Comments on: USA 0 – 0 Guatemala; A Scoreless Draw

By: What!!!

What!!! — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 17:57:39 +0000

What!!! 9-0-1 yeah right.

Anyways I do believed that the USA will get a tough game when it comes to Copa America at Venezuela. Nevertheless, I do believed that the US can beat Argentina. For some reason I feel that Mexico and the US has grown tremendously to a level that they can now beat Brazil and Argentina. What Argentina and Brazil have is history and reputation, but the US and Mexico has generated so much money into their leagues and national team, that finally the quality of their players are individually improving and going to European leagues.

By: chuck

chuck — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:29:25 +0000

Connor,

I found a mistake in your second sentence. Guatemala actually didn’t play in a 4-5-1 formation.

I think it was in fact a 9-0-1 formation.

Heh.

By: Luis Carlos

Luis Carlos — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:24:09 +0000

That’s win for Guatemala (0-0). Seriously, I don’t think USA needs another coach, he has done a good job beating tough oponents like Ecuador and Mexico in their first matches. The quality of the american players is ok, but the mentality of the team is what makes them better. Contrary to our team(Mexico). Good luck in the Copa America and the golden cup.

By: Connor

Connor — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:31:02 +0000

That’s a good point Chuck. I thought there was a lot of talent on the field.

By: chuck

chuck — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:09:53 +0000

This was close to an U-23 team we fielded.

Seven of the guys that played in this game were under 23 (Bradley, Spector, Simek, Feilhaber, Mapp, EJ, and Cooper), though EJ turns 23 at the end of this month.

What is more, Dempsey turned only 24 earlier this month, while Landon Donovan just turned 25 earlier in March.

Usually, American players in their PRIME would be able to make the grade on the European club teams, but nowadays, many of our young guys are getting experience over there.

The guys I mentioned, along with several I haven’t mentioned (like Beasley and Onyewu) will be the nucleus for the 2010 WC, as well as the 2014 WC. The 22-year olds will be hitting their prime years in 2014!

So, despite the 0-0 result against Guatemala, I am still encouraged and very excited to see these guys get to work together.

By: Connor

Connor — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:52:27 +0000

Yeah I feel bad for Twellman. I was surprised Brian Ching didn’t start too, so I looked on ussoccer.com and saw he wasn’t on the roster…? I don’t know why – he wasn’t one of the 4 players released last Sunday.

I’m not sure about Bradley-Feilhalber v. Mastroeni-Clark yet. I think I like Bradley-Feilhalber better but I’m not sure. What about you?

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 14:31:31 +0000

A few thoughts.

1. Justin Mapp was one of the few players to dribble around guatemalan players and show creative flare. That said, sometimes he tried to do too much with the ball and should have passed it.

2. Eddie Johnson had his best game in a long time. But I agree with Wynalda that Eddie needs to be away from the national team and regain his form on the club level. I’m surprised Brian Ching didn’t start after his strong performance in the 2nd half against Ecuador. Too bad Twellman was ill – I was looking forward to him being given a chance to prove himself.

3. I think Bradley should stay on as coach. He is good at making adjustments (ecuador), his players respect him and they work hard while on the pitch.

4. After two ames together, any thoughts on Bradley and Feilhalber? Better or worse than Pablo Maestroeni and Ricardo Clark?