Can Humberto Suazo lead Chile out of Group H? (AP)

By Geoff Reid

When the draw for the groups were first announced, Group H didn’t raise any eyebrows in-particular and it looked as if European champion Spain would top the group with a three way battle for second place and a shot at the last 16. Six months on, nothing has really changed with the Spanish being favorites to win it all, and three teams, Switzerland, Honduras, and Chile, all having just as good of a chance at progressing as the other.

Spain: No real need to do an introduction to this group. Everyone who follows the game knows their players are some of the best in the world, and what is a scary proposition or everyone else now is that after Spain’s victory is Euro 2008 two years ago, there is no more fear or curse over them. They know how to win and believe in themselves, and rightly so. Gone are the days where the team was divided with players from Catalonia, Madrid, and the Basque country all not getting along. From goalkeeping starting with Real Madrid’s Iker Casillas, arguably the best in the world in his position, right the way through to the forward line of Barcelona’s newest signing David Villa and Liverpool’s Fernando Torres, this is a complete team one through 11. One question is Torres’ fitness after missing the last several games for Liverpool during the season. Even at goalkeeper, if Casillas goes down injured, Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina is probably the best reserve goalkeeper in the whole tournament. The one thing the rest of the 31 nations can take hope from is one year ago in the Confederations Cup with the Spanish losing to the USA shows no team is unbeatable.

Switzerland: The Swiss are a confident bunch despite some injuries, poor form from key players and other setbacks. The main problem for manager Ottmar Hitzfeld is that the current generation is getting up there in age, while the youth is still a little too young to throw into the senior squad. Record scorer Alexander Frei is struggling to get fit for the opener against Spain, which will mean former FC Twente and current Seattle Sounders striker Blaise Nkufo will have much of the pressure to score the goals, and that’s not something he’s never had. After all, he captained Twente to their Dutch league title. Sounders fans will look on with keen interest. But the main problem Hitzfeld has very much like a lot teams at this years tournament is a fair amount of his squad are on the rosters of clubs across Europe, but struggle for a decent amount of playing time.

Honduras: Truth be told, I will be rooting for the Hondurans to get out of this group. The battle more then anything else for these guys will be mentally, to avoid being the whipping boys of this year’s tournament. Make no mistake though, this Honduran side has come very talented players that can hurt almost anyone. It’s now normal to see their top players playing in Europe and doing well for themselves such as Wilson Palacios at Tottenham Hotspur, David Suazo at Genoa, and Julio Cesar De Leon at Torino. Lets also not forget Maynor Figueroa scored the goal of the season in England for Wigan Athletic. All MLS fans know how good Amado Guevara can be when he’s in form. It will be a tough task for this side, but don’t think for a second these players will be the whipping boys. They could surprise a few people.

Chile: First time Chile have played in a world cup since France in 1998, so in that reason alone not reaching the last 16 wouldn’t have the average Chilean that disappointed. However, for coach Marcelo Bielsa, the last 16 is a must after the Argentinean manager fell at the first hurdle in the 2002 tournament that had England, Nigeria, and Sweden drawn in the same group. Bielsa has done a tremendous job with this team and has a nation believing again. The players buy into what he’s saying and did amazingly well in South American qualifying. Striker Humberto Suazo was top scorer in qualifying and is the established leader of the Chilean attack. Another potential sleeper in this tournament and could surprise some people.

Prediction: In all certainty, Spain should top this group convincingly, followed by a competitive fight for second place. Switzerland, Honduras and Chile all can finish in second and it’s tough to see who will come out on top. All three sides should show themselves fairly well, but I see Chile joining the Spanish as qualifiers from this group.

Spain 9pts
Chile 6pts
Honduras 3pts
Switzerland 0pts

Not much to celebrate on Saturday for Clarence Goodson and Brad Davis. (Getty Images)

I spent the weekend away from the computer for a reason. I wanted to basically have some free time to do things non-soccer related for a change but I did make some time for the USMNT’s match against Honduras. Let me just first say that I went into this match with little to no expectations for our boys. Sure I thought a win would happen but it was merely a meaningless match that turned out to be just about that.

Some will fall into the deep end about this game and there are some that are probably working their way out by now after this 3-1 loss to our CONCACAF mates. While it wasn’t the best way to start a World Cup year but honestly it wasn’t the worst. Why? A good chunk of the players who played on Saturday won’t even be in the true discussion come June for Bob Bradley.

In other words there is no reason to get truly upset over our team which fielded a bunch of third and forth level national team players losing to Honduras. Had it been our main squad with Landon Donovan, Tim Howard and company then there would most certainly be a reason to get upset today.

Bradley used a large MLS base of players on Saturday and while that is all good and fine here it showed that the depth isn’t there like it should be. Maybe three or four of those guys on Saturday will be in the discussion for South Africa but the rest really shouldn’t be at this point.

Not that there is anything wrong with trying out a few fresh faces either. Bradley has been known to do that a lot in the past and quite honestly it has worked well for him in my opinion. This past weekend was a trail for the majority involved. A couple shined and showed they proved to be in the mix while a majority showed they aren’t on the same level as those in the mix.

To me Saturday’s loss showed the third and maybe forth level of talent just isn’t up to par with other countries. I think we can safely say that here after seeing that game. No this wasn’t a B team or even really a C team for me on the field. And on that note I really hate labeling teams A, B and C.

So to those who fell over board this past weekend, get your head up and get back into the boat. South Africa is only a few months away and our first team boys will certainly put on a better show than what we saw this past weekend.

Of the 30 players, 25 are from Major League Soccer with 13 of the 16 clubs represented. Good to see a few names on there like Kevin Alston from New England and Geoff Cameron from Houston.

Here is the roster:

GOALKEEPERS (4): Kevin Hartman (Kansas City), Troy Perkins (Valerenga), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake), Zach Thornton (Chivas USA)
DEFENDERS (8): Kevin Alston (New England Revolution), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Omar Gonzalez (Los Angeles Galaxy), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Heath Pearce (FC Dallas), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC)
MIDFIELDERS (12): Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Alejandro Bedoya (Örebro), Geoff Cameron (Houston Dynamo), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders), Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus), Eddie Gaven (Columbus Crew), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Jeff Larentowicz (New England Revolution), Dax McCarty (FC Dallas), Chris Pontius (D.C. United), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)
FORWARDS (6): Justin Braun (Chivas USA), Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Jeff Cunningham (FC Dallas), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake), Brandon McDonald (San Jose Earthquakes), Marcus Tracy (Aalborg)

The Americans will face the Dutch at Amsterdam ArenA on March 3 (2:30pm, ESPN2/Galavision). The game will also be on an international fixture date meaning we’ll probably see a big mix of European and MLS players from Bob Bradley.

This friendly along with the Honduras one in January and a possible match with Mexico in February is starting to shape some things up nicely for World Cup tune-ups for the US. Hopefully this trip to Europe will be a little better than the one last month that saw the US go down to Denmark and Slovakia.

According to reports out of Honduras, the US men’s national team will face fellow World Cup participant Honduras on Sunday, January 24 at Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

The other looks to be trying to finalize a friendly with Northern Ireland, with the match potentially being played in March or May.

There is also still the rumored Holland game still left on the table for sometime in March. The game has been listed on the FIFA website for a couple months now and it should be announced by the end of the month as well.

Apparently the Honduras game’s date is in question according to SBI. Which means it will mostly be MLS-based players playing in the game with a few European players sprinkled in. With the day not being a proper FIFA fixture date it means European clubs aren’t required to release players for a friendly.

I saw the Northern Ireland report yesterday afternoon and thought the idea of facing them was very good as a World Cup tuneup. Northern Ireland faced fellow Group C member Slovenia and was defeated 1-0 by this Northern Ireland squad. Plus their club plays similar to England.

So potentially the US could be facing Honduras, Holland and Northern Ireland next year. Not bad really if you ask me. Its a good start at least for those tune ups leading up to June’s World Cup.

The US is going to another World Cup. (Getty Images)

Editor’s Note: Geoff Reid appears at WVHooligan each week. Today he is back to recap the recent World Cup clinching match for the US against Honduras. Feel free to leave Geoff your thoughts below.

It’s been a few days since the US national team secured qualification for South Africa next summer so now would be a good time to recap the latest events that took place in San Pedro Sulsa on Saturday night.

Before kick off, Honduras won eight matches out of eight in this world cup qualifying cycle. Nobody has managed to get a point against them on their own pitch in front of their own crowd. It looked like that might continue against the Americans after Oguchi Onyewu gave away a stupid foul on Carlos Pavon that led to the free kick which was brilliantly taken by Julio Cesar de Leon and Tim Howard had no chance. Give credit to the team and to Bob Bradley when it’s due because this team could have folded and lost all confidence and composure after going behind on the road in a place where nobody has gotten any points.

With a little bit of luck and terrible goalkeeping, Conor Casey was able to get his head on Charlie Davies’ tall flick on and bounced the right way into the goal. While luck certainly played a part in leveling the score, Casey’s second goal didn’t involve any, just pure class. Great through ball from Landon Donovan, a well timed run by Casey and ball watching from the Honduran defense followed by a beautifully calm finish gave the Americans the 2-1 advantage. Before we knew it, Casey won a free kick on the edge of the box in a similar position to where Clint Mathis struck the winner back in 2001. This time it was Donovan who stuck a brilliant dead ball and again, with the help of a goalkeeping error the US made it 3-1. Of course luck played it’s role again, the a goal being disallowed for offside for the Hondurans, and then later on after the second goal for the hosts, Pavon pulled a Roberto Baggio and skied his penalty into row Z.

What did we learn?

The Positives:

Firstly, we learned that this team has the will and character to dig deep and pull together to come from the brink. After coming so close to getting a result at the Azteca in August, the players and staff now know mentally and physically what it takes to win in a hostile environment against a good team. Regardless if Honduras make it to the big dance or not, they’re still a good team with quality players so this was a massive result.

Conor Casey. I’m not going to lie, I was just as surprised to see Casey’s name in the starting 11 just as much as the next person and to be ahead of not only Jozy Altidiore, but also Brian Ching who has been a favorite of Bob Bradley’s. While Casey did not cement his place in the 23 man squad that’ll head to South Africa, he did his chances no harm whatsoever and the person he needs to thank is Gary Smith because ever since Gary Smith took over at the Rapids from Fernando Clavijo he has been much more consistent in his goals to game ratio. The team as a whole have gotten much better and it’s a wonder why Clavijo didn’t get the pink slip earlier quite honestly.

Stuart Holden. Now the starting position on the right wing is Clint Dempsey’s to lose, lets be quite clear on that. However, Holden showed being only in one game keep in mind, that he is an excellent replacement should Dempsey pick up a serious injury or lose form drastically. This season has seen him blossom into a better all round player who produces on a consistent basis after the Dynamo let Duane DeRosario leave. It’ll be interesting where he will be come the end of the MLS season and the European transfer window opens up.

Landon Donovan. Flat out, easily the best US player currently, arguably of all time. I’ve been a frequent criticizer of Donovan as much as anyone has, but the maturity he has shown in the last several years is quite impressive. I honestly think him getting married did help him a lot and even though that appears to be over, it’s helping him grow more as a player and as a person. We always knew he had the talent to succeed technically, it was mentally did he have the will to want to do it. I think we’re seeing now he does, and wants to erase the memory of 2006 for good and prove to the world that he can play on the biggest stage and be a success. For his sake, I hope somebody snaps him up in Europe, but not in Germany.

Bob Bradley. As a lot of folks who’ve read my stuff before and know me, I’ve always been defending Bob at the worst of times and there’s nobody I’m more happy for then him currently. That being said, and Bob knows this better then anyone, the hard work is just beginning. Has he gotten some decisions wrong? Of course, all coaches do. Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink aren’t always right. Heck even Sir Alex Ferguson makes mistakes from time to time and he’s the best out of the lot. But more often then not, the good managers get it right more often then not and so far, Bob has done that. The Confederations Cup didn’t get off to a good start, but once again, the character of this team shone through and eventually became only a heartbeat away from winning the tournament, and beating one of the best African teams (Egypt) and the top ranked nation in the world (Spain) before falling to Brazil. Sure, the US lost in Saprissa and the Azteca, but we’re sitting pretty at the top of the region again, with a very good chance of winning it again. Keep in mind, Tim Howard was absolutely right in that a lot of the team’s in CONCACAF are catching up and improving so this time around as we’ve seen, it’s been a lot more difficult to qualify.

The negatives:

The back four are still very suspect. Now if Jay DeMerit didn’t have trouble with one of his eyes, he would have started next to Onyewu with captain Carlos Bocanegra at left back. While I don’t think Bocanegra should be the top left back because he is vulnerable, he is the leader of this group and therefore he has to fit in somewhere, possibly in a 3-5-2 formation going into the center next to DeMerit and Onyewu?

Left back situation. This falls under the same category as the previous one but I thought it should get a mention separately. How many have tried the left back position in the last three years? Heath Pearce, DaMarkus Beasley, Jonathan Bornstein and Carlos Bocanegra, am I missing anyone else? While Bocanegra is the best out of who’s been tried there, it’s time to give Edgar Castillo a serious look. I’m not saying he’s the answer because we just don’t know. But he deserves a shot as much as anyone.

The play of Altidiore. I know the kid didn’t get much of a chance to show what he can do and was told to chase loose balls and everything else, but am I the only one who thought there was no need to give away needless free kicks when he came on? It’s obvious that he needs to get regular football under his belt and he’ll get more of a chance this season with Hull City, but he has to work hard and earn his spot, just like Dempsey did when Roy Hodgson took over at Fulham. He has all the talent and the tools to succeed at the highest level and we all must remember he’s just 19 years old! He’s also got a good head on his shoulders so he should be fine in the long run

So overall we can be very pleased with what the team has accomplished so far. But there is still question marks over a number of things such as the midfield situation. How much of a look will Jermaine Jones get? What will happen when Maurice Edu is healthy? Will Bob Bradley accommodate Jose Francisco Torres in somehow? All these questions will be very interesting to see over the next eight months or so.

Now the US has a chance to win their group on Wednesday night in DC against Costa Rica.

Still stunned by this second half finish by the US? How about Conor Casey’s two-goal effort?

GOALKEEPERS (2): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton)

DEFENDERS (7): Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan), Jonathan Spector (West Ham)

MIDFIELDERS (8): Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Benny Feilhaber (AGF Aarhus), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), José Francisco Torres (Pachuca), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

FORWARDS (5): Jozy Altidore (Hull City), Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Kenny Cooper (1860 Munich), Charlie Davies (FC Sochaux)

Off the top of my head, the only shockers to me were Conrad and Rogers. I’m also starting to wonder if Casey is the new Eddie Johnson for Bob Bradley. You know a decent forward that is a bit over hyped and never really does that great with the National team? I dunno, just a thought.

No radio, no English TV, no Spanish TV, and who knows maybe even no internet feed.

Goff says this isn’t the USSF’s fault either. The media company (whoever it is) that owns the rights to this game wasn’t able to sell it to any outlet. To watch the game, which begins at 9pm CT next Saturday, you’ll have to find local watering whole or eating establishment that has purchased the closed-circuit rights. The distributor has set up a Web site and has promised a list of locations by tonight.

I won’t lie to ya, this sucks a big one that we won’t be able to see this here on any normal TV channel, even the good ol’ mun2!

Guess we will have to rely on the trusty ol’ internet to provide a decent feed.

No real word from the network about this game yet but it is looking that this big game in Honduras will not be shown here on one of their many channels. This could be the result of the game falling on a big college football day for ESPN. Typically through the college football season ESPN puts loads of games on all of their networks.

If ESPN isn’t showing the game, the bigger question comes to who is? Will FSC step up and get the game?