USSoccer

Pedro Martinez was hands down, the best pitcher of the 1990's. It's not even close. Look at his numbers in that decade.

So even though I get Milwaukee Fox and Chicago Fox, I'll still miss the saturday national games?

A little OT but do CSN games in Kenosha get blacked out by Time Warner? I want to make sure I won't miss any games when I move..

That was a 550 ft HR by Aramis.

Exactly. Trading excess junk for him like one of our 2nd baseman and Welley is one thing, but you don't rob Peter to pay Paul.

Our prinicpal strengths are our outside mids and our goalkeeper. We're a fairly fast team, somewhat physical, and stable in the midfield. Reyna tends to at least control the pace of a game, although IMO he almost slows it down to the overall detriment of the team when the offense runs through him. Donovan is a skilled playmaker, and Beasley will cause major problems on the left side. We counter attack very well. Our main weakness is finishing, and the lack of a true difference maker. We are one of the worst finishing sides in the World Cup-we lack that pure goal scorer that other teams have, and so offensively we tend to rely on the counter-attack too often. If a team gets a lead on the US we typically struggle to equalize, since the defense and mids sag back and clog the offensive third. Donovan in particular tends to choke in high pressure games, so he'll be a tremendous key. Also, if Eddie Johnson makes the roster and starts, it means Arena can use Donovan as a withdrawn forward and take full advantage of his ability to create chances for the forwards. If Donovan starts at forward, he wil HAVE to score in order for the US to advance. Defensively we have one really strong defender who's improved in Onyewu, and the rest of the defense is somewhat suspect, IMO. The games against Poland and Germany will be very key in seeing that uit work together effectively.

I think if Hendry wanted Soriano he would have pulled the trigger and dealt with Texas. Given Soriano's salary, the only scenario where he's worth investing in is one where we traded Walker or Hairston back, along with Wellemeyer. Murton for Soriano is a crime, and I don't think Bowden is clever enough to pull that off, and Hendry doesn't make too many stupid trades.

I don't see Twellman struggling to do that, although McBride is probably better at it. In the end, Twellman backing up McBride is probably what will happen, with Eddie Johnson playing the Clint Mathis role from 2002. How do you feel about Saturino Quaranta?

Roy Keane is pretty old at this point. Their only good player of note after him is Damian Duff, and even with those limitations they very nearly qualified

I have no problem with McBride up front as long as we're playing the longball-type game that he's suited to. Against Italy, however, McBride will be totally neutralized by Nesta in the longball game, and should therefore be replaced by Twellman so we've got 2 quick forwards up front. It is imperative that the forwards are then provided with good service. For this, i'd play Dempsey. i hope he's ready for the big stage. he's by far the best passer we've got. In fact, i'd agree with you that Dempsey should probably be starting no matter what, but definitely if the longball game is not in use. Solely for playing against the Czechs, I would bring Mastroeni, because I'd have him absolutely mess with Nedved for the full 90 minutes. he's a real bastard. in a good way. You don't think McBride's usefulness is limited given his age and mileage? i absolutely think it's limited. But he still manages to win a lot of balls in the air. Also, I like the change of pace going from him to whoever his sub is (probably twellman) at about the 60-70 minute mark, where all of a sudden defenses have to deal with a guy making runs instead of just going after balls in the air and poaching. I think Twellman can be just as effective in the air, plus I also think Twellman has the strikers gift of being in the right place at the right time. I agree with you 100% of Dempsey. I'd like to see Clint out there every game, but the Poland and Germany games are going to be big for him. He needs to show he can keep him composure against players that will knock him around on hostile fields.

I have no problem with McBride up front as long as we're playing the longball-type game that he's suited to. Against Italy, however, McBride will be totally neutralized by Nesta in the longball game, and should therefore be replaced by Twellman so we've got 2 quick forwards up front. It is imperative that the forwards are then provided with good service. For this, i'd play Dempsey. i hope he's ready for the big stage. he's by far the best passer we've got. In fact, i'd agree with you that Dempsey should probably be starting no matter what, but definitely if the longball game is not in use. Solely for playing against the Czechs, I would bring Mastroeni, because I'd have him absolutely mess with Nedved for the full 90 minutes. he's a real bastard. in a good way. You don't think McBride's usefulness is limited given his age and mileage?

Wins are a team stat. Team. See Clemens, Roger, circa 2005. Also, as Diffusion pointed out, Buehrle pitches in a division with Kansas City and Detroit, two terrible teams. And, FWIW, my top 5: Z Prior Buehrle Vasquez Wood.

And finally, upcoming US warmup games: March 1st vs Poland in Kaiserslautern, Germany March 22nd vs Germany in Dortmund, Germany The European based players like Beasley, Keller, Reyna, Cherundolo and McBride should be playing in these games, and the roster you see against Germany will likely be the final roster barring injuries. IMO, this *should* be the starting 11: Keller Oneywu Pope Cherundolo Lewis Reyna Beasley Dempsey Donovan Twellman Johnson but I think a more likely lineup features O'Brien in place of Dempsey, and McBride in place of Twellman. Also, slide Donovan up front, put Johnson on the bench, and start Ralston at midfield.

Some more scouting tidbits: Blurb on the Totti surgery:

A 100% Totti can get a team really, really far. he's been about 80% for Roma's last 10 games (well, 9.1, I guess, since he got injured ten minutes into the last one). They've won all 10 of those games to tie the Serie A consecutive wins record. it's been almost entirely because of Totti (and to a lesser extent, Simone Perrotta and Mancini, the best brazilian you've probably never heard of). I just don't think he'll be 100% from a broken ankle by mid-June. He'll probably be on the field, but not at 100%. Was it his plant foot or his main foot? Plant foot. I'd think that to get strength and quickness back in your plant foot would take awhile, since all of his weight will be shifting on that ankle every time he makes a move.

He got capped (appeared in a game) vs Canada about 2 weeks ago, but only because Eddie Johnson got hurt. He was in camp training, but Arena probably did it to give him some experience and feel the kid out. I'd be stunned if he made the roster, but if a multiple midfield/forward type guys get hurt, it's a possibility. I'd give it less than 5%, though, since there is so much depth at midfield and forward for Arena to choose from.

A 100% Totti can get a team really, really far. he's been about 80% for Roma's last 10 games (well, 9.1, I guess, since he got injured ten minutes into the last one). They've won all 10 of those games to tie the Serie A consecutive wins record. it's been almost entirely because of Totti (and to a lesser extent, Simone Perrotta and Mancini, the best brazilian you've probably never heard of). I just don't think he'll be 100% from a broken ankle by mid-June. He'll probably be on the field, but not at 100%. Was it his plant foot or his main foot?

That woudl be a godawful, stupid, shortsighted trade, and I don't see how it makes sense for either side.

Agreed. Take it with a grain of salt, but I heard Levine on ESPN Radio earlier, and he opined that it would take something like Konerko's deal to ink him during ST. Which is exactly why you wait. You have an exclusive window to negotiate with him after the season. If he's great again, like a .300/.375 type year with 35HR/110 RBI, then fine, give him his contract, but if he puts up 2004-like numbers, then maybe not.

Nice saves. I always respected keepers that came up with clutch saves. Indoor as a striker always sucks, though, since you have such a small target goal-wise, and less of an angle. I blew more breakaways playing indoor than I care to remember, because of the stupid angles. A keeper with a good wingspan can make it irritating. There's more talk about Italy in the Ouch thread, but I think you're dead on, and Seth went into good detail about them-they are criminally overrated. They have no depth, no great mids, decent defenders but ones that are overmatched against fast wing players, and aging, inconsistent scorers. Their only hope of advancing lie in playing that stupid "net" defensive system, and winning 1-0 or tying teams 0-0. I think the US is too talented right now (barring injury to the key 3-Donovan, Beasley and Keller) to lose to Italy. Group E isn't as tough as one might think it is. On paper, it looks nasty, but Ghana suck in the ack end of round robin games, and the US play them last. The Czechs have injury questions, and their best player is older. I think they could be a team like Portugal in 2002.

Well, you can always move Ramirez to 1B (mostly kidding). You could trade for the Reds-Player-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named and stick him at 1B. Dopirak might explode. Sing could be serviceable for half a year. There are usually other 1B available via trade... ...it's not a knock against Derrek Lee, it's more like being realistic as far as how much you pay him. He's got to prove that 2005 wasn't a blip, a fluke, before he's worth Konerko-type money.

A little analysis, now. The US got completely hosed in their inital seeding for the tournament. FIFA only uses the current rankings as part of their seeding system. Had they gone solely on the basis of the current rankings, the US would have been one of the top 8 teams, and therefore a #1 seed for draw purposes. Instead, FIFA used performance in the last 2 World Cups, along with qualifying region finish and world ranking to determine the seedings. So the US drew Ghana, the highest ranking team in Africa, the Czech Republic (a top 3 team) and Italy, traditionally a powerhouse. Of these three teams, the US stands the best shot at beating Ghana and Italy. The US roster will likely be comprised as follows: Locks: Landon Donovan, M/F Claudio Reyna, M Kasey Keller, G DaMarcus Beasely, M Eddie Pope, D Oguichi Oneywu, D Brian McBride, F Eddie Lewis, D/M Steve Cherundolo, D Probables: Frankie Hejduk, D/M John O'Brien, M Eddie Johnson, F Carlos Bocanegra, D Corey Gibbs, D Tim Howard, G Marcus Hahnneman, G On The Bubble: Clint Dempsey, M Steve Ralston, M Pablo Mastroeni, M Taylor Twellman, F Brian Ching, F Josh Wolff, F Bobby Convey, M Jonathan Spector, D Pat Noonan, M Ben Olsen, M

Okay, I figure we're a little under 4 months to go until the World Cup starts, so I thought I'd fire up a thread to keep all WC/soccer related info stored. I guess I'll just post a little primer for those not familiar or not having followed the draw, or the event itself. Where: Germany Dates: June 9th-July 9th, 2006. Format: There are 32 teams in the World Cup, 30 of whom qualified in regional knockout tournaments. Germany is the host country, so they get an automatic bid, and Brazil gets in for being the defending champion, winning in 2002 in Korea. There are 8 groups of 4 teams, and they play round robin in the first week. Top 2 teams in terms of points advance to the knockout, single elimination round. 3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie. Here are the groups: Group A: Germany Costa Rica Poland Ecuador Group B: England Paraguay Trinidad & Tobago Sweden Group C: Argentina Ivory Coast Serbia & Montenegro Netherlands Group D: Mexico Iran Angola Portugal Group E: Czech Republic United States Italy Ghana Group F: Brazil Croatia Australia Japan Group G: France Switzerland South Korea Togo Group H: Spain Ukraine Tunisia Saudi Arabia So after the first round, the groups play out as follows: 1A v 2B 1C v 2D 1B v 2A 1D v 2C 1E v 2F 1G v 2H 1F v 2E 1H v 2G So, for example, if the US finish 2nd in their group, they most likely get to play Brazil, who will almost assuredly finish atop group F. So, that's the basic layout. The United States start on Monday, June 12th at 12:00 et (7pm local, i believe) against the Czech Republic, then play Italy on Saturday the 17th, and finish up with Ghana on Thursday the 22nd.

Did they start their camp yet?

Aramis didn't arrive in camp today? Was this a planned late arrival or is he MIA?