World Cup Qualifying, RSL and has Christian Gomez been reading my blog?

Since the last round of World Cup Qualifying in 2001, we have played Costa Rica four times and we are undefeated. The only draw was in a meaningless group-stage match in the Gold Cup. In those four games we have scored eight and allowed only two.

On the other hand, each of those games was at home, and our record in the Saprissa stinks. You have to go back to 1992 to find a match which we haven’t lost, and that was a scoreless draw in a friendly. Our record there since 1975 or so there is

No wins

Five losses

Two draws

Five goals scored

Ten goals allowed

I am not sure about the history before that; I don’t think we ever played Costa Rica before a 1975 meeting (3-1 loss) in Mexico City.

That record is hardly likely to improve with the US already qualified and this game meaningless to us except as a useful exercise to try out some fresh blood. Today at noon Central, Bruce Arena announced his squad. They are as follows:

Albright, Chris
Barrett, Wade
Beasley, DaMarcus
Bocanegra, Carlos
Califf, Dan
Ching, Brian
Clark, Ricardo
Convey, Bobby
Hartman, Kevin
Howard, Tim
Lewis, Eddie
Martino, Kyle
Mastroeni, Pablo
Onyewu, Oguchi
Pope, Eddie
Quaranta, Santino
Spector, Jonathan
Twellman, Taylor

A (strong) starting line up from that list is:

----------------Howard

Albright Bocanegra Onyewu Lewis

Quaranta Mastroeni Convey Beasely
-----------Twellman Ching

I’ll be interested to see who actually starts as I’m sure Bruce will want to get some players used to the atmosphere of a place like the Saprissa. But I will have to wait until Sunday to find out as I’ll be at a wedding Saturday night.

Honestly, people need to look at the fixture list before scheduling such things.

I know I will.

That lineup seems rather light at forward, especially considering that Quaranta has played right midfield for most of his National Team minutes. Then again, last time in the Saprissa, Bruce Arena played a 5-5-0 and didn’t even bring on a true forward as a sub when down 2-0. (Starting forwards were Kirovski and Jones, subs were Moore, Donovan and Preki.)

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I need to give a shoutout to Real Salt Lake. Not only did they graciously roll over for my Minnesota Thunder 6-4 in over time in the Open Cup, but they then took Melvin Tarley up to the big time. Now they’re giving a trial to Matt Schmidt as well.

Props to them. When I first read about Salt Lake City getting an MLS franchise, I must admit that I was a bit taken aback. Actually I was totally confused as I’d never thought of Utah as a “soccer hotbed.” I thought it strange that such locations as Rochester, Portland and Seattle, with strong. long-lasting and long-suffering, (okay except for Rochester) USL franchises were overlooked.

But the fans in Utah have come through. While they were a bit defensive when we Thunder fans came around their message board on BigSoccer, they are passionate fans who have supported their team well through a dour season.

As a result of Tarley’s transfer and such, I’ve taken to occasionally reading the RSL board and as a result have found that RSL has become one of the teams in MLS that I follow a little more closely. That wasn't hurt by the fact that they sent me a nice little thank you package for my help with their banquet.

When the league started, I was a MetroStars man, marginally, because they had four of my favorite players: Meola, Sorber, Ramos and Lagos. Since then, I really haven’t had a team in MLS given my location, so I haven’t gotten into the league so much. I think that the new teams are a real energizer for the league and the more expansion that can happen (fiscally,) the better it is for the league.

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How cool was it to see Christian Gomez in the crowd at the Meadowlands? This is what I’m talking about as far as having a good relationship with the fans. That’s how things will grow and that’s how thing should grow. You don’t see Major League Baseball players mingling with the fans when they’re on the DL. Or NBA players? Or NFL players? The closest I saw was Daunte Culpepper and Michael Bennet sitting near the crowd at a Timberwolves game. I’m sure some people sitting around them could be classed as ‘ordinary fans’ but they were still in the $200 seats, so I wouldn’t count it as quite the same thing as beating a drum in the middle of the Supporters Section.

Maybe some day I’ll stop beating this horse, but I doubt it.