Photo by Gary A. Vasquez/USA Today Sports
By MICHAEL WALLACE
With a Confederations Cup berth on the line, the U.S. Men’s National Team is set to host Mexico at one of the country’s largest soccer venues.
Shortly after El Tri’s 3-1 win over Jamaica in the 2015 Gold Cup Final, CONCACAF announced a single-match playoff between the United States and Mexico on October 9 to be played at the Rose Bowl in Pasedena, CA.
The four largest crowds in USMNT history have come at the Rose Bowl, two of which were for games against Mexico. The last time the two nations met at the venue was in 2011, when 93,420 attended the 2011 Gold Cup final to witness a Mexico victory.
CONCACAF officials say that they will use a ticket allocation strategy to ensure a more balanced crowd than the heavy pro-Mexico contingent seen throughout the Gold Cup. Participating member associations and its supporter groups will have access to purchase tickets in advance of public sale. Tickets for the general public will be made available in September.
The playoff assures that both editions of the Gold Cup in each four-year cycle are of equal importance from a competitive perspective as the newly-crowned 2015 Gold Cup champions take on the 2013 champs for the right to be CONCACAF’s representative at the prestigious Confederations Cup, to be held in Russia the in penultimate year of World Cup buildup and preparation.
The USMNT defeated Panama 1-0 in Chicago to win the 2013 Gold Cup and earn their place in October’s playoff. If the U.S. had swept the two Gold Cup cycles, they would have earned an automatic bid and a playoff would have been avoided.
—
What do you think of the selection of the Rose Bowl as venue? What kind of crowd do you expect? Who do you see as favorites?
Share your thoughts below.
Just about a week ago the Galaxy played Barcelona in front of a sold out crowd at the Rose Bowl. I didn’t hear of any complaints by fans or players. The only real problem with the
Rose Bowl I know of is that parking is always a headache.
Use those boys who beat the Dutch and Germans. That’ll show ’em
Who chose the Rose Bowl. It’s an American Football venue. The seats are shaped so lots of people can get into the bowl. But for visibility it is not that great. I’d rather watch it on TV. As long as there is a grass field rather than turf, it might be ok as far as playability goes. How does it compare in size with other standard soccer fields? Can somebody tell me? With the fan base being likely mostly non-American supporters, it would give the players lots of opportunity later to complain about that if the US loses. I hope they win. I hope they show how soccer is played properly. Klinsi, please, let Herzog do the coaching the way Jogi Loew did when you were the German coach for 2006.
How are we going to know fit the Rose Bowl can accommodate a high pressure soccer match. It’s not like the Rose Bowl has accommodated World Cup Final or anything….
Oh… Wait. It has.
The pitch is permanently laid grass and can fit a 115 yard by 75 yard field. The sight lines are fine because it’s a giant bowl. That’s all you need to know. It should be a heck of a spectacle.
How can US fans complain when the Gold Cup was, and always is help on home soil? The semifinals were in ATL for goodness sake and we got smacked by Jamaica. In this case, good for Mexico. Their fans, 99% of them living in the US will show up en masse. They will be loud and proud, and rightfully so. They just won the Gold Cup in resounding fashion. If the US can score, play with grit and determination, and are properly managed, at this point huge IFs, then the crowd will not matter or even be pro US. Klinsmann talks a lot about the responsibilities of the players, time for him to put up or be fired.
It’s also time for more US players to play up to their abilities.
AWESOME.
And i’m not being sarcastic. Seriously, this is our chance to exorcise the demons from the 2011 game at the scene of the crime! I’m loving this. What’s all the gloom and doom for amongst the USMNT fans now??? You can disagree with what Klinsman does, but shoot, end of the day, those are our boys on the field and i’m going to support this team and believe that we’ll win 100 percent!!
lets go. I WANT REVENGE FOR 2011!!!
I don’t see how some of the people here can write such absolute swill, practically rooting for a US loss, and still call themselves US fans. I am pretty disgusted by many of these attitudes. Thomas Paine, I believe in his book Common Sense, had a term for people like this–Summer soldiers and sunshine patriots. Sure they’ll support you when things are going great, but they bug out at the first sign of trouble.
The Mexican fans support their team religiously in way greater numbers than US fans. Just the plain truth. US Soccer has to treat it like a road game and just deal with it!
what else can klins do, nothing but to prove himself to all us.
I have read this and heard this before in the soccer media, USA will succeed and go to a different level once USA hires a Mexico coach for the senior team.
A mexican coach would do wonders for the US team. The mexican coach would know about MLS, can learn English, knows concacaf, more experience, more soccer knowledge and better than any American coach.
Go get Javier Aguirre, he doesn’t want to return to Mexico because he hates the mexican media just like all mexican coaches do. Javier Aguirre has coached in Spain, Japan, Mexico and now he’s in the Middle East
Don’t go European, don’t go South American, go mexican and if you want to be better than Mexico then a mexican coach would know how to over take Mexico.
And your evidence for this is? I can’t think of any Mexican coach outside of a short stint at Chivas USA, who has even coached in MLS. Although I can’t remember his name, I do remember he was lousy and Chivas was lousy.
Really? The US needs a MEX coach to succeed? I’m not even sure Klinsy is the man for the job, but a Mexican? What happened the last time that the US and MEX met in the WCF when the US was helmed by an American coach who made his bones in MLS?
Jeonju. That’s what happened. How do you say “Dos a Cero” in Korean?
Heck… Even Bob Bradley generally succeed against Mexico with that scoreline in offial matches that mattered – 2011 GC excepted.
I see it differently. We don’t have great skills, we have average athleticism, we don’t have a culture in which kids grow up playing pick-up games in the street… yet somehow we more often than not surpass expectations.
I think our coaching is top notch. I mean, really top notch. We had that inferiority complex for decades, and because of it really studied what the true leaders do and don’t do in terms of developing players and coaches. We probably now are a hybrid of coaching talent/style along the styles of German, Dutch and Spanish approaches. And, seriously, most of the rest of the world ought to look at hiring American coaches rather than the other way around.
Mexico, in contrast, routinely underperforms expectations. Some really good, international quality players, yet not much to show for it from the national team. Mexico is the England of North America.
They might as well hand them the spot now or play the game in Azteca.
Oh, it’s on like me.
Wow I feel bad for the US team, they never get home field advantage unless they just play in Alaska or Columbus.
As for the US team actual having a chance of winning the playoff game, I say 10%
The only way they win if it’s klins calls in new blood and stops playing around with the line up and formation.
For those who think Mexico had a bad gold cup, well they kinda of did but they were missing 5 starters, which makes a big difference. USA had no starters missing.
I would like for USA to lose, then fire klins and gulati but gulati has too much power.
I don’t think klins is a bad coach, he’s more of a front office guy but you never know, it’s do or die for both coaches, mexicos coach wants to coach in Spain and klins time is running out.
There is mostly no problem with the choice of current players, excepting the goalie and the back line. I think Clarence Goodson is still better than Alvarado or Timmy Chandler and Klinsmann should possibly look very carefully for a new center midfielder. Bradley’s ability to distribute didn’t look that great. I remember him playing at Roma. There was a reason why the Italian coach didn’t want to give him much playing time.. The problem is first: how the players are used, second: how much experience they have playing together.
I have this need to correct inaccuracies and should let it go, but sometimes when they are glaring, I can’t stop myself. If you remember, Bradley had a wonderful game against Germany. He had some bad games in the Gold Cup, but sometimes he has great games.This website has awarded him Man of the Match several times already this year for the US. While in Italy he started almost every game at Chievo. He was transferred to Roma and the first season he played in 30 games and I think most of those were starts. His second season there he began as a starter and was a starter until he was injured in a WC qualifier. He lost his starting job due to his injury. Then Roma brought in more midfielders during the January transfer window. To say the Italian coach didn’t want to give him playing time is misleading at best and just inaccurate more realistically..
“There is mostly no problem with the choice of current players, excepting the goalie and the back line.”
Soooo… how many games do you expect to win with only those couple of ‘small’ problems? Attackers sell tickets, but defenders win championships.
Kind of hard to feel hard done in that regard when the regional tournament is held on home soil every year.
Well it was nice knowing that there was a possibility we could go to the Confederations Cup but now I slowly see that slipping away.. Goodbye Confederations ticket!!
I’ a US fan so this is hard for me to say: USA is not going to Confed Cup. MEX will win in Rose Bowl full of MEX fans. CONCACAF is a joke
I just hope the field is in working order; the fields during the Gold Cup were tragic for the standard the US should have.
After all the objects thrown on the field in the Mexico/Panama game and at Landon Donovan taking corners at Azteca, I believe that it has sadly become necessary to separate the fans. Doing this will make it absolutely clear, if any similar incident occurs, as to who is throwing objects. If the US fans do it, FIFA should dock us three points in WC qualifying, if Mexico fans are doing it, then the same penalty to them. This has to stop and with all the fans mixed in together, it’s easy for the perpetrators to claim that it wasn’t them. I believe Russia was docked World Cup qualifying points a while back due to the behavior of their fans.
I guess people are forgetting it’s only a little more than a year ago that Mexico essentially used one club team to field their whole World Cup squad in a play-off game. It’s unfortunate that the Galaxy have so many foreigners playing on their team. Otherwise they could be that team playing in the Rose Bowl. That, by the way, is not an ideal venue for watching soccer. Levi stadium would be better. I am being facetious when I say that it would be wonderful if Klinsmann could just choose a team that has played together for quite a while. The reason why small countries like Belgium and the Netherlands often have good teams is because they have a lot of experience playing with one another. I think the New York Red Bulls youth could probably beat Mexico even without them having been chosen for the USMNT. Please, tell Klinsmann that he has to make up his mind about who is on the team. They need the experience playing with one another to win in today’s soccer world.
Seems like JK doesn’t give a shhhhh about MLS though. They guys that are in form should be getting called up. JK still hasn’t given guys like Harry Shipp, Feilhaber, Lee Nguyen, Dax McCarty any love. I’m tired of seeing Brad Davis and Graham Zusi if they aren’t going to provide anything. We need to reward players that deserve to wear the shirt by their play – it keeps everybody hungry.
After the Panama match, a guy like Michael Bradley most certainly deserves to be left off of the side for AT LEAST a call up. It really was a listless, shambolic performance, by the captain. He forgets that it is a priviledge to put on the shirt.
I totally agree. I would like to see a solid group forming that is not constantly wondering whether they are part of the “in-crowd.” Some of the German players are no better than ours. In order for a good game-chemistry to develop, players have to know how a player passes and how another player can receive. None of those things including good positioning was evident in the last game. Klinsmann should leave the coaching to Herzog. Rimando or Yarborough would be better goalies. Guzan already looked shaky playing for Aston Villa. last season.
Mexico was playing New Zealand, for God’s sake. The last time New Zealand had a good soccer team was NEVER. The kiwis would have done as well if they had sent their rugby team. That they are good at. This is what is called a straw man argument that you make.
US is going to get laid on our backs AGAIN…just like we got beat by Jamaica and the way we got out played by Panama. Klinsmann had more than enough time to build a team before and after the world cup but has failed miserably.
Other teams value experience and age doesn’t seem to matter
Other teams keep the same core of players and make them familiarize and develop together
Other teams keep, learn and understand their formations
Other teams do not change player positions on the fly (this late in their careers)
8 players on the MLS ALL-Star roster, didn’t get called up for National team duty (and 3 players on the National team roster not get considered for MLS best 22….and we wonder why Jamaica and Panama rocked our world)
USL’s Red Bull II beat a fully stocked Chelsea…..due to players or coach?
Even if you close you eyes and make a team with the best US players in MLS we would not be humiliated by Jamaica and Panama in the same competition
————-C.J. Sapong————Will Bruin———————-
Lletget——Dax McCarthy——-Feilhaber——-Ethan Finlay
Tierney——–Besler———-Chad Marshall——–Beltran
————————-Rimando—————————————
Lee Nyugen
Tony Tchani
Brek Shea
Charlie Davis
Teal Bunbury
Sasha Klesjan
Juan Agudelo
You can say whatever about our player pool…..but we got beat by players in our league, Mattocks , Barnes, etc
Yeah it’s kind of crazy if you compare Finaly and Feilhaber stats to lets say Mix and Zusi. Klinsmann doesn’t seem to care much about MLS form. To a degree I can understand wanting guys that understand how you want to play. However when you’re not getting the job done, its time to start looking at what else you have.
Your joking right? Seriously?
Is losing 2-0 to Jamaica a joke??
Is losing to Panama 2-1, getting our goal off a rebound, being out shot 5 -21 a joke??
Is meeting a team that beat both teams that beat us convincingly a joke?
How about the way we still run around clueless against weak opposition when compared to the top 10 in the world…is that a joke??
No…. it’s not
The score was 2-1 against Jamaica and 1-1 against Panama. I know your rants don’t usually involve too much thinking, but you might at least get the basic numbers right as a first step.
Funny all you see is a 2-1 score error….lol, wow
The Jamaica game seemed a clear case of a weaker team catching a stronger team with a couple goals – flukish goals at that – and then hanging on for life. Which they did, to their credit. Did you really think that lead would hold when we cut it to one a few minutes into the second half? We created the chances we needed through the remainder of that half – just couldn’t put anything else in the net. Even playing below the level we are capable, we still looked like the stronger team.
The Panama game was dominated by the team that felt robbed over the team that was dismayed at itself for being there. And even with that, it still went to PKs. My guess is when it finished 90 in a tie, our players were disappointed they had to keep playing. Didn’t really care too much if it was a win or a loss; just didn’t want to go back out for another 30.
“This is the 2nd time in 13 Gold Cup tournaments that the USA has failed to medal. Last was 15 years ago”……means no improvement even though our player pool and league technical level has increased
“USMNT has gone winless in consecutive Gold Cup games for the first time ever”…..another indication of no improvement
Comments that let you know we are doomed:
Jurgen Klinsmann: “Our goal is to go further in the next World Cup than we did in Brazil. This is a working process. This team will lean and get better”. ……..How do you expect to do that when you can’t get by the Jamaica’s and the Panama’s????
Jurgen Klinsmann: “We did well to get through the group, get through the quarters but Wednesday’s game kind of took the wind out.
“…..well against who?? Cuba? Honduras?
If that is still his mentality its a losing mentality. You can’t fix what you don’t think is broken
so against it isn’t a joke
You really are on drugs.
Please ban me so I can stop posting under all these different names
those are tweets from Klinsmann, USSOCCER, so I think you are the one on drugs. Check and reference before responding
This list is ridiculous. Feilhaber and Besler have international quality. Shea does and didn’t play in the Gold Cup because of injury. The others who have played for the US (Kljestan, Beltran, et al) have been shown to be B team quality and the rest probably aren’t even up to this level (with the possible exception of Lletget because he is too new to judge and has very little experience). I suggest you put down the crack pipe and go get a good rest.
We have a kid from Stanford playing with no prior professional experience on the team….We have an NASL player being selected from time to time. Now thats ridiculous, selecting MLS All-star players and top stat leaders is not
I would like to see Kljestan tried in a role that emphasizes his passing vision over his admittedly lacking speed. That’s one of the ‘looks’ that has baffled me more than most. He’s not a winger, and didn’t play wing on his European club, which while not one of the big names in a big league was still considered a pretty good club. He’s one of the few in our pool I’d say has world class first touch.
Yeah, I wouldn’t use being an MLS All-Star as a metric. Frank Lampard was named to the team before he played a single second of league play. You are also missing the bigger picture in that the federation and JK tried to balance how many players they took from each MLS team. And one more thing, Nick Rimando the master of the awful pass has no business being on a US MNT roster.
I’m not a big fan of CONCACAF but they got this one right. The Rose Bowl is an awesome and historic venue and you can count on good weather in LA. US fans can’t complain because the game is on home soil and Mexico is content that the game is played in a city with a large amount of Mexican supporters. Should be an awesome experience, I know I’m contemplating flying to LA for the game.
It will be interesting to see if barney rubble gets fired for punching the Philadelphia reporter. They may bring in a more competent replacement. I doubt it though, coaching selection is up to the fan base in mexico.
Why isn’t it home and away? This doesn’t make sense that they wouldn’t want to cash in twice.
I don’t know why this isn’t a two-leg home and away playoff. Wouldn’t that be more money for CONCACAF. Honestly, I’m just hoping nobody gets hurt at this thing. There were some scary images from the Rose Bowl in 2011, there will be a larger contingent of US fans now, and I do not think CONCACAF is competent enough or cares enough to safely organize a game of this magnitude.
Confederations Cup isn’t until 2017, seems like one match this year one next year would have been easy. We play Mexico in friendlies every single year anyway.
100,000 tickets at an average of around $80. That’s only $8 million. Merchandizing might match that. What are the TV rights worth?
It is too bad that CONCACAF chose the site. The US should have lobbied for Anchorage; Alaska has not had its share of US games. Just pick a river valley and have seating on the mountainside, the field conditions would be no worse than for much of the Gold Cup.
“What are the TV rights worth?”
good question. this is the first playoff since the new structure. the bidding war for this games’ TV rights should be fun.
CHA CHING. That’s the sound of money and the reason for a lot of smiling faces at CONCACAF. Whether rigged or not, this is what they wanted. This means millions more in their coffers. Anybody see the crowd at the Galaxy–Barcelona game? Sold out and probably three fourths were Barcelona fans.
I’m surprised there were as many Galaxy fans as there were actually. It’s the one time you can see Barcelona in LA, while the Galaxy play real matches there, all the time.
Yep … after Panama instead of Mexico in Chicago in 2013, that was NOT going to happen again. So, they got Mexico in the final in 2015 AND in the Playoff.
We better come up with a better holding Mid than Beckerman…Missing Jermaine Jones right about now. And what about Danny Williams? Where’d he go?
My starting:
Timmy H
Yedlin Besler Cameron Johnson
Bedoya Bradley Williams Mix
Deuce Morris
Jones is already back to training with the Revs. He could be playing again within the next 3 weeks
Danny Williams asked off because his knee injury from last summer was bothering him and he needed time off to heal up
the word “host” sure gets thrown around lightly these days
Not even on neutral ground 🙁
I am a big fan of the Nats. Been to two W.C.s and 12 qualifiers. I am sick of people whining about home field advantage etc. If the USA cannot get enough supporters from a population of 3 million to fill the Rose Bowl , then we do not deserve home field adv.
300 million+
Why would US Soccer make this an away game?!!?!?!?!?!???!?!?!?!?
For the same reason that the game is USA-Mexico instead of USA-Panama or USA-Costa Rica.
Gulati said that he preferred that it be in Columbus, Kansas CIty, etc., but that that was not going to happen because CONCACAF had the final say about location.
it amazes me how many people think that US Soccer made this decision. It’s CONCACAF’s decision. They could have put the game in Azteca. It’s not like a home leg of a 2-leg match or a home game in QC Qualifiers, it’s a single game competition to decide who goes to the Confederations Cup. The Mexicans have more right to complain that us! The whole Gold Cup gets played in the US every 2 years, you’d think they might even have an argument to play this game in Azteca. Of course CONCACAF (and Mexico) will make way more money by having it in the Rose Bowl. But I must have read 100x in the last 12 hours about people complaining about the venue and it’s ridiculous.
The Mexicans can justifiably complain about the venue, but Panama and Costa Rica can even more justifiably complain that Mexico is playing at all. Mexico do not deserve the opportunity.
I agree that the GC should not always be held in the US. Do you see any options other than Mexico & Canada that could hold a tournament like that?
Mexico has more right to complain than …
STOP IT!!! Which CONCACAF chosen site for a Mexico v. US game since (oh, how ’bout since Jordan Morris was born) has Mexico not had a crowd advantage? Do you not remember the 2011 GC final … or, how many unused 2013 GC final tickets there were?
in terms of soccer and mexican fans, the Rose Bowl… IS the Assteca.
Will be interested to learn more about this ticket allocation strategy…
Hard to imagine how this isn’t going to end up another home crowd for Mexico. Great.
unfortunately, no matter how tickets are allocated, it will be a home crowd for mexico.
Too bad they can’t do a home and home set-up, so we could have a game at the Rose Bowl, and then a game in Columbus…
Funny. Mexico plays about three times as many friendlies in the US as they do in Mexico. I remember reading some time ago that in the LA region there are more people of Mexican birth than in any city in Mexico except for Mexico City. When it comes to FIFA and CONCACAF, it’s all about the money.
Mexico plays MORE friendlies in the US than they do in Mexico for several reasons; The money, the money, and the money. And Concacaf play the Gold Cup here all the time, because of several reasons; the Money, the money, and, the money. Concacaf could have has the playoff in a neutral country, like Canada, which has large stadiums too, but chose the 93000 seat Rose Bowl for several reasons, The money, the Money and…you get my drift. See the theme here?
The US should refuse to host future Gold cups until there is reform at CONCACAF and investment in competent refs. I don’t know maybe hire some top EUEFA crews to do it.
how bad would the scoreline have to be for JK and Gulati to be gone? 4-0? 5-0? 9-0 and the USMNT sitting down on the field for the second half?
If they’re going to get fired this is the time but if they didn’t get fired for losing to Panama and Jamaica I doubt they’ll get fired for losing to a better team like Mexico.
Mexico isn’t a better team but you’re right that JK isn’t going anywhere.
I think he meant “better than Panama…”
Panama might be playing the best of all teams in CONCACAF right now. Mexico was gifted that win.
Shut up already…. You sound like a bitch right with all your crying. Man up princess
He is correct. Mexico was gifted. Go back to your mother’s basement.
Mexico won the 2011 Gold Cup bye smashing the US. Ran the table in 2012 during the early rounds of Qualifiers by going undefeated home and away. Won the 2012 Olympic Gold Medal against a Brasilian team that embarrassed our A team a few months before the London games. They sucked during the HEX and almost didn’t make it to Brasil. While in Brasil last year, they had a better overall showing than US and finished higher in the final WC rankings and just won the Gold Cup. It seems to me that they have just as much potential as we do, if not more due to their individual talent. You can say that Mexico is not a better team than we are but I can’t even bring myself to say that we are a better team than them.
They had a better showing than us in the WC? both bowed out in round of 16 They both had good moments of play and bad same as us.
I like how you forgot the Confed Cup failure, the 2013 Gold Cup failure, and the fiasco that was copa America.
Even their recent gold cup win wasn’t inpressive at all. They were gifted their spot in the final.
The 2013 Gold Cup is something to celebrate?
Yeah, the 2013 Gold Cup that Mexico sent its B squad to because their A team was playing in the Confederations Cup… a tournament that the US didn’t get to play in because they lost against, yep, you guessed it, Mexico. And Copa America, playing with a back up squad, was a failure. But once again, the US knew it couldn’t field two teams like Mexico could to even attempt both tournaments. So, all in all, your examples only serve to confirm john’s assessment that the US team is not a better team.
The US got out of a far tougher group, and lost to a great belgium team. They also dominated qualifying, which is a far better measure of a team’s strength over the long term. Mexico was outplayed not only by the US, but by Costa Rica, Honduras and Panama. Mexico couldnt even beat the US in Azteca. What happened when they played in Columbus? Dos a cero, homey.
It will be a pro Mexico crowd, but that’s basically any North American location. Interesting to see how the ticket allocation goes. I’ll be there to root on Brad Davis, Wondo, Zusi and whoever else Klinsman calls in.
Based on your list, I hope you’re there to support “whoever else Klinsmann calls in.”
it’s ‘whomever’ in that case