The Official US Soccer thread

[Lorenzo]

Kljestan gives the ball away entirely too much for my liking. He was outplayed in the Olympics by Adu & Holden and was outplayed in Olympic qualifying by Dax McCarty as well.

I think Kljestan will be a fine player with some seasoning but he isn't deserving of being an automatic selection over Adu, Holden & McCarty and thats the problem I have with him.

The US needs a new coach, someone from outside the federation with freedom to make whatever changes he sees as being necessary. Favorites and old school loyalty are going to doom this teams growth and development.

I'm not saying automatic over any of those guys....just that I like him. holden or mcCarty can't remember which one gave up a golden opportunity in the olympics against the dutch. had a wide open teammate in a 2 v 1 and took a bad shot instead. all of these guys are young.....I just want to see them on the senior team as opposed to other guys who we already know cannot win outside of CONCACAF. demarcus beasley is having a terrible game tonight.

 

[Zeno]

Well the US won 1-0 but created maybe 2 dangerous chances all game. T&T managed to score 3 against Cuba and we get 1 and if it wasn't for Howards reflexes it would have been 1-1.

I realize a win is a win but the continuation of sloppy midfield play and lack of any cohesive attack is disappointing.

 

[Zeno]

I'm not saying automatic over any of those guys....just that I like him. holden or mcCarty can't remember which one gave up a golden opportunity in the olympics against the dutch. had a wide open teammate in a 2 v 1 and took a bad shot instead. all of these guys are young.....I just want to see them on the senior team as opposed to other guys who we already know cannot win outside of CONCACAF. demarcus beasley is having a terrible game tonight.

It was Holden who blew that chance.

I agree with you about giving young guys a chance. Bradley seems to be sticking with players too long...Johnson, Ching, Hejduk, Lewis, M. Bradley.

Edu & Beasley had poor games tonight, Dempsey had his best game in a long time. Donovan & the rest of the team was pretty average..not bad but not good either.

 

[Stout]

Well the US won 1-0 but created maybe 2 dangerous chances all game. T&T managed to score 3 against Cuba and we get 1 and if it wasn't for Howards reflexes it would have been 1-1.

I realize a win is a win but the continuation of sloppy midfield play and lack of any cohesive attack is disappointing.

Yeah, no kidding. Also, how bad is Ching? He had a golden long ball opportunity--you know, exactly the reason he's in the game--and he flubbed it out of bounds in a sad display.

We're not a good team. I'd hazard to say, right now, that we're a downright poor side. What happens when we don't play a Guatemala or a Cuba?

 

[cardfaninfl]

Yeah, shame on them for not performing better on a cow pasture that the ball could not travel 5 yards without hopping unpredictably... during a downpour.

The MNT has 3 away shut-out victories, and IMO this is very encouraging. This team will win with defense and opportunistic goals which they showed against Cuba. Offensively, there are real issues and mid-field possesion needs improvement, however, it does appear the game plan is to slow down play and attempt to keep possesion and string passes together. Bradley is trying to improve this problem.

The back-line controlled 99% of Cuba's attack along with help from Michael and Edu and should receive a better than average grade. I don't mind when Beasley has a bad game... what irritated me in the past was when he would disappear from a match. DeMarcus has stepped up his involvement and good or bad... I applaud his consistant effort.

Yes, the MNT is not winning pretty but they are getting results and attempting to improve their game. Yes, there are questionable decisions with the starting XI. Yes, they are not dominating inferior teams, but to imply or state they are a bad team is short sighted and simply taking the low road.

 

[Zeno]

Yes, they are not dominating inferior teams, but to imply or state they are a bad team is short sighted and simply taking the low road.

I won't say they are bad but they definitely are not very good. Still we are clearly the second best team in our Federation, at least Mexico puts a lineup on the field designed to score goals with the run of play. We play with 2 defensive midfielders and a target forward who can't create on his own to save his life.

We'll get to the WC and be the 3rd or 4th best team in our group and go out in the group stage..again.

 

[Stout]

Yeah, shame on them for not performing better on a cow pasture that the ball could not travel 5 yards without hopping unpredictably... during a downpour.

The MNT has 3 away shut-out victories, and IMO this is very encouraging. This team will win with defense and opportunistic goals which they showed against Cuba. Offensively, there are real issues and mid-field possesion needs improvement, however, it does appear the game plan is to slow down play and attempt to keep possesion and string passes together. Bradley is trying to improve this problem.

The back-line controlled 99% of Cuba's attack along with help from Michael and Edu and should receive a better than average grade. I don't mind when Beasley has a bad game... what irritated me in the past was when he would disappear from a match. DeMarcus has stepped up his involvement and good or bad... I applaud his consistant effort.

Yes, the MNT is not winning pretty but they are getting results and attempting to improve their game. Yes, there are questionable decisions with the starting XI. Yes, they are not dominating inferior teams, but to imply or state they are a bad team is short sighted and simply taking the low road.

So...what part of this sentence does NOT infer they are a bad team? Write this about another team in the world, and you'd assume they aren't very good. As Zeno says, Mexico is worlds ahead of us, and they have a real coach. We have a second-rate assistant to a second-rate national team head coach. Much as I liked Arena, his job was quite clearly to get our NT our of the stone age and onto the international map. Job done, but the fact remained that Arena was not the quality of coach needed to move forward. Well, if he wasn't, Bradley sure in the heck wasn't. We gave him chances, and he has constantly burned us. He is too damn thickheaded and downright stubborn in his stupidity in not calling in other players. The team is lacking leadership from the coaching staff on the pitch and i is glaringly obvious.

We're not even getting decent games against these nobody teams. One good individual goal and one good set piece goal...that's it. We're not setting up our offense, not even putting together average passing strings in the midfield, and our defense is shrinking back on itself, and back passes to the goalie far, far too often (which is dangerous). The scary thing is, we're doing it against teams like Cuba and Guatemala. We'd never won a WC qualifier in Guatemala, you might say? Well, that speaks to how horrific our team has been in the past, not to how good Guatemala is. If we played Mexico at home right now, they'd crush us.

Zeno is right. We'll get to the World Cup, and we'll promptly get eliminated...UNLESS we change coaches and try to move forward. No way we advance under Bradley. He can't even call Altidore in for a look see. Get rid of him, get us a real international coach, and we might have a chance. That isn't taking the low road; that's being realistic.

 

[gr000000vy]

LOL you guys are a riot.... Did you watch the game? It was lik ethe played the game in candlelight....

They go to Guatemala where they havent won in forever and get 3 points... then they go to Cuba in a hostile enviroment where they haven't won in forever and get another 3 points.....

US controlled the play and besides the late deflection on Howard weren't really threatened at all... I'm not saying Bradley is the answer but this was a win without Jozy and Adu.. Dempsey finally found the mark again....

To say Mexico is "worlds ahead of us" is a foolish statement....

otr.. i got my Tix for USA vs Guatemala today... first USA visit to DSG and I'm pumped!!

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

What has Mexico done lately that's all that special? They had a nice run in the Copa back in 2007, but not a whole lot else to speak of.

 

[Zeno]

Well it seems a writer with Soccer America feels the US is not making the progress it should...

U.S. national team running in place

By Mike Woitalla, Special to SI.com, Soccer America

HAVANA -- The most impressive performance from the U.S. after Saturday's 1-0 win over Cuba came after the game, when Landon Donovan kept a straight face as he said, "I thought we played very well."

In fact, the unconvincing effort against a soccer minnow was a stark reminder that the U.S. national team isn't making progress. "We created a lot of chances," said Donovan, although Cuban goalkeeper Odelin Molina only had to make one save.

Coach Bob Bradley said, "I thought once again we dealt well with some difficult conditions and came away with a good result."

Perhaps one can't fault Bradley for being pleased that his team has started the semifinal round of qualifying with two road wins. But shouldn't the nation's best players be able to trap balls and hit accurate passes even when the field isn't perfect?

Pointing out that the U.S. has won three World Cup qualifying games on the road for the first time isn't so impressive when reminded that the 1-0 wins came against teams -- Barbados, Guatemala and Cuba -- that haven't reached a World Cup since Cuba made an appearance in 1938.

And so very tiresome has become the refrain from players that these games are "battles" and not meant to be "pretty." All games are battles. Exceptional teams outplay their opponents rather than depending on muscle and the lucky bounce. And were it not for its superior goalkeeping, the U.S. wouldn't have its little win streak.

U.S. vs. Cuba should have been a game of cat and mouse. The problems start at the back. When defenders constantly kick the ball out of bounds and slam hopeful balls upfield, a possession game and clever buildup is off the table.

The central midfield against Cuba comprised Michael Bradley and Maurice Edu. In addition to their frequent misplaying of balls, they failed to bring any rhythm to the game. The vastly talented Donovan deserves a better supporting cast.

Bradley has started the last eight games in the central midfield with a variety of partners. It's time to question whether the team needs a more dynamic player in that role.

Left-sided midfielder DaMarcus Beasley, a player who has shown the ability to bring creativity to the field, was woefully inconsistent and one worries about his injury problems.

For sure, the Americans will cruise into the final round of qualifying, and they'll make it to fifth straight World Cup -- not a great feat from a region that will send as many as four teams to the finals.

What is most troubling about the soccer that coach Bradley has been putting on the field is that it isn't any better than what we saw in eight years under Bruce Arena, or in the previous four years under Steve Sampson.

 

[Zeno]

And yet another writer thinking the team isn't playing quite good enough...

The point is this: Although the U.S. team deserves full credit for winning two difficult road matches to begin this potentially treacherous round of qualifying, it has done so by using a combination of grit, good fortune and Howard. The Americans didn't create many quality chances against either Guatemala or Cuba, and with all due respect to Brian Ching, who next to Howard was the best player on the field Saturday, their forwards still simply cannot score.

Even the once-dynamic duo -- Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley -- seems to have contracted the dreaded anti-goalitis. Beasley missed two golden chances against Cuba (one was correctly ruled offside, but still), while Donovan, who was playing so far from goal that at times he resembled a third defensive midfielder, hasn't looked truly dangerous for the national team in a long, long time.


Coach Bob Bradley has done a fine job getting his charges to buy into the team-defense philosophy. But once a berth in the final round of CONCACAF qualifying is in the bag, the games will get only tougher. As important as it is to have your defensive house in order, the fact of the matter is, you have to score goals to win games.

Sooner or later, one goal won't be enough.

 

[Zeno]

For an idea how sorry our Federation is and how we dominate...

Since losing to Honduras at RFK in September 2001, the U.S. team is 37-0-10 at home vs. CONCACAF opponents in all competitions, including 8-0-2 against Mexico. The scoring margin is 106-15.

We've gone 2 - 6 - 2 in the WC since then. Our wins were against another CONCACAF opponent in Mexico and Portugal. Success in qualifying does not equal success in the WC.

 

[Stout]

Good finds, Zeno. It's funny watching folks trying to paint turds, which is what our performances have been thus far. Oooh, we managed to sneak away with 1 goal wins over Cuba and Guatemala. Those are two giants, for us to squeak by!

 

[gr000000vy]

Good finds, Zeno. It's funny watching folks trying to paint turds, which is what our performances have been thus far. Oooh, we managed to sneak away with 1 goal wins over Cuba and Guatemala. Those are two giants, for us to squeak by!

it's pretty funny when a team gets put down down by someone who must not even watch the games....

most of the cuba game they were stacking almost everyone in the box hence why our midfield was so open... i love the fact we are going to these hostile enviroments and getting results, all of the stats you posted were mainly from friendly USA so of course we will dominate. argentina just tied paraguay... england barely beat friggin andorra....

did we play attractive football in a hostile environment? heck no... will we have to play better if we are to get a shot of moving out of the group? heck yes.... bottom line is getting to the WC at this point which is why I can't understand the diminished roles of Adu and Jozy....

I'm not a bradley fan by any stretch but you guys are ridiculous... i'm sure i could go find some off the way beat writers who think the same way but i'm not going to waste my time and i'm going to think on my own....

 

[cardfaninfl]

And yet another writer thinking the team isn't playing quite good enough...

Quote:
The point is this: Although the U.S. team deserves full credit for winning two difficult road matches to begin this potentially treacherous round of qualifying, it has done so by using a combination of grit, good fortune and Howard. I would agree with two-thirds of this statement and find nothing wrong with winning with grit and Howard. The good fortune remark attempts to say they were lucky but failes to back it up with an example. That just doesn't hold water.The Americans didn't create many quality chances against either Guatemala or Cuba, Agreed... but what this "writer" fails to communicate or probably understand is that holding possession is a tactic used to protect a lead. and with all due respect to Brian Ching, who next to Howard was the best player on the field Saturday, their forwards still simply cannot score. Brian Ching the second best player on the pitch... wow, this guy sure knows alot about soccer

Even the once-dynamic duo -- Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley -- seems to have contracted the dreaded anti-goalitis. Beasley missed two golden chances against Cuba (one was correctly ruled offside, but still), while Donovan, who was playing so far from goal that at times he resembled a third defensive midfielder, hasn't looked truly dangerous for the national team in a long, long time. And there we have it. For people who have never played the game and dopes who don't watch the match and just base their opinion on the score... if you don't score, then you are not playing "quite good enough"


Coach Bob Bradley has done a fine job getting his charges to buy into the team-defense philosophy. Classic back-handed compliment that is always followed by why this is a bad idea... this guy should win the Pulitzer any day now.But once a berth in the final round of CONCACAF qualifying is in the bag, the games will get only tougher. Thanks Captain.As important as it is to have your defensive house in order, the fact of the matter is, you have to score goals to win games. The fact of the matter is, you have to limit your oppositition to fewer goals than you to win games

Sooner or later, one goal won't be enough. In the past and in the future, for a good defensive team that controls possession, one goal is more than enough

Yeah, really great find.

 

[Zeno]

Sooner or later, one goal won't be enough. In the past and in the future, for a good defensive team that controls possession, one goal is more than enough

Yeah, really great find.

So you honestly think we've been good enough creating chances and possesing the ball to not ever have to worry about scoring more than 1 goal a game? Really? You think the defense and goalkeeping is so good that we will never have to score 2 or 3 goals to win a game? Seriously? Wow.

Mexico is scoring goals...5 goals in 2 games so far in qualifying against Jamaica & Honduras (2 better teams than we've played so far)....we aren't. Heck Trinidad scored 3 goals against Cuba on the same field we managed only 1 and only managed maybe 2 more shots on goal.

 

[gr000000vy]

well using that philosophy Man U tied Newcastle and Newcastle was crushed by Arsenal so we may as well give the title to them right now right?

I don't think anyone is saying we are world beaters right now and only need to score 1 goal per game to win, but you guys are losing sight of the big picture here which is to qualify for the WC. Sure US has some serious flaws but to nit pick these past results just doesnt make sense.... Howard made what maybe two great saves? what else did he have to do the entire game but look around and see what lights were burned out because we dominated possession....

 

[Zeno]

What good is dominating possesion if you can't do anything offensively with the ball?

 

[Stout]

Okay, for starters, anyone bagging on me or others, trying to say we obviously didn't watch the game needs to simply shut their gobs. Harsh? Yeah, but well deserved. I could easily tell you, because your opinion sounds blind to me, the same damn thing. Enough said. I watch the matches (and admit if I miss one), and I know what I'm watching, mkay?

First of all, would Brazil, Argentina, or Italy (sorry, but England SUCKS internationally) go down to Guatemala and be intimidated by the atmosphere? Be thrilled just to walk away with a win? No. They'd expect to walk in and take the match, and score quite a bit. It says a lot about U.S. soccer fan's expectations that grabbing a victory there feels like a huge accomplishment. And the fact that we hadn't ever won a WC qualifier there isn't a mark of how well we played in finally grabbing that win, but rather a mark of how bloody awful we've been in the past.

Let's look at that Guatemala game, shall we? That's the game where they continually attacked with gusto, had better chances, and pressed our keeper sorely, right? Where we managed to score a good set-piece goal because our man went totally unmarked, yes? We were awful--AWFUL--in that game, and it was an ebarassment.

Let's move on to the Cuba game. We looked better than we did in Guatemala, I'll grant the team that. Still, whenever Cuba had the ball in our half of the pitch (often when our midfield simply passed it to them), I was nervous as hell. Our offense generated very little. We did score on a good individual effort, and we did have more chances than in the previous match. Still, TWO shots on target? Against Cuba? Really? Oh, and Cuba put more balls on the net than we did? WOW. I call that unacceptable, and I cannot believe anyone else would be thrilled, pleased, or even unconcerne with that.

Someone mentioned that we might be a little uneducated about soccer because we were using goals as measuring sticks, especially looking at Donovan and Beasley. Uh, being goal scorers (a striker/attacking midfielder and an attacking midfielder respectively), then yes, that's exactly how you measure their worth. Beasley gets a free pass from me, for the time being. He still needs to regain his form. Donovan gets a bit of lenience too because of the lack of quality going towards him. Still, we need the threat of real scoring, and we need it from somewhere. We have T and T at home. If we can't rack up a few goals against them, it will be shameful.

And finally, to the coaching. I find it hysterical that in one sentence Bradley is defended (again, we supposedly don't know what we're talking about), and in the next we're hearing concerns about his selection. Hmm...

Okay, so Zeno and I are supposedly worried over nothing. Someone from the other side please enlighten us as to why we should expect a reasonable chance to not only make it to the WC, but to advance at least past the group stages, if not farther. Because, really, after the progress that had been made in years past, why should we settle for mediocrity any more?

 

[gr000000vy]

What good is dominating possesion if you can't do anything offensively with the ball?

last time i checked you can't score if you don't have the ball....

Okay, for starters, anyone bagging on me or others, trying to say we obviously didn't watch the game needs to simply shut their gobs. Harsh? Yeah, but well deserved. I could easily tell you, because your opinion sounds blind to me, the same damn thing. Enough said. I watch the matches (and admit if I miss one), and I know what I'm watching, mkay?

give me a friggin break Brazil tied Peru and lost to Paraguay in World Cup qualifers let's fire Dunga right? he clearly has no idea what he is doing.... i'm sure they would trade those for our 1 nil victories anyday... mexico beat hondourus team 2-1 and a jamica team 3-1, not exactly setting the world on fire.....

i'm not going to blindly defend Bradley and his selections or the USA team but the bottom line is the 3 pts and i'm not going to pick sides and say i'm not worried about getting out of the group stage because i am.... are we a top 10 nation in soccer right now? nope.. i do however believe that soccer is growing in the US and our player base has way more depth then it ever has... if Rossi had decided to play for USA than the only area i would be still concerned with is our back 4...

 

[Zeno]

last time i checked you can't score if you don't have the ball....

Last I checked you could have the ball for 90 minutes and if you fail to put it in the back of the net you still get a big goose egg on the scoreboard.

Possession doesn't mean squat if you can't score goals.

Sure you can't lose if you aren't scored on but you can't win if you don't score.

If you can't admit the US has a problem scoring goals I really don't know what else to say.

 

[Stout]

last time i checked you can't score if you don't have the ball....



give me a friggin break Brazil tied Peru and lost to Paraguay in World Cup qualifers let's fire Dunga right? he clearly has no idea what he is doing.... i'm sure they would trade those for our 1 nil victories anyday... mexico beat hondourus team 2-1 and a jamica team 3-1, not exactly setting the world on fire.....

i'm not going to blindly defend Bradley and his selections or the USA team but the bottom line is the 3 pts and i'm not going to pick sides and say i'm not worried about getting out of the group stage because i am.... are we a top 10 nation in soccer right now? nope.. i do however believe that soccer is growing in the US and our player base has way more depth then it ever has... if Rossi had decided to play for USA than the only area i would be still concerned with is our back 4...

Then what do you suggest needs done to maximize our chances of getting out of the group stage? And why haven't we done it?

 

[gr000000vy]

If you can't admit the US has a problem scoring goals I really don't know what else to say.

Never stated that i was happy with 1 nil victories or with our goal scoring... said i was happy with the 3 points and i believe the games will make them more battle tested down the road. i don't think the past two results mean the sky is falling or mean it's time to panic...

Then what do you suggest needs done to maximize our chances of getting out of the group stage? And why haven't we done it?

i think for starters he needs to select a better starting 11.... Why Adu wasn't picked or why jozy wasn't picked is beyond me... right now we are playing it safe and we lack pace and creativity... give adu and jozy and the rest of the young ones a couple years to help inject some more life into donovan, dempsey and beasley... if ALLOWED i believe this team has the chance to be very fast and creative.....

 

[Stout]

Never stated that i was happy with 1 nil victories or with our goal scoring... said i was happy with the 3 points and i believe the games will make them more battle tested down the road. i don't think the past two results mean the sky is falling or mean it's time to panic...



i think for starters he needs to select a better starting 11.... Why Adu wasn't picked or why jozy wasn't picked is beyond me... right now we are playing it safe and we lack pace and creativity... give adu and jozy and the rest of the young ones a couple years to help inject some more life into donovan, dempsey and beasley... if ALLOWED i believe this team has the chance to be very fast and creative.....

For the first paragraph, I already had grave doubts about Bradley as a coach, so the team's performace thus far has only served to push me over the edge.

As for the second, you make a lot of sense. NOW is the time to get Adu and Altidore some quality starts in WC qualifiers, so they have some experience to take to the WC. I'm scared out of my gourd that they aren't in Bradley's plans AT ALL for WC 2010, and that would be catastrophic. If he doesn't start calling these guys in for the next round of qualifiers, Bradley MUST go. We cannot allow a third-rate (can't even manage second-tier, IMO) coach to ruin our WC 2010.

 

[Chaplin]

If we are such a bad team, I'm curious what all you guys think the Argentina result showed, if anything.

It's just been "we suck, we suck, we suck" for months now, and yet it seems like the draw with Argentina is forgotten. It may be a fluke, but I'd like to hear why all you guys are ignoring it.