USA 6:0 Panama
CONCACAF WORLD CUP 2006 QUALIFIER
RFK Stadium, Washington DC Wed 13th Oct 2004
Attendance: 19,793
Donovan 21, 57, Johnson 70, 84, 87 Torres (o.g.) 90
Sean O'Conor
On Wednesday the 13th of October the USA thumped Panama 6-0 in
a World Cup qualifier in the capital, Washington DC.
That decisive result alone propelled the States into the six team
final group from whom three teams will qualify and a fourth will
play–off against an Asian team for a place in the Finals in
Germany.
Washington DC was alive that night with people glued to their
TV screens and bars agog at the night's big event: Not the
soccer sadly but the third and final presidential debate between
George Bush and John Kerry.
Although the football decisively didn't grip the American
nation that night, the evening sports' recap (or ‘wrap'
as the Yanks call it) on ESPN, the nation's premier sports
channel, featured frequent reminders of the evening's goal-fest
at RFK.
ESPN's live coverage of US national team games has been
invaluable in promoting football in recent years and largely thanks
to them all Yanks are at least aware that soccer is alive and kicking,
even if they do not follow it avidly.
Add to that the explosion of foreign-soccer coverage on Fox Sports
World, Gol TV and the Hispanic channels and soccer's presence
can be safely said to be secure.
In a DC bar, two American friends of mine persuaded the owner to
switch one screen to a Chelsea match re-run and in a bar off Broadway
in New York I randomly walked into, I was amazed to see the TV showing
Nottingham Forest v Wolves, especially as the clientele was largely
black and Hispanic.
Football shirts of the US, Mexico and leading European teams are
now commonplace in all US sports stores and Beckham and Man United
are becoming household names thanks, ironically, to Posh Spice,
as well as to the hit movie ‘Bend
it Like Beckham'.
Don't get me wrong, football is still firmly a minority sport
in America in terms of public interest (albeit a big participation
sport) but the Yanks are more open-minded than we often give them
credit for and the younger generation have all played the game at
school and are potential fans.
Every time I go to the States I notice little things that give
cause for optimism. I spotted a number of football pitches in and
around central Philadelphia from the train; I watched four friends
kicking a ball around in New York's Central Park and in the
shadow of the Washington Monument in downtown DC, a 10-a side game.
There also seemed a bit more football available on the mushrooming
cable channels and better coverage in newspapers than there used
to be. When you hear a large crowd of Americans chanting “baseball
sucks”, as I did at RFK, you know something new is in the
air. For me, what may really close the deal is the USA hosting another
World Cup Finals, which, given the spanking new stadia, awesome
commercial backing and increased interest in the sport, seems definitely
on the cards over the next 20 years.
Coming home with American footy fans from a US national soccer
game to watch sports channels devoted to baseball's World
Series put our favourite pastime in context.
It would really take a lot for football to become a big sport in
the States like baseball. Maybe it never will. But at the same time
one fact tellingly remains: Football is not dying but rather persistently
growing in America because it is just too simple and fun not to
catch on. The fact MLS will soon have a handful of soccer-only professional
stadia is a real leap forward and a generational shift will outnumber
and isolate the die-hard soccer-haters.
With the presidential debate over the TV screens in the bars switched
to sports and the MLB play-offs between baseball's Manchester
United, the New York Yankees and the always-nearly men, the
Boston Red Sox.
I admire baseball more than the other US sports for its similarity
to soccer, not in rules but in character and tradition. It still
has some old and quirky stadia, sponsor-free shirts and bags of
history. The game itself remains as apparently simple as the English
children's game of rounders that spawned it and the summer
night's ‘ball game' has cemented a place in American
cultural identity.
What has recently brought it closer to football fans' hearts
are shared gripes. Unlike American Football but like the Premiership,
baseball has no salary cap and the Yankees in recent years have
been steamrollering the opposition in the same way Man United have
been in England.
Murdoch-owned Fox TV, notorious for its gung-ho reporting of the
Iraq War, now covers baseball on TV with much of the same uncritical
hyperbole Murdoch's Sky does in England.
More and more, fans are now crying foul in the States and complaining
their noble sport is being demeaned. Whilst you cannot help feeling
supporters are relatively powerless on both sides of the Atlantic
once their fidelity is translated into brand loyalty by the suits,
the desire for a level-playing field that is evident in American
Football, that most testosterone-fuelled jock sport, may yet hold
sway in baseball.
As for the match, the US looked a class apart, effortlessly sweeping
past the type of country they used to struggle to take points off.
The European discipline has clearly benefited the national team
with PSV's winger DaMarcus Beasley, who was effective in a
more central role for the US against Panama, and Fulham's
left back Carlos Bocanegra, two demonstrably improved players since
leaving MLS.
Target man Brian McBride looked sharp too as did Landon Donovan,
who as far as I am concerned should leave MLS for Europe right away
because the World Cup is approaching. The Californian's excellent
pace and control were again there for all to see as he influenced
all the US' dangerous moments and scored twice himself.
However, the American with the widest smile was probably 20-year
old Eddie Johnson, who came off the bench in the 65th minute and
left with a hat-trick. The US used fourteen players that night,
seven from MLS and seven based in Europe, a pleasant balance.
It has happened relatively unnoticed in Europe and beyond, but
the US has arrived on the international scene as one of the top
dozen nations in the world, and if you believe the contentious FIFA
World Rankings, as high as seventh-best at times.
Time was when European nations considered the USA an automatic
three-pointer, but now they start to worry and do their homework
when they see the draw. In terms of world football, the Yanks are
here to stay.
USA: Kasey Keller (Tottenham), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus
Crew), Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham), Eddie Pope (Metrostars), Greg
Berhalter (Energie Cottbus), DaMarcus Beasley (PSV Eindhoven), Eddie
Lewis (Preston North End), Landon Donovan (San Jose Earthquakes),
Kerry Zavagnin (Kansas City Wizards), Brian McBride (Fulham), Josh
Wolff (Kansas City Wizards). Subs: Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids),
Oguchi Onyewu (Standard Liege), Eddie Johnson (Dallas Burn)
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