All-Purpose, Never-Ending Soccer Thread

Full time, 4-1 to the Argies. If GolTV shows one more shot of Diego Maradona, I'm turning them in to Joe McCarthy.

Bad? Yeah, kinda. Bad as it could've been? No. The US showed a decent amount of spunk and actually tried to play some. I don't think playing that high of a line is advisable with this bunch of players, though.

The good news is Bob has three days to get the kids' heads back in shape and ready for Paraguay. A result there makes the Colombia game much more interesting.

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NOLU, there's a reason Ray Hudson does TV.

 

No. Not even close.
Max Bretos isn't just intolerable on FSC, he's an idiot. He misses calls, bellows too loud and basically gets in the way of someone trying to watch the match. I preferred Univision and I don't speak spanish. The play-by-play guy for Gol TV isn't bad. The other guy with the fakey accent is annoying, but no one can touch Bretos for bad sports commentary.

I was very proud of the US guys tonight. A team full of kids and also-rans -- together now for three days -- flustered one of the world's most talented squads for at least an hour. It should have been closer than 4-1, but our guys gave in to fatigue when it reached 2-1.

 

couldn't agree more

 

I watched the game on Telefutura and judging by some of the responses it was the same television feed as GolTV.

Here is my take on the individual player performances from last night. It wasn’t a pretty game, but it wasn’t as awful as the score reflected.

18-Kasey Keller (capt.) – 7 – I thought his communication with the backline was a bit poor, but wasn’t what caused the score. He, maybe, could have come off his line a bit quicker on the first goal, but I’m guessing he was screened and couldn’t. He did make some phenomenal saves early on as well, particularly Veron’s blast.

2-Marvell Wynne – 3 – I really like this guy. I like his speed. I like him adding offense from the back. For whatever reason, he was left hanging on the sideline waiting for a through-ball to run on to multiple times. He did not play great defense and allowed in a cross on several occasions, most famously the goal by header.

3-Jay DeMerit – 5 – I don’t think he had an awful game. I just think he was off his line a bit. He was the one that didn’t move forward enough keeping the Argentine on-side for a beautiful run to goal. Bad play.

12-Jimmy Conrad – 7 – I am of the belief that he is probably the best center back we have on the roster. His head is much more in the game and he doesn’t take stupid fouls like Onyewu. He made some great stops on the back line and really kept things in order, for the most part.

13-Jonathan Bornstein – 5 – He was burned bad a few times. This isn’t much of a surprise as Argentina’s team was stacked. I thought he tried to make some quick runs and he did have a few good steals. He was definitely more involved in the attack than Wynne.

5-Benny Feilhaber – 7 – I thought he had a good game. He took some chances and was at least willing to shoot from outside the box. The guy is really coming into form and I like him on the roster. I can’t say he had awful game as his hands were really tied up.

19-Ricardo Clark - 4 – This wasn’t a great game for Clark. The Argies were just too much for him at times and he ended up trying to cover for Wynne, Bornstein and DeMerit a bit too often. I also felt that a few of his passes, while they had good thought, didn’t have enough pace to make it though the open space.

(17-Kyle Beckerman, 79) – 3 – Sucked. He brought nothing with him. Sure, he wasn’t on very long, but he didn’t belong out there.

14-Ben Olsen – 8 – It is small wonder that the flood gates opened after he left the pitch. No, it wasn’t Eddie Gaven’s fault. It was actually a testament to how damn good Olsen was at tracking back on defense. The guy was great. He didn’t add a tremendous amount to the attack, but I don’t think he was added because of that. I think Bradley was figuring that Wynne would become more involved going forward because he knew Olsen wouldn’t be. Wynne didn’t go forward so on came…

(11-Eddie Gaven, 62) – 5 – He didn’t track back the way Olsen did. This was obvious to everyone. But that isn’t his job. His job is to push forward and get involved in the attack. I like this kid and I liked that had the ball at his foot and was near the box. I liked that he attempted a shot. No, it didn’t result in much, but I liked his work rate.

21-Justin Mapp – 5 – Like Gaven, this guy was there to provide offense. And, like Gaven, I liked his work rate. I liked his effort. He just couldn’t push enough and get around people. There were times where he looked a bit lost as to what to do with the ball. He pushed forward and then… nothing.

20-Taylor Twellman – 5 – I didn’t hate Twellman in this game. Really. He at least provided effort. He ran quite a bit. His big downside was positioning. He didn’t seem to be able to find the open space or he tracked back way too far way too often.

(8-Herculez Gomez, 69) – 3 – Crap. The guy brought nothing to the table. Nothing.

9-Eddie Johnson – 4 – Eddie Johnson showed me last night that he just has no confidence. Maybe he’ll get it later on. He also showed me that he’s soft and has absolutely no touch on the ball, and he knows it. After going down for the PK, which you could see he didn’t want to shoot until it was a dead ball, he didn’t run at anyone. He didn’t take a shot. He provided some speed. He ran onto balls and then… he would stop. He would pull the ball back. Why? You are the striker, Eddie, shoot the fucking ball! The guy has a world of pace yet instead of beating out the backline, which he should be able to, he pulled the ball back and passed it off to someone else.

 

I was disappointed with the result considering how well the Yanks played for 60 minutes or so. Once Argentina went ahead, there was little we could do. All four goals were splendid and well placed.

Justin Mapp really impressed me, and so did Jimmy Conrad. Where was Taylor Twellman? And after Eddie Johnson scored, he did nothing too.

The US boys played about as well as they could. Just ran out of steam. Paraguay looks to be pretty tough, but Colombia looked pretty bad. That might be our best chance for a result.

 

He was continuing to validate Arena and Bradley for keeping him a minor part of the proceedings.

 

Pastor: excellent take on Conrad. He was a lot easier to watch than Onyewu, who had me screaming at my television constantly during the Gold Cup because he was out of position on virtually every enemy rush and a good many set pieces.

The more I watch Feilhaber, the more I like him.

 

Qualifying rounds for the Champions League:
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/ucl/news/kind=1/newsid=556352.html

First legs to be played July 17/18
Second legs to be played July 24/25

Besiktas (Turkey) v Sheriff (Moldova)/Rangers (Andorra)
Hafnarfjordur (Iceland)/HB (Faroe Islands) v APOEL (Cyprus)/BATE (Belarus)
Kobenhavn (Denmark) v Beitar Jerusalem (Israel)
TNS (Wales)/Ventspils (Latvia) v Salzburg (Austria)
Crvena Zvezda (Hungarian) v Pobeda (FYR Macedonia)/Levadia (Estonia)
Olimpi (Georgia)/Astana (Kazakhstani) v Rosenborg (Norway)
Glasgow Rangers (Scotland) v Zeta (Montenegro)/Kaunas (Lithuania)
Tampere (Finland)/Murata (San Marino) v Levski (Bulgaria)
Dudelange (Luxembourg)/Zilina (Slovakia) v Slavia Prague (Czech Republic)
Debrecen (Hungaria) v Linfield (N.Ireland)/Elfsborg (Sweden)
Derry (Ireland)/Pyunik (Armenia) v Shakhtar (Ukraine)
Genk (Belgium) v Marsaxlokk (Malta)/Sarajevo (Bosnia)
Domzale (Slovenia)/Tirana (Albania) v Lenkoran (Azerbajian)/Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia)

Decent draw for Rangers (the Scottish ones), especially since Kaunas is basically Hearts' feeder club now. Interesting to see Croatian and Swedish clubs starting in the first round.

And since when does San Marino get clubs in the Champions League? As I recall, the Andorran and San Marinese champs only got into the UEFA Cup.

 

Beasley's return to European competition.

Jen Chang's take on last night's game. It is a damn good breakdown. He pointed out Messi's switch away from Bornstein, which I neglected to mention or factor in.

 

Question is, was it away from Bornstein or toward Wynne? Marvell was in over his head and the Argies knew it.

 

That was sickening. I understand the point they were trying to make, but you don't try to spin a 4-1 loss into a positive.

 

There is a reason I watched the Telemundo feed (aside from not having GolTV).

It was, in my estimation, a bit of both. If Bornstein wasn't doing the job he was doing, the switch would have never been made.