The Bobcat Nation

Yeah, yeah I know-Soccer is for sissys, soccer is a communist conspiracy, soccer is boring...I've heard it all.

But for those who might like soccer-today USA starts its final round of World Cup qualifiers with a match at Trinidad and Tobago. The game is on ESPN2 at 12:30 MST.

This round of qualifying is made up of 6 teams, each team will play eachother in a home and home format. The USA and Mexico are usually heavy favorites to move on, but it's never easy because the games take place in some pretty weird, hostile, and exotic conditions.

Trinidad and Tobago is a pretty good team-they have several players who play in England including Dwight Yorke who starred for Manhcester United a few years back and now plays in the English Premier League for Birmingham City. The game will be played on a Cricket ground which will probably be hard as a rock and super fast. Temperatures are expected in the 90's with high humidity.

USA will rely heavily on its European based players, but due to a labor dispute that was only recently settled, there has been very little time for preparation.

Anway-world cup qualifiers are often nasty, ugly affairs. The quality of the soccer isn't always so good-but it can get pretty exciting. Sometimes the reffing is a little suspect too-the ref has to get out of that little country alive too.

For more info check out the following link on BigSoccer.com:

Big Soccer T&T thread

hooray-USA wins 2-1. A good start to their qualifying campaign. The next game will be much tougher-Mexico at the massive Azteca Stadium in March. A win in Mexico City is almost unthinkable, a draw would be a glorious result, and a loss-not the end of the world since they got the road win this time.

Boy if Jim Rome knew you were spresding sport of soccer

Jim Rome is an idiot

I'm a little concerned about this team. T/T is nothing more than a descent club team yet they still got a goal and if not for a great save by Keller it could have been a tied game. Gibbs can't mark his own shadow and Pope has to stop making stupid mistakes or we are in trouble. Midfield controlled the game but our fowards must finish their opportunities. Even Donovan missed an easy goal and with as many corners as we got McBride has to bury one of those.

Pope is still playing? He has to be about 40 years old?

Kazoo: Eddie Pope is 32 I think. A little long in the tooth for a soccer player, but central defenders to seem last a little longer than midfielders or forwards. Joe-Max Moore just retired at the ripe old age of 33.

Observer: My guess is Arena had us playing very conservatively because our domestic players are not in season and our European players are probably used to a decidedly cooler climate. We were definitely under major duress towards the end. Donovan needs to finish that chance he had. He managed to hit to the only place the keeper had any chance of stopping it. They'll have to play much, much better to even have a chance at a draw against Mexico.

The USA gets through the next two games getting what they needed-if not what they wanted. On Sunday we lost to Mexico 2-1-no surprise, we've never won in Mexico-almost nobody wins in Mexico except Mexico. The score was really not indicative of just how dominate the Mexicans were.

But last night we got an important 3 points by beating Guatamala 2-0 in Birmingham, Alabama. We dominated them and should have scored at least a couple more goals.

And just to show how weird qualfying can get-the dominant Mexican team goes to relatvie minnows Panama and ties 1-1? Some of these Central Amercian venues are really tough to play at.

So the USA is in a comfortable position-one point behind Mexico with a long ways to go.