AS LONG AS HE ISN'T UNDERESTIMATING THEIR PSYCHOLOGICAL FRAILTY:

U.S., Mexico meet in Gold Cup final: Americans try to defend their Gold Cup title at home, where they thrive against CONCACAF teams. (Grahame L. Jones, July 26, 2009, LA Times)

Mexico, because of the greater experience its players, might have a slight edge, but it's not worth risking even the smallest of wagers.

The U.S., after all, is the defending champion and is 38-4-6 all time in Gold Cup play. It has also outscored its opponents by a better than 3-1 margin in the 10 editions of the 18-year-old event.

On top of that, there is the U.S. record on its own playing fields. It has not lost at home to a team from the North and Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF) region since 2001, a stretch of 58 games.

That might have changed during this event, especially with U.S. Coach Bob Bradley electing to field essentially a second-string team after the usual starters had taken part in the Confederations Cup in South Africa.

But the backups showed their worth. [...]

Holden, 24 next Saturday, was born in Scotland and played at Clemson. He has been impressive for four seasons with two-time MLS champion Houston, and has benefited from having Dynamo Coach Dominic Kinnear as a mentor.

Kinnear, a former U.S. international, molded him into a player who made the U.S. team for last year's Beijing Olympics.

Bradley has praised the midfielder.

"Stuart is a player who has been on the verge of getting into our team for a while," he said.

If our C team does manage a win, the A team goes to Mexico with the wind in their sails. But soccer players are such delicate creatures mentally that a loss on US soil could make them jittery for the August rematch, even though the players will all be different.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 26, 2009 6:53 AM