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TagsBY DAVID WALDSTEIN
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
As the United States men's soccer team prepares for one of the most important matches in its long, uneven history, many fans may be wondering what it is those guys are competing for, anyway.
The Confederations Cup? What the heck is it, and what does it mean if the Red, White and Blue wins it all?
First of all, the Confed Cup is a third-tier tournament which didn't even exist 20 years ago, and this year doesn't include some pretty reputable footballing nations, like Argentina, Germany, France, England, Portugal and the Faroe Islands, just to name a few.
But when you're playing in the final of anything having to do with soccer, and it's against Brazil, then it's pretty darn important and you can claim all kinds of moral victories just for reaching that level, as long as you don't lose by more than three goals.But if the U.S. can possibly win Sunday's final, which kicks off at 2:30 p.m. – and it certainly can – then it would be as huge as huge can possibly be.
Beating Spain was great, but despite its current subjective ranking as the No. 1 team in the world, Spain is not Brazil. It's not Argentina, either; or Italy, France, Germany, or perhaps even England, alleged inventors of the game and World Cup winners in 1966 and semifinalists in 1990. Spain's best showing in the World Cup was a fourth-place finish in 1950.
Brazil, meanwhile, is Brazil, and in 14 tries the U.S. has only beaten the Samba Kings once, at the Gold Cup in 1998 when Kasey Keller had an unbelievable game between the posts and Preki (born in Serbia as Predrag Radosavljevic) scored the game's only goal.
Call it a fluke.
But Wednesday's semifinal victory over Spain was no fluke, and if the Americans play with the same flair, teamwork and determination on Sunday, they can win another historic victory, the biggest since reaching the World Cup semifinals in 1930. Okay, maybe even bigger.
Yes, the Confederations Cup is about 17 rungs below the World Cup. But although relatively new, it is a tournament that teams are taking seriously these days. Unlike the Copa America, which has seen some embarrassingly undermanned teams on display over the years, virtually all of the teams that went to South Africa this year sent all their best players.
Ronaldinho didn't join Brazil and won't be there on Sunday, but that was because Dunga didn't want him.
The roots of the tournament go back to 1992 when Saudi Arabia held a little exhibition with the winners of four confederation cups: The U.S. (1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup winners) Argentina (1991 Copa America), Ivory Coast (1992 African Nations Cup) and the Saudis (1988 Asian Cup holder s). No surprise the Argentines won it going away.
The tournament remained small and obscure but FIFA eventually swooped in and assumed control. It used to be held every two years, but since 2005 it has become a quadrennial event to be held by the host nation of the upcoming World Cup, as kind of a dress rehearsal.
The field has been expanded to eight teams, including the hosts and the winners of various cups. This year it was:
- World Cup – Italy
- European Championships – Spain
- CONCACAF Gold Cup – USA
- Copa America – Brazil
- Asian Cup – Iraq
- African Nations Cup – Egypt
- OFC Nations Cup – New Zealand
Brazil and France have each won the Confed Cup twice, so Brazil has a chance to take the lead if it wins Sunday. But don't expect a repeat of the first round match when Brazil easily dismissed the Yanks 3-0. With its victory over Spain, U.S. Soccer has taken and a quantum leap forward in its steady development, and its confidence is soaring.
And just as the Confederations Cup is a World Cup warm-up for the host country, it also serves the same purpose for countries like the U.S., which isn't used to playing this late in big tournaments. The Americans haven't been to a semifinal of the World Cup since the first such tournament, that 1930 World Cup in Uruguay, when it wasn't even called the World Cup.
Just getting into the final of this event will help so much when next summer arrives. As Tim Howard said in a press conference in South Africa on Saturday, the experience is invaluable.
"We can take away the fact that on any given night we have the ability to play with the best team in the world," the goalkeeper from North Brunswick said, "so long as we stick to what we're good at. That's a vital lesson. It's a vital lesson for the final and for moving forward and playing in other big games."