Landon Donovan and his teammates from the US Men's National Team will engage a hectic soccer journey this upcoming weeks. Costa Rica tonight, Saturday night it's Honduras in Chicago and then a trip to South Africa to face Italy, Brazil and Egypt in the Confederations Cup (those are the real tests). 

But it all starts tonight when the North Americans pay a visit to Costa Rica in a battle for a spot in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

The USA lead the final stage with 7 points in 3 matches and the intention is to maintain the unbeaten streak to get really close to the teams goal of making it to their 6th World Cup in a row. (and it would be the country's 9th appearance in total).

The match against Costa Rica tonight - June 3rd - will take place at the Saprissa Stadium in San Jose. The Costa Ricans, underw in the hexagonal, one point behind the USA, and have been displaying their best football in years. This could be troubling for the U.S. Besides that one aspect of this match will add a very special flavor:  Costa Rica never lost to the United States on their own home soil. 

Former Toronto FC star Maurice Edu is out of this match (and didn't even travel) after picking up a knee injury playing for his current team Rangers. Another player who is out is defender Frankie Hejduk suffering a groin injury. 

The Costa Rica v. USA match kicks off at 10pm ET (7pm PT) and will be televised by ESPN. 

The 10th Edition of the Concacaf Gold Cup will be played in 13 different USA cities this summer. The opening match happens on July 3, 2009 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA and the Final will be played on July 26, 2009 at the Giants Stadium in New York.

12 nations will battle for the title and the crown of the best team of the North and Central America region: USA, Mexico, Canada, Jamaica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

The groups are still to be decided but the matches schedule is already out:

    * The Home Depot Center, Carson (Group matches on 3 July)
    * Qwest Field, Seattle (Group matches on 4 July)
    * Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland (Group matches on 5 July)
    * Columbus Crew Stadium, Columbus (Group matches on 7 July)
    * Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, Washington, D.C. (Group matches on 8 July)
    * Reliant Stadium, Houston (Group matches on 9 July)
    * FIU Stadium, Miami (Group matches on 10 July)
    * Gillette Stadium, Foxborough (Group matches on 11 July)
    * University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale (Group matches on 12 July)

    * Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia (Quarterfinals on 18 July)
    * Dallas Cowboys New Stadium, Arlington (Quarterfinals on 19 July)
    * Soldier Field, Chicago (Semifinals on 23 July)
    * Giants Stadium, East Rutherford (Final on 26 July)

Mexico and the U.S. are always the big favourites to claim the title but other nations that in my opinion could surprise the big guns are El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras and hopefully Canada, eh?

I'm already making plans to go to as many matches I can and I'll keep you guys posted. 

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Note: in a quick comment on the US MNT match against El Salvador I can only say that after dominating the Concacaf World Cup qualifiers so far he 2-2 draw came in a perfect time to alert and to remind the US players that they need to produce at the highest level of their capabilities at ALL TIMES when it comes to competitive matches. Thansk to Altidore the team is still at a good position and unbeaten.

The US Men's National Team can proudly say the they're the best soccer nation in the CONCACAF region. Mexico once failed to put up a good performance and had to sit and watch the well organized and disciplined USA team dominate the actions of the match.  Gio dos Santos had the best opportunity at the 10th minute to very probably give this clash a different end had he scored in a, obvious chance right in front of Tim Howard. But the youngster tried a classy shot and wasn't able to put the ball inside the net.

21-year midfielder Michael Bradley was the man who made the Blue, Red and White fans happy scoring twice to give the match final numbers. Another convincing and unquestionable 2-0 win for the U.S. over Mexico.

I'm sure today all the Mexicans will be complaining about the referee, who gave Rafa Marquez a red card in the 67th minute after the Barcelona defender tried to kick the American goalkeeper in the air, they will also complain about Seven-Goran Eriksson's choices for the team, saying that because he's a foreigner he doesn't understand the mind of the Mexican footballers. They will complain, complain, complain, boo-hoo... But they won't admit two obvious facts:

1) Mexico has a bunch of skilled and talented players who are ultra conceided and cannot play for the team because they all want to be the big star.

2) The USA is a much more organized and focused team. They have team spirit, discipline and a lot of talented players as well. The difference is that the American talents don't play for themselves, they play for the team.

As a result of that, The U.S. now sums 9 wins, 2 draws and 0 defeats at home against Mexico since 1999, outscoring their rival 19-3 in these 11 matches. The 2-0 victory last night also adds to the team’s recent row of important victories by the same score. It's the sixth time this decade the US MNT team has defeated Mexico by that score (including three World Cup qualifiers and a second round victory in the 2002 FIFA World Cup).

Do I need to say anything else to convince you guys that the USA is better than Mexico? The wins on the field don't lie.


PS #1: It was really cool to see the OleOle field board spread out by the sidelines. Really good job OleOle people.

PS #2: The US fans answered the team's request and I saw a lot, I mean, A LOT of them wearing RED! Nice job Uncle Sam's Army.