Hey-yo.
So let's talk Premier League fantasy, why not?
There's been some chatter, and yes, I'll be setting up another league shortly.
My question to everyone, which service would they prefer?
Yahoo!?
The official Premier League?
Or something else.
I could go either way.
Make your case in the comments and I'll make a decision by next week.
Meanwhile, if you've never seen this ad, enjoy.
So let's talk Premier League fantasy, why not?
There's been some chatter, and yes, I'll be setting up another league shortly.
My question to everyone, which service would they prefer?
Yahoo!?
The official Premier League?
Or something else.
I could go either way.
Make your case in the comments and I'll make a decision by next week.
Meanwhile, if you've never seen this ad, enjoy.
Labels: English Premier League, premier league fantasy, Soccer
Guess I missed the memo.
Somewhere along the line, the summer was supposed to be the slow part of the year in terms of soccer, well, aside from MLS.
Then something happened making this year absolutely crazy. The soccer slate in America was more jam-packed than James Gandolfini trying to squeeze his way into wardrobe in the final seasons of 'The Sopranos.'
We had the Confederations Cup, the Gold Cup, an endless wave of friendlies on ESPN and yes, even MLS.
So what have we learned through all of this, two weeks until the showdown at Azteca Stadium on Aug. 12 -- airing on Spanish UHF station.
Before delving into individual topics, in the grand scheme of things the U.S. is still probably back where it started the summer, a very competent team that on a given day can turn into a very good, to great team if everything clicks.
Coming back from the brink at the Confederations Cup, defeating Spain and pushing Brazil made June a memorable month, but will be nothing more than memories once the whistle blows a year from now in South Africa.
* Charlie Davies has a bright future, we think -- In short, Davies broke out and declared himself at the Confederations Cup. Now comes the hard part -- proving it wasn't a two-week blip. World soccer, let alone U.S. soccer, is littered with would-be talents, who flashed brightly and faded away. Moving to Ligue 1 is a step in the right direction for Davies, but at the same time the element of surprise come 2010 won't be around for the New Hampshire native.
* Freddy Adu remains in purgatory -- Not to draw too many comparisons, but if Gio Dos Santos's father played in MLS instead of the FMF and he was born a Yank, would Bob Bradley have room in his lineup for the talented, if inconsistent Tottenham player? Dos Santos is a little bigger and stronger than Adu, but they do have somewhat comparable skill sets.
Maybe this is a bad example since the soccer cultures in the two CONCACAF rivals is different. El Tri seems to embrace individual skills and talents, while Bradley, it would seem, would be just as happy to coach the North Korean XI.
Anyway, maybe Adu was all hype. Maybe he wasn't. The Adu/Bradley marriage is never going to work, barring some major counseling.
Oh well.
* The Red Mist -- Here's a question for U.S. fans? Would you rather have a bunch of floppers dripping with hair product like(cough, cough) Italy, Portugal, etc. Or would you rather have real 'men's men' that might not flop, but make rash slide tackles and get sent off? (Or you can have David Beckham circa 1998 and get both.)
Discipline can be taught and instilled in players and you'd figure that would be right in Bradley the Elder's (tm 30f) wheelhouse. Of course, the biggest culprit is Bradley the Younger, and in a big game his rash tackles and hot temper have already and could cost the U.S. down the road. He needs a stern father-son chat.
* ESPN needs more soccer voices -- If the WWL keeps up its foray into the beautiful game, it needs more bodies able to talk about the sport intelligently. At this point in the game ESPN could probably get 100 different talking heads to give a five minute talk on Michael Vick and about two for Michael Essien.
Alexi Lalas is good, if repetitive. And after him? Tommy Smyth? Shaka Hislop?
Excuse me while I log directly onto the Inter-nets to discuss the game.
Then again, maybe the charm of soccer is the lack of analysis, that we don't have to deal with 43 people talking about Brett Favre's will-he, won't-he routine on a nightly basis.
And no sideline reporters either.
(Side note, people we killing Max Bretos and FSC in general for the Gold Cup coverage. It definitely left a lot to be desired, but before my personal knives come out, I'll reserve judgement until after the Champions League coverage begins in August.)
* Do these high-profile friendlies do anything to help MLS? -- It's somewhat a Catch-22. Running stuff like the 'World Football Challenge' helps increase the exposure of soccer in the United States and gets people, for example, like Bill Simmons interested. More soccer on television can't be a bad thing.
At the same time, folks tuning into Chelsea/Inter Milan realize this is the creme de la creme, while MLS isn't yet even close to that level. So to that degree ESPN airing these matches detracts from MLS. Granted, if every game could be as entertaining and gorgeously shot as the Chicago/Seattle match on Saturday from the Emerald City perhaps this would be a moot point.
The billion dollar question remains how MLS can turn soccer fans in America into MLS fans?
* Landon Donovan is no longer Landycakes -- From peach salad to the receding hairline to the robotic monotone, Donovan is almost too easy a target. Almost.
That said, at the Confederations Cup he did step up his game and show why he's the best player in U.S. history. Though he's not a tricky dribbler like a Lionel Messi, Donovan does have great pace especially taking on a defender 1-v-1. And I've probably underrated or diminished his finishing ability, it's better then he gets credit for sometimes. Yes, he free kick delivery needs work, but that can be tweaked in training, right?
It's not going overboard to say the next 12 months will define Donovan's career, whether he jumps to Europe for the fourth time or not. He needs to redeem himself for the 2006 World Cup and will get that chance.
If he shows up like he did at the Confederations Cup next summer, he'll forever shut up the haters and the doubters. Screw the pooch again? Then it's another round of lamb pizza jokes.
* Where is Clint Dempsey's best position? -- His best work was done when he moved forward in front of goal in the Confederations Cup. To me, this is the biggest domino that needs to fall for the U.S. starting XI.
If you play Dempsey as a forward, be it paired with Jozy Altidore or Charlie Davies, ideally as a final 30-minute sub, this reduces Bradley's reliance on Brian Ching. Of course, for this to work, Stuart Holden needs to slot into the right midfield position and show he can hack it against Mexico, Costa Rica and not just Greneda and Haiti.
* Will the U.S. ever produce top-quality outside backs? -- On the plus side, Jonathon Spector announced his intentions and likely wrested the right back position away from Steve Cherundolo. This is a good thing, nothing against Cherundolo who's been the consummate pro, but you want younger players to push their way into the lineup to create competition and depth.
On the left side, well, that remains somewhat of a black hole unless you like Carlos Bocanegra shifted out there with Oguchi Onyweu and Jay DeMerit central. Heath Pearce? Jonathon Bornstein?
Pearce seems to have the position by default, but over the next 11 months it could fluctuate.
* Did we learn anything from the Gold Cup?: Short answer: not really; Long answer: well, kinda, but still not really.
We'll find out Aug. 12 if the Gold Cup meant anything if Ching (I've written enough about him, scroll down for my opinions) is in the starting XI and Stuart Holden is on the bench, or at least included in the squad.
Aside from those two, Troy Perkins seems competent to be goal keeper No. 3. In a pinch, say a midweek World Cup qualifier later this year, Bradley might be able to sneak Kyle Beckerman into the lineup to save a European based player, possibly his son, a trip across the Atlantic.
Everybody else? Kenny Cooper had moments as a sub, but it seems unlikely he can break into the Top Four in the forward pecking order. Robbie Rogers seems to have a ceiling against strong competition.
Maybe the biggest or most pleasant surprise was Davy Arnaud, who actually brought something to the table. Too bad he's closer to 30 than 20. He's at least bought himself another call-back, or two.
* The "Bradley Conundrum" -- For me, this is the big one. We've pretty much determined Bradley wants "system" players to fit into the now preferred 4-4-2.
Bradley would have have the hard-working, albeit limited ceiling effort of Brian Ching as opposed to say, the possible individual brilliance of Freddy Adu.
The U.S. system appears to be focused on all ten field players going as hard as they can for 90 minutes, checking back on defense and hoping to catch the opponent on the break with the speed of Donovan or Davies.
What makes all this a bit of a conundrum is that although Bradley seems to want the sum of the team to be better than the individual parts, for the team to actually succeed he needs 'plus' performances from its key players. To some degree every team in the world needs this to be successful, yet for the U.S. it seems magnified because a 'meh' effort against a good team won't get the job done.
Even with the result against Spain and first half against Brazil I worry about the U.S.'s ability to score goals in the run of play against a good team.
Closing thoughts:
Of all the things that can be talked about and debated from the last two months of U.S. soccer, the biggest thing we can take away as fans as that the very least there is the potential to do something at the next World Cup. At the start of June, especially after the Costa Rica debacle not even the Pollyanna, USSF Kool Aid drinkers would have been able to believe that.
Again, as great as the Confederations Cup was -- it's the past.
It all, now and forever, boils down to three group stage games.
Let's hope that when they pull the balls out of the pots Sepp Blatter was sufficiently pleased with his kickaround at the new Giants Stadium over the weekend and doesn't stick the U.S. in the Group of Death again.
Somewhere along the line, the summer was supposed to be the slow part of the year in terms of soccer, well, aside from MLS.
Then something happened making this year absolutely crazy. The soccer slate in America was more jam-packed than James Gandolfini trying to squeeze his way into wardrobe in the final seasons of 'The Sopranos.'
We had the Confederations Cup, the Gold Cup, an endless wave of friendlies on ESPN and yes, even MLS.
So what have we learned through all of this, two weeks until the showdown at Azteca Stadium on Aug. 12 -- airing on Spanish UHF station.
Before delving into individual topics, in the grand scheme of things the U.S. is still probably back where it started the summer, a very competent team that on a given day can turn into a very good, to great team if everything clicks.
Coming back from the brink at the Confederations Cup, defeating Spain and pushing Brazil made June a memorable month, but will be nothing more than memories once the whistle blows a year from now in South Africa.
* Charlie Davies has a bright future, we think -- In short, Davies broke out and declared himself at the Confederations Cup. Now comes the hard part -- proving it wasn't a two-week blip. World soccer, let alone U.S. soccer, is littered with would-be talents, who flashed brightly and faded away. Moving to Ligue 1 is a step in the right direction for Davies, but at the same time the element of surprise come 2010 won't be around for the New Hampshire native.
* Freddy Adu remains in purgatory -- Not to draw too many comparisons, but if Gio Dos Santos's father played in MLS instead of the FMF and he was born a Yank, would Bob Bradley have room in his lineup for the talented, if inconsistent Tottenham player? Dos Santos is a little bigger and stronger than Adu, but they do have somewhat comparable skill sets.
Maybe this is a bad example since the soccer cultures in the two CONCACAF rivals is different. El Tri seems to embrace individual skills and talents, while Bradley, it would seem, would be just as happy to coach the North Korean XI.
Anyway, maybe Adu was all hype. Maybe he wasn't. The Adu/Bradley marriage is never going to work, barring some major counseling.
Oh well.
* The Red Mist -- Here's a question for U.S. fans? Would you rather have a bunch of floppers dripping with hair product like(cough, cough) Italy, Portugal, etc. Or would you rather have real 'men's men' that might not flop, but make rash slide tackles and get sent off? (Or you can have David Beckham circa 1998 and get both.)
Discipline can be taught and instilled in players and you'd figure that would be right in Bradley the Elder's (tm 30f) wheelhouse. Of course, the biggest culprit is Bradley the Younger, and in a big game his rash tackles and hot temper have already and could cost the U.S. down the road. He needs a stern father-son chat.
* ESPN needs more soccer voices -- If the WWL keeps up its foray into the beautiful game, it needs more bodies able to talk about the sport intelligently. At this point in the game ESPN could probably get 100 different talking heads to give a five minute talk on Michael Vick and about two for Michael Essien.
Alexi Lalas is good, if repetitive. And after him? Tommy Smyth? Shaka Hislop?
Excuse me while I log directly onto the Inter-nets to discuss the game.
Then again, maybe the charm of soccer is the lack of analysis, that we don't have to deal with 43 people talking about Brett Favre's will-he, won't-he routine on a nightly basis.
And no sideline reporters either.
(Side note, people we killing Max Bretos and FSC in general for the Gold Cup coverage. It definitely left a lot to be desired, but before my personal knives come out, I'll reserve judgement until after the Champions League coverage begins in August.)
* Do these high-profile friendlies do anything to help MLS? -- It's somewhat a Catch-22. Running stuff like the 'World Football Challenge' helps increase the exposure of soccer in the United States and gets people, for example, like Bill Simmons interested. More soccer on television can't be a bad thing.
At the same time, folks tuning into Chelsea/Inter Milan realize this is the creme de la creme, while MLS isn't yet even close to that level. So to that degree ESPN airing these matches detracts from MLS. Granted, if every game could be as entertaining and gorgeously shot as the Chicago/Seattle match on Saturday from the Emerald City perhaps this would be a moot point.
The billion dollar question remains how MLS can turn soccer fans in America into MLS fans?
* Landon Donovan is no longer Landycakes -- From peach salad to the receding hairline to the robotic monotone, Donovan is almost too easy a target. Almost.
That said, at the Confederations Cup he did step up his game and show why he's the best player in U.S. history. Though he's not a tricky dribbler like a Lionel Messi, Donovan does have great pace especially taking on a defender 1-v-1. And I've probably underrated or diminished his finishing ability, it's better then he gets credit for sometimes. Yes, he free kick delivery needs work, but that can be tweaked in training, right?
It's not going overboard to say the next 12 months will define Donovan's career, whether he jumps to Europe for the fourth time or not. He needs to redeem himself for the 2006 World Cup and will get that chance.
If he shows up like he did at the Confederations Cup next summer, he'll forever shut up the haters and the doubters. Screw the pooch again? Then it's another round of lamb pizza jokes.
* Where is Clint Dempsey's best position? -- His best work was done when he moved forward in front of goal in the Confederations Cup. To me, this is the biggest domino that needs to fall for the U.S. starting XI.
If you play Dempsey as a forward, be it paired with Jozy Altidore or Charlie Davies, ideally as a final 30-minute sub, this reduces Bradley's reliance on Brian Ching. Of course, for this to work, Stuart Holden needs to slot into the right midfield position and show he can hack it against Mexico, Costa Rica and not just Greneda and Haiti.
* Will the U.S. ever produce top-quality outside backs? -- On the plus side, Jonathon Spector announced his intentions and likely wrested the right back position away from Steve Cherundolo. This is a good thing, nothing against Cherundolo who's been the consummate pro, but you want younger players to push their way into the lineup to create competition and depth.
On the left side, well, that remains somewhat of a black hole unless you like Carlos Bocanegra shifted out there with Oguchi Onyweu and Jay DeMerit central. Heath Pearce? Jonathon Bornstein?
Pearce seems to have the position by default, but over the next 11 months it could fluctuate.
* Did we learn anything from the Gold Cup?: Short answer: not really; Long answer: well, kinda, but still not really.
We'll find out Aug. 12 if the Gold Cup meant anything if Ching (I've written enough about him, scroll down for my opinions) is in the starting XI and Stuart Holden is on the bench, or at least included in the squad.
Aside from those two, Troy Perkins seems competent to be goal keeper No. 3. In a pinch, say a midweek World Cup qualifier later this year, Bradley might be able to sneak Kyle Beckerman into the lineup to save a European based player, possibly his son, a trip across the Atlantic.
Everybody else? Kenny Cooper had moments as a sub, but it seems unlikely he can break into the Top Four in the forward pecking order. Robbie Rogers seems to have a ceiling against strong competition.
Maybe the biggest or most pleasant surprise was Davy Arnaud, who actually brought something to the table. Too bad he's closer to 30 than 20. He's at least bought himself another call-back, or two.
* The "Bradley Conundrum" -- For me, this is the big one. We've pretty much determined Bradley wants "system" players to fit into the now preferred 4-4-2.
Bradley would have have the hard-working, albeit limited ceiling effort of Brian Ching as opposed to say, the possible individual brilliance of Freddy Adu.
The U.S. system appears to be focused on all ten field players going as hard as they can for 90 minutes, checking back on defense and hoping to catch the opponent on the break with the speed of Donovan or Davies.
What makes all this a bit of a conundrum is that although Bradley seems to want the sum of the team to be better than the individual parts, for the team to actually succeed he needs 'plus' performances from its key players. To some degree every team in the world needs this to be successful, yet for the U.S. it seems magnified because a 'meh' effort against a good team won't get the job done.
Even with the result against Spain and first half against Brazil I worry about the U.S.'s ability to score goals in the run of play against a good team.
Closing thoughts:
Of all the things that can be talked about and debated from the last two months of U.S. soccer, the biggest thing we can take away as fans as that the very least there is the potential to do something at the next World Cup. At the start of June, especially after the Costa Rica debacle not even the Pollyanna, USSF Kool Aid drinkers would have been able to believe that.
Again, as great as the Confederations Cup was -- it's the past.
It all, now and forever, boils down to three group stage games.
Let's hope that when they pull the balls out of the pots Sepp Blatter was sufficiently pleased with his kickaround at the new Giants Stadium over the weekend and doesn't stick the U.S. in the Group of Death again.
Labels: bob bradley, concacaf, confederations cup, Gold Cup, Soccer, USMNT
"There's nothing good about this Ronnie" -- Dennis, from the criminally underrated 'Observe and Report'
Well ... that just happened.
And on that note, who knew that Robbie Keane played right back for the U.S.?
Really, when you get beat 5-0 in a Gold Cup final by Mexico, there's nothing better to do than laugh, right? There's nothing positive here to discuss.
As I said the other day, this would have been a nice cherry on top of a pretty good summer for the U.S., but for Mexico it meant a hell of a lot more. You could sense the pressure and then relief from the El Tri players when it was mercifully over.
Is that an excuse? Perhaps.
To me, is it all that worth getting wrapped up in a loss with the U.S. 'B' team, or more specifically ten brutal minutes when the wheels completely fell off?
If there is any cause for concern it probably falls in three categories.
First, just like the Confederations Cup final when the game was in doubt in the second half, the U.S. had nobody truly viable to bring on while its opponent did. Sunday it was pretty simple for Mexico, El Kabong Aguirre was able to swap out the ineffective Alberto Medina for dangerous Arsenal youngster Carlos Vela.
It's hard to hammer Bob Bradley this time around, since the entire run of the Gold Cup featured an in-and-out U.S. lineup. There wasn't that much to put on for the starting XI, so the fact there wasn't anything on the bench in this specific case isn't a huge deal, but it's a red flag down the road.
The next issue, probably the biggest, is that in the first half for long stretches the U.S. dominated the run of the play and won a ton of set pieces -- but couldn't convert. Honestly I hate to type the following two words, but it has to be said -- Brian Ching.
We know Bradley has a love affair with Ching and that barring injury, there's a 99 percent chance he'll be in the starting lineup when it matters on Aug. 12 at Azteca for the World Cup qualifier. Ching does a lot of things well -- holds the ball, provides a physical presences, hustles etc. Yet he also isn't a natural goal scorer in the final third of the field. You can get away with this when Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey are in the lineup, when it's the 'B' team, not as much.
Again, I hate to single out one player but I just worry about how much Bradley is going to rely on Ching on Aug. 12 and down the road.
Lastly, the defense fell apart in the second half. Other than Heath Pearce this isn't an issue since the rest of the lineup won't be around in 2010. Pearce is a weird player, sometimes he looks good and brings something to the attack, but seems to be a defensive liability.
If anything, time to ditch the would-be offside trap.
Overall, yes, it absolutely sucks to lose to Mexico regardless of who was or wasn't there. And by a 5-0 scoreline? Ugh.
Does this offset the last 10 years of American dominance? Nope.
Does it sully the Dos a Cero refrain? Not just yet.
Does it give Mexico a little confidence against the U.S going forward? Probably.
If you want to take an extremely cynical take, maybe a loss like this puts everything back into perspective for the U.S., even if the main roster wasn't involved. And in that vein, it fires up the core players for a historic win next month when it matters.
No matter how you slice it, there's nothing good from today's game, except that it ended.
Other stuff:
* Minor weird, nit pick of the match: Down 1-0 the U.S. won a free kick at midfield and they played it quickly, instead of letting the subs come in. Quickly Mexico went up 2-0 thanks to a quick turnover and counter attack.
* Since it finished 5-0 it's hard to get wrapped up in a penalty kick, but the Jay Heaps/Gio Dos Santos entanglement could have gone either way. Heaps did get his shirt, but then then the Spurs-man seemed to iniatie the tumble with the Revs defender
* Maybe it was a different match if Robbie Rogers' half-volley right at the start of the second half is a hair lower and beats Ochoa its a different game. That about sums up Rogers' overall game, just a tad bit lacking.
* Not to overstate it, but as good as Stuart Holden was during the Gold Cup, he wasn't on the level of Vela or Dos Santos.
* Even with all the mitigating factors, there's no excuse for 5-0. None. 5-0 also means no positive spin for reaching the final with a 'B' team. 5-0 is 5-0 and the mainstream media will take notice of that scoreline.
* Edgar Castillo, you still want to get in the U.S. camp?
* Any chance we can move the Gold Cup to every four years?
* Guess you have to feel sorry for Jay Heaps. At 32 he gets an international chance, only to get exposed vs. Haiti, called for a penalty vs. Mexico and then finally sent off for his second red. Suffice to say, he's not in the mix going forward.
* If it's possible for a goalie to play well in a 5-0 loss, Troy Perkins may have. He made four saves to keep it close, but the fifth wasn't there and the rout was on.
* It's a safe bet we look at this tournament completely differently if Freddy Adu, Charlie Davies, Benny Feilhaber, etc. stuck around.
* Sam's Army, you can run all the ads you want on FSC, it's not changing the U.S./Mexico tide any time soon on American soil. Sad but true.
* Begrudgingly, I'll hand it to Mexico. They made the U.S. drink the chumpatize juice today.
Final thought:
I've been on a major 'Mad Men' kick lately. Maybe the best way to go about this is taking some advice Don Draper gave to Peggy Olson, as in, forget about it. It never happened.
Give it a good old memory wipe.
(Apologies, if this was hasty, I had to work Sunday night and cranked this out quickly. Maybe some more perspective on Monday time allowing.)
Well ... that just happened.
And on that note, who knew that Robbie Keane played right back for the U.S.?
Really, when you get beat 5-0 in a Gold Cup final by Mexico, there's nothing better to do than laugh, right? There's nothing positive here to discuss.
As I said the other day, this would have been a nice cherry on top of a pretty good summer for the U.S., but for Mexico it meant a hell of a lot more. You could sense the pressure and then relief from the El Tri players when it was mercifully over.
Is that an excuse? Perhaps.
To me, is it all that worth getting wrapped up in a loss with the U.S. 'B' team, or more specifically ten brutal minutes when the wheels completely fell off?
If there is any cause for concern it probably falls in three categories.
First, just like the Confederations Cup final when the game was in doubt in the second half, the U.S. had nobody truly viable to bring on while its opponent did. Sunday it was pretty simple for Mexico, El Kabong Aguirre was able to swap out the ineffective Alberto Medina for dangerous Arsenal youngster Carlos Vela.
It's hard to hammer Bob Bradley this time around, since the entire run of the Gold Cup featured an in-and-out U.S. lineup. There wasn't that much to put on for the starting XI, so the fact there wasn't anything on the bench in this specific case isn't a huge deal, but it's a red flag down the road.
The next issue, probably the biggest, is that in the first half for long stretches the U.S. dominated the run of the play and won a ton of set pieces -- but couldn't convert. Honestly I hate to type the following two words, but it has to be said -- Brian Ching.
We know Bradley has a love affair with Ching and that barring injury, there's a 99 percent chance he'll be in the starting lineup when it matters on Aug. 12 at Azteca for the World Cup qualifier. Ching does a lot of things well -- holds the ball, provides a physical presences, hustles etc. Yet he also isn't a natural goal scorer in the final third of the field. You can get away with this when Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey are in the lineup, when it's the 'B' team, not as much.
Again, I hate to single out one player but I just worry about how much Bradley is going to rely on Ching on Aug. 12 and down the road.
Lastly, the defense fell apart in the second half. Other than Heath Pearce this isn't an issue since the rest of the lineup won't be around in 2010. Pearce is a weird player, sometimes he looks good and brings something to the attack, but seems to be a defensive liability.
If anything, time to ditch the would-be offside trap.
Overall, yes, it absolutely sucks to lose to Mexico regardless of who was or wasn't there. And by a 5-0 scoreline? Ugh.
Does this offset the last 10 years of American dominance? Nope.
Does it sully the Dos a Cero refrain? Not just yet.
Does it give Mexico a little confidence against the U.S going forward? Probably.
If you want to take an extremely cynical take, maybe a loss like this puts everything back into perspective for the U.S., even if the main roster wasn't involved. And in that vein, it fires up the core players for a historic win next month when it matters.
No matter how you slice it, there's nothing good from today's game, except that it ended.
Other stuff:
* Minor weird, nit pick of the match: Down 1-0 the U.S. won a free kick at midfield and they played it quickly, instead of letting the subs come in. Quickly Mexico went up 2-0 thanks to a quick turnover and counter attack.
* Since it finished 5-0 it's hard to get wrapped up in a penalty kick, but the Jay Heaps/Gio Dos Santos entanglement could have gone either way. Heaps did get his shirt, but then then the Spurs-man seemed to iniatie the tumble with the Revs defender
* Maybe it was a different match if Robbie Rogers' half-volley right at the start of the second half is a hair lower and beats Ochoa its a different game. That about sums up Rogers' overall game, just a tad bit lacking.
* Not to overstate it, but as good as Stuart Holden was during the Gold Cup, he wasn't on the level of Vela or Dos Santos.
* Even with all the mitigating factors, there's no excuse for 5-0. None. 5-0 also means no positive spin for reaching the final with a 'B' team. 5-0 is 5-0 and the mainstream media will take notice of that scoreline.
* Edgar Castillo, you still want to get in the U.S. camp?
* Any chance we can move the Gold Cup to every four years?
* Guess you have to feel sorry for Jay Heaps. At 32 he gets an international chance, only to get exposed vs. Haiti, called for a penalty vs. Mexico and then finally sent off for his second red. Suffice to say, he's not in the mix going forward.
* If it's possible for a goalie to play well in a 5-0 loss, Troy Perkins may have. He made four saves to keep it close, but the fifth wasn't there and the rout was on.
* It's a safe bet we look at this tournament completely differently if Freddy Adu, Charlie Davies, Benny Feilhaber, etc. stuck around.
* Sam's Army, you can run all the ads you want on FSC, it's not changing the U.S./Mexico tide any time soon on American soil. Sad but true.
* Begrudgingly, I'll hand it to Mexico. They made the U.S. drink the chumpatize juice today.
Final thought:
I've been on a major 'Mad Men' kick lately. Maybe the best way to go about this is taking some advice Don Draper gave to Peggy Olson, as in, forget about it. It never happened.
Give it a good old memory wipe.
(Apologies, if this was hasty, I had to work Sunday night and cranked this out quickly. Maybe some more perspective on Monday time allowing.)
Labels: concacaf, fox soccer, Gold Cup, Soccer, USMNT
Are you a potato skins guys? How about cocktail weiners? Everybody loves scallops wrapped in bacon, right?
Do you go more high-end with a quiche or caviar or something else a contestant on 'Top Chef' would whip up?
So here we are, a couple weeks before the last relevant U.S. national team match before the 2010 World Cup on Aug. 12 at Azteca Stadium -- coming to a UHF station near you -- and we get a semi-sneak preview in Sunday's Gold Cup final.
Call it an appetizer.
Of course, Sunday's match from Giants Stadium is almost more about which players aren't there than who will be trotting onto the temporary grass field in East Rutherford, N.J.
Then again, this is still technically the U.S. vs. Mexico so it's hard to scoff at it. Consider it a chicken wing -- you could put buffalo seasoning, teriyaki, barbecue, garlic parm, etc. It doesn't matter, it's still going to taste good.
So what if some of the pantomime villains booth sets of fans have grown to hate -- Rafa Marquez, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Landon Donovan -- will be nowhere near Exit 16w, it's still the most relevant CONCACAF rivalry being contested in a tournament final.
Sunday most of the eyes -- especially those actually in the stands -- will be on Mexico. (By the way, you stay classy Mexico fans. Did the Costa Rican players deserve to be pelted with cups on every corner kick in Thursday's semifinal in Chicago?)
At this point we know the drill for the U.S. It would be a pretty nice feat to win a tournament with essentially an afterthought roster with at best three or four guys that might actually factor into the rest of the 2010 process.
On the other hand, this is a bit of a bellwether match for El Tri.
We all know how hellish everything has become for Mexico post what we all expected to be a breakthrough showing at the 2007 Copa America. It all seemed ready to set up on a plate for Mexico -- young stars like Nery 'Uno-Brow' Castillo, Gio Dos Santos and Carlos Vela -- making impacts at some of Europe's bigger teams. A core of solid veterans like Pavel Pardo and Carlos Orsorio coupled with the best domestic league in North America.
Then, like Jason Alexander's post-'Seinfeld' career -- it all went to hell.
Mexico missed the 2008 Olympics and fired Hugo Sanchez and replaced him with the walking joke that is Sven-Goran Eriksson.
It's only gotten worse, with El Tri slumping in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying and the debacle that was new coach Javier Aguirre kicking a Panama player right in the junk two weeks ago in Houston during the Gold Cup group stage matches.
Embarrassing on-and-off the field, this is about as low an ebb as we've seen El Tri since they got kicked out of the 1990 World Cup. (Yeah, it happened.)
As it stands, a win over the U.S. -- regardless of who if filling out the U.S. shirts -- on American soil in a cup final would be a nice shot in the arm for a wounded Mexican side. At the least, it'll give El Tri a little extra juice before the main course on Aug. 12.
Bob Bradley & Co. better realize this and not let it happen.
You never want to wake up a sleeping giant. Well, a regional giant as it were.
Miscellania:
* Another subplot for this match, a defacto comparison between the FMF and MLS, with most of the lineups for each team plying their trades in the domestic leagues.
* If there's an outlier in this match, it's Carlos Vela who is by default the most talented player on either roster, at least on paper. As we've seen plenty of times, this doesn't always equate into the actual match, yet Mexico has a definite individual weapon while the U.S. is more of a team collective.
* Consider me not exactly sold on Gio, who the Telemundo announcers go cuckoo-bananas for each and every time he touches the ball. Yes, he had success at FIFA youth tournaments, but maybe he got a ton of residual hype for playing at Barcelona and sort of, vaguely looking like Ronaldinho. How he gets any time at Tottenham this season will remain a mystery.
* It's somewhat strange, outside of Vela and Gio, the Mexico team is pretty much mid-20s journeymen.
* Pressure will something to note in this match. The U.S. really doesn't have too much at stake, aside from personal pride. Meanwhile, Mexico has the weight of the world on its shoulders, so in that regard if I'm Bradley I throw everything forward in the first 10 minutes to look for an early knockout blow.
If that doesn't work, keep pressing since Mexico did cough up the equalizer in the dying minutes of stoppage time Thursday vs. Costa Rica.
* Even if you're being generous, the Gold Cup hasn't yielded too much in terms of increasing the depth of the U.S. talent pool. That said, Bradley might be able to get the best gauge of who he's got from these match with the whole "foxhole" scenario.
Bradley must like the team he's got, since as of Friday afternoon he hasn't called in guys like Ricardo Clark or even Sacha Kljestan for the match.
* It's somewhat amazing that one count 'em ONE U.S. player played in the 2007 Gold Cup final against Mexico -- Brian Ching. By contrast Mexico has three: Jonny Magallon, Alberto Medina and Omar Bravo.
So, yes, if Mexico gets the win there is an excuse for U.S. fans in the rivalry, but it's not like El Tri is at full-strength either. If anything, should the U.S. win it gives even bigger bragging rights than usual since a 'B' team still beat Mexico.
* As per usual, the U.S. defense has a significant physical advantage on the Mexico forwards, yet are giving away quickness and savvy. This might have been a good match for Michael Parkhurst, but it's hard to see Bradley tinkering with what worked vs. Honduras.
* Food for thought, with a solid final and continuted progression at his club, could Troy Perkins usurp Brad Guzan's No. 2 status for U.S. keeper? It's not like Guzan will get a ton of playing time this season behind Brad Friedel at Aston Villa. Then again, Guzan played for Bradley at Chivas USA, which equals a nearly lifetime pass.
* For all I've written about Bob Bradley, at least he's never crunched a guy in the nuts.
Closing thoughts:
It's U.S./Mexico, what more needs to be said? If anything we as fans should be grateful we'll get this match twice in three weeks.
Do you go more high-end with a quiche or caviar or something else a contestant on 'Top Chef' would whip up?
So here we are, a couple weeks before the last relevant U.S. national team match before the 2010 World Cup on Aug. 12 at Azteca Stadium -- coming to a UHF station near you -- and we get a semi-sneak preview in Sunday's Gold Cup final.
Call it an appetizer.
Of course, Sunday's match from Giants Stadium is almost more about which players aren't there than who will be trotting onto the temporary grass field in East Rutherford, N.J.
Then again, this is still technically the U.S. vs. Mexico so it's hard to scoff at it. Consider it a chicken wing -- you could put buffalo seasoning, teriyaki, barbecue, garlic parm, etc. It doesn't matter, it's still going to taste good.
So what if some of the pantomime villains booth sets of fans have grown to hate -- Rafa Marquez, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Landon Donovan -- will be nowhere near Exit 16w, it's still the most relevant CONCACAF rivalry being contested in a tournament final.
Sunday most of the eyes -- especially those actually in the stands -- will be on Mexico. (By the way, you stay classy Mexico fans. Did the Costa Rican players deserve to be pelted with cups on every corner kick in Thursday's semifinal in Chicago?)
At this point we know the drill for the U.S. It would be a pretty nice feat to win a tournament with essentially an afterthought roster with at best three or four guys that might actually factor into the rest of the 2010 process.
On the other hand, this is a bit of a bellwether match for El Tri.
We all know how hellish everything has become for Mexico post what we all expected to be a breakthrough showing at the 2007 Copa America. It all seemed ready to set up on a plate for Mexico -- young stars like Nery 'Uno-Brow' Castillo, Gio Dos Santos and Carlos Vela -- making impacts at some of Europe's bigger teams. A core of solid veterans like Pavel Pardo and Carlos Orsorio coupled with the best domestic league in North America.
Then, like Jason Alexander's post-'Seinfeld' career -- it all went to hell.
Mexico missed the 2008 Olympics and fired Hugo Sanchez and replaced him with the walking joke that is Sven-Goran Eriksson.
It's only gotten worse, with El Tri slumping in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying and the debacle that was new coach Javier Aguirre kicking a Panama player right in the junk two weeks ago in Houston during the Gold Cup group stage matches.
Embarrassing on-and-off the field, this is about as low an ebb as we've seen El Tri since they got kicked out of the 1990 World Cup. (Yeah, it happened.)
As it stands, a win over the U.S. -- regardless of who if filling out the U.S. shirts -- on American soil in a cup final would be a nice shot in the arm for a wounded Mexican side. At the least, it'll give El Tri a little extra juice before the main course on Aug. 12.
Bob Bradley & Co. better realize this and not let it happen.
You never want to wake up a sleeping giant. Well, a regional giant as it were.
Miscellania:
* Another subplot for this match, a defacto comparison between the FMF and MLS, with most of the lineups for each team plying their trades in the domestic leagues.
* If there's an outlier in this match, it's Carlos Vela who is by default the most talented player on either roster, at least on paper. As we've seen plenty of times, this doesn't always equate into the actual match, yet Mexico has a definite individual weapon while the U.S. is more of a team collective.
* Consider me not exactly sold on Gio, who the Telemundo announcers go cuckoo-bananas for each and every time he touches the ball. Yes, he had success at FIFA youth tournaments, but maybe he got a ton of residual hype for playing at Barcelona and sort of, vaguely looking like Ronaldinho. How he gets any time at Tottenham this season will remain a mystery.
* It's somewhat strange, outside of Vela and Gio, the Mexico team is pretty much mid-20s journeymen.
* Pressure will something to note in this match. The U.S. really doesn't have too much at stake, aside from personal pride. Meanwhile, Mexico has the weight of the world on its shoulders, so in that regard if I'm Bradley I throw everything forward in the first 10 minutes to look for an early knockout blow.
If that doesn't work, keep pressing since Mexico did cough up the equalizer in the dying minutes of stoppage time Thursday vs. Costa Rica.
* Even if you're being generous, the Gold Cup hasn't yielded too much in terms of increasing the depth of the U.S. talent pool. That said, Bradley might be able to get the best gauge of who he's got from these match with the whole "foxhole" scenario.
Bradley must like the team he's got, since as of Friday afternoon he hasn't called in guys like Ricardo Clark or even Sacha Kljestan for the match.
* It's somewhat amazing that one count 'em ONE U.S. player played in the 2007 Gold Cup final against Mexico -- Brian Ching. By contrast Mexico has three: Jonny Magallon, Alberto Medina and Omar Bravo.
So, yes, if Mexico gets the win there is an excuse for U.S. fans in the rivalry, but it's not like El Tri is at full-strength either. If anything, should the U.S. win it gives even bigger bragging rights than usual since a 'B' team still beat Mexico.
* As per usual, the U.S. defense has a significant physical advantage on the Mexico forwards, yet are giving away quickness and savvy. This might have been a good match for Michael Parkhurst, but it's hard to see Bradley tinkering with what worked vs. Honduras.
* Food for thought, with a solid final and continuted progression at his club, could Troy Perkins usurp Brad Guzan's No. 2 status for U.S. keeper? It's not like Guzan will get a ton of playing time this season behind Brad Friedel at Aston Villa. Then again, Guzan played for Bradley at Chivas USA, which equals a nearly lifetime pass.
* For all I've written about Bob Bradley, at least he's never crunched a guy in the nuts.
Closing thoughts:
It's U.S./Mexico, what more needs to be said? If anything we as fans should be grateful we'll get this match twice in three weeks.
Labels: concacaf, Gold Cup, Mexico is our bitch, Soccer, USMNT
In the words of Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo, well, before he went off the deep end ranting about "Cecil D. DeMille" -- this is a bad job outta me.
Thursday afternoon I had an interview scheduled for my "day job" that I'd been working on hammering down for a couple of weeks. In my haste, I forgot to set up the DVR for the U.S./Honduras match.
It wouldn't have been such a major deal, but after this interview I had to attend a wake and by the time I got home it was too late. Unfortunately I didn't have DirecTV and the ability to record from the use of a mobile phone.
D'oh.
Anyway judging by the highlights and such, it was a pretty ho-hum win for the U.S. or at least a fairly competent performance from start to finish.
As you might guess, sorry for screwing up.
I'll wrap this up since I want to watch the final 15 minutes of Mexico/Costa Rica.
Time to dust off the ol' luche libre mask.
Adios.
Thursday afternoon I had an interview scheduled for my "day job" that I'd been working on hammering down for a couple of weeks. In my haste, I forgot to set up the DVR for the U.S./Honduras match.
It wouldn't have been such a major deal, but after this interview I had to attend a wake and by the time I got home it was too late. Unfortunately I didn't have DirecTV and the ability to record from the use of a mobile phone.
D'oh.
Anyway judging by the highlights and such, it was a pretty ho-hum win for the U.S. or at least a fairly competent performance from start to finish.
As you might guess, sorry for screwing up.
I'll wrap this up since I want to watch the final 15 minutes of Mexico/Costa Rica.
Time to dust off the ol' luche libre mask.
Adios.
Honduras...again...?
Really?
It's weird how she goes with the U.S. national team. A couple years ago it seemed like Panama was there at every turn. Then it was, unfortunately, the anti-soccer of Guatemala that seemingly was standing in front of the U.S. every other match.
Now that onus falls to Honduras, which will play the U.S. for the third time in less than two months.
Color me excited.
Honestly, I've gritted my teeth and slogged by way through the Gold Cup this far so there is no turning back. That said, what was supposed to be an evaluation tool for Bob Bradley & Co. has devolved into a war of attrition as the team shuttles players in and out of the lineup.
And if this was about building depth, what have we learned thus far?
That the only thing that will stop Brian Ching for a starting spot on the 2010 World Cup team is a dose of leprosy?
That Stuart Holden has a little moxie on the right side?
That the U.S. doesn't have much in the free kick taker department?
That of all players, Davy Arnaud actually looks like he could bring a little something to the attack?
That Kyle Beckerman, despite his 'Caveman's Valentine' dreadlock wig, is a fairly decent albeit flawed central midfielder putting him about 87th on the U.S. depth chart?
Maybe the biggest revelation is this -- perhaps we've come to the point as a soccer nation that not every single American born player (or with American ties) with a shred of talent needs to be considered for the U.S. player pool.
It would be something if the U.S. had a historically tried-and-true system, say the classic Dutch 4-3-3, were you could plug players into different roles and see if they could work.
As it stands, we pretty much know the U.S. depth chart. A slew of central midfielders with defensive tenancies, a stable of strong, solid center backs, a thinning goalkeeper reserve and major holes on the outside and at the top.
Maybe this isn't an issue. Bradley seems to have settled on a familiar 4-4-2, or maybe more of a 4-4-1-1. We get the two beloved holding midfielders, with Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey in the wide midfield spots.
In this type of a set up, it's not so much the system that will determine results, but the players. We saw the U.S. ripped to shreds with a 4-4-2 in the first Confederations Cup match vs. Brazil, then a week later take a 2-0 lead with pretty much the same players and formation against that same Brazil team.
So it's almost as if for the U.S. to be successful its top players need to bring a little bit of that extra juice to the table, or at least play with confidence. At this point in the 2010 cycle, the U.S. is all about players, as opposed to a system. It's a bit of a contradiction since Bradley wants players that fit "the system" but for "the system" to be successful those players need to play at their peak.
And so far in the Gold Cup, aside from Holden, where have we seen a player that really stands out when he's clicking on all cylinders?
Despite all that I've written, Thursday's game in Chicago is still a semifinal of a tournament. There's no magic switch that can be flipped to turn these MLS grinders into champagne football players either.
At the very least we should be a tad grateful the U.S. has these grinders to field a competent team in a FIFA tournament as opposed to grinding the bones of the 'A' team players into dust when a trip to the Confederations Cup isn't waiting at end of the rainbow.
And if you want to look at things from a different perspective, unlike 90 percent of CONCACAF games, the U.S. roster as it stands is almost on a level playing field with their opponents and will have bring its best to get by Honduras in the semifinal and either Mexico or Costa Rica in the final.
I'd say that's a welcome and maybe knocks down our American elitism and egos down a peg for a little bit and makes Thursday's game fairly compelling. Even as we progress as a soccer nation, we can't turn up our noses at a tournament, albeit one that leaves the heart searching for excitement.
Miscellania:
* For what it's worth, Heath Pearce is officially listed as "Out of club" status.
* No red cards through four matches with CONCACAF refs counts for something, right?
* Will Ching, by default, get the captain's armband with Jimmy Conrad likely sidelined? Is there any other candidate?
* If there's one concern for this match, it's the defense as a whole. Michael Parkhurst is really going to have to step up his game.
* Let's hope Beckerman and Holden keep taking cracks from distance, because it's hard to see a goal coming during the run of play, unless Ching is wearing his finishing boots.
* It's two-straight matches the U.S. had to rally to get results, doing it a third time seems unlikely.
* Beckerman and Logan Pause in the middle of the field are probably the key, since they'll have to keep possession of the ball and there's really nobody on the bench to step in if they falter.
* Maybe the oddest thing about this tournament is through four matches we've hardly learned anything about Troy Perkins and if he can be keeper No. 3 for 2010, which isn't exactly the most pressing matter in the world.
Really?
It's weird how she goes with the U.S. national team. A couple years ago it seemed like Panama was there at every turn. Then it was, unfortunately, the anti-soccer of Guatemala that seemingly was standing in front of the U.S. every other match.
Now that onus falls to Honduras, which will play the U.S. for the third time in less than two months.
Color me excited.
Honestly, I've gritted my teeth and slogged by way through the Gold Cup this far so there is no turning back. That said, what was supposed to be an evaluation tool for Bob Bradley & Co. has devolved into a war of attrition as the team shuttles players in and out of the lineup.
And if this was about building depth, what have we learned thus far?
That the only thing that will stop Brian Ching for a starting spot on the 2010 World Cup team is a dose of leprosy?
That Stuart Holden has a little moxie on the right side?
That the U.S. doesn't have much in the free kick taker department?
That of all players, Davy Arnaud actually looks like he could bring a little something to the attack?
That Kyle Beckerman, despite his 'Caveman's Valentine' dreadlock wig, is a fairly decent albeit flawed central midfielder putting him about 87th on the U.S. depth chart?
Maybe the biggest revelation is this -- perhaps we've come to the point as a soccer nation that not every single American born player (or with American ties) with a shred of talent needs to be considered for the U.S. player pool.
It would be something if the U.S. had a historically tried-and-true system, say the classic Dutch 4-3-3, were you could plug players into different roles and see if they could work.
As it stands, we pretty much know the U.S. depth chart. A slew of central midfielders with defensive tenancies, a stable of strong, solid center backs, a thinning goalkeeper reserve and major holes on the outside and at the top.
Maybe this isn't an issue. Bradley seems to have settled on a familiar 4-4-2, or maybe more of a 4-4-1-1. We get the two beloved holding midfielders, with Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey in the wide midfield spots.
In this type of a set up, it's not so much the system that will determine results, but the players. We saw the U.S. ripped to shreds with a 4-4-2 in the first Confederations Cup match vs. Brazil, then a week later take a 2-0 lead with pretty much the same players and formation against that same Brazil team.
So it's almost as if for the U.S. to be successful its top players need to bring a little bit of that extra juice to the table, or at least play with confidence. At this point in the 2010 cycle, the U.S. is all about players, as opposed to a system. It's a bit of a contradiction since Bradley wants players that fit "the system" but for "the system" to be successful those players need to play at their peak.
And so far in the Gold Cup, aside from Holden, where have we seen a player that really stands out when he's clicking on all cylinders?
Despite all that I've written, Thursday's game in Chicago is still a semifinal of a tournament. There's no magic switch that can be flipped to turn these MLS grinders into champagne football players either.
At the very least we should be a tad grateful the U.S. has these grinders to field a competent team in a FIFA tournament as opposed to grinding the bones of the 'A' team players into dust when a trip to the Confederations Cup isn't waiting at end of the rainbow.
And if you want to look at things from a different perspective, unlike 90 percent of CONCACAF games, the U.S. roster as it stands is almost on a level playing field with their opponents and will have bring its best to get by Honduras in the semifinal and either Mexico or Costa Rica in the final.
I'd say that's a welcome and maybe knocks down our American elitism and egos down a peg for a little bit and makes Thursday's game fairly compelling. Even as we progress as a soccer nation, we can't turn up our noses at a tournament, albeit one that leaves the heart searching for excitement.
Miscellania:
* For what it's worth, Heath Pearce is officially listed as "Out of club" status.
* No red cards through four matches with CONCACAF refs counts for something, right?
* Will Ching, by default, get the captain's armband with Jimmy Conrad likely sidelined? Is there any other candidate?
* If there's one concern for this match, it's the defense as a whole. Michael Parkhurst is really going to have to step up his game.
* Let's hope Beckerman and Holden keep taking cracks from distance, because it's hard to see a goal coming during the run of play, unless Ching is wearing his finishing boots.
* It's two-straight matches the U.S. had to rally to get results, doing it a third time seems unlikely.
* Beckerman and Logan Pause in the middle of the field are probably the key, since they'll have to keep possession of the ball and there's really nobody on the bench to step in if they falter.
* Maybe the oddest thing about this tournament is through four matches we've hardly learned anything about Troy Perkins and if he can be keeper No. 3 for 2010, which isn't exactly the most pressing matter in the world.
Labels: bob bradley, concacaf, Gold Cup, Soccer, USMNT
"Here Before, Here After, Here Despite 23."
Look, of all the topics swirling around the world of soccer this week, the last thing I wanted to do was post something about that Beckham fellow.
Then I saw the pictures and video of the Galaxy fans ire toward No. 23 during the friendly Sunday night against AC Milan at the Home Depot Center. All that was missing was a severed pig's head being tossed onto the field, a la Luis Figo's return to Barcelona. So in that regard, Beckham got off light -- talk to Sol Campbell.
A major tip of the hat to the Galaxy hardcore fans who took a big step Sunday to reclaiming some ownership of the club they care deeply about. (I'll be DVRing the match's replay on FSC tonight.)
Let me paint two scenes for you.
First, back in 2005 me and my friend Nick decided it would be a good idea to drive 15 hours to see the U.S./Mexico World Cup qualifier in Columbus, Ohio, over Labor Day weekend 2005. In the parking lot madness before the eventual 2-0 U.S. win, we met up with some members of the L.A. Riot squad.
To say these guys were passionate about their club is an understatement. At a U.S. game they were singing songs about the Galaxy, repping their club big time. More than anything, they were knowledgeable. It's debatable how many MLS fans live-and-die with their clubs, but these two seemed close.
Suffice to say, when I got home I went on their message board and ordered a shirt, post haste.
A year later in Germany at the World Cup on the train to Kaiserslautern, I met another extremely passionate Galaxy fan. This guy admitted to watching reserve matches and going as far as to Costa Rica to support the club. My memory fails me about this great story he told about heckling a relatively well-known coach at a reserve match.
Obviously these are two small slices of a much larger pie.
Yet, it's not like before that Beckham fellow arrived stateside in the summer of 2007 that the Galaxy didn't have support. In fact, the Galaxy probably had as deep roots and traditions in MLS before the team decided it wanted to become FC SuperClub. The Galaxy were probably only behind DC United in terms of a legacy, but over the existence of the league B.B. (Before Beckham) it had been the most consistently successful club.
It's not like the Galaxy hardcore support wouldn't have wanted a big-name European star, far from it, though they've seen some foreign flops (Hong Myung-Bo tops the list.) However if you were to poll them, Beckham might have clocked in near the bottom of the list.
Of course, if you polled the likes of Jennifer Love Hewitt and Katie Holmes, well, Beckham would probably be No. 1 ... as well as the only name on the list.
Finishing up The Beckham Experiment, one thing that is left unsaid is that the Galaxy already had a fairly good group of support in Los Angeles before Beckham arrived, at least by MLS standards. These weren't fans that would get their pictures snapped in luxury boxes and splashed across the pages of US Weekly or People. These were the backbone fans who turn up for mid-week SuperLiga matches and U.S. Open Cup matches -- the type of fans for whatever reason it's taken over a decade for MLS clubs to actually embrace.
By contrast, if Beckham landed on the other side of the country in New York, it would have gone a long way to create new fans or at least make the Red Bulls semi-relevant.
From a business standpoint, yeah, Beckham added to the Galaxy coffers, but did he add anything to the love of the club for the hardcore support, the guys that still rock the club's original yellow-and-green? The guys that could tell you who Mauricio Cienfuegos or Ezra Hendrickson were.
So that's why it was awesome to see these "real" fans show Beckham, 19 Entertainment and the rest of the club management how they feel about the last two years when their club became a circus sideshow. Beckham was about as disingenuous as a professional athlete could be as he flirted and eventually played with Milan.
And the bottom line here is that while Los Angeles is stereotypically labeled the land of phonies, it's fantastic that the Riot Squad called out the ultimate sports phony of the decade -- Beckham.
Credit the fans for turning what the Galaxy management wanted to trumpet as a great moment into a public relations disaster. Management better not try to contain or silence the fans anger toward Beckham the rest of the way. You can't risk alienating fan -- paying customers -- who'll be around a whole lot longer than that Beckham fellow. Or look at it this way, the Riot Squad have been faithful to the club through ups-and-downs, has Beckham?
Meanwhile, the Englishman clearly doesn't want to be in MLS, despite whatever well-coached statements he might say. Instead, we're due for another couple months of this charade. If Sunday night's display by the fans was the final nail in the Beckham leaving coffin, so be it. It's safe to say his mind was probably made up anyway. (One other final nail from this incident -- ESPN's Tommy Smyth, who actually defended Beckham on one of those inane videos that automatically load on Soccernet. ESPN, please, get some real analysts before you inevitably gain the North American Premier League rights. Please.)
All this said, it's hard to begrudge Beckham for wanting to play for AC Milan, especially ahead of a World Cup year.
It should be fun to see how MLS tries to spin this latest black eye for the Beckham scenario, too. What was supposed to be the ultimate P.R. coup for the league has turned into an absolute joke. Instead of attracting positive attention for the league, the knives are out from old school media members looking for any excuse to bury Beckham. For instance, this morning I looked up at one of the television sets at the gym and its Beckham confronting a fan -- which is sad since it's probably the only time an MLS team will get any air time during 'Sportscenter' this week.
Lost in the shuffle, too, is that amazingly the Galaxy have become a pretty good club, without Beckham. Credit Bruce Arena for building a roster that can compete during the grind that is the MLS season. Hell, they managed a 2-2 draw vs. Milan which might be more an indictment on Milan, even if it was their first preseason match. Hard to say.
And perhaps that's the only way for Beckham to salvage any shred of respectability he once held. Beckham will need to help the Galaxy win some silverware before he slinks back to Milan in January.
Until that unlikely scenario unfurls, "Go Home Fruad" will remain the lasting image of Beckham 2009 and beyond.
Three other things:
* The accepted Internets nomenclature for Manchester City is "Citeh". Maybe we all ought to change that to "Franken-team." If you have the money, fine, stockpile players. But how is there enough room on the field for now: Robinho, Stephen Ireland, Gareth Barry, Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Elano, etc. Mark Hughes doesn't strike me as a mad scientist as this seems like a situation where it's like, hey let's buy whichever players are on the block. City is spending like a spoiled girl on 'My Super Sweet 16.' It should be fun to see how this all plays out, considering the club isn't even in the Europa League for the upcoming season.
* I'm trying something a little different to preview the Premier League season, calling on fan voices to give their takes on their favorite club. If you're interested, get at me. If there's a Burnley fan out in 'Net-land reading this site, I'd be honored and stunned.
* I also read today somewhere that Landon Donovan broke up with his wife, which might be another signal that's he'll end up in Europe after this MLS season is over. They might serve lamb pizza over there. (He owes it to the Galaxy in light of the quotes in the Beckham book to stick it out until the 2009 year is over.)
(Credit to anyone that notes this post's title as a sly reference to the final mission in 'Fallout 3' aka digital crack.)
Look, of all the topics swirling around the world of soccer this week, the last thing I wanted to do was post something about that Beckham fellow.
Then I saw the pictures and video of the Galaxy fans ire toward No. 23 during the friendly Sunday night against AC Milan at the Home Depot Center. All that was missing was a severed pig's head being tossed onto the field, a la Luis Figo's return to Barcelona. So in that regard, Beckham got off light -- talk to Sol Campbell.
A major tip of the hat to the Galaxy hardcore fans who took a big step Sunday to reclaiming some ownership of the club they care deeply about. (I'll be DVRing the match's replay on FSC tonight.)
Let me paint two scenes for you.
First, back in 2005 me and my friend Nick decided it would be a good idea to drive 15 hours to see the U.S./Mexico World Cup qualifier in Columbus, Ohio, over Labor Day weekend 2005. In the parking lot madness before the eventual 2-0 U.S. win, we met up with some members of the L.A. Riot squad.
To say these guys were passionate about their club is an understatement. At a U.S. game they were singing songs about the Galaxy, repping their club big time. More than anything, they were knowledgeable. It's debatable how many MLS fans live-and-die with their clubs, but these two seemed close.
Suffice to say, when I got home I went on their message board and ordered a shirt, post haste.
A year later in Germany at the World Cup on the train to Kaiserslautern, I met another extremely passionate Galaxy fan. This guy admitted to watching reserve matches and going as far as to Costa Rica to support the club. My memory fails me about this great story he told about heckling a relatively well-known coach at a reserve match.
Obviously these are two small slices of a much larger pie.
Yet, it's not like before that Beckham fellow arrived stateside in the summer of 2007 that the Galaxy didn't have support. In fact, the Galaxy probably had as deep roots and traditions in MLS before the team decided it wanted to become FC SuperClub. The Galaxy were probably only behind DC United in terms of a legacy, but over the existence of the league B.B. (Before Beckham) it had been the most consistently successful club.
It's not like the Galaxy hardcore support wouldn't have wanted a big-name European star, far from it, though they've seen some foreign flops (Hong Myung-Bo tops the list.) However if you were to poll them, Beckham might have clocked in near the bottom of the list.
Of course, if you polled the likes of Jennifer Love Hewitt and Katie Holmes, well, Beckham would probably be No. 1 ... as well as the only name on the list.
Finishing up The Beckham Experiment, one thing that is left unsaid is that the Galaxy already had a fairly good group of support in Los Angeles before Beckham arrived, at least by MLS standards. These weren't fans that would get their pictures snapped in luxury boxes and splashed across the pages of US Weekly or People. These were the backbone fans who turn up for mid-week SuperLiga matches and U.S. Open Cup matches -- the type of fans for whatever reason it's taken over a decade for MLS clubs to actually embrace.
By contrast, if Beckham landed on the other side of the country in New York, it would have gone a long way to create new fans or at least make the Red Bulls semi-relevant.
From a business standpoint, yeah, Beckham added to the Galaxy coffers, but did he add anything to the love of the club for the hardcore support, the guys that still rock the club's original yellow-and-green? The guys that could tell you who Mauricio Cienfuegos or Ezra Hendrickson were.
So that's why it was awesome to see these "real" fans show Beckham, 19 Entertainment and the rest of the club management how they feel about the last two years when their club became a circus sideshow. Beckham was about as disingenuous as a professional athlete could be as he flirted and eventually played with Milan.
And the bottom line here is that while Los Angeles is stereotypically labeled the land of phonies, it's fantastic that the Riot Squad called out the ultimate sports phony of the decade -- Beckham.
Credit the fans for turning what the Galaxy management wanted to trumpet as a great moment into a public relations disaster. Management better not try to contain or silence the fans anger toward Beckham the rest of the way. You can't risk alienating fan -- paying customers -- who'll be around a whole lot longer than that Beckham fellow. Or look at it this way, the Riot Squad have been faithful to the club through ups-and-downs, has Beckham?
Meanwhile, the Englishman clearly doesn't want to be in MLS, despite whatever well-coached statements he might say. Instead, we're due for another couple months of this charade. If Sunday night's display by the fans was the final nail in the Beckham leaving coffin, so be it. It's safe to say his mind was probably made up anyway. (One other final nail from this incident -- ESPN's Tommy Smyth, who actually defended Beckham on one of those inane videos that automatically load on Soccernet. ESPN, please, get some real analysts before you inevitably gain the North American Premier League rights. Please.)
All this said, it's hard to begrudge Beckham for wanting to play for AC Milan, especially ahead of a World Cup year.
It should be fun to see how MLS tries to spin this latest black eye for the Beckham scenario, too. What was supposed to be the ultimate P.R. coup for the league has turned into an absolute joke. Instead of attracting positive attention for the league, the knives are out from old school media members looking for any excuse to bury Beckham. For instance, this morning I looked up at one of the television sets at the gym and its Beckham confronting a fan -- which is sad since it's probably the only time an MLS team will get any air time during 'Sportscenter' this week.
Lost in the shuffle, too, is that amazingly the Galaxy have become a pretty good club, without Beckham. Credit Bruce Arena for building a roster that can compete during the grind that is the MLS season. Hell, they managed a 2-2 draw vs. Milan which might be more an indictment on Milan, even if it was their first preseason match. Hard to say.
And perhaps that's the only way for Beckham to salvage any shred of respectability he once held. Beckham will need to help the Galaxy win some silverware before he slinks back to Milan in January.
Until that unlikely scenario unfurls, "Go Home Fruad" will remain the lasting image of Beckham 2009 and beyond.
Three other things:
* The accepted Internets nomenclature for Manchester City is "Citeh". Maybe we all ought to change that to "Franken-team." If you have the money, fine, stockpile players. But how is there enough room on the field for now: Robinho, Stephen Ireland, Gareth Barry, Emmanuel Adebayor, Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Elano, etc. Mark Hughes doesn't strike me as a mad scientist as this seems like a situation where it's like, hey let's buy whichever players are on the block. City is spending like a spoiled girl on 'My Super Sweet 16.' It should be fun to see how this all plays out, considering the club isn't even in the Europa League for the upcoming season.
* I'm trying something a little different to preview the Premier League season, calling on fan voices to give their takes on their favorite club. If you're interested, get at me. If there's a Burnley fan out in 'Net-land reading this site, I'd be honored and stunned.
* I also read today somewhere that Landon Donovan broke up with his wife, which might be another signal that's he'll end up in Europe after this MLS season is over. They might serve lamb pizza over there. (He owes it to the Galaxy in light of the quotes in the Beckham book to stick it out until the 2009 year is over.)
(Credit to anyone that notes this post's title as a sly reference to the final mission in 'Fallout 3' aka digital crack.)
Labels: David Beckham, los angeles galaxy, MLS, Soccer
A win is a win, right?
The U.S. 2-1 win over Panama started off as a fairly dreary, boring first half and quickly became a fairly decent match, albeit in the end 120 minutes that will fade into the ether relatively quickly.
It's fairly safe to say, this game fell squarely in the Bob Bradley wheelhouse. Now, this isn't to turn this post into a another pro-or-con Bradley discussion.
Watching the game unfurl, I kept thinking that Bradley must have been pleased. Since it was mostly MLSers out there, he didn't have to worry about big egos to coddle. Since the game was airing on Fox Soccer on a Saturday night, it's not like the crucible of midday Confederations Cup matches on ESPN.
Maybe it felt like a Chivas USA/Colorado Rapids midseason match.
All told, Bradley did a good job with the cards he was dealt. He didn't have a Benny Feilhaber or Charlie Davies to bail out the team after falling behind 1-0 at the half, but got the guys in the lineup to rebound and respond.
On the plus side Bradley did seem to inspire the team at the half, as they came out like a ball on fire, culminating with Kyle Beckerman's first international goal three minutes in. (Sorry, Kyle, for the homeless man's Pablo Mastroeni remark. He's actually playing with a good amount of fire in the tournament and was tireless Saturday.)
Yet Bradley made a pretty baffling decision to pull off Davy Arnaud, who helped set up Beckerman's goal and was all over the place working to influence the U.S. attack. When Kenny Cooper was warming up in the second half, it seemed a logical move to take off Brian Ching, who'd already missed a couple chances. (Not to pick on Ching, who worked his ass off for 120 minutes.)
But the Bradley blinders reared up again, and off was Arnaud and on was Cooper. It just seemed to be a substitution of a like for like, when Arnaud's running and creativity was making things happen.(Of course, at this point maybe it's best to stop even trying to figure out Bradley's in-game logic.)
In the end it all worked out, with Cooper winning and converting a penalty. (Has anyone ever taken a PK from further back than Cooper? And man, that was close. At least he had the stones to step up and take it.)
Sometimes, though, you have to wonder if Bradley thinks well enough on his feet during a match. Granted, this wasn't the game to whine about it, since the bench was thinner than Lindsay Lohan on a two-week coke binge. Believe me, this isn't trying to find something to gripe about toward Bradley. It seemed like a strange sub, unless I'm completely missing the fact that Arnuad could have been gassed.
Whatever, it's a minor quibble on a night the also-ran U.S. team pulled out a pretty gutty result, when they easily could have packed it in after falling behind 1-0. At the half, I'll admit it felt grim, especially with Jimmy Conrad's face looking like hamburger after that collision.
Still, the team, regardless of who was or wasn't there, simply outworked and out-played Panama in the second half and extra time, getting the result and a place in the semifinals. There wasn't that much of anything dynamic. The U.S. did enough and controlled enough of the ball when the Panama legs turned to rubber late in the game to secure the win, even if it came off a penalty.
As much as I've written off the Gold Cup, if this current U.S. squad gets to the final and manages to win it, that's a pretty darn good accomplishment. It might not truly help the U.S. overall depth on the top class international stage, but it still shows the U.S. has enough competent players to win a regional tournament with its best players at home resting or somewhere else around the globe.
It's up to you each and individually to turn your nose up at that or not.
Miscellania
* If you've read this site, then you're well aware I'm not a fan in the least bit about the MLS staging an All-Star game. Don Garber & Co. don't want to follow European trends (such as those p-and-r words), why not throw us a bone and get rid of the match. Does it make that much money?
Saturday's game was essentially an MLS All-Star team for the U.S., anyway. The Gold Cup match proved the fallacy of playing this trumped up exhibition. There's no shortage of soccer during the summer, to boot. So is the All-Star Game, err, Sierra Mist All-Star game a necessity?
And it's not like MLS teams aren't staging lucrative exhibitions with European teams on their own. (More on this later.)
* Let's put it this way, Davy Arnuad is bringing a whole lot more to the table at this point than Connor Casey. (Maybe I should have a soft spot for him since I scored about 30 goals in a season with him in 'FIFA 05' when for some reason I thought it would be a cromulent idea to start my fake managerial career with the Kansas City Wizards.)
* Does Cooper's penalty buy him any more rope with Bradley? Or is he still in the doghouse. I like that he has an eye for goal, but he's got to work on that accuracy. He did whiff on that header just after coming into the game, too.
* Once again, Brian Ching does everything except score.
* And again in the running items department, the state of CONCACAF officiating is about on par with California's economy, though it got better as the match progressed culminating with the penalty against Panama which on different replay angles was justified.
* According to Christopher Sullivan, Logan Pause learned under Chris Armas and Jesse Marsch, therefore Bradley is like a moth to a flame, or the old folks gazing on the 'Kramer' portrait -- they simply cannot look away.
* Poor Jimmy Conrad. Finally back in the U.S. fold he lays he body on the line and take a brutal elbow to the face and walks away looking like an MMA fighter.
* Robbie Rogers with a night to forget, way too many giveaways that killed attacks.
* Heath Pearce played an effective match, yet not sure it was an effective night as a left back since he roamed all over the field. Then again, at least he was one of the few Americans to take initiative in the latter stages of the game.
* Stuart Holden didn't score, though he came close after Beckerman's goal, but his workrate did win the U.S. a lot of balls, so it seemed like another strong performance.
* Sam's Army ... your silly wear red policy doesn't exactly work on nights like tonight, does it?
* The more I listen to him, the more I get the impression Max Bretos shares at himself in the mirror before a broadcast -- "Unique/New York/Unique/New York."
* As much as I kill ESPN for its soccer coverage, one thing the WWL wouldn't do would come back to a match 90 seconds into the second half, like FSC did Saturday night.
Two side notes:
* For all the wasted ink (digital and or physical) about David Beckham's return to MLS this week, Saturday afternoon's Seattle Sounders/Chelsea match offered a pretty good counterweight. Over 65,000 turned out for the match most of them apparently there to support the home team. Hard to say that Beckham had anything to do with the success of that match.
As for Andriy Shevchenko's suddenly flowing gold mane? Too stunned to comment. Maybe he was trying to make himself more noticeable for a future MLS designated player slot.
In any case, for a change an MLS team looked like it belonged on the same field as a world power. Maybe not from a talent standpoint, well obviously not from a talent standpoint, but in terms of presentation it was first class.
* In case you missed it, via the NYT Goal blog, the U.S./Mexico qualifier on Aug. 12 apparently won't be aired on ESPN.
While I'll miss the HD broadcast, it won't be the worst thing in the world to listen to a match without the USSF censors swarming behind the scenes.
That's all for a Saturday night after a long afternoon in the summer sun. Hope one or two of these points made sense.
The U.S. 2-1 win over Panama started off as a fairly dreary, boring first half and quickly became a fairly decent match, albeit in the end 120 minutes that will fade into the ether relatively quickly.
It's fairly safe to say, this game fell squarely in the Bob Bradley wheelhouse. Now, this isn't to turn this post into a another pro-or-con Bradley discussion.
Watching the game unfurl, I kept thinking that Bradley must have been pleased. Since it was mostly MLSers out there, he didn't have to worry about big egos to coddle. Since the game was airing on Fox Soccer on a Saturday night, it's not like the crucible of midday Confederations Cup matches on ESPN.
Maybe it felt like a Chivas USA/Colorado Rapids midseason match.
All told, Bradley did a good job with the cards he was dealt. He didn't have a Benny Feilhaber or Charlie Davies to bail out the team after falling behind 1-0 at the half, but got the guys in the lineup to rebound and respond.
On the plus side Bradley did seem to inspire the team at the half, as they came out like a ball on fire, culminating with Kyle Beckerman's first international goal three minutes in. (Sorry, Kyle, for the homeless man's Pablo Mastroeni remark. He's actually playing with a good amount of fire in the tournament and was tireless Saturday.)
Yet Bradley made a pretty baffling decision to pull off Davy Arnaud, who helped set up Beckerman's goal and was all over the place working to influence the U.S. attack. When Kenny Cooper was warming up in the second half, it seemed a logical move to take off Brian Ching, who'd already missed a couple chances. (Not to pick on Ching, who worked his ass off for 120 minutes.)
But the Bradley blinders reared up again, and off was Arnaud and on was Cooper. It just seemed to be a substitution of a like for like, when Arnaud's running and creativity was making things happen.(Of course, at this point maybe it's best to stop even trying to figure out Bradley's in-game logic.)
In the end it all worked out, with Cooper winning and converting a penalty. (Has anyone ever taken a PK from further back than Cooper? And man, that was close. At least he had the stones to step up and take it.)
Sometimes, though, you have to wonder if Bradley thinks well enough on his feet during a match. Granted, this wasn't the game to whine about it, since the bench was thinner than Lindsay Lohan on a two-week coke binge. Believe me, this isn't trying to find something to gripe about toward Bradley. It seemed like a strange sub, unless I'm completely missing the fact that Arnuad could have been gassed.
Whatever, it's a minor quibble on a night the also-ran U.S. team pulled out a pretty gutty result, when they easily could have packed it in after falling behind 1-0. At the half, I'll admit it felt grim, especially with Jimmy Conrad's face looking like hamburger after that collision.
Still, the team, regardless of who was or wasn't there, simply outworked and out-played Panama in the second half and extra time, getting the result and a place in the semifinals. There wasn't that much of anything dynamic. The U.S. did enough and controlled enough of the ball when the Panama legs turned to rubber late in the game to secure the win, even if it came off a penalty.
As much as I've written off the Gold Cup, if this current U.S. squad gets to the final and manages to win it, that's a pretty darn good accomplishment. It might not truly help the U.S. overall depth on the top class international stage, but it still shows the U.S. has enough competent players to win a regional tournament with its best players at home resting or somewhere else around the globe.
It's up to you each and individually to turn your nose up at that or not.
Miscellania
* If you've read this site, then you're well aware I'm not a fan in the least bit about the MLS staging an All-Star game. Don Garber & Co. don't want to follow European trends (such as those p-and-r words), why not throw us a bone and get rid of the match. Does it make that much money?
Saturday's game was essentially an MLS All-Star team for the U.S., anyway. The Gold Cup match proved the fallacy of playing this trumped up exhibition. There's no shortage of soccer during the summer, to boot. So is the All-Star Game, err, Sierra Mist All-Star game a necessity?
And it's not like MLS teams aren't staging lucrative exhibitions with European teams on their own. (More on this later.)
* Let's put it this way, Davy Arnuad is bringing a whole lot more to the table at this point than Connor Casey. (Maybe I should have a soft spot for him since I scored about 30 goals in a season with him in 'FIFA 05' when for some reason I thought it would be a cromulent idea to start my fake managerial career with the Kansas City Wizards.)
* Does Cooper's penalty buy him any more rope with Bradley? Or is he still in the doghouse. I like that he has an eye for goal, but he's got to work on that accuracy. He did whiff on that header just after coming into the game, too.
* Once again, Brian Ching does everything except score.
* And again in the running items department, the state of CONCACAF officiating is about on par with California's economy, though it got better as the match progressed culminating with the penalty against Panama which on different replay angles was justified.
* According to Christopher Sullivan, Logan Pause learned under Chris Armas and Jesse Marsch, therefore Bradley is like a moth to a flame, or the old folks gazing on the 'Kramer' portrait -- they simply cannot look away.
* Poor Jimmy Conrad. Finally back in the U.S. fold he lays he body on the line and take a brutal elbow to the face and walks away looking like an MMA fighter.
* Robbie Rogers with a night to forget, way too many giveaways that killed attacks.
* Heath Pearce played an effective match, yet not sure it was an effective night as a left back since he roamed all over the field. Then again, at least he was one of the few Americans to take initiative in the latter stages of the game.
* Stuart Holden didn't score, though he came close after Beckerman's goal, but his workrate did win the U.S. a lot of balls, so it seemed like another strong performance.
* Sam's Army ... your silly wear red policy doesn't exactly work on nights like tonight, does it?
* The more I listen to him, the more I get the impression Max Bretos shares at himself in the mirror before a broadcast -- "Unique/New York/Unique/New York."
* As much as I kill ESPN for its soccer coverage, one thing the WWL wouldn't do would come back to a match 90 seconds into the second half, like FSC did Saturday night.
Two side notes:
* For all the wasted ink (digital and or physical) about David Beckham's return to MLS this week, Saturday afternoon's Seattle Sounders/Chelsea match offered a pretty good counterweight. Over 65,000 turned out for the match most of them apparently there to support the home team. Hard to say that Beckham had anything to do with the success of that match.
As for Andriy Shevchenko's suddenly flowing gold mane? Too stunned to comment. Maybe he was trying to make himself more noticeable for a future MLS designated player slot.
In any case, for a change an MLS team looked like it belonged on the same field as a world power. Maybe not from a talent standpoint, well obviously not from a talent standpoint, but in terms of presentation it was first class.
* In case you missed it, via the NYT Goal blog, the U.S./Mexico qualifier on Aug. 12 apparently won't be aired on ESPN.
While I'll miss the HD broadcast, it won't be the worst thing in the world to listen to a match without the USSF censors swarming behind the scenes.
That's all for a Saturday night after a long afternoon in the summer sun. Hope one or two of these points made sense.
Apologies to fans of 80s rock, but Van Halen's 'Panama', despite its semi-iconic video, doesn't quite hold up. It's not as bad as 'Jump' but its lumped in with a group of songs that make me want to take crazy pills whenever I tune into Classic Rock radio.
Guess that's why I decided to start with it ahead of the U.S./Panama Gold Cup quarterfinal Saturday in Philadelphia.
If last month's Confederations Cup had enough storylines and drama to match with, say, HBO's 'The Wire.' (Okay, maybe a season two episode.) Then through three matches the Gold Cup ranks right up there with the network's 'Dane Cook: Tourgasm.'
Call me crazy, but I wouldn't be stunned if Panama actually gives this current U.S. team a good run for its money, assuming Bob Bradley doesn't call in some reinforcements.
Panama, even if it's almost ancient history, is due. Remember that game in the second stage of 2006 World Cup qualification where Cobi Jones needed a 93rd minute goal in a monsoon to salvage a 1-1 draw. Then a year later, in 2005, Panama took the U.S. to penalty kicks in the 2005 Gold Cup final.
Then again, most of that squad, such as Roberto Brown won't be troding onto the Linc, so maybe it's a moot point.
The U.S., as currently constituted, can't expect to set foot on the field, either and expect an easy win. Freddy Adu won't be there, neither will Charlie Davies, Steve Cherundolo, Benny Feilhaber and Michael Parkhurst.
It's up to the rest of the B or C team to step up it up in a knockout game and show Bradley they're worth keeping in the mix for the next 11 months. It's that simple.
The first three games haven't been great in this tournament, but considering there is finally something on the line, it all changes.
Speaking of change...time to hit the ground running.
Sorry, Van Halen bites.
Miscellania:
* For what it's worth, there isn't an American referee in the four quarterfinal matches.
* I'm wholeheartedly rooting for Canada to beat Honduras for a possible date with the U.S. in the semifinals. That match might actually have some juice.
* In case you missed it, Danny Szetela's contract wasn't renewed by Racing Santandar, so he's back in MLS with DC United. He's still only 22, so will he get a look between now and 2010? Or has that ship sailed.
* Jozy Altidore? Hanging out at the ESPYs or coming in for training? Just curious.
* Let's see if Stuart Holden can keep it up. If he becomes a viable player on the right, it gives Bradley the option of moving Clint Dempsey up to a forward position, where he seems to make his biggest impact for the U.S. The only problem for Holden, how much experience will he get against top flight competition between now and the World Cup?
* This might be one of, if not the last shot for Kenny Cooper to make an impact.
* All U.S. fans ought to keep their fingers crossed about the defensive back four Bradley selects. Could get dicey.
* Sons of Ben ... I'm expecting big things.
Guess that's why I decided to start with it ahead of the U.S./Panama Gold Cup quarterfinal Saturday in Philadelphia.
If last month's Confederations Cup had enough storylines and drama to match with, say, HBO's 'The Wire.' (Okay, maybe a season two episode.) Then through three matches the Gold Cup ranks right up there with the network's 'Dane Cook: Tourgasm.'
Call me crazy, but I wouldn't be stunned if Panama actually gives this current U.S. team a good run for its money, assuming Bob Bradley doesn't call in some reinforcements.
Panama, even if it's almost ancient history, is due. Remember that game in the second stage of 2006 World Cup qualification where Cobi Jones needed a 93rd minute goal in a monsoon to salvage a 1-1 draw. Then a year later, in 2005, Panama took the U.S. to penalty kicks in the 2005 Gold Cup final.
Then again, most of that squad, such as Roberto Brown won't be troding onto the Linc, so maybe it's a moot point.
The U.S., as currently constituted, can't expect to set foot on the field, either and expect an easy win. Freddy Adu won't be there, neither will Charlie Davies, Steve Cherundolo, Benny Feilhaber and Michael Parkhurst.
It's up to the rest of the B or C team to step up it up in a knockout game and show Bradley they're worth keeping in the mix for the next 11 months. It's that simple.
The first three games haven't been great in this tournament, but considering there is finally something on the line, it all changes.
Speaking of change...time to hit the ground running.
Sorry, Van Halen bites.
Miscellania:
* For what it's worth, there isn't an American referee in the four quarterfinal matches.
* I'm wholeheartedly rooting for Canada to beat Honduras for a possible date with the U.S. in the semifinals. That match might actually have some juice.
* In case you missed it, Danny Szetela's contract wasn't renewed by Racing Santandar, so he's back in MLS with DC United. He's still only 22, so will he get a look between now and 2010? Or has that ship sailed.
* Jozy Altidore? Hanging out at the ESPYs or coming in for training? Just curious.
* Let's see if Stuart Holden can keep it up. If he becomes a viable player on the right, it gives Bradley the option of moving Clint Dempsey up to a forward position, where he seems to make his biggest impact for the U.S. The only problem for Holden, how much experience will he get against top flight competition between now and the World Cup?
* This might be one of, if not the last shot for Kenny Cooper to make an impact.
* All U.S. fans ought to keep their fingers crossed about the defensive back four Bradley selects. Could get dicey.
* Sons of Ben ... I'm expecting big things.
So, yeah, that Beckham fellow is back in the U.S. Let's be honest, in this already busy summer of soccer in the U.S., it's not exactly on the top of my radar. It does bear mentioning, if you're fan of soccer in America, Grant Wahl's book on Beckham in America is a must-read, if only for the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on in MLS.
Maybe the biggest impact the book will actually have is when the MLS Players Union works on a new collective bargaining agreement. All the union reps really need to do is open up any chapter of the book the details the rinky-dink travel and accommodations the league uses and the owners don't stand much of a chance, at least in the court of public opinion. Eventually, too, MLS might get past the mindset that charter flights and or different hotels aren't competitive advantages.
Then again, the league's Trotsky-esque socialist platform has kept it afloat all these years. Still, there's no excuse that players -- professional athletes -- aren't paid a living wage.
Eventually, with all the new expansion teams and owners Don Garber & Co. are going to be forced to loosen up the reigns (or purse strings) and let each club have its own autonomy. Is that day a year away or five or ten? For MLS to ever break a lot of the stigmas attached to it, this needs to happen at some point.
Changing gears, one thing about Beckham's return got me to thinking. Certain sectors of MLS have these pie-in-the-sky dreams that international stars like Beckham or even a Pavel Nedved (the latest in the over-30 Euro rumor brigade) will make the league more relevant. (Hate to pimp stuff, but my live blog of the 2007 Galaxy/Chelsea game still holds up, at least as a solid way to waste five minutes.)
What this line of thinking ignores and to some degree disrespects is the players actually in the league. There is a difference between a star player and a world class player. Look at it this way, Luciano Emilio was a star player in Honduras when D.C. United brought him into the fold in 2007, but at the same time he wasn't close to sniffing a call-up to the Brazil national team.
In every league around the globe at every level, there are standout, star players. Granted a star in the Uzbek Premier League isn't exactly on par with a star in the English Premier League, but you get my point. These guys stand out. They get people talking or excited or pissed off when they roll into town.
Need a better example? Any country with its own television station has its own sets of stars, personalities ... and some extremely bizarre programming. Are these assortments of kooks and cranks on par with our beloved Hollywood icon? Obviously not, but in their respective fish bowls they are are a big deal.
MLS has tried to promote players -- Taylor Twellman leaps to mind -- but it doesn't seem to do a good enough job across the board.
Maybe it's not possible, with the restrictions of a $2.1 million salary cap. Maybe it's too much like 'Brazil' (the movie, not the national team) where everyone is supposed to stand in line and be counted anonymously. Yet why isn't a rising player in the mold of Stuart Holden pumped up a little bit? Is it a fear of him swimming away to greener shores across the Atlantic?
It's not to say the league needs a bad boy player, a guy that pulls down his pants or flips off the crowd to draw some heat. This isn't MMA or pro wrestling.
That said, a little injection of personality and flair wouldn't exactly kill the league. And it would better position itself when Beckham inevitably rides off into the sunset after the season.
Unfortunately, it would seem MLS is caught in the crunch of so many other external factors -- namely unlike just about every other U.S. pro circuit, it's not the elite league worldwide. Are they afraid the American public won't buy a "star player" who will never be mistaken for a Lionel Messi?
Still, there is a phrase that's been coined -- Big in Japan. Why not amend that to -- Big in MLS?
If it's good enough for David St. Hubbins, it's good enough for me.
Maybe the biggest impact the book will actually have is when the MLS Players Union works on a new collective bargaining agreement. All the union reps really need to do is open up any chapter of the book the details the rinky-dink travel and accommodations the league uses and the owners don't stand much of a chance, at least in the court of public opinion. Eventually, too, MLS might get past the mindset that charter flights and or different hotels aren't competitive advantages.
Then again, the league's Trotsky-esque socialist platform has kept it afloat all these years. Still, there's no excuse that players -- professional athletes -- aren't paid a living wage.
Eventually, with all the new expansion teams and owners Don Garber & Co. are going to be forced to loosen up the reigns (or purse strings) and let each club have its own autonomy. Is that day a year away or five or ten? For MLS to ever break a lot of the stigmas attached to it, this needs to happen at some point.
Changing gears, one thing about Beckham's return got me to thinking. Certain sectors of MLS have these pie-in-the-sky dreams that international stars like Beckham or even a Pavel Nedved (the latest in the over-30 Euro rumor brigade) will make the league more relevant. (Hate to pimp stuff, but my live blog of the 2007 Galaxy/Chelsea game still holds up, at least as a solid way to waste five minutes.)
What this line of thinking ignores and to some degree disrespects is the players actually in the league. There is a difference between a star player and a world class player. Look at it this way, Luciano Emilio was a star player in Honduras when D.C. United brought him into the fold in 2007, but at the same time he wasn't close to sniffing a call-up to the Brazil national team.
In every league around the globe at every level, there are standout, star players. Granted a star in the Uzbek Premier League isn't exactly on par with a star in the English Premier League, but you get my point. These guys stand out. They get people talking or excited or pissed off when they roll into town.
Need a better example? Any country with its own television station has its own sets of stars, personalities ... and some extremely bizarre programming. Are these assortments of kooks and cranks on par with our beloved Hollywood icon? Obviously not, but in their respective fish bowls they are are a big deal.
MLS has tried to promote players -- Taylor Twellman leaps to mind -- but it doesn't seem to do a good enough job across the board.
Maybe it's not possible, with the restrictions of a $2.1 million salary cap. Maybe it's too much like 'Brazil' (the movie, not the national team) where everyone is supposed to stand in line and be counted anonymously. Yet why isn't a rising player in the mold of Stuart Holden pumped up a little bit? Is it a fear of him swimming away to greener shores across the Atlantic?
It's not to say the league needs a bad boy player, a guy that pulls down his pants or flips off the crowd to draw some heat. This isn't MMA or pro wrestling.
That said, a little injection of personality and flair wouldn't exactly kill the league. And it would better position itself when Beckham inevitably rides off into the sunset after the season.
Unfortunately, it would seem MLS is caught in the crunch of so many other external factors -- namely unlike just about every other U.S. pro circuit, it's not the elite league worldwide. Are they afraid the American public won't buy a "star player" who will never be mistaken for a Lionel Messi?
Still, there is a phrase that's been coined -- Big in Japan. Why not amend that to -- Big in MLS?
If it's good enough for David St. Hubbins, it's good enough for me.
Labels: David Beckham, MLS, Soccer
Maybe it's just me, but hasn't this been a rather quiet "silly season"? Aside from the Real Madrid money press snatching up stars and Manchester City linked with every single player alive, it's been rather dull. (Not that I mind.)
Look at England's 'Big Four'. Michael Owen? Zuri Zhirkov? Thomas Vermaelen? Glenn Johnson?
Slow going, but unfortunately other than in Liverpool's case I doubt its due to some kind of financial restraint.
On the other hand, it's quickly become a good summer for U.S. internationals in light of the Confederations Cup. Who would have thought Oguchi Onyewu would go from either Birmingham City or some far-flung Turkish team to AC Milan, which despite all its warts is still the AC Milan. And over the weekend breakout forward Charlie Davies shoved off from Sweden and landed at Sochaux, which is an excellent move -- look at all the French strikers around the globe.
That brings us to Jozy Altidore, who over the weekend was linked heavily to a move to Olympiakos. (Nothing seems set in stone, with a couple sources seemingly jumping the gun.)
So, the question this morning is a simple one -- where should Jozy go?
Personally, trying to break away from Villareal seems a little premature, though it seems there are some issues going on behind the scenes which have strained the relationship between Altidore and the club.
Consider this, 1) Nihat is back in Turkey; 2) At any second a guy in Arab robes could show up at Aeroport Castello with a couple sacks labed "$$$" and fly off with Guiseppe Rossi to the City of Manchester Stadium; 3) Altidore can't push fringe Spanish international Llorente?
The one downside to sticking at Villareal is that the Yellow Submarine missed out on 2009-10 Champions League, though playing through a Spanish season isn't too shabby.
Whatever's next for Altidore is a tricky and at the same time critical move. If he's not playing at whichever club he ends up with for the season, he's not playing at the 2010 World Cup.
Should this be a concern? Well, not if you're a Brian Ching fan. If you've watched the Gold Cup, even slightly, it's abundantly clear the forward position is the thinnest in the U.S. camp unless a) Clint Dempsey plays up top b) Brian McBride is convinced to come out of retirement.
Hell, we might even see Eddie Johnson find his way back into the mix. (He scored for Fulham in a preseason match over the weekend.)
So what's the next move for Altidore? Better yet, what's the right move for Altidore?
England would make sense, since there isn't a language barrier. Yet, which club in either the Premier League or the League Championship is going to turn its goal-scoring reigns over to a 19-year-old American with a limited resume? (Is this a stigma that eventually U.S. players need to shake, that they are worthy of playing time in Europe?)
This conundrum only underlines the problem with Alitdore's lost season at Villareal. Yes, he did get injured, but he also didn't fight out for a spot, instead getting loaned to Xerez where he never played. Maybe this is part of the way great talents are treated as they rise through the ranks as youths in the U.S., it comes too easy for them and they're treated with kid gloves. Was it a blow to Altidore's ego that then Villareal coach Manuel Pellegrini didn't cater to him from the start?
Put it this way, the plight of Altidore seems more common to U.S. players going abroad than Jay DeMerit, rising from nothing and becoming Watford captain.
Though I can't pretend to know the league or the place, but Altidore needs to find a place that he'll get steady burn and in turn he can produce steady goals. Yes, he's still young, but pretty soon those seasons spent playing with the reserves or in Cup duty pile up, and before you know it a once promising career is nearly ruined.
In short, the road to relegation is paved with uber-talented, flashy young forwards that never panned out. At the same time, the goal-scoring leader charts around the globe are littered with guys such as Kevin Davies, Claudio Pizarro and the aforementioned Llorente -- guys who don't have a fraction of Altidore's natural talent -- but score goals by hook or by crook. Deep down every fan wants their team to play "champagne football", but goals are goals and players with a knack for find the back of the net (i.e. Pippo Inzaghi) can't be discounted. It's one thing to watch nifty YouTube highlight films cut up for any player, but the scoreboard is really what counts.
And if there's two pieces of advice to hand off to Altidore (and Freddy Adu) it's that not every play or touch has to be the spectacular. You're not beast-moding over 13-year-old AYSO kids any more. You've got to keep working hard, doing the dirty work and little things, whilst keeping the spectacular in your back pocket when the moment arises. One amazing turn and score doesn't offset five or six lost touches, at least in a manager's mind.
Also, for Altidore, I'd like to send him a couple game tapes, namely Zlatan Ibrohimovic when he was at Ajax, note the touch; Didier Drogba in his first two seasons at Chelsea where he was an unstoppable force; and finally the latter stages of Thierry Henry at Arsenal, for obvious reasons.
And it wouldn't hurt to hit the weight room, either.
Maybe that's the biggest question for Altidore going forward -- does he want it?
He's blessed to have all the physical tools a striker could want -- size, speed and pace. I even like the fact he plays with a smile on his face.
We saw gimpses in the Confederations Cup -- namely the goal vs. Spain. But we also saw a player unsure of himself, not willing to take on defenders 1-v-1, opting to go to ground looking for a whistle instead.
Does Altidore have the inner fire that burns inside the elite players of the world? Can he turn himself into a player that can't be denied?
So as you can tell, I honestly have no idea if a Greek Holiday, a year before a World Cup is a good move for Altidore.
Then again, it seemed to work wonders for Matt Derbyshire, so anything is possible. (Hey, wasn't that an Adidas campaign Altidore did?)
[UPDATE -- Actually, this is more of an addendum, apparently Altidore was at the ESPY Awards, which is either a good thing because a U.S. soccer player was there beside, say, Landon Donovan or a bad thing that ahead of a possible move a year before the World Cup, Jozy is hob-knobbing with celebs ... and Bill Simmons. Hard to say which category it really falls in.]
Look at England's 'Big Four'. Michael Owen? Zuri Zhirkov? Thomas Vermaelen? Glenn Johnson?
Slow going, but unfortunately other than in Liverpool's case I doubt its due to some kind of financial restraint.
On the other hand, it's quickly become a good summer for U.S. internationals in light of the Confederations Cup. Who would have thought Oguchi Onyewu would go from either Birmingham City or some far-flung Turkish team to AC Milan, which despite all its warts is still the AC Milan. And over the weekend breakout forward Charlie Davies shoved off from Sweden and landed at Sochaux, which is an excellent move -- look at all the French strikers around the globe.
That brings us to Jozy Altidore, who over the weekend was linked heavily to a move to Olympiakos. (Nothing seems set in stone, with a couple sources seemingly jumping the gun.)
So, the question this morning is a simple one -- where should Jozy go?
Personally, trying to break away from Villareal seems a little premature, though it seems there are some issues going on behind the scenes which have strained the relationship between Altidore and the club.
Consider this, 1) Nihat is back in Turkey; 2) At any second a guy in Arab robes could show up at Aeroport Castello with a couple sacks labed "$$$" and fly off with Guiseppe Rossi to the City of Manchester Stadium; 3) Altidore can't push fringe Spanish international Llorente?
The one downside to sticking at Villareal is that the Yellow Submarine missed out on 2009-10 Champions League, though playing through a Spanish season isn't too shabby.
Whatever's next for Altidore is a tricky and at the same time critical move. If he's not playing at whichever club he ends up with for the season, he's not playing at the 2010 World Cup.
Should this be a concern? Well, not if you're a Brian Ching fan. If you've watched the Gold Cup, even slightly, it's abundantly clear the forward position is the thinnest in the U.S. camp unless a) Clint Dempsey plays up top b) Brian McBride is convinced to come out of retirement.
Hell, we might even see Eddie Johnson find his way back into the mix. (He scored for Fulham in a preseason match over the weekend.)
So what's the next move for Altidore? Better yet, what's the right move for Altidore?
England would make sense, since there isn't a language barrier. Yet, which club in either the Premier League or the League Championship is going to turn its goal-scoring reigns over to a 19-year-old American with a limited resume? (Is this a stigma that eventually U.S. players need to shake, that they are worthy of playing time in Europe?)
This conundrum only underlines the problem with Alitdore's lost season at Villareal. Yes, he did get injured, but he also didn't fight out for a spot, instead getting loaned to Xerez where he never played. Maybe this is part of the way great talents are treated as they rise through the ranks as youths in the U.S., it comes too easy for them and they're treated with kid gloves. Was it a blow to Altidore's ego that then Villareal coach Manuel Pellegrini didn't cater to him from the start?
Put it this way, the plight of Altidore seems more common to U.S. players going abroad than Jay DeMerit, rising from nothing and becoming Watford captain.
Though I can't pretend to know the league or the place, but Altidore needs to find a place that he'll get steady burn and in turn he can produce steady goals. Yes, he's still young, but pretty soon those seasons spent playing with the reserves or in Cup duty pile up, and before you know it a once promising career is nearly ruined.
In short, the road to relegation is paved with uber-talented, flashy young forwards that never panned out. At the same time, the goal-scoring leader charts around the globe are littered with guys such as Kevin Davies, Claudio Pizarro and the aforementioned Llorente -- guys who don't have a fraction of Altidore's natural talent -- but score goals by hook or by crook. Deep down every fan wants their team to play "champagne football", but goals are goals and players with a knack for find the back of the net (i.e. Pippo Inzaghi) can't be discounted. It's one thing to watch nifty YouTube highlight films cut up for any player, but the scoreboard is really what counts.
And if there's two pieces of advice to hand off to Altidore (and Freddy Adu) it's that not every play or touch has to be the spectacular. You're not beast-moding over 13-year-old AYSO kids any more. You've got to keep working hard, doing the dirty work and little things, whilst keeping the spectacular in your back pocket when the moment arises. One amazing turn and score doesn't offset five or six lost touches, at least in a manager's mind.
Also, for Altidore, I'd like to send him a couple game tapes, namely Zlatan Ibrohimovic when he was at Ajax, note the touch; Didier Drogba in his first two seasons at Chelsea where he was an unstoppable force; and finally the latter stages of Thierry Henry at Arsenal, for obvious reasons.
And it wouldn't hurt to hit the weight room, either.
Maybe that's the biggest question for Altidore going forward -- does he want it?
He's blessed to have all the physical tools a striker could want -- size, speed and pace. I even like the fact he plays with a smile on his face.
We saw gimpses in the Confederations Cup -- namely the goal vs. Spain. But we also saw a player unsure of himself, not willing to take on defenders 1-v-1, opting to go to ground looking for a whistle instead.
Does Altidore have the inner fire that burns inside the elite players of the world? Can he turn himself into a player that can't be denied?
So as you can tell, I honestly have no idea if a Greek Holiday, a year before a World Cup is a good move for Altidore.
Then again, it seemed to work wonders for Matt Derbyshire, so anything is possible. (Hey, wasn't that an Adidas campaign Altidore did?)
[UPDATE -- Actually, this is more of an addendum, apparently Altidore was at the ESPY Awards, which is either a good thing because a U.S. soccer player was there beside, say, Landon Donovan or a bad thing that ahead of a possible move a year before the World Cup, Jozy is hob-knobbing with celebs ... and Bill Simmons. Hard to say which category it really falls in.]
Labels: 2010 world cup, Jozy Altidore, Soccer, USMNT
So yeah...if you noticed I pretty much mailed in my pre-game thoughts for the U.S./Haiti 2009 Gold Cup match. (DHL, if you're wondering.)
Nobody told me the U.S. team on the synthetic field at Foxborough got the same memo. (Rim shot.)
At least the game ended 2-2 on Stuart Holden's golazo in stoppage time.
Only U.S. soccer could field a team that beats Spain 2-0, gives Brazil a run for its money in the Confederations Cup final and then three weeks or so later needs a 92nd minute wodnerstrike to save a draw vs. Haiti.
All things considered, if you really want to get worked up over this result, be my guest. If we can collectively put it in context, it looks kinda, sorta, bad, but it's not the end of the world. Beside Brian Ching and Charlie Davies, who both came on as subs, will any of the U.S. XI see the field in South Africa next summer?
I'm caught on the fence. Yeah, it's pretty poor that even the 'B' (or possibly 'C') U.S. team barely managed a 2-2 draw with Haiti at home. On the other hand, in light of everything else that's happened that last month, if it worth getting that upset about? This was a limp showing, but it wasn't nearly on the level of the first two Confederations Cup matches.
Everyone is due a mulligan, especially in a non-knockout match. I'll even say the second Haiti goal, though well taken, was fairly fluky.
Why not simply view it with this equation:
Holden = Intriguingly good 2010 prospect
Jay Heaps/Luis Robles = Available for parties come June 2010
If you're interested in a more cynical approach, this result could be a bad thing since other than Holden none of the U.S. players fighting for 2010 consideration distinguished themselves. Therefore the 'core players' from the Confederations Cup could have sat on their Lay-Z Boys at home and realized their starting job isn't at all threatened for the next 340 days, give or take. (That sigh of relief you heard, that's Sascha Kljestan and Jonathon Bornstein each given another set of nine international lives.)
We can also deduce Bradley's U.S. forward depth chart reads as follows:
1) Brian Ching
1a) Brian Ching
1b) Brian Ching
1c) Brian Ching
1d) Brian Ching
2) Charlie Davies
3) Jozy Altidore
4) Roy Wegerle
5) Santiago Munez
6) Joe Gaetjens
425) Freddy Adu
886) Kenny Cooper
1,212) Eddie Johnson
This is more of a sting for the players, who collectively missed an opportunity to show they're worthy of consideration. They can put on a brave face and say they showed heart in rallying for the last minute draw, but most of the players out there won't get too many more chances down the line, or even for the rest of this tournament.
Bradley gave four different guys their first shots Saturday (Colin Clark, Sam Cronin, Heaps and Robles) international minutes. It's a little harsh to judge guys on one game, but well, life and international soccer aren't fair. As the Old Head and Shoulders ad cliche went -- "You never get a second chance to make a first impression."
It's also a mild indictment on MLS, that a U.S. national team team consisting primarily of MLS regulars couldn't defeat Haiti, which has one MLS guy on its roster, a handful of USLers and the rest from the domestic league. Obviously its not that simplistic, but it still doesn't look good.
If there's any silver lining to this one, at least Bradley didn't kick a Haitian player in the balls in the final 10 minutes.
And hey, the Heurelho Gomes/Dida goal keeping academy just got it's newest member in Robles, to boot.
Nobody told me the U.S. team on the synthetic field at Foxborough got the same memo. (Rim shot.)
At least the game ended 2-2 on Stuart Holden's golazo in stoppage time.
Only U.S. soccer could field a team that beats Spain 2-0, gives Brazil a run for its money in the Confederations Cup final and then three weeks or so later needs a 92nd minute wodnerstrike to save a draw vs. Haiti.
All things considered, if you really want to get worked up over this result, be my guest. If we can collectively put it in context, it looks kinda, sorta, bad, but it's not the end of the world. Beside Brian Ching and Charlie Davies, who both came on as subs, will any of the U.S. XI see the field in South Africa next summer?
I'm caught on the fence. Yeah, it's pretty poor that even the 'B' (or possibly 'C') U.S. team barely managed a 2-2 draw with Haiti at home. On the other hand, in light of everything else that's happened that last month, if it worth getting that upset about? This was a limp showing, but it wasn't nearly on the level of the first two Confederations Cup matches.
Everyone is due a mulligan, especially in a non-knockout match. I'll even say the second Haiti goal, though well taken, was fairly fluky.
Why not simply view it with this equation:
Holden = Intriguingly good 2010 prospect
Jay Heaps/Luis Robles = Available for parties come June 2010
If you're interested in a more cynical approach, this result could be a bad thing since other than Holden none of the U.S. players fighting for 2010 consideration distinguished themselves. Therefore the 'core players' from the Confederations Cup could have sat on their Lay-Z Boys at home and realized their starting job isn't at all threatened for the next 340 days, give or take. (That sigh of relief you heard, that's Sascha Kljestan and Jonathon Bornstein each given another set of nine international lives.)
We can also deduce Bradley's U.S. forward depth chart reads as follows:
1) Brian Ching
1a) Brian Ching
1b) Brian Ching
1c) Brian Ching
1d) Brian Ching
2) Charlie Davies
3) Jozy Altidore
4) Roy Wegerle
5) Santiago Munez
6) Joe Gaetjens
425) Freddy Adu
886) Kenny Cooper
1,212) Eddie Johnson
This is more of a sting for the players, who collectively missed an opportunity to show they're worthy of consideration. They can put on a brave face and say they showed heart in rallying for the last minute draw, but most of the players out there won't get too many more chances down the line, or even for the rest of this tournament.
Bradley gave four different guys their first shots Saturday (Colin Clark, Sam Cronin, Heaps and Robles) international minutes. It's a little harsh to judge guys on one game, but well, life and international soccer aren't fair. As the Old Head and Shoulders ad cliche went -- "You never get a second chance to make a first impression."
It's also a mild indictment on MLS, that a U.S. national team team consisting primarily of MLS regulars couldn't defeat Haiti, which has one MLS guy on its roster, a handful of USLers and the rest from the domestic league. Obviously its not that simplistic, but it still doesn't look good.
If there's any silver lining to this one, at least Bradley didn't kick a Haitian player in the balls in the final 10 minutes.
And hey, the Heurelho Gomes/Dida goal keeping academy just got it's newest member in Robles, to boot.
Alternately, this post could steal the title of a Queens of the Stone Age son, "Quick and to the Pointless."
Nothing against Haiti, but Saturday night's U.S. Gold Cup group B match in Foxborough, Mass., represents the lowest ebb in the busy summer of 2009.
With Freddy Adu shipped back to Portugal, there's really not much of interest here. And if Kenny Cooper doesn't get the start up front and play at least 70 minutes, well, might as well figure something else to do on a Saturday night.
Haiti, you'd assume, is a little more competitive than Grenada but still not on the level of the U.S. Beating and or dominating a team like Haiti simply doesn't prove that much for the U.S. at this point. The aren't too many positives from a match like this, only negatives.
In all honesty, this match is a darn near close to a friendly, albeit without six subs, as you can find.
Maybe Jimmy Conrad can at least get a sympathy start.
So put on the uniforms correctly, don't get hurt and we'll reassess things next week.
Nothing against Haiti, but Saturday night's U.S. Gold Cup group B match in Foxborough, Mass., represents the lowest ebb in the busy summer of 2009.
With Freddy Adu shipped back to Portugal, there's really not much of interest here. And if Kenny Cooper doesn't get the start up front and play at least 70 minutes, well, might as well figure something else to do on a Saturday night.
Haiti, you'd assume, is a little more competitive than Grenada but still not on the level of the U.S. Beating and or dominating a team like Haiti simply doesn't prove that much for the U.S. at this point. The aren't too many positives from a match like this, only negatives.
In all honesty, this match is a darn near close to a friendly, albeit without six subs, as you can find.
Maybe Jimmy Conrad can at least get a sympathy start.
So put on the uniforms correctly, don't get hurt and we'll reassess things next week.
Labels: bob bradley, concacaf, Gold Cup, USMNT
Considering the U.S. is currently in the midst of its Revolutionary War (Washington, New England, Philly) tour section of the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2009 extravaganza, this post comes with a preamble -- free of charge.
Bear in mind the following truths whilst proceeding:
a) This game was watched on TeleFutura.
b) Watched following an gratifying softball victory, pushing the CARP Engery winning streak to three.
c) It's always better to get all gussied up in a Captain America suit and have the U.S. figure out a way to win 2-0 over Honduras.
Before digging in, I think I'm retiring the term 'B Team' for this current U.S. roster. Not to sound too sappy, but it's a lousy label to throw on guys, even if it bears more than a few kernels of truth. At the utmost least, the U.S. has enough guys to fill out back-to-back international tournaments and field a respective, competitive lineup.
This game was clearly -- cliche alert -- a tale of two halves.
The first 45 minutes were some of the more open, up-and-down action displayed by the U.S. in quite some time. Each team probably posted about four bona fide goal-scoring chances in the first 45 minutes -- the best from Honduras when it had the ball dance precariously through the six-yard box off about three players, prompting an animated 'Ai ai ai ai ai' from the announcer.
It was entertaining to watch, in short.
Perhaps the first half fun could be attributed to the whistle of Jamaican ref Courtney Campbell, who was stern, stern but fair ... and let just about everything go on both sides while mixing the occasional yellow card along.
As this game went on, even as the U.S. did everything in the build-up in its attack except actually scoring the ball, you figured that eventually the team would find a way especially as Honduras tired.
That said, it basically ground to a sail's pace in the second half prompting a quick switchover as Manny Ramirez hit against Francisco Rodriguez at Citi Field.
Ironically enough, unlike the Confederations Cup where the U.S. brought it supposed 'A Team', coach Bob Bradley actually had options to turn to on the bench for the Gold Cup and it changed the game. It doesn't take a genius to realize that swapping on Charlie Davies and Benny Feilhaber for Freddy Adu and Logan Pause changed the complexion of the match since it gave the U.S. both fresh legs and little more creativity attack-wise, at least the Feilhaber move.
Davies immediately spiced it up, nearly jump-blocking a ball from the Honduran keeper and into the net -- but there wasn't enough backspin to get it over the line.
Santino Quaranta's goal in the 75th came on one of the nicer displays of U.S. passing in a while. Six touches, including some nice one-twos from Feilhaber and a great layoff by Davies put it on a platter for Quaranta to rip a daisy-cutter by the Honduran keeper.
Brian Ching's goal that made it 2-0 in the 79th? Typical Ching. He throws his body at a solid cross from Steve Cherundolo and hits it with some part of his body and a teeny assist from the Honduran defender's shoulder and it goes in.
Decent enough result for the U.S. considering the competition and the opposition.
The only gripe is the lack of a killer bite to close out all the attacking movements.
Still, it's a result you can live with against Honduras on a mid-July night at RFK by a U.S. team that could have doubled for Where stage act at Bonnaroo.
Miscellania (Or, everyone loves bullet points):
* One of the advantages of a game on TeleFutura, the replay of a Honduran player sliding crotch first into the face of Quaranta. Agreed it's juvenile humor, but the network takes it to another level with it's 21st Century lazer shooting sound-effect.
Doubt ESPN is re-running that one intentionally, though it would have been fun to hear John Harkes try to deconstruct it.
* Despite his goal (turning on cynical powers) Ching remains somewhat of a conundrum for the U.S. One thought to consider, if the big Hawaiian was healthy for the Confederations Cup, wouldn't Bradley have played him over Davies and or Jozy Altidore?
By my count, Ching blocked a half-volley from Robbie Rogers inside the box and a header from Kyle Beckerman, each bound for goal. Also in the first half, Ching does all the right things latching onto a ball after a nice run from Beckerman and allows his shot to skitter along the face of goal.
Not to single out Ching, since he does bring something to the table in his physicality and ability to wear down a defense up front, which may have attributed to the U.S.'s eventual second-half goals. Yet, against quality opponents in the World Cup, those half-chances he doesn't score mean all the difference in the world.
The Aug. 12 game at Azteca will put this line of thinking to the test.
* To borrow a Bill Simmons line, Kyle Beckerman is officially the homeless man's Pablo Mastroeni. Beckerman is an easy target for his tragically heinous dreadlocks, but at least he plays with a little edge and is quite active in the midfield.
* As for Adu ... not his best game. It's clear Bradley won't cater to Adu and play him in the hole behind a forward, his most useful spot. Adu as a straight, two-way forward? Seems like a round peg for a square hole. Honduras was fairly tight and compact defensively so there was really no room for Adu to do very much.
At one point he had a clear 1-v-1 chance on a defender, and instead of going straight at him toward goal, he slowed it down and danced a bit, until he was out wide and took a shot at the keeper from a bad angle. Maybe he had come off a full season of playing time he'd have taken it right to the defender without a second thought. Maybe he ought to dig up some Carlos Tevez game tapes.
Stay tuned. (Though, as noted in the comments, he's left the tournament to train with Benfica.)
* I'm happy to see Quaranta score a goal in his recall to the national team, especially after his personal struggles away from the game. He put in a lot of effort and hard work, clearly throwing his body around without worrying about the consequences. Still, the U.S. has a lot of guys like that and not to naysay effort, but I'm not sure he has a refined enough game to really be considered useful for 2010. Again, great finish and tonight enjoy it even if a schmuck like myself nay-says.
It'll be interesting to see where Bradley goes for right midfield on Saturday vs. Haiti, Quaranta or Stuart Holden?
* Was it just me or could Kenny Cooper have scored three goals after coming on as a sub in the final 10 minutes? He had a shot at the top of the box he couldn't quite get off. He ran down a ball, and in a Wayne Rooney like attempt, tried to make something from nothing and almost got it on target. Then in stoppage time Davies played a nice lay-off to him, only for a Honduran defender to slide in to block at the last second.
In Bradley's book, however, Ching's hard work with his back to goal trumps Cooper's eye for goal with his front pointed toward it.
It is what it is.
* Rogers seems comfortable enough on the left midfield. And the U.S. defense threw its weight and strength around enough to compensate for some lack of communication, as Honduras played a lot of early chances from deep, mainly to Walter Martinez.
* George Welcome -- fantastico name.
Bear in mind the following truths whilst proceeding:
a) This game was watched on TeleFutura.
b) Watched following an gratifying softball victory, pushing the CARP Engery winning streak to three.
c) It's always better to get all gussied up in a Captain America suit and have the U.S. figure out a way to win 2-0 over Honduras.
Before digging in, I think I'm retiring the term 'B Team' for this current U.S. roster. Not to sound too sappy, but it's a lousy label to throw on guys, even if it bears more than a few kernels of truth. At the utmost least, the U.S. has enough guys to fill out back-to-back international tournaments and field a respective, competitive lineup.
This game was clearly -- cliche alert -- a tale of two halves.
The first 45 minutes were some of the more open, up-and-down action displayed by the U.S. in quite some time. Each team probably posted about four bona fide goal-scoring chances in the first 45 minutes -- the best from Honduras when it had the ball dance precariously through the six-yard box off about three players, prompting an animated 'Ai ai ai ai ai' from the announcer.
It was entertaining to watch, in short.
Perhaps the first half fun could be attributed to the whistle of Jamaican ref Courtney Campbell, who was stern, stern but fair ... and let just about everything go on both sides while mixing the occasional yellow card along.
As this game went on, even as the U.S. did everything in the build-up in its attack except actually scoring the ball, you figured that eventually the team would find a way especially as Honduras tired.
That said, it basically ground to a sail's pace in the second half prompting a quick switchover as Manny Ramirez hit against Francisco Rodriguez at Citi Field.
Ironically enough, unlike the Confederations Cup where the U.S. brought it supposed 'A Team', coach Bob Bradley actually had options to turn to on the bench for the Gold Cup and it changed the game. It doesn't take a genius to realize that swapping on Charlie Davies and Benny Feilhaber for Freddy Adu and Logan Pause changed the complexion of the match since it gave the U.S. both fresh legs and little more creativity attack-wise, at least the Feilhaber move.
Davies immediately spiced it up, nearly jump-blocking a ball from the Honduran keeper and into the net -- but there wasn't enough backspin to get it over the line.
Santino Quaranta's goal in the 75th came on one of the nicer displays of U.S. passing in a while. Six touches, including some nice one-twos from Feilhaber and a great layoff by Davies put it on a platter for Quaranta to rip a daisy-cutter by the Honduran keeper.
Brian Ching's goal that made it 2-0 in the 79th? Typical Ching. He throws his body at a solid cross from Steve Cherundolo and hits it with some part of his body and a teeny assist from the Honduran defender's shoulder and it goes in.
Decent enough result for the U.S. considering the competition and the opposition.
The only gripe is the lack of a killer bite to close out all the attacking movements.
Still, it's a result you can live with against Honduras on a mid-July night at RFK by a U.S. team that could have doubled for Where stage act at Bonnaroo.
Miscellania (Or, everyone loves bullet points):
* One of the advantages of a game on TeleFutura, the replay of a Honduran player sliding crotch first into the face of Quaranta. Agreed it's juvenile humor, but the network takes it to another level with it's 21st Century lazer shooting sound-effect.
Doubt ESPN is re-running that one intentionally, though it would have been fun to hear John Harkes try to deconstruct it.
* Despite his goal (turning on cynical powers) Ching remains somewhat of a conundrum for the U.S. One thought to consider, if the big Hawaiian was healthy for the Confederations Cup, wouldn't Bradley have played him over Davies and or Jozy Altidore?
By my count, Ching blocked a half-volley from Robbie Rogers inside the box and a header from Kyle Beckerman, each bound for goal. Also in the first half, Ching does all the right things latching onto a ball after a nice run from Beckerman and allows his shot to skitter along the face of goal.
Not to single out Ching, since he does bring something to the table in his physicality and ability to wear down a defense up front, which may have attributed to the U.S.'s eventual second-half goals. Yet, against quality opponents in the World Cup, those half-chances he doesn't score mean all the difference in the world.
The Aug. 12 game at Azteca will put this line of thinking to the test.
* To borrow a Bill Simmons line, Kyle Beckerman is officially the homeless man's Pablo Mastroeni. Beckerman is an easy target for his tragically heinous dreadlocks, but at least he plays with a little edge and is quite active in the midfield.
* As for Adu ... not his best game. It's clear Bradley won't cater to Adu and play him in the hole behind a forward, his most useful spot. Adu as a straight, two-way forward? Seems like a round peg for a square hole. Honduras was fairly tight and compact defensively so there was really no room for Adu to do very much.
At one point he had a clear 1-v-1 chance on a defender, and instead of going straight at him toward goal, he slowed it down and danced a bit, until he was out wide and took a shot at the keeper from a bad angle. Maybe he had come off a full season of playing time he'd have taken it right to the defender without a second thought. Maybe he ought to dig up some Carlos Tevez game tapes.
Stay tuned. (Though, as noted in the comments, he's left the tournament to train with Benfica.)
* I'm happy to see Quaranta score a goal in his recall to the national team, especially after his personal struggles away from the game. He put in a lot of effort and hard work, clearly throwing his body around without worrying about the consequences. Still, the U.S. has a lot of guys like that and not to naysay effort, but I'm not sure he has a refined enough game to really be considered useful for 2010. Again, great finish and tonight enjoy it even if a schmuck like myself nay-says.
It'll be interesting to see where Bradley goes for right midfield on Saturday vs. Haiti, Quaranta or Stuart Holden?
* Was it just me or could Kenny Cooper have scored three goals after coming on as a sub in the final 10 minutes? He had a shot at the top of the box he couldn't quite get off. He ran down a ball, and in a Wayne Rooney like attempt, tried to make something from nothing and almost got it on target. Then in stoppage time Davies played a nice lay-off to him, only for a Honduran defender to slide in to block at the last second.
In Bradley's book, however, Ching's hard work with his back to goal trumps Cooper's eye for goal with his front pointed toward it.
It is what it is.
* Rogers seems comfortable enough on the left midfield. And the U.S. defense threw its weight and strength around enough to compensate for some lack of communication, as Honduras played a lot of early chances from deep, mainly to Walter Martinez.
* George Welcome -- fantastico name.
Labels: bob bradley, concacaf, Freddy Adu, Gold Cup, Soccer, USMNT
As they say, honesty is the best policy.
So with that in mind, folks, I don't have all that much to offer ahead of Wednesday night's U.S./Honduras CONCACAF Gold Cup group match.
If you want to take the approach that the boys from Tegucigalpa mount the biggest test in this miserably weak group for the U.S., that's fine. Me, I'm just curious to see if the entire lot of Los Catrachos will be sporting Michael Jackson 'Thriller' video inspired jheri curls. (The drippier the better.)
For U.S. coach Bob Bradley, this is probably the first true test of his 'B' team until maybe the tournament semifinals. (There is a quirky chance the U.S. could get Costa Rica in the quarterfinals.) In fact, since the U.S. 'A' team struggled mightily in Chicago against Honduras roughly one month ago, before a lunging Carlos Bocanegra header saved their respective bacon, Bradley can get a fairly good gauge about the fringe players although Honduras, too, is in 'B' lineup mode.
It's hard to say what type of lineup tweaks are worth making. Do you swap in some different defenders -- say Michael Parkhurst and Jimmy Conrad -- or do you give Clarence Goodson and Chad Marshall another start since they might actually be tested, unlike the tournament opener vs. Grenada?
Do you keep running Charlie Davies out there and hope his young legs don't burn out? Or, do you finally give Kenny Cooper a chance to show he's worth keeping in 2010 consideration?
Does Benny Feilhaber (who was recalled for the match) get swapped straight in for either Logan Pause or Kyle Beckerman?
Do you continue to let Freddy Adu get some game action and see what he can do, possibly showcasing himself for a European club? Speaking of Adu, what would you do right now if you were him? Go back to Benfica on the glimmer of possible playing time? Do you shop yourself for another club? Would you swallow your pride and return to MLS, where you can become the fulcrum of a team and get regular playing time? Right now Adu needs to find a club situation, no matter the mailing address, where he can get the keys and drive a club instead of simply being a spare part.
Basically, for tonight's game there is one question -- does Bradley just keep trotting out the 'B' team or does he mix it up a little?
Me, I'd let the team that smoked a hapless Grenada on Saturday continue to play. Honduras does present enough of a challenge, so why not see which fringe players step up and deliver against a better team.
Let's see if Stuart Holden and Robbie Rogers can ping in crosses against a team that won't allow them enough time to prepare a triple-decker sandwich before kicking the ball.
That's really about it. Let's hope the team didn't get to full of itself in Saturday's stroll and they take it seriously. This is the best chance for the U.S. fringe-rs to make an impression on Bradley, too. It's two-fold challenge for the players, they need to showcase their individual skills, but also get the result. It could also be the last chance, for some, since you'd figure Bradley will recall some of the Confederations Cup crew for the knockout stages.
Honduras, despite their haircuts, isn't a joke. If the U.S. treat them like that, they'll get moon-walked off the RFK pitch.
Lineup guess:
Stress guess.
GK -- Perkins
DEF -- Pearce -- Marshall -- Goodson -- Cherundolo
MID -- Rogers -- Pause -- Feilhaber -- Holden
FOR -- Cooper -- Adu
If I hit 50 percent on this guess, I'd be happy. There isn't a guaranteed starter on the roster, even Cherundolo. The only guy that really does need to start is Adu and it would be a massive burn (and more reason for conspiracy theorists to conclude Bradley doesn't like the cut of his jib) since he's from the DC area.
Other stuff:
* A couple weeks ago when I casually mentioned Oguchi Onyewu made himself a rich man with his titanic defensive showings vs. Spain and Brazil in the Confederations Cup. Never did I think those two games would land him the most prestigious club position in American history when he inked with AC Milan on Tuesday.
Assuming he plays, the sojourn to Serie A before the 2010 World Cup will either be the best thing for Onyewu or the worst. Either he improves on his ball distribution and savvy or he's exposed as a lumbering, one-dimensional bruiser.
At least, if somehow the wheels fall off at Milan for Onyewu, the U.S. does have some depth in the middle of the defense.
* One Gold Cup story worth watching is Canada. The Canucks gave the U.S. a pretty good scare in the 2007 knockout rounds -- remember that phantom offside call? Canada is now 2-0-0 in its group matches.
For whatever reason, it'd be nice with the advent of Toronto FC, the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps for Canada's overall national team program to rise if only to give the U.S. another possible rival in CONCACAF.
Or maybe I simply have a soft spot for Canada due to the shenanigans at Sunnyvale Trailer Park.
* Michael Bradley is now on FIFA double-secret probation. Fantastic. Guess it serves him right for dropping an F-bomb in Sports Illustrated aimed at us Internet soccer geeks who called for his pop's job.
* Tottenham ace Wilson Palacios isn't on the Gold Cup roster. Neither is Amada Guevara or Maynor Figueroa. (That takes a starch out it, eh?)
* More Bill Simmons soccer talk, with Colin Cowherd no less. (Listen after the 50-minute mark.)
* What are the odds Fox Soccer's Max Bretos brings up the on-going Honduran political crisis and totally botches it? Even money?
So with that in mind, folks, I don't have all that much to offer ahead of Wednesday night's U.S./Honduras CONCACAF Gold Cup group match.
If you want to take the approach that the boys from Tegucigalpa mount the biggest test in this miserably weak group for the U.S., that's fine. Me, I'm just curious to see if the entire lot of Los Catrachos will be sporting Michael Jackson 'Thriller' video inspired jheri curls. (The drippier the better.)
For U.S. coach Bob Bradley, this is probably the first true test of his 'B' team until maybe the tournament semifinals. (There is a quirky chance the U.S. could get Costa Rica in the quarterfinals.) In fact, since the U.S. 'A' team struggled mightily in Chicago against Honduras roughly one month ago, before a lunging Carlos Bocanegra header saved their respective bacon, Bradley can get a fairly good gauge about the fringe players although Honduras, too, is in 'B' lineup mode.
It's hard to say what type of lineup tweaks are worth making. Do you swap in some different defenders -- say Michael Parkhurst and Jimmy Conrad -- or do you give Clarence Goodson and Chad Marshall another start since they might actually be tested, unlike the tournament opener vs. Grenada?
Do you keep running Charlie Davies out there and hope his young legs don't burn out? Or, do you finally give Kenny Cooper a chance to show he's worth keeping in 2010 consideration?
Does Benny Feilhaber (who was recalled for the match) get swapped straight in for either Logan Pause or Kyle Beckerman?
Do you continue to let Freddy Adu get some game action and see what he can do, possibly showcasing himself for a European club? Speaking of Adu, what would you do right now if you were him? Go back to Benfica on the glimmer of possible playing time? Do you shop yourself for another club? Would you swallow your pride and return to MLS, where you can become the fulcrum of a team and get regular playing time? Right now Adu needs to find a club situation, no matter the mailing address, where he can get the keys and drive a club instead of simply being a spare part.
Basically, for tonight's game there is one question -- does Bradley just keep trotting out the 'B' team or does he mix it up a little?
Me, I'd let the team that smoked a hapless Grenada on Saturday continue to play. Honduras does present enough of a challenge, so why not see which fringe players step up and deliver against a better team.
Let's see if Stuart Holden and Robbie Rogers can ping in crosses against a team that won't allow them enough time to prepare a triple-decker sandwich before kicking the ball.
That's really about it. Let's hope the team didn't get to full of itself in Saturday's stroll and they take it seriously. This is the best chance for the U.S. fringe-rs to make an impression on Bradley, too. It's two-fold challenge for the players, they need to showcase their individual skills, but also get the result. It could also be the last chance, for some, since you'd figure Bradley will recall some of the Confederations Cup crew for the knockout stages.
Honduras, despite their haircuts, isn't a joke. If the U.S. treat them like that, they'll get moon-walked off the RFK pitch.
Lineup guess:
Stress guess.
GK -- Perkins
DEF -- Pearce -- Marshall -- Goodson -- Cherundolo
MID -- Rogers -- Pause -- Feilhaber -- Holden
FOR -- Cooper -- Adu
If I hit 50 percent on this guess, I'd be happy. There isn't a guaranteed starter on the roster, even Cherundolo. The only guy that really does need to start is Adu and it would be a massive burn (and more reason for conspiracy theorists to conclude Bradley doesn't like the cut of his jib) since he's from the DC area.
Other stuff:
* A couple weeks ago when I casually mentioned Oguchi Onyewu made himself a rich man with his titanic defensive showings vs. Spain and Brazil in the Confederations Cup. Never did I think those two games would land him the most prestigious club position in American history when he inked with AC Milan on Tuesday.
Assuming he plays, the sojourn to Serie A before the 2010 World Cup will either be the best thing for Onyewu or the worst. Either he improves on his ball distribution and savvy or he's exposed as a lumbering, one-dimensional bruiser.
At least, if somehow the wheels fall off at Milan for Onyewu, the U.S. does have some depth in the middle of the defense.
* One Gold Cup story worth watching is Canada. The Canucks gave the U.S. a pretty good scare in the 2007 knockout rounds -- remember that phantom offside call? Canada is now 2-0-0 in its group matches.
For whatever reason, it'd be nice with the advent of Toronto FC, the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps for Canada's overall national team program to rise if only to give the U.S. another possible rival in CONCACAF.
Or maybe I simply have a soft spot for Canada due to the shenanigans at Sunnyvale Trailer Park.
* Michael Bradley is now on FIFA double-secret probation. Fantastic. Guess it serves him right for dropping an F-bomb in Sports Illustrated aimed at us Internet soccer geeks who called for his pop's job.
* Tottenham ace Wilson Palacios isn't on the Gold Cup roster. Neither is Amada Guevara or Maynor Figueroa. (That takes a starch out it, eh?)
* More Bill Simmons soccer talk, with Colin Cowherd no less. (Listen after the 50-minute mark.)
* What are the odds Fox Soccer's Max Bretos brings up the on-going Honduran political crisis and totally botches it? Even money?
Labels: bob bradley, concacaf, Freddy Adu, Gold Cup, Soccer, USMNT
Walking into my parent's house with a tummy full of Fourth of July fried hot dogs and fried dough to give my father some company for the all-time epic grudge match between the U.S. and Grenada in the opening match of the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup Saturday night, my first impressive probably summed up the ensuing 90 minutes.
Looking at the images beaming from Fox Soccer Channel on the flat screen television, it was like somebody smeared Vaseline all over the camera lenses at Seattle's Qwest Field and instead of a full-blown international match, it was 22 murky claymation figures running around on a green background.
The high definition beauty of the Confederations Cup on all levels, this wasn't. Looking at the screen was all you needed to know that this was a bit of a let down from an intensity standpoint.
And really, there's not much to say about the U.S.'s 4-0 victory over a team nicknamed of all things the'Spice Boys.' Grenada barely even bothered to put up a fight -- they might have well just worn the standard 'Opponent' jerseys. My rough estimate was the U.S. had the ball at least 80 percent of the time.
Suffice to say, not exactly a game to form any strong opinions one way or the other.
Regardless, Bob Bradley stuck with his now preferred 4-4-2 system with the holding midfielder rolls falling to Logan Pause alongside a leftover 90s era grunge bassist he found aimlessly roaming the streets of Seattle, err, Kyle Beckerman. Outside we got Robbie Rogers on the left and Stuart Holden on the right -- each impressing and scoring a goal.
Up top it was the continued progression of Charlie Davies and the first Freddy Adu sighting of the season. And no, and even though the game was in the Pacific Northwest, it wasn't a Sasquatch-like hoax. Adu actually played and scored a goal, to boot! There is film of it here. Adu doesn't even look back at the camera, either.
The defense? It was four guys and they're not even worth mentioning considering how little Grenada actually attacked during the match. It was a 25-3 advantage in shots for the U.S., 'nuff said. Troy Perkins made one save.
If anything, this match let this new-look U.S. team of fringe players get their footing going forward into the tournament. Rogers -- who assisted on a pair of goals on nice crosses from the left -- should continue to get looks throughout the tournament regardless of the opposition. Let's see if he can hack it since it's not like natural left-sided players with good delivery are growing on trees in the U.S.
Davies kept up his momentum from the Confederations Cup, scoring a nice goal -- albeit with a strange celebration -- on a nifty jump-kick cross from Heath Pearce after a ball was played over the top deep from the defense.
As for Adu, it took me this long to get into him.
In fairness, it was a mixed bag performance that leaned toward the "good" column. You had his one-touch goal inside of 10 minutes, coupled with some decent set piece delivery and a lot of good facilitating of the offense all over the field.
Two plays probably encapsulated Adu's night. First, early in the second half he stuck out his leg and stole the ball right off a Grenada defender for a breakaway on goal. Instead of going for goal, he laid it off to Davies on the left who had a lesser angle. Then later, he stole a terrible clear from the Grenada keeper and tried to beat him with a cheeky chip/strike. It hit the right corner where the crossbar meets the post. Nice play. Except the ball stayed in bounds while Adu was lamenting the miss.
Overall, Adu remains the ultimate U.S. wild card. Let's just see which cards he is best used alongside.
That's really it. I'd have to think this was the most time any of the U.S. players actually had on the ball since their youth days.
I've highlighted the four guys the U.S. ought to get as much playing time as the tourney goes forward -- Rogers, Davies, Holden and Adu. They're all offensive-minded players and had they been available in the second half of the Confederations Cup vs. Brazil last month maybe things could have finished different.
Wait a second, that last sentence opens up a can of worms, doesn't it?
Let's move onto other stuff.
Other stuff:
* Jake Slade sounds more like a male porn actor than a soccer player, no?
* U.S. defender Clarence Goodson probably deserves a place in Bill Simmons' 'Reggie Cleveland All Stars'.
* Since it was a CONCACAF game, we got some terrible officiating, even in a match with one or two maximum slide tackles. First Brad Evans got a yellow card for coming on for Steve Cherundolo too early. Hm? Later Adu got a yellow for handling a ball inside the opponents box, negating a goal. Harsh.
Where do they find these CONCACAF officials? If I go down to the drug store and buy some bronzer and work up a tan does it qualify me for the position?
* Good to hear the South African horns made the trip back with the U.S. They're like killer bees -- but noisier!
* Great through ball by Pause, setting up Roger's goal. Hey, it's not his fault you could have driven a convoy through the Grenada defense. Take the chances you're given, though overall, with a little more edge in the final third this game could have ended closer to 6 or 7-0.
* Grenada's keeper (sorry too full of grease to look up his name) was a good shot-stopper, but as Max Bretos noted, his distribution was nothing short of shambolic. If the Brit press were watching they might have needed to coin a new term for it.
* Grenada actually had a dude with Bubb as a surname. At least it gives me a chance to post this link. (Whoo-woo.)
Yeah, it was that kind of game.
Looking at the images beaming from Fox Soccer Channel on the flat screen television, it was like somebody smeared Vaseline all over the camera lenses at Seattle's Qwest Field and instead of a full-blown international match, it was 22 murky claymation figures running around on a green background.
The high definition beauty of the Confederations Cup on all levels, this wasn't. Looking at the screen was all you needed to know that this was a bit of a let down from an intensity standpoint.
And really, there's not much to say about the U.S.'s 4-0 victory over a team nicknamed of all things the'Spice Boys.' Grenada barely even bothered to put up a fight -- they might have well just worn the standard 'Opponent' jerseys. My rough estimate was the U.S. had the ball at least 80 percent of the time.
Suffice to say, not exactly a game to form any strong opinions one way or the other.
Regardless, Bob Bradley stuck with his now preferred 4-4-2 system with the holding midfielder rolls falling to Logan Pause alongside a leftover 90s era grunge bassist he found aimlessly roaming the streets of Seattle, err, Kyle Beckerman. Outside we got Robbie Rogers on the left and Stuart Holden on the right -- each impressing and scoring a goal.
Up top it was the continued progression of Charlie Davies and the first Freddy Adu sighting of the season. And no, and even though the game was in the Pacific Northwest, it wasn't a Sasquatch-like hoax. Adu actually played and scored a goal, to boot! There is film of it here. Adu doesn't even look back at the camera, either.
The defense? It was four guys and they're not even worth mentioning considering how little Grenada actually attacked during the match. It was a 25-3 advantage in shots for the U.S., 'nuff said. Troy Perkins made one save.
If anything, this match let this new-look U.S. team of fringe players get their footing going forward into the tournament. Rogers -- who assisted on a pair of goals on nice crosses from the left -- should continue to get looks throughout the tournament regardless of the opposition. Let's see if he can hack it since it's not like natural left-sided players with good delivery are growing on trees in the U.S.
Davies kept up his momentum from the Confederations Cup, scoring a nice goal -- albeit with a strange celebration -- on a nifty jump-kick cross from Heath Pearce after a ball was played over the top deep from the defense.
As for Adu, it took me this long to get into him.
In fairness, it was a mixed bag performance that leaned toward the "good" column. You had his one-touch goal inside of 10 minutes, coupled with some decent set piece delivery and a lot of good facilitating of the offense all over the field.
Two plays probably encapsulated Adu's night. First, early in the second half he stuck out his leg and stole the ball right off a Grenada defender for a breakaway on goal. Instead of going for goal, he laid it off to Davies on the left who had a lesser angle. Then later, he stole a terrible clear from the Grenada keeper and tried to beat him with a cheeky chip/strike. It hit the right corner where the crossbar meets the post. Nice play. Except the ball stayed in bounds while Adu was lamenting the miss.
Overall, Adu remains the ultimate U.S. wild card. Let's just see which cards he is best used alongside.
That's really it. I'd have to think this was the most time any of the U.S. players actually had on the ball since their youth days.
I've highlighted the four guys the U.S. ought to get as much playing time as the tourney goes forward -- Rogers, Davies, Holden and Adu. They're all offensive-minded players and had they been available in the second half of the Confederations Cup vs. Brazil last month maybe things could have finished different.
Wait a second, that last sentence opens up a can of worms, doesn't it?
Let's move onto other stuff.
Other stuff:
* Jake Slade sounds more like a male porn actor than a soccer player, no?
* U.S. defender Clarence Goodson probably deserves a place in Bill Simmons' 'Reggie Cleveland All Stars'.
* Since it was a CONCACAF game, we got some terrible officiating, even in a match with one or two maximum slide tackles. First Brad Evans got a yellow card for coming on for Steve Cherundolo too early. Hm? Later Adu got a yellow for handling a ball inside the opponents box, negating a goal. Harsh.
Where do they find these CONCACAF officials? If I go down to the drug store and buy some bronzer and work up a tan does it qualify me for the position?
* Good to hear the South African horns made the trip back with the U.S. They're like killer bees -- but noisier!
* Great through ball by Pause, setting up Roger's goal. Hey, it's not his fault you could have driven a convoy through the Grenada defense. Take the chances you're given, though overall, with a little more edge in the final third this game could have ended closer to 6 or 7-0.
* Grenada's keeper (sorry too full of grease to look up his name) was a good shot-stopper, but as Max Bretos noted, his distribution was nothing short of shambolic. If the Brit press were watching they might have needed to coin a new term for it.
* Grenada actually had a dude with Bubb as a surname. At least it gives me a chance to post this link. (Whoo-woo.)
Yeah, it was that kind of game.
Labels: concacaf, Freddy Adu, Gold Cup, Soccer, USMNT
As you probably know, I don't just post silly quickee links. Not my style. In honor of the birth of our great nation, I felt like sharing.
1. Can 2011 get here quick? In case you missed it, the Seattle Sounders/Portland Timbers U.S. Open Cup game was an outlier for a couple reasons, namely people actually were excited for an Open Cup game. Just check out some of the stuff on Portland message board. Great stuff, aside from the guy in the Green Man suit. Hope this kind of stuff doesn't scare Don Garber.
And big thanks for my pal Richard for sending me a couple pics from the match. I will restrain myself from posting a bedsheet with a picture of a rifle stating, "Keller Do the Cobain." Poor taste.
I will, however, post something from some traveling San Jose ultras -- Man Boobs FC -- featuring Drew Carey, Paul Allen, and Sigi Schdmid.
2. And speaking of man boobs ... Fashion is one of my least favorite things in the world, but this year's crop of Premier League kits are tragically awful. Brutal. Whoever designed the Everton and Manchester United home shirts must be from the near future or something. Horrendous.
Have a good Fourth. Enjoy Michael Owen at Old Trafford (trying not to laugh).
1. Can 2011 get here quick? In case you missed it, the Seattle Sounders/Portland Timbers U.S. Open Cup game was an outlier for a couple reasons, namely people actually were excited for an Open Cup game. Just check out some of the stuff on Portland message board. Great stuff, aside from the guy in the Green Man suit. Hope this kind of stuff doesn't scare Don Garber.
And big thanks for my pal Richard for sending me a couple pics from the match. I will restrain myself from posting a bedsheet with a picture of a rifle stating, "Keller Do the Cobain." Poor taste.
I will, however, post something from some traveling San Jose ultras -- Man Boobs FC -- featuring Drew Carey, Paul Allen, and Sigi Schdmid.
2. And speaking of man boobs ... Fashion is one of my least favorite things in the world, but this year's crop of Premier League kits are tragically awful. Brutal. Whoever designed the Everton and Manchester United home shirts must be from the near future or something. Horrendous.
Have a good Fourth. Enjoy Michael Owen at Old Trafford (trying not to laugh).
Labels: links, portland timbers, Soccer
"There's gold out there I tells ya, gold." -- colloquial prospector talk, possible from 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre'
So...here we are, the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup, a.k.a. a poor excuse for Jack Warner to pick a man's pocket every two years.
There's probably no way to sugar coat or dilly-dance around the fact that in the wake of the Confederations Cup last month, this tournament is going to be a bit of a step down. Think of it of dining on fillet mignon and swapping it for a McDonald's MacWrap -- at least there's some special sauce potential, though, for the U.S.
In short, it's a chance for some fringe players, namely Kenny Cooper, Stuart Holden and Michael Parkhurst to show Bob Bradley they warrant a call for consideration in 2010. It's also possibly the time a certain sector of U.S. fans have waited for -- unleashing Freddy Adu to see if he's got the chops to be an impact player. Then there's the veterans Brian Ching and Steve Cherundolo showing that even if they missed the Confederations Cup, they're still worthy.
And, well, that's about it. (I highly recommend just reading the Bradley/Gulati quotes, lots of stuff on Jermaine Jones here.)
Not to sound like an 'elite, insufferable, soccer snob' but it's hard to go from watching thrilling games against Spain and Brazil in one week to matches against Grenada and Haiti the next. (You could, if you wanted, argue the actual games might be tricker in the Gold Cup initially with the opponents playing a defensive, packed-in style. Admittedly, it's a stretch.)
On the plus side, the U.S. has progressed along far enough that there are enough players out there in order to fill out a competitive roster for the Gold Cup while leaving stalwarts like Landon "Peach Salad" Donovan, Clint Dempsey and the entire starting defense at home.
Bradley -- or specifically CONCACAF -- threw the U.S. a bone, allowing seven player adds for the tournament. On the plus side there's a chance to see Jozy Altidore teamed up with Charlie Davies again or Benny Feilhaber given the keys in the midfield. Then again, Connor Casey and Jon Bornstein also were added.
If there's one big question that can or needs to answered for this tournament is if Bradley, based on the final three matches of the Confederations Cup, is satisfied with a standard 4-4-2 lineup. Can the Gold Cup roster groom capable replacements/subs in this system going forward? It would be good to see the team add some depth, particularly in the wide positions on the field.
One thing we know is that Donovan and Dempsey are versatile and can slide all over the field. Can the Gold Cup roster produce a capable outside midfield backup should one of them need to slide into a more forward role?
Even if this tournament isn't all that compelling for us fans, only judged in the light of the Confederations Cup, it should be pretty pressurized for the players as they need to show Bradley they're worth a spot.
It's not fun to single players out, but here's who probably needs to impress the most over the run of the Gold Cup.
* Freddy Adu -- We all realize he's in the doghouse, big time. Yet there is certainly a potential inside his feet (which may or may not taste like timber) unlike most U.S. players. Adu doesn't need to dribble through an entire team or score on bending free kicks. What he needs to do -- if given playing time which is no sure bet -- is instill some confidence in Bradley that's he worth all the effort. Let's see if he's creative enough to make stuff happen in congested lanes filled with bodies. Right now if pressed, I'd guess Adu isn't on the 23-man roster for the World Cup. Whether its his attitude or lack of playing time, Adu has ruffled Bradley's feathers. A good Gold Cup could allay some fears in the coach -- assuming Bradley is loathe to play him due to the second guessing game.
* Steve Cherundolo -- For years, the long-time Hannover-man was the proverbial turkey sandwich for the U.S. team. He didn't bring the most to the table, aside from reliable, dependable professionalism, but he didn't take away from it either. Yet after Jonathon Spector's breakout at the Confederations Cup, did Cherundolo move down in the pecking order? That said, having depth a traditionally thin position for the U.S. isn't a bad thing.
* Heath Pearce -- Considering Bradley finally opted to try Carlos Bocanegra out wide, coupled with Jay DeMerit's fine showing in South Africa, Pearce's default grip on the left back spot is tenuous to say the least. He simply can't afford a poor tournament.
* Kenny Cooper -- I was going to list Brian Ching, but unless the Hawaian is missing a limb he'll be in South Africa next year. Bradley just loves him. Loves him. Anyway, with the ascendancy of Charlie Davies and to a lesser degree Altidore, Cooper has a long way to go to be considered for the World Cup. He'll need an excellent Gold Cup and a good season -- wherever he ends up -- to have a shot.
As for the rest of the team? Hard to say. Maybe we're all blinded by the showing at the Confederations Cup in terms of lineup building. The tournament certainly reaffirmed a pecking order, but going forward to assume the U.S. 'A-Team' can capture lightning in a bottle might be foolish.
If anything, the Gold Cup ought to Bradley a good chance to look at some other options if the first choice team slumps or scuffles over the next year. At the very least the Gold Cup can help create some players who can form a 'Plan B' if things go wrong either with a player's form or during a match.
We still need to remember, for all the bows the team took, it'd be a whole different story at the Gold Cup and going forward if Andrea Dossena doesn't decide to score on Gigi Buffon. That's maybe the biggest thing to keep in mind, the team took huge strides but it still has a ways to go. As evidenced in the second half vs. Brazil, there is still a substantial gap in terms of soccer players between the U.S. and the rest of the world.
If a player or two can emerge as an asset during the Gold Cup, it'll be worth it.
Double that if Mexico gets stomped along the way.
So...here we are, the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup, a.k.a. a poor excuse for Jack Warner to pick a man's pocket every two years.
There's probably no way to sugar coat or dilly-dance around the fact that in the wake of the Confederations Cup last month, this tournament is going to be a bit of a step down. Think of it of dining on fillet mignon and swapping it for a McDonald's MacWrap -- at least there's some special sauce potential, though, for the U.S.
In short, it's a chance for some fringe players, namely Kenny Cooper, Stuart Holden and Michael Parkhurst to show Bob Bradley they warrant a call for consideration in 2010. It's also possibly the time a certain sector of U.S. fans have waited for -- unleashing Freddy Adu to see if he's got the chops to be an impact player. Then there's the veterans Brian Ching and Steve Cherundolo showing that even if they missed the Confederations Cup, they're still worthy.
And, well, that's about it. (I highly recommend just reading the Bradley/Gulati quotes, lots of stuff on Jermaine Jones here.)
Not to sound like an 'elite, insufferable, soccer snob' but it's hard to go from watching thrilling games against Spain and Brazil in one week to matches against Grenada and Haiti the next. (You could, if you wanted, argue the actual games might be tricker in the Gold Cup initially with the opponents playing a defensive, packed-in style. Admittedly, it's a stretch.)
On the plus side, the U.S. has progressed along far enough that there are enough players out there in order to fill out a competitive roster for the Gold Cup while leaving stalwarts like Landon "Peach Salad" Donovan, Clint Dempsey and the entire starting defense at home.
Bradley -- or specifically CONCACAF -- threw the U.S. a bone, allowing seven player adds for the tournament. On the plus side there's a chance to see Jozy Altidore teamed up with Charlie Davies again or Benny Feilhaber given the keys in the midfield. Then again, Connor Casey and Jon Bornstein also were added.
If there's one big question that can or needs to answered for this tournament is if Bradley, based on the final three matches of the Confederations Cup, is satisfied with a standard 4-4-2 lineup. Can the Gold Cup roster groom capable replacements/subs in this system going forward? It would be good to see the team add some depth, particularly in the wide positions on the field.
One thing we know is that Donovan and Dempsey are versatile and can slide all over the field. Can the Gold Cup roster produce a capable outside midfield backup should one of them need to slide into a more forward role?
Even if this tournament isn't all that compelling for us fans, only judged in the light of the Confederations Cup, it should be pretty pressurized for the players as they need to show Bradley they're worth a spot.
It's not fun to single players out, but here's who probably needs to impress the most over the run of the Gold Cup.
* Freddy Adu -- We all realize he's in the doghouse, big time. Yet there is certainly a potential inside his feet (which may or may not taste like timber) unlike most U.S. players. Adu doesn't need to dribble through an entire team or score on bending free kicks. What he needs to do -- if given playing time which is no sure bet -- is instill some confidence in Bradley that's he worth all the effort. Let's see if he's creative enough to make stuff happen in congested lanes filled with bodies. Right now if pressed, I'd guess Adu isn't on the 23-man roster for the World Cup. Whether its his attitude or lack of playing time, Adu has ruffled Bradley's feathers. A good Gold Cup could allay some fears in the coach -- assuming Bradley is loathe to play him due to the second guessing game.
* Steve Cherundolo -- For years, the long-time Hannover-man was the proverbial turkey sandwich for the U.S. team. He didn't bring the most to the table, aside from reliable, dependable professionalism, but he didn't take away from it either. Yet after Jonathon Spector's breakout at the Confederations Cup, did Cherundolo move down in the pecking order? That said, having depth a traditionally thin position for the U.S. isn't a bad thing.
* Heath Pearce -- Considering Bradley finally opted to try Carlos Bocanegra out wide, coupled with Jay DeMerit's fine showing in South Africa, Pearce's default grip on the left back spot is tenuous to say the least. He simply can't afford a poor tournament.
* Kenny Cooper -- I was going to list Brian Ching, but unless the Hawaian is missing a limb he'll be in South Africa next year. Bradley just loves him. Loves him. Anyway, with the ascendancy of Charlie Davies and to a lesser degree Altidore, Cooper has a long way to go to be considered for the World Cup. He'll need an excellent Gold Cup and a good season -- wherever he ends up -- to have a shot.
As for the rest of the team? Hard to say. Maybe we're all blinded by the showing at the Confederations Cup in terms of lineup building. The tournament certainly reaffirmed a pecking order, but going forward to assume the U.S. 'A-Team' can capture lightning in a bottle might be foolish.
If anything, the Gold Cup ought to Bradley a good chance to look at some other options if the first choice team slumps or scuffles over the next year. At the very least the Gold Cup can help create some players who can form a 'Plan B' if things go wrong either with a player's form or during a match.
We still need to remember, for all the bows the team took, it'd be a whole different story at the Gold Cup and going forward if Andrea Dossena doesn't decide to score on Gigi Buffon. That's maybe the biggest thing to keep in mind, the team took huge strides but it still has a ways to go. As evidenced in the second half vs. Brazil, there is still a substantial gap in terms of soccer players between the U.S. and the rest of the world.
If a player or two can emerge as an asset during the Gold Cup, it'll be worth it.
Double that if Mexico gets stomped along the way.
Labels: bob bradley, Freddy Adu, Gold Cup, Soccer, USMNT
