The Soccer Thread

[Jon]

Man. I've been looking forward to the game all week, but I had such a long day that I just remembered it was on.

 

First 22 minutes were good. Since then BBTN has been more entertaining.

Ouch...

 

US up 1-0 in the 67th minute.

[shnsajax]

Onyewu might as well start looking for a house in the states. I don't think he is going back to Europe this season.

[Exile on Waveland]

This has been an extremely unimpressive, uninspired performance by the US -- especially in the second half. Let's just hope they can hang on.

[MPC]

we win!?!?!? not a thrilling victory, but i'll take it none the less. very disappointed that gooch was sent off. the game shouldn't have been as close as it was in the second half.

 

i'm hopefully that a dominating side appears saturday against t and t.

[USSoccer]

MOTM: Dempsey. Was dangerous all 60 minutes he was on. He found space well, drew fouls, dropped back to the midfield, and showed good vision. I'm a little puzzled as to why he never seems 90 minutes fit, though.

 

Good: Howard, Demerit, Bornstein and Beasley. Beasley in particular kept a great workrate, despite blowing a couple clear chances. Next time, just fire the ball in the net instead of trying to guide it in, Beas. Demerit came in and settled the central defense well. Howard stayed focused. Bornstein might have been good, or might have just looked good compared to Hejduk.

 

Meh: Feilhaber (way ahead of Bradley at this point, actually a little better then meh), Donovan (another forgettable performance save a couple good crosses), Bocanegra (always terrifying).

 

Bad: Eddie Johnson=useless in international play. Totally useless, although after we went down a man his presence was hardly necessary. How many more chances will he get before we give players like Ferrari, Altidore and others an opportunity? Hejduk=terrible and stupid. Michael Bradley looked lost and tentative.

 

Stupid: Onyewu. Not only are you out on Saturday, you might be out on Monday as well for not leaving the field. Hope you like MLS, Gooch.

 

Embarrasing: The ref. Way to keep control of the game, or rather, way to allow Carlos Ruiz to dive and take cheap shots, and way to give Gooch a phantom yellow for being fouled. This game was incredibly poorly officiated.

 

Irritating: the anti-US crowd. The inability for even the veteran, Euro based players (like the inexplicable captain Bocanegra) to keep their composure as the ref made terrible call after terrible call.

 

 

The first half was good, technical soccer. The second half looked like a pub league game. We got our 3 points, so whatever. Here's hoping we improve as we move forward.

[soccer10k]

Meh: Donovan (another forgettable performance save a couple good crosses), Bocanegra (always terrifying).

 

Why can't Landon just pretend he's playing Mexico every time out? He always seems to have good games against them.

 

Bad: Eddie Johnson=useless in international play. Totally useless, although after we went down a man his presence was hardly necessary. How many more chances will he get before we give players like Ferrari, Altidore and others an opportunity?

 

Completely agree. I don't know why he still gets called up all the time. I don't give a damn what he does in the MLS, look at what he does in international play which is virtually nothing.

[Balsa]

I forgot all about this game. :?

[Exile on Waveland]

I initially had hope for Eddie Johnson, but no longer. It's time to give someone else a chance up top. NOT Ante Razov though.

 

I'll be redundant: I hate Hejduk. I thought we were rid of him, guess not.

 

I still think Gooch has promise, but I don't know how long you can wait for him to get it together. Then again, with the state of our current defense, maybe there isn't much choice.

 

Bradley has promise, I think, and certainly tackles hard. But he's going to have to do more. He's as invisible as Donovan normally -- though Donovan's visible moments are much better. Feilhaber was better, I suppose. We desperately need better central midfield play if we're ever going to become more than a second-tier soccer country. We at least need a player like Reyna was on his good days.

 

Beasley played fine, he shows great work rate. Which leads to Dempsey, who is my favorite player on the team. He has flair, which is rare in a US player. Still, like USSoccer said, we need more than 60 minutes from him. He's too important to play only 2/3 of the match.

 

The one thing I've never worried about for the USMNT is goalkeeping, and Howard is no exception in a long line of solid net-minders.

 

I like neither Bocanegra or Bornstein.

[MPC]

please win saturday. defense needs to step up especially without gooch.

 

who's planning on attending the gold cup semi-finals/finals in chicago. i'm too lazy too look this up in the earlier parts of this thread.

[USSoccer]

please win saturday. defense needs to step up especially without gooch.

 

who's planning on attending the gold cup semi-finals/finals in chicago. i'm too lazy too look this up in the earlier parts of this thread.

 

I think Demerit can do fine today in Gooch's stead. T & T has like a rec team out there due to some idiotic bonus dispute from the WC. I fully expect the 'Nats to deliver an absolute beating today.

 

I'll be at the final in Chicago. I know there are a couple other guys going as well.

[MPC]

I'll be at the final in Chicago. I know there are a couple other guys going as well.

cool. i'm tempted to go, obviously only if the u.s. is playing in the final.

[Jon]

I'm going to the finals, assuming the US makes it.

 

Watching Guatemala and El Salvador just isn't doing much for me.

[Jon]

Man. Two fantastic chances right out of the gate for the US, but they couldn't finish on either.

[Jon]

Make that three and we're not even ten minutes in.

 

And now they have one taken away on a bad offsides call.

[Jon]

This is just getting sad. They could easily be up 3-0 right now.

 

FINALLY. Yeesh.

 

Yet the phantom offsides strikes again, taking away what should have been another sure goal.

[Jon]

Wow. Great job standing around, Johnson. Just remember next time that you can't get an easy goal off a save by staring at it from 15 yards away.

 

That far-side assistant ref is a joke, by the way.

 

1-0 at the half.

[USSoccer]

EJ is totally terrible. That was a tap in had he bothered to simply jog towards goal.

[Jon]

Hey, Eddie actually ran that time.

 

Donovan seemed to be about twice as fast as anyone else out there on that run. Nicely done.

[shnsajax]

Eddie Johnson has to be the slowest, fast guy in US soccer history. He is just flatout lazy.

 

Ching has never impressed me either. We have one poacher in Twellman, don't see a reason for another one.

[shnsajax]

I really think the US took a step backwards after Clint Mathis fell off the face of the earth (I know he is in MLS). Justin Mapp needs to start a lot more, I like what I have seen from him as he is one of our few players who really know how to run with speed.

 

Does anyone know anything about Jesus Padilla or Gabriel Ferrari?

[Jon]

I really think the US took a step backwards after Clint Mathis after of the face of the earth (I know he is in MLS). Justin Mapp needs to start a lot more, I like what I have seen from him as he is one of our few players who really know how to run with speed.

 

Does anyone know anything about Jesus Padilla or Gabriel Ferrari?

The last I heard, there's a chance Mapp's shoulder injury could cause him to miss the entire Gold Cup.

 

2-0 the Final. Another pretty boring second half from the US. They play El Salvador at 6 PM central on Tuesday night.

[shnsajax]

I really think the US took a step backwards after Clint Mathis after of the face of the earth (I know he is in MLS). Justin Mapp needs to start a lot more, I like what I have seen from him as he is one of our few players who really know how to run with speed.

 

Does anyone know anything about Jesus Padilla or Gabriel Ferrari?

The last I heard, there's a chance Mapp's shoulder injury could cause him to miss the entire Gold Cup.

 

2-0 the Final. Another pretty boring second half from the US. They play El Salvador at 6 PM central on Tuesday night.

 

Damn, i missed minute 30-70. Didn't see him get hurt.

[Jon]

I really think the US took a step backwards after Clint Mathis after of the face of the earth (I know he is in MLS). Justin Mapp needs to start a lot more, I like what I have seen from him as he is one of our few players who really know how to run with speed.

 

Does anyone know anything about Jesus Padilla or Gabriel Ferrari?

The last I heard, there's a chance Mapp's shoulder injury could cause him to miss the entire Gold Cup.

 

2-0 the Final. Another pretty boring second half from the US. They play El Salvador at 6 PM central on Tuesday night.

 

Damn, i missed minute 30-70. Didn't see him get hurt.

Wow, I didn't even know he played today.... I missed the starting 11 and zoned out on the commentary since I had to watch on Telefutura and don't speak a word of Spanish. I must've just not recognized him since I didn't think he'd be playing for another week or so. I'm not sure who I thought had the assist on the first goal...

[USSoccer]

I really think the US took a step backwards after Clint Mathis fell off the face of the earth (I know he is in MLS). Justin Mapp needs to start a lot more, I like what I have seen from him as he is one of our few players who really know how to run with speed.

 

Does anyone know anything about Jesus Padilla or Gabriel Ferrari?

 

I know Ferrari is awesome, and I think he's with the u-18's or u-21's. H'es the opposite of Gio Rossi, who went to play for Italy despite being from New Jersey. Ferrari will be in the 2010 mix, as will Jozy Altidore.

 

EJ shouldn't be an option anymore. I don't care that he scored against what amounted to a rec league team. He's lazy, and doesn't do anything well at all. First touch? Bad. Passing? Bad. Shooting from distance? Bad. 1 v 1 skill? Nonexistent. Playing with back to goal? Awful. Dribbling? Nope, sucks at that, too.

 

He had a lucky run playing against the weakest CONCACAF teams in 2004. USMNT needs to get over it and realize it was a complete mirage. He's really, really bad.

 

The whole team kinda sucked today. The FSC guys kept yammering on about depth, but this game exposed the US's lack of depth. The back line was meh. Demerit played the best game out of all of them. The mids were ok, but a large part of that was how lousy T & T's mids were. Johnson sucks. Ching is an acceptable target guy, but he's nothing amazing.

 

A better team would have put a couple on our defense today. A better team would have finished the 8 clear chances the US had but didn't cash in on.

 

This team's 2nd 11 is so much worse that the first 11. You could see the difference in quality when Donovan came on. He was a class above everyone on the field. Only Mapp and Demerit really distinguished themselves from the B team.

 

It's good that we won, but a team like ours aspires to be would have demolished T & T today. Instead, I thought we were lucky to win. That's not good.

 

FWIW, I loved Mathis, but he was his own worst enemy. His fitness and focus robbed him of what could have been a stellar career. The US needs more guys like Mathis, which is partly why I like Dempsey so much. You need creative, attacking-minded players who don't back down, don't get intimidated and find themselves in the right spots at the right time.

[shnsajax]

I really think the US took a step backwards after Clint Mathis fell off the face of the earth (I know he is in MLS). Justin Mapp needs to start a lot more, I like what I have seen from him as he is one of our few players who really know how to run with speed.

 

Does anyone know anything about Jesus Padilla or Gabriel Ferrari?

 

I know Ferrari is awesome, and I think he's with the u-18's or u-21's. H'es the opposite of Gio Rossi, who went to play for Italy despite being from New Jersey. Ferrari will be in the 2010 mix, as will Jozy Altidore.

 

EJ shouldn't be an option anymore. I don't care that he scored against what amounted to a rec league team. He's lazy, and doesn't do anything well at all. First touch? Bad. Passing? Bad. Shooting from distance? Bad. 1 v 1 skill? Nonexistent. Playing with back to goal? Awful. Dribbling? Nope, sucks at that, too.

 

He had a lucky run playing against the weakest CONCACAF teams in 2004. USMNT needs to get over it and realize it was a complete mirage. He's really, really bad.

 

The whole team kinda sucked today. The FSC guys kept yammering on about depth, but this game exposed the US's lack of depth. The back line was meh. Demerit played the best game out of all of them. The mids were ok, but a large part of that was how lousy T & T's mids were. Johnson sucks. Ching is an acceptable target guy, but he's nothing amazing.

 

A better team would have put a couple on our defense today. A better team would have finished the 8 clear chances the US had but didn't cash in on.

 

This team's 2nd 11 is so much worse that the first 11. You could see the difference in quality when Donovan came on. He was a class above everyone on the field. Only Mapp and Demerit really distinguished themselves from the B team.

 

It's good that we won, but a team like ours aspires to be would have demolished T & T today. Instead, I thought we were lucky to win. That's not good.

 

FWIW, I loved Mathis, but he was his own worst enemy. His fitness and focus robbed him of what could have been a stellar career. The US needs more guys like Mathis, which is partly why I like Dempsey so much. You need creative, attacking-minded players who don't back down, don't get intimidated and find themselves in the right spots at the right time.

 

Without question.

 

Ferrari should be at the U20 World Cup in a few weeks. I know he is still in the player pool, but I have not seen a finalized roster yet.