Good And Bad

August 8th, 2008 | By: Brooks Peck | 3 Comments »

Circumstances rarely conspire in favor of the U.S. men’s soccer team, but that’s what happened yesterday when they notched a 1-0 victory over Japan while the Netherlands and Nigeria had their match result in a nil-nil draw.

While it’s nice to be in the Group B driver’s seat, it’s hard to get overly excited about things when luck played such a strong role in yesterday’s good fortune. If I can play Debbie Downer for a moment:

-Japan mounted a pretty impressive attack and even broke through what had previously been a strong back line that held the more talented Ivory Coast and Cameroon sides at bay during the ING Cup.

-Brian McBride once again failed to provide any kind of attack. While he is the team captain and it was nice of him to come out of national team retirement to offer his services, I think it’s time to sit him and see if Adu and Jozy can recapture the magic they had at the U-20 World Cup.

-Holden’s goal managed to squirt past the keeper and, in all honesty, probably should have been stopped.

-Feline AIDS is the number one killer of domestic cats.

All in all, I’m not too confident this team can take the Netherlands ~~tomorrow~~Sunday. I just don’t see them being held scoreless two matches in a row — especially with the likes of Makaay, Drenthe, Babel, and de Guzman in their side — and with just one fortunate goal over three matches to the United States’ credit, I don’t see them pulling out the two or more goals they’ll probably need.

But, enough of the negativity. Here’s something happy:

Tags: 2008 Olympics, Brian McBride, Debbie Downer, Feline AIDS, Japan, Netherlands

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Comments

By Chris | August 8th, 2008 at 1:48 pm

Fortunately for us, Roy Maakay will be out with an injury. So there’s some good news.

Posted from United States

By CW | August 9th, 2008 at 8:32 am

Brooks-Don’t you think it is hard to lay blame on McBride given the way the game was played by the US? If you want him to produce, swing the friggin ball into the box. Especially when he’s a giant among japanese muppets. What was the avg height on that team, 5′2″? Almost no service from the wide players, and McBride coming back to the center circle to pick up the ball? This is on Nowak.
Plus, Sascha (how the hell do you spell the guy’s names) was busy giving the ball away every time he touched it.
Start McB and Jozy together and drop freddy into the middle to spray passes out to the wide players. Sit Orozco.

Posted from Germany

By Brooks | August 9th, 2008 at 1:53 pm

All very good points, CW. I was really baffled by Nowak not using McBride’s size to dominate the Japanese (I think the average height was closer to 4′8″, making them all legally midgets). But maybe the pace of Adu and Jozy together could inspire more service from the wide players? Either way, I’m very curious to see how the match tomorrow goes.

Hope you’re enjoying life in Germany.

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