Winners, Losers, Report Card

From a now former US fan, US is as talented as george bush

Posted from  Kuwait

Honestly, I think it was kept so quiet in part because Arena was so dismissive of him. Go back and read his interviews circa January and February. He was asked repeatedly and always dismissed it.

I’m not saying he’d have been our team’s savior, just a much needed addition. If he becomes a regular starter — by injury or form — for Man U next year more people will be vocal about this for sure.

Posted from  United States

But this still begs the question – would he have accepted an invitation if it had been given?

Of course, that ignores the fact that he very rarely played and didn’t do a whole lot leading into this year that would have earned him a call-up. Might he pan out next year? Yes. But I’d rather take a known quanitity, however flawed (Wolff) than an unknown who might leave you essentially shorthanded in the end. See: Theo Walcott.

Posted from  United States

Doesn’t much matter if you leave your backup forwards on the bench. Uh… Don’t go on the Italy blog–talk about trolling and just one useless insult after another…

If only the Gates Foundation were investing in soccer ; )

Posted from  United States

Marc- good point about teh ates Foundation As heated as the arguments get here, they’re nowhere near as bad as some other team’s blogs…

To be honest, I understood Bruce’s decision. If Rossi doesn’t want to play for us, then that’s his loss. He can continue to pine away on both the Man U and Italy benches his whole career.

But if we could have snagged him for a friendly and gotten him cup tied, then he would have HAD to have played for us. And even if it didnt work out, he wouldn’t be able to play for Italy (our enemy’s loss is our own gain)

Posted from  Dominican Republic

Jon E., good points all around.

I might be totally off on this, but I never saw anything where Rossi expressed a willingness to play for the US in any other capacity than being offered a roster spot on the WC team (as opposed to being offered a chance to compete for one). Then again, I never saw that he was invited to camp and turned it down. It does seem like he is determined to stay eligible to play for Italy.

Regardless, the last thing we need are players who think a spot is owed them, regardless of performance. Some might suggest we have enough players like that already.

Posted from  United States

You know, my original Rossi comment was just spur of the moment tangent to the post. It’s been an interesting discussion though, and since we have nothing better to talk about, let’s keep it going. Let’s start with some facts.

- Rossi (18) is the fourth striker for Man U behind Rooney, Van Nistelroy and Saha (Park is listed as a striker but he doesn’t line up that way unless they’re in a 4-3-3 which happens, but rarely, he’s an attacking mid like C. Ronaldo).
- Unlike Walcott, Rossi has seen EPL action. Having scored in his debut vs. Sunderland last year and bagging a brace in the Carling cup he became a first team regular.
- Rossi was born in New Jersey which means he haas US citizenship rights.
- Rossi has been a part of the 19 and under Italian international program (his father is Italian).
- I don’t know if you can have dual US Italian citizenship.

So, it’s pretty easy to connect the dots here guys. Let’s sum it up with a question: do we have any other US citizens who can play striker for the likes of Manchester United. Sure, his heart is with his fatherland, but returning to the subject of Losers, is anyone going to argue that Arena didn’t suffer from his arrogance this year. Honestly I can’t figure out who suffered more, him or us.

Imagine the PR Arena could have stirred up about his next move accross the pond just by showing up at Old Tratford to pitch young Rossi. Imagine what might have happened had he pitched Rossi on being the new face on a generation of US soccer aspirations.

Even more fuel the fire: if he knew he wasn’t sold on Twellman, then why not make this gambit? It would have been 5 times less adventurous than Sven’s. Who among you wouldn’t have pursued him given the options? Fact is, we thought it, we hoped for it, Bruce said one thing and given his track record and our faith in our team, we trusted his judgement. Now I think we know that was a mistake.

Posted from  United States

Wiki says:

“Despite playing for Italy at under-age level, he is still eligible to declare for the United States. Rumours had circulated that he would have considered playing for the U.S. had they offered him a place in the 2006 World Cup squad, but such an offer never materialized.”

And SAF says Rossi, “Is good in the air. He has got quick feet, a great football brain and can score goals.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Rossi

Posted from  United States

This Canales article from November 2005 is where my opinion on formed on Rossi for the most part.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=350666&root=us&cc=5901

Notice how Arena sent a request before the Scottland friendly but the details on whether or not SAF and/or Rossi accepted weren’t released. Again, if your Arena, don’t you have two good reasons to visit SAF in person in November to request his release for that game?

Posted from  United States

Maturity and responsibility: Pekerman (Argentina’s manager) quit immediately after his team was beaten by Germany this afternoon; even though his team’s performance was not as pathetic as ours. Of course there are a dozen qualified individuals that can take over his duties. We, on the other hand, have perhaps one or two, at best.

As some of the people here have commented, Rossi must have been somewhat of a secret project. It is for the first time that I have heard of him; even though I have tried to keep abreast of everything that was going on with the natonal team.

E. Tucker, I am glad to see that the DR is carrying sports other than baseball. My mother tells me she watches there the Spanish La Liga matches regularly.

Posted from  United States

well….. you may be crap but…. at least you don’t dive and cheat like some of the teams still in the world cup. i.e. Portugal the are the real losers

as long as you play as well as the team can do and don’t cheat. you didn’t play that bad against Italy but there pretty crap as well

Posted from  United Kingdom

Keep Arena in US Soccer, not as the coach though send him to those soccer universities in Europe and keep him involved with player and youth development. The US must hire a Foriegn coach in order to continue with the progress, I admit they had a better team than in 2002, but they didn’t keep up with the rest of the world. They need to learn from the other systems in the world, from the likes of Brasil, Argentina, England, France, and the Spanish and evolve the MLS into a similar Club system like the ones used throughout the world to help with player devolpment and training, to also strengthen the MLS as a league. By bringing in the talent along with good coaching. If these changes aren’t made the US will never make it anywhere in Football! There is to much talent in the US that has to be found and developed for the US not to be a powerhouse.
I like Donovan but he rates to be a loser, because he couldnt crack the lineup in Germany and says I quit and I will go back to the US and stunt my development.
Winner, Dempsey was a man on a mission. When his number got called he went straight at Italy, inexperience? Come on this player has stood out since he started getting capped! His “give me the ball” mentality needs to be duplicated. All he envisions on the field is opportunity. If this guy goes to Europe, he will be a monster for the American squad come time for South Africa. The US could benefit from more players with his type of molding. Best of luck to him!

Posted from  United States

I want the USA to win as much as any American. However, we are still years behind the top 10 teams in the world. We need to stop making excuses of a lack of programs to develope new players. Soccer is not as important as footbal (real football), baseball and basketball in this country – and I’m ok with that. Let’s continue to get better and one day we can compete with the rest of the world, but until then….enjoy the NFL, NCAA Football, MLB and March Madness.

Posted from  United States

I’m glad we all agree Bruce Arena must go.

Posted from  United States

If you were watching the LA & NY game last night, you found the wonder boy, LD, stating that HE WAS NOT PREPARED for the WORLD CUP. NO S_ _!!! All of the US knew. I’ve coached and played LD should have sat out after the 1st game. Brian should have played. You can play soccer without HEART and DESIRE. I blame Arena, MB and LD for the showing by the US players. LD had a tremendous goal last night against a pitful NY team lead by TONY the Fool Meola. LD can only score with goalies of such poor quality. GO ITALIA!!!!!!!!!

Posted from  United States

bossimo – I hope the Rossi discussion continues on to bigger and more visible platforms–and whatever Arena’s fate may be, I hope the US learns to never be too arrogant to pursue US-born talent to the ends of the earth. Even if Rossi WERE arrogant enough to demand a starting US spot (which he wouldn’t, he’s talented but not all that arrogant yet…)–it would still befit us to give it to him, since we already have players that aren’t near as good as Rossi with egos twice or thrice as bloated. The fact that he wasn’t pursued with more heart shows a complacency and lack of creativity on the part of US administration, and those were big factors of the poor US showing. At this point in time, we do not have any current strikers who could play as a fourth striker for Man U, and that is really the best argument for pursuing Rossi. It is not likely Rossi will be invited to play for Italy as long as he stays at Man U, since Italy really only calls players who play for clubs in Italy (the last player who was an exception to this I believe was Zola–and he really was exceptional), but even so, it would be idiotic for the US to not even attempt to court him. The US may have a bright near-future if they score Rossi and build a team around him, Freddy Adu, and Clint Dempsey. Focusing on good, young, creative, attacking talent and relying on veteran defenders like Conrad, Bocanegra, and Cherundolo, we may be far more successful than the world thinks we are capable of.

Posted from  United States

It would definitely be nice to see Dempsey go accross the pond and see what he can become in 4 years. Dempsey is definitely the future of this squad, the only way for him to go now is up and he needs to pick up his game some more so those European teams can get a good look at him and snag him. All that will do is make him better as well as the US squad, his future looks bright!

Posted from  United States

give the team some slack. we worked really hard and besides teams like brazil have had more experience than us. people really need to quit putting them down. they did their best and tht is what matters

Posted from  United States

“Your not #5 | June 30th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
From a now former US fan, US is as talented as george bush
Posted from Kuwait”

Is that the current Bush or the one that saved your little country from Sadaam back in the 90’s?

Posted from  United States

did Italy deserve the win ?
Yes
or
NO

Posted from  Canada

HELLO

Posted from  Canada

Anyone here?

Posted from  Canada

Helloooo

Posted from  Canada

I think the ratings are pretty good except: Bocanegra made a terrible error against Ghana – that high header into the penalty box. No one comments on how bad a mistake that was- in someways worse than Reyna. His ranking should be lower. Cherundolo I think deserves a better grade. I cant remeber a failure on defense on his part and he was good at bringing the ball up.(B+) Given his position what more can you really expect. If you forget Czech game Beasley was really pretty good. We allowed 2 goals per game. that stands out more than a lack of offense. the defense overall was lacking. Arena clearly had people out of position against Czech and that put us in a hole. Great teams and great players sometimes have poor cups. Remember France died in group in 2002 but were finalists in 98 and 06.
Italy did not make an unforced error on own goal. Credit is deserved for forcing Italy to error. Two “goals” off the post. We were competitive in the strongest group. Lets not ignore the progress from the 90’s. It is real.

Willyy

Posted from  United Kingdom