Topic: US Soccer Thread: (Read 1706 times)

thedrUNKenLoper · « **on:** May 25, 2009, 12:22:20 AM »

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/soccer/05/24/wcup.us.roster.ap/index.html

Our roster for World Cup Qualifying

architechguy · « **Reply #1 on:** May 27, 2009, 02:24:28 PM »

These two games are huge for the US. While it won't be the biggest setback, a loss in Costa Rica would be really bad momentum in a time when they really need to build some up. They're only one point ahead of Costa Rica in the standings, so a loss would drop them to 2nd. They need at least a tie out of what I consider the second toughest game in the entire qualifying campaign. Costa Rica is probably the wildest, harshest, craziest home stadium in the region, you'll see plenty of road flares and ziplock bags of urine thrown at the US players. Plus, games in Central America are tough for our European based players used to the cold and rain, adjusting to the heat and humidity of the jungle is a tough adjustment. So between this game and the home match against Honduras, two wins would put the US is complete control of the group, a win and a tie would be par for the course, any less than that and it could be a tight finish with the next game being the dreaded game in Mexico City.

Speaking of soccer... Champions League Final this afternoon. Can't possibly get a better matchup than this, Manchester United vs Barcelona. I'm DVRing it to watch it when I get home.

architechguy · « **Reply #2 on:** June 04, 2009, 10:31:47 PM »

That must have been ugly, thank God I didn't watch that loss last night. Losing in Costa Rica is one thing, getting outplayed from the opening whistle and barely even trying to compete is a whole different story. The home game this weekend is a must win now, Honduras can tie the US in the standings with a win, and Mexico can climb to only 1 point back if they win. A win over Honduras gives them breathing room for the following game in Mexico City. Winning there probably ain't gonna happen, because it never has before. That means it's must win time this weekend, or the the last 5 games will be an adventure.

thedrUNKenLoper · « **Reply #3 on:** June 04, 2009, 11:07:00 PM »

Barf is all I want to say and I too didnt watch it but am disapointed with the outcome.

thedrUNKenLoper · « **Reply #4 on:** June 08, 2009, 03:34:10 AM »

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/jonah_freedman/06/07/usa.honduras/index.html?eref=sihp

US did pull out a win last night who may have watched, E I know you ran and hide especially since Brazil easily won earlier in the day.

architechguy · « **Reply #5 on:** June 08, 2009, 06:34:44 PM »

This is a frustrating team to watch. They seem to be playing the wrong style, one that doesn't suit what they do best. The writer here makes a good point that we try to play that 1-2 passing game like the Dutch, which is great to watch, we just don't have the technical ability to run it. We need to embrace the ugly, if the US is going to be good, we're gonna have to be the scrappy, nitty gritty team that outworks opponents and scores goals on the counter attack. We're not going to be a possession team that can pass circles around the opponent and scores flashy goals.

The style we play now is prone to mental lapses, when our game is off we can get circles run around us, like Costa Rica did. Then we stick our tail between our legs and play like a bunch of vajays.

The silver lining here is that at least we ain't Mexico! They're in shambles right now! The US has a puncher's chance of scoring their first win in Mexico City EVER! Doing that could land a death blow to Mexico's qualification chances. The other silver lining here is that when the US qualifies (which they're going to do, they're just going to have to work a little harder than usual), they won't go into the World Cup so vastly overrated like they did in 2006. Lower expectations, plus a non-European host for this World Cup means the US has a decent chance at a nice World Cup run. A week from today, we'll get a litmus test on that, the Confederations Cup starts next week and Italy is the first team up, followed by Brazil and Egypt.

architechguy · « **Reply #6 on:** June 15, 2009, 05:03:52 PM »

The Confederations Cup starts today. Team America squares off against the Azzurri in South Africa. This is pretty much the dress rehearsal for the World Cup next year. USA-Italy today, USA-Brazil on Thursday, USA-Eqypt on Friday. Regardless of how the USA does in the tournament, we'll get to see what this team really looks like. Playing against small Central America teams, we never really get to play our true style because the opponents usually resort to nickel and dime tactics like diving and stalling to keep the US from playing the up tempo pace, 1-2 passing style we like to play.

With Brazil and Italy in the group, the US couldn't possibly have a tougher group at the World Cup next year, the seeding will pretty much guarantee that two teams of their caliber wouldn't be in the same group. If we want to get to the knockout round, we need no worse than a tie against each, then beat Egypt.

In other interesting news. The US team jumped the gun a little and reserved the most coveted training ground for the World Cup next year. They beat the Italians to the punch. The US also leads all countries in ticket purchases (they may be second to England, not sure). Either way, there will be more US fans at these games than there will be at our home qualifier matches.

thedrUNKenLoper · « **Reply #7 on:** June 15, 2009, 08:38:36 PM »

Disapointing 3-1 loss to Italy today in which the US had a 1-0 lead with 30 min to go in the game before Italy came back with three goals.

architechguy · « **Reply #8 on:** June 15, 2009, 09:56:52 PM »

Well that sucks even more because it was an American that scored two goals for Italy. The traitor was born in New Jersey but picked Italy instead. The first two goals for Italy were the result of bad defense by the US. Both were long range shots that you shouldn't even allow to be taken. You can't give the attackers space, you can't play back on your heels and backpedal. If you do that, you give the attacker two options, both are bad. They can either shoot uncontested, or run right around you because you're not in position to change directions without fouling. The difference between the US team and the stronger European teams is pressure, when we touch the ball there's a defender on the ball carrier as soon as he touches it. We don't do that nearly as well and the results are obvious.

thedrUNKenLoper · « **Reply #9 on:** June 15, 2009, 10:12:22 PM »

Well what if we have a solid defender in the game who isn't going to give that space due to a called "RED" card. Yeah you can argue the call that it was too hard and what have you but that seemed to be a difference not having him out there. But it really stings knowing that a kid born and raised in this country was the main difference in why the USA didn't claim a win today. Not going to get easier because a point of 1 or 3 was huge today since Brazil is next (look for them to be angry after surviving today) and the Pharoahs a.k.a Eygpt after that so a point of any sort was huge today.

thedrUNKenLoper · « **Reply #10 on:** June 16, 2009, 01:36:54 AM »

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=266843&&cc=5901

Hsker4Life · « **Reply #11 on:** June 16, 2009, 02:07:51 PM »

That red card was absolutely bogus. Even the pansy Italian who acted like he had just been shot said it shouldn't have been a red card.

architechguy · « **Reply #12 on:** June 18, 2009, 05:31:22 PM »

Brazil was just flexin' their pimp hand this afternoon. All they really had to do was just show up, glare at us, and we collapsed like a cheap card table. They rolled over us 3-0, scoring in the 6th and 20th minute before icing it in the 2nd half.

There's no shame in losing to Italy and Brazil. They're two of the top four teams in the world, but where's the poise, where's the pride, where's the stiff upper lip? You can't let games just get away from you like that. They had control of Italy for 60 minutes, but just collapsed when things got tough. Today they were never in control. There's no confidence anymore, and I don't think they've had any confidence since that first game of the 2006 World Cup when they got smacked down by the Czechs. The US is not an elite team, but they're better than this. Any team can play greater than the sum of their parts, but right now they're playing well below that.

Hsker4Life · « **Reply #13 on:** June 18, 2009, 07:11:19 PM »

Need a new coach.

architechguy · « **Reply #14 on:** June 18, 2009, 08:26:37 PM »

I'm not one of those "fire the coach" type of sports fans, but I think that's the right thing to do for this team. There's no identity, there's no style and there's no heart. We got another red card today, so that's 4 red cards and one game losing blunder in our last four major tournament games. Two against Italy in the last World Cup, one penalty kick against Ghana that eventually knocked us out of the World Cup when we still had a chance to move on, and 2 more red cards in this tournament. It's obvious that when things don't go our way, the players turn into little shits and make cheap fouls.

This team needs a "system". Some teams in sports have all the talent and depth to just line up and run straight forward, fundamental styles and just be able to out-talent the other team and win. Other teams need an extra angle, and we're on of those teams. We need a coach that's gonna go balls to the wall, throw some attacking players forward and score goals. Play the Dutch style, get one of their coaches, Germany plays that way now too. We need an aggressive coach who can put some pinache and swagger into this team.

thedrUNKenLoper · « **Reply #15 on:** June 18, 2009, 09:02:06 PM »

I think we need to throw money at a certain coach who is living in LA....Long Beach to be exact and thats Kleinsman the former German coach. Whatever he wants we give it to him or we tell Bradley to start making a mark. I wish that someone as a whole would make the US Soccer Federation overhaul the system because lets face it that is a huge problem not be overlooked. A) why can't we get some of the best athletes in this country to play soccer that could make us competitive with others in the world B) get us to play more friendlies against tough competition because our region does nothing for us on the big stage C) make Bradley show his worth in the next six months or we tell him thanks for qualifying us but your gone Coach Vanilla. On the Herd yesterday he was actually talking about soccer and how our little players just are no match for world competition and the US Soccer Fed needs to unlock the age old question why don't our best play, there are enough athletes in this country who fit the athletic build for what we need to be competitive on the world stage.

architechguy · « **Reply #16 on:** June 18, 2009, 09:41:30 PM »

The best player in the world today, Lionel Messi, is only like 5'-8". If you see the youtube video of him celebrating with his Barcelona teammates at their victory parade, you would think that Gargamel is about to jump out of the bushes of chase his smurf ass right back to smurf village! It's not a height issue, and it's not a talent issue. There are only about 10 or 12 teams in the world that are legitimately better than us, and we played two of them this week. Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, France, Germany, England, Czech Republic and maybe a couple other European teams. We're as good or better than Australia, Japan, Korea and any of the African teams. We may lose to one of those teams, but they're not clearly "better" than us. Our team is no less athletic than any team we played. Greece won the Euro Championship in 2004, Turkey made the semifinals this last year. Japan and Korea made a semifinal. Average teams can have success in international tournaments, they just have to go out and grab the bull by the horns. Whenever we go outside the region though, we play scared, we play tentative and we play all the little ways that I complain about the central American teams playing against us.

thedrUNKenLoper · « **Reply #17 on:** June 19, 2009, 04:34:34 AM »

well it just be nice it we strove to be great in soccer like our other sports because we have the talent in this country.

architechguy · « **Reply #18 on:** June 19, 2009, 01:16:56 PM »

What other sports are we great at? Basketball is the only one where we're clearly the best team. Then again, Spain gave us all we could handle in the gold medal game last year. The world has caught up to our game in only 15 years while we're still miles and miles behind in their sport. I could honestly go on for hours, but it's not talent. Even if Lebron, Reggie Bush and any of the best athletes in American sports grew up playing soccer in the US, they'd still be a part of the flawed development system we have. So our team wouldn't be any better. We're not the best at baseball, hockey or golf. What are we good at besides football and basketball?

Long story short, the soccer powers that be in this country try to take the NFL approach, which is to let high schools and colleges develop players for them at the schools' expense, then draft these players through the MLS Super Draft. That model works great for the NFL and NBA and to a lesser extent MLB. It doesn't work in soccer, at least not compared to the soccer powerhouses like the European squads who have a fundamentally different program. If we want to beat them, then we need to use their methods. Soccer academies that are endorsed by MLS teams (maybe even affiliated with Euro club teams), MLS youth squads. This does one main thing aside from making our system more like the European teams' model, it proves to kids while their still in their early teens that soccer isn't a dead end and that there's a future in it. MLS teams need to take the initiative, develop their own players and quit letting high schools and colleges do it. I know the NFL is so influential that whatever they try works, and every other leagues copies it, but MLS cannot work with that same structure.

thedrUNKenLoper · « **Reply #19 on:** June 19, 2009, 03:25:48 PM »

No, I agree that setting up soccer academies in this country are the way to go to see if we can make the leaps and bounds the hardcore soccer fans want to see. I was referencing other sports that when they fell off like basketball Jerry Colangelo came in with a plan to get the program back up to gold medal standards. MLB & NHL should also think of simailar things for international competitiions but this is about soccer and whoever wants to set it up MLS teams or the US Soccer Fed should take a long look at this.

architechguy · « **Reply #20 on:** June 22, 2009, 01:00:41 AM »

Well I'll be gosh darned! Team USA has a little hutzpah afterall! It took a little bit of help, actually it took some astronomically ridiculously unlikely help, but they got through to the second round with a 3-0 win over Egypt. Combined with Italy's loss, that leaves USA, Italy and Egypt all at 1-2, so goal differential came into play. That's where Italy's 3-0 loss to Brazil came into play, giving the US and Italy the same goal differential, but the US goes through on total number of goals.

The USA's reward, a date with European champion Spain on Wednesday afternoon.

Sure enough, my luck comes through again. I set my DVR to record the game, but the ESPN aired the Brazil Italy game while the on screen guide said it would be USA-Egypt. So I recorded the wrong game.

thedrUNKenLoper · « **Reply #21 on:** June 22, 2009, 02:22:13 AM »

Well hopefully that nothing to lose attitude returns on Weds when the US takes on Spain. But I'm amazed that the team came though and got it done today even with help.

architechguy · « **Reply #22 on:** June 22, 2009, 03:11:29 AM »

As a Texas Tech fan, I know what it's like rooting for a team that you can't realistically expect to win a championship. Some teams I root for, the expectation is to win it all, but USA Soccer is not in that category. So all I expect from them is a lot like what I expect from Texas Tech, I want them to be feisty, I don't want them to take no sh!t from nobody, and if we lose I want the team that beat us to remember who they just played and say "damn that was tough!". I don't want my team being a pushover. In the first two games, we were pushovers who folded whenever there was adversity. Even if we didn't go through to the second round, I would've been happy with our game today because we got our swagger back. We thoroughly beat the African Champ and proved that even if we're not on the same level as Italy or Brazil, who are two top 5 teams in the world, we're still better than the champ of the 3rd best region behind Europe and South America. As I said earlier this week, we are as good or better than any team in the world except for about the top 10, and there ain't nothing to be ashamed of in that. The media in this country can't wrap their head around the fact that we're not the best in the world at a particular sport, even though there's only one sport that we are the best at.

In any other sport that we talk about in this country, being one of the 10-15 best in the game is a pretty damn good status quo, but for USA Soccer that's supposedly a sign that we can't play soccer. Brazil's win over Italy today proved one under appreciated fact, ANY team can get their ass handed to them on any given day. Any one bad game by the USA isn't a referendum on the status of the sport in this country because if was, what would it mean for the other teams that were beaten by the same team by the same score. Shit happens sometimes, and the criticism the US got for the Brazil loss should've had nothing to do with talent on the field and everything to do with attitude and motivation.

thedrUNKenLoper · « **Reply #23 on:** June 24, 2009, 08:23:59 PM »

USA 2 Spain 0, enough said

Blackshirts · « **Reply #24 on:** June 24, 2009, 08:24:44 PM »

USA! USA!

News:

Author Topic: US Soccer Thread: (Read 1706 times)