USSoccer

Spurs with a fantastic bit of luck. B'Ham should have won that game. If Modric is hurt for any length of time that's going to hurt them.

Bayern are going to love him until he plays his 2nd game and his hamstring explodes or his ankle falls off or whatever. Robben is the Milton Bradley of UEFA

I'm going to start my own soccer podcast. It's going to be me spouting my opinions whilst drinking. My daughter will occasionally scream "Who are ya!" and sing "We paid for your hats" and in the end we email MNT players and read the responses.

And as a result their midfield got worked all day. They need striker depth badly. FFC would have been a much better fit for Jozy.

Foster is overrated to be sure but Van der Sar will be back in what, six more weeks? A better midfield + Rio would mean he would be exposed less. He's going to be found out either way here.

The january window is going to be the variable. SAF is sitting on that giant pile of Ronaldocash. The worry I have with Hull and Jozy is that Phil Brown is the kind of manager that does stupid ish like jerk Geovanni around after their dream start last year, and shuffles his lineup like an impatient 4 year old.

Lets bet an Objectivo shirt. I think they finish 5th, off of 4th by1 or 2 points. I just don't see how they are going to do it. Wigan sucked today-I don't see how the center of their midfield can hold up, especially against good competition. Scholes and Giggs are over it. Gibson and Fletcher are overrated. Hargreaves is on the side of a milk carton. They should let Anderson play a CAM role, but with Rio hurt, they need to help out defensively. Nani and Valencia are good-ish, and Rooney and Berba are class, but I just wonder about their ability to hold possession. Arsenal/Chelsea/Citeh/Liverpool go top 4. I will say that the difference between 1st and 5th is going to be under 6 points. None of these teams are great. Watching Jozy today was awesome. Too bad Phil Brown is a jackhole. He's going to net 10 this season for Hull, at least.

Far better choice for what?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say Man U finish out of the top four this year. They are just not that good, especially in the center of the pitch. There's no Ronaldo to relieve pressure on a mediocre unit.

Yes. Have you not seen what he has done over the last 8 years with far less money to spend? Ned Coletti is terrible.

Modric played really well on Sunday. Was he at it again?

At 60 grand a week? That would be my guess. With Duff's injury history, and the fact that Clint is Fulham's highest paid and longest tenured player, Hodgson will be creative with him. Maybe rotate Davies, Gera, Dempsey and Duff around a bit-keep in mind that their striker depth is thin, too. Deuce and Duff might even see some time up front, since Nevland is old and EJ is their 4th striker currently. Between Europa league, the FA cup, the league and international duty, my guess is Duff will see enough time to justify the salary/transfer fee. I don't think this means Clint moves centrally, though, unless Murphy gets hurt or needs a break desperately. Fulham's success depends mostly on how well they keep their shape and defend, and while Clint's defensive workrate on the left is really good now, I question how well he's suited to play a central role in Roy's system.

Duff was signed as cover for Europa League and squad depth. Hodgson will use him as a sub and he'll get a start here and there.

It's funny how he gets some observations so dead wrong, and yet nails the one where it rips us for not being able to control possession. Good article.

Charlie Davies with a brace today. I'm liking this development more and more.

This is the kind of hard hitting analysis I've been waiting for.

Per Grant Wahl, Landon played yesterday's game with H1N1... [expletive] swine flu. I guess that's why he got beat by a defender for the game winning goal.

I'll preface this by saying if we drop points at home to the Sallies in 3 weeks, we deserve to be in trouble. 6 points from that week gets us in. Anything less and it's going to depend on results home to CRC and away to HON. And I don't want that ish.

This was what stood out to me. Our midfield was terrible today outside of Donovan's outstanding pass through to Davies on the goal. They couldn't control anything and it just put too much pressure on our defense over and over again. The team tried to rely on countering, which would have been fine, but when your midfield struggles to possess the ball, you're not going to generate much offense. The first goal was a great shot but the second one was terrible marking and recovery/help defense. This thing came down to our midfield, or lack of one. Clark and Bradley had shockers for certain. It didn't help that Clint couldn't pinch in because he was too busy providing cover for Boca. Also, don't overlook how poor Donovan was today. He's been in top form, but allowed some non calls to get the better of him.

Bob Bradley, apart from starting Ching, had a decent day. Holden and Benny were brave subs, and made at the proper time for once. Jozy for Davies as well surprised me, as I thought we'd see Spector or Bornstein and go 4-5-1, especially since Boca was really not very good. Michael Bradley, though, played like [expletive]. He AND Holden were standing on the end line on the winning goal. Bradley could have stepped into the space, Gooch should have dropped back. Losing that way kind of sucked, because that Mexican team isn't better than we are. Castillo should have seen red for putting his hand around Benny's neck. The AR's blew that big offside, and overall I thought the Panamanian ref was poor.

Considering Deuce had like 2 touches in the attacking third, LD played really poorly, our CM's got overrun and Boca kept getting worked, to have drew 1-1 would have been amazing. Instead, now I'm just [expletive] pissed off. Why no one filled that space and marked Sabah is beyond me. Gooch just stood there while LD got burned. We got screwed on the Davies offsides. He was on.

So our CM's suck today. It's pretty obvious tactically that Bradley told Deuce to not pinch into the center in the defensive third. He's helping Boca out big time, and on Castro's goal it was the responsibility of (i think) Demerit to step up or Clark to slide over. That didn't happen, and it was a great strike. Davies looks the least affected by the conditions. Great finish, and he's been aggressive all day. Ching has been predictably terrible. Slow, bad, and useless. But at least he's in form. Donovan looks like he's pressing big time. Dempsey has been too defensive, but when Boca is trying to mark Gio, I understand why. He's had some nice touches. Gooch has been MOTM so far. His short time at Milan has really improved his play. He's on another level. I would go Altidore for Ching right now going into the 2nd, Benny F for Charlie at about 60 and Specs for Demerit at about 65, sliding Boca into the center. 3 of our 4 defenders have a yellow, so that's a concern.

Lineup out: Dolo Gooch Demerit Boca Deuce Bradley Clark LD Ching Davies Not really happy-'Dolo isn't fast enough to lock down Guardado. Ching makes our counter worse than Jozy. I think Bradley is making a big error here-why not start the same XI that took Spain down?

Ives seems to think Ching and 'Dolo are going to start. This would piss me off greatly and just prove that Bradley can't get out of his own damn way.

I'm not going to lie...I dropped that once in a high school game. It was, and remains a classic. So basically, Mexico has two advantages tomorrow-the speed of their forwards and wings, and Azteca. As long as our midfield doesn't get overrun/red carded, we can deny quality service to Vela/Gio/Sideshow Bob and negate that advantage. Azteca could turn against Mexico if we score early, and Mexico will start to press if it stays scoreless. If they run their offense through Cuau, they'll suffer for it since he's like a turtle screwing. Torrado sucks hard and is a lunatic. Their backline sucks-if we start Jozy and Charlie (as we [expletive] should), those two with Deuce and Mandon will call them some real issues, especially on the counter, since not only are the short and bad, but also slow. This will be the best team we'll ever have taken down there, and probably the worst Mexican team we'll have faced. It can't go overstated that as long as Rico and Mikey don't suck or get tossed, and if our back 4 plays to their ability, a draw should be doable at least. A win could happen, but only if: -the CM's don't suck -Howard has an very good day -The Panamanian ref (the original guy was reassigned) calls as fair a game as possible -Specs and Boca contain Sideshow Bob and Gio/Vela -We finish the chances we'll get. -Bradley resists the temptation to start Ching. He should take over the Confed's Conor Casey role. I'll call a 2-2 draw.