Classic USA-MEX match & Other Friendlies

WORK FROM HOME -- It was not surprising that the USA won a meaningless match against MEX (they sometimes do, and no, the Nations Cup trophy is not worth playing for, as evident by players MEX did not call up) since this does not lead to, for example WC qualifying or a Confederations Cup berth.  But, oh what a match it was.  Of course, a typical USA misplay led to a MEX goal barely 70 seconds in and a near death blow when they went up 2-0.  Except they didn't, VAR rules offsides and minutes later, USA scored off a corner kick to tie it at 1.  Boy, nearly every one of USA's 6 corners resulted in a great header, most on goal, something that rarely happens in soccer.  It was like a free scoring opportunity every time.  When MEX went up late, USA tied it again three minutes later (yeah, off a corner).  

Then VAR ruled PKs twice in the second half of Extra Time, one for USA (where Christian Pulisic nailed the PK) and one for MEX (where backup GK Ethan Horvath came up big with a save).  That gave the final USA 3, MEX 2.  But let's not forget

In other news outside UEFA...

Congrats to the USA and Mexico for taking control of their preliminary groups to start the World Cup 2014 qualifying.  And in that infamous Oceania Football Confederation, their OFC Nations Cup featured a final featuring not New Zealand, but Tahiti Nui and New Caledonia.  And who will we see in the superstar 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup featuring Brazil, Spain, Mexico, and the likes?  Tahiti Nui! And after hearing Argentina beat Brazil 4-3 with Lionel Messi getting a hat trick, it reminded me of David F. (The Mighty Mobelfakta) suggesting why doesn't UEFA invite Brazil and Argentina (maybe Mexico) as guests and call THAT the superstar World Cup.  Oh, and the LA Galaxy did not lose for the second straight weekend. 

Gaining steam

We're slowly gaining momentum like Mexico (2-0 win over Brazil) but not like Spain (last-minute 1-0 win over China at home with a full squad).  We're up to 9 entries with more than 3 1/2 days to go and are on pace to surpass the 21 entries we had in our first HWCI World Cup pool in 1998 and the 23 we had in 2002.  Topping 44 in 2006?  Not likely, but maybe you all will surprise me.

So will we see a Spanish dynasty or will Greece win again.  I read someone's tweet that France missed the European Championships for 24 years before winning in 1984 while Greece missed 24 years (5 tournaments) before winning in 2004.  Which team's last European Championship appearance was 24 years ago?  Ireland.  Let's see how many pick them to win it all!

In the PDF fill-in form, Michael G. (FC Spermicidals) noted that he couldn't save... so if you only have Acrobat Reader, then you need to either do a print to PDF (e.g., CutePDF) or print and scan/photo and email.  Sorry about that.  Or you can just enter on-line which seems to be work reliably thus far.