Thought to be kings one day and subservient the next – this is the mark of a team that wants to join the exclusive club of world soccer powers. The case for US Soccer was no different in 2009.
We climbed Mount Everest by beating #1 ranked Spain, and then got obliterated by Mexico a month later.
American opinion followed the same highs and lows.
What’s the lesson? It’s a mistake to come to conclusions based on day to day events. You must place everything into context and take a long-term view to have a solid opinion.
Let’s look at this year’s resume!
(1-3) vs A-list Teams
The top sides we played were Brazil, Italy, and Spain.
(3-4) vs B-list Teams
These included Mexico, Egypt, Sweden, Slovakia, and Denmark.
(9-1-3) vs Soccer Minnows
All the wins came from CONCACAF teams during qualification and the Gold Cup.
Complete National Team Results
- World Cup Qualification (6-2-2)
Feb 11 – (W) Mexico 2-0 in Columbus, Ohio
Mar 28 – (T) El Salvador 2-2 in El Salvador
Apr 1 – (W) T&T 3-0 in Nashville Tennessee
June 3 – (L) to Costa Rica 1-3 in San Jose, CR
June 6 – (W) Honduras 2-1 in Chicago
Aug 12 – (L) to Mexico 1-2 in Azteca
Sep 5 – (W) El Salvador 2-1 in Sandy, Utah
Sep 9 – (W) T&T 1-0 in Port of Spain, Trinidad
Oct 10 – (W) Honduras 3-2 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras
Oct 14 – (T) Costa Rica 2-2 in Washington DC
- Confederations Cup (2-3)
June 15 – (L) to Italy 1-3 in South Africa
June 18 – (L) to Brazil 0-3 in South Africa
June 21 – (W) Egypt 3-0 in South Africa
June 24 – (W) Spain 2-0 in South Africa
June 28 – (L) to Brazil 2-3 in South Africa
- Gold Cup (4-1-1)
July 4 – (W) Grenada 4-0 in Seattle
July 8 – (W) Honduras 2-0 in Washington DC
July 11 – (T) Haiti 2-2 in Foxborough, Mass
July 18 – (W) Panama 2-1 (OT) in Philadelphia
July 23 – (W) Honduras 2-0 in Chicago (semifinal)
July 26 – (L) to Mexico 0-5 at Giants Stadium (final)
- Friendlies (1-2)
Jan 24 – (W) Sweden 3-2 at Home Depot Center.
Nov 14 – (L) to Slovakia 0-1 in Bratislava, Slovakia
Nov 18 – (L) to Denmark 1-3 in Aarhus, Denmark
We’ll pull everything together in Part IV of the series.
