Arena Soccer

I missed it — anyone see it? Anything worth sharing?

Posted from  United States

I missed it as well. There are repeats coming up on the fox soccer channel on:

Monday 9:30pm
Wednesday 12:30am, 3:30am, 8pm
Thur 2am, 2:30pm, 6:30pm

All times eastern. You can download the schedule from here to verify the times:

http://www2.foxsports.com/world/pdf/fsw24.pdf
http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/920998

Posted from  United States

Today at 2:30 est ABC is supposed to air ‘Drive to Germany’ with interviews with Arena and some players.

Posted from  United States

FYI, very interesting article on Arena in today’s New York Times’ supplement Play.

Posted from  United States

This is totally unrelated to this post, but I wanted to point this out to everyone. Last week sometime we were providing examples of how the foreign media is less than fully informed about the US team. Well, our own Associated Press published an article on Bobby Convey that has two glaring howlers in it:
1) Bobby’s older sister’s name is Kelly, not Debbie. The simplest of google searches can tell you that, but this writer interviewed their mother and still got it worng!
(I grew up in the same area of Philly as the Conveys and I was an acquaintance of Kelly’s when we were kids. We played at the same youth club.)

2) I’m 99.9% sure that Chris Albright was already at UVA before Convey went to highschool. I’ve never heard of them being h.s. teammates before. Maybe they went to the same school, but not at the same time…

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/soccer/specials/world_cup/2006/06/04/convey.arena.ap/index.html

Posted from  United States

Interesting watching Bruce Arena today on the ABC Wide World of Sports today, a segment noted in a post above called “Drive to Germany”. Bruce’s tactics going in to the game are totally different than many of us believe. Most posters (US fans I mean) at this blog and other forums think, like I do, that the US will come out with an attempt to “do a Portugal” on CR, do their best (but probably lose) with Italy and then get at least a draw with Ghana, getting 4 points and going through to the second round. Bruce stated today that his strategy is to try and get at least 1 point in the first TWO games, in other words draw the Czechs or Italians and then postion themselves for a run at a victory over Ghana. So, instead of working for a Czech victory like many of us are thinking, Bruce is pinning his hopes on the last game against Ghana. Not sure I agree with it but it does acknowledge the difficulty in beating either the CR or Italy in Europe and takes the practical approach that we can, on most occasions, beat Ghana. Well…Bruce is the boss so we’ll have to see if his wait till the last game strategy works.

Posted from  United States

I don’t like that strategy at all, for the sheer fact that we are heavily underrating Ghana. They can beat us on any given day.

Why are we so scared of Italy and the Czech Republic. We held our own against European giants (Portugal and Germany) in the last WC.

Posted from  United Kingdom

I agree with Bidemi. Although our group isn’t the “Group of Death”, it’s strength is ranked 2. I believe its because no one knows what to expect with Team USA or Ghana. Our first match is the most important IMO. If we lose, we will be in a “MUST WIN” posture the rest of the way.

Posted from  United States

While I agree with the other posters that playing for a tie is probably a mistake, especially against the Italians, playing a defensive minded game and going for counterattacks (on long balls to McBride and runs by Donovan and/or EJ) might not be such a bad strategy, and getting two draws and a win againt Ghana would be quite respectable indeed, and certainly put us thru.

Of course, we really need to be playing for 7 points, not 4 or 5, because Brazill will most certainly await the #2 team out of Group E, and if we can;t play a full-on attacking game against either of the European sides, then what will we do against the favorites.

Of course, all of this may be a ploy by Arena to make the Czechs think we’ll play a defensive game….

Posted from  United States

I think Arena’s surprise will be that he is hiding Freddy Adu in his handbag and will pull him out right before kickoff against the Czech Republic. Yes yes Im kidding.

We all know Czech Republic, Italy and Ghana are all strong teams. But looking at the history of the game, USA …

- almost beat Italy in 2002
- definitely beat Portugal
- owned Germany in the last WC

… you realize that things become a little more unpredictable and no one is guaranteed a win.

I would never say USA is an odds on favourite, but its capable of pulling off wins on its day.

I say a lot, A LOT, will depend on the condition of J O Brien and Claudio Reyna. Plus if Eddie Johnson kicks into gear and rediscovers that touch, its gonna be a heck of a tournament.

Posted from  United States

I caught the show by accident. It looks like The Bruce is still fighting with the shingles. They took extra care to make sure the camera focused on only his left profile.

Posted from  United States

Don’t worry, anyone.

I consider myself pretty good at Bruce-speak, and I recall reading the interview (or a similar one) a few days ago.

I think The Bruce was just pointing out to the interviewer the obvious fact that if we don’t get at least one point from either of our first two matches, it doesn’t matter what we do against Ghana — we’re going home early.

[aside] Mathematically speaking, however, it is possible to advance with less than 4 points. Chile was a group runner-up at France ‘98 with 3 points. You can also *win* a group with just 4 points as Mexico did in 1994. FWIW. [/aside]

The Bruce is also showing a bit of gamesmanship — let our opponents think we are playing for a draw, and then attack lights out. Personally, I think the strategy will be to press the attack against the Czechs, and try to run them into the ground. They’re old, they have some guys coming off injuries (which may mean poor fitness), and one of our strengths is our guys’ motors.

I anticipate a bunker-down game against Italy — let the Italians come forward and stretch their otherwise compact defense — and play for a counter.

For Ghana, our strategy will probably depend upon the group standings, and also how Ghana played their first two matches.

Back in 2002, we played a defend-and-counter defensive game against Mexico, and then turned around and aggressively pressed the attack against Germany in the next game.

Posted from  United States

Good post, Chuck. I hope you’re right.

Posted from  United States

First off - for some reason, I only got infomercials here in DC in ABC instead of The Drive to Germany.

Chuck - that was a good post. It sounds like there was a lot of gamesmanship in that interview, just as there is with every interview coaches make at this point.

I don’t think Bruce means that we should expect to get 3 points against Ghana. He is simply saying that going into that final game without at least a point essentially means we’re dead men walking at that point. We need to give ourselves a shot going into the final game, which means we’ll go out and look to win each match we play.

Posted from  United States

Personally, I think Bruce is gaming us. What other choice does he have? We’re not sneaking up on anyone anymore after 2002 and he has always been one to throw a surprise or two at each opponent. He’s always looking for an edge. His lineup secrecy is just one example. The less time our opponents have to prepare, the better. I personally wouldn’t be surprised if we came out firing at the CR and attempt to run them a bit ragged the first part of teh match. I know what he said about a tie on TV, but I don’t believe it for a second given how he had the team pressuring Latvia all over the field in the tune-up. Or is that just what he wanted everyone to think? Who knows? All I know is that In Bruce We Trust and I can’t wait to see what he has in store.

Posted from  United States

Yes, we still have along way to go after our first match against the CZech’s but I believe if the rest of the world sees2002 as a fluke we may sneek under the radar on Italy. I think they are more of a known than Ghana & thus a higher possiblity of defeating a known opponet versus an unknown.

Secondly-I hope Ghana stuns Czech as I hope the US stuns Italy and that other groups have the expected wins/lose very few draws to push us into the next round. If we can make it that far, our chances of settling in and playing our will increase 10 fold.

Posted from  United States

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