yeah gotta admit Mexico has been playing on a whole new level with their coach De La Torre and they are young with alot of skill...... their lack of physicality on the back line and mediocre goalkeeping (ochoa is mediocre) will always hinder them from getting to far in the WC as for our defense situation, its in dire straits....their isnt a decent team in the world that cant exploit the shit tier back line we have
I'd blame defense before the midfield. Lichaj didn't play bad, but hte other 3 were getting burnt like toast. As Bart Scott said, our defense couldn't stop a nose bleed
Couldn't agree more. Lichaj shows promise but was thrown into a near impossible situation last night and shouldn't really be judged on his performance (another knock on Bob IMO). Other than Bradley, I thought that the midfield was fine but there was so much rotation between Donovan and Dempsey that it may have disrupted some of the ball movement.
Agreed. I thought boca made some good plays but it's hard to defend him when the d gives up four goals and you know it's all on them
dont have any interest in reading the thread, but quick thoughts Tim Howard was terrible, should have stopped goals 2 and 3, and I have no idea what he was thinking on the 4th effort Bornstein is just a horrible player, Lichaj was doing very well against Gio, but once the shift happened, the team went to shit I had a fat indian fuck try to tell me that Bradley was a great coach and was on his way to Aston Villa to be their next manager Freddy is back
Pretty sure any chance of that happening went down the toilet with the showing of our team in the Gold Cup, rumor or not.
Well in an effort to forget the embarrassment of last night lets look forward to the next big thing for us soccer, the '12 olympics. In case any of you don't know the olympics are 23 and under rosters with 3 over aged players allowed per team. So these players will all be eligible next summer and I expect all to be called up (and hopefully all accept): Jozy, Agudelo, Bunbury, Adu, Mix and Chandler. All of those players have seen call ups for the national team already. Add to them our best players from the talented U-20 team plus the 3 older players (one of which I'm betting will be Lichaj) and they should be a fun team to watch.
fuck the propoganda. the media trying to get us to "accept" blatant disrespect for our country is insulting.
Good article from Bill Barnwell(Football Outsiders fans know the name) about the state of the USMNT, and why even winning that game wouldn't have meant things were heading in the right direction. http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6707994/hard-lessons
Although you want to integrate newer players, this isn't a Gold Cup about necessarily the future. You want to win it now to be regional champs and to qualify for the Confederations Cup (where newer players have a chance to break in against quality competition), that's one thing I won't blame Bob on. Bedoya, Ream, Lichaj, Agudelo, and Adu all got good run in this tournament. The fact he even called in Freddy was a good decision, one of only few he made. And lol at saying Bob called in Goodson over Gonzalez. Goodson has been by far our most in-form CB during club play prior to this tourney, and will be 32 in 2014. Some CB's are in their prime at that age, though I pray guys like Ream, Gonzalez, John, etc. are better than Goodson by then. He calls Dolo's inclusion questionable, lol what? Ok, we'd have Lichaj at RB, and since he didn't like Boca's inclusion either, that would've meant Bornstein all GC long at LB. We've got 3 years to start integrating newer and younger players into the USMNT pool and who we called or didn't call into the GC has absolutely no bearing on our success in 2014.
I see what you're saying snow, but Barnwell is offering a pretty realistic critique in suggesting that we're better off throwing the youngsters with higher ceilings to the wolves then giving more burn to guys that are clearly going to be past it for 2014. (Dolo and Goodson might still be of use, but Bocanegra is done as far as I'm concerned.) To have fielded guys that have no business anywhere near this team for the next WC while still failing to make the CC is a huge disappointment and a waste of valuable time.
by feeding younger guys with ceilings we wouldn't have even had a shot against Mexico You play the experienced guys now so that when the Confed Cup did occur, you then play those young guys who have had 2 more years of experience Still don't understand the Sacha for Freddy sub. 1) why take off a playmaker. I don't get if he was tired, there was five minutes left and 2) as stated a second ago, there's 5 minutes. Why wait til then, why not when we are down 1, get him in there so we have more attack...
I think the goal of the Confederations Cup Gold Cup should be to win while worrying about developing talent the rest of the cycle and run-up to the 2014 World Cup. Obviously, I think in close situations the tie should go to the younger player, but I don't have a problem with including Jones, Goodson, Boca, Cherundelo in the line-up. I think Bradley should have called-up Chaldler regardless of his clubs concerns and I think another striker should have been called-up in place of Wondo, but other than that I don't see much room for complaint. Win now and worry about replacing Boca from now until 2014.
Wait - we had a shot against them? 2 goals or not it sure didn't look like it for most of the match... I still don't understand why anybody is willing to give Sacha meaningful minutes with the Nats, period. Marginal player that has moments against regional minnows, nothing more.
We need more MLS clubs to develop their academies like FC Dallas has in order to be successful i think
Who is really better at this point though in the MF pool. Brek Shea? Mikkel Diskerud? Dax McCarty? Sasha is pretty much the best option out of a pretty thin MF when Holden & Feilhaber are subtracted.
I get that the options (as we perceive them) suck, but I would definitely prefer giving Dax or Shea a 20th chance over watching Klesjtan not impress for a 50th time.
I feel like Shea has really turned up his form and done most of his damage after the roster was finalized. I am pretty sure 4 of his 6 goals have come since that point. I know Shea has scored 3 games in a row.
I think Diskerud will pass Sacha soon, but honestly, he was better off getting minutes with his club than coming to the GC and probably not even making the gameday rosters. Same goes for Shea, who wouldn't have been blowing up had he been named to the GC team. Bradley actually wanted to call in Josh Gatt, but he was better of staying with Molde. I think you'll see a lot of the Olympic players (assuming we qualify) heavily integrate into the USMNT post Olympics, and there will be quite a few that will before, and I'm not talking about Jozy, Adu, Agudelo, and Chandler that are basically "A" teamers now. More guys like Mix, Shea, and whomever of our young attacking players start emerging over this next season (Wood, Gatt, Gyau, Ruelas, Doyle, Gil, etc.). I expect quite a few younger players for the Belgium friendly in September.
This is true, I just feel like Sacha, regardless of whether or not he is the better player now, will max out in the Belgian league. I feel like Shea, Diskerud could make EPL Serie A level teams eventually, and Dax may be able to.
Do you think we would have had a 2 goal lead at all if we played all these young guys with ceilings and not the vets?
Don't have the time or attention span to follow club soccer in Europe closely, but what is Freddy's situation with the Turkish club? I've seen some of you talk about him being in good form leading up to the GC, so I'm assuming he's been at least mildly impressive with them. Is he stuck there for any substantial amount of time, or will he make an upward move soon? Also, is it safe to say the GC performance cemented his spot as we enter qualifying? Thanks in advance.
He should definitely make the roster for the next WC, and he had 4 goals in only 11 appearances in Turkey but he was on loan. He is actually "owned" by Benfica and I wish next season the Portuguese side would actually let him get a chance to play for them, instead of loaning him out for the 5th year. But if he isn't going to get to play for them consistently then they need to loan him out, the only way to refine your skills and get better is to compete and be able to play. The problem with his development is that when he was loaned out when he was younger he wasn't getting any playing time and he is slowly but surely getting more and more playing time.
From watching him in the Gold Cup, Freddy has obvious skills, but he didn't get much of a chance to finish. Not sure if it's due to his smallish size (seems smaller to me) or just his nature. If it's his nature, he should move to an attacking mid spot, since he's able to create very well and distribute to the finishers. Just my
He is small which is why I like him on the wing sending in crosses and taking advantage of his skill which is beating people off the dribble. If you beat an outside back off the dribble their are so many options for you which I would like him to have. More now these outside backs are so offensive that we can really beat teams up by having a winger like him that can streak down the side of the field when we gain possession and he would make teams really pick and choose when they want to send their backs up which is an advantage for us. So if the outside back goes and attacks we have a quick attacking outlet up the field and if he stays back then they have one less offensive player attacking.
They noted in training, he didn't look nearly as good as he did in game. He seems to have trouble instilling any confidence in his coaches to play him. So we should be thankful to Bob for at least that.
In theory that computes - the problem is that the way we play places a premium on the defensive qualities of the guys out wide. If he plays on the wing, then the defender behind him better be *damn* good. For that reason I prefer him in the middle where there can be 1 or (more optimally) two guys behind him that offer more steel in the defensive phase.
Freddy's a classic example of an extremely skilled young player being used in a striker/attacking midfield position early in his career because he could dribble through everyone. See example from the U17 world cup, which he straight dominated (along with a couple U20 world cups): Freddy Adu Ruins the opposing players as an adult, I'd much rather see him on the wing. I guess it's just my stylistic choice, but I prefer a bit more complete forward up front and a better physical presence from an attacking midfielder (heading, tackling). That being said, when he was in the middle of the field he did show some great passing decisions.
You're just using hindsight. I didn't hear anyone complain beforehand when the rosters or starting lineups were announced. If Cherundolo doesn't get hurt and we win, Bob would probably be getting praised for staying with the vets for the Gold Cup and now we can start to introduce more younger defenders into the team over the next couple of years. I don't think Boca or Goodson starting over Ream for example will have any bearing on the type of player Ream becomes with the USMNT like you think it does. He'll become a better player for the USMNT by becoming older and eventually moving onto a bigger and better league. Bedoya, Lichaj, Agudelo, Ream, and Adu pretty much have become 1st team regulars moving forward from this Gold Cup. I'd say that's a pretty decent group of newer guys being introduced into the "A" team, and Chandler would've been another had he accepted the invite.
I think Ream will be a good one sooner than later, he's drawn interest from many Euro teams like PSV and Everton. I expect him to move to Europe during the winter transfer period. His passing out of the back is something we need desperately in the future. Just hope that we can have at least 2 of these guys develop into really good CB's by 2014: Tim Ream Omar Gonzalez George John Ike Opara Ethan White Gale Agbossoumonde Perry Kitchen John Anthony Brooks
i dont really get the hate for ream, either he had a really poor game. but he was hardly the only one.
You guys cannot be serious about Ream. I saw a terrible tournament...not factoring in the final whatsoever.
anyone seen or heard how Boss is doing over in Sweden? I'm just happy that he is apparently getting match action.
It's a sad state if we're unable to develop someone in 3 years. Again, another strike against Bradley if we're unable to develop someone in that time frame.
It does if they aren't getting time playing with the A squad instead of the re-treads. I meant development with the team, not overall development, as that can't be controlled when you're not in charge of their club team. But not getting run for the younger guys during Gold Cup early round games and CONCACAF qualifiers is stupid.