First off, decisive proof that going to a futbol game is lame:
WOW…
on a different note, this one isn’t going to be as good as the last one for me, since I was in Europe at the time. I’ve never seen so many pissed off Italians as the night they tied the US.
The Limeys are going down.
[quote=“NinerAdvocate, post:1, topic:23329”]First off, decisive proof that going to a futbol game is lame:
[/quote]
Totally lame…where do I sign up. Seriously with talent like that…it’s a shame the Swedes won’t be there.
For those that are wondering… 11/06 is June 11th, not November 6th…
We’re getting close to the first round.
U.S.A. vs Jolly Ol’ on 6/12.
Yeah, NA I know that foreigners do their dates backwards.
Also English spell center as centre. :))
And no wonder the Socialist State of Sweden has a 71% tax rate. Hotties aren’t cheap! They’re high maintenance. 
Anyone watch the US/Czech game last night? Thoughts?
It was a bad result. I know Harkes and his stupid accent kept telling me not to worry about it because this was not our A team, but I’m still nervous. We have NO depth. At all.
I’m VERY worried about our back line. Gooch did not look fit, and after all the talk I heard about him being in such better shape than Davies, I’d have to think Davies was in a wheelchair or something. I don’t think he’s ready for SA. I guess Goodson is the choice to replace him?
And who do we play at left back? Aaron Lennon is going to absolutely destroy whoever we put at left back (I’m guessing Spector or Bornstein)
I thought Torres really looked good, and he has a future with the starting 11. I think I might start Edu over Rico for the England game just because I think he will do a better job distrupting attacks than Clark.
Up top, I think Buddle and Gomez sealed up a spot on the final 23 tonight. Buddle has a ton of speed but little skill. I think we will see Jozy/Ching up top with Gomez as first choice on.
I know he never had shot to make the 23, but Kljestan is LOL bad. We basically played with 10 men that second half. He has to have some dirt on Bob. He has to.
I think the cuts will be Pearce, Marshall, Rodgers, Bedoya, Findlay, Sacha, and Johnson.
I watched the first 30 mins (of game elapsed time, up 1-0), and we looked ok at that point for not playing some of our better players. I finished playing some MW2 and saw we lost 4-2 and was like WTF?
We tend to get very bunched up within our midfield but that happens when your alignment is already stacked in that area. Bornstein was getting beat pretty badly at times, but he’s not the starter so I’m not overly concerned. Gooch was fine when I watched, must have hit the wall after I stopped. I haven’t believed the hype that we could be a dark horse in this thing anyways. We surprised the shit out of Spain, before Brazil woke up at halftime, no one will sleep on us, especially England. This squad basically needs to get 2nd in the grouping and pray they get a good enough draw in the quarters.
Gooch looked bad on that first goal. I dunno if it was the injury or the rust. Also had a visable limp as the game wore on. He’s just not match fit imo.
Defense is my biggest worry. I guess we’ll do something like…
Dolo—Gooch—Boca—Spector
but it worries me that our 2 centerbacks might not be at 80% and we play no left back worth a damn. Maybe plug DeMerit in the middle? I dunno?
I was surprised at how good of looks Czech Rep. had when they actually got down there (they struggled to always get it done initially). Fenin (I think it was him) had a freaking gimme and curled it left of the goal. The defense is middle of the road when healthy, if they’re not healthy it’ll get bad.
[quote=“casstommy, post:9, topic:23329”]Anyone watch the US/Czech game last night? Thoughts?
It was a bad result. I know Harkes and his stupid accent kept telling me not to worry about it because this was not our A team, but I’m still nervous. We have NO depth. At all.
I’m VERY worried about our back line. Gooch did not look fit, and after all the talk I heard about him being in such better shape than Davies, I’d have to think Davies was in a wheelchair or something. I don’t think he’s ready for SA. I guess Goodson is the choice to replace him?
And who do we play at left back? Aaron Lennon is going to absolutely destroy whoever we put at left back (I’m guessing Spector or Bornstein)
I thought Torres really looked good, and he has a future with the starting 11. I think I might start Edu over Rico for the England game just because I think he will do a better job distrupting attacks than Clark.
Up top, I think Buddle and Gomez sealed up a spot on the final 23 tonight. Buddle has a ton of speed but little skill. I think we will see Jozy/Ching up top with Gomez as first choice on.
I know he never had shot to make the 23, but Kljestan is LOL bad. We basically played with 10 men that second half. He has to have some dirt on Bob. He has to.
I think the cuts will be Pearce, Marshall, Rodgers, Bedoya, Findlay, Sacha, and Johnson.[/quote]
THAT
I’m pretty certain that our starting back line will be Spector at RB, Gooch and DeMerit at CB and Bocanegra at LB. That’s the back line we used in the Confederations Cup when we beat Spain 2-0 and shut out every Brazil attack for an entire half. If you remember, Bocanegra wasn’t fit for the group stage matches and we used Bornstein in his place at LB but in my opinion Bornstein is garbage so if those four guys are fit I honestly don’t see anybody else even close to getting a starting spot over them.
From what I saw last night, our defensive subs are a bunch of jokesters. It was mistake after mistake, oftentimes they weren’t even able to perform a simple clearance. If we have any injuries or yellow card suspensions to those four guys I mentioned above we are in deep, deep s*it.
Really though, I can’t take last night’s match too seriously. I mean, the Czech’s were obviously using a stronger team than us (they are preparing for EURO 2012 qualifying) and we had probably one guy on the pitch who will be starting against England (Edu, although he didn’t impress either and had one huge mistake. He’s always looked out of place to me when he plays for the NT).
I’m hoping Bradley will see the light by the time the game against England comes around and play 4-5-1 as opposed to a 4-4-2 when in fact we have no decent enough second striker.
I envision something like this:
[center]Howard
Spector Gooch DeMerit Bocanegra
Edu Clark
Bradley
Donovan Dempsey
Altitore
However, we’re probably much more likely to see this:
Howard
Spector Gooch DeMerit Bocanegra
Dempsey Bradley Clark Donovan
Altidore Ching
First of all, I wouldn’t have much of a problem with the second option but for some reason Bradley insists on playing Donovan on the left when in fact he’s always been at his best on the right (did he follow his performances at Everton, I mean wow). Dempsey has said numerous times that if he’s not gonna be played as a striker (which he won’t be) he’d like to play on the left so he could cut in on his right foot and shoot (a la what C. Ronaldo does all the time) but instead he’s always played on the right and forced to go to the outside which doesn’t help his game at all.
16 days to go…
[/center]
You might get your wish as it appears that Ching has been left off the squad in favor of Findley.
I’m no Ching fan, but I don’t get this move at all.
Some interesting choices for the 23-man roster. Beasley? He was back making bad passes again last night. He can contribute for part of a match, but his lapses really break down promising build-ups, or else set the other team up nicely. I’m not a fan of Ching at all. He seems to do fine at the club level, but disappears in the international games I’ve seen. I suppose Altidore is supposed to fill his role up top, which may work. I bet we’ll see a lot of Dempsey creeping up like a forward. I’m just not sure what other options we have for that big striker (Cooper? Casey?), depth is bad at almost every position aside from goalie (and Guzan hasn’t been overly impressive). The other shocker is Findlay, who I guess will be a speedy forward, but he’s looked overmatched in the games I’ve seen him play (admittedly not much to go on). Similar for Buddle, but at least he’s having a good MLS season so far. You can see just how big a hole Davies left when he crashed. Let’s just hope we don’t see any injuries before play.
Kljestan not on the roster is a relief, he looked his usual self against the Czechs. It was his foul-up that contributed to the Czechs third goal. He gives the ball away in bad spots way too much.
The Czech game was partly illuminating. Onyewu is not fit yet, and I’m not sure his knee will be fit in time to play. I’m guessing he’s a sub for the central position at best. This probably means Bocanegra at center back, which is probably why you see Bornstein on the roster for left back. Bornstein looked about typical, but the other defenders might’ve been even worse. Some shockingly bad defending, though some of that is organization which may be correctable. I don’t think the Czechs played their regular side though, so our B-side didn’t look too good. Gomez seemed interesting, and the US really picked up the pace after he came on, though I’m not sure how much of that was him versus team effort. He did a nice job finishing his goal, but did seem to lose possession awfully quickly.
My thoughts.
I love the roster by Bob Bradley. I’m normally not a fan but I think he got it 100% right. Ching looked a few steps slow last night. With a more pacy player Gomez could have played a low cross in a promising break and we would’ve been tied 3-3 and probably have ended that way. Unfortunately Ching was too slow and Gomez was forced to shoot at an awkward angle into Cechs arms.
I’m not upset at the 4-2. We put 2 on a world class goalie. That makes me content. The 4 goals…we changed almost every defender in the game, Bornstein is a backup, Pearce is not going and Gooch will get healthier in the next few weeks. The scoreline doesn’t say it but we created more chances, they just took theirs better. I liked Buddle and Gomez. Thought EJ is just not going to cut it (he looks better but I’m surprised he gets PT and Adu gets none).
My Starting Lineup
Cherundolo Onyewu Bocanegra Spector
Bradley Edu
Holden Donovan
Dempsey Altidore
Subs:
When in need of a goal/goals
Buddle for Altidore, Gomez for Holden (slides Dempsey back), Torres for Edu
When defending a 2+ goal lead
Beasley for Dempsey (Donovan slides to Forward), Clark for Bradley, Demerit for Cherundolo (Spector goes RB, Demerit in CB, Boca at LB)
If nothing to play for (advancement is guaranteed, place is also)
Torres for Donovan, Findley for Dempsey, Bedoya for Holden
I don’t think Bedoya made the cut. Otherwise, you’re probably right with the lineup, though I could see Buddle or Gomez starting up top, with Dempsey moving up after the first sub. Seemed to be a frequent move during qualifying, but I guess they also had Davies for much of that time.
I don’t quibble too much over Bradley’s roster selections, since he didn’t exactly have a ton of options at this point. He has been seeing who is ready to go in the camps, so maybe that’s why guys like Beasley and Findlay are in there.
[quote=“9erken, post:15, topic:23329”]Some interesting choices for the 23-man roster. Beasley? He was back making bad passes again last night. He can contribute for part of a match, but his lapses really break down promising build-ups, or else set the other team up nicely. I’m not a fan of Ching at all. He seems to do fine at the club level, but disappears in the international games I’ve seen. I suppose Altidore is supposed to fill his role up top, which may work. I bet we’ll see a lot of Dempsey creeping up like a forward. I’m just not sure what other options we have for that big striker (Cooper? Casey?), depth is bad at almost every position aside from goalie (and Guzan hasn’t been overly impressive). The other shocker is Findlay, who I guess will be a speedy forward, but he’s looked overmatched in the games I’ve seen him play (admittedly not much to go on). Similar for Buddle, but at least he’s having a good MLS season so far. You can see just how big a hole Davies left when he crashed. Let’s just hope we don’t see any injuries before play.
Kljestan not on the roster is a relief, he looked his usual self against the Czechs. It was his foul-up that contributed to the Czechs third goal. He gives the ball away in bad spots way too much.
The Czech game was partly illuminating. Onyewu is not fit yet, and I’m not sure his knee will be fit in time to play. I’m guessing he’s a sub for the central position at best. This probably means Bocanegra at center back, which is probably why you see Bornstein on the roster for left back. Bornstein looked about typical, but the other defenders might’ve been even worse. Some shockingly bad defending, though some of that is organization which may be correctable. I don’t think the Czechs played their regular side though, so our B-side didn’t look too good. Gomez seemed interesting, and the US really picked up the pace after he came on, though I’m not sure how much of that was him versus team effort. He did a nice job finishing his goal, but did seem to lose possession awfully quickly.[/quote]
Onyewu is still our best defender on the squad and he played 65 minutes of good defense last night for the most part. You could tell the difference when he went out. Bornstein isn’t good enough to start for us, I hope BB doesn’t go that route.
Gomez and Buddle will play an Eddie Johnson-esque role (when he was a young up and comer) as they might see action late in the 2nd half in matches to provide fresh legs and an all out attacking mentality. I wouldn’t bank on it though, Bradley tends to sub Jozy out in favor of a midfielder while moving Dempsy up.
I really hope Bradley uses Holden a lot, because he’s one of the guys on our squad who actually can hold the ball against top international competition.
This is Beasley’s third world cup btw, and he’s still a decent player. I’m willing to bet that’s why he’s on the roster.
BTW, on Saturday at LPL Financial in Philly, the USMNT will have their final match before leaving for the WC when they take on Turkey. I suspect the regulars will see a decent amount of time for this one as the roster is now set and it will be the final warmup before WC play.
My lineup: (I’d like to see us run a 4-1-2-1-2, but it would never happen
Howard
Spector Gooch Jay D Carlos
Clark
Dempsey Bradley
Donovan
Altidore Buddle/Gomez
At the 55 minute mark sub Holden for Buddle and move Dempsey up top. Later sub, Gomez for Altidore.
Running a 4-4-2 I’d put it the same way with Dempsey and Landon on the wings, Clark & Bradley in the center, and Alitdore & Buddle/Gomez up front. Not having Davies for the WC sucks though.
Tongue dropped to floor.