Week In Review

In my very first post I labelled this the summer of tournaments but I forgot to include the Under 20 World Cup in Colombia. The Under 20 Cup is the 5th and final tournament this summer before World Cup qualifiers kick off in September. In theory this tournament will be the first we see of near future stars, some as soon as the next World Cup. The host, Colombia, has a bright young star in Luis Muriel who may possibly team up with Radamel Falcao up front for Colombia in the next few years. Behind his play Colombia have managed to have a successful tournament so far. Young Spaniard Alvaro Vasquez has also been making a splash, recording a hatrick versus Australia in the first 18 minutes of the game. Brazil, Argentina, Portugal and Nigeria are also impressing in the tournament. Nigerian winger, Ahmed Musa, is also worth mentioning as well as Brazilian midfielders Dudu and Philippe Coutinho. The tournament is just at the quarter-final stage with Portugal facing Argentina, Mexico against Colombia, France versus Nigeria and Brazil against Spain. These matches will take place this weekend.

Luis Muriel

Philippe Coutinho

We've also had quite a bit of international friendlies this week with Wednesday being a FIFA date. The three I'll focus on in this post are Italy versus Spain, Brazil versus Germany and USA versus Mexico. First of all, Italy against Spain was intriguing for many reasons. The last two FIFA World Cup winners against each other, Spain having their best era ever and Italy having one of their worst. Italy won on a late goal by Aquilani, 2-1, in what can be considered a small shock. In my opinion its not really a shock but a sign of Italy's re-emergence. I wouldn't put much into Spain losing either as it was just a friendly. Anytime the World Champions lose is worth noting however, especially to a team that did as poorly as Italy did last year. At the end of the day Italy is still one of the big 4 nations and re-emergence should be expected.

USA vs Mexico was important for a number of reasons as well. Mexico has taken the upper hand in the rivalry in recent years after a short spell of dominance by the USA before that and Mexico recently won the Gold Cup final 4-2 (behind 0-2 early) defeating USA. This friendly took place in USA where a 2nd consecutive Mexico victory on US soil would be tragic to the host. This game was also Jurgen Klinsmann's first in charge of the US. The Mexicans took an early lead in the 17th on an opportunistic goal by Peralta and held the lead for most of the game until the 73rd minute when Brek Shea's hard work created the equalizing goal for USA. Twenty One year old Brek Shea was the bright spot in this game as well as the ever dependable Landon Donovan for the USA. Jurgen Klinsmann avoided defeat in his first game with the match ending at 1-1. The USA still did not get the win over Mexico on home soil though, that's important to note.

Brek Shea

Finally, Germany took on Brazil and there's no need to explain why this was a big one. The 3-2 final score in the favour of Germany was only because Brazil's Neymar scored a 90th minute goal to bring the scoreline closer. I previously wrote of "The Death of Brazil" and if anything this score is telling. Now of course I understand that this was Germany and just a friendly, but when has the Brazilians being down 3-1 to anyone ever been acceptable? A loss to Germany this week, A penalty shootout loss to Paraguay in the Copa America, A World Cup Quarter Final loss to Holland a year ago...I stand by my assumption about Brazil, they have fallen a long way from where they were. The Brazilians are not horrible and have no fear of losing to the likes of Ecuador or even a team like Mexico perhaps, but against the World's elite over the past 5 years more times than not the Brazilians came out behind. We'll see how far the fall continues in the next few friendlies the Brazilians play over the next few months.

Two scheduled friendlies for Wednesday were cancelled for alarming reasons. The first being Trinidad and Tobago versus Haiti, the second England versus Holland. In the world's view Trinidad and Tobago versus Haiti is not of great importance, but it was supposed to be the first match in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake that destroyed most of the nation. The problem was funding for the Trinidad and Tobago national team, or lack thereof, with the nation being unable to afford the friendly. The problems of the 2006 World Cup aftermath and Jack Warner still linger and its a shame that a nation that competed in a World Cup just 5 years ago have fallen so far. It would have been Otto Pfister's first game in charge of Trinidad and Tobago. The England versus Holland game was cancelled due to riots in England, a real shame considering it would have been one of the most noteworthy friendlies of the week with a very anticipated final score. In a few weeks World Cup qualifying begins for many nations and we will get a better idea of which teams are of quality and which have no chance.