Argentina vs Uruguay should be interesting but the match I'm waiting for is Netherlands vs Brazil. The winner there should meet Argentina in the finals although I'm still holding out hope for Spain
Carter played against Slovenia early and his plays was just as poor, he is a one foot player who just is not that good imho. That and a defensive scheme that still left opposing players running unmarked consistently and whatever Bradley was trying to do, it was not getting through to his team. And if I had a nickel for every pass that was just off target, or ball through the middle of the opponents goal box that was no where near a US player on the rush and the whole effort just misfired constantly and kept on misfiring.
i always get to root for argentina and pull that card out of my pocket because my mom was born and grew up there. still not quite the solace i want lol for the US losing
I saw Ireland-Italy game at Giants Stadium in '94 for 75 bucks. We scalped the tickets right before the game too. You will get a lot of fans who will have extra tickets from people bailing out on them on the last minute and who are just looking to get rid of the tickets, avoid the scalpers.
Understandable... But as the Spaniards say..."ESCUDO!" The busted their balls to win that match. I heard all of that before. They got beat. Did it help..yes...But the US showed what it was capable of and the expectations to be expected. They fell SHORT...one round of expectations. I said before the tournament that I would be happy with a quarters appearance. We are not there....so FAILURE. Ultimate failure..IMO of course. NOTHING to be proud of...plenty to be pissed off about.
MLS should do everything in their power to bring Benny Feilhaber back. He is not expected back with his Danish team that was relegated to the 2nd division there. IMO, he is the next "great" US player.
The biggest thing holding US Soccer back is youth development. The majority of the developmental programs in the US (including some MLS academies and the ODP) still use a pay-for-play format...meaning aspiring players have to pay to enter these programs. Considering there are 18 million people playing soccer in the US, this means a huge portion of the prospective players are not receiving adequate training. In turn they will eventually flame out of the sport. What we see at the USMNT are the best players that can afford to play. Until all MLS teams (like NYRB and Chicago) have completely free developmental programs and active scouts are searching the full landscape in search of players, we'll always lag behind. When MLS was initiated it would have been essential for them to have started their youth development system then. If this was done, the USMNT would likely be a much stronger side and MLS as a whole would have far greater quality.
Blue Samurai! Japan were fun to watch [We could've used Honda on the USA free kicks...] so I hope to see more of them.
after i went out, had some fun and thought about it, i thought about dempsey. i was kind of hard on him earlier. but really, if he were allowed to play full time striker with altidore or buddle he would be much more effective, imo. but bradley would refuse to let benny play the wing
I think Charlie Davis's injury really set this team back. I wonder how far we would have gone had he been playing
agree completely. one thing though that will help the sport is that we actually have a poster boy in donovan for a kid to want to aspire to be
dempsey and davies up front with feilhaber and donovan on the wings is something i would be happy with. and onyewu was never ready
also, makes me wonder if this is the reason why were are under represented by mexican-americans. a lot of these kids grow up on a soccer culture. hell, i worked a restaurant. these guys even played on tennis courts, with a few of them playing in leagues to my guess, there should be about 8 or 9 mexican americans on this team. why not?
davies was the striker we lacked. he was averaging a goal every other game in europe i believe which is the type of player we desperately needed this tourney. just bad luck he was in a car crash before the tourney
A little late to the party but here is my $.02: 1) Tim Howard is as much to blame for the first goal (maybe the second too) as ricardo clarke....First rule of goalkeeping, never let them score on your front post. He was grossly out of position. He got caught in between making a decision to come out or stay in. As a GK myself, I am hardly one to blame the GK. But, Tim Howard needs to be held responsible. In fact, if you watch most of the goals scored on the US in this tournament you will see Tim out of position. Too far off his line and not protecting his front side. You cant stand on your 6 yard line and expect to get back in time to cut of the angle or stop the chip shot. Not at that level. When i train GK's and when i trained as a GK, this was one of the first fundemntals we learned. ANGLES are the key and Tim misjudged. 2) The US had TWO one on one's with the Ghana Keeper and both times missed or lost control of the ball. In those situations and from that close you cannot miss, and not only that, the ball needs to be put on goal to give someone else a chance to follow. I noticed 3 or four times, not a single US player was there to follow a shot. Fitness was lacking in the first half.... was the 2 day turnaround too little time? I think the emotions spent and physical nature of the game against Algeria was too much to be able to come back two days later and expect the same effort from these guys. 3) The first 5 minutes and last minutes of the half in soccer are always the most importan times. The US was sorely lacking in effort @ the beginning of every game! This is the issue that Pissed me off the most. If my team came out as flat as the US did in the world cup, i would be embarressed. This is Bob Bradley's fault in my opinion and something needs to be done about this. You cant expect to come from behind every game. Its too much to ask for in a game that just doesnt see a lot of scoring. 4) Men's soccer in America is always going to be behind the times i believe. Not only because of how expensive a sport it is to play, but because there really is such a small percentage of people who can actually make money playing the game. Until the MLS becomes big, soccer will continue to be a 3rd or 4th rate sport for boys to play. The emphasis on making money in sports is so high, that kids these days only play "money" sports. Other countries emphasize playing soccer, because that is really the only way to play a professional sport. There are hardly any other options. 5) Women's soccer in the US has the same hurdles that men's soccer does in the ways of paying for play and other sports options being around. But women soccer in the US flourishes, because other countries have the same problems we do with men's soccer. Their women started playing the game later than our women and have less emphasis on playing sports.
excellent post. i agree that howard was to blame on the first goal. horrible positioning. also agree that we had no legs in the first half and it was probably due to the short turnaround and the emotional rollercoaster our team had been on. we are producing better teams every time we go to the world cup and we're pretty close to being able to put together a team that can realistically challenge the Brazils and Argentinas and Germany. Hopefully next time out we'll have some serious scorers to threaten the other teams with
we have to be honest with ourselves and admit that our current forwards (buddle, findley, altidore and gomez) would probably never have converted the two plays that were executed for goals for ghana. we didnt have that guy on the team. they would have bobbled it for a goal kick or missed wide.
1) agree, but although tim seems like a great guy, if he were honest he would tell you that he had no faith in the guys in front of him 2) its a problem with altidore. he looks like he gives up at times. we left a lot of goals on the pitch. im not sure on fitness, though onyewu was not ready to play and it stretched everyone else 3) not to mention his starting lineup. just awful. i see no reason to retain bradley. 4) money is a problem for sure. and those guys will never make as much as most other players in other sports. but soccer can be sold to kids in a lot of ways. if nothing but an alternative for a great athlete in college or high school that has a low ceiling in his sport of choice because of skill or size limitations. recruiting needs to take a major leap. there is a whole other world out there of athletics that kids may never consider. soccer is an outstanding alternative. get a great athlete out on the pitch and he will fall in love with the sport 5) the women's side is an interesting one that doesnt get mentioned
i agree although with altidore i just felt that he had some bad luck today. the shot he made that went just wide while he was falling down was actually a very nice shot. just bad luck that it went barely wide. a foot to the left and that might have been the best shot of the tourney for the US
Germany is manhanding this poor English team, I love Podolski, that guy is great....thanks for coming England...buh bye now...
wow they got boondoggled....I take back in words of them being a poor team......they are playing inspired ball..
cursed team. this is the second time its happened to them when they play germany. the first one was counted. maybe the soccer gods just made up for the first call [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__MJV11nRqU"]YouTube- World Cup 1966 - Goal by Geoff Hurst - In or Out?[/ame]
