Boy, was Sacha Kljestan booed, or what? I went back and checked, and while Kljestan's background is Bosnian Serb, his father Slavko couldn't have had much to do with the 1990's strife, having left what was then Yugoslavia in 1980. Waste of a lot of boos, then, if you ask me. Sounded like the BIH federation flew in Angel City Brigade for the game, practically. Ugly. Anyway, tonight we discuss, among other things, why our four-goal showing was wonderful, while the other guys' four-goal showing was a meaningless sideshow. Around halftime, while a bunch of our fanbase was working on garment-rending laments at the fickle finger of fate, I was preparing a post about how it's not a disgrace to get worked over in Edin Dzeko's house, especially with a comparatively cobbled-together team, and how we had to lose SOMETIME, for God's sake, and you'd rather do it against Costa Rica? Or, God forbid, Columbus?
Forty-five minutes and change later, we were all in a different place. I don't know who I'm more in love with right now, Jozy or Michael Klinsmann.
See, because, he only plays because he's the son of the coach – no one else in the whole world thinks that's funny, do they? I almost want to keep doing it for that very reason.
Anyhoo, the guy who only plays because he's the son of the Egypt coach has been a freaking golden tower of glory this year. We had signs that he could be a force on offense – I'm not sure Heerenveen has gotten over him yet – but right now he's more Dempsey than Dempsey as well as more Jermaine Jones than Jermaine Jones. If he starts scoring like he did in Heerenveen, he'll be more Jozy than Jozy – and then frankly we'd have to insist on a drug test live on national television.
Did you know Altidore could do free kicks? I didn't know that. That was beautiful. That was also the moment I became a believer. Jozy Altidore is going to be one of the top strikers in the region. Hell, the Premiership. Screw it – the world. Why not? He's 23 and scoring all over the place. If we can't get overexcited now, when can we? What's the downside?
Oh, right, cruel disappointment next year…or next month. I suppose it's too much to ask that we could have a 12 game winning streak next year around this time?
But even though it was only a friendly, it was a difficult one. And one where the US could easily have cashed it in early. Like, say, the Ivory Coast.
Yeah, I'm calling Mexico's friendly meaningless. It was in front of a friendly but uncritical crowd against an opponent that couldn't possibly have cared less. This was a win that is arguably worse than a loss, because it keeps Chepo on so he can keep doing real damage. The crowd in Azteca will be waiting for one small tiny thing to go wrong before panicking, and the crowd in Columbus probably won't be that supportive either. Chepo's Mexico teams have shown zero sign of recovering from adversity, which is what the Bosnia-US meaningless friendly did.
Yeah, a win and a tie for Mexico, and suddenly everything's wonderful. Honduras is a desperate, talented, underachieving side, too, and I've seen nothing this calendar year that says Mexico is going to be able to handle the US on US soil.
I even think that the US added better players than Mexico did. Who needs Argentina when we have Iceland?
Although I wish they could have come up with a better term than "one-time switch." It makes it sound like he's a guest player, and he's going back to Iceland's national team now. I know it means a player can only switch once, but it still baffles my tiny mind sometimes.
I'm a sensitive MLS fan – for instance, I think if Besler and Gonzalez played in Sarajevo, we win 4-0, so there – but Klinsmann has found an alarming number of players outside the Clint Dempsey Retirement League. He, Martin Vasquez, or whoever his scouts and contacts are have been simply remarkable. Klinsmann's brain trust has also integrated those new players in a way that would be the envy of, to pick an example not at all at random, Mexico. The USMNT doesn't have the resistance to naturalized players that a segment of Mexico fans seem to – we'd have to empty the Hall of Fame if we had – but winning in style makes a lot of these discussions moot.
Another few players like Fabian and Aron, and I might even get over Giuseppe Rossi.
Nah.