Wednesday, June 27, 2007

EU, 'papa' de Concacaf

This is for Troy.
That was the headline in La Opinion, a spanish language news outlet. Here is a translation of the article:

Landon Donovan did not fail to take advantage of the opportunity to plunge the delicious sword of irony and sarcasm even further into the Mexican wound.

"Does the United States continue to be the giant, the papa of CONCACAF? It's pretty clear, isn't it? We won, we're Mexico's daddy in soccer,” said the smiling U.S. forward.

Before taking penalties, Landon Donovan performs a ceremony on the field.

He squats down. He makes some gestures and kisses his knuckles. He explains for the first time what that possible refuge means when he must punish from penalty spot.

"It is something to calm to me. To take a penalty means a lot of pressure. If I'm not calm, then I'm going to be distracted by the crowd, by Oswaldo and the other people who are there. I do it to calm myself down, to relax and to not let myself get distracted by what's around me," said 'Captain America'.

"It's like when I was eight years old, I would go to the corner to forget about everything else. That's why I squat down, etc. To be able to take the penalty with calm and concentration. And I scored, didn't I? Another goal against Oswaldo,” commented Donovan.

You fooled Oswaldo Sanchez and he remained standing still.

“Yes, I imagine that Oswaldo had seen the videos of the other three penalties. I suppose he did. Ha, ha, ha! And he thought that I was going to shoot down the middle, and I knew that that's what he was expecting; to stay firm and it would come right to him. But I put it to the side and fooled him," said Donovan.

"I'm happy for the win. We beat Mexico again and showed that we are the best team in the region. We are going to the Confederations Cup and I put another goal past Oswaldo Sanchez. What more could I ask for? Ha, ha, ha,” stated the attacker of the LA Galaxy.

“We're going to the Confederations Cup and I hope that we have the best tournament of any CONCACAF team,” he said.

Mexico already was champion of a Confederations Cup, the one that they organized in 1999.

"Good, we'll try to equal that," he responded.

Bob Bradley, coach of the United States, met with Hugo Sanchez at the foot of the bus.

The the coaches greeted each other with an ample smile and a strong handshake.

What was said? They congratulated each other and wished each other luck at the Copa America.

Bob Bradley spoke of the victory over Mexico.

“It feels good to be the champion. It feels good to win. You feel good when you play well and get the victory. We're in the Confederations Cup and we're sure that we're going to represent CONCACAF with a lot of success,” he explained.

He didn't go into details about what it means to beat Mexico or be the "Giant" of CONCACAF.

“Mexico is a good team and a strong rival. Today we had to play hard to beat them. I have nothing but respect for them in every sense,” he added.

Benny Feilhaber was as proud as a peacock.

His ferocious bomb from long distance sealed the game and gave the victory to the United States over Mexico.

"It was simple, I wanted to put it there… and that's where it went. Ha, ha, ha," the American joked.

"I hit it with my soul, with the desire to score a goal against Mexico. I hit it with all my strength and it went in. I don't think that anybody could have gotten to that ball," said Feilhaber, who plays with Hamburg of Germany.

No comments: