TONIGHT – USA v Honduras – see it live at the Sweetwater in St. Paul

I’m starting the post off with a great note by IMS friend, Bruce McGuire of duNord Futbol. This is a personal note from Bruce that he posted on his site yesterday and it concerns the issue of this very important game only being shown on closed circuit TV.

The last time the USA was in Honduras was late March of 2001. And while many things in American soccer have changed in just 8 years, others have stayed remarkably the same. The game that night was only shown in America via Pay Per View. (Sound familiar?) So, via the glory of Big Soccer, 8 of us lost souls met up in a basement in St Paul. None of us knew each other, but 1 person turned out to be none other than Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated (who wrote about that evening).

For me the greatness of that night is today I am still in contact with all but 1 of those people, and 3 of them are regular travel partners of mine all around the world. In retrospect it was the best soccer night of my life.

Let’s hope that this weekends game on Closed Circuit from Honduras will create even more of those same type of great friendships!

Bruce Mc Guire

Remember, because the game is only on closed circuit TV, the only place to watch in Minneapolis and St. Paul is at the Twin Cities’ Official US Soccer Bar, the Sweetwater Bar and Grille in the Kelly Inn in St. Paul. (see below post for further information on the Sweetwater)

Tonight’s game will be the 4th time the US (5-2-1) and Honduras (4-3-1) will meet this year. But this game will be the granddaddy of them all. The US leads this CONCACAF Qualifying group but only by one point over Mexico (5-3) and 2 over Honduras.

Mexico will play El Salvador (5th place 2-2-4) tonight in Mexico. A game that will be played 3 hours before the US game.

Slumping 4th place Costa Rica  (4-0-4)  will be facing last placed Trinidad and Tobago (1-2-5) in Costa Rica. That game will take place at the same time as the US v Honduras game.

Clint Dempsey is out for the US with a shoulder injury and Frankie Hejduk was recalled to the team in his place. The Catrachos will be without their captain Amado Guevara as well as Elvis Turcios, both suspended for yellow card accumulation.

Of course the unrest in Honduras has been a concern for the US players.  “It’s obviously of interest to those of us who pay attention to world news in general,” Donovan said, “but that part aside, the only interest from a soccer standpoint is making sure that it’s safe and that everything’s OK for us. And, like we’ve said, we rely on our security team, on the coaching staff, on U.S. Soccer to do that. It’s not something we worry about. And they’ve never put us in harm’s way, and I don’t think they every would.”

On Friday evening, Sports Illustrated soccer reporter Grant Wahl reported through Twitter that he had been “robbed at gunpoint in Tegucigalpa in broad daylight. I’m OK, but they took wallet/iPhone.”

Not only the fans are upset that this game can only be seen on closed circuit but so are the US players. Several players twittered as much on Saturday morning and U.S. captain Carlos Bocanegra commented, “It’s pretty sad!”

ESPN has announced they will have complete highlights of the game on Sports Center immediately following the game.

Eight U.S. players will need to be careful because of  yellow card accumulation and would miss the match against Costa Rica if they get another: Donovan, Benny Feilhaber, Jozy Altidore, Bocanegra, Conor Casey, Steve Cherundolo, Ricardo Clark and Frankie Hejduk all have 8. The best way to deal with this situation for the US is to win outright tonight in Honduras.

Other scenarios for the US to get though to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa are:

1. If the USA wins in Honduras
2. If Costa Rica loses at home to Trinidad & Tobago
3. If the USA and Cost Rica both draw, the USA still qualifies

Last, my friend Mike Petersen has again created this awesome Google map of all the World Cup qualifiers that are taking place today. Click on the photo and it will actually bring you to the map and then you can explore all the stadiums. Very cool!

See you tonight at the Sweetwater!