Countdown to World Cup 2006

[sethuel1]

My USMNT lineup (not that it will happen, since it's a formation Bruce has never used):

 

------------------ Keller ----------------------------

-- Cherundolo -- Pope -- Onyewu --- Lewis --

----------- Reyna ------ Mastroeni/O'Brien -----

-- Donovan ----- Dempsey ----- Beasley------

------------------- McBride ------------------------

 

Why Dempsey in the middle?

 

 

Also, good article on Italy's national team:

 

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=360907&root=worldcup&campaign=fp&src=360907&cc=5901

 

he distributes very well, and Donovan and Beasley are quicker/slashier in my opinion. Also, he's shown that he can hold the ball in the face of the defense fairly well, and draws free kicks well also.

 

Note: I'm currently enamored with the Roma system employed by Luciano Spalletti, which looks very similar to this. Less traditional target men up front and more runs from attacking midfielders results in more difficult marking jobs for the opposing defense.

 

Another note: If Christian Vieri makes the Azzurri, its a total waste of a roster space. it's a much better idea to put Inzaghi or Cassano on the team.

 

Don't despair that Arena wouldn't try a goofy alignment if he thought it would give his team an advantage. IIRC in the Round of 16 game vs Mexico in Korea he so confused Mexico by starting Reyna on a wing and playing a 3-6-1 that they subbed a player off in the 8th minute to try and counter the formation.

 

I do recall that now. Maybe he will try it. I don't think it's that goofy an alignment, I think it really plays to the strengths of the team.

[USSoccer]

Just when Dempsey was stepping it up...

 

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=361699&cc=5901

 

He gets in a fight with a teammate.

[MeatampPotatoesMan]

March FIFA Rankings:

 

Rank/Prev/Nation

 

1 1 Brazil

2 2 Czech Republic

3 3 Netherlands

4 4 Argentina

5 6 United States

6 6 Spain

7 6 Mexico

8 5 France

9 9 England

10 10 Portugal

11 11 Turkey

12(t) 12 Nigeria

12(t) 12 Italy

14 14 Denmark

15 16 Cameroon

16 15 Sweden

17 17 Egypt

18 18 Japan

19(t) 22 Iran

19(t) 23 Croatia

[sethuel1]

March FIFA Rankings:

 

Rank/Prev/Nation

 

1 1 Brazil

2 2 Czech Republic

3 3 Netherlands

4 4 Argentina

5 6 United States

6 6 Spain

7 6 Mexico

8 5 France

9 9 England

10 10 Portugal

11 11 Turkey

12(t) 12 Nigeria

12(t) 12 Italy

14 14 Denmark

15 16 Cameroon

16 15 Sweden

17 17 Egypt

18 18 Japan

19(t) 22 Iran

19(t) 23 Croatia

 

Showing once again how ludicrous the FIFA rankings are...

[lowest]

Just when Dempsey was stepping it up...

 

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=361699&cc=5901

 

He gets in a fight with a teammate.

 

well, that cost him this trip to germany; i for one hope it doesnt end up costing him another one.

[ConstableRabbit]

March FIFA Rankings:

 

Rank/Prev/Nation

 

1 1 Brazil

2 2 Czech Republic

3 3 Netherlands

4 4 Argentina

5 6 United States

6 6 Spain

7 6 Mexico

8 5 France

9 9 England

10 10 Portugal

11 11 Turkey

12(t) 12 Nigeria

12(t) 12 Italy

14 14 Denmark

15 16 Cameroon

16 15 Sweden

17 17 Egypt

18 18 Japan

19(t) 22 Iran

19(t) 23 Croatia

 

Showing once again how ludicrous the FIFA rankings are...

 

Just curious- how would you rank them, Seth?

[sethuel1]

March FIFA Rankings:

 

Rank/Prev/Nation

 

1 1 Brazil

2 2 Czech Republic

3 3 Netherlands

4 4 Argentina

5 6 United States

6 6 Spain

7 6 Mexico

8 5 France

9 9 England

10 10 Portugal

11 11 Turkey

12(t) 12 Nigeria

12(t) 12 Italy

14 14 Denmark

15 16 Cameroon

16 15 Sweden

17 17 Egypt

18 18 Japan

19(t) 22 Iran

19(t) 23 Croatia

 

Showing once again how ludicrous the FIFA rankings are...

 

Just curious- how would you rank them, Seth?

 

Hmmm.....this is going to be interesting.

 

1. Brazil

2. Netherlands

3. Argentina

4. Czech Republic

5. England

6. Italy

7. France

8. Spain

9. Portugal

10. USA

11. Mexico

12. Nigeria

13. Turkey

14. Japan

15. Denmark

16. Cameroon

17. Sweden

18. Germany

19. Paraguay

20. Croatia

 

or something like that

 

Anyway, we shouldn't be anywhere close to that high up. When was the last time we beat any of the teams in the top 15 (except Mexico, who also shouldn't be that high up)? Italy, who hasn't lost in about 2 years, shouldn't be that far down. Even though I think they're overrated. Japan is the only good team from Asia, really. The "middle-of-the-pack" European teams (Sweden, Denmark, Croatia, etc) are certainly nothing to sneeze at, and are tough to place. The big Euro teams have a very hard time beating these teams. Paraguay and, also, now that I think about it, Ecuador, should also be on the list. And the Germans, even though they currently appear to suck, probably shouldn't be out of the top 20.

 

I will probably come back to this list and laugh at myself later.

 

And in all honesty Brazil should be 1, and the next best team should be 45.

[USSoccer]

Seth,

 

You're overrating France severely. They are just not that good anymore. Their core of players is largely past their prime.

[sethuel1]

Seth,

 

You're overrating France severely. They are just not that good anymore. Their core of players is largely past their prime.

 

I think their attack is still among the tops in the world. Henry and trezeguet are still lethal. While I agree that the old core is fairly ancient (Wiltord, Thuram, and Zizou are the only ones that still really play that much), Vieira is still a tank. I think the defense has some good young blood in Phillippe Mexes, Silvestre, Christianval and Jonathan Zebina, but, of course, their coach doesn't trust any of these guys at all.

 

Playing against a Makelele - Vieira midfield can't be fun.

 

Wiltord shouldn't play, IMO. I don't care what he does for Lyon. Thuram is still surprisingly good, although he should be out wide instead of in the middle, in my opinion. Too bad he much prefers to play middle and the coach can't stand up to him.

 

barthez is, of course, still a total screwup headcase, and shouldn't see the field.

 

I do agree with you. I could see knocking them down a few pegs, especially considering they seemed like they might miss out in qualifying to Israel.

 

France also got probably the easiest draw of the first round.

[Marco4]

Add in players coming through into the French team like Ribery and Rothen, France are getting stronger again.

 

I think you've over-rated Spain; especially in the light of their qualifying below Serbia.

[USSoccer]

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=361786&cc=5901

 

Demspey was dropped from the US roster for the March 22nd game vs Germany.

 

Factor is no Beasley, Onyewu and Dempsey, and the angry, motivated German team, and I think we're going to get thumped.

[USSoccer]

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=361879&cc=5901

 

Donovan out 2-3 weeks.

[sethuel1]

After watching his awful, awful performance today, I take back everything good I said about France if Jean-Alain Boumsong gets a WC roster spot.

[USSoccer]

Germany 4, USA 1

 

 

Bad News: We got embarrassed by a really mediocre team 4-1

 

Good News: We were without 8 starters (at least) and I thought controlled the first 60 minutes of the game before the patchwork defense vanished and Keller got shellacked.

 

Good News: Eddie Johnson played pretty well.

Bad News: Keller didn't.

 

Some brutal quotes coming from Keller, too:

 

What this game proves is who can play at this level and who can't," U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller said.

 

Maybe some guys were looking at that ranking a little bit too seriously," a visibly angry Keller said. "It's a reality check for a few guys and that's a good thing, this time, that it doesn't happen June 12."

 

 

For him, the lesson was clear.

 

 

"We're not going to walk into the World Cup thinking, 'Oh, you know, we beat Norway 5-0 and we beat Japan in some games, that now we're great and we're untouchable,'" he said.

 

The more I think about this game the more irritated I get that we had to field a B team in our last European tuneup before June. Gibbs, Zavagnin and Berhalter shouldn't see the field at all in June, ever. Ditto for Conrad.

 

One more depressing (and sobering) fact:

 

When playing in Europe against the big five soccer powers of Germany, England, Italy, France and Spain, the United States is 0-9 and has been outscored 26-4.

[sethuel1]

The way I look at it, we played with 1.5-2 actual starters today. Keller and Cherundolo (whom I count as .5-1 simply because Arena looooooves Frankie Hejduk, although Cherundolo is probably the better player and will probably start from right back) Everyone else that started today has no real shot of starting in the World Cup, except for maybe Mastroeni, although he's sucked it hard recently.

 

However, this performance means that the US has little depth that it can count on. I mean, these guys got ABUSED today.

 

Also, if Kerry Zavagnin gets another meaningful cap, ever, I'm going to stab someone.

 

NOTE: This is based off of highlights and reading about it a little. Haven't actually seen the whole game yet.

[USSoccer]

The way I look at it, we played with 1.5-2 actual starters today. Keller and Cherundolo (whom I count as .5-1 simply because Arena looooooves Frankie Hejduk, although Cherundolo is probably the better player and will probably start from right back) Everyone else that started today has no real shot of starting in the World Cup, except for maybe Mastroeni, although he's sucked it hard recently.

 

However, this performance means that the US has little depth that it can count on. I mean, these guys got ABUSED today.

 

Also, if Kerry Zavagnin gets another meaningful cap, ever, I'm going to stab someone.

 

NOTE: This is based off of highlights and reading about it a little. Haven't actually seen the whole game yet.

 

No, your assesment is dead on. It was a B team out there, and while we have the depth to win CONCACAF qualifiers with that kind of squad, we'll get destroyed against anyone good if we field a team of scrubs. Zavagnin is soooo horrible, I cannot even begin to describe his sucktitude. He's like the Macias of the US national team.

 

When you watch the game, you'll see the US actually dominating the run of play after the 10th minute to about the 46th. Then, after Germany's fluky 1st goal, we dominate some more, but can't finish, and then the wheels come off the defense completely. Convey and Johnson played okay, but everyone else was total crap, even Keller, who badly misjudged the first goal.

[MeatampPotatoesMan]

I thought we played very well the first 60 minutes. The ball was in the other half for the majority of the time. Then Berhalter hit the bottle when no one was looking and cost us two goals.

 

I was surprised at how much depth we have, given that was our B team. Johnson and Convey were impressive. Ching was nonexistent. Keller was the victim of poor defensive communication (that first goal was on him though).

[sethuel1]

In good news for soccer but bad news for us, Francesco Totti walked without crutches last week, a month and two days after his injury.

[USSoccer]

Take heart, Seth:

 

4. Kerry Zavagnin's hopes for a World Cup roster spot are effectively dead after this game. While he might be adequate for games against CONCACAF minnows, he's clearly out of his depth against better international competition. Gregg Berhalter also did himself no favors, showing unbelievable nonchalance in failing to pick up a breaking Michael Ballack for the fourth goal. Arena needs to continue to weed out those who look good only when facing CONCACAF-type opposition.

 

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=362678&root=us&cc=5901

[sethuel1]

Gregg Berhalter also did himself no favors, showing unbelievable nonchalance in failing to pick up a breaking Michael Ballack for the fourth goal.

 

I thought his giveaway for goal #3 was much worse. In fact, I figured that Ballack was Olsen's man for goal#4.

 

Also, a couple more points regarding that article.

 

1. I don't understand how people jump directly from EJ not playing well to Donovan having to slot in as second striker. If he plays as second striker, he'll be too central, as a support striker needs to have finishing (which landon usually doesn't do well) and hold the ball up in traffic, which Landon also doesn't do well. If he gets put out wider, he can use his speed and runs to create havoc. A much better situation, IMO.

 

2. Does anyone think Convey could play a central AM role? He looked pretty good going down the flank, but I feel that he'd be able to hold his own in the middle as well, whereas I don't think Donovan or Beasley can or should.

 

3. I agree about Gibbs. Looked good.

 

4. The suggestion that Totti could easily be replaced by Andrea Pirlo, Del Piero or Cassano shows that the author is out of touch with the Azzurri.

 

5. After watching the game, I have also come to the simple conclusion that Chris Klein is terrible.

[USSoccer]

Gregg Berhalter also did himself no favors, showing unbelievable nonchalance in failing to pick up a breaking Michael Ballack for the fourth goal.

 

I thought his giveaway for goal #3 was much worse. In fact, I figured that Ballack was Olsen's man for goal#4.

 

I forgot we even had a back line after the 2nd goal. It looked like a complete breakdown, from the mids not being able to control pace to the back 4 not marking anyone. And for all the propers being thrown at Cory Gibbs for supposedly playing well despite being out of position, well...it's not rocket science, nor even rocket sauce. You don't get caught upfield and in the center when you're the right back. If Germany didn't suck, they'd have scored 7 with all the opportunities they had flying down a wing uncontested.

 

And this isn't a new problem. It's a problem going back to the earliest parts of CONCACAF qualifying. Our defense is a huge question mark. Gooch is nails, but after him, you have Cherundolo, who's a nice player, and then what? Pope? I don't trust him to be anything but Jeff Agoos 2002 redux. Gibbs? If he gets back into shape, maybe, but until then, i dunno. Mastroeni is tenacious, but is he a 90 minute player? Hejduk scares me to death-if I were Keller I'd pray that he's not a starter. Too many stupid touches and giveaways more than outweigh his hustle. Eddie Lewis is going to end up being one of our defenders when all is said and done, which hurts the midfield.

 

Then, our midfield has issues, too. Reyna's hurt again. Beasley has been poor as you noted. O'Brien will be lucky to be on the roster. Dempsey is good, but he can't go getting into fights with his team captain if he expects to start on the right side. Convey has guts, but is he a top-flight player? Zavagnin sucks. Conrad sucks. Olson sucks. Ralston is okay, but again, is he a top flight player? Noonan isn't good enough.

 

And then up front, who scores? Watching the highlight montage from the Germany game in 2002 brought back the memories of how Donovan should have scored at least twice in that game's first half. He's not a great finisher-he's a setup guy. Upon my re-watching the game, Johnson looked worse than he did when I watched live. Unless he finds his previous form, he's almost a liability out there. McBride is getting long in the tooth. I like Twellman, but again, he's not top flight. Then you have Wolff, who's worse than Donovan at finishing, although he gets himself into position to score a lot, and Ching, who won't make the roster.

 

I'm becoming much less optimistic at our chances. I need to see the entire team rounding into form soon, and not against scrub teams like Jamaica. Reyna has to stop going to the Cubs' trainers and keep himself on the field, because as much as I don't like him, he's invaluable to our midfield.

 

 

*EDIT*

 

I think Convey would get knocked around in the center of the field. He's a little undersized to be winnning 50/50 balls in the air. The fact that he's pretty strong on the ball, sort of fast, and not afraid to make runs at people would make him, for me anyway, the next-in-line choice for the right mid spot if Dempsey goes completely Artest and doesn't start. In fact, Demspey would make a better central AM than Convey.

 

Klein is terrible. There's a giant gap between the MLS players and the guys with international experience. Our MLS guys could qualify in CONCACAF, but any good team they'd go up against would destroy them.

The league is a lot better than what it was last WC cycle, but it's going to take anoth 10 years-at least-before we could hope to field a competent squad of MLS players in a European enviroment.

 

I think what Arena will have to do is ditch the 4-4-2 and find a better formation that maximizes Donovan's strengths while hiding his weaknesses as much as possible.

[sethuel1]

I think Convey would get knocked around in the center of the field. He's a little undersized to be winnning 50/50 balls in the air. The fact that he's pretty strong on the ball, sort of fast, and not afraid to make runs at people would make him, for me anyway, the next-in-line choice for the right mid spot if Dempsey goes completely Artest and doesn't start. In fact, Demspey would make a better central AM than Convey.

 

I was thinking about Convey playing centrally in terms of holding and distributing the ball. Another option would be to move up O'Brien or Reyna into a more attacking role, but would hurt the defensive midfield significantly, and would also require that O'Brien, Reyna and Mastro are all healthy, which I don't trust at all. The offensive distribution role is the real week point right now, in my eyes.

 

As far as a lack of a second strong central defender, I think both Gibbs and Pope could be competent. And Gooch is such a strong presence I think it's probably ok. An Dolo and Lewis as the wide men provides some decent stability, though I'm worried about them matching the speed of some of the Ghanian wide players especially. I'm not nearly as worried about that as I am the offense.

[sethuel1]

Not that this is directly world cup-related, but it's because of days like this that I get my Dish 180 package. Juve vs. Roma, baby. Bitter hatred and incredible footy talent all around.

 

Then Milan vs. Fiorentina later on, too.

[sethuel1]

Not that this is directly world cup-related, but it's because of days like this that I get my Dish 180 package. Juve vs. Roma, baby. Bitter hatred and incredible footy talent all around.

 

Then Milan vs. Fiorentina later on, too.

 

I knew i shouldn't have said anything. What a crappy game.

[USSoccer]

*Bump* For some random updates:

 

US now ranked 4th in FIFA's rankings, FWIW.

 

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=365360&cc=5901

 

Beasley charged with drunk driving in Einhoven.

 

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=365419&cc=5901

Also, Jonathan Spector, who is an intriguing option for the back line this summer probably had his roster chances go up in smoke after he seperated his shoulder in a Premier League game.

 

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=365284&cc=5901

 

The roster gets announced on May 5th.