The Soccer Thread

[Guest]

ArJo - contender for #2 on our F chart, as I thought.

 

Had no real opinion on Brooks, but clearly he's the real deal and best CB prospect we've had like people claimed. Wish I had GOL to watch him more.

 

Again we played with a consistent style regardless of score & opponent and again it paid off. Hat tip to the manager.

 

Underrated takeaway, Swiss Army Knife Brad Evans again played a smart, controlled game and fit in well.

Brooks did really well on Dzeko, that 90th minute goal was just a really good goal.

 

All three of Jozy's tallies were world class. Great touch by Bradley to set up the 3rd.

 

And he had the great touch on the ball over the top to set up EJ's goal.

[Guest]

http://i.imgur.com/AXOuCdr.gif

[wolf stansson]

The General - 92/100 passes. 2 Assists.

 

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm16/dhohulin/MB_zps52394d9e.jpg

[shnsajax]

So give me a starting XI formation now with Aron, Jozy, Clint, and Landon in it now? How do we structure this?

[wolf stansson]

Aron isn't best XI. Which is fine. He will be in a couple years and his versatility and tenacity will serve us well off the bench.

 

-------------------Howard

SC-----------OG-----------MB---------FJ

-----------------JJ----------SOCCER JESUS

GZ------------------Deuce-------------LD

---------------------Jozy

 

 

Is our best XI.

Subs - Guzan, Rimando, ArJo, Evans, Brooks, Gomez, Cameron, Beasley, Kljestan, Beckerman, Mix, EJ.

 

That would be my World Cup 23 as of today.

[shnsajax]

The logical person in me agrees with you, however over the next 10+ months I think he just might force his way onto the XI.

 

I want more problems like this!

[Exile on Waveland]

Howler is really great.

 

It really is . . . If they'd ever send me the third issue.

 

Received it last night. Spent my entire evening reading it cover-to-cover. I would hope everyone here is a subscriber (even though it is expensive--$50 for a year, which is only four issues).

[wolf stansson]

I would hope everyone here is a subscriber

 

I confess, I was not. There were like 5 boutique soccer mags that came out at the same time and I just kind of ignored them all rather than decide which one to support. After that article, I'm going to subscribe.

 

 

So, Jurgen said after this win, he hopes we'll be in the top 15 FIFA rankings. Obviously to have any hope of being seeded, we need to continue jumping in the rankings, but it got me thinking.

There are a ton of international teams outside of the cluster of elite teams that can beat each other on any given day based on form. I'd put Spain, Brazil, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Argentina and Holland in the elite WC contenders group. Outside of that you have the very good teams like Uruguay, Columbia, France, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Croatia, Bosnia, England etc.

Is it fair to say now, that the US is firmly entrenched in that "very good" level? I feel like top 15 is an arbitrary number and there are probably a dozen or so who could fit into that level, but I also feel we're one of them. I don't think there's anyone in that secondary group that we couldn't beat (or get beat by) depending on form or a few lucky/unlucky bounces. Basically I think it's fair to say that if we met one of those teams in the knock out round of the World Cup, it wouldn't be crazy to predict a win and it would actually be crazy to predict that we wouldn't go toe-to-toe.

[Guest]

Yeah I don't think that's outrageous at all, especially given the team's current form and the fact that we haven't even put our best XI on the field yet.

 

On a related note, I was resigning myself to the fact that we won't get a seed(and still think there isn't a chance, too bad they don't use ELO ratings), and was looking at teams gunning for a seed and which we'd want to get paired with, hopefully as that 2nd team in the group. There's a bit of a cluster near the back of the top 10 in the FIFA rankings, so there's a lot of teams that have at least a prayer:

 

Spain

Germany

Columbia

Argentina

Netherlands

Italy

Portugal

Croatia

Brazil

Belgium

Greece

Uruguay

Bosnia

England

 

There's definitely a tier of teams that I don't want to see in pool play at any cost, teams like Spain, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, maybe the Dutch, maybe Italy. Even then I don't think it's crazy that we could take points from those teams at a neutral site with a strong effort. Outside of that I'm not overly intimidated by any of the teams ranked over us, which speaks to your point, Wolf.

 

Also, while we're on the topic of FIFA rankings, the gap in points really is striking in that group that can claim to be "Top 15". The US is 19th, and they're closer in points to 11th (Greece) than they are to 20th (Mexico). The end of qualifying is really going to jumble that order.

[wolf stansson]

I watched the Mexico friendly yesterday. Ivory Coast couldn't have been less interested. That might have been the worst result possible for Chepo because if they take any false sense of confidence from that game, they're in for a rude awakening in qualifiers. Another observation, the extent to which the Mexican media is in the bag for their national team is gross and goes a long way to explaining the false sense of grandiosity and lack of motivation to force new ideas into their set up.

[bukie]

This World Cup will be a bit of a unique case where I'd want no part of the host country's group, and the seeded teams would all reasonably be the best 8 teams. Still almost no way the USMNT gets a seed (especially if they go just by FIFA ratings again)

 

I'd want absolutely no part of a Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Germany group. Other 4 would likely be from group of Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Colombia, Croatia, Belgium, Greece, Uruguay, England. Among all those, the only countries even in remote danger of not qualifying are Uruguay and England.

[Guest]

If you're going to include England, you also have to include Greece and whichever of Belgium and Croatia doesn't win that group since they'll be in the playoff round.

[bukie]

If you're going to include England, you also have to include Greece and whichever of Belgium and Croatia doesn't win that group since they'll be in the playoff round.

I included England because if the UEFA playoffs started today they would be the ninth team and wouldn't qualify.

[Exile on Waveland]

I would hope everyone here is a subscriber

 

I confess, I was not. There were like 5 boutique soccer mags that came out at the same time and I just kind of ignored them all rather than decide which one to support. After that article, I'm going to subscribe.

 

The first issue (I think) had a tactical history of the USMNT, which I would definitely recomment.

[wolf stansson]

OG making 1.5 mil a year as Galaxy's third DP.

 

Landon is going to get straight paid this Jan. Clint on 6.8 is the starting point for negotiations. Fewer years, but similar per year. Going to be a tough CBA in 2014. Players know the league has money.

[Guest]

If you're going to include England, you also have to include Greece and whichever of Belgium and Croatia doesn't win that group since they'll be in the playoff round.

I included England because if the UEFA playoffs started today they would be the ninth team and wouldn't qualify.

 

They've also played one less game that counts towards those standings than everyone else. Even a draw in that game - which is a pretty safe bet - moves them ahead of Bulgaria and Albania in those standings.

[Guest]

Really interesting breakdown of Howard v. Guzan: http://americansoccernow.com/articles/howard-or-guzan-the-stats-might-surprise-you

 

The seeming conclusion: Guzan is slightly more effective, but Howard's superior shot stopping skills and penchant for lapses make him higher variance in both directions.

[wolf stansson]

We haven't had a legitimate keeper debate since Friedel retired and I don't think we have one now. Guzan is in the same chair Howard was leading up to 2006. As good if not slightly better but no chance he unseats the incumbent barring injury based completely on seniority and dependability. Howard isn't going to do anything to lose the job. I have no doubt he bounces back and has a cleaner season than last year with Everton. That was fluky.

[shnsajax]

Would love to see Guzan with a good defense in front of him. Villa can't be as bad as they were last season, though they got better the last 3 months.

[wolf stansson]

Handy tool to see which PL games are on which NBC channel: http://www.nbcsports.com/extratime

[Guest]

Ok, USSoccer has convinced me to get on board with Spurs, looks like I can watch all of their games. Anything I need to know, besides the fact that Jason Sudeikis is their coach and they just got rid of Dempsey?

[wolf stansson]

Ok, USSoccer has convinced me to get on board with Spurs, looks like I can watch all of their games. Anything I need to know, besides the fact that Jason Sudeikis is their coach and they just got rid of Dempsey?

You hate Arsenal.

[Guest]

Ok, USSoccer has convinced me to get on board with Spurs, looks like I can watch all of their games. Anything I need to know, besides the fact that Jason Sudeikis is their coach and they just got rid of Dempsey?

You hate Arsenal.

 

Done and done.

[wolf stansson]

You should be a Swansea fan. They're outside the mainstream, they play a collective style but they combine it with lower half of the table thuggery. It's entertaining stuff. It's like thugs doing ballet. Tottenham is all about individual exceptionalism (Gareth Bale) and a bunch of unworthy coat tail riders (his manager, most of his teammates, Daniel Levy, their dumb fans) trying to exploit it for personal gain.

[wolf stansson]

Johannsson. Again.