USSoccer

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/columns/story/_/columnist/bradley_jeff/id/5304570/ce/us/watching-us-brought-all-sorts-emotions-jeff-bradley?cc=5901&ver=us Pretty good piece right there.

I agree. He looks calmer on the ball than we've ever seen him. The pass he made to play Findley in behind the Slovenian defense early was fantastic.

I just watched the game again. Thoughts: -Slovenia made the decision to try and beat on Dempsey and mark him very tightly. It worked to a certain extent. He worked hard and created some chances, but was overall fairly quiet. -I wanted Torres, but he didn't play well. Kudos to Bob for making the right call and pulling him. Edu and Benny didn't do much, but they worked hard. -I'm still not impressed with Jozy during these 2 games. When he decides to work hard, he's a force. When he drifts, he's infuriating. -Landon took a ballsy shot. Great decision. He was also beat up a little, so from the run of play he was limited, but his set pieces were fantastic. -Findley was useless. Found himself in space and made the wrong decision almost every time. I'm glad he's suspended for Wednesday. -Gooch should sit. Either play Goodison or move Boca central and play Specs or Bornstein. -Bob Bradley needs to correct this conceding early ish. -We never looked composed during the entire game. In the first half, we seemed so shocked at how aggressive Slovenia was, we never really took control of the midfield. In the 2nd, we were pressing so hard to equalize that we never found a defensive shape, and were really lucky to not give up a 3rd. There were some stunningly bad giveaways at midfield that led to breaks and we were very fortunate. -On Wednesday, Buddle for Findley and Edu in with Mikey. Algeria can advance with a win, so they're going to play open. They're technically pretty sound. Comparable to Egypt if you will.

Even with the tie, the US advances outright with a win Wednesday. They completely control their own destiny. They also can advance with a tie depending, and can even win the group depending. But a win and they advance -- Algeria scoring or not didn't change that paradigm. D'oh. Good point.

Did Joe Cole defect to North Korea or something? I think Capello is afraid of using good players off his bench

God I hope Algeria knick a goal here. If they do, we advance outright with a win Wednesday.

Do they just mean not allowing a goal? They talked about the sheet when Slovenia was getting all those yellow cards, so I assume that's what it refers to. Clean sheet=shutout Oh, okay. What were they referring to when they were talking about all the guys going on the sheet with yellows? Different sheet? Or did I just hear wrong. Usually they say "in the book" or "it's a booking" for cards. If it was Harkes saying it, he probably just screwed up

Do they just mean not allowing a goal? They talked about the sheet when Slovenia was getting all those yellow cards, so I assume that's what it refers to. Clean sheet=shutout

Carragher being out is probably a net positive for England.

I would say today, because with Frings, you can say that: -the ball played his hand; he didn't make a motion to block it -we still would have had to convert the PK against the best keeper in the tourney -it would have only tied the game Today, the ball went in.

Is he the one that Slov #7 is trying to get in a headlock and give a noogie to? If so, that is even worse than calling a phantom one on Edu. The US player in #7's grasp got absolutely raped. Yeah.

How would you replace him? Straight up with Goodison? Yeah. He's not played a full match in months and he's just gone 90 minues twice in 6 days.

FWIW, official word is that there was a foul called on Boca. What did Boca do? He got put in a headlock and ended up on the ground.

http://i47.tinypic.com/2rf829y.jpg Not that this excuses the piss poor defending in the first, but no US player is fouling anyone there. I think Gooch needs to sit on Wednesday. He's at least partially responsible for all 3 goals we've conceded.

Honestly, I agree with you. If we don't show up again for a half and can't beat a team that's in all probablility going to get pantsed today, we don't deserve to advance.

After 1982 all 3rd group games are simultaneous, to prevent shenanigans like with Germany/Austria where they played like that episode of the Simpsons with Ariaga II for 90 minutes to screw some other country.

Oh, I have some words for that. If we only hadn't come out and played like total wet ass for the first 45 minutes...

That first goal was all on Torres. He played poorly. Slovenia came out and attacked the flanks, which nobody saw coming. Our defending was awful in the first. We should have finished one of the gilt-edged chances we had, and the counter/goal to go 0-2 was a killer. We played with a ton of heart in the second. Landon stepped up big time. Clint was quieter than Saturday, but worked damned hard. Jozy was useless. Mikey was Mikey, for better or worse. The ENG/ALG match is huge now.

Get it out of our end of the field plz

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES

Come on now. Come on guys...

I think we're going to equalize. Just a feeling.

THATS A RED

I'm not a fan of this ref at all.

Seriously. Get up. That should have been a PK.