Gold Cup: USA 2, Canada 1

While I would absolutely love for a Boston or NYC WC qualifier between US and Mexico (that would be one short drive) I think they will repeat the game at Columbus Crew Stadium. The US was the overwhelming favorite between the two in that final game. I recall this, because I was there for it. It was a beautiful sight.

 

Maybe a smarter soccer wonk than myself can correct me, but: why does it matter where they were when Agoos Onyewu touched the ball? Thought the offiside rule had to do with when the ball is played by one's teammate.

And if it doesn't, it should. No need to bail out a defense that screwed up.

In any event, when the Canadian attacker played the ball, dudes were onside by a half step. And when our new Agoos (big guy, can always count on him for a possible game-turning mistake) headed it, offside was still a questionable call.

Will be interesting to see the youtube of it.

Either way, gotta admit it would have been funny for our neighbors to the north and south to face each other in the finall on our soil.

 

Jeebus H. Cristinaldo. Cheapest tix are $120. Fuck that.

 

And . . . in the latest episode of "Large US soccer events gouge whoever they can"Steven Goff of the Washington Post wrote on his blog that parking was 30 bucks for media. Cool . . . but at least it's cheaper than the Barcelona-Chivas Guadalajara parking at the LA coliseum last year.

 

Stands will be at least 2/3 El Tri. Did you se how empty the place was for the USA-CAN kickoff?

 

There is no doubt that the call is questionable. There were quite a few questionable calls.

I was the one that mentioned the location of the players when Onyewu headed the ball. I just find the rules to be a bit ambiguous. Take this fake case for instance...

Canadian A dribbles the ball beyond the defense towards net. A bad touch pushes the ball forward and the American keeper gobbles it up. American keeper then pushes the ball out to his last American defender.

Canadian A is still between the keeper and the defender. The American defender passes the ball back to the American keeper, but Canadian A gets in the middle to steal the ball.

Canadian A is offsides.

Now, in the situation for the US/Canada game, the Canadian put the ball forward (one of the forwards may have been offsides, slightly if at all, one was not). This ball then reached the head of Onyewu. When it touched his head, the two Canadian forwards were in the offside position.

So, who's touch matters? Is it the forward pass or the poor clearance attempt? Depending upon which way you go about things you could choose either.

And, for the record, I've seen this type of offsides call plenty of times. I think it was even against the US not too long ago.

With the price of tickets, most US fans were staying away until the final. There will be a lot of El Tri fans, but there should be a good portion of Yanks.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offside_%28football%29

"A player in an offside position is only committing an offside offence if, "at the moment the ball touches or is played by one of his team", in the opinion of the referee, he is involved in active play. A player is not committing an offside offence if the player receives the ball directly from a throw-in, goal kick or corner kick, or passed by an opposition player.[6]

In order for an offside offence to occur the player must be in an offside position when the ball is touched or played by a team-mate; a player who runs from an onside position into an offside position after the ball was touched or played by a team-mate is not penalised. Similarly, a player who is in an offside position when the ball is touched or played by a team-mate may potentially commit an offside offence even if they run back in to an on-side position before receiving the ball."

There is an unwritten rule in soccer at all levels that a referee must botch the offside call at least once per game. When you have a particularly clever ref, they also find a way to botch an advantage call as well.

If Onyewu's touch was their barometer, they screwed up. If the Canadian's touch was their barometer, they screwed up.

Basically, they screwed up.

 

I believe the ref stated that he thought the ball went off one of the Canadiens, not Onyewu. Regardless, it was very controversial.

It should have been buried early when Donovan swung and missed on an easy goal.

 

Quick note, which would argue the point better...

The other Canadian forward was offsides at the point of the shot. He was farther forward. This could be construed as interfering with an opponent. How can the goalie concentrate on the shot taker when that player can pass the ball into the center of the box?

 

Sure. Like when McBride couldn't get the hell out of the way when beasley scored the go-ahead goal against Italy last summer.

But last night's call was bogus, from what I've seen.

 

USA support will be about 40 percent Sunday at Soldier Field. USA-Mexico is a big deal and I think our fans are starting to get this.

Overall I think the tournament has been great. I managed to catch the end of the Guadaloupe-Mexico match and was impressed with the competitive spirit.

 

Last night's call could be argued as correct (based on my most recent post) however it wasn't the reason the call was made.

Then again, the refs weren't wearing their glasses last night, so that is what you get.