The Gold Cup got underway this week, and no matter which way you want to spin it, the quality of play will not be the gold standard after which the cup is named.

With no foreign invites this time around, the US and Mexico look almost locked into a finals appearance, unless of course you have money on either Canada or Guadeloupe as the fabled ostrich.

But still, Dempsey was as surprised as the rest of us as he put the US ahead 1-0 in the 1st half against Guatemala. The ease with which Twellman found Dempsey was a shock welcome to an early lead. But I would be surprised if they believe they can force possession so easily in the advanced Copa tourney next month.

El Salvador edged out Trinidad and Tobago 2-1 in the other Group B match-up. Trinidad hit a bomb of a free-kick before El Salvador came storming back with 2 unanswered goals. On Saturday US will play Trinidad while El Salvador will play Guatemala.

Canada pulled off a true shocker in Group A as they defeated (2-1) Costa Rica, arguably one of the best that CONCACAF has to offer. Modest Haiti and almost unheard of Guadeloupe played to a 1-1 draw. The next round also plays on Saturday, and hopefully, manager Hernan Medford can get Costa back on the map.

Group C kicks off today with Panama facing Honduras in the 1st match with Mexico facing Cuba in the second game. Your best best is to tune to a local cable Spanish channel with kickoff starting at 7 pm.

 

This entry was posted on Friday, June 8th, 2007 at 2:00 pm and is filed under Soccer World, USA, Gold Cup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.