So, you think Barbados will be a pushover?
Maybe, maybe not.
U.S. national coach Bob Bradley isn't so sure. That's why he has called in the U.S. "A" team, leaving very little or nothing to chance for the U.S.'s first World Cup qualifying match for the 2010 competition against Barbados at The Home Depot Center Sunday (ESPN2, 5 p.m. ET).
That's why the U.S. has brought in its "A" team.
In World Cup qualifying, a bad back pass, a bone-head play or an ill-timed tackle could change the course of a match and a country's chances in a tight match.
The likelihood of it happening against Barbados is not that great, but that's why there are upsets.
"The preparation for those games has to be like any other game," U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. "There has to be attention to detail. You have to know your opponent. You need to make sure that our players understand what we need to do to be successful. We need to take care of things. You don't try it any differently than the preparation for other games. The fact of matter it is the start of World Cup qualifying. And that's the goal for all of us -- to be in South Africa in 2010."
And when you are in a two-game, total-goals series, even stranger things can happen.
Take, for example, what happened four years ago when the USA took on Grenada (and Shalrie Joseph) in similar circumstances. The 3-0 scoreline in Columbus, Ohio even was a bit deceiving. The Grenadans packed their penalty area so much that the game resembled pinball rather than soccer, balls were ricocheting off their defenders so much. In fact, two of the goals -- by DaMarcus Beasley and Greg Vanney -- were scored in stoppage time.
The U.S. domination was absurd. They outshot the visitors 34-6. They totaled 17 corner kicks to Grenada's one while forcing goalkeeper Kellon Baptiste to make 11 saves.
After a pre-match rain in the second leg in Grenada made the field wet and the players' footing and passing were unpredictable and sometimes unreliable, the U.S. managed to register a 3-2 victory and went on to win the total goals series 6-2. The waterlogged field at Grenada's National Cricket Stadium made sure passes stopped yards from their destination, allowing defenders on both sides to obtain possession of the ball, only to lose it for the same reason.
Don't be surprised if the Barbadians use similar strategy and try to pack it in.
"Normally speaking, you would say, yeah, Barbados is a team that we should absolutely beat," U.S. midfielder Landon Donovan said. "The problem is and we found this with Grenada. Let's say we don't play well and they play as good as they can play on the road when you play the first game at The Home Depot Center. We get unlucky. We hit the post a couple of times and the game ends up 0-0. Now you're going to Barbados, where they think they've got a real chance and anything can happen.
"That's where soccer is. I think a lot different from other games because on any day teams can find a way to get something out of a game. In the Grenada game it was the last minute before halftime before until we scored and they had a chance to score early on. You don't know what could happen. On paper, yeah, before going in, we should absolutely beat them. But you never know."
When the U.S. and Barbados met in a four-team round-robin semifinals series in 2000, the circumstances were different. The U.S. enjoyed a 7-0 rout in the first encounter in Foxborough, Mass. in August. The USA needed to win the second game in Watertown, Barbados in November to reach the CONCACAF final round or see their World Cup hopes go down the drain.
That game had plenty of of pre-match drama. U.S. coach Bruce Arena was serving a three-game suspension for his conduct after a controversial late penalty kick call in a 2-1 loss at Costa Rica earlier that summer. Ditto for Claudio Reyna, who was finishing out a two-game ban.
Arena brought in 34-year-old Tab Ramos to run the midfield (he announced his retirement from international soccer after the match). With Kasey Keller not getting much playing time with Rayo Vallecano in Spain and Brad Friedel just joining the Blackburn Rovers in England, a familiar face was called upon. Tony Meola, just off his regular-season and playoff MVP season with the then MLS champion Kansas City Wizards, was brought in to guard the goal. Clint Mathis, who just completed a career season (little did we know it he would never get close to that totals -- 16 goals and 14 assists -- again), made his qualifying debut.
Assistant coach Dave Sarachan took over the coaching reins while Bradley, then coach of the Chicago Fire, came in to help out.
The game was played on a bumpy field that had ruts and even a major injury waiting to happen, thanks to at least one broken sprinkler.
"If we lose this game it's going to be embarrassing," Ramos said at the time. "This is not going to be an easy game by any means. I don't think we're going to win by more than two goals."
He was wrong. The U.S. won by four goals -- 4-0 -- although the visitors were forced to sweat it out, finally finding the back of the net on the hour behind Mathis' goal. Then the dam broke and the U.S. cruised into the next round.
"I think the major lesson from that game is that World Cup qualifying is always challenging," Bradley said. "When you go away, the games can be difficult."
And that includes home games as well.
Michael Lewis covers soccer for the New York Daily News and is editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He can be reached at SoccerWriter516@aol.com. Views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
