World Cup spinoff - Who should US start for red-card casualties Pope and Pablo?

Pope and Pablo cannot play thursday, correct?

If so, who does Arena go with? Does he tinker the alignment to reflect the losses? I didn't see Ghana so I dont have a scouting report ... but I would imagine perhaps Donovan falls back to playmaking MF with Reyna, with Dempsey and Convey on the wings ... and McBride is joined up front by ... Eddie Johnson?

In the back ... yikes. I suppose this Jimmy Conrad fellow, but perhaps Albright?

 

O'Brien for Mastroeni, Conrad for Pope.

 

Re: World Cup spinoff - Who should US start for red-card casualties Pope and Pab

I'd like to see Johnson start just because the USA hasn't been nearly aggressive enough to please me this week. Given the goal differential situation, the USA needs to punch holes in the net.

 

As Balboa pointed out during the final 10 minutes of the match, the fact that Eddie Johnson didn't get a chance today was -- my words -- pathetic and insane. What was Arena thinking? Granted, you're down one man so you play in a shell, but Johnson was the ONLY guy who showed any want-to against the Czechs and this is a team that still has zero goals. He should have gotten a shot in the final 20 minutes just to give it a shot. Find room for him in the lineup against Ghana.

 

Re: World Cup spinoff - Who should US start for red-card casualties Pope and Pab

As I noted on the main thread, Johnson did have the foot-in-mouth moment of saying WC play is like a war this week, and the press really grilled the Italian players about it coming in.

 

I think this is the most likely scenario. And not half bad, actually. O'Brien, when he's not injured, is pretty darn good. And Conrad got some experience today so he's not going to be all bright-eyed on Thursday. I can also see Albright, but I think Hattori is right on.

 

Moddy, you are correct. And yes, it's a positive result. US played a 9 men to the Azzurri's 10 for 43 of the 45 second half minutes. Combine that with the fact that Italy is regarded as one of the world's best teams and it adds up to a positive

 

As far as Eddie Johnson, I too felt he should have been brought in around the 75th minute, but in Arena's defense, you don't ever prepare to play 10 v 9. Plus, by the 80th minute, the U.S. had to be thinking to play for a tie. In that case, McBride dropped and his air ability could have proven valuable on set pieces for Italy.

 

I've never seen 10 v. 9...If stick around the game long enough, you will see anything.

As for Thursday...logical replacements appear to be O'Brien and Conrad.

Ghana is a scary team, it could have easily had 4 goals but Peter Cech (sp?) was stellar in goal

 

Re: World Cup spinoff - Who should US start for red-card casualties Pope and Pab

How about Freddy Adu?

 

Ghana also is without two strikers because they received yellow cards against the Czechs - their second consecutive games getting a yellow. so that kind of helps.