USSoccer

explain Questionable defensive decisions. Horrid basepath instincts. Below average range. Below average arm. okay, what questionable defensive decisions did he make today? and his defense has been evaluated as right around average by most defensive metrics, which doesn't mesh with your assessment. Why throw home off your back foot when you know your arm isn't strong enough to do that when you can attempt to turn a double play?

explain Questionable defensive decisions. Horrid basepath instincts. Below average range. Below average arm.

-Aaron Miles is awful -Ryan Theriot is the dumbest baseball player on the team. Everyone who thought Cedeno was dumb needs to take a look at how bad our current SS is. -Kevin Gregg isn't good.

put wolf on suicide watch. Chelsea balanced it out. Also, with Barry Ferguson out of the picture, Mo Edu has a starting spot at Rangers if he can earn it. He scored a goal toady. So far, so good. I'm still not sold. Although did you read about why Ferguson is out there? Hilarious.

Bruce Arena brought in the corpses of Eddie Lewis, Gregg Berhalter, and Tony Sanneh. Its not the least bit surprising they suck. The sooner they sell Goldenballs to Milan, the better, since maybe then they could build a proper midfield. However, knowing them, they'd just make John O'Brien their DP or something.

The LA Galaxy need Christian Vieri like they need a hole in the head. That team is terrible. Porto pantsed United today. For all the offensive firepower Sir Alex has sitting around, they sure are really thin at central defense. Porto have never lost to an English team at home, either. They might be screwed.

wasn't it 114 through 5 or something idiotic like that?

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=634350&sec=worldcup2010&cc=5901 Weird story:

And just like that, Jonathan Spector gets concussed and hurts his shoulder. Scratch his name off the list for CR and HON.

Our federation is awful

It says he was the player of the match, scored a hat trick, and then boarded a plane to go back to work with his Xerez teammates. Nothing about brothel shootings in this one?

Nothing of any substance according to Google Translate. So you're saying it isn't a public apology and resignation letter by the management staff for not playing the Jozy. I didn't think so. Villarreal was looking to rescind the loan and send Jozy to some other Segunda side last I heard... Geez...debacle. Pretty much. Xerez faced a locker room revolt if they started Jozy when they were top of the table and headed towards promotion. I can't blame Xerez's manager for making the choice he made, but Villarreal isn't ever going to loan a player there again, and I'd bet money if they earn promotion, Villarreal are going to attempt to pummel them.

Nothing of any substance according to Google Translate. So you're saying it isn't a public apology and resignation letter by the management staff for not playing the Jozy. I didn't think so. Villarreal was looking to rescind the loan and send Jozy to some other Segunda side last I heard...

Clint is becoming a little overlooked because he's adjusted his game to be much better at hold up play. He can hold the ball in traffic and eat up pressure on the ball better than any other outfield player we have. He doesn't have the pace that some want in a wing player, and he should be playing more centrally, closer to goal, but he's such a valuable part even if he's not juking and scoring. And Hejduk makes him look bad by not being in the right place to receive passes as well.

This is what I took away among other things. 1) Putting away chances is what separates us from being a top side, or second-tier top side that is. It's what separates us from being a Holland or England level team. 2) Now that Mikey is more confident going forward and not just hanging back throwing his feet at people, I like Mastro as a partner. It's not double destroyer. It's two rough dudes, but one of them will push forward. Granted, this will only ever work with good wing play. Bradley needs to tailor it. Some sides necessitate going up the wings, some necessitate playing it on the carpet and doing it like a poor man's Spain. Hopefully Sacha will continue to improve and inter-changing he and Mastro for a couple years and then he and Edu will be what allows that. 3) CONCACAF sucks. Between our dog [expletive] draw, Mexico being dog [expletive] in general and our next competition getting blown off the pitch when we only finished half our chances, there isn't a lot to rep in North America right now. 4) Jozy and Ching make a really, really strong pairing. Best forward pairing I've seen for the MNT. Granted it's one game, but I think it could continue. 5) We have no flawless defenders. Every single one of them has something wrong with them. Carlos is prone to gaffe, Gooch too and also not the smartest center back, Pearce can't get a game, Cherundolo isn't super physically gifted, Frankie is but and is smart but has no skill, Orozco is young, Parky too small, Califf just bad, etc. It is beyond time to see what guys like Spector, Marvelle Wynne and Chad Marshall can do. Probably not much, but still. I'm looking forward to the Gold Cup this year just to see what those guys and guys like Danny Szetela, Benny Feilhaber, Kenny Cooper and Yura Movsisyan can do. Btw, when I called Sacha would be the next MLS guy to break through the MNT a la Clint, I was right. Now I'm calling Yura. Javier Aguirre left Madrid and has been waiting in the wings for a few months now. He's going to pounce and I'm not happy about it. -I'd rather see Clint up high with Jozy and more speed on the flank, but for qualifying, I'm 100% ok with that pairing. Ching plays the role Bradley requires in his system really well. I've come around on that. He just needs a real striker next to him. -Our next 2 games are going to be huge. Away to CR at the Saprissa and home to Honduras in a city that's not had the best rep for home support, unfortunately. If we draw in CR, we have to hold serve, otherwise we're in trouble, since T&T and ES are going to be done really soon. -I'm also 100% comfortable with a Pablo/Bradley pairing for the rest of qualifying on the road. At home, I think we can allow Sacha to feature, since other than the Honduras fixture our home schedule remaining should be fairly easy. -I really, really would like Spector to emerge as a consistent player in the back 4. Boca and Gooch have so much trouble with fast, quick strikers. DMB isn't a viable option at left back because the last two games have really shown how his pace has eroded. -It's not just finishing. It's also the final pass, because more often than not, it's not Landon or Clint having the flash of a chance to make a quick, incisive pass to unlock the defense, but Hejduk on the flank, and he's just not technically sound. -Aguirre is a good coach. Unfortunately, Mexico isn't all that good this cycle. They're going to get in, so he'll have time to reshape the roster for 2010.

And that's 3-0 Honduras, and likely the end of SGE in Mexico. Wow. They got beat down, too. It isn't a cheap 3-0 or playing at 57,000 feet like Argentina had to deal with. EDIT: As I wrote this, Carlos Vela just drew the crappiest PK ever. Mexico just pulled one back, but it's too late. They aren't good enough.

Who will be the next coach at Mexico, Sven might as well and fly back to Sweden if they lose? They could always go back to Hugo Sanchez for the 38th time. Somewhere, Ricardo LaVolpe is smoking Marlboros and laughing. And coughing.

As well as DMB links with Donovan, he should be on the bench. Carlos Edwards smoked him at least three times with pure pace. Beasley's biggest asset was his pace, and it's gone. They got away with it tonight because T&T are a poor side, but you can't play him at left back and allow him to go upfield like that. Mastro played really well. Donovan and Ching played well. Dempsey was decent, worked hard all game. Gooch and Boca were solid. Hejduk...if the man had any touch or technical skill, he'd be the best right back in the game. He puts himself into glorious positions and then pisses them away more often than not. It's hard to evaluate this one, because T&T gave us so much space, and we still squandered too many chances. As dumb as he is, Lalas' point is operative. T&T will give you 10 chances. A top side in South Africa might give you one. Our finishing, our final pass in the final third, needs to be better.

Honduras up 2-0 on Mexico in the first half. That place is going insane. I love it. Sexy.

Jozy. That's pretty much it right there.

I think that Landon is way too gay for Ching and Beasley in the final third. He's missed Bradley and Deuce twice streaking in.

Maybe they should stop being so wasteful in front of the net. I'm not happy at 1-0 with the way they've dominated.

Beasley in at left back, Landon to left wing, Jozy up top. Pablo in for Kljestan. Should be interesting.

This is a bad, bad thing for soccer fans. Setanta isn't everywhere yet, and I'm not all that impressed with FSC's coverage of anything but the EPL, really. What does this mean for Derek Rae? Are we really going to have to listen to Max Bretos over pronounce every name or listen to Christopher Sullivan call Inter "Milan" and Man U "Manchester?" Ugh. I would hope they'd just use whoever Sky Sports uses for this sort of thing, rather than using those two.

This is a bad, bad thing for soccer fans. Setanta isn't everywhere yet, and I'm not all that impressed with FSC's coverage of anything but the EPL, really.