US National Soccer Team
TommyL
Super Moderator
Thought we could use a thread to talk about the US Men's busy summer. Here is their schedule over the next month...
Saturday, 5/26 vs. Scotland (Friendly)
Wednesday, 5/30 vs. Brazil (Friendly)
Sunday, 6/3 @ Canada (Friendly)
Friday, 6/8 vs. Antigua & Barbuda (CONCACAF WCQ)
Tuesday, 6/12 @ Guatemala (CONCACAF WCQ)
After that, things kick up again in August with a friendly at Azteca against Mexico, and more World Cup Qualifiers in September and October.
Those who pay attention to US Soccer (including myself) are a little disappointed on two fronts right now. First, Timmy Chandler turned down a callup for the friendlies and qualifiers. Right now, he's still a "free agent" since the games that he played for the US were only friendlies and he needs to play in a qualifier or Gold Cup to become tied to the US (and he turned down the Gold Cup invite last summer), however many think that he'll never get a serious look from Germany and would really be throwing away a good opportunity if he doesn't join the US team (he's German born and raised, but his dad was a US serviceman so he has eligibility to either country). He's very talented so that alone would make him a disappointing loss for us, but even more importantly he's an outside back which has been a huge area of concern for the US for many years (exhibit A is Bornstein having to play key minutes for the US in the last world cup).
The second piece of bad news isn't on the playing front, it's on the television front. The away qualifier in Guetamala will only be available via pay-per-view, at 29.95 a pop. The US Soccer federation is very disappointed in this development, but Guetamala put it out to bid and the "PPV company" outbid ESPN and NBC, so you'll have to fork over $ to see it (or find an illegal stream). Disappointing news at a time when soccer is gaining more and more viewers domestically. And the other two away qualifiers in this round (Jamaica and Antigua) are both appearing to head down the same path. Just tough news for US soccer fans that 50% of the World Cup Qualifiers in this round will potentially not be available in the US unless you're shelling out $, tough to keep growing the game with this situation.
Anyways, looking forward to the Scotland game on Saturday (8pm Eastern on NBCSports), as we'll hopefully get our first look at both Landon and Dempsey on the field at the same time under Jurgen. (Edit - Sounds like Altiodore and Dempsey will both be unavailable on Saturday, so we'll have to wait)
Saturday, 5/26 vs. Scotland (Friendly)
Wednesday, 5/30 vs. Brazil (Friendly)
Sunday, 6/3 @ Canada (Friendly)
Friday, 6/8 vs. Antigua & Barbuda (CONCACAF WCQ)
Tuesday, 6/12 @ Guatemala (CONCACAF WCQ)
After that, things kick up again in August with a friendly at Azteca against Mexico, and more World Cup Qualifiers in September and October.
Those who pay attention to US Soccer (including myself) are a little disappointed on two fronts right now. First, Timmy Chandler turned down a callup for the friendlies and qualifiers. Right now, he's still a "free agent" since the games that he played for the US were only friendlies and he needs to play in a qualifier or Gold Cup to become tied to the US (and he turned down the Gold Cup invite last summer), however many think that he'll never get a serious look from Germany and would really be throwing away a good opportunity if he doesn't join the US team (he's German born and raised, but his dad was a US serviceman so he has eligibility to either country). He's very talented so that alone would make him a disappointing loss for us, but even more importantly he's an outside back which has been a huge area of concern for the US for many years (exhibit A is Bornstein having to play key minutes for the US in the last world cup).
The second piece of bad news isn't on the playing front, it's on the television front. The away qualifier in Guetamala will only be available via pay-per-view, at 29.95 a pop. The US Soccer federation is very disappointed in this development, but Guetamala put it out to bid and the "PPV company" outbid ESPN and NBC, so you'll have to fork over $ to see it (or find an illegal stream). Disappointing news at a time when soccer is gaining more and more viewers domestically. And the other two away qualifiers in this round (Jamaica and Antigua) are both appearing to head down the same path. Just tough news for US soccer fans that 50% of the World Cup Qualifiers in this round will potentially not be available in the US unless you're shelling out $, tough to keep growing the game with this situation.
Anyways, looking forward to the Scotland game on Saturday (8pm Eastern on NBCSports), as we'll hopefully get our first look at both Landon and Dempsey on the field at the same time under Jurgen. (Edit - Sounds like Altiodore and Dempsey will both be unavailable on Saturday, so we'll have to wait)
Comments
FULL USMNT TRAVEL SQUAD
GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENDERS (7): Carlos Bocanegra (Rangers), Geoff Cameron (Houston Dynamo), Edgar Castillo (Club Tijuana), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Clarence Goodson (Brondby), Oguchi Onyewu (Sporting CP), Michael Parkhurst (Nordsjaelland)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Michael Bradley (Chievo Verona), Joe Corona (Club Tijuana), Maurice Edu (Rangers), Fabian Johnson (Hoffenheim), Jermaine Jones (Schalke 04), Jose Torres (Pachuca)
FORWARDS (6): Jozy Altidore (AZ Alkmaar), Terrence Boyd (Borussia Dortmund), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy), Herculez Gomez (Santos Laguna), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)
I'm torn on it. I don't want to add to their bottom line and make it more likely at they'll do it in the future. However, I also can't see myself missing a WCQ. I'm sure that I'll end up spending the $30 and getting it.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/blog/post/2012/05/25/report-pan-american-cup-be-held-usa
It's looking like a 16 team tournament will be held in the US in 2016 that will feature 6 teams from CONCACAF and the 10 teams from South America. Will be great for soccer in this country if it all goes through and we get the US, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and the rest playing meaningful games here in a tournament setting (it would be the biggest men's soccer event to be held here since the World Cup in 94).
This is how I would feel if I wasn't going to be on a cruise that week.
I would also be going to the Tampa game but the timing just didn't work out. Oh well.
I guess I'm asking for a crash course in the state of the current roster if anyone has the time and is so inclined.t
Well our defense sucks im sure of that. The fact that Onyewu is even on the roster shows the sad state of the back line. The guy is a fucking stiff.
This much I'm aware of, but thanks for chiming in. Gooch is slow as shit, no argument there.
Going back over this 23-man roster, I guess I'm not as unfamiliar with most of the team as I thought. I'm more wondering what the depth chart looks like, but from doing some reading, sounds like a lot of it is still up in the air, even if you follow the team closely.
I also read Dempsey isn't playing tonight (neither is Altidore, but I've gone back and forth on him), but should be in there vs. Brazil. So I'm guessing we see yet another semi-random lineup as Klinsmann continues to try to decide on who the top 11 really are. Why did Brek Shea get left off the roster? Not that I'm overly fond of him, but it sure seemed like Klinsmann was.
Howard
Cherundolo---Onyewu---Bocanegra---Fabian Johnson
Bradley---Jones
Donovan----Torres
Dempsey
Altidore
Based on what he has available and his comments about how much he likes Torres, I think we'd come out with the lineup above, which would be a 4-5-1 or a 4-3-3 depending on how you look at Donovan and Dempsey's roles. The "newcomer" that has the best chance to play is Fabian Johnson, as I think he's clearly the best option at left back right now. Off the bench, someone like Boyd/Gomez could come in and add some more punch up top, Edu come in for some more support in the midfield, and someone like Parkhurst could come into the back line. The hope of a lot of the USMT supporters is that guys like Cherundolo/Bocanegra/Gooch get overtaken in two years, but Cherundolo especially seems to somehow keep getting better with age. It's so tough to project what will happen in two years (looking back at our first qualifier in the last cycle in June of 2008, you had Mastroeni, Brian Ching, Heath Pearce, and Beasley all starting, with Eddie Lewis getting minutes off the bench and guys like Hejduk and Danny Califf available on the bench).
I think tonight, you'll see a pretty strong lineup starting (minus Jozy and Dempsey), but then liberal subs at halftime and in the second half to see pretty much everyone. The X-factor for the next couple years in my mind is Stewart Holden. He's battled so many injuries over the last year and a half, but before they started he was playing so well and would have been one of the three best players on the squad. The other x-factor is Charlie Davies. He's still only 25 years old but I'm really starting to think that he's just never going to get back to 100%. Such a shame if he doesn't, as he was just scratching the surface before the injury. And then of the young guys, we have a couple of potential prospects in Agudelo (who I'm sure you know of well), Joe Corona, and Terrance Boyd. Boyd is especially interesting as he's never even played a game at the full club level (he's been stuck on the reserves at German Champ Borussia Dortmund), however he got a cap in the Italy game and looked great for the under-23 team. And then there is Freddy Adu, who is miraculously is still just 22 years old.
Really, there are a lot of directions that Jurgen can go with the current pool. It'll be interesting to see how the next couple of weeks play out, as he specifically has mentioned that he packed these 5 games tightly together to mimick a tournament setting. We should know a lot more about his direction a month from now.
And I also forgot to mention some of the younger guys on the back line, like Lichaj and Tim Ream, who may end up playing key minutes down the road at some point in the cycle.
He's had a recent dip in form. I forgot to mention him, but I think he's one of those guys that might be a little raw today, but will probably play a role in 2014.
I don't hate Gooch as much as many others have. With him, you know what you get. A guy that is good in tight spaces and will play physical and win every ball in the air, but not someone that will be able to stay with a quick player or play well in space. If you have enough speed around him, he's useful. If not, he gets exposed.
I figured you were, just it really bothers me at the lack of development of American defensive players. I think we are strong pretty much everywhere else.
I think we discussed Holden before, agree with you about him 100%, his injuries really are a shame. Davies too of course. I mean, he's somewhat lucky to be alive, let alone playing again, given that it was a car accident, not a soccer injury, but I think Holden returning would have a much bigger impact than Davies. Until one of our forwards sets himself apart from the crowd (Altidore is likely our best option right now, but that doesn't mean he's good enough) and/or one of the young guys goes from promising to proven, I'll probably go back to my "might as well put Dempsey up top" stance from the last WC. I'd rather have a healthy Donovan/Dempsey/Holden on the field and figure out a formation than just start a forward who happens to be the best pure forward from what we have to choose from. That said, Holden has to be healthy first, and Altidore may finally prove himself, so who knows? If nothing else, we can certainly use the two years between now and 2014 to figure things out.
Wednesday night will be a very interesting test. This is an extremely young Brazil team, however they looked very sharp against Denmark yesterday. We're not going to have nearly the possession that we had on Saturday, so I'll be very curious to see if we're still looking to play from the back and midfield and work the ball up the field, or if we'll revert back to the days of packing it in a little more and trying to create offense via long balls and counters.
The WNT had too many talented forwards and moved them elsewhere to get the best players on the field (O'Hara was mostly moved to the back b/c of Krieger's injury, but you get the idea).
The MNT seems to have many talented midfielders and no proven forward (at least compared to the midfielders), so I'd still rather move Dempsey up top if that means getting our best eleven on the field.
One aspect you didn't touch on was the defense, which of course wasn't really tested vs. Scotland outside of the own-goal. I'm curious to see how the offense plays vs. Brazil, but I'm even more interested in seeing how we defend.
Gooch looked great on that second goal....
Just start Joe Corona please.
How do you blame him? He marked his man, Jones didn't.
That's what I saw.
That said, still not a Gooch fan.
The ball was in the air and the Brazil player ran right in front of him to go get the ball and he just stood there. He is so slow it is embarrassing. The ball was in the air you have to do something.
"Clint looks good," Klinsmann said. "He looks ready to go, and we're very happy about that."
"It took a while to get them together – they had the first taste against Brazil. Now they're ready to go from the beginning."
Source: http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1679/us-national-team/2012/06/03/3145031/donovan-and-dempsey-set-to-start-together-for-first-time
Yeah, shame, he's been the bright spot back there. They said it was just a calf strain, so hopefully he'll be ok by Friday.
Love soccer, but rooting for them is painful.
The skill level is higher than 10 years ago, and the player pool is much, much deeper. However, we're playing a different style and trying to control the ball instead of playing long balls and countering.
Pretty uninspired effort tonight, looked like a team that needs a few days of rest to recharge right now before the two games that matter. Hopefully Johnson is ready to go for the Guatemala game (I'd just assume keep him out of Antigua unless he's feeling really good).