Honduras 3, U.S. 1.
To quote the great philosopher Wayne Campbell, "That blew goats." (Though, you'll see in a see paragraphs there is actually some good news to come from this match.)
As I "tweeted" last night, I watched the game at a friend's house who doesn't get Fox Soccer, so it was the Telefutra feed. Considering what transpired Saturday night at the Home Depot Center, it seemed like the cromulent decision. Or at least a decision that was on par for the proceedings from Carson, Calif.
Not to take away the focus from the game itself, but any USMNT team fan should be a tinge disappointed how the supposed crown jewel of U.S. soccer was turned into a party for a festive Honduran crowd that seems to already have contracted World Cup fever. How else to explain how they want to canonize Jonathon Bornstein, who amazingly unlike most of the U.S. team wasn't a total trainwreck.
Hey, no knocking the Honduras fans, well, except for the shall we say rather "ample" woman squeezed into a replica kit who's gut was literally hanging over the railing during Roger Espinoza's goal that made it 3-0. Honduras, with a second-string Palacios, looked downright frisky. The game may have been a friendly, but Los Catrachos came out like men on fire. Switzerland, I'd be worried.
On the other hand, what can we say about the U.S.? A month of training sure did a lot of good.
Before glossing over what was a truly forgettable 90 minutes of U.S. soccer, a wrinkle of good news. Yes, good news.
Saturday was the last time the U.S. will need to deal with the abomination that is CONCACAF officiating in 2010 in a match that matters. (Okay, that El Salvador friendly, too.)
Not to take Jimmy Conrad off the griddle for his two mindless jersey tugs, which resulting in a pair of yellow cards and a sending off coupled with a penalty kick in the 20th minute. They were stupid plays and the result of Conrad lacking any real pace. There is no disputing this.
However, when I got home around 2:30 a.m., I fired up the DVR to watch these plays and see a little of the FSC broadcast. (Hey, Mark Rogandino, who knew?!)
The first foul by Conrad, where he bumped arms into Walter Martinez as Honduras tried to break the other way from a U.S. corner, was a borderline card. Could a ref award a yellow? Sure. Could Mexican ref Benito Archundia have simply gotten away with giving Conrad a verbal warning? Probably. It was a cluttered break near midfield, not a clear breakaway.
Put it in context, too. It was only the sixth minute. This was a friendly. These teams weren't out for blood. There was nothing really at stake. It wasn't a violent two-foot slide tackle, it was a jersey tug at worst. The whole point of the match was for Bob Bradley and Reinaldo Rueda to evaluate their players, though the way Honduras played they might have actually wanted to prove a point. Should a man officiating international matches understand this?
Archundia's harsh early decision, led to where he had to send off Conrad for his foul in the box (which was somewhat dubious depending on the angle), thus ending any realistic chance to evaluate this match for the U.S. To counter my own argument, in theory Archundia could have given Conrad a red card in the box, if he really wanted.
Bottom line, this was a friendly and to give out a quick card like that instead of a warning nullified the entire purpose of the game. To use a line by my old pal Mike Francesa, Archundia was "Lawst" but so was Conrad, who's days with the U.S. effectively ended Saturday night.
Oh well. Thus is the state of officiating in the region.
That's not an excuse, since nothing the U.S. did while it had a full complement of XI men didn't do much to inspire. Again, this group of players, Soup Kitchen versions of the full U.S. team or not, did have roughly a month to train and looked like a group of players that never saw the field together.
Other stuff:
* As my father told me over the phone Sunday morning, "What was the point of this game other than money?" and "without Donovan this team doesn't know how to play." Summed up the entire night in about 1,000 less words than me. Bravo Pops!
* The Jeff Cunningham brief experiment doesn't seem to have much more of a shelf live. Granted he or Robbie Findley never saw much of the ball, but he's a guy that's essentially useless unless he scores. Trotting around the field at half speed is not the way to win the heart of Bradley the Elder.
* To put it nicely, Sacha Kljestan and Marvell Wynne likely don't see the field in a U.S. shirt for a long time. In fairness to Wynne, he does look about 45 years old.
* Troy Perkins. Egads. Who did he piss off to get stuck in goal for this one and the 5-0 drubbing to Mexico in the Gold Cup final?
* Robbie Rogers did have about the only U.S. highlight, a beautifully struck bomb from distance that rattled off the bad. Other than that, didn't seem to do much.
* Benny Feilhaber and Kyle Beckerman in the center of midfield? Didn't put their stamp onto the match.
* Good for Clarence Goodson scoring, though he got away with a power elbow to the head of the Honduran keeper. My one quibble with Bradley was why he waited until the second half to take off Cunningham and replace him with a defender. It's hard to say if another true central defender would have prevented Jerry Palacios' diving header. Then again, most coaches in Bradley's spot likely would have waited until halftime for a move.
* All the second-half subs, including the debut of Alejandro Bedoya didn't have much time to put any imprint on the match.
* From this match, how many guys get on the plane to South Africa? Feilhaber? Goodson? Findley? And of course, Bornstein.
Final thought:
I probably wrote more than I thought on a match that really didn't mean anything other than fan the flames for people that don't think MLS is a good way to prepare American players for international matches. Considering Honduras played a lineup of mainly domestic-based players, that makes the league look even worse.
Anyway, this was a game with very little to gain for the U.S. and once it went down to 10 men with 70 minutes left anything useful went down the tunnel and into the locker room with Jimmy Conrad.
Suffice to say, not the greatest way to kick of 2010, but nothing to lose any sleep over ... unless a couple more U.S. starters get hurt between now and June. The depth chart is like a Hollywood actress on a crash diet -- skeletal.
P.S. -- Carlos Pavon, Randy Watson called. He wants his hair back.
To quote the great philosopher Wayne Campbell, "That blew goats." (Though, you'll see in a see paragraphs there is actually some good news to come from this match.)
As I "tweeted" last night, I watched the game at a friend's house who doesn't get Fox Soccer, so it was the Telefutra feed. Considering what transpired Saturday night at the Home Depot Center, it seemed like the cromulent decision. Or at least a decision that was on par for the proceedings from Carson, Calif.
Not to take away the focus from the game itself, but any USMNT team fan should be a tinge disappointed how the supposed crown jewel of U.S. soccer was turned into a party for a festive Honduran crowd that seems to already have contracted World Cup fever. How else to explain how they want to canonize Jonathon Bornstein, who amazingly unlike most of the U.S. team wasn't a total trainwreck.
Hey, no knocking the Honduras fans, well, except for the shall we say rather "ample" woman squeezed into a replica kit who's gut was literally hanging over the railing during Roger Espinoza's goal that made it 3-0. Honduras, with a second-string Palacios, looked downright frisky. The game may have been a friendly, but Los Catrachos came out like men on fire. Switzerland, I'd be worried.
On the other hand, what can we say about the U.S.? A month of training sure did a lot of good.
Before glossing over what was a truly forgettable 90 minutes of U.S. soccer, a wrinkle of good news. Yes, good news.
Saturday was the last time the U.S. will need to deal with the abomination that is CONCACAF officiating in 2010 in a match that matters. (Okay, that El Salvador friendly, too.)
Not to take Jimmy Conrad off the griddle for his two mindless jersey tugs, which resulting in a pair of yellow cards and a sending off coupled with a penalty kick in the 20th minute. They were stupid plays and the result of Conrad lacking any real pace. There is no disputing this.
However, when I got home around 2:30 a.m., I fired up the DVR to watch these plays and see a little of the FSC broadcast. (Hey, Mark Rogandino, who knew?!)
The first foul by Conrad, where he bumped arms into Walter Martinez as Honduras tried to break the other way from a U.S. corner, was a borderline card. Could a ref award a yellow? Sure. Could Mexican ref Benito Archundia have simply gotten away with giving Conrad a verbal warning? Probably. It was a cluttered break near midfield, not a clear breakaway.
Put it in context, too. It was only the sixth minute. This was a friendly. These teams weren't out for blood. There was nothing really at stake. It wasn't a violent two-foot slide tackle, it was a jersey tug at worst. The whole point of the match was for Bob Bradley and Reinaldo Rueda to evaluate their players, though the way Honduras played they might have actually wanted to prove a point. Should a man officiating international matches understand this?
Archundia's harsh early decision, led to where he had to send off Conrad for his foul in the box (which was somewhat dubious depending on the angle), thus ending any realistic chance to evaluate this match for the U.S. To counter my own argument, in theory Archundia could have given Conrad a red card in the box, if he really wanted.
Bottom line, this was a friendly and to give out a quick card like that instead of a warning nullified the entire purpose of the game. To use a line by my old pal Mike Francesa, Archundia was "Lawst" but so was Conrad, who's days with the U.S. effectively ended Saturday night.
Oh well. Thus is the state of officiating in the region.
That's not an excuse, since nothing the U.S. did while it had a full complement of XI men didn't do much to inspire. Again, this group of players, Soup Kitchen versions of the full U.S. team or not, did have roughly a month to train and looked like a group of players that never saw the field together.
Other stuff:
* As my father told me over the phone Sunday morning, "What was the point of this game other than money?" and "without Donovan this team doesn't know how to play." Summed up the entire night in about 1,000 less words than me. Bravo Pops!
* The Jeff Cunningham brief experiment doesn't seem to have much more of a shelf live. Granted he or Robbie Findley never saw much of the ball, but he's a guy that's essentially useless unless he scores. Trotting around the field at half speed is not the way to win the heart of Bradley the Elder.
* To put it nicely, Sacha Kljestan and Marvell Wynne likely don't see the field in a U.S. shirt for a long time. In fairness to Wynne, he does look about 45 years old.
* Troy Perkins. Egads. Who did he piss off to get stuck in goal for this one and the 5-0 drubbing to Mexico in the Gold Cup final?
* Robbie Rogers did have about the only U.S. highlight, a beautifully struck bomb from distance that rattled off the bad. Other than that, didn't seem to do much.
* Benny Feilhaber and Kyle Beckerman in the center of midfield? Didn't put their stamp onto the match.
* Good for Clarence Goodson scoring, though he got away with a power elbow to the head of the Honduran keeper. My one quibble with Bradley was why he waited until the second half to take off Cunningham and replace him with a defender. It's hard to say if another true central defender would have prevented Jerry Palacios' diving header. Then again, most coaches in Bradley's spot likely would have waited until halftime for a move.
* All the second-half subs, including the debut of Alejandro Bedoya didn't have much time to put any imprint on the match.
* From this match, how many guys get on the plane to South Africa? Feilhaber? Goodson? Findley? And of course, Bornstein.
Final thought:
I probably wrote more than I thought on a match that really didn't mean anything other than fan the flames for people that don't think MLS is a good way to prepare American players for international matches. Considering Honduras played a lineup of mainly domestic-based players, that makes the league look even worse.
Anyway, this was a game with very little to gain for the U.S. and once it went down to 10 men with 70 minutes left anything useful went down the tunnel and into the locker room with Jimmy Conrad.
Suffice to say, not the greatest way to kick of 2010, but nothing to lose any sleep over ... unless a couple more U.S. starters get hurt between now and June. The depth chart is like a Hollywood actress on a crash diet -- skeletal.
P.S. -- Carlos Pavon, Randy Watson called. He wants his hair back.
Labels: 2010 world cup, bob bradley, Friendlies, honduras, Soccer, USMNT
Im just waiting for all the people who ripped Jozy for "tweeting," too much to get started on Jimmy Conrad.
Some quick stats over WC2010 qualifying for those who believe the US cannot win with Brian Ching:
Record with Ching starting:
7-1-1 - Lone loss was at Azteca and the game was tied 1-1 when he left
Record with Ching sub:
2-0-0 - Protecting leads both times (successfully - no goals allowed)
Record without Ching:
4-2-1 - Includes both the Costa Rica and Trinidad STINK BOMBS away and the tie to the Ticos at home after we qualified.
Goal differential while Ching is on the pitch: 23-3 (+20)
Ching out: 19-12 (+7)
I'm not the biggest Ching fan-boy, but apparently that "he does the little things" idea has some merit. I loved Davies break-out as much as the next fan, but we don't have him anymore. Perhaps it's time to put in the guy who can get wins, even if they're ugly.
Also, I'm glad to see Conrad out. Met him at a signing; guy's a dick. Guess that means my signed ball ain't gunna be worth spit though.
If Marvelle looked 45, maybe it was because they ran out Marvelle Wynn, SR., who is about 45, maybe 50.