Gold Cup: It’s…yeah

Eric: What about all the players with Manchester United???

Posted from  United States

Back to the Gold Cup. The USA should beat Honduras 3 to 0. Anything else will be dissappointing. It will be very interesting to see how The Adu does agaisnt a little better competition. Obviously he will Adu amazing…geez…I crack myself up…har..har..har

Feilhaber is only 24 and will be 29 in 2014. Robby Rogers was solid with the ADU in the U-20.

Freddy does not play like a girl and he IS the future of US soccer. Pay some respect to the 20 yr old. I think we might have beat Brasil if they put him in immediately after the first goal against the US in the 2nd half of the confed final. He probably would’ve had many more touches and misdirection plays to at least hold the ball longer and get some decent counters in the 2nd as opposed to virtually nil.

Don’t hate, appreciate!

GLTTMNT

Posted from  United States

To alleviate pressure against a superior team, individual technical skill is the only answer. You can pass and pass and pass, but you will 85% of the time against a Brazil need at least one misdirection step overs (multiple ala DENIELSON, my favorite trickster of all time from Brazil – 2002 world cup champ. Uno, dos, tres, quatro turcos atras de Denielson – uno dos, Tres, QUATROOOO Turcos atras de DeNIELson – UNO, DOS, TRES, QUATRO TURRRRcos TUMBARON a DeNIELSONNNNN! One of the greastest moments of the 2002 world cup from the Univision announcer. Classic! Basically Denielson took the entire defensive mid and left side of the Turkish team on one on one in the semis of 2002. I digress…lol), spot on back heal, and overlapping backs to alleviate that pressure, but number one is individual technical skill in the central mid area.

Without that safety valve, you are doomed to play fort knox style against Brasil. That is why when we played them in the U-20 world cup, the Adu with Jozy, Roby Rogers, Zizzo, and a few other solid players were able to alleviate pressure all day, and the cause for the victory was most definitely because of the Adu. Watch the ESPN Brit commentator approx 10 min clip on youtube. Adu vs Brasil, or Adu Brasil. scroll to the 7 min mark and watch it play. Adu burns two Brasilians in the corner and the brit commentator is like, “Adu, like Houdini!!!” The commentator actually gasps at first b.c the move is unbelievable.

I’m done…

GLTTMNT

Posted from  United States

I will be watching Adu closely this tournament. If he performs well against good teams then I will admit that everything I have said about Adu is wrong. But, I have yet to see him perform against players that are 5-8 years older than him.

Yes, Adu plays really well against other 20 year olds but in the MLS and Europe when he is forced to play against more mature players he has had a hard time using those natural skills that he has.

Here is to Unbelievable is right and that Adu is the future of US soccer!

I was at the second half of Honduras-Haiti and the full USA-Grenada game. Honduras looked like crap. (Although I would never have said that there, given that we were surround by generally cheery but very drunk Honduras fans.) They have a good goalkeeper, or otherwise Haiti would have won.

Even a friend who’s never watched soccer before was saying, “It seems like they just kick high balls up and down the field.” Couldn’t have said it better myself. US was head and shoulders above, even with the B team.

alex, besides tim howard, every other american manchester united player was either just in the academy or was a closet italian.

as for the gold cup, i think the player with the best chance of making the starting world cup XI out of our squad is robbie rogers after some of his performances that i have seen (including grenada) and the fact that he actually gets minutes. the kid looks legit. and i think it’s too early to judge adu’s performance bc he was definitely rusty on saturday (he even said it on his twitter so it’s hard to argue with that).

Rusty b.c he didn’t score the 3 goals he should’ve…lol

Posted from  United States

Morpheus: “Here is to Unbelievable is right and that Adu is the future of US soccer!” Couldn’t agree more. Just want you to commit right now that there are what you would call “good teams” in the Gold Cup. I’m assuming you won’t count Honduras, since they have a B-team as well?

Whoops. How could I forget about Tim Howard?

Posted from  United States

Goalies don’t count. When do you ever hear of huge transfers with fanfare about goal keepers. I know I’m going to catch flack for this b.c Howard is top 10 in the world, although I would like him to come out a little more on high crosses (lofted crosses, not struck crosses).

Posted from  United States

well, i don’t think it’s huge transfers that we’re talking about here bc obviously gooch was free and not that much fanfare either. as far as purely belonging to a big club like eric referenced, its just gooch and howard with howard (to me) being more significant. if anything, i think it’s even better when a keeper is on a big team bc each team only has one starting keeper whereas they can have 2-4 of every other position that gets significant playing time.

if he gets minutes though, this is an amazing fit. there are a lot of good players to learn from in milan, especially if maldini shows up at training every now and then. plus, i don’t think his lack of pace will hinder him in the italian game as much as it would have in england or maybe spain.

great game. Rogers played well.

Posted from  United States

Pretty excited to go to the game tonight…surrounded by Hondurans.

Posted from  United States

@SP, have you ever lived abroad in places like Argentina, Brasil, Spain or Germany? If you have, have you ever gotten into a football conversation where it is repeatedly said in all 4 countries, “Yea, well the US has good goal keepers.” That is all they say. They say nothing of our technical players in the field.

Think about that for a second. Meanwhile the rest of the world is focusing on the pitch, not the keeper.

A keep will not win you a world cup (meaning the 6 games or so you have to get there and win), nor will it get you to the semifinals.

I find it amazing here that there is soo much defense of keepers. When I played we were happy we had a good keeper who was competent and aggressive to come out at balls, but our focus as a team was solid D with good middy play and to finish as best we could. That was the mind set of the entire team. You have a keeper coach to coach the keepers. Keepers are very important, but I would take the 100th best keeper in the world to have an all world(Euro even) defensemen, all world(Brasil, Africa leagues even) midfielder and all regional striker from latin america, africa or Europe.

It would be a better trade off, guaranteed.

And about the fanfare, I was not talking US player transfers. I am talking about the world. So, NO, there are not goalie transfers that even rival those of Kaka, or Ronaldo, or virtually any star. The best Keeper transfer was probably Oliver Kahn and I can guarantee that if you look up his transfer rates to his peers at the time, it may have been close but that is one keeper compared to the annual transfer rates that are generate for field players.

Case closed.

I love Howard, but I would go back to Meola for a nasty striker or midfielder.

GLTTMNT

Posted from  United States

unbelievable-

yes i have lived abroad. i live abroad right now in poland, another country with a lot of good keepers. all i am saying is that what eric and i were talking about has nothing to do with transfers or fanfare or anything like that which is what your point was. we were just talking about americans who have played for a big club, not about which positions are important on the pitch. i think you’re overanalyzing things a tad too much.

I’m agreeing with SP. I’m proud/happy with the respect our players are beginning to get abroad. The US has been known for having great keepers. Hopefully Gooch will open the doors for outfield players to play at big clubs. Let’s face it. The US has talent, the rest of the world just doesn’t want to accept it. This could also open up doors for the future generations showing that they can aspire to play for a huge club and not be restricted to Denmark or Belgium (not knocking those leagues, but AC Milan it ain’t). I think that was a point Charlie Davies brought up.

Posted from  United States

@SP Not overanalyzing anything. I have an involuntary reaction when keepers get compared to any field player for any reason. Howard really shouldn’t enter into the argument b.c he is a keeper.

So with that point, I will say Gooch is the first US player to break into the ranks of a true powerhouse team. Will he play is the question? I hope so. That is my only point.

GLTTMNT

Posted from  United States

Freddy adu is really starting to worry me. I know it’s still early but still…

Posted from  United States

Is Adu better in the mid field or as a forward? I hope its not another Donovan situation.

I think with his skill set he would be better on the wing but then he is definitely not better than Dempsey or Donovan. He just doesn’t look like a convincing forward to me.

Posted from  United States

The way Bob Bradley plays, Freddy Adu is a CAM. The unfortunate part is that Bob does not utilize a CAM. This leaves Adu in a very precarious situation. Unless we play a 4-4-1-1, like we did against Grenada, Freddy Adu has no spot on this national team. He does not hold and does not have the strength or stature to try to win balls in the air…which is why he can’t play forward for Bob Bradley. He basically doesn’t do anything defensive…which is why he can’t play CM for Bob Bradley. Unless we get another coach I don’t see Freddy contributing in a World Cup for the rest of his career…there are too many other players that work in Bob Bradley’s.

In regards to the game…Honduras was awful…all they did the entire game was hit long balls and hope their forwards could either hold it long enough to draw a foul or sprint past our back line…it was a boring game to watch when Honduras had the ball. The US looked as good as their line-up allowed in the first 60 minutes. When you play Beckerman and Pause together you’re not going to get much of any creativity coming out of the middle. Brian Ching and Freddy Adu up top was just plain ugly. Quaranta was awful until they brought in Davies and Feilhaber and then he came out of no where and waw great. Parkhurst and Marshall did not mix well at all and Parkhurst just overall isn’t a very good player. When looking at the starting line-up you could have guessed how the game would have gone b/c the line-up was just plain stupid. Davies and Feilhaber were obvious substitutions and should have started the game for sure. Overall it was another example of how Bob Bradley tries to get cute and it ends up making the team look stupid because the mix of players is not right…the only reason we didn’t get blown out of the water in the first 45 minutes is because as I said earlier…Honduras was awful.

Posted from  United States

Freddy Adu has to be an attacking central midfielder. That is the best place for him. He can turn and distribute. He needs to be the playmaker, not a striker.

You don’t get to see his gifts until the US is playing a world class team imo.

Who puts Adu with Ching? That is retarded. You have to put a player in a place to succeed. I was hoping they were going to sub ching for the other striker who came on.

All that being said Adu did not play well. He was able to work in tight positions but he didn’t seem up for the game.

The biggest part missing from Adu’s game is his size, not his height, but his size. He needs to become bigger and stronger througout.

I hope he is able to play for Benefica regularly or the Adu will not appear until 2012 or 2013 for the US. He is a great player, he just needs the right circumstances around him with a coach that trusts him.

GLTTMNT

Posted from  United States

It was cool having beer showered on me from Hondurans at RFK. It was also cool clapping as they all left early. If looks could kill…

Posted from  United States

Costa Rica knows about beer showers.

Posted from  United States