Whatever, I’ll Take It

August 7th, 2008 | by: Brooks Peck |

After going without a goal in either of their two ING Cup matches, the U.S. Men’s team started their Olympic campaign off with a 1-0 win over Japan. The man getting molested in the above picture (Stuart Holden) scored the only goal.

It wasn’t a pretty game, but a win is a win and I’m more than happy to take the three points.

I’ll be back later today to discuss the match further. Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Jon

Didn’t play the greatest overall as a team. However, I Was really pleased with Edu’s play and we got the W combined with a Nigeria/Netherlands Draw puts us in the driver’s seat.
http://redbulls.theoffside.com Dave Martinez

A win is a win. Now come the big mountains to climb.
CW

Very lucky this morning (yawn).
I thought Edu was pretty suspect myself. For me nobody stood out with a great performance. Maybe Robbie R. I thought Sasha K was really poor.
Tell me, where is our width? With McHead should we not be bombing our wings and fullbacks forward and barraging the middle with crosses? Robbie made a few runs, but little service. Holden, no service. Orozco, invisible on the attack. Wynn went forward once or twice, resulting in the goal. McBride hovered around the circle trying to pick up the ball. I don’t get the strategy is what I’m saying.
In the next game I’d like to see Freddy take over the attacking mid spot for Kles, and start Jozy and McBride up top. Leave Parkhurst and Wynn, but mix in a different left back and center half for the other 2.
Anyway, the Good Guys win, and a bit of luck is always nice. It’ll take a better performance against the next 2 sides though.

CW in SLC
http://usa.worldcupblog.org Melissa

I have so much more respect for Stuart Holden now, just because he posed for that picture.
http://deleted Karl

I feel like we’ve seen this a lot recently: for referees anything outside the box is a foul and nothing inside the box is ever a foul.
elle

The amount of times the Japanese got through our defense was slightly ridiculous, but I do have a new found respect for Rogers and Wynne.
Syler

I spent most of the game and afterwards most of the day wondering why in gods name Jozy didn’t start and even worse why he didn’t come on until the 73rd minute? McBride did nothing and that didn’t surprise me at all. I don’t care if he’s the grizzled veteran and you brought him out of retirement for the olympics. I also don’t care that he’s wearing the captains armband. If you want to win a tournament you field the best team possible. The team that Nowak started today was not that team and it showed as Japan was the better team in the first half and could have easily beaten us 3-0 or 3-1. Nowak in my opinion is a very poor coach and I cannot understand why he is given so much respect?

Am I way off base here? What do others think?
CW

I am not sold on Nowak, and for me it will be a major problem if he rolls out the same tactics and lineup on sunday as he did today.