USA beats Cuba, leads CONCACAF Group 1

Cuba vs. the United States. It’s a competition that occurs in many sports competitions, and in each it is usually a vibrant match with heaps of media attention. Basketball, little league baseball, you name it, and it gets attention. Except futbol – called soccer here.

Maybe it’s because the expectations were high for America. Maybe it’s because we haven’t lost to Cuba in futbol since 1947. Or it could be that this match-up took place in Cuba itself, and the media didn’t want to advertise the game much.

But I did see the game. I wasn’t impressed by the play of Team USA, or the Cubans for that matter. For all the attention the game should have driven, there were more than a few seats empty in the stadium – likely due to the recent Hurricane that had just hit the area.



Still I think the game needed more attention. When Cubans are sitting in the stands wearing bandanas of the U.S. flag covering their face for fear of being identified as a U.S. supporter on television, attention needs to be made.

But the match was lackluster at best. The U.S. played sloppy in my opinion. It wasn’t the wet pitch, or it’s less than level grass field. It wasn’t the lighting, which suddenly dimmed as the game neared the end. It wasn’t even the nice save by Tim Howard in the 88th minute, which made all the difference.

The U.S. just didn’t gel as a team, though it was a team effort that lead them to the 1 – 0 win over Cuba. The fact that the US is now leading with 6 points in the Group 1 CONCACAF qualification for the 2010 World Cup, is more luck than skill. And don’t be surprised if Trinidad & Tobago win when the USA plays them next.

Brian Ching looked good in the game, and was in several important plays. Landon Donavan was useless, and I wondered if he was on the pitch for most of the game. The mid-fielders seemed more interested in going backwards than advancing the ball to the strikers. DaMarcus Beasley was really bad.

This is not a team that will do well. Yes I want them in the World Cup. But I’d like to see them get to the quarter-finals too. I’m not so besodden as to believe they could win a World Cup without the opposing team all spraining their ankles. But I’d like to see a serious challenge to some of the world’s better teams. This team will be lucky to get a win, tie and loss in the first round.

Of course they have to beat Trinidad & Tobago. They probably will, or at least tie. And they will move on in the spring. But it’s no wonder that the world just doesn’t respect our national team the way they played.