USSoccer

Agreed. Donovan needs to raise his game. He can keep taking PK's to pad his stats all he wants, but until he steps up against someone other than Mexico, he'll be a second fiddle to not only Deuce, but Jozy, Adu and whomever else emerges this cycle. He really, really needs to go to Europe. Could you imagine if he reached 80% of his ceiling?

Wouldn't that be Clint once Altidore is established as a target player? I envision this as my lineup: Altidore Demspey Beasley Adu Donovan Bradley Dolo DeMerit Gooch Pearce Szetela, Feilhaber, Clark and Edu would be the 2nd team mids. Ching and Ferrari would be my 2nd string strikers (although you could slot Donovan or Adu up to the withdrawn spot). Bornstein, Bocanegra, Conrad, Simek and Spector would be the backup defenders. I like it as well. You said something prior to the World Cup last year along the lines of making sure your best XI are on the field, regardless of spot. Any lineup configuration has to have some combo of Deuce/Jozy/DMB/LD/Adu in it. We need more attacking firepower if we're ever going to move beyond a mid level WC team.

I personally agree, but given that Bradley has given the armband for Bocanegra for reasons unknown, playing DeMerit over Gooch is your best bet. I'd personally rather see Conrad/DeMerit, honestly, unless we're playing a side with a big, physical striker. Then I'd play Gooch/DeMerit. To me, Bocanegra is a backup. He's way too erratic, and people forget that aside from his idiotic clearance attempt against Ghana which led to the bad PK, he nearly headed 2 balls into his own net against Italy last summer. If Michael Bradley ends up at 70% Gattuso I'd call that a win, but you still need an attacking central mid.

Pro's: -Bradley needs to give Pearce more chances to win that left back spot. He was mich, much better than Bornstein. He didn't get himself into trouble, got into the attack smoothly, and played under control. Cherundolo played well, too. I think if we had to play a WCQ tomorrow, they would be my starting backs -As Dempsey plays more up front, he's getting more and more comfortable. His finish was clinical, and I doubt the ability of many other USMNT players to be able to finish that smoothly. When Jozy gets here, Clint should stay in the center of the pitch as the focal point of the attack. He's our best offensive player. -DMB looks a million times better than he did 12 months ago -Our central mids closed out attacks pretty well. -Donovan played his best when he was out wide. It's time to keep him there, rather than continually trying to force him into being a #10 or trying to make him Michael Owen. Cons: -If youre going to commit to playing Carlos Bocanegra in the center of the field, you can't play Gooch there at the same time. They make way too many careless mistakes, faster attackers tear them up, they play clumsily and out of control at times. I personally think Jay DeMerit would make the best choice to play alongside Bocanegra, but you have to make one of them the backup for the other, or else you'll see the same screwups that we say throughout 2006 in central defense. -Bobby Convey is going to get buried on the depth chart if he can't grow a right foot. -EJ still sucks. He needs to get to Europe really soon, or else he's gonig to stay what he is now: the homeless man's Robbie Fowler. -We really need an attacking mid to go with either Feilhaber, Bradley or Clark. Adu needs to get capped soon and start his development. Overall, it's hard to be dissapointed about this loss. We gave up a crappy own goal, a free kick off of a really iffy foun outside the 18, and a penalty in stoppage time. We accounted for ourselves pretty well against a top 3 team, all things said.

My wife and I have known each other for 6 years, and for about 4 of those years we have lived together. I think that it's helped enormously with a lot of things, in terms of like a test drive, but there were times when we both could have benefitted from having seperate spaces to go to if one was pissed at the other. I don't think cohabitation has anything to do with divorce rates. Socio-economic factors and psychological history are probably the two biggest ones.

"A" friendlies count, and supposedly the Canada friendly was an "A" friendly according to FIFA.

I wouldn't underestimate the value of getting Adu, Szetela and Altidore experience at the senior level. I knew about the injury, but I disagree with Ives on his whole "Jozy doesn't need to be the savior" thing. I think he's looking at it as a fan of RBNY, really. The fact of the matter is, he's going to be our best striker the day he's named to a senior side roster. Why not use him as a sub in these games to get his feet wet ahead of quialifying? Playing 20 min per game in friendlies with the senior side isn't exactly annoiting him as "savior". As it is, unless Clint plays up top all the time until Jozy gets here (probably our best option), we're stuck with EJ, who technically plays "forward", but really plays the position of "liability". Ching, who I've never liked, and Donovan, who isn't a striker on any planet. THe 1.5 years between the World Cup and WCQ's are like Septembers for crappy baseball teams. Rather than capping the likes of Wolff, Zavagnin, Mastroeni, Arnaud and others, you need to allow your young talent a chance to get it's feet wet in games that don't have the pressure that WCQ's do. And then there's the issue of cap-tying guys like Adu and Altidore. Jozy won't ever play for Haiti as long as the USSF exists, but there is a very, very real chance that Freddy Adu will play for Ghana. If you think of the kind of personality Adu has, he's very impatient, thinks quite highly of himself, and if he feels that for whatever reason USSF isn't giving him a shot, he could go play for the Black Stars (this ignores whether or not the Canada friendly from 2006 cap-tied him).

Unfortunately not. I'm pretty pissed about it.

Allegedly the reason they are doing this is because Kansas City is the only MLS team with a lot of time off around the game, so they will be able to rest before and after. Yeah. That's the attitude you want to have building a squad to face the number one team in the world. Landon is going to run away with the POY because of the pretty stats he has accumulated regardless of how he got them. I think Howard is a good nominee, but Boca is only nominated because he wore the arm band for the Gold Cup and this has been a year without a real flashy stand out. Refresh my memory, did Deuce win it last year? Yeah, Clint won it in 2006. Quite frankly, he is a better candidate than Bocanegra in 2007. I can't fathom Landon winning anything awards wise. He's just so...I don't know. I can't stand him. He's a complimentary player, even if USSF doesn't realize it. You can't run an offense through him. He's not a striker. He's not a #10 mid. He's really a wing player, except no one will put him there. He's not a leader. He's only good against Mexico. Howard should win it based on his performances in the Gold Cup, really.

Nolan Ryan Johnny Damon Ichiro David Eckstein David Wright *ducks*

And while I'm at it, how are Bocanegra and Donovan nominated for POY? Bocanegra is freaking terrible, and aside from the hat trick against Ecuador all Donovan did was convert PK's and miss sitters. I would have nominated Howard, Feilhaber and maybe Beasley. Even Ching is more deserving in my world than Bocanegra.

Oh come on. Zavagnin is uber-crappy. We've been through this, Bradley. Or does he not remember the abysmal performance in Germany last Feburary?

Michael Bradley is going to have soiled himself by the time this game is over.

Carlos Bocanegra needs to stay away from Wrigley. He's a disaster wherever he goes. I wish I were there to yell at Donovan.

I'm really pissed about that because that seemed like an ideal time to call up Freddy (other than vs Brasil). Stupid selfish Spanish FA. Yeah, the Catalonia game seemed like the perfect date. I think we still play Switzerland at some point over there. I guess we'll have to wait until then, unless Peter Nowak really is dictating the non-rostering of Freddy.

Jozy's been held out of RBNY's last couple games with a calf injury, IIRC. That's probably why he's not on this roster. On the other hand, I'm suprised he got off his anti Heath Pearce rag and put him on the roster. Personally, I think it sucks more that Freddy Adu is once again not on a roster. I get that he just got to Benfica, but it's a full international date. They'd have every right to request him. Sucks to have the Catalonia game cancelled, too. That was one European date that was intruiging.

I might be late to the thread, but this move is only acceptable if Trachsel is used to start 2 or 3 games, and in long relief otherwise. Taking starts away from Hill is madness.

he also set-up the second goal. fulham was down 3-1 in the 75th but came back and equalized 3-3 in the 90th. he also set up the 3rd goal. He figured in all three goals. Great game for him, especially considering he played the target role the whole game. Fulham's defense sucks something fierce, though.

Sunil Gulati is an idiot, as are most of the people that make up the USSF.

There's no way. It would be so, so stupid, especially considering they wasted money on Wade Miller.

I think tonights game was a terrific example of why the USMNT sucks in Europe. It's not CONCACAF. You have to put opportunities away when they are presented to you, especially against competent European sides away. Sweden conceded 2 clear chances. Beasley and Dempsey both should have scored, although neither of them have been very good in front of goal over the last year. You can't tank opportunities like that and expect results. This team badly, BADLY needs a real striker. Someone who is clinical in front of goal. I'm beginning to become less impressed with Bob Bradley's coaching. None of the mids played all that well. Beasley probably played the best. The fact that Benny had to play the wing mid spot is just inexplicable. Slide Dempsey there and start Davies or Hill. That's stupid coaching. Convey shouldn't have been out there. He looked bad. Not really his fault, but he looked bad. Again, he's had a super long layoff. Why play him in a friendly? It's not as if you don't have 2+ years of Bobby Convey tape to evaluate him on. Poor coaching. Michael Bradley looked skittish again. That's beginning to get obnoxious. Mastroeni shouldn't be a first choice selection anymore. That's on the coach. Carlos Bocanegra is terrible. He gets caught out of position so often. Bornstein shouldn't be allowed in the offensive third until someone teaches him to stop dribbling his way out of space and into trouble. Sweden's home crowd sounded asleep and their stadium looked narrow as hell.

So what the heck happened to his knee? That was an odd injury. Dissapointing to hear about Dempsey missing a sitter. Hopefully he can get back on track.

I watched almost the entire LA-NY match last night. Its probably stating the obvious, but 3 players were clearly the best on the pitch: Beckham, Alitdore, and Angel. I'm so excited to watch Altidore grow into an even better player. Beckham is a monster. His passing is so crisp and the free kicks he assisted on were beautiful, while the NY defense on them was atrocious. 66,000 people were there to watch it to. Big Chelsea-Liverpool match this morning at Anfield. I don't have a good feeling, but I'd be happy with a point coming out of this one. Jozy Altidore is going to be the real deal. His 2nd goal last night was just pure class.

I don't see how an objective observer can say that Hendry's done a good job as GM of the Cubs. Over a 5 year period his ballclub has been overall completely mediocre despite having a top 5 payroll. The farm system has been a letdown (though not all his fault). He's made some good moves for various reasons in various circumstances, but his philosiphies lack clear direction and his teams have all had fatal flaws that have manifested themselves at one point or another. It's hard to say he's been a success.

I don't see how anyone isn't justified in being pessimistic about the travelling circus of failure that is the Cubs.