wolf stansson

Two more things. I didn't know I had ESPN 360. I do, and it's the best thing ever. I'm watching Bayern v Monchengladbach and Mikey B's Xavi-like assist. Also, I'd love to be a fly on the wall when Capello pulls Becks aside and explains to him that he won't play against us because Landon would spend 90 minutes killing him up and down the flank.

New York have the new stadium, they need attacking players and Adu needs to come home. Sounds perfect to me. Done and done. Now that that's taken care of, let's look at the England matchup. I agree completely with USS tactically. We've got some wrinkles and atypical players we can throw at England because we have some South and Central American flavor (in very small doses mind you) with players like Deuce and Benny but for the most part, we play and have always played a very English style. That doesn't necessarily play into England's hands historically given their struggles with Germany who play similarly, but this isn't a typical English side in that Fabio Capello is the best manager they've had, maybe ever. In the past England have overlooked teams, they've overrated themselves and they've paid for that over confidence. I don't think Capello allows that. If I'm betting, I'd lay money on a 2-1 England win. There are many reasons. Talent, experience, management, intimidation and going off the 2-0 win against us two years previous to our upcoming match. The 2-0 score line doesn't tell the whole story; it was worse than that. That was as comprehensive a loss as I've seen as a US fan. We were dominated so badly it honestly looked like men against boys. Now having said all that, I'm going to tell you why we can get points out of this game. First and foremost, this game is not in Wembley Stadium. I've never seen a more intimidated side than our team that day. They were over-awed by the atmosphere, the building itself, the fans, the global icons on the other side, the three lions on their shirts and it showed. Boy did it show. I've no doubts that England are the more talented side, but the disparity isn't nearly as large as that game would have you believe. This isn't in their venerable home ground. This is in South Africa. A venue we are far, far more familiar and comfortable in. A venue that they haven't experienced. With our two countries buying the most tickets to this World Cup, I feel this will be as close to a neutral site as we'll ever find against the likes of England. While the EPL's global popularity usually means a significant neutral population will lean English, judging by the warmth and goodwill that the South African fans displayed towards our boys last summer, I don't think that will be the case in our game. Secondly, we were without Landon and Jozy. Our talisman and our only healthy striker that at any moment, can potentially make something out of nothing against a better side. With Jozy it's a moment like the goal against Spain where he, with his sheer physical superiority, shook off Capdevilla like a rag doll, turned and finished the goal that changed the game. Terry and Rio are icons, but it doesn't matter who is marking Jozy, there is always a chance that in that situation he has something they don't. Whether it's his strength, his up's or his speed. He's got weapons in his arsenal that even the best center backs don't. If they did, they'd be big, tall and strong center forwards like him. I'm not saying Jozy is the kind of Drogbaesque player that is going to impose his will on whoever he meets quite yet, but if there is a situation that presents itself, it's always possible for him to do something special. With Landon, it's everything he brings to the table. Like I said, I agree with USS's desire to bunker and counter for all the reasons he mentioned and because it happens to suit our best player's game well. First and foremost Landon Donovan is our most important player. For all his strengths and weaknesses of which there are many, we are a different team when he isn't out there. Not only is his pace, vision and skill absolute class, but his leadership has developed into something that matters as well. So like I said, Landon is important to us no matter who the opponent or the setting. But when you're playing a team that is just flat better than you and you make the smart choice to defend, clog the field and look for the counter like we did against Spain, like we did against Brazil, there are few players in the world better suited to lead your team than Landon Donovan. It plays into his strengths perfectly. He's positionally smart on defense. He tracks back. Most importantly his skills and speed make him a deadly counter attacker. If you have to play tactically in a way that allows few chances for the opponents and yourself you need three things. 1) a good keeper, 2) an organized back line and 3) players that can create chances on the counter attack and when they do, miss very few of those chances. Landon and Charlie Davies are our two players who best embody those traits. Since we have no Charlie, well, it's Landon. I want to be careful about how I say this, because I am in no way saying Landon is a better player than the likes of Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard. What I'm saying is that in a game like this, he is the more important player. He is uniquely skilled in this very scenario, so while it's always important that he shows up to play and that Bob tactically puts him in an effective role, it is absolutely crucial in this matchup. If we stay organized like we know we can based on the Spain win in South Africa or the Argentina draw three weeks removed from the Wembley debacle, if Landon creates chances on the counter and if we can get some patented Clint Dempsey moments of unpredictably executed genius, we could catch England off guard enough to score a goal or two. If our defense and midfield stay organized, we could pull it out and it wouldn't surprise me if that's exactly what happened. None of their keepers can hold a line, their world renowned center backs no longer meet their reputation's level whether it's due to age or injury and both of their outside fullbacks are known for wandering forward at bad times leaving them vulnerable to a counter attack. Our skills on the counter and our skills on the set pieces are going to be critical, but a win isn't a pipe dream, merely unlikely.

I'm going to. My debit card demagnetized and I'm waiting for my replacement. I don't have a credit card because I'm a child. Dammit, I was hoping to hear that you weren't so I wouldn't feel bad if I didn't sign up. I'm only doing it because I hate my job and have to have something help kill as much time as possible.

I'm going to. My debit card demagnetized and I'm waiting for my replacement. I don't have a credit card because I'm a child.

Best case scenario is Algeria and Slovenia draw on the first Sunday. Neither are doing more than a miracle draw with England. As long as we beat them both, we're through if they draw in that first game.

Obviously like you all, I feel good about this group. England are imminently beatable with their problems in the back at gk and the d. Algeria should be a w. Slovenia should be a w. We could potentially win the group. Have to beat England to do so though. If we draw, I like their chances of having the better g differential. If we lose, well, obviously we would then have to finish 2nd because I don't see either Algeria or Slovenia beating England.

Clint, Drogba, Arshavin, etc at the Bono thing: http://inside.nike.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadImage/58602/red908x510.jpg

What do you mean by that? If you're saying another team would have been treated better than Ireland, I disagree. Very few countries would bring as much revenue to the World Cup as Ireland. If there was any real way FIFA could have snuck them in, they would have.

Anyone have any good jokes about asian drivers?

http://www.noshortcorners.com/2009/11/deuce-deuce-deuce-is-on-fiiiyooor.html Clintastic with two today. Makes it 5 goals in his last 5 EPL matches. Clip in the link. First one was some ass defending. Second one was a strong, strong turn.

FC Dallas. I think Beckerman is better than Clark. Clark's both a liability and inconsistent. Jones definitely better, Edu maybe better (but who knows when they'll be in form) and Benny moves Bradley back to defend, so depending on who we're playing, you could put Beckerman in behind Bradley or Benny above him. --Cherundolo-------Spec--------Boca---------Bornstein-- ------------------------Beckerman-------------------------- --Deuce---------------Bradley-------------------Donovan- --------------Altidore------------Findley------------------

I came hoping to get your thoughts on Findley. Couldn't agree more that he's as close to approximating CD. She's as fast, like you said not as technical or strong, but he is a strong guy. He's also taller and more of a threat in the air. He's a huge downgrade in experience and quantifiability on the big stage, but he's better than the garbage we saw in the last two friendlies. I'm not worried about Landon's pk. He manned up and faced the press conference. It'll bum him out, but oh well. I think he'll put on the big boy pants and get past it. Seriously though, Kyle Beckerman is a gd man. That dude ate the entire Galaxy midfield's lunch and he's been doing it all year. I'd really love to see him behind the midfield instead of Ricardo Clark.

Yes.

Platini is absolutely not going to let a replay happen.

It's so typical that we have like 10 dudes who are soccer swiss army knives. Useful, practical players who give a lot of effort but nothing that could be used as an outstanding weapon in a fight. I know we've slowly (very slowly) improved over the years, but if you look at the U-20's and U-17's, I don't see anything that points to anything other than more very slow improvement. Each generation of player is only slightly better than the last. And Landon. Don't start me on Landon. Our flawed hero who has so many deficiencies as a go to guy, but at the same time is still the only player we have who has a world class understanding of the game. His instincts are [expletive] fantastic. How sad it is to be reliant on one guy and to have it be him. He should be pissed. If he was born 10-15 years later, who knows what he could have been. If he came up with a national setup that didn't demand that he be everything at every level. If he could have just settled on a position, learned it inside and out and been a supporting player, he could have been a truly world class supporting player.

Stacey King is cool. He should replace C Webb on TNT.

Anyone have anything to say about the US? Specifically Cunningham? I didn't watch, but the highlight of his goal was an impressive finish and a good kind of selfishness from a striker.

The three guys who insisted on going bottom right when Rimando showed he was cheating there every time already are wieners.

Well MLS suits are psyched. LA ought to be able to handle RSL. Now we get to hear all about how Beckham wins everywhere he goes, blah blah blah, take that haterz, etc.

Brandon Jennings = young AI?

I'm just so sick of these zombie strikers that reanimate out of nowhere to reprove they aren't international caliber. If you're going to waste time reproving you suck, at least have the decency to do it like Jeff Cunningham by taking a ton of time off the scene and then start scoring goals at a ridiculous pace in your league. That at least gives me time to forget that I hate you and also gives Bob a legit reason to call you in. You can't just sit on a bench for two years and then get recalled. That's insane. I know it's a bit of a misnomer because two of our logical, in form replacements were busy in Ching and Findley, but good lord put Cunningham or Cooper in there or something. [expletive] EJ? Also him being our best striker today doesn't mean anything. I know you know that and you were just pointing it out as an indictment on Jozy and Casey. He only played (hopefully) because of the unavailability of Landon, Ching, Findley, Davies and the necessity of playing Clint in the midfield. Regardless, we were the better team today with a second choice squad on a terrible pitch in Slovakia. I'm with you on Guzan. I think he's better than Friedel. I think he's as good as Howard. On form playing consistently, he might be better than Howard. Not so much better that I'd be mad if he didn't usurp Tim, but still better. There's no way barring injury that anyone other than Tim Howard is our top choice keeper in South Africa. I have no real problem with that. Playing without the talisman today keeps you from drawing any real conclusion about the attack (other than the conclusion that we're way too Donovan-reliant) but I said it at the time of the accident and I'll say it again. Davies speed, strength and aggressiveness has proven to be the only thing that we've tried that can open up the field for our play-making midfielders in Donovan and Dempsey and without him, we lose a huge part of our attack. It relegates us to sloppy long balls and a long day of Landon getting marked out of the game. All those games over the last two years where Landon and Clint would have bad games and all of our post game thoughts would be "Landon and Clint didn't do much, but they didn't get any service whatsoever so it's not totally their fault" are going to be repeated until either Davies comes back or we figure out another way to play. If there is one for this team. I wonder if Bradley considers begging McBride back for one last run? He doesn't bring what Davies brings, but he's better than anything else up top. Some MLS stuff: Toronto FC hired Preki as their coach. Brilliant, unexpected move. Unexpected because Mo Johnston is a dumbass and this is a really savvy move. Preki is a fantastic MLS coach. Also, here is the new Philadelphia Union kit. I dig it. Behind Toronto, I think this is the best kit in the league: http://www.soccerbyives.net/.a/6a00e54ef2975b88330120a69f0454970b-500wi

Eddie Johnson? What a joke. Adu plays more than he does. I'd like to see Robbie Findley or Cunningham given a look, but in the end I think you're right that it'll be Dempsey and Altidore.

Houston does themselves a disservice by playing Holden so withdrawn. He was a monster box-to-box tonight and made some things happen in the attack but was just too often not up in the action. The Galaxy have a truly ugly offense. It's everything that's wrong with MLS. Two super talented guys and a bunch of stiffs = getting the ball to Beckham as often as possible followed by a long ball into the area with Landon trying to run onto it. I guess they have no choice, but it was hard to watch for 120+ minutes. Luis Angle Landin, the sometimes-El Tri designated player signing for Houston, is a fat, worthless piece of garbage who if I were Brian Ching, I'd kick in the face for being such a joke.

Well done Sacha: http://theoriginalwinger.com/2009-11-06-jamie-lee-darley-victorias-secret-fashion-show-model-search#more-22785

Kljestan, Donovan and Beckham looked like the only class out there, really Landon was the only one who did it for 90 mins. Also, Edgar Castillo has been called up for the Nov friendlies.