Well, the best thing I can muster from Sunday's double-header/co-header of Euro 2008 and erstwhile CONCACAF World Cup qualifying is that soccer looks a lot better in HD.
Spain's 0-0 PK victory over Italy could only have been duller if France were involved. Meanwhile the USMNT's ho-hum 1-0 and eventual 9-0 aggregate victory over mighty Barbados was borderline unwatchable. I fast-forwarded on the DVR just to remember who this John Thorrington character was.
To the best I could tell, the U.S. played at about a quarter speed. Considering they won 8-0 in the first leg, they earned that right. Apparently it was around 90 degrees, so no sense killing yourself for a game that's in the bag, right? Still, for cosmetic purposes it would have been nice to see more than one goal. Barbados was the much more likely team in the second half, as the U.S. were essentially battling the clock.
Maybe Bob Bradley got something out of it. Who knows? Hope they at least caught some rays down there.
Quick thoughts:
* Brek Shea is a pretty cool name.
* International soccer is best not played on fields about 20 yards wide.
* I did like was Damarcus Beasley as a secondary forward type player. Then again, you could put the Beaz at any position except central defense and he'd do a good job.
* What was with the USL signage around the field?
* Shocking that ESPN sent JP and Shepp Messing (good to hear his voice) down there for this match. Guess the broom closets in Bristol were full.
* Eddie Lewis can still play, I guess. The worry is that by 2010 he'll be 36 years old and you can't count on old players at these international tournaments. He'd be a good guy to have on the roster, if only for deadballs, but he can't be starting come South Africa, assuming the USMNT gets through the gauntlet of CONCACAF.
Again, maybe Bradley got something from this game, otherwise it was a formality. Nobody got hurt, so it's mission accomplished
Spain's 0-0 PK victory over Italy could only have been duller if France were involved. Meanwhile the USMNT's ho-hum 1-0 and eventual 9-0 aggregate victory over mighty Barbados was borderline unwatchable. I fast-forwarded on the DVR just to remember who this John Thorrington character was.
To the best I could tell, the U.S. played at about a quarter speed. Considering they won 8-0 in the first leg, they earned that right. Apparently it was around 90 degrees, so no sense killing yourself for a game that's in the bag, right? Still, for cosmetic purposes it would have been nice to see more than one goal. Barbados was the much more likely team in the second half, as the U.S. were essentially battling the clock.
Maybe Bob Bradley got something out of it. Who knows? Hope they at least caught some rays down there.
Quick thoughts:
* Brek Shea is a pretty cool name.
* International soccer is best not played on fields about 20 yards wide.
* I did like was Damarcus Beasley as a secondary forward type player. Then again, you could put the Beaz at any position except central defense and he'd do a good job.
* What was with the USL signage around the field?
* Shocking that ESPN sent JP and Shepp Messing (good to hear his voice) down there for this match. Guess the broom closets in Bristol were full.
* Eddie Lewis can still play, I guess. The worry is that by 2010 he'll be 36 years old and you can't count on old players at these international tournaments. He'd be a good guy to have on the roster, if only for deadballs, but he can't be starting come South Africa, assuming the USMNT gets through the gauntlet of CONCACAF.
Again, maybe Bradley got something from this game, otherwise it was a formality. Nobody got hurt, so it's mission accomplished
Labels: Euro 2008, Soccer, USMNT, world cup qualifying
I was really fascinated by the USL signage around the field - what was with that? Is Barbados lobbying for a franchise?
Other than that, this game was painful. From the high-school video dept. quality where you couldn't really tell what was going on to the play. Has Danny Szetela plateaued? It almost seems like the USSF intentionally scheduled this during a Euro quarterfinal so as not to lose that fan on the fence they covet. If I was a vacationing fat man from Texarkana like I saw in the crowd, and I stopped by to see what this whole international soccer thing was about, I wouldn't have been very impressed.
My guess is that the USL signage was not on purpose. Those just happened to be the left over tarps they had laying around the pitch. Like kids in Sierra Leone with "Pats 19 and 0" t-shirts.
On a side note - what a funky and un-attractive construction site looking stadium. I would have thought Barbados might have dialed up the natural beauty. The grass seemed nice, though.
Props to Cardillo for the yeoman's work here and over on deadspin.
Getting two good, well-fought games out of the four quarterfinals (wins by Germany and Russia) plus a boring game with a supernatural ending (Turkey) is better than most tournaments of this kind.
Germany against Turkey is like US v Mexico (with a much higher level of play, of course). Lots of immigrants in the rich country still pulling for the land of their birth. I imagine most of the Turkey fans in the stands at this tournament have been from Alemania. Lots of fun stuff - can't wait for Wednesday.
Oh, I forgot ---
Anonymous wrote "It almost seems like the USSF intentionally scheduled this during a Euro quarterfinal so as not to lose that fan on the fence they covet."
That would mean that the USSF is actually aware of when international fixtures and tournaments are being played.
As a Spain supporter I'm clearly biased, but I thought yesterday's game was tense throughout. Sure, I was watching in a bar filled with Italian eurotrash whom I wished nothing but the worst, but the environment was electric. I know there were no goals and play was never really opened up, but it wasn't for lack of trying or skill on either side. It was a battle of well-executed styles, and for as much as I wish Italy would have taken more risks, I can't blame them. They were facing a much more skilled team. And despite excellent defending from Italy, Spain managed to create some good chances, while never really letting Italy counter attack. For me, this was the most impressive aspect of the match -- Spain's "transition defense," if you will. Marcos Senna and Puyol were all over the place, and Luca Toni was flanked by multiple Spaniards throughout. Maybe Italy just wasn't that good this year, especially without Pirlo. But if they had scored and won 1-0, wouldn't we be talking about the great and inevitable Azzurri? It's true that fast, counter-attacks like we saw in Russia v. Holland or Spain v. Russia are more exciting, but one of the teams has to play terribly on defense for that to happen, and both defenses were very solid yesterday.
It was a tense game (Italy/Spain), but it wasn't exactly well-played. Everyone wants to talk about Italy's defense, but Spain had numerous chances (27 shots/10 on goal) and apparently part of the Azzurri plan was to foul in the box and have it not be called (at least twice in the 1st half). Is not finishing (Spain looked less sharp than in the group phase) the same as good defense?
I understand Italy was without Pirlo, but they had such an enormous size advantage (Toni looked like he was 7 feet tall on TV next to the Spanish defenders) I'm still surprised they didn't open it up. But I guess that's not in the Italian DNA.