Dave Sez

Beating The Hex

The news is now nearly a week old, but I don't want to let it slip by without a comment. After the USA's 3-0 spanking of Panama on the road last week, they have all but wrapped up a bid to the 2006 World Cup.

The win, the USA's second 3-0 victory in less than a week, gave the Nats 12 points out of a possible 15 through five qualifying games. That puts the US in second place behind Mexico with exactly half of the qualifying games left to go. The top three teams in CONCACAF move on to Germany, and the fourth place team gets a playoff against a team from Asia. A quick look at the standings will show you that the home boys have an 8 point lead over fourth place at this point. Not finishing in the top three would be a collapse of biblical (or Sextonian?) proportions. Ain't gonna happen. Not only are our boys winning, but they are winning big. Our 11 goals are the most so far (two more than Mexico) and we've given up only three goals in five games (same as Mexico).

It looks like a given the that US of A is headed to their (our? Can I say "our" when it's my country?) fifth consecutive World Cup. Very impressive and very exciting.