Bitter Return

Daniel Valverdu finally returned to the courts saturday after being out the first 6 games of the season with a pectorial injury. It may have been better  to rest him an extra week and bring him out against an easier opponent but its hard to convince a player ready to come back to not get into the courts against a state rival.

His return would be foiled by the Gators saturday. The Gators were able to defeat the strong pairing of Valverdu and No.78 Carl Sunderg 8-2.

Sundberg continued his strong play, winning his singles match 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-5) to a 6-0 Singles record for the year.

Freshman Ignacio Tobadoa got his first loss of the season against No.94 Antoine Bennetau. 

The Canes must recover from their loss to face ACC opponent No. 17 FSU next saturday. 

Hopefully the Canes will have better luck as they continue to get players back in their lineup. The canes can also take to learn from facing stronger rivals and realize the level of play that may encounter them in the future. There is nothing like playing stronger rivals to improve one’s own play.

The Gators are no easy team, ranked 7th in nation, even with an extra week to rest and prepare.

Colossus in Columbus

To most of Latin America, the US is the ever distant colossus of the North.

A paradise land that everyone, however reluctantly or bitterly, wishes they could be part of or at least they wish their country could somehow aspire to be like them.

Up until a couple of years ago, a lot of these countries could at least play the soccer card.

They may be better at every other sport (exclude baseball for the Caribbean countries). They have the strength to at will destroy economically, politically, or militarily any other country in the hemisphere. But at least we could still beat them at soccer, right?

The US Soccer teams defeat against Mexico marks a new trend that is bound to bring a new bout of depression to at least those in the northern part of the Hemisphere–at least Argentina and Brazil will always be able to beat the US.

The US has now won 11 straight times against Mexico in the US. The only player on the 18 player squad that had scored against the US is naturalized, of Brazilian descent. It’s not that Mexico can’t win; they can’t even muster up a dignity score.

The problem after all is that the US does not play that well. The Latin American countries are just going about their usual under achieving mentality, and its not just the Latin American countries.

Really Canada? You can’t qualify to the hexagonal against Jamaica, Honduras, and Mexico?

Granted, Mexico only qualified based goal difference with Jamaica.

The US is the only of the three big teams that has grown along with its opponents while Canada and Mexico are still lethargically lingering along expecting to qualify because three teams get in, a fourth in a playoff with south America.

And really who was going to eliminate them? Honduras? El Salvador? Trinidad?

The Concacaf is still a joke of a conference and any of the three North American countries not qualifiying doesn’t deserve to take part in regional, much less international competition

 Not because they have better players or better talent but simply form a standpoint of resources. There are countries in this division that don’t even have their own stadiums.

Mexico unless they have a horrid meltdown ( akin to their captain kicking the opponent’s goalie and getting ejected in the 65th minute) will qualify. It would no longer be suprising if Honduras and the US qualified on top, with Mexico coming in a close third.

However, they must be careful not to let a sleeper team like Costa Rica or Trinidad slip by them. There would be no excuse for it. Mexico is a better team in every aspect of the game.

If the US can get reduce itself to take the other teams in the division seriously, then why can’t a team like Mexico that is slowly losing the little edge it had over its northern neigbor? Talent wise, they’re still a better team than them as well but apparently they don’t care enough to show it.

At the same time, the US needs to be careful to not get CONCACAF Fatigue. They will, or SHOULD, qualify as number one. They should have an easy job of it with perhaps a slip or two against Honduras or Mexico being justified.

Being number one in CONCACAF means nothing but going into the world cup as the most unprepared, overhyped team there except for maybe Australia.

As much as it hurts to say it, beating Mexico is not really gloating material for a serious soccer team–its a simple perfunctory procedure.

Men’s Tennis Sweeps the Weekend

The UM Men’s Tennis Team swept its competition this week.

On saturday it faced Clemson in its ACC Opener and won 7-0.

The Next day the Team hosted Penn, beating them 7-0.

The team has really had their new players step up in the absence of star Valverdu.

Carl Sundberg and Keith Crowley have stepped up with Sandburg now the top ranked player in the team while Valverdu still nurses his injury.

The other players seemed to have gotten the same rhythm going as the team seems poised to have another succesful season behind Mario Rincon.
The Canes are now 4-2 with a trip through the State to face No.7 Florida and No.17 Florida State where they have an opportunity to show just how good they are.

Miami Falls Short

Miami looked poised to trounce its week of death against Wake, Duke, and North Carolina going into the second half with a 13 point lead.

Miami got a taste of its own medicine. All that matters is ending strong and thats exactly what Duke did, especially with Henderson exploding at the end of the game.

McClinton has proved to be the star we know him to be the last couple of games and Miami has shown traces of the team it has been and could continue to be.

This cannot, however, return to being the McClinton show.

McClinton scored the last 11 points in regulation and all the points in overtime. Where was the rest of the team?

Miami has a solid team offensively and defensively, they just need to believe in themselves. They need to MAKE us believe in them.

However the win against Wake was if the Hurricanes can’t pull of a miraculous second half it is seeming increasingly unlikely that they’ll make the tournament and it will become increasingly clear that that game was just a fluke.

The Hurricanes have now proven two nights in a row that they can play with the big boys but that they aren’t one of them. They’re too scared to step up to that level.

It isn’t about talent. It’s about mental strength.