Sorry up front for loyal readers. The last couple days I've come down with a cold which didn't seem like much at the time and has sapped my strength like a 'Halo 3' power drain. Guess that's what happens when you make fun of Jose Mourinho and bird flu one too many times.
Any-hows, it's been a pretty interesting, if not busy couple of days. For one, I covered a lot of stuff via the closing of the transfer window over at FanHouse. I'm not going to shill and plead for you to click there. Basically, all my thoughts on minor transactions and such will go there in the future in more of tradition blog fashion.
Stuff like a breakdown of Saturday's USMNT v. Cuba 2010 World Cup qualifier will remain here at T.O.P. (Cut me some slack for this one, not my best word admittedly.)
So speaking of that game, it almost seems like a broken record. Coach Bob Bradley takes less risks than the Emmy Award committee nominations (I.E. snubbing 'The Wire'...again) with his roster selection.
Usually leaving Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore and any other prospects out of the rosters for the Cuba and T&T match gets my lather rising. This time, not so much. With or without those players the U.S. should be able to beat a minnow like Cuba on the road and Trinidad at home.
The bigger picture, I've finally concluded, is that against the world's best teams at the Confederations Cup or World Cup, the U.S. isn't doing anything other than taking up space by playing a pedestrian 4-4-2. The rest of the world is better. Fact.
That said, if the U.S. can book six points in the next six days they'll be afforded the chance to play some new faces and new looks in the rest of this round of qualification.
Saturday's game against Cuba -- sorry I can't get too excited about the Castro/communism stuff -- should be straight forward. Play it safe, try to create some stuff off set plays and get the results. It's not a friendly, even if the opponent doesn't scare anybody.
Yes, this is a bit of a departure from my usual stance. Hell, I'm the guy that wants the U.S. to go 4-2-4 and attack! attack! attack! This isn't the spot to do it. Maybe I'm still riding the high from the gutsy war of attrition win against Guatemala. Who knows? Two listless stinkers -- even resulting in wins -- I might change my tune.
For now, let's get the six points and leave the tinkering for the next two years.
Other questions:
** A lot of people are up-in-arms that Michael Orozco is on the roster less than a month after his stupid red card vs. Nigeria in the Olympics. Can't say I'm happy with the pick, but Steve Cherundolo is out via red card suspension, so Bradley had to pick somebody. A year ago you would have said Jon Bornstein would be called in, but something must have happened. It would seem silly to think he's paying for his dreadful 2007 Copa America, since Orozco's transgression was worse and more recent. Anyone know what happened to Bornstein? He's played 15 games for Chivas, but is he hurt? Not that I exactly want to see him play. The biggest puzzler is why is Ricardo Clark on the team? The one position the U.S. isn't short on is defensive midfielders.
** Once again, can Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey co-exist on the field? And where is Dempsey's best position. Speaking of Dempsey, he's only played 13 competitive minutes for Fulham since the season began in August. Either that means he's fresh or completely out of form. Throwing him out wide right in over Sasha Kljestan seems counter-productive at this point.
** Oguchi Onyewu's gotten a lot of good press for his match against Liverpool for Standard Liege at Anfield last week. He still didn't make a transfer splash. There's no reason he can't dominate against Cuba and Trinidad simply on size alone.
** Set plays. Simply, can the U.S. continue its solid work from deadballs, even without great service players.
** Michael Bradley hasn't shown that much in his last couple U.S. appearances, other than picking up cards. Against Cuba it would be nice to see the new Borussia Mönchengladbach man pinging the ball around and passing with precision, even if he's known for his burliness.
** Frankie Hedjuk is probably going to start. Over/under is 2.5 on two-foot tackles.
** Lastly, Ching or Johnson at forward? Not a pick I want to make. Either way, Donovan ought to play behind them.
** Cuba should be "up" for this game so they could score. My guess, 3-1 U.S. Donovan scores a pair.
Other stuff
** Longtime reader and comment stalwart Brad from the Northwest wanted my thoughts on the Newcastle disaster. Honestly, I have no fucking clue. Absolutely bizarre. A chicken running around with it's head cut off. It's doubtful beer baron Mike Ashley has done much to increase the inevitable sale price of the club in the last two weeks. Anyway, my pick for manager is Geordie AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson, though there would be a stipulation he must keep his trademark floppy hat.
** Wish I could take credit for his one, but whoever dubbed the Abu Dhabi group's purchase of Manchester City as "Middle Eastlands" gets a gold star. Robinho is a nice trophy, but I don't see him as the guy that a) is going to make a huge difference b) is worth breaking the British transfer record for.
** Another shameless reader plug. A fan from Portland asked me to give a pop to Portland's bid to get an MLS team. Here's the website. All I know is that the Timbers Army is a great set of fans and if they're able to turn PGE Park into a soccer-only stadium it's worth Don Garber giving them a full shot. It's just too bad Timbers Jim retired. True legend.
MLS picking Portland would speak volumes in a lot of ways. It would pick to expand in a city -- though not the biggest media market -- that truly has a passionate soccer culture. Look how the Rip City supported the Trailblazers before they started audition for roles on 'Oz.' Picking another city simply because of a slick corporate package isn't always the way to go. If Portland can get the funding, they deserve a serious look, especially over places like Atlanta and Las Vegas.
Portland has my vote, which counts for approximately .0000000000000000001 of an actual vote.
** Speaking of passionate fans, look no further than D.C. United, which won the U.S. Open Cup Wednesday over the USL-1 Charleston Battery. (Too bad for the Cinderellas)
n between the dry heaves and coughing I watched this match intently mainly because of the rollicking fans in the Barra Brava, which shook the bleachers. RJK might be a dump, but it's got soul, something a lot of the new soccer-specific-stadium don't have at all. Hopefully I'll see this charm next month when I go down for the USMNT game against Cuba.
It's too bad about the U.S. Open Cup. It poses the question, if a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound? At least FSC treated it like a real event and stuck with a 30 minute pregame.
** Quickly. How did the Revolution lose 4-0 at home to Trindad's Joe Public FC in the CONCACAF Champions League qualifier? If it ended 1-0 maybe you could guess Jack Warner paid off the refs, but 4-0? Steve Niccol, what happened?
** Michael Lee, WTF -- Ok, I know a guy got to get paid, but seriously Tristan Wilds. The new 90210? You had carte blanche with your career after an amazing showing on 'The Wire' and you pick this? This! It's bad enough that Jamie Hector shows up in the trailer for 'Max Payne' or that Daniels tries to sell Caddys. This one takes the cake. I will stop writing before I say something I regret.
Any-hows, it's been a pretty interesting, if not busy couple of days. For one, I covered a lot of stuff via the closing of the transfer window over at FanHouse. I'm not going to shill and plead for you to click there. Basically, all my thoughts on minor transactions and such will go there in the future in more of tradition blog fashion.
Stuff like a breakdown of Saturday's USMNT v. Cuba 2010 World Cup qualifier will remain here at T.O.P. (Cut me some slack for this one, not my best word admittedly.)
So speaking of that game, it almost seems like a broken record. Coach Bob Bradley takes less risks than the Emmy Award committee nominations (I.E. snubbing 'The Wire'...again) with his roster selection.
Usually leaving Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore and any other prospects out of the rosters for the Cuba and T&T match gets my lather rising. This time, not so much. With or without those players the U.S. should be able to beat a minnow like Cuba on the road and Trinidad at home.
The bigger picture, I've finally concluded, is that against the world's best teams at the Confederations Cup or World Cup, the U.S. isn't doing anything other than taking up space by playing a pedestrian 4-4-2. The rest of the world is better. Fact.
That said, if the U.S. can book six points in the next six days they'll be afforded the chance to play some new faces and new looks in the rest of this round of qualification.
Saturday's game against Cuba -- sorry I can't get too excited about the Castro/communism stuff -- should be straight forward. Play it safe, try to create some stuff off set plays and get the results. It's not a friendly, even if the opponent doesn't scare anybody.
Yes, this is a bit of a departure from my usual stance. Hell, I'm the guy that wants the U.S. to go 4-2-4 and attack! attack! attack! This isn't the spot to do it. Maybe I'm still riding the high from the gutsy war of attrition win against Guatemala. Who knows? Two listless stinkers -- even resulting in wins -- I might change my tune.
For now, let's get the six points and leave the tinkering for the next two years.
Other questions:
** A lot of people are up-in-arms that Michael Orozco is on the roster less than a month after his stupid red card vs. Nigeria in the Olympics. Can't say I'm happy with the pick, but Steve Cherundolo is out via red card suspension, so Bradley had to pick somebody. A year ago you would have said Jon Bornstein would be called in, but something must have happened. It would seem silly to think he's paying for his dreadful 2007 Copa America, since Orozco's transgression was worse and more recent. Anyone know what happened to Bornstein? He's played 15 games for Chivas, but is he hurt? Not that I exactly want to see him play. The biggest puzzler is why is Ricardo Clark on the team? The one position the U.S. isn't short on is defensive midfielders.
** Once again, can Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey co-exist on the field? And where is Dempsey's best position. Speaking of Dempsey, he's only played 13 competitive minutes for Fulham since the season began in August. Either that means he's fresh or completely out of form. Throwing him out wide right in over Sasha Kljestan seems counter-productive at this point.
** Oguchi Onyewu's gotten a lot of good press for his match against Liverpool for Standard Liege at Anfield last week. He still didn't make a transfer splash. There's no reason he can't dominate against Cuba and Trinidad simply on size alone.
** Set plays. Simply, can the U.S. continue its solid work from deadballs, even without great service players.
** Michael Bradley hasn't shown that much in his last couple U.S. appearances, other than picking up cards. Against Cuba it would be nice to see the new Borussia Mönchengladbach man pinging the ball around and passing with precision, even if he's known for his burliness.
** Frankie Hedjuk is probably going to start. Over/under is 2.5 on two-foot tackles.
** Lastly, Ching or Johnson at forward? Not a pick I want to make. Either way, Donovan ought to play behind them.
** Cuba should be "up" for this game so they could score. My guess, 3-1 U.S. Donovan scores a pair.
Other stuff
** Longtime reader and comment stalwart Brad from the Northwest wanted my thoughts on the Newcastle disaster. Honestly, I have no fucking clue. Absolutely bizarre. A chicken running around with it's head cut off. It's doubtful beer baron Mike Ashley has done much to increase the inevitable sale price of the club in the last two weeks. Anyway, my pick for manager is Geordie AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson, though there would be a stipulation he must keep his trademark floppy hat.
** Wish I could take credit for his one, but whoever dubbed the Abu Dhabi group's purchase of Manchester City as "Middle Eastlands" gets a gold star. Robinho is a nice trophy, but I don't see him as the guy that a) is going to make a huge difference b) is worth breaking the British transfer record for.
** Another shameless reader plug. A fan from Portland asked me to give a pop to Portland's bid to get an MLS team. Here's the website. All I know is that the Timbers Army is a great set of fans and if they're able to turn PGE Park into a soccer-only stadium it's worth Don Garber giving them a full shot. It's just too bad Timbers Jim retired. True legend.
MLS picking Portland would speak volumes in a lot of ways. It would pick to expand in a city -- though not the biggest media market -- that truly has a passionate soccer culture. Look how the Rip City supported the Trailblazers before they started audition for roles on 'Oz.' Picking another city simply because of a slick corporate package isn't always the way to go. If Portland can get the funding, they deserve a serious look, especially over places like Atlanta and Las Vegas.
Portland has my vote, which counts for approximately .0000000000000000001 of an actual vote.
** Speaking of passionate fans, look no further than D.C. United, which won the U.S. Open Cup Wednesday over the USL-1 Charleston Battery. (Too bad for the Cinderellas)
n between the dry heaves and coughing I watched this match intently mainly because of the rollicking fans in the Barra Brava, which shook the bleachers. RJK might be a dump, but it's got soul, something a lot of the new soccer-specific-stadium don't have at all. Hopefully I'll see this charm next month when I go down for the USMNT game against Cuba.
It's too bad about the U.S. Open Cup. It poses the question, if a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound? At least FSC treated it like a real event and stuck with a 30 minute pregame.
** Quickly. How did the Revolution lose 4-0 at home to Trindad's Joe Public FC in the CONCACAF Champions League qualifier? If it ended 1-0 maybe you could guess Jack Warner paid off the refs, but 4-0? Steve Niccol, what happened?
** Michael Lee, WTF -- Ok, I know a guy got to get paid, but seriously Tristan Wilds. The new 90210? You had carte blanche with your career after an amazing showing on 'The Wire' and you pick this? This! It's bad enough that Jamie Hector shows up in the trailer for 'Max Payne' or that Daniels tries to sell Caddys. This one takes the cake. I will stop writing before I say something I regret.
Labels: Premier League, Soccer, The Wire, USMNT, world cup qualifying
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