Assess the USA soccer situation here

He hasn't shown anything which would warrant that he play with the big boys. He was average for the U-20s (U-23s?) in the last tournament, and that is being generous. I've only seen him play a couple of games this year and didn't think that he stood out at all. He's too tiny for this level, especially when you consider that he really isn't that fast. I hope that he blossoms, but right now, he is a creation of Nike, MLS and Sierra Mist.

 

Webby, he dominated the Argentina game in the U-20s.
Maybe that wouldn't have been true had the idiot Argentina coach played Messi more than a half, but Freddy controlled that game, which was an impressive victory over the eventual champions. Adu did not play as well in subsequent games, but his excellence against Argentina is being lost in the rush to claim he played poorly in that event.

 

I didn't see him dominate that game, atlhough he played decently. He had a couple of nice runs and I think that he blew a PK. As you said, that was also his best game out of the three before we got knocked out.

I'd sooner take Marvell Wynne off of that team than Freddy.

 

Who would Freddy replace?

He isn't replacing McBride, an MVP for Fullham.
He isn't replacing Eddie Johnson, who scored 5-goals in 6-games for the full national team during qualifying and is nearly a foot taller than Freddy.
He isn't replacing Brian Ching, who at the time was leading MLS in goals scored and is nearly a foot taller than Freddy.
He isn't replacing Josh Wolff, who has more experience and has demonstrated the ability to much more of a playmaker than Freddy.

And if you say bring him instead of someone else, that means carrying 5-forwards instead of an extra defender or midfielder.

 

Being that our offense sucks, carrying 5 forwards wouldn't have been such a bad idea. Train the defense harder so they have more stamina so we don't have to carry an extra defender. If need be, stick a middie back there in a pinch. But damn, we need the offense. Or at least the threat of it.

 

I don't believe Freddy should have been on the WC squad.
Just defending the U-20 performance, for which he has been unduly criticized.

 

Um, no. You don't have 5-subs in 1-game. On top of that the 4 that were taken are vastly superior in every imaginable way to Freddy Adu. The kid is talented but he is nowhere close to reaching the level of any of those taken.

 

Only one striker showed anything and that was Dempsey.

No other strike did anything. So I'm not exactly sure where this vast superiority lays.

 

Adu played for the US against Canada in January. Why doesn't that rule him out for the Ghana side?

 

Dempsey isn't a striker.

And if you think that the strikers showed "nothing" then Freddy would have shown you even less.

I don't understand why you are hung up on Adu's jock but the kid is just that: a kid. He's not the best striker on his team let alone a top 5 in the country.

 

It does. I am almost positive that once you play for the senior national team, you are cap tied.

 

Some excellent points have been brought up during this discussion. Keller wasn't at fault for a single goal in this tournament - his defense left him out to dry time after time. His distribution was off, but that's never been his strong suit. Still, I realize he'd like to make another run at it in 2010, but I think it's time for the US to thank him for his time and hand him some fabulous parting gifts and move on to Howard and Quintin Westburg (the keeper from the US U-20s). Let's not forget he's now 0-4-1 in the World Cup.

Along those same lines, I hope someday when the US does finally win a World Cup (probably not for at least 25-30 years), someone remembers what a awful, awful player Reyna was. Much has been made of this being his fourth cup, but the numbers show that the team probably would be better off without him. In the 10 games he's appeared in, the USA is a horrid 1-7-2, with 16 GA, 8 GF. In the five games he missed - 4 in 1994, 1 in 2002 - the USA is 2-2-1, with 6 GF, 6 GA.

Until 2/3 of the US team is playing professionally overseas, this will continue to happen. Donovan, MLS' best player, has been exposed and I believe that says volumes about the quality of play in the league. Crass, Ives has a column now about how he should give up being comfortabl. I believe the phrase he used was something to the order of "pressure creates diamonds, bursts pipes, and exposes who can and can't play at the highest level." Dempsey was the only MLS-based player to look like they belonged out on the pitch, and that could be attributed to the same thing that made Donovan and Beasley look so good four years ago - they were unknown commodities. It'll be interesting to see what happens when teams are aware of what he can bring. Frankly, I think even the fact that few MLS-based players saw time speaks louder about the quality of the league than anything else. MLS is fine as a developmental league, but playing in Europe is still the only option if you want to improve to be the best in the world.

Yes, the officiating in this tournament has been just awful - not just toward the USA, but toward basically any country that isn't one of the main soccer powers. Someone pointed out the Croatian handling yesterday, and there was an even worse won in the Spain/Saudi Arabia game today, where a defender in a wall struck the ball with his hand in a wall - with his hand OVER his head. In no way when you jump can your hand be over your head unless you're intentionally putting it there. And yes, the ref yesterday issued three yellows to the same player - the same player who twice grabbed the referee as he was issuing a card to another player. I've almost wondered if the referees think they're being paid by the number of cards they issue.

Songbird, your hard-on for Adu shows how little you actually know. Guisseppi Rossi, a kid raised in the suburbs of NYC to Italian parents, playing in England now, and wants desperately to play for Italy, even though they won't have him, is the best young player in this country. Adu's probably 10 years away from contributing to the US team. All the rest is just hype. And don't think for a second Adu will ever go play for Ghana - he's not foolish enough to do that, knowing his true value is in the American marketing machine.

Arena got into trouble with this team in keeping his loyalty to certain players. Beasley, Donovan, Mastroeni, Olson, Reyna, Pope.... they all benefitted and contributed nothing to this team. Yes, he's a pompous, arrogant little prick. But someone said it before - we need more matches against the top teams in the world and fewer against Guatemala and Cuba and Hondouras. Whatever new coach comes in needs to remember two things - 1) the USA doesn't have anyone with the skill to control the midfield, and a 3-5-2 is the only formation the USA will have success with, and 2) Landon Donovan is not, never has been, and never will be, a forward in international play, so don't play him there.

Someone mentioned it a while back that FIFA might be the only organization more corrupt than the NCAA. While I don't give a whole lot of credibility to conspiracy theories, one thought keeps coming back to me. With South Africa scheduled to host the cup in four years, it looked bad that they didn't qualify for the thing this time around. But would it have looked even worse, if, with Blatter determined to make his mark with the growth of football in Africa, had no African nation escaped the group stage this time around as well? Ghana was the only African nation with a chance to advance, and the cynic in me wants to believe that even had the USA played well enough to win, that Ghana still would have ended up getting a late tying or game-winning goal. I'm not saying the match was fixed, because the USA didn't play like they wanted to win that match, but I just wonder....

The thing I'm happiest about with the loss - the soccer-bashers will disappear for another four years. All those posting on here about how soccer is a once-every-four-years sport, those are the ones who I don't have to hear from for four years. The soccer talk will continue, but without the snide remarks. I like the game and will continue to watch it. Frankly, I don't give two shits if anyone else does or not. I don't bash your sports, there's no need to bash mine. Follow that rule and we'll get along well.