USSoccer

Haha you don't want to give up your essential bye against Cards fan, do you? :wink: Never look past an opponent. You make a very adulteress point. wins my vote Come on. He didn't even spell adulterous correctly. You can't misspell a reference.

2004 was easily the most talented team the Cubs have had in the past 10 years.

Wasn't it seeded by region?

Haha you don't want to give up your essential bye against Cards fan, do you? :wink: Never look past an opponent. You make a very adulteress point. I do appreciate you're being here, you're usually so mired in sleaze.

Haha you don't want to give up your essential bye against Cards fan, do you? :wink: Never look past an opponent.

I simply propose that Marco4 be matched up with Ziggy.

Shenanigans!

Because ESPN knew if they excluded BA they'd have all the lowest common denominator idiots whining about not including batting average, because it's a traditional stat.

CRAP. Not good.

Team winning percentage has nothing to do with the ability of one single player. What a load of garbage.

Marco4 used to be The Robot Devil, IIRC. So far Roast looks shaky.

Well, MLS + the idiotic Superliga + MLS Cup is somewhere around 40. More if Galaxy win the regular season or the MLS Cup. Beckham would be available for any England games played after the MLS season ends, plus he would be in form for Euro 2008 as MLS would be in midseason, wheras the EPL based players would be playing at the end of domestic play and UEFA play. I think it's still moot, though, because I don't believe for a second McLaren would keep Beckham on England for one minute longer than he had to in order to right the ship, so to speak.

Playing in California doesn't help just because of the distance, but I don't necessarily buy the La Liga aspect. Obviously the top teams are light years better than MLS teams, but the better MLS teams would kill the bottom of the table La Liga teams. It's not playing in European competitions that would really damper his prospects. Then again, when are England's next qualifiers? Aren't they like in the winter?

LA should say no, and for that matter so should Beckham. After the way Capello dealt with Beckham post MLS contract, Beckham should tell Real to go scratch. Also, the Messi handball goal just goes to show that poor officiating isn't just limited to the NBA, MLB, NFL, and MLS. That was as obvious as it could be at ful speed. There's no way the RA should have missed that.

I know Ferrari is awesome, and I think he's with the u-18's or u-21's. H'es the opposite of Gio Rossi, who went to play for Italy despite being from New Jersey. Ferrari will be in the 2010 mix, as will Jozy Altidore. EJ shouldn't be an option anymore. I don't care that he scored against what amounted to a rec league team. He's lazy, and doesn't do anything well at all. First touch? Bad. Passing? Bad. Shooting from distance? Bad. 1 v 1 skill? Nonexistent. Playing with back to goal? Awful. Dribbling? Nope, sucks at that, too. He had a lucky run playing against the weakest CONCACAF teams in 2004. USMNT needs to get over it and realize it was a complete mirage. He's really, really bad. The whole team kinda sucked today. The FSC guys kept yammering on about depth, but this game exposed the US's lack of depth. The back line was meh. Demerit played the best game out of all of them. The mids were ok, but a large part of that was how lousy T & T's mids were. Johnson sucks. Ching is an acceptable target guy, but he's nothing amazing. A better team would have put a couple on our defense today. A better team would have finished the 8 clear chances the US had but didn't cash in on. This team's 2nd 11 is so much worse that the first 11. You could see the difference in quality when Donovan came on. He was a class above everyone on the field. Only Mapp and Demerit really distinguished themselves from the B team. It's good that we won, but a team like ours aspires to be would have demolished T & T today. Instead, I thought we were lucky to win. That's not good. FWIW, I loved Mathis, but he was his own worst enemy. His fitness and focus robbed him of what could have been a stellar career. The US needs more guys like Mathis, which is partly why I like Dempsey so much. You need creative, attacking-minded players who don't back down, don't get intimidated and find themselves in the right spots at the right time.

EJ is totally terrible. That was a tap in had he bothered to simply jog towards goal.

I think Demerit can do fine today in Gooch's stead. T & T has like a rec team out there due to some idiotic bonus dispute from the WC. I fully expect the 'Nats to deliver an absolute beating today. I'll be at the final in Chicago. I know there are a couple other guys going as well.

MOTM: Dempsey. Was dangerous all 60 minutes he was on. He found space well, drew fouls, dropped back to the midfield, and showed good vision. I'm a little puzzled as to why he never seems 90 minutes fit, though. Good: Howard, Demerit, Bornstein and Beasley. Beasley in particular kept a great workrate, despite blowing a couple clear chances. Next time, just fire the ball in the net instead of trying to guide it in, Beas. Demerit came in and settled the central defense well. Howard stayed focused. Bornstein might have been good, or might have just looked good compared to Hejduk. Meh: Feilhaber (way ahead of Bradley at this point, actually a little better then meh), Donovan (another forgettable performance save a couple good crosses), Bocanegra (always terrifying). Bad: Eddie Johnson=useless in international play. Totally useless, although after we went down a man his presence was hardly necessary. How many more chances will he get before we give players like Ferrari, Altidore and others an opportunity? Hejduk=terrible and stupid. Michael Bradley looked lost and tentative. Stupid: Onyewu. Not only are you out on Saturday, you might be out on Monday as well for not leaving the field. Hope you like MLS, Gooch. Embarrasing: The ref. Way to keep control of the game, or rather, way to allow Carlos Ruiz to dive and take cheap shots, and way to give Gooch a phantom yellow for being fouled. This game was incredibly poorly officiated. Irritating: the anti-US crowd. The inability for even the veteran, Euro based players (like the inexplicable captain Bocanegra) to keep their composure as the ref made terrible call after terrible call. The first half was good, technical soccer. The second half looked like a pub league game. We got our 3 points, so whatever. Here's hoping we improve as we move forward.

Should be about 4-0. Dempsey plays up top very well. He seems like he moves very well and put himself into position to score very well, despite not having great pace. Twellman should have finished his clear chance, as should have Beasley. Hejduk sucks. Bocanegra is a calamity again. Donovan, aside from a couple nice crosses, was MIA.

Ah, so snap judgements are ok in one instance, but not in the other? No, what I'm saying is that it's one thing to be critical of a draft pick based on the information at hand, but it's another thing to be critical of someone who's being critical, just because they are being critical. EDIT: I shouldn't post at work. I make no sense and my arguments are generally crap.

First - I wasn't singling out goony with my comment. Second - if you're saying that our development org stinks, taking the high risk/reward players that need a lot of development is exactly the wrong strategy to take. I know you didn't single him out specifically, but his thought in Wilken's drafts so far I thought was interesting. I don't know that all high ceiling guys are high risk/reward types, but I'm not exactly an expert on baseball's draft. However, wouldn't high ceiling guys also presumably have higher floors than a "safe" pick would?

That's not what they're bashing about, though. What else do people have to go on other than scouting reports combined with a history of ineptitude when it comes to position players? People should be ok with others making snap judgements based on the information at hand, and not freak out and cry "In Wilken We Trust" in response, and act like concern isn't warranted.

Goonsey isn't bashing the picks, though. He's noticing a potential pattern in Wilken's draft philosphy. And even those who are bashing the pick have plenty cause for concern. The Cubs don't do well developing players (or, as Bruce said, development is less important than ceiling/talent), so why not take the guys with the highest ceiling possible instead of "safe" picks?

"Severe" case of patella tendinitis. He'll likely arrive here tomorrow and be available to pinch hit this weekend. They'd rather have him sit until Monday and then re-evaluate. Ugh. I don't like knee injuries. The patella tendon is also not something you want to be tearing.

Any updates on Aramis' injury?