HexagonalBlog

T&T-USA 1989: Seeking your recollections

[I'm going to make this the featured post for the next five days, except for Saturday and next Wednesday when the CONCACAF/CONMEBOL playoff is being played.]

Next Thursday is the 20th anniversary of that historic World Cup qualifier between Trinidad & Tobago and USA.  In my opinion, and I doubt I'm the only person who feels this way, it was the most important match in the history of US men's soccer because of where they were at that time and where they went from that point. 

I'm going to have my own retrospective of the match, but I want to include personal recollections from the readers, whether you were following the match on TV, at the match itself, or desperately trying to find updates in the pre-Internet era.   I'll publish the responses on the website, and I won't include your name and location unless you give me permission to do so (email addresses omitted of course).  It would be great to get accounts from US and Trinidadian supporters, as I know both sides were experiencing a range of emotions before, during, and after the match. 

So if you'd like to send a recollection, there is a link to my email address at the top of the site, but I'll also repeat it here: how-ard dot h dot hamil-ton at g-mail.  (Remove the dashes)  I look forward to your emails.

Mexico withdraws its World Cup bid

Mexico's football federation announced today that they are withdrawing their bid to host either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup finals.  Their reason was the economic crisis, which has hit their country especially hard and will make it difficult to make the required stadium improvements to host a World Cup final tournament.  There are three new stadia that are to come online by the end of this season in Torreón, Guadalajara, and Monterrey, but there will have to be renovations to stadiums in Mexico City, León, Toluca, Querétaro, Puebla, and other places.

Mexico's bid always seemed like a long shot to me, but if they're withdrawing a bid to host a World Cup that would be 13 years away, that tells me that they feel that it will take a long time for the country to recover from the current economic crisis.

A Caribbean legend retires

Trinidad & Tobago striker Dwight Yorke has retired from professional football with immediate effect.  The end had been coming for a while, and to be honest, Yorke's career had been on fumes since 2006, but now that this moment has arrived it's time to acknowledge the end of a historic era in Caribbean football.    It's also the end of an era in T&T sport, as he, along with Brian Lara and Ato Boldon, were the most important Trinidadian sports figures in the last 30 years. 

From the days of the T&T Strike Squad, to his eruption onto the English scene at Aston Villa, to his participation in the all-conquering Manchester United sides of the late '90s, Dwight Yorke was one of the most feared strikers in CONCACAF and for a time one of the best in European club football.  Trinidad & Tobago slayed a lot of demons by qualifying for the 2006 World Cup finals against Bahrain, but I was happiest for Yorke, who was willing to take any role, even dropping further back into the field, in order to see his country progress to football's biggest stage.  I'm willing to bet that if Yorke had to play goalkeeper in a pinch for his national team he would do it.

So the nagging question is, why now in the middle of a World Cup qualifying campaign?  In my opinion, Yorke's retirement coupled with Russell Latapy's move into football management means that Trinidad & Tobago have conceded that they have no chance of qualifying for South Africa 2010.  This team willed themselves through some nervous moments to get to the Hexagonal, but the final round was always going to be their limit in this cycle.  

So farewell, Dwight Yorke.  I'll always remember your smile.

CONCACAF exits the Copa Sudamericana

CONCACAF have decided not to extend their participation in CONMEBOL's Copa Sudamericana.  They had originally agreed to participate in four editions of the tournament from 2005-2008.  With the advent of the CONCACAF Champions League, there are more matches and conflicting dates in the region, so participation in the Sudamericana no longer makes sense to CONCACAF. 

I'd say that participation in the Copa Libertadores -- which will continue -- doesn't make sense to CONCACAF, either.  Mexican clubs like it, of course, because of the increased exposure, advertising revenue, and level of play.  But there exist the same issues with conflicting dates, as well as the matter of why clubs from one confederation are playing in the club championship tournament of another.  Apparently the same question is going through CONCACAF's collective mind, as the Executive Committee will discuss the confederation's participation in Copa Libertadores in November. 

Monterrey and Puebla are the clubs who will suffer most by CONCACAF's action; Puebla haven't been in international competition in 16 years and their coach was not at all pleased by the news.

I may have to blog about this merger thing sooner

I was reading Tim Vickery's most recent weekly column on South American football, and found the following question/answer exchange:

Q) There are various rumours around the internet that clubs from Major League Soccer in America will be the next league outside of Conmebol (the South American Federation) to be granted invites to the Copa Libertadores in the near future. Regardless of whether the rumours have any legs, what is your opinion of MLS teams entering the Copa Libertadores?
John Pettit

A) I've no inside track on this one, but I'm not particularly keen on them coming into South America's premier club competition. I know Mexico are invited - though that's hit a problem, with the Mexicans now pulling out not just of this year's Libertadores, but of all South American competitions.

For me there are obvious problems with MLS clubs in the Libertadores. One is travelling time and distance. South America is vast enough as it is without heading further north. Another is the effect on the Concacaf region - with the US and Mexico (assuming the row smoothes over) both in, clubs from the likes of Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Jamaica and so are getting squeezed out, and that doesn't seem right to me.

[...]

It is an awkward thing to organise between two conferences - but, perhaps anticipating the next question down the line, I can't see that Conmebol has anything to gain from a formal merger with Concacaf.

There are two topics raised that merit further discussion -- one, should MLS teams participate in the Copa Libertadores? and two, will a merger between CONCACAF and CONMEBOL likely or workable?  I was actually going to devote a series of posts toward the second question after World Cup qualifying is over, but I may have to start that series sooner than I thought.  And as for the first question, it is difficult to argue that MLS sides would raise their play or be sufficiently motivated for the Copa Libertadores when they barely seem to do either in CONCACAF competition.

Answers to both questions need to be fleshed out further, which I hope to do at a later date.

Four for Egypt

CONCACAF's U-20 qualifying tournament for the World Cup in Egypt concluded today.  With four qualifying slots on offer, the real action was in the group stages.  The semifinals and final were only for bragging rights, so here are the top four teams:

1. Costa Rica
2. USA
3. Honduras
4. Trinidad & Tobago

So the USA qualify for yet another U-20 World Cup (twelve in all), but have yet to win the CONCACAF U-20 title.  The Americans allowed only three goals in the tournament -- all of them in the final! -- but suffered from a serious lapse of discipline as three players were sent off during the competition.  Costa Rica, in contrast,  had scored only three goals during their road to qualification, and doubled their scoring count in a single match!  It's their first U-20 title in over 20 years. 

Joining the USA and Costa Rica in Egypt will be Honduras and the host nation Trinidad & Tobago.  The Hondurans scored the most goals in the tournament and were led by Olimpia's Roger Rojas, who finished as top scorer.  T&T took full advantage of their host status and rode two hard-fought draws to the U-20 World Cup finals.

See you all in Egypt in the fall.  

Mexico out of U-20s

Disaster for yet another Mexican youth side as the U-20 team lost to Canada 2-0 tonight to find themselves eliminated from the CONCACAF qualifying tournament.  Both goals were scored in the closing 15 minutes by Randy Edwini-Bonsu, who plays in the Vancouver Whitecaps system.

After the U-17 triumph at the 2005 World Championships and the quarterfinal run at the 2007 U-20 World Cup in Canada, Mexico's youth sides have failed to advance from their region to their respective world championships.  First the U-17s in 2007, then the U-23s for the Beijing Olympics, and now the U-20s.  The youth national teams are supposed to serve as a means to an end, and it's still possible that there will be some players who contribute to the senior national team.  But the recent string of negative results from the current crop of Mexican youth players can't be encouraging to the FMF.

Hernan Medford to coach Leon

Hernán Medford continues to move around in the coaching world.  The former Costa Rican international managed Saprissa for three years, where he achieved his greatest success, and then his country's national team for two years, which didn't turn out so great.  Now he has been named the new coach of León, the Mexican side for which he played over three seasons.  León are now in the second division of Mexican football (Primera A -- weird nomenclature I know) and Medford has been tasked with bringing them back to the top flight.  To help with this effort, Medford is bringing at least four Costa Rican players to the club with him.  The rationale is that he is more familiar with these players than any other foreign players that might be available.  However, it was his bias toward Saprissa players that started his problems with the national team and federation, not to mention the inability of the national team to score over the course of a year.

Pardo comes back to América

After spending over two seasons at Stuttgart, Mexican midfielder Pável Pardo is going back to América in a three-year deal.  The deal, valued at 4 million euros, is proof that Mexican clubs have the financial muscle to sign players from the major European leagues, even in the current economic climate.  But why is Pardo returning home? 

After the 2006 World Cup, there was an increased awareness in Mexico that their best players needed to be in the top European leagues, and there was a line of top European clubs offering to pay  for their services.  Pardo made an immediate impact for Stuttgart, starting almost every game for them in midfield and proving instrumental in their championship run in 2007.  He hasn't played in every match this season because of injury or international duty, but even so he has been rated among the top players on the team.

Even though Pardo was still capable of playing at a high level in Europe, after considering his options a return to Mexico appeared to be in his best interest.  Pável Pardo turned 32 in July and was approaching the end of his current contract in six months, and Stuttgart has a policy of re-signing players over 30 to one-year contracts.  With more years behind his career than ahead of him, Pardo was seeking a deal that would offer both financial and job security.  América, for whom he had played for seven seasons, had the money, and coach Ramón Díaz needed a midfielder of his quality to compete for the Clausura title.  

Will Pardo's return stem the movement of Mexican players to Europe?  The trend in recent years has been for the top young players in the Mexican league to move to Europe, especially Spain, and while that trend could diminish in the wake of the global financial crisis, I don't see it totally disappearing.  The Mexican league is unique among non-European leagues in that it actually has the money to pay its local players competitive salaries.  The return of the more experienced Mexican players will be arranged on a case-by-case basis, but it shouldn't be done at the expense of the youth programs in the various clubs.

A look back at the Caribbean Championship

Wikipedia has a good summary of the just-completed Caribbean Championship.  I know that that competition had to be scheduled around World Cup qualifiers, but it is incredible that the tournament had been going on for five months.  It's the price paid when you have a region full of micro-states whose federations typically don't have the money to fund a qualification campaign.