As in years past, we nick a goal and then play not to lose. There was nothing even resembling a link between the defense and forwards today. It's a goddamn travesty that our best midfield-generated chances came from Stuart fucking Holden when we've got Dempsey and Donovan out there. Mostly I feel bad for Timmy, as he had to deal with a wide-open scorcher from 25 feet and almost got it.

8/13/2009 3:41:41 AM

lol is donovan as slow as beasley now??? awesome defending resulting in the 2nd goal

8/13/2009 4:15:15 AM

Quote :

"As in years past, we nick a goal and then play not to lose."

That's definitely Bob's mentality (see Confederations Cup). But this was our first lead EVER in Azteca. The goal probably came too early for us... if we take a 1-0 lead in the 2nd half, I'd like our chances a little bit more.

I'm pissed but not exactly throwing away any chance we have in the WC - with an in-form Edu back (who is starting for Rangers now) and Jermaine Jones (one of the better midfielders in the Bundesliga) in the roster, we'll see less and less of Clark. And with more fitness work and playing time in Europe for Davies and Altidore, we should see less and less of Ching.


^ seriously, it looked like Donovan was just baiting him into thinking he could by and then would speed up and win it. Although he had a good game, you can't overlook Gooch ballwatching on the 2nd goal either

8/13/2009 7:44:53 AM

Quote :

"The goal probably came too early for us... if we take a 1-0 lead in the 2nd half, I'd like our chances a little bit more."

I'd definitely agree. The spacing of the goals couldn't have been worse as far as keeping the team in check emotionally. Our goal was too early, and Castro's goal was in that odd time period where there's not quite enough time to settle down and get back to work, but you still feel pressure to not give up another before halftime and that leads to panic decisions and needlessly desperate defensive behavior.

8/13/2009 11:05:00 AM

^Their first one might not have happened if they had called the foul on Mexico after they pulled Donovan down.

8/13/2009 12:18:51 PM

Okay, so maybe Donovan had a decent excuse to be Landycakes yesterday....

http://www.fannation.com/si_blogs/grant_wahl/posts/74041-landon-donovan-has-h1n1-flu-virus

8/13/2009 9:49:01 PM

^Good think this wasn't one of those Wednesday/Saturday deals with qualifying.

8/13/2009 10:28:08 PM

fucking mexico....

it was probably one of those cups of beer he was pelted with taking corners...

[Edited on August 13, 2009 at 10:35 PM. Reason : gf]

8/13/2009 10:34:52 PM

Davies just scored in his Ligue 1 debut 2nd game... what a run he's having now

and he just scored a 2nd in injury time... sweet

[Edited on August 15, 2009 at 2:51 PM. Reason : 2nd]

8/15/2009 2:33:08 PM

there's a rumor that Donovan will be heading to PSG

8/21/2009 2:16:12 PM

^On loan after the MLS season, or for good?

8/21/2009 3:10:19 PM

I heard that Livorno was after him and confident.

What's your source?^^

8/21/2009 6:27:09 PM

http://football.le10sport.com/ligue1/les-news-du-mercato_351376_a

yeah, at this point it's definitely a 100% rumor as this is the only place it's even being mentioned... still interesting to think about though

I know Livorno said they were interested but I highly doubt he ends up there (although I don't think it would be a bad move)

8/21/2009 10:30:47 PM

Rosters for the upcoming qualifiers, Gooch is out for the El Salvador game

Quote :

"GOALKEEPERS (2): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton FC) DEFENDERS (8): Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover), Jay DeMerit (Watford), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan), Jonathan Spector (West Ham) MIDFIELDERS (8): Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Benny Feilhaber (AGF Aarhus), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), José Francisco Torres (Pachuca) FORWARDS (6): Jozy Altidore (Hull City), Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Charlie Davies (FC Sochaux), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake)"

8/27/2009 9:04:18 PM

i guess Jones hasnt gotten the papers passed to play for usa yet... :\

8/27/2009 11:01:44 PM

Yeah, wtf? I'm ready to see him suit up.

8/27/2009 11:02:41 PM

im just tired of seeing ricardo clark...

8/27/2009 11:07:28 PM

who is robbie findley

8/28/2009 1:00:56 AM

Last night Bradley was at the HDC watching LA vs CUSA. Kjlestan should be done with the national team. He played pretty bad last night.

8/30/2009 11:23:01 AM

Jones is still recovering from an injury, I think he still has a couple of weeks to go before he's even back in the Schalke squad. I think the October games against Honduras/Costa Rica are when we'll see him called into a squad first... but who knows if we'll actually see him play.

Robbie Findley plays for Salt Lake... I doubt he'll make the game day roster.

8/30/2009 1:43:33 PM

Todays Games

USA vs El Salvador
Costa Rica vs Mexico
Honduras vs T&T

We could be in first tonight, if Mexico wins at Costa Rica, but I don't want that to happen because we can still catch Costa Rica by winning our last game. We need to win at T&T and then tie at Honduras and we will be fine.

9/5/2009 11:53:06 AM

Oh and tonights headliner is Brazil vs Argentina http://www.argentinesoccer.com Use the link to find it on justin.tv

9/5/2009 12:06:59 PM

Jozy needs to improve his first touch. He's had at least two opportunities today inside the box where he couldn't even get a shot off.

9/5/2009 8:30:33 PM

Well that sucked

9/5/2009 8:43:22 PM

christy-cakes, a half-assed attempt at clearing the ball plus poor marking in the box leads to a 1-0 el salvador lead.




ahh. much better. it's still infuriating that the u.s. plays drastically more offensive after giving up a goal instead of actually coming out firing.

[Edited on September 5, 2009 at 8:52 PM. Reason : ]

9/5/2009 8:43:30 PM

that's better 1-1

even better 2-1 USA

[Edited on September 5, 2009 at 8:58 PM. Reason : GOAL GOAL GOAL USA USA USA]

9/5/2009 8:53:04 PM

great header!

9/5/2009 8:58:25 PM

i want to say that donovan has had some excellent crosses this game, but some very poor positioning/marking from el salvador might be making those serves look better than they actually are.

either way, donovan has played great this half.

9/5/2009 9:01:18 PM

No big deal. Everybody slips up at home every now and then. Just as long as Costa Rica wins to keep Mexico 4 points behind us I will feel safe because we have a game vs Costa Rica yet. Lets just hope no one gets a yellow card because we need every option we have for Wednesday.

9/5/2009 9:02:22 PM

Great header, even better cross. Best player on the field is either Donovan or Davies.

9/5/2009 9:02:28 PM

WTF that better not come back to bite us.

9/5/2009 9:28:45 PM

We about got fucked by the ref we should have won 3-1. If both teams could have shot worth a damn it would have been an entertaining 5-4 USA win.

BTW, Brazil 3 Argentina 1 (73 minute).

9/5/2009 10:04:43 PM

it's amazing how much better we are on offense with Davies/Altidore compared to Ching

wow, Mexico killing CR right now... table looks like this after tonight

Honduras 13
USA 13
Mexico 12
Costa Rica 12
El Salvador 5
T&T 5

the Honduras-Mexico game next week will be huge

[Edited on September 5, 2009 at 11:42 PM. Reason : .]

9/5/2009 11:37:00 PM

was at dinner for the first half but from what im hearing we didnt really do anything until after we got scored on, which im tired of seeing....freakin el salvador. the only big thing about them is that they got some american to play for them...when does that ever make news for american soccer when we lose a player to another nationality...at home, we should crush el saliva.

granted had that goal jozy scored in the 2nd stood, which it shouldve, we very well couldve blown them out....but still, they had way too many chances towards the end of the game to tie us. not impressed when dempsey has time on the ball. he has no idea what to do. he is our best player on the team when hes playing at full speed with the ball or playing give and go's. (and maybe hes our best offensive header with altidore). landon is set to have a big world cup if we qualify. i can see him just going nuts with altidore and davies up top he can play the ball to


last thing, when is this region gonna find some referees who actually know what the game of soccer is. there is no reason to have this many controversial calls every time i watch the us play someone in this region....its beyond awful, and imo disgraceful that at this regions highest level of games concacaf plucks out some rec league refs from the jungles of nicaragua to try and ref nationally/c. america's regionally televised games

9/6/2009 9:01:01 AM

^2nd

The refs really did look in over their heads. How can you take back a goal on a foul and not even be able to say who the player was who committed the foul?

Anyway, good win for the US. Wednesday's game against T&T should seal the deal.

9/6/2009 10:22:28 AM

^Yeh the refs were from Honduras. CONCACAF wouldn't let the El Salvador crew ref the USA vs Mexico game last month because they thought they might try to cheat Mexico out of a win, so El Salvador could advance. They should have done the same last night. It looked like they were doing everything to try to help the USA not win.

Hopefully Mexico doesn't screw up now. It would be helpful if they would beat Honduras and we beat T&T. Honduras only tired T&T in the port of Spain, so that is where we have a chance to gain 2 points on them. Lets just hope for ties in the other two games on Wednesday.

On a side note, Brazil made it official and qualified for the World Cup last night. Bahrain also tied Saudi Arabia at 0-0 in Leg 1 of the Asia playoff @ Bahrain. The winner of the Playoff plays New Zealand in a playoff for the final spot in the World Cup.

[Edited on September 6, 2009 at 12:26 PM. Reason : .]

9/6/2009 12:21:23 PM

Quote :

"Anyway, good win for the US. Wednesday's game against T&T should seal the deal."

No, I think we'll need some points at Honduras if we want to clinch before the Costa Rica game

9/6/2009 2:16:36 PM

^Yeh there is no way anyone can qualify out of CONCACAF on Wednesday because they are all so close in points. I think Mexico, USA, Honduras, and Costa Rica can all seal a playoff spot, if the other 2 lose on Wednesday. Everyone will be close anyway.

score board

Ghana 2 Sudan 0 (Ghana advance to the World Cup)

[Edited on September 6, 2009 at 4:35 PM. Reason : .]

9/6/2009 4:29:41 PM

for a little perspective...

http://thebiglead.com/?p=19787

Quote :

"To the public, U.S. Soccer’s summer was golden. The USMNT upset Spain 2-0, and took a 2-0 lead into halftime against Brazil. Not to crap on those accomplishments, they deserve praise, but we should view the summer comprehensively. The USMNT had a 7-6-1 record in the summer of 2009, not so shimmering. Discounting the Gold Cup – because the 5-0 loss to Mexico was a B-team learning experience – the team had a 3-5 record, more leaden than golden. Against big-time opposition (Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Italy), the USMNT was 1-5. They outscored those teams 5-3 in the first half. They were outscored 13-1 in the second, when teams adjusted tactically."

and since I know we're going to have to hear about how it's impossible to get a top coach over here or that it won't matter anyways because we're not Brazil or Italy (whatever the fuck that means)

Quote :

"This U.S. team is six points behind the 2006 team under Bruce Arena at this stage of World Cup qualifying."

young talent, more players in top European leagues, more experience for our best players... but the rest of CONCACAF is catching up to us?

9/8/2009 12:55:27 PM

^I think they are to some degree. MLS has not only give US players more opportunity to compete at the pro level, it has also given players from other CONCACAF nations the same oportunity. Honduras is looking better than some of the teams from the last hex in 2005. There are also players from places like Mexico and Honduras that are going to Europe too. 2005 was the earliest we had ever qualified. Just because it happened like that in 2005 doesn't mean it will happen like that every time.

9/8/2009 1:13:30 PM

Yeah, they are catching up to us and yeah, they're improving. And even though we have the talent and experience to do so, we're not. We haven't improved at all on our road performance in qualifying, we're giving up early leads to teams at home, and if we ever end up in the lead, we're holding on for dear life to get the result.

9/8/2009 1:21:39 PM

honduras has good talent in the epl and they are just getting some hot play from one of their strikers right now, pavon. the other teams are keeping up this year cause mexico was playing down at the start but now seem to be back to normal and usa has a terrible coach who doesnt know how to tactically outcoach the other manager...which weve all been saying for months and that stat that aimorris just put up there is astounding.

we just need a tactical mastermind to coach this team and we are guaranteed a quarterfinal if not semi-final in a world cup. weve got the talent, the ussf just needs to shell out some dough if they really want to win a world cup, and stop hiring these shitty ass mls coaches


also do any of you guys watch Fox Football Fone-in on FSC on monday nights??? i used to love this show when Steven Cohen was on with nick webster, but he got booted off some weird reasons that i think had to do with insane liverpool fans and they replaced him with eric wynlawlda...i cannot stand wynalda and his elitist attitude.

he was pretty much berating ppl who would call in with opinions saying shit like "I WAS THERE, I KNOW HOW IT IS ON THE ROAD, YOURE AN IDIOT, HOW MANY TEAMS HAVE YOU COACHED? WHATS YOUR RESUME? YOU WANNA TAKE OVER FOR BRADLEY??"

hes being king douchebag and i dont think he realizes that doing shit like that to the fans who watch and call in to the show is only hurting the program. i might not watch anymore just cause hes annoying as hell and steven cohen was the main reason i watched anyway




[Edited on September 8, 2009 at 1:31 PM. Reason : actually he prob does realize, he just doesnt care]

9/8/2009 1:21:42 PM

I don't think I've ever watched the show so I'm not sure how it used to be.

But I'm actually a fan of Wynalda because I like how he's not afraid to say what he's feeling and doesn't bullshit around like most people will do, not to mention he's an arrogant jerk and that entertains me for some reason. But that kind of persona isn't exactly suited for a call in show where you're answering people's questions so I could see how it would be pretty annoying. I do think he could do a decent podcast / soccer radio show though where he picks what he wants to talk about and what calls he wants to take. It's kind of ironic that he had that feud with Jim Rome because he's pretty much the Jim Rome of soccer... you either love him or hate him.

9/8/2009 1:44:43 PM

Quote :

"we just need a tactical mastermind to coach this team and we are guaranteed a quarterfinal if not semi-final in a world cup. weve got the talent, the ussf just needs to shell out some dough if they really want to win a world cup, and stop hiring these shitty ass mls coaches"

A better coach would help a little, but it wouldn't make us a lock for the quarterfinals, or simi-finals. There are a lot of good teams at the World Cup including the weakest ones. In the end, 16 of them go home after the first round no matter how good they are.

9/8/2009 2:19:16 PM

meh, i can name 16 teams that will be in the world cup next year that we are better than. left back and bob bradley is gonna be the reason we dont get out of group stage in the world cup (unless we draw the mother of all easy groups)

9/8/2009 2:30:51 PM

Quote :

"he's pretty much the Jim Rome of soccer"

Which is why he's a douchebag and has no business being on TV.

Quote :

"Against big-time opposition (Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Italy), the USMNT was 1-5. They outscored those teams 5-3 in the first half. They were outscored 13-1 in the second, when teams adjusted tactically.""

Has anyone noticed that our fitness seems to suck? The second half everyone seems to stand around and ball watch compared to the first half, where we usually do a good job of pressing the issue. We used to suck at this sport, but at least our teams were usually able to run for 90+ minutes.

9/8/2009 2:54:23 PM

Quote :

"Which is why he's a douchebag and has no business being on TV."

But he's had a very popular nationally syndicated radio show for over ten years now. He has a very loyal and hardcore audience but at the same time, he has a very hardcore anti-crowd as well. Like I said, you either love him or hate him... but there's no questioning he has appeal for some people, just like Wynalda.

Quote :

"A better coach would help a little, but it wouldn't make us a lock for the quarterfinals"

So you realize that we could get a better coach that would help the team improve, so why not do it? A little improvement isn't worth it? You're okay with settling for what we have now? And I don't know about you but I'm not exactly worried about being a lock for the quarterfinals, because I'd like to first be good enough to make it out of the group stages without crossing our fingers and praying we get a favorable draw and some serious luck in the group stages. And that's certainly not the scenario we'll have with Bradley next summer.

9/8/2009 3:09:05 PM

We seriously should shoot for a better coach after this world cup. I don't think we can fire Bradley now, being he hasn't completely screwed us. However, just take a look across the pond and see what Capello has done for England. Albeit we are not nearly as talented as England, a good coach can turn talent into a contender.

9/8/2009 3:51:35 PM

Quote :

"meh, i can name 16 teams that will be in the world cup next year that we are better than. left back and bob bradley is gonna be the reason we dont get out of group stage in the world cup (unless we draw the mother of all easy groups)"

Quote :

"So you realize that we could get a better coach that would help the team improve, so why not do it? A little improvement isn't worth it? You're okay with settling for what we have now? And I don't know about you but I'm not exactly worried about being a lock for the quarterfinals, because I'd like to first be good enough to make it out of the group stages without crossing our fingers and praying we get a favorable draw and some serious luck in the group stages. And that's certainly not the scenario we'll have with Bradley next summer."

All I said was that a better coach wouldn't make us a lock for the quarterfinals, or simi-finals at the World Cup. This summer at the Confederations Cup it was pretty much a lock that the USA wouldn't make it past the group phase and Spain would probably be playing Brazil in the final, right? USSR was a lock for the 1980 Winiter Olympic ice hockey title too right? I wish we had a better coach, but anyone can win on any given day.

9/8/2009 5:36:09 PM

Nothing makes you a lock for anything in a World Cup but that's not what we're saying. We're saying you can make decisions that greatly increase your chances of progressing in a World Cup - good tactics, team selections, substitutions that actually have an impact - instead of just having to rely on the luck of the draw and the luck of the game. Bradley doesn't look like the coach that can do that for us at the moment.

But you said you wish we had a different coach, so that's enough for me so case closed, we're all in agreement that any success we have from now on is in spite of Bradley.

Speaking of, I was looking at the USSF's 990 today, they make quite enough money to pay a top name coach. I mean, we're already paying Robert like 500k and I think they made a profit of over 5 mil last year.

9/8/2009 6:06:54 PM