Guatemalans are dirty as hell and the referee sucks ass (as usual).

6/12/2012 11:34:48 PM

You can't play good soccer when you're getting your legs chopped down every 5 seconds on a shitty playing surface.

Every game in Guatemala is like this. A point would be nice and a win is even better.

6/12/2012 11:36:25 PM

It says a lot that we can't figure out how to beat this disorganized mess that Guatemala calls a formation.

6/12/2012 11:41:25 PM

We just had a goal pulled back.

6/12/2012 11:42:22 PM

how fucking predictable was that Jones blast over the bar on the free kick

[Edited on June 12, 2012 at 11:45 PM. Reason : jesus]

6/12/2012 11:42:59 PM

It's like watching Spurs take a free kick. You know it's not going in.


FUCK

6/12/2012 11:45:09 PM

Deserved goal. We are complete garbage outside of Clint.

6/12/2012 11:45:28 PM

6/12/2012 11:46:22 PM

what the fuck was Howard looking at? That was nowhere near the corner like I thought it was on first view

6/12/2012 11:46:38 PM

ref should have played advantage to jozy. i only need to watch 10 minutes of this to be reminded that the US team gets absolutely nothing out of these games in central america. should have just been through to the hex.

6/12/2012 11:47:27 PM

what a waste on that last break

still pissed about the advantage not called a few minutes earlier too

6/12/2012 11:48:12 PM

I understand the disadvantage of playing on shitty surfaces in hostile environments with marginal refereeing.

But this is not an excuse for not winning.

We should still be able to defeat these teams on their own turf.

This is not acceptable.

6/12/2012 11:48:20 PM

What I would give for a healthy Charlie Davies.

6/12/2012 11:49:49 PM

Quote :

"We should still be able to defeat these teams on their own turf."

I mean, I agree with this.

But in these rounds, all I care about is advancing and a point in Guatemala City gets us there.

6/12/2012 11:50:53 PM

I would seriously consider cutting Altidore from the team.

6/12/2012 11:57:51 PM

why

6/13/2012 12:00:02 AM

I want progress. This would be fine 10 years ago. It should not still be acceptable with the growth of the sport in our country. Period.

Keep in mind this is Guatemala.

Not Honduras four years ago.

Guatemala.

6/13/2012 12:00:41 AM

Because he's been given chance after to chance to prove himself worthy of playing up front and and has DONE NOTHING in a US uniform. Is lazy on and off the pitch. He's been nothing more than a lukewarm body for us. I don't give two shits about his "accomplishments" in a shit Dutch league.

6/13/2012 12:04:30 AM

how did Landon Ginobili do tonight?

6/13/2012 12:06:47 AM

to elduderino - I'm all for higher expectations but what exactly are you expecting? 5-0 routs every game? That doesn't happen anywhere. Mexico needed a late goal to win at El Salvador tonight. It's not as easy as everybody wants to believe it is.

Being able to beat Guatemala 1-0 or 5-0 does nothing for us as a soccer country in international tournaments. Get the points you need to move on and play the real teams of the region and get the hell out of there.

Obviously, it'd be nice to win every game but it's not the end of the world if we don't.

Quote :

"has DONE NOTHING in a US uniform."

leading scorer last WCQ cycle for the US

[Edited on June 13, 2012 at 12:08 AM. Reason : jozy]

[Edited on June 13, 2012 at 12:08 AM. Reason : el dude]

6/13/2012 12:07:01 AM

^
That's all good and fair points, but has nothing to do with Altidore sucking for his entire US career.

Quote :

" leading scorer last WCQ cycle for the US"

More of a product of him getting so much pt (vs shit comp mind you) than anything else. How many goals did he score exactly?

I'm more frustrated him showing up only once every 5 or 6 games than anything else.

6/13/2012 12:07:51 AM

haha, you shit all over Altidore and ignore his actual goals but long for the days of Charlie Davies, ok

6/13/2012 12:10:27 AM

FIRE BRADLEY!

Oh, wait a second, this team is coached by the savior messiah of U.S. Soccer, Jurgen Klinsmann!

Guatemala in the first half actually played us pretty clean and it was a pretty even game with the exception of Dempsey's evading two defenders to score, and then second half they reverted back to their historical "Dirtiest Team in all of Latin America" mode.

We're declining, I said that in a long post after the Antigua game, and Donovan and Dempsey are getting older, and in Donovan's case tonight he did nothing. Compare our first XI playing Guatemala back in 2006 to now, and it's night and day difference.

I don't know how the ref didn't give Altidore advantage but in turn I don't know how Carlos Ruiz missed that wide open net.

For as fabled as he was before he came to the U.S. national team when supposedly he could've suited up for the Germans, Jermaine Jones does nothing for me. The commentary tonight was pretty good, Shaka Hislop was spot on pointing out Altidore's lack of activity. Herculez Gomez was likewise quiet.

That free kick goal Pappa scored for Guatemala is as perfect a free kick goal as you'll ever see.

Now 2 games with Jamaica, who run fast and play physical. U.S. has to come out of those two games with more points than Jamaica, be it 4-1 or 6-0. Historically whenever the U.S. and Jamaica play there's a lot of draws. Guatemala for them have to get 6 points from the 2 Antigua games to catch back up.

U.S. 1-0-1 4pts 4:2 +2
Jamaica 1-0-1 4pts 2:1 +1
=========
Guatemala 0-1-1 1pt 2:3 -1
Antigua & Barbuda 0-1-1 1pt 1:3 -2

[Edited on June 13, 2012 at 12:12 AM. Reason : /]

6/13/2012 12:10:34 AM

^^
I like Davies speed and fearlessness. (Altidore's two major problems)

Goal scorers have been our weakness for what, over a decade now? We have to keep plugging in new guys. Maybe we'll get lucky and hit on something.

6/13/2012 12:11:24 AM

Quote :

"this team is coached by the savior messiah of U.S. Soccer, Jurgen Klinsmann!"

nobody thinks that


^ okay, who do you want? Chris Wondolowski?

[Edited on June 13, 2012 at 12:17 AM. Reason : .]

6/13/2012 12:16:25 AM

Taylor Twellman. Duh.

6/13/2012 12:18:35 AM

Sure, why not.

6/13/2012 12:18:42 AM

because he sucks ass

because if you don't care about a shit Dutch league, you sure as fuck shouldn't care about a shit American league

[Edited on June 13, 2012 at 12:21 AM. Reason : .]

6/13/2012 12:20:38 AM

Yeah, I know.

6/13/2012 12:21:29 AM

We should just play Dempsey as a striker. He's the best one we have.

6/13/2012 12:24:53 AM

I think he played striker last game.

6/13/2012 12:25:55 AM

Quote :

"nobody thinks that"

I know you have an account at BigSoccer so don't act like "nobody thinks that". It was one of the Eurosnobs' Religious Beliefs circa 2010.

And we're really playing Mexico in a friendly at Azteca next? On the bright side, playing Mexico always puts a boot in Donovan's ass and he needs one now.

[Edited on June 13, 2012 at 12:33 AM. Reason : /]

6/13/2012 12:28:24 AM

okay, nobody that isn't a dumbass thinks that.

My point is that all this sky is falling crap gets old because it happens every time we play a mediocre game in a central American country and then we win 5 games in a row and everybody's getting boners again.

6/13/2012 12:34:04 AM

LOL, good point. Except I can't get boners anymore.

6/13/2012 12:37:06 AM

Considering our current form I'll take the draw.

6/13/2012 6:45:54 AM

I wanted to address this but I was tired and went to bed.

Quote :

"We're declining, I said that in a long post after the Antigua game, and Donovan and Dempsey are getting older, and in Donovan's case tonight he did nothing. Compare our first XI playing Guatemala back in 2006 to now, and it's night and day difference."

You keep saying it but it doesn't make it any more true. I'm also assuming you're referring to the last time we played them away in qualifying, which was 2008. Here was our lineup:

---------Dempsey--Ching----------

Donovan--Bradley--Mastroeni--Lewis

--Pearce--Boca--Gooch--Cherundolo--

-------------Howard-----------------

Subs: Beasley, Heydude, and Edu


Where exactly have we "declined?" Howard's more or less the same, CB's are worse I agree but Boca/Gooch weren't exactly a rock in 2008. Pearce sucked and I think Johnson's an obvious upgrade and I haven't noticed a significant decline in Cherundolo's play either. Bradley's twice the player he was then. Edu/Jones vs. Mastroeni/Lewis is probably a wash, although at this stage in their respective careers, Edu/Jones have more to offer for the next WC than Mastroeni/Lewis did at the time for 2010. Gomez/Altidore are better than Brian Ching, hands down. Most importantly, Clint Dempsey is in the form of his life and in the middle of the best spell of an outfield player in American soccer history.

It's the same damn team give or take a few players. Some players are better, some are a little worse. We haven't had a new breakout player come through in the last 4 years, that's it.

I'm not exactly happy we're drawing with Guatemala. But it is what it is. You can't expect practically the same team to magically start producing away WCQ routs of teams we've never dominated in the past.

[Edited on June 13, 2012 at 8:40 AM. Reason : .]

6/13/2012 8:35:31 AM

You keep bringing up routs. I think you're in denial. How about consistent two goal wins. Hell, how about one goal wins. Just wins - against teams ranked dozens of places below us. You make that sound like an absurd expextation.

6/13/2012 9:05:48 AM

We won there last time. We were up 1-0 (and it should have been two) up until a late free kick tied it up.

We took 15 of 18 points in this stage last cycle and won the Hex for the 2nd time in a row. We aren't exactly floundering in CONCACAF.

[Edited on June 13, 2012 at 9:15 AM. Reason : cycle]

6/13/2012 9:14:31 AM

10 years ago today...





So what if they have a winning record vs us in the Gold Cup and we have never won at Mexico...those events still aren't as big as a World Cup!

[Edited on June 17, 2012 at 12:47 AM. Reason : .]

6/17/2012 12:46:09 AM

Thank you for reminding me of how bad every Nike shirt was during that cycle.

6/17/2012 8:01:21 AM

^I'll take those over the Celtic misprints they gave us now.


btw, I watched the game again on youtube for the first time since I watched it live. LOL at the JOB hand ball in the box. I have no clue how the refs could have missed that. I'm glad they did though.


Also, today marks 6 years since the 1-1 tie with Italy at the 2006 World Cup.

6/17/2012 12:07:07 PM

I know every Nike team had similar jerseys but I liked (and own) both of ours.

6/17/2012 3:03:42 PM

^Yeah, the blue ones were pretty nice that they wore vs Poland.

6/17/2012 11:04:06 PM

we should have beat italy...i think beasley hit the post

and did anyone ever play any of the PES videogames? They didn't have the player licenses so all the names were a little off...the McBride picture reminded me that his name was Brian McDrood in the game. LOL

6/18/2012 8:24:26 PM

^He scored a goal, but someone who was standing in an offsides position shielded the GK, so he couldn't see the ball. Because of that the goal didn't count.

6/19/2012 10:26:22 PM

Quote :

"Grant Wahl ?@GrantWahl .@Femexfutoficial finally makes official: Mexico-USA in the Azteca Aug 15 (via @elancheyta)"

6/21/2012 2:16:57 PM

I'm not saying I want us to lose but it'd be kind of disappointing if our first win in Azteca was in a meaningless friendly and I don't think the mood would be very nice the next game there after the first win (which I plan on attending)

6/21/2012 3:49:05 PM

Quote :

"You keep saying it but it doesn't make it any more true."

Okay. We're going to win the World Cup in 2014 and we're going to win in Azteca 3-0 in August. The team's not gone down at all even though Mexico has won a grand total of 2 games on American soil against us since 1999 and they just so happen to have occurred in the past couple years, we've been winless against them in the rivalry's last 4 games, and from 2008 onwards we are 1-4-1 against them.

[Edited on June 21, 2012 at 4:24 PM. Reason : /]

6/21/2012 4:23:09 PM

:heelfan: :heelfan: :heelfan:

6/21/2012 4:54:15 PM

Bump. We play at Azteca tonight at 8. Alan Gordon is on the roster.

Mexico just won a gold medal and is poised to dominate the world and follow up their gold medal with a World Cup in 2 years. They will beat us 10-0 tonight, capping off a string of events that permanently signal the end of US Soccer as we know it. We'll be in danger of missing out in 2014 and will only be able to dream of reaching the heights of the 2009 Confederations Cup for the rest of our pathetic lives.

8/15/2012 12:17:09 PM