Jurgen Klinsmann's debut tonight overshadows the Mexican rivalry. (Photo from MLSSoccer.com)

It is a dawn of a new day for the US Men’s National Team. Jurgen Klinsmann’s first game as the US coach is a big one, against arch-rival Mexico. There is no way of getting around it, this one will be anything but friendly.

Throw away the result a few weeks ago in the Gold Cup to this Mexican side because both will be fairly different in this contest. With Klinsmann involved now with the US, things will change and we saw that already with the roster announcement last week. There is a new spark or intrigue to this match that wasn’t there when it was announced after the Gold Cup.

We know what Mexico brings to the table, minus Javier “Chicharito” Hernández, who is out still with a head injury. Pablo Barrera will be called to carry the offensive load as he found the back of the net twice against this US squad at the Gold Cup final. I also look for Giovani dos Santos to carry a load of the offensive weight in this one as well for El Tri.

The US will likely see a different lineup, formation, the works tonight. I’d look for some of the usual faces to start for Klinsmann tonight like Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, Carlos Bocanegra, and Steve Cherundolo. With no Clint Dempsey or Jozy Alitdore up top, expect some guys like Freddy Adu, Brek Shea and Juan Agudelo to get a shot.

We know defensively things will go a little differently with Klinsmann than it did with Bob Bradley. We should see Bocanegra and Cherundolo in the back but I think someone like Health Pearce will get a start. Or possibly Michael Orozco.

Klinsmann is noted as saying he wants to bring a nice attacking style of play to the US team. You should expect just that tonight too though I’d imagine it will take a few games for his style of play to really kick in with this bunch.

Expectations are going to be high for Klinsmann but let’s just remember one thing about tonight’s game, the result really does not matter. Yes it is Mexico, I get that, but really we shouldn’t worry so much of the result of this game. Good or bad we just need to know where this team is headed under Klinsmann. Tonight, we should definitely see that.

Zach Loyd will join the US team in Philadelphia next week. (Getty Images)

Jurgen Klinsmann has made one change to his first roster for the US Men’s National team. Today he announced that FC Dallas defender Zach Loyd would replace the injured Tim Chandler on the 22-man roster.

Chandler had been battling injuries since the start of the Bundesliga season and was not fit enough to make the game.

Loyd will be getting his second call-up with the US team. His first came back in January when the US tied Chile 1-1. Loyd went 73 minutes in that match and was named the Man of the Match. The 24-year old has played in 21 games for FC Dallas this season, scoring once and adding two assists

There were plenty of shocks to this roster like DC’s Bill Hamid or seeing some names like Michael Orozco Fiscal again. Seven MLSers were called this time, which is great to see. Two come from the MLS academy system (Hamid and Agudelo), which shows that the league’s academies are moving in the right direction.

One shocker for sure was seeing a name like Jozy Altidore left off or even having DeMarcus Beasley be back on the roster. Also, no Clint Dempsey? I guess his club got in the way there, which isn’t a bad thing really.

Three players I would have liked to see called were Chad Marshall, George John and Geoff Cameron. I bring up Cameron only as a defender though. Still, I really have no major issues with this roster.

What do you think?

GOALKEEPERS (2): Bill Hamid (D.C.United), Tim Howard (Everton)

DEFENDERS (8): Carlos Bocanegra (Saint-Etienne), Edgar Castillo (Club America), Timmy Chandler (FC Nürnberg), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Clarence Goodson (Brondby), Michael Orozco Fiscal (San Luis), Heath Pearce (Chivas USA), Tim Ream (New York Red Bulls)

MIDFIELDERS (7): Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Ricardo Clark (Eintracht Frankfurt), Maurice Edu (Rangers), Jermaine Jones (Schalke 04), Brek Shea (FC Dallas), José Torres (Pachuca)

FORWARDS (5): Freddy Adu (Benfica), Juan Agudelo (New York Red Bulls), DaMarcus Beasley (Puebla), Edson Buddle (FC Ingolstadt), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

Whether it's from Freddy Adu or Clint Dempsey, all I want is a trophy. (Getty Images)

Let’s be real honest, the last month or so for the US Men’s National Team hasn’t been real pretty now has it? Wins over Canada, Guadeloupe, Jamaica and Panama are what the US can hang their hats on at the moment. Sure, that’s four wins that put the US in the final of the Gold Cup but are we really impressed with any of it so far? I don’t see too many of you jumping for joy at the moment at the way things have played out.

Yet here we are. Another CONCACAF Gold Cup and another finals clash with our rivals to the south, Mexico.

I may take heat over this but it really doesn’t matter how the USMNT does it this Saturday, as long as they win it, I’ll be happy. I’ll take another ugly performance or even a half-assed effort in the sake of downing Mexico.

It hasn’t been all that fun during the Gold Cup now has it? Ugly results while Mexico is putting a pounding on little teams left and right. Sure we had a little laugh at their poisoned chicken situation that saw a few guys get removed from the team. But that didn’t make a difference really for them.

We’ve questioned Bob Bradley and his tactics. Asked why he wouldn’t sub some players sooner. Pondered the why’s and the what if’s to no end really. No matter the many ways we’ve looked at things it always comes to the same result with this bunch, it just isn’t going to be sexy. Style points have never been Bradley’s thing either so at this point, expecting them is out of the question.

And for that I say, just win.

Winning usually forgives all transgressions in sports. For Bradley a Gold Cup win isn’t needed on his resume but it certainly won’t hurt it.

And for that I say, just win.

For Bradley it is go all in or just go home. Pull out no stops in this one and just get the result. I don’t care if Landon Donovan comes off the bench again in this one (hey it seems to work nicely). I don’t mind if even Freddy Adu makes another appearance. Just as long as the win comes with it and we see the US beat Mexico for another important trophy.

(Sure they beat the US in 2009 but as we all know that tournament was meaningless. Why CONCACAF continues to do this tournament every-other-year continues to baffle me and that will be another topic for another day. )

We know beating Mexico is never an easy thing no matter where the game is played (except for Columbus). In LA I’d be willing to be the stadium will be 60-40 or even 70-30, Mexican-American fans. Just a hunch. So rule out the home field advantage nonsense. So why not make it even sweeter for those Americans there to see the win.

At the end of the day, just win. That’s it. That’s all I care about.

I won’t go into tactics for the match or break down who I think should start or not. I’m not going to throw out some crazy stats on certain players (I’ll do that over at SBNation.com though later on, so watch out!). Just like the comments have said throughout, all I care about is the win. I can put aside how ugly this Cup run has been with a win Saturday at the Rose Bowl. I can throw away a few #fireBradley tweets saves on my laptop with a win.

Yup, for me, just win.

Hard to argue that this wasn't a goal. (Getty Images)

In a way I see this as just a gesture from FIFA boss Sepp Blatter to make folks happier but in the other way I have a feeling nothing will actually come of it. Either way you spin it Blatter said today he would be open to considering replays for calls on the field.

Blatter has stated that FIFA will “re-open the file on goal-line technology” during meetings next month to determine whether FIFA will implement the use of instant replay in the future.

Once England was the victim of a non-goal/non-call against Germany where the ball clearly crossed the goal-line but all the refs on the field failed to see what millions around the world saw, we knew something would at least be discussed a bit more here. The technology is already in place for some goal-line sensors which would have clearly helped this situation out for England.

Mexico was also a victim of some unlucky calls against Argentina. Carlos Tevez was clearly offside but his first goal was still allowed.

More than likely we won’t see any sort of system to help offside calls here as that sort of replay system would drastically slow the pace of the game down for calls like this. But goal-line technology would instantly help some situations out. No one can really know how much different the England-Germany game would have been at 2-2 instead of how it was at 2-1 when the Frank Lampard shot crossed the goal-line. Germany winning 4-1 definitely silenced more folks in England about the Lampard goal that wasn’t than they would have had the score ended 2-1.

FIFA and Blatter have told England and Mexico sorry for the mistakes but that kind of message won’t be good enough for either today.

I’m all for some goal-line technology here and have been supporting that issue for a while now. Maybe its time we see some sort of system like in hockey where a forth or even fifth official just examines the goal-line situations and turns on a bright red light when the ball crosses the line. Cheesy in some manners but effective.

Sebastian Abreu will lead Uruguay in Group A. (Getty Images)

Its hard to believe but the 2010 FIFA World Cup is less than two weeks away. We know our roster here in the US and other counties have released their rosters as well. Time to get excited if you aren’t already.

Geoff Reid and I will be going through each group to give you a preview of the tournament. I’ll tackle half the groups while he handles the other half. Today we begin with Group A, a group that could end up being one of the most competitive groups in the entire field. The hosts were drawn into this group back before the groups were all made up back in December. At the draw South Africa learned they’d get France, Mexico and Uruguay in their group.

A host nation has never failed to get out of the group stage in the World Cup. Most believe South Africa will be the first that fails to move on this year. Having three tough teams in their group it is easy to see why. France is a former champion, Mexico has always been tough and Uruguay may be one of the most underrated teams in the entire tournament.

Here is a quick look at each team:

South Africa: You have to wonder if home field advantage even matters. But in years past when a host was given a small chance to move forward into the knockout stages teams surprised us. The US moved forward in 1994, and both South Korea and Japan did a in 2002. On some levels most figured none of those three would have done so much like most would believe that South Africa won’t this year. But let’s not sleep on the South Africans here, they’ve had some solid matches this year leading up to the Cup including a 1-1 road draw in a friendly against Paraguay. They also won 2-1 against Colombia. The key for the hosts will be getting well-timed goals against teams with lots of pressure like France or Mexico to move on.

France: In some ways you can argue they are lucky to be here. They coasted into the World Cup thanks to some real shaky and at times questionable qualifying. But to me France is like a veteran team in the NFL or NBA that knows when to turn it on in key moments. They’ve looked so-so in friendlies leading up to this event with one more on the way this weekend against China. To me France will likely get out of this group but it won’t be pretty.

Mexico: El Tri is a tough cookie to crack. Usually they do well at the World Cup but in a group like this I think it will be a tough couple weeks on them. Looking at their recent results you can’t be all that impressed with them. Anyone remember that 0-0 draw with Iceland. The thing is Mexico has played more friendlies to prepare for this tournament than anyone else in the field. I worry about their focus though and their draw in the tournament isn’t too favorable. They open with South Africa which will likely be a very emotional game for the host nation. While I don’t think they’ll lose to South Africa, winning that match won’t be easy.

Uruguay: When the draw came out back in December this quickly became one of my dark-horse teams. Any team that can go into Costa Rica and get a win like they did to qualify is tough in my book. They’re deep up top and will put a lot of pressure on the French in the opening game. My bet is most teams will look for a draw against them due to their attack, or hope for mental errors in the back to score goals.

Group A Predictions:

I’ve gone back and forth between France and Mexico on this but I believe Uruguay will come out on top followed by France thanks to goal differential with Mexico. South Africa will be the monkey wrench in this group as I see them giving both France and Mexico fits.

1. Uruguay 7pts
2. France 4pts
3. Mexico 4 pts.
4. South Africa 0 pts.

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.

First of all the stadium situation in Mexico isn’t that great to go head-to-head with countries like the US for a World Cup bid. Sure Mexico is soccer-hungry but the cost right now to redo a good chunk of their stadiums or even build new ones would be pretty high for a country with a fairly weak economy.

The US is now the only CONCACAF country bidding for the two Cups. The US is now in competition with Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands (joint bid), England, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Spain and Portugal (joint bid), Qatar, and Russia for one of the two World Cups up for grabs.

Strong bids from England and the two joint bids are what is standing in the way of the 2018 World Cup for the US. More than likely as we’ve discussed before here the World Cup will likely go to a European country in 2018 while the US likely stands to be the best bid for the 2022 Cup.

What do you make of Mexico dropping out of the running here? Surprised at all?

There is still a lot of qualifying left to do. Let’s make that clear, four games may not seem like much but it can certainly change the landscape of how things will finish out here.

First of all the US has gotten it’s hard games out of the way on the road in Costa Rica and Mexico, not to mention getting their home game to Mexico out of the way. They still have Costa Rica at home left to finish out qualifying but as we all know in the Hexagonal, Costa Rica and Mexico (up until the Gold Cup for them at least) don’t win in the US and the US doesn’t win in Mexico and Costa Rica. If that holds to be true we will indeed be fine.

But saying we will be fine isn’t enough for some. The way the standings are right now we pretty much have a sense of who the top four teams will be and who the bottom two are. Trinidad and Tobago and El Salvador aren’t out of the running but they sure have a longer way to go with four games remaining.

At this point the best case for the US would be a first place finish in the group with say 19 points (the two home wins and a win in either T&T or Honduras). Speaking of Honduras they are sort of the wild card team in this for CONCACAF. I still think they could qualify over Mexico here if things go right.

Again, a lot of soccer left to be played. I still feel good about the US here but I know some naysayers out there may disagree.

Time for some extra links though to get you through the rest of the day.

Tough Road for Houston, Columbus and DC

Link

Excellent discussion over at SBI about the rough stretch of weeks that are coming up for three MLS sides in league play and in the CONCACAF Champions League. The Columbus Crew, the Houston Dynamo and DC United all have full slates ahead of them and DC even has a little more with the USOC final early next month.

Houston has the most favorable schedule out of the group here having already played 22 games this season. I pointed that out a little while back when I looked at the schedules for everyone. DC definitely will feel the lack of depth after a couple weeks here, if not sooner. Columbus has an interesting draw that I am eager to see.

Dallas Heading Back To Cotton Bowl

Link

Well for one night at least FC Dallas will return to the Cotton Bowl. Reason being is because it will be a double-header as Mexico will play some un-named South American side (probably Columbia or Chile). Steve Davis noted that this is due to SUM’s marketing of Mexico here in the States and not FCD work. The MLS side just has to play host that’s all.

Dempsey Signs 4-Year Deal With Fulham

Link

Clint Dempsey’s so-so performance against Mexico yesterday didn’t affect getting a contract extension with Fulham. The London-based club announced the four-year deal for the US midfielder.

Good to see Deuce do well in England.

Tim Howard did his best but it wasn't enough. (Getty Images)

To say I am not disappointed would be lying. I am a bit disappointed in not pulling out the draw today but one thing I do know is soccer is never a kind sport when you want it to be. Excuses aside though we should be very thankful that the US showed up and play well today down in Mexico, it may have not been solid for 90 minutes but still better than in the past.

This one does hurt though just as all losses to your big rival are. Getting the lead for the first time in Azteca and then to only quickly blow it away really stunk. Not to mention playing for the draw for a good portion of the game always comes back to bite you in the ass. It just comes down to lack of chances and lack of chances taken by the US.

Possession was an issue today as well. I’m sure the altitude had something to do with that over 90 minutes because believe me, that far above sea level and you are gasping for air no matter how good of shape you are in. Along with the posssession was the lack of quality touches on the ball in the midfield.

It turns out yet again that we just aren’t here all the way. We are getting close but results like today and failing to hold on to leads shows this club is still a step away from really becoming what we all want them to be as a team. I know Landon Donovan and others spoke a lot about holding leads after the loss to Brazil in the Confederation’s Cup. We just aren’t there yet.

Lastly we cannot make excuses on the refs. Sure they were terrible today but would you really expect anything better being on the road in CONCACAF qualifying? I sure wouldn’t, in fact if we got too many calls going our way on the road I would be worried that there would be a fix going on somewhere.

In the end we did learn a few things like seeing how Stuart Holden is ready to make the jump to the main A-squad of the USMNT. Charlie Davies is the real deal as a striker for us going forward too. Defensively we aren’t too shabby but we still give up too much space. Bob Bradley was better with his subs today and going forward that’s positive to see.

Let’s just remember we just really need two more wins here and we should be good to qualify for South Africa. With two games at home and a road game against Trinidad and Tobago I think six points should be simple enough to get.

Again it is disappointing but not the end of the world. We know where we want to go and we are getting there.