Whooah, We’re Halfway There

I'm rich biatch!!!

No, that's no Jon Bon Jovi, but I couldn't stomach posting a picture of him. More on Cristiano Ronaldo later because after last night’s wins by Mexico and Honduras, the Hexagonal has officially hit the midway point with all teams having played five games. Despite all the hand wringing and “the sky is falling” from a week ago, the U.S. is in a pretty good spot to qualify even if a pair of draws last night would have been better results.

Costa Rica tops the group with an impressive 12 thanks to winning four of their five games. The U.S. sits two behind and, assuming they beat El Salvador at Rio Tinto and win away to T&T, that gives them 16 points regardless their other three games. However, if they leave any points on the table, things could get dicey with the final two games being a trip to Honduras and hosting Costa Rica. Granted, Costa Rica will almost assuredly be through by then and have nothing to play for, but you don’t want to leave things to chance in qualifying.

As for Mexico, who are on six points with a -2 goal differential, they’ll still take third. They still have three games at home, including the critical next matchday hosting the U.S. and as long as they hold form at home, with a cushion of still playing an away match to T&T, they’re looking at 16 points and safe passage to South Africa. The only hiccup is it will likely come down to the final two matchdays -- hosting the pesky El Salvador and then away to T&T -- which will be fun for U.S. fans to watch from afar. (Assuming we’re in by then).

One last thing, Bob Bradley -- who is almost the Teflon Don when it comes to the hot seat, no? -- should be grateful to scheduling the U.S. got. Consider this: where would the Yanks be if their schedule was flip flopped with Mexico?  Their schedule would’ve been: @ Mexico, v Costa Rica, @ Honduras, @ El Salvador, and v T&T (which would've been played last week). How many points do we have after five games? Best case scenario I say is 7 w/ three coming from home win against Costa Rica and T&T and a draw (again) in El Salvador. And that might be bumped down to 5 with a draw at home against the Ticos. So right in that 6-point range that Mexico is at right now. Would Bradley still be on the bench for the Confed Cup at that point? Just food for thought...

Other Stuff:

- Oh, yeah, MLS is still going on. To little surprise Dom Kinnear has Houston out of another early season rut and the Dynamo are firing on all cylinders. I like their pickup of Cam Weaver who never really had a chance on a poor San Jose team. Granted I jinxed him by picking him up on multiple fantasy teams, but he had a great flick to assist Stuart Holden’s game winning goal, nearly won a penalty kick, and scored a goal that was wrongly ruled offsides. Having just seen the highlights, it seems like only a matter of time until Houston, three points behind the Goats with two games in hand, overtakes Chivas for first in all of MLS. Another question that popped into my head while watching: if the Dynamo had a healthy Brian Ching and Rico Clark on their roster, how would they fare against the U.S. national team? I know the international game is a fair amount quicker, but I think Houston has the chemistry edge and a decent sized one when it comes to the guys on the bench.

- Speaking of MLS highlights, they do a great job of editing them down and getting them up on MLSnet.com pretty quickly. However, how tough would it be to have an intern or two, say a COMM major from NYU, do a voice over for the highlights SportsCenter style? It would bump up the production value a lot and would give better context to what is being shown rather than just listening to the commentators refer to something that just happened that didn’t make the cut for the highlights.

- Big showdown at RFK this weekend as Chicago comes to town for a 1 vs 2 matchup in the East. The Fire haven’t lost on the road and D.C. hasn’t lost at home, so obviously this game will be a draw. And, perhaps a rather high scoring one at that?

- United ticket reps have to be pretty damn happy this morning. Just days after Real Madrid -- playing DCU at FedEx Field in August -- set a record in buying Kaka from Milan for $90 million, they thrashed it this morning when they bought Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United for a whopping $131.6 million this morning. First, I don’t know where the hell they got that kind of money. But I suppose it’s not a shock as Florentio Perez is back in power for Madrid and is quickly bringing back the age of the Galacticos. The move certainly shifts the power in both La Liga and the EPL and muddies the idea that both Barcelona and ManU will repeat next season. It will be interesting to see who is brought in to fill the void for United. One player isn’t going to replace him, especially if it’s the rumored Franck Ribery. Personally, I’m surprised Sir Alex didn’t demand a player heading the other way, perhaps Rafael van der Vaart (and his wife Sylvie) or Wesley Sneijder. Or they could use all of that money they received for CRon to take on Arjen Robben and his medical bills.

- One last bit of non-soccer “news.” If you’re into good music, check out Phish’s current tour at LivePhish.com. Make any jokes you want, but the Vermont foursome are playing their best music since at least 1999 and getting better with every show this tour. I just caught them in Camden, NJ -- a lovely setting with the sun setting behind the Philly skyline as long as you make it in and out of the venue -- and it reminded me of the first time I saw Phish at that spot. It was July 10, 1999, which also happened to be the day Brandi Chastain made sports bras even more famous, and no I’m not linking to that image. In the age before cell phones and text updates every ten minutes, my buddy and I had no idea who won the Women’s World Cup final. That is until the second set when we realized Trey was wearing a Mia Hamm jersey. Pretty cool and very memorable way to find out we won. And one much more pleasing to the eye than Brandi Chastain nearly topless. Not that you don’t believe me, but here’s a short piece by our friend Grant Wahl on Trey being a soccer fan.

- Pat Walsh