That fouls number is comedy hour since several of them happened to our players for breathing. Meanwhile, I'm still not sure how A&B didn't have more yellows.
Possible. Except that Dempsey and Bradley each had good 25-yard shots in the middle of the 2nd half that caused the keeper trouble. Don't remember any in the 1st half. Keeper has to deal with the wet ball, too.
Dempsey. Donovan. Gomez. And a bunch of piano carriers. Where are our attackers? Why have two coaches in a row fallen into this stupid trap that we have to force as many CM's onto the field as possible? No shit we didn't move off the ball. No shit we didn't break down a bunker. You put a bunch of guys on the field whose job it is to feed more creative players then act surprised when they're not creative? This is no shit, Sherlock stuff. I'm disgusted by the crap I saw today. Nice win. Get me a soccer team to watch.
France has mixed both to great success. I personally feel the level of talent reflects the commitment. That goes for the USSF and MLS, in particular coaching budgets and training methods, which can be hamstrung by rules. We don't have enough coaches who played/coached at high level. So many of our kids across the nation are essentially being taught by amateurs. The higher up you go the coaches are ex MLS players or College coaches. The French U-21's are managed by Erick Mombaerts, who managed PSG, Guingamp, AS Cannes and Toulouse. When you hire a man with that CV to me it suggests you're serious about development.
People might want to blame Onyewu but this was a team failure. Tepid performance. Altidore at LW is hard to believe.
can we recall a player if we have 3 injuries? and not calling shea hurts. donavan is our only left sided player, unless you count boca.
Excellent: No One Good: Gomez, Goodson, Jones, Boca, Dolo, Dempsey OK: Torres, Donovan, Howard (nothing to do) Poor: Edu, Bradley Awful: Gooch NR: Boyd, Altidore I didn't think tonight was that bad. We dominated the game for the most part. Antigua & Barbuda were pretty well organized and had 10 (or 11) behind the ball most times. We created a lot of chances, but tried to pass the ball into the net far too often. On Gooch. From those who have watched him play at Lisbon, and they say he's been pretty good. Don't know if he's still rusty from his latest injury or not. But the worst thing about that play wasn't the fact that he got beat for pace, it was that it was so dumb. They only had one man in attack, help was on the way. There was no reason to gamble for that ball. Just get between the man and the goal and wait for help. Experienced defenders shouldn't be making mistakes like that. Still, JK has Goodson (correctly) ahead of him on the depth chart. And there are certain matchups where I'd still favor Gooch (but fewer and fewer). And let's remember, Cameron (own goals and red cards) and Ream (tons of mistakes) haven't exactly been covering themselves in glory when given the chance. So I have no problem with the Gooch sub. Hopefully, we start seeing Cameron, Gonzo, Parkhurst, and Whitbread, Ream, and even John as things go on. On JK. I have also been frustrated by the 3 (or four) CM deployments. His refusal to play Jones as DM. His refusal to give more offensive mids with more experience more shots (Beasley, Feilhaber, Kljestan). Or, for goodness sakes, play Torres inside. I know we are limited outside, but if we are going Donovan & Dempsey wide, let's go with a more creative player in CM. I can handle Bradley or Jones as one of the creative CM's, but both of them stunts the attack, as does Edu as a DM. On Boyd. He's capped now. No Chandler BS. I approve capping him.Yes, he has a way to go, but he's ours now. I still think Dempsey and Gomez are our two best forwards, with Altidore 3rd. On BS. There is a consistent group with unrealistic expectations of the USMNT which have only been fueled by the 5-1 win over Scotland. The Brazil and Canada games are a closer reflection to our level. Guatemala will be a test, it nearly always is. Still, we got 3 points. No cards. And I don't think any major injuries (finger crossed on Torres).
I felt lousy about the scoreline...for about 30 minutes, or in other words, until the Mexico match finished... Was it sloppy? Yep. Were we tired after a long and by all accounts brutal camp? Uh-huh. Did we still get the 3 points? Thankfully, yes. Oh, and a word about A&B...don't underestimate the factor of so many guys playing for the same club team making them better than the sum of their parts. My fellow old guys will remember that for a couple of years during the Bora Era, we were a club team, enabling us in part to put up some respectable results against sides where we were clearly punching above our weight. Klinsi ought to know that...he was on the field for one of them.
what was wrong with edu? dude look scared to have the ball passed to him. should have put bekerman in late.
Am I the only one here who think we need Ricardo Clark back in midfield (ha ha ha...gotcha!) Seriously though I agree with most people on here who think that the whole four holding mid experiment was a waste. Perhaps against the Guatamalans on Tuesday in an away game but not at home against a minnow like Ant & Bar. JK is probably so concerned about the away match he decided to go with a more defensive line up as a test for the next game. We should have taken this one 4-0 or 5-0. Yes a win is a win but this was a bit of a disappointing win in that we should have buried a few more of those set pieces. Although I do not think Gooch is done as many on here think but I do not think he is any longer a MNT mainstay. If he makes strides at the club level and can re-invent himself fine but until then he needs to watch from home and get mean and hungry again. He couldn't handle 90 minutes in the altitude of Mexico or the snake pit that is Costa Rica's national stadium. Since we will likely face the following five teams in the Hex... Mexico Costa Rica Honduras Jamaica Canada We need to start making sure we aren't giving up ignorant goals like we did tonight to a team that doesn't have one player in Top Flight Football anywhere in the world (Lower divisions in England don't count) Mexico is the class of our region right now and although they are over rated they managed to beat the under 23's of Brazil which we couldn't. We will likely finish 3rd because I think we will struggle against Costa Rica and Honduras at home and will lose to them on the road. You can't ever count Jamaica out because they are pests up front and seem to know how eek out points against the Central Americans on the road unlike us. Is it just me or is Timmy starting to look suspect on some of these goals going into the net. I havne't seen him come up big in a while but I would be happy for someone on here to prove me wrong.
Bradley played Altidore at LW, so it's not that hard to believe. And yes, while I have been raging about Gooch, the fact is this team looked and played tired. There was no good reason why some players were not called up after the Brazil/Canada debacles. We needed fresh meat, fresh legs. Lichaj for one. Like others said, Kljestan would have been an option, or Diskerud.
Pretty bad. Gooch made a horrible error and Howard couldn't bail him out. Edu is so infuriating. Great tackler. Wonderful at closing down the ball. Absolutely horrible on the ball himself. Too much standing around by everyone. Can Boyd do anything positive in his minutes? Once again, the US will have to gut out points by force of will. I hope they are not too gentrified by JK to remember how to do that.
Because he's a foreign influence and Klinsmann values that a lot. But then again, so is Adu and I'm very upset that he isn't with the team. I cannot understand Klinsmann at all.