twin Cities will be gathering to watch the match at the Sweetwater. Join us.

Posted by Paul Demko at March 20, 2008 10:20 AM

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Comments

First, the reason Canada crushed Guatemala was because Guatemala tanked the game to prevent Mexico from qualifying. By laying down to the tune of five goals, they made it so that Mexico would have to score six against Haiti.

Second, though hardly a Western Hemisphere power in soccer, Honduras is not a minnow either. They made the Olympics in 2000 and qualified again in 2008. They came within one game of qualifying for the World Cup in 2001. Also, although the US beat Honduras in the road game 2-1 in the qualifier that year, Honduras took them out in Washington 3-2 pretty handily.

Finally, Honduras notched a third place finish in the prestigious Copa America tournament as a last-minute invite in 2001.

Honduras hasn't necessarily always been there, but they put out some formidable teams

Posted by: Juan C at March 21, 2008 1:42 PM

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