wolf stansson

Jaime Garcia I guess.

The Dutch are going with Kuyt over Huntelaar? Was there an injury I missed?

Which is a shame, because they are loaded. Or not a shame if you don't care about France like me.

One finisher up top would have made a world of difference. We still need someone who can take a shot from deep. We were organized and brought that trademark American work rate. Now we take 1,284,082 steps back and start qualifying. Hopefully we can keep our foot on the pedal and not play down.

Heath Pearce has been excellent so far too.

Timmy FING Howard. Jesus that is some good goalkeeping. We could be sitting down 4-0 like Mexico right now if not for the best keeper in the Western hemisphere. Putting on a show for Kasey Keller night. I like it. Donovan has looked good and our midfield has looked much better. Bradley is playing well as is Deuce. Mastroeni hasn't embarassed but he isn't adding anything offensively obviously. Seeing Califf in the starting lineup was a seriously wtf moment. Put in DeMerit now. Is it too late to call in Parkhurst?

I really hope he stays at Bayern. I think Klinssmann could do special things with him. Hittsfeld just never tried to work him into the squad like Lowe does. Btw - Cooper, Cervi and Moor are all scratches tonight. They were just insurance call ups in case a few guys couldn't go.

Austria just missed an equalizer in stoppage. Nice cross in and Austrian guy wiffed on the header by being about a second too late. Losing 1-0 on a penalty is a heart breaker.

I'm a little hungover, so there is no way I'm playing the left back drinking game. None. I am, however excited to see Jay DeMerit get a big role. I'm interested to see if he is an option going forward. Although going against Messi and Riquelme may not be the best opposition to get a run out against if you want to make a positive impression.

Awww, that would just be too bad. I never like to see someone injured, but you know -- it's about damn time the Cards starting having to deal with the consequences of just throwing random players into whatever role they feel like it regardless of whether the player is capable of handling that role or not. I'm still waiting for something to happen to Braden Looper. Looper is awful, he needs to stay as healthy as possible. Yeah I was gonna say, I'd much rather see Looper than Jaime Garcia from your perspective.

Yep. They hired a ton of sky guys for the tournament. Btw, Kenny Cooper was added to today's roster, good times.

He's younger than freaking Ludwick.

Just how soccer starved am I living in a non-MLS city? I'm contemplating going to this. Will Wolf drop some cash, brave the heat and the tens of thousands of ridiculous Chivas fans with their drums and their horns and their yelling to see a Jozyless NYRB play Chivas DG in an exhibition? I doubt it. We'll see.

No Bocanegra or Wolff. No addition of Altidore or Cooper. Jozy's got the bum ankle. I'm hoping for: ------------------Dempsey--------------------- Beasley------------Adu----------------Donovan ------------Bradley-------Edu------------------- Pearce---DeMerit----Onyewu-----Cherundolo ------------------Howard----------------------- I guess. Lewis could slot in instead of Beasley and Kljestan could slot in on the right if Bradley stupidly wants to bench Freddy and play Landon up top. Whatever. We still have no clearer look at our forwards, which is what I thought was the most important objective to determine going into qualifying.

Article about Jorge Flores and touches on USSoccer's point of US Development not targeting the right players.

Jozy Altidore on with Dellacamera and Harkes during tonight's Chivas USA vs NYRB game (which Brad Guzan is starting and playing in less than 24 hours after the Spain game): Last 24 hours has been hectic, phone constantly ringing, but it's been a very positive experience so far. Always been his dream to play over seas with the best players and coaches in the world, but this is where all the hard work begins. Keeps it in perspective as a teenager by constantly working and trying to be consistent. He loves La Liga, it's his favorite league in world football and he hopes to improve his technical ability and tactical knowledge playing in such a great league. Isn't playing tonight because of an ankle knock in training Monday. Playing with the Nats is an amazing experience, the goal against Mexico was his career highlight, but he is putting it behind him and wants to score many more. Feels he has a lot of things he needs to improve on still to become more consistent and get better in all facets of his game. Credits Juan Pablo Angel with teaching him a lot about navigating the box, training techniques and mindset.

+ incredible fan support despite disappointing results.

Not great immediately, but I think he'll be pretty good. This thinking led me to draft Francisco Liriano in the first 8 rounds of two fantasy drafts this year. Smart pick, TT (me too).

Yeah he was 260. He's down to about 240. I'm just happy the Cardinals took a guy with serious potential and didn't reach for a need.

http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2008/06/dortmund-signs.html Nevan Subotic signs with Borussia Dortmund. He's the dude who is on the fence about whether he wants to play for Bosnia, Germany or the US. He is a former US u-20 and still only 19. He'd be a big loss if he played somewhere else. http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hi_dnHO8nioqk-GVBp1KmdRub0Eg Gio says he is going to be playing for Spurs next year. All but official. They are going to have some ridiculous offensive talent next year even when Berbatov leaves.

I hate to turn into "that guy" but I blame the managers. I truly think that we are a better side than we've shown under Bradley and the late days of Arena. I think we have guys that would make us look like a different team entirely if they got more playing time like Parkhurst, Cooper, Altidore, Adu and even lesser obvious ones like Danny Szetela, Sacha Kljestan and Kyle Beckerman. I know it's way too early to start pinning any hopes on him, but I swear this Jorge Flores kid for Chivas in every bit as promising as any player we've produced recently. Very Nery Castilloish. I know Beckerman isn't a name that gets any of us wet, but with his passing ability, there is no reason he shouldn't be playing ahead of Mastroeni or Clark. I know Cooper didn't stick at Man U but he has the touch and finishing ability to be a true center forward. I know Szetela is young and unproven, but he plays with a creativity out of the midfield that few of our guys can. Parkhurst requires no excuses to why he should play. He is flat out our best defender with ball at his feet and our smartest positionally. He should be playing. I believe we are deeper than we've shown. I think Bradley is dropping the ball developing players. He only plays guys in Europe which is fine when they are the best players we can field, but these dudes in the Scandanavian leagues or the Austrian league are not as good as some of the MLS options we have. When he does play MLS players, it's the wrong ones. We don't need Ricardo Clark. We don't need Pablo Mastroeni. Bradley calls new guys in, but they are either the wrong guys or he just doesn't ever play them. Bob Bradley's number one problem, even bigger than his failings with squad selection is how weak he is tactically. We have a lot of players who don't fit into traditional positions. Landon has no classic position. Either does Adu, Bradley or Dempsey. Look at those 4 names. Those are arguably our 4 best players. When your 4 best players aren't having their abilities maximized by the manager, that's a problem. Guys like that and Szetela, Beckerman and Jorge Flores probably don't fit into a bucket, double destroyer 4-4-2. Well then FING toss it and find what does work! What in the hell was all that testing in the Copa America and all our friendlies for if not to find what works best for our players?! If he hadn't been trying to grind out results against South Africa, Sweden twice, Poland and Switzerland, maybe we'd have a better idea what our best tactical formation is!

http://www.goal.com/en-US/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=724348 http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/newsid=790129.html#bradley+complete+midfielder

Bloodbath highlights.

HAHAHA!! 3-0 Argentina in the 32nd minute. Way for the boys to go win one for the guy they wanted to be their manager instead of Sven. Typical heartless Mexico.

Thoughts: Other than the raping from Xavi, our central defenders were surprisingly decent today. Bocanegra organized the back third zone well and Onyewu hung in there. Clint Dempsey hasn't done much for quite a while. I'm worried at what the effect all this positional juggling has had on him, because he was bad today. Freddy crossed a ball in front of the net he could have easily finished. Eddie Johnson makes defenders run. He makes them account for him. Unfortunately he has the touch of a brick wall and can't finish. Lewis' cross that he headed wide in the second half was a sitter. That needed to be put in. Michael Bradley was strong in the first half; disruptive, active and feisty. Unfortunately he was out of gas in the second and didn't look as good. He covered a lot of ground today getting up and back more than anyone. I'm still waiting to see him get forward and score goals like he did for the u-20's and Heerenveen. It would be ironic if his dad was the one holding him back. Now to our talismanic man of the match. I say talismanic because we fielded two very different squads today. The first was dangerous, skilled and creative. The second was plodding, clumsy and clearly not as good. Freddy was unbelievable on the ball today. He is just awesome. With the ball at his feet, he can do things few in the world can. He is our CAM for the next 15 years and that is a fact that makes me very happy. When paired with someone who can finish like Jozy, we have a real, legit attack. Again, if we have a full-strength Landon, we probably would have scored (unless it precluded Adu from playing). Hell, if Freddy played the second half we probably would have scored. I think Bradley did a good job adjusting his tactics and playing for a result. I'm still not sold. What is a glaring damnation of his coaching however is how well we played in the first half. It makes it even more abundantly obvious that A) the team he fielded for England was terrible and B) the team was intimidated by the Wembley experience and that blame lies squarely on the manager's shoulders. And with that, I'll leave you with the quote of the day from the broadcast. "This Adu pairing with Johnson has been more effective than the Wolff-Johnson pairing from last week." -JP Dellacamera Really? You think so?