USA vs. Costa Rica with the Motor City Supporters Club Part II
:30 – Jozy wins a corner to the cheers of the bar. Maybe he and not Donovan will be the first “world class” field player for the US. The jury is still out from a club perspective, but for the Nats he usually does the business.
3 – An early but easy test for Tim Howard to gather up.
4 – Sloppy ass defending from the US, what looks like some foreshadowing and the same type of play we saw against Honduras. Thankfully CR's shot dribbles slowly toward Howard for him to pick it up.
7 – It took seven minutes for the first massive dive from Costa Rica. Hopefully this won't become a theme like it does in many CONCACAF games. I think back to USA/El Salvador when their keeper fell to the ground and rolled around for 8 minutes when he wasn't hurt at all. Nice to see time wasting already beginning.
9 – Conor Casey misses a chance that I might have put away. I knew that Honduras game would lead him to be in this squad, and I was feckin' right. Everyone already begins to groan every time the ball comes near Casey. I am secretly debating whether I'd rather have him in there or Josh Wolff....that's how dire this situation is.
Also in the 9th minute, all of the #9 signs go up in the crowd in remembrance of Davies who was involved in a life threatening accident. A few people at the Motor City Supporters club printed them out and they hold them up as well in his honor.
10 – Centeno of Costa Rica shoots from point blank range and Howard makes an amazing save. If there is one thing the US does on a world class level (other than have our FA fuck up) it's producing goalkeepers.
14 – Altidore receives a bullshit yellow card, when the Costa Rican player was the one who left his foot in the tackle. Here we go again....CONCACAF refs proving themselves to be worse than the SPL (which, if you don't know is shite).
15 – My full Irish breakfast is finished, and I'm on my second diet Coke now. The caffeine makes me yell louder every time Casey fucks up.
16 – We have a Honduran fan in our presence watching the match because if we win or draw, they qualify over Costa Rica in the Hexagonal stage with Costa Rica forced to take on the fifth placed South American team in a playoff. This leads to several conversations between US fans one being the following:
“Why don't you like Costa Rica more than Honduras?”
“Maybe its because Honduras doesn't throw bags of piss and batteries at our fans and players”.
“Good point”.
20 – Costa Rica's Ruiz scores on an Onyewu misplay where he was completely caught out. The atmosphere in the room goes from hopeful to dismal in a matter of seconds. Our best defense recently was in the Confederations cup with Gooch and DeMerit in the middle and Bocanegra on the left, but due to an eye injury DeMerit wasn't with the team and that goal might not have happened with him in the middle.
0-1 Costa Rica.
22 – The US plays a ball to fucking no one. Hundreds of miles away groans and swear words come from the crowd at Claddagh's Irish pub in Livonia, Michigan.
24 – Oh. My. God. Apparently Ruiz wants to have the game of his life tonight and he has an amazing strike that sails past Howard. No one could have saved that, a piece of world class finishing from the Ticos.
0-2 Costa Rica.
27 – A Donovan free kick on the side of the box is punched away by the Ticos' keeper. The US' best attacking move in some time is all for naught.
28 – A kid at a table near me orders the bangers in mash, which leads to several jokes...the quote of the night “I love sausage in my mouth, especially with white creamy mashed potatoes all over them”.
We're a mature bunch in Livonia. Still, this joke does not rival the penis looking sausage story from Frankenmuth during high school on a German Club field trip...now that one is a doozy.
I'll tell this story, since I'm sure we'll be flooded with emails asking about the German Club Frankenmuth Penis sausage story.
Senior year I was in the German club at my high school. It just so happens that there is an “all German town” called Frankenmuth (also home to the largest Christmas store in the world). They have an authentic German restaurant there known as Zender's. So our club takes a bus up there and we go into Zenders sit down and order food. Scott orders the sausage platter, while the rest of us stick to Zender's “world famous” chicken.
The sausage platter is soon delivered to Scott. On this platter are a variety of choice German sausages. However, as Jim soon points out one looks exactly like a penis and I mean, exactly like one. We all say to Scott “Dude, there is no way you are actually going to eat that are you?”
Scott replies “Of course I am!” to our disgust he takes his fork and cuts into the tip of the penis sausage and then....a massive amount of water and fluid burst from the tip of the sausage and spill all over the table. The force of the penis sausage's fluids were so strong it spun it around several times.
Needless to say, we were all cracking up, and the story is now at legendary status.
The worst part is he actually ate it after that. haha
30 – Costa Rica is now brimming with confidence, toying with their touches outside the US box.
32 – Donovan thinks he's playing gaelic football for Cork and sends a shot over the cross bar. I begin chanting “Sebo! Sebo! Sebo!”. Ach, if you don't support Celtic you may not get that one.
34 – Montero is booked for a challenge on Donovan and the crowd ironically cheers that the ref got one right.
35 – A Costa Rican player is “dying” in the ground. Not booked for feigning injury and time wasting. Which makes a member of the Motor City Supporters club to ask “Why don't they get booked?”.
36 – Donovan has a great passage of play, lifting the ball over the Costa Rican defender after Jozy flicked the ball to him, but Donovan skies the shot wide of the Costa Rican net. Fuck. Things aren't looking good here.
38 – As my third diet coke arrives I yell Conor Casey is a gumpy fuck as he messes up yet another play. Chatter around the bar agrees with me, and one person asks me what a “Gump” is. Why isn't Kenny Cooper playing? Argh.
41 – Jozy's fouled and the US gets a free kick at the top of the box. The shot is deflected and it goes out for a corner.
43 – The US' best chance of the match, but the forwards pass between each other too much and no one decides to be selfish and put one on net....another opportunity wasted.
45 – Another Costa Rican player rolls around in agony trying to stop the US momentum that had been building. This goes on for some time and eventually the added time at the half was about 3:35.
Half – Time to lick wounds and berate our favorite team's play. During this time the Argentina game is also going on, as a member of the club yells out “Maradona's cocaine for everyone!”.
A commercial for FIFA 10 comes out, once again reminding me that I won't get it and that Europe gets it two weeks earlier than us. Bullshit.
One of my favorite commercials rolls...the one with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. I love that one and I'm on my fourth diet coke.
2nd half begins – People are mulling about now, and the room is now more crowded then when the game started. Some text back and forth with people at the game to try to get the “vibe” of how things are over there, as it doesn't always translate on TV.
49 – Holden flights a shitty cross that sails way over the Costa Rican net.
54 – The inevitable Kenny Cooper discussions begin, when will he get in, and why the fuck didn't he start in the first place. Bradley refuses to make subs at times, and its clear the US is stalling and something needs to change. Benny Feilhaber has dropped out of the match completely, its clear he too needs to go off.
55 – Another cross to the Costa Rican GK. Not going to win a game like this....
58 – More Gumpy jokes about Casey. Ugh. Why is he still in this match?
59 – A low Costa Rican shot from Ruiz is caught by Howard.
61 – Some deft defending from our captain to block a Costa Rican cross. The fans in the bar are getting restless, when will Bradley finally make a move.
62 – José Francisco Torres known as 'El Gringo' in the Mexican Leagues for choosing to play for the US over Mexico (Mexican father, American Mother but born in the United States) comes on for Benny Feilhaber. Who at this point should be called Failhaber.
65 – Bornstein shoots over the bar, and at this point it looks like some fans are trying to sneak out.
67 – Now this is interesting...Robbie “Runs like a chicken with his head cut off” Rogers comes on for Holden. No idea what Bradley is thinking with this one. The decision also seems to boggle the minds of others at the Claddagh Pub.
70 – Bush League defending again and the US are at 6's and 7's at the back.
72 – Rogers crosses the ball into the box, it falls to Donovan who shoots, has the ball parried away, and out of nowhere Michael Bradley slides in and scores a really scrappy goal. The bar erupts in cheers. Maybe our team does have something left.
USA 1, Costa Rica 2
73 – Rogers hits a shot that goes wide of the net.
75 – A lobbed cross is gathered in by the Ticos' keeper.
77 – Rogers heads wide. All hustle no finish.
78 – The old adage from FM comes into play as Gooch boots the ball into row Z.
79 – Kenny Cooper FINALLY comes on for Conor Casey. A standing ovation is in order.
80 – Jozy steals a ball from Costa Rica and rushes toward the goal but shoots it over the net. The tension is growing, and the groans are getting louder with every passing minute.
82 – Gooch's knee buckles going to head the ball out. This is not what we need right now, as he is forced to exit the game through injury, so now the US is down a goal, and now playing with 10 men.
86 – I have no idea what the hell is going on. The Costa Rican coach is going completely apeshit. Costa Rica is time wasting as if their lives depended on it (and they do). I hope the ref adds on a lot of time for all this crap.
89 - The Costa Rican manager and his #2 are forcibly ejected from the game after getting in heated arguments with the 4th official and trying to time waste, leaving some random trainer as the stand in manager for the rest of the game.
90 – I think this trainer is the GK coach. I try to think back to when I've seen the manager and his #2 ejected in the same match and I can't. All my examples keep coming up in the sport of baseball.
There is 5 minutes of added time.
94 – Not much is happening, but the the US is pressing and putting in some great tackles, while Costa Rica flops and time wastes.
94:30 – Corner kick for the US. Rogers takes it and swings it in...Bornstein gets space enough to get his head on the ball and put it into the goal. Everyone at the pub is on their feet screaming, yelling, hugging and high fiving. What a fucking comeback.
95 – The whistle blows,and fireworks light up the night sky in DC. What a finish.
Final thoughts – The US shouldn't have been in this position to begin with. It's been Bradley's tactical ineptitude and poor play that put us here. This game should have been a win, not a come from behind draw like we had in El Salvador in beginning of the Hexagonal qualifying.
These are band-aids that are hiding the real problems. If the US keeps going this way, I fear for how we will do at the World Cup in 2010. Then throw in the fact Davies is out for 2010, and Oguchi Onyewu is out for 6-10 months with a knee injury.
The tests against Slovakia and Denmark might tell us something, or nothing at all. We shall see.
At least we qualified #1 in the Hexagonal stage, although supposedly it won't matter in terms of WC seeding.
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