Quote :

"yea they are professionals, but they arent robots, sometimes you people astound me at thinking these guys should never mess up"

at this point in his international career... what has Johnson accomplished? it's just frustrating to see him blow golden opportunity after opportunity

5/28/2008 4:33:56 PM

thats american strikers for you


man, england are much better than us

5/28/2008 4:35:28 PM

c'mon Freddy

5/28/2008 4:36:10 PM

god we have no appetite to score, no one on this team just wants it

5/28/2008 4:42:45 PM

Quote :

"sir, the best americans deserve to play for team usa. that's how a national team works. usa being a bad team has nothing to do w/ whether or not johnson deserves anything."

sure it does. youre being nitpicky. obviously if he is the best then he deserves to play for the team, but I was referring to deserving of being competitive of this level as in, we need to find people who can do this.

And yes obviously people have bad strikes at this level on their other foot, everybody makes mistakes. What I was referring to are people who are afraid to take shots on their weak side, or who waste an opportunity to favor their strong foot. We have had terrible offense for as long as I can remember, and at least a small part of it has been wasting opportunities on goal in search of "better" ones (being afraid to shoot) or people favoring other feet.

And once again as I stated in my previous post, this is a general statement I am making since I cannot watch the game and have no idea how that play that started this discussion went down.

[Edited on May 28, 2008 at 4:48 PM. Reason : ]

5/28/2008 4:46:00 PM

almost everyone at this level who isnt ambidex. is gonna defer to the strong foot...next game you watch just follow a striker or attacking midfielder and see how many shots he takes with his weak foot

5/28/2008 4:48:29 PM

I don't think left vs. right had anything to do with this miss

it's just his overall lack of finishing for the national team

5/28/2008 4:50:58 PM

^^number of shots means nothing, there is a huge difference between choosing to go with your strong foot when you have just as good of a chance with either and the situations where if youre going to get a shot it is coming from a specific foot/side. Those opportunities are much smaller in number, but sometimes taking that extra touch to switch feet loses the shot.

^ and yea it probably doesnt, I have no idea what happened in that play..

[Edited on May 28, 2008 at 4:53 PM. Reason : ]

5/28/2008 4:52:29 PM

and most of the time shooting with your strong foot is gonna produce a better result than your weaker foot...

5/28/2008 4:53:19 PM

dude he doesn't exactly score bucket loads of goals with his "strong" foot so I don't really see what you're trying to say

at this point, EJ has two weak feet he plays soccer with for the national team

5/28/2008 4:54:37 PM

im making an overall statement, since you guys think everyone in the world who is professional can score left foot, right foot, back foot, upper foot, upside down, etc.. ive never liked eddie johnson, my original statement was his shot wasnt that bad for his weaker foot

5/28/2008 4:55:57 PM

obviously. Im referring to situations where you either get a shot, or by taking an extra touch you lose it. In which case it doesnt matter whether switching feet would have given you a stronger shot. This happens pretty frequently too, youd be surprised.

And as a goalkeeper, I can tell you it is infinitely easier to stop a shot coming off a cross or horizontal pass when the striker takes a settling touch instead of one timing it. Id take it everytime.

5/28/2008 4:56:12 PM

Quote :

"since you guys think everyone in the world who is professional can score left foot, right foot, back foot, upper foot, upside down"

the good goal scorers can

sure they prefer a certain foot, but a good goal scorer will score no matter what

5/28/2008 4:57:16 PM

thats why james was rooted, EJ took a shot one time on his weaker foot, and aimorris over here thinks johnson should get benched for missing the goal by a foot

5/28/2008 4:57:57 PM

^^agreed. I mean even the decent strikers in HS have goal-scoring strikes from their opposite foot. Obviously its not their preferred side, but I dont see why you(^) seem to think this is so foreign...

^and that might have been the best shot in that case, what you just said is the most i know about that specific play

[Edited on May 28, 2008 at 4:59 PM. Reason : ]

5/28/2008 4:58:14 PM

yea i also remember GKs in high school being awful for the most part against teams i played. you cant even compare h.s. to world level, theres too much discrepancy

5/28/2008 4:59:51 PM

Gerrard looked offsides on that goal.

5/28/2008 5:07:10 PM

well he wasnt

not even close

5/28/2008 5:29:24 PM

Quote :

"aimorris over here thinks johnson should get benched for missing the goal by a foot never get called up again because of his lack of effort and lack of goal scoring abilities for the national team"

[Edited on May 28, 2008 at 5:46 PM. Reason : .]

5/28/2008 5:46:26 PM

Without quoting anyone, Beckham skied one way over the cross bar tonight. EJ didn't miss nearly that bad.

5/28/2008 9:40:41 PM

and?

5/28/2008 9:58:11 PM

^Oh there is a lot of complaining on here about EJ's first touch and missed shot. I was just pointing out how he wasn't the only one to miss the goal tonight.

[Edited on May 28, 2008 at 10:19 PM. Reason : .]

5/28/2008 10:18:38 PM

yea defoe had a near point blank shot and kicked it straight at howard, NEVER CALL HIM UP AGAIN!

5/28/2008 10:22:41 PM

Quote :

"we need to find people who can do this."

it's not like they're not looking.

5/28/2008 10:53:14 PM

Quote :

"Without quoting anyone, Beckham skied one way over the cross bar tonight. EJ didn't miss nearly that bad."

What?

5/28/2008 10:58:49 PM

Quote :

"Oh there is a lot of complaining on here about EJ's first touch and missed shot. I was just pointing out how he wasn't the only one to miss the goal tonight."

You obviously misunderstood. The problem isn't with one isolated incident where Johnson missed a wide open chance. The problem is he has never been a consistent goal scorer in all his time with the national team. You think for somebody that was struggling to get minutes with one of the worst teams in the EPL last year, for somebody that needs to start making some kind of an impact on the international scene to secure a spot before Altidore takes over.... that they would make the most of their limited opportunities. But Eddie Johnson doesn't score goals and he doesn't even look like he cares.

5/28/2008 11:07:21 PM

well here's my opinions:

- we looked slow and lethargic, especially compared to the speed of England's play

- i'm not sold on johnson or wolff being forwards, johnson hasn't done anything really since the first few games he played for the US years ago

- the defense seemed to have holes and be suspect at times, which is strange because they usually are pretty solid

- it seems like our game plan was kick it to the forwards in the air, try and head it down, and then we lose the ball...we never built up much attack, and when we did, we got shots...pretty much played kickball

5/29/2008 11:32:20 AM

Our first touch was awful. No one could control the ball without it bouncing somewhere they didn't want it to go.

5/29/2008 1:40:03 PM

well just a big letdown, wasnt expecting a win, but sure was expecting to play better...spain will be us 5-0 if we play like that again

5/29/2008 3:18:08 PM

^^^Donovan was hurt, so my guess is either Wolff, or Johnson wouldn't have started, if Donovan was healthy. Altidore was also left in the US, but will play vs Argentina. It is very hard to put the best 11 on the field when people are hurt, or playing in different leagues all around the world.

5/29/2008 10:03:14 PM

I like Adu in the team simply because he brings some offensive-mindedness to the game. You could tell he really wanted to get up the field and attack and that's something that was definitely lacking before he came in. I think he should start against Spain.

5/29/2008 10:20:09 PM

Kenny Cooper definitely deserves a call-up... I'm not his biggest fan but you can't ignore his early season performance in MLS, he has scored some pretty good goals. I also hope Robbie Rogers gets some time against Spain or Argentina, he could provide some positive offensive play too.

5/29/2008 10:30:29 PM

Spain Roster

Quote :

"GOALKEEPERS- Dominic Cervi (out of contract), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Tim Howard (Everton FC) ] DEFENDERS- Carlos Bocanegra (out of contract), Dan Califf (FC Midtjylland), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United) MIDFIELDERS- Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Eddie Lewis (Derby County), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids) FORWARDS- Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Nate Jaqua (out of contract), Eddie Johnson (Fulham FC), Josh Wolff (out of contract) "

Hopefully we see the England lineup + Landy/Adu/Mastroeni - Wolff/Johnson/Clark

5/30/2008 10:43:19 AM

What's up with Ben Olsen and Bobby Convey? I thought good things were expected of these too?

5/30/2008 2:48:18 PM

Olsen is injured/retiring I think
I think Convey is injured too

5/30/2008 6:16:17 PM

ben olsen is constantly injured, hes just one of those players(john obrien type). bobby convey sucks, ive never liked him

5/31/2008 11:24:57 AM

Quote :

"Donovan to miss Spain game, Spector out SANTANDER, Spain -- U.S. defender Jonathan Spector will have surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right hip and will be sidelined three to six months, causing him to miss the Beijing Olympics. In addition, forward Landon Donovan will miss the Americans' exhibition game against Spain on Wednesday night because of a tight groin, again delaying his 100th international appearance. Spector, a 22-year-old with West Ham in England's Premier League, was traveling to Los Angeles to consult with U.S. team physician Michael Gerhardt, the U.S. Soccer Federation said Monday. Spector has not played in a match since April 12 against Bolton. Donovan also missed the United States' 2-0 loss at England last week and the Los Angeles Galaxy's Major League Soccer match at Toronto last week. The U.S. team dropped defender Michael Orozco and midfielder Ricardo Clark from its roster for the Spain game, leaving it with 20 players. The Americans then meet Argentina on Sunday night at East Rutherford, N.J., their final match before opening World Cup qualifying against Barbados at Carson, Calif., on June 15. The roster: Goalkeepers: Dominic Cervi (no club), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Tim Howard (Everton, England) Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (no club), Dan Califf (Midtjylland, Denmark), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover, Germany), Jay DeMerit (Watford, England), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard Liege, Belgium), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock, Germany) Midfielders: Freddy Adu (Benfica, Portugal), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland), Michael Bradley (Heerenveen, Netherlands), Maurice Edu (Toronto), Eddie Lewis (Derby, England), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado) Forwards: Clint Dempsey (Fulham, England), Nate Jaqua (no club), Eddie Johnson (Fulham, England), Josh Wolff (no club) "

6/2/2008 3:24:41 PM

Donovan is a pussy

6/2/2008 3:52:05 PM

They don't call him Landycakes for nothin'.

6/2/2008 3:59:58 PM

Quote :

"bobby convey sucks"

hes good on the ball, but he is extremely selfish.

6/2/2008 5:05:41 PM

Galaxy probably strongly encouraged him to sit this one out... he's already missing time for WCQ games, they can't afford him to miss anymore due to injury

6/2/2008 7:54:06 PM

Quote :

"Forwards: Clint Dempsey (Fulham, England), Nate Jaqua (no club), Eddie Johnson (Fulham, England), Josh Wolff (no club)"

lordy

6/2/2008 9:51:02 PM

dempsey isnt exactly a forward, which is what makes me lol at our strikers in america...

6/2/2008 10:09:50 PM

I'm eager to see if Jaqua is skilled enough to play at this level. He certainly has the physical attributes.

6/2/2008 11:05:40 PM

Sven Goren Eriksson, new head coach for the Mexican national team.

6/3/2008 8:11:57 PM

are you serious? no, he just got hired by Man City this year.

[Edited on June 3, 2008 at 8:27 PM. Reason : ]

6/3/2008 8:27:04 PM

This has little to nothing to do with US soccer, but I didnt know where else to put this and didnt want to make a new thread for it.

Asia's updated World Cup Qualifying:
Advancing to Round 4:
Australia
Quatar
Bahrain
Japan
Korea Republic
Korea DPR
Uzbekistan
Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates
Syria

Eliminated:
China PR
Iraq
Oman
Tailand
Jordan
Turkmanistan
Singapore
Lebanon
Iran
Kuwait

6/3/2008 9:45:31 PM

the ericsson to mexico news has been floating around for a few weeks...im laughing at man city, rivals of man utd and the fact that this was the best year theyve had in a long time and they decided to fire sven, lol to that owner whatever asian name he has

6/3/2008 11:54:34 PM

Hughes isn't a bad replacement though

6/4/2008 8:15:44 AM

^^only surprise to me would be china not making it

6/4/2008 10:10:08 AM