yeah, would've been good for little fat Mexicans in pick up games after work tho. so congrats South Africa.
I'm pissed I missed the game... was out until 5 am this morning & just woke up as it was wrapping up. From what I can gather from the thread, they played well, had trouble finishing & continued to have trouble with the back line. I can't wait until next Saturday.
Like i said earlier that field was like the Carribean fields...some shit converted cricket stadium with a shitty pitch
Hit the nail right on the head. I think Bradley should just spend a ton of time this upcoming week working on that back line, it's crucial.
The back line is the difference between this team being a serious darkhorse contender and a team that is going to be knocked in the round of 16 or group stage.
Amen Brotha!!! i love our midfield and i think we have enough upfront w/jozy,buddle and gomez....but the backline is so fucking leaky and they cannot fucking clear balls for the life of them
Findley must be a hell of a practice player. Too bad we didn't see more of Gomez. Great result though, really should have been 6-1.
problem with committing a 5th player solely to defense is that it mitigates the offensive ability would you rather be mediocre in both attack and defense or good in offense and bad in defense? shifting a midfielder solely to the back is the difference between the two the us needs to take its chances with scoring more goals than its group. changing things could result in a disaster where they're caught between two directions and end up in idle, never getting in gear
I agree completely. He is very good at being where he needs to be to help the team. My only reasoning for playing him at stopper is that he is a VERY good defender, and we are very prone on counters, which I think having a stopper would help. We won't use one, I know, but I think it could help our squad. I agree though cas, it would drop our offense off big time. I'm just really hoping Clark doesn't start because it's like he's scared to have the ball at his foot. At least if we put out Holden or Torres, they will work their ass of defensively so there isn't a ridiculous drop off in that aspect, but we also get a midfielder that will hold the ball and create chances.
USA soccer needs a start a nation wide search for lock down defenders. Get a pool of 40-50 players between 18-21 and get a world class defender to teach them how to just play lights out defense in preparation for the next world cup.
Seems like we're 4 years away from being able to make a legit run in this thing and that's the exact step that needs to be taken.
is it a vs b c vs d e vs f g vs h for both first and second place in each group? or is it even more scrambled. Like, say germany wins their group and the us finishes second in theirs. they'd play. but would england if they won the group play against the second place team from germany's and then the winner of that game face the winner of the us-germany game?
Yeah winner of Germany's group plays the #2 from the US group and vice versa. The winners meet in round of 8.
2nd in our group and we probably play Germany. Win it and we probably get Serbia or Ghana. If they managed to get out of the round of 16, either Argentina/Mexico or France would be next if things go like they should.
ok so its a vs b c vs d with 1s vs 2s for each on one side of the bracket and e vs f g vs h on the other side of the bracket cool thanks
such a key point. I like Clark sometimes, but he really just shouldn't be starting when Torres, Benny, Holden and Edu give us more. playing on such a small field didn't make it as apparent today, but I still feel like our CBs need to be more organized. Gooch seems to be somewhat decent at playing where he is supposed to be, but the range of motion he was showing was not as promising as it was last week.
How were we recovering on defense from corners/set pieces? That was another glaring issue that kept coming up over the past few weeks. Defending the counter-attack will be an issue against England & Slovenia.
true, anything's possible. just think round of 16 is a fantastic accomplishment and about where I expect us to finish if our defense plays fine.
Neither Serbia (lost to New Zealand and 0-0 draw with Poland) or Ghana have been impressive at all. Had Australia out of that group before today, but they looked like hell too.
was mostly a non-issue today, tho Australia wasn't really a team that was going to press in that regards (well, at least with the line-up they had out there). I may be forgetting some chances they had tho.
Fair enough. Were we fielding a "B" team... tinkering with the lineup & chemistry? I gather that is what Australia did. I was shocked by the score, as the Aussies have played pretty well of late.
i would rather play germany than serbia if i had to choose (would rather not play either obv) that defense would be nearly impenetrable and that fucking shaquille oneal of a forward they have would take our defensive booty but then again im really high on serbia. higher than probably everyone on here
I have not seen a national team have so much trouble clearing set pieces in my life...We can't get a fuckin head on the ball to save our life. Never seen so many balls go seemingly unchallenged in the box. Very disturbing trend here... Having said that, I remain cautiously optimistic about our chances in group stage. Buddle's showing certainly upgrades our forward situation. Also, where the fuck was Torres?
Bradley is going to fuck this up for us. England is ripe for the taking, but we won't even advance if the team plays defense like that. Rule # 1 for defenders on day 1 of rec. league soccer: "Smell what your man had for breakfast." USA obviously doesn't spend enough time working on marking.
I have a friend in Vegas next week, going to see if I can get a prop on Crouch scoring on a header. Sadly, it's probably easy money.
That is exactly what I was thinking. I also think, for the long-term, American soccer would benefit from a national team that just flat-out attacked. I don't think we'll be a consistently great team before we break the stigma of soccer as a boring, "first team to score, wins" sport. As an American soccer fan, I'm praying for a team that plays every minute of every match like we did in the second half against Turkey. We'll give up goals, we'll lose some matches, but it'd really make soccer enjoyable for the American public.
just finished watching good result field was shit Dempsey still hasnt found his touch Landon is our only hope good for Buddle hope clark is hurt
Agree. Agree. Agree. Meh. Dempsey, whether he plays perfectly or not, is often effective. He scored a legit goal today. Disagree. Buddle looked great, Bradley looked solid, Dempsey is very opportunistic, and we have guys like Holden and Torres just waiting for their chance to play. Agree. Disagree, but definitely hope Torres or Holden start.
He did score, but it was ruled off because Findley was offside. I disagree with the call, hence why I said it was a "legit goal."