by Ethan Johnson
June 14, 2007

Two down, one to go. Once the First Stage games are complete, we can see them off with a hearty, "it was real, it was fun, but it wasn't real fun." Well, it's like "gross" foods that are good for you otherwise. Let's slurp our medicine and look forward to the goodness and light that is the Second Stage:

Canada vs Haiti:

I actually watched this game in "real time" instead of speeding up the DVR. I blew past the halftime show, however. It was interesting to watch the game "breathe". For all of the complaining that I hear about soccer being low-scoring (don't even get me started about baseball and hockey being immune from such complaints), the fact is, scoring can happen at any given moment so you have to pay attention. Dwayne DeRosario, who isn't one of my all-time favorite players, managed to score twice (!!!) in three minutes (!!!); once off of a nifty goal-scoring attempt, and the second off of a penalty kick. The Karma Train came around full circle for one Pat Onstad (Sutton was nowhere to be found after that game 2 loss) as a Haitian player plowed into him and actually bounced Onstad's head twice off of the turf. That was scary. For as much as I dislike the Houston Dynamo, I respect Pat Onstad and wouldn't want to see him suffer a career-ending injury. He managed to recover from the spill and even made an amazing "iron stomach" save later in the match. Canada went from "on the ropes" to "top of the heap" in 90 short minutes.

USA vs El Salvador:

Holy cow. This was a "statement" game for the US, and by extension Major League Soccer. I don't have intimate knowledge of the US roster, but considering how many goals were scored by "not Clint Dempsey" I assumed that it was all MLS, all the way. Nope. DaMarcus Beasley (Manchester City/ENG) took first blood for Team USA off of a corner kick by Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy/MLS). Then Donovan seemed to score on a rebound of a blocked penalty kick, which was disallowed but became a re-kick. Donovan sailed the ball through to make the score 2-0. I thought USA had made enough of a statement, but Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution/MLS) scored a sweet goal to close out the first half. At this point, I sent the DVR into hyperdrive because I honestly expected zero scoring for the remainder of the match. But no: DaMarcus Beasley scored again off of a nifty pass from Clint Dempsey to send El Salvador to the exits. Team USA cruises to the Second Stage. Brilliant!

Mexico vs Panama:

Wow, what a mess of a first half. Panama and Mexico each managed to hit the bar, but not actually drive the ball into the net. Neither team was really able to put together much in the way of offense, and the ball wound up in Mexico's half quite a bit by design - their design. Both teams played rather rough, drawing a combined 5 yellow cards and 11 fouls for the half. The second half wasn't much better, except Mexico managed to score on a corner kick fairly early on. Panama received TWO red cards, which speaks to the aggressive (to a fault) style of play that went on game-wide. So Mexico vaults to 2nd place in the group, which helps. I'm sure they're relieved to advance to the quarterfinals.

Quarterfinal Matchups:

Canada vs Guatemala
USA vs Panama
Honduras vs Guadeloupe
Mexico vs Costa Rica

I will consolidate the quarterfinal recap into one entry, as I'm aware that a fair number of readers are getting sick of all of this soccer (they're not even reading this sentence) lately. Relax, the end is near. Check your local listings to follow along at home. <EM>

(The full Copa Oro index may be found here.)