LiveBlog: USA v Venezuela

May 26th, 2006 | by: Daryl | View Comments

After coming up short against a very defensive but very effective Morocco, the US will be hoping for a decent performance and a win in what should be a more open game against Venezuela. We’ll be LiveBlogging the action here, kick off 7 p.m. (Eastern)

90+2- All over. Bobby Convey is the Refreshing Soft Drink man of the match. Ching was encouraging. Not a perfect performance given the standard of opposition, but plenty of positives and great confidence booster after the Morocco game. I didn’t see but apparently there was one Drew Carey appearance at half time, making a grand total of one. Big thanks to everyone who stopped by and left comments. Bring on those Latvians.

90+- DMB looking patient, Donovan more direct. Wins a corner.

89:30- Go Bradley!

89- Hope Bruce’s shingles are healing after this.

88:30 18 year old Bradley getting his debut. Earned it in camp.

88- Good D from Lewis. Reassuring to see that.

87- That guy is shouting again.

87- Offside but Howard did everything right.

86- Great set piece from Donovan (finally). Found Ching at far post, header bounces just over.

85: Who is that drunk who keeps shouting stuff.

84: Cramp for Olsen. To be fair he’s worked hard second half.

82: Sub: Eddie Johnson off, Eddie Lewis on.

81- second yellow fro Boca. He’ s off. Replay suggests it was undeserved, not a malicous attempt to use his elbow, just leverage. Ref very card happy.

79:30- Good running from Beasley. Not sure that deserved a yellow.

79- Should have been Jimmy Conrad.

78- That was close. Who was marking him?

77- DMB doing some D.

76- Seems Budweiser tastes so bad they have to advertise that it “is beer”.

75- Be nice to see O’Brien play the last 15 or so.

73- Another misplaced Donovan set piece. Too long.

71- I much prefer Convey’s set pieces to Donovan’s.

69- Another interesting Dempsey celebration. Good work from Donovan to get ball to Johnson. Dempsey always in the right place at the right time (as against Poland).

68- GOAL! Dempsey arrives at far post to head in Johnson’s cross.

65- Subs: Beasley in for Convey. Donovan in for Wolff. Beasley’s starting spot under threat from Conveu, if there’s any justice in the world.

63- Brilliant save from Howard. Hope Fergie saw that. Good behind the goal camera work from ESPN too.

62- Albright booked. 7 yellows total now.

61- Save followed by some facial twitching from Howard there.

60- One hour gone. Time for some subs?

59- Hallo Frankie!

58- Gonzalez looks quick. Can’t shoot though.

57- Yellow card for Gomez. Matches his hair.

56:30- Liking Convey’s corners, they’re causing real problems.

56- Not a fan of Gomez’s hair.

55- Johnson down again. Not his fault this time, he got his legs chopped.

54- Another smart tackle from Boca. He may not be quick, but his timing is Rolex.

53- (sorry, forgot about the time for a while there) Ching nearly scoring again with a similar near post run.

-Arango flooring Dempsey and getting a card. Celo’s right, that type of foul is pretty low when Arango knows Dempsey has a WC coming.

-Ben Olsen with the worst pass you’ll see tonight.

-Convey doing some defensive work. I feel like that’s what Bruce wants to see from him.

-Convey strill dribbling like Maradona.

45- and we’re off.

-Got to love Mooch. He looks like a World War II general. Nice to hear positive comments about Convey after Arena was a bit stingy on Tuesday.

-OK, who impressed you? Who depressed you? Who do you want to see come on second half? And is it just me, or is Dave O’Brien having a decent night?

-Half time. Still no Drew Carey.

43- Wolff getting aggressive, but looks like he payed for it.

42- Gonzelez made Boca look slow, which he is.

41- Johnson down again.

40- Johnson starting to remind me of Emile Heskey. He’s a big man but always on the floor.

39:30- Convey keeps pumping those crosses in. I’d say 50% success rate in terms of good cross/bad cross.

38- Yellow card for Olsen. At least now he has proof that he played in this game.

37- It’s all coming through Convey. Another good cross.

Glad to see one of the non-McBride’s scoring. Wonder if Taylor Twellman was watching.

36- GOAL! Doesn’t matter. Ching scores, throws himself in front of a good Convey cross.

35- Ching should have put Johnson through there.

34:30- Johnson desperately needs a goal tonight. I’m backing him to get one.

33- did Shelley just say Arena has shingles?

32:30- Another punt from Onyewu. God bless him.

32- Haven’t seen much of Olsen. Is he still out there?

30- Interested to see this Onyewu interview at half time.

29- Sounds like the Czech coach won’t be underestimating us.

26- Wolff just isn’t strong enough.

25- Still no Drew Carey?

24- Johnson gets a wack in the back of the head. That should toughen him up.

21- Good stuff from Onyewu Did you know that US Soccer has him at 6′2″ and 180 lbs? That can’t be right.

20- more sloppy passing. Wolff this time. Didn’t they practise this at Cary?

19- perfect defending from Bocanegra

18- aggressive but scrappy attacking. some wild shots and crosses.

17- Celo hearts Gooch. Maybe we could talk to Mike and Mike?

16:30 – Dave O’Brien lasted nearly 17 minutes without mentioning Howard’s Tourette’s. Good effort Dave.

16- great stuff by Dempsey going outside his man, awful awful cross.

15- Venezuela’s 1,000th consecutive corner.

14- will Bush watch this as part of his ongoing battle with Chavez?

12- nice fast passing to win that corner

11- that was close. Onyewu prevents the lob going in. Howard didn’t do so well coming out. Hope Fergie’s not watching.

10:30- better from Johnson, like to see him run at people. smart tackle from Boca

9- got to love Onyewu’s distribution. Was that a punt?

8- Great run by Convey, no final ball though. Exciting stuff so far.

7:30- Wolff turning provider

7- Cello’s right, got to watch that counter.

6:45- Good low cross Demspey, good effort Ching, saved.

6- Johnson needs to be more aggressive. He backed out of that a little.

5- good confident defensive header from Albright’s mop-head.

4- decent cross from Convey.

3- even Convey is kicking people. At least he kicked their star man.

2:30- and twice more. Go Dempsey!

2- Dempsey nails their no.17. Good agression

1- good pressure fomr Johnson and Boca. Like it.

0 minutes – we’re off

-good motivational speech from Bruce

-the starting XI again:

GK: Howard
RB: Albright
LB: Bocanegra
CB: Onyewu
CB: Conrad
DM: Olsen
AM: Wolff
RM: Dempsey
LM: Convey
CF: Ching
CF: Johnson

all subs (including Michael Bradley) dress for game, maximum of six can be used (thanks to Sven-Goran Eriksson for that).

-Never seen that Sierra Mist ad before.

-Number of times Drew Carey on screen predictions:
Daryl: 4
Matt: 3
Chuck: 12
Cajun Nick: 7
Bob: 6 (but 47 if it was up to O’Brien)

Anyone else? I’ll try and keep count, all Carey-counting help appreciated.

-Gatorade commercial. Still not sick of seeing it.

-”Hallo, I’m Dave O’Brien” Aargh!

-They’re married. Hurray! I give it six months. On to the football.

-They wrote their own vows.

-Here comes the bride.

-Mike & Mike in the Morning: Marriage Madness? I’d rather watch the US v Morocco tape. ESPN2 will show anything, which somewhat depreciates their decision to show soccer.

-Been doing some Venezuelan homework and here’s what I learned:

• star man is Juan Arango (or Aran’gol’ to his fans), an attacking mid who plays for Mallorca in La Liga. Apparently, he may be deployed as a forward tonight, as Venezuela look for goals. 26 year old Arango was Mallorca’s top scorer this year.
• team nickname is “La Vinotinto”, because of the red wine coloured jerseys.
• never played in a World Cup.
• soccer struggles in Venezuela due to the popularity of baseball. Sound familiar?
• finished 8th out of 10 in the final South American World Cup qualifying group.
• Wikipedia is fantastic.

-Starting XI is out. It looks like this:

GK: Howard
RB: Albright
LB: Bocanegra
CB: Onyewu
CB: Conrad
DM: Olsen
AM: Wolff
RM: Dempsey
LM: Convey
CF: Ching
CF: Johnson

Good to see Demspey get a start, and Arena obviously wants all 3 non-McBride forwards to get a game. Got to feel for Josh Wolff though, he’s playing out of position again.

-Click the image of T-Ho and Drew Cary to see some pre-match interviews with Arena and players from inside Cleveland Browns Stadium. Arena basically says they have to work the ball better going forward, and is optimistic that they won’t be as fatigued as against Morocco. We’ll see.

-Arena will name his starting eleven just after 6 p.m. Two names that definitely won’t be in there: Claudio Reyna and Cory Gibbs, both casualties of the Morocco game. Reyna should be back for World Cup duty, but Gibbs is finished and has been replaced by Berhalter.