soccer10k

But that's the story of U.S. soccer - keep playing balls in the air into the middle when you're clearly outclassed. It's as frustrating as watching the Cubs not take walks. Here's the thing: it's a decent gameplan for us. McBride is excellent in the air, and can put balls over the top down onto the feet of the support. Unfortunately for the US, the support (Donovan, Wolff, especially) can't finish. When a team packs 8 back in defense, you can't play chip and run. And that's the key. You HAVE to be able to adapt to what your opponent is doing. Sure McBride is excellent in the air, but when the opponent is packing it in defensively there is no need to chip the ball up into there zone. As I said earlier, if they are packing it in, that means your half of the field should have, at most, 2 of their players in it. There is no reason you can't dribble the ball up and string together a series of short passes. The key to winning is adaptation. You come out to play a certain style. If it works then you continue. If it doesn't work, then you have to change something. If you don't adapt you aren't going to win games. It's plain and simple.

Even if the US doesn't score a single goal, it won't keep me from watching continuously right up through the final. Unless the Cubs make a miraculous recovery, there will be next to zero baseball for me from June 9-July 9. I couldn't agree more. I'm graduating on June 17 and have made it my goal to watch as many games as possible. I've already requested days off from work for the World Cup semi's and the final.

Dempsey is nails. No reason Arena shouldn't be able to find a starting spot for him somewhere. What we've always lacked is a player who is willing to attack defenses. We have plenty of players who want to dance around and play through balls, but only Dempsey and Convey will run at a defender and force the issue. Ching is horrible. Out of position for every minute he was on the field tonight. God forbid McBride get hurt... Eddie Pope is going to be the 2006 version of Jeff Agoos. Mark my words, if we make it to the Round of 16, he'll be benched for it. Arena has a lot of work to do. I know our team doesn't get much playing time together, but they'd better gel fast, and Reyna better not be hurt. As much as I don't care for him, this team needs him on the field. I think Reyna is the key. He is the playmaker on the team and controls everything. He's a savvy veteren that knows how to win. He was out there for less than 20 minutes tonight and that didn't help one bit. I think a completely different US team would have played tonight if he was out there for most of the match. If he's hurt seriously I don't think we have much of a chance in the World Cup. Like you said, this team had better gel fast or we're going to get smoked in the World Cup. We couldn't handle a team that couldn't qualify in Africa? Ghana qualified in Africa and they are the weakest of our three opponents. If the US doesn't play well, they're looking at a repeat of 1998 and a HUGE step back for USA soccer.

Speaking of SF, one thing I noticed when I visited what was then PacBell Park was that a lot of Giants' fans collect pins that they wear on their hats. Pins of all sorts in honor of Mays, Bonds, McCovey, the 89 Giants so on and so forth. I was at the Giants game against the Dodgers in 2001 when Bonds hit his 500th HR and we sat out in the bleachers in leftcenter field. There was a lady a couple rows in front of us that had a Giants jacket covered in pins. I mean COVERED. Literally hundreds of pins. You name a Giants pin and she had it. This led to one of the funniest lines I have heard in my life. My dad is a Dodgers fan and he and a random Giants fan right in front of us were going back and forth trading friendly jabs about the opposing team. At some point during the game my dad says: "You see that lady a couple rows down with all the pins? Do you know the one pin that she doesn't have? A San Francisco Giants World Series Champions pin." The guy just laughed. My dad takes great pride in the fact that the Giants haven't won a WS since moving from New York.

I know somebody has said this already but I'm pretty sure it was in another thread. I have to commend Pierre for not making any excuses and for not blaming anybody or anything but himself.

I'm sure there are stereotypes out there for every type of fanbase. I live in Northern California so here are a couple local stereotypes. Note: these are NOT stereotypes that I have come up with. SF 49ers fans are all fat white men. Oakland Raiders fans are all either Hispanic or Black that have served time in prison. As people have proved in this thread, there are all kinds of stereotypes out there for the fans of sports teams. It doesn't make them right.

I need some grass. I need something harder. And what are the odds that the Cubs will reach 70 wins in 2006? -2

I used to pitch. And I'm tall. That's gotta mean something.

Huh? Why does anyone want to hear about a player sucking? Why should that be publicized? A player reviving his career, OTH, is actually news. i was just saying i don't buy the change of scenery argument. You ever feel like you got a fresh start...got a second chance? Maybe thats how he feels. He doesn't need to worry about the pressure as much anymore. Heck, its not like he didn't have the tools. It was always a mental thing with Cpatt. He also doesn't have to worry about getting booed every time he does something wrong.

We suck.

One more Dempster.

<- crosses fingers and hopes for a double play.

Close play at first. I would think they would walk Cabrera here.

Not a good start to the ninth.

What a horrible swing.

I wouldn't mind Womack being called up if he took the spot of either Neifi or Bynum.

Come on ARam.

He's used every good reliever with the exception of Dempster.

I agree completely. The problem with past Cubs teams wasn't that they hit too many home runs. It was that they hit too many solo home runs when other teams were hitting more two and three run home runs.

Eyre will be the fifth pitcher of the night.

Wow. I have never seen somebody tag and go to second on an average fly ball to right center. That's pathetic.

We have to be able to beat a Venezuela team that finished tied for eighth out of ten in CONMEBOL as well as a Latvia team that finished fifth out of seven in UEFA.

I can't stand JP Dellacamera. The guy is an idiot. If we would have won that game 1-0 then it would have been a 6. I would give us a 4 at best, probably a 3 or 2. The team didn't seem to be on the same page and ended up getting burned at the end of the game. If we play like that in Germany, the Czech Republic and Italy are going to smash us.

I agree. When Morocco is sitting back to defend, it shouldn't be too hard to bring the ball up the field. The aerial balls were unnecessary. It's okay to play some, but relying on them is not good, especially when they aren't working for you like today.

Bollocks. What's the time look like? I think that was in the 89th minute. Game is over now. US didn't look too good.