CONCACAF Gold Cup - Page 5

True that. Altidore could have elected to play for Haiti.

Is Messi a dual citizen though? I don't know.

Since September 2005. Spanish fans were quite excited by the prospect of him playing for their national team at the time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Messi#Personal_life

I guess that's true, and why players like Ozil or Sahin turn out for Germany rather than for Turkey. Even going back to Eusubio playing for Portugal rather than Mozambique. This new hotshot Itrube (Arg) is a natural born Paraguayan - don't really know the story on why he's playing in the Argentine youth structure. I would suppose the opportunity to win something. Good point Trini.

But then there are other cases like Marcos Senna (a natural born Brazilian) who declares for Spain (back before they were the dominant force they are now)... because perhaps they're not good enough to cut it in the first team of their home country and want a shot at international recognition?

It's like a freaking pick-and-choose your nationality!

Yes, that happens for sure. Amauri did it (Brazil to Italy) for the last World Cup.

I guess if players have legitimate lineage (i.e. Rossi: born in US/with Italian parents) I have no problem with it, but guys like Amauri, etc. who essentially concoct citizenship to play for another team...I don't know.

Even Messi...it looks like he received Spanish citizenship only so that he could play in the Liga as an EU player and not count against the non-EU quota. I'm not sure he could have played for Spain, though, since he had already played for Argentina's senior team before receiving his EU papers.

Deco did it with Portugal as well since he wasn't gonna make it into the Brazilian team.

To be fair the post game ceremony was actually done in both English and Spanish... I think it's pretty childish of Howard to be upset about little things like that. Here is an article about it: http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/blog/...urn=sow-wp2785

I understand why they did it how they did it, but I still don't like it. The game is being held in the U.S., so the entire ceremony should be in English. I wouldn't have any qualms if they had a translator there to translate English to Spanish. The head guy says a line or two in English. A translator then states it in Spanish to the audience. That's fine.

If I'm in attendance, I'd be pissed. I don't speak Spanish and it's not my national language so why do I have to listen to the entire first place ceremony in Spanish? I really wouldn't know what they would be saying and that'd piss me off. If the game were in Mexico City and they had the entire ceremony in Spanish, then I'd be completely fine with that seeing that I was in Mexico and Spanish is their national language. But the game was in the U.S. Quite frankly, I'm sick of this mentality of having to cater to others too lazy to learn our language. If you come to or live in the U.S., learn our damn language. If you don't want to, that's fine, but we shouldn't go out of our way to make it easier on them, especially when it starts hindering ourselves. If I move abroad, I fully expect to learn that language.

For what it's worth, I'm half Mexican and my grandparents came over legally and did so while learning English. Unfortunately, my mother who speaks fluent Spanish never taught me the language growing up, so I can understand some of it, but am not proficient in the language.

+1

BDC - we need to be friends.

Completely agree - when I'm down visiting around Argentina and Uruguay, there's no way in HELL I could ever expect anyone to "cater" to me and my native-English tendencies. If I walked into a bank here in Montevideo and demanded to be attended to in English, there may be one person around who could squeak out the basics, but in all actuality I'd probably laughed at and shuffled out as a public annoyance.

My wife is similar to you, with Mexican grandparents that came over legally (Grandpa ended up flying for the US Air Force for like 30 years and got citizenship), and then raised all their children in English. It's funny when I visit my in-laws because my wife's Dad is 100%, a full blooded Mexican vaquero, but I being a Western European Gringo-Mutt speak more of teh Spanish than he.

I agree that there exists this self-depricating sort of attitude towards the USA, where "cultural awareness and tolerance" chips our own nation further and further down the totem pole in popular culture, resulting in American functions trying to service the smallest of minorities before it ever addresses the general populace. It still gets me whenever I fly through Miami that the signs are all in Spanish first, and then English underneath.

But anyways...

I hope we see a lot more of Adu moving forward. He was the only guy on the pitch who looked like his individual skills were on that higher level. He had a few spectacular runs of ball control moving through defenders. He's still very young, too, so hopefully he resurrects his club career and gains some valuable experience that will translate to the national team. Michael Bradley really needs to stop giving the ball away in midfield. It's terribly frustrating. And it is time for Papa Bradley to go. We totally lack creativity in offense and it's not like our defense is all that stout either. Just way too many silly breakdowns.

Tell los mexicanos to stay classy as well please. Of course Im pissed, they pouring piss down our players backs, diving and whining worse than Busquets, dirtier than tevez, etc.