They've shown they have the ability to interchange, and LD is getting experience with this here in LA. I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE to see this. Much like LD staying close to Keane, this enables Landon and Clint to be closer together - a plus. In the past Clint limits his bonehead stepovers/backheels/trying dumb shit when Landon is closer to him because the pass comes in too quickly and he is expected to get the ball of his foot faster. This is exactly what we saw in Gold Cup 2011 when they worked well together.
Are you trying to insinuate that I have not supported Tottenham my entire life? First off, never seen you on the Spurs boards here so you might be talking about Lane Chat or somewhere else. Second of all, I never once said Dempsey was amazing or better than Modric, etc. I simply said that Dempsey was an effective squad player and that is it. He probably never would have broken into the first xi regularly but I consider that a weakness of his style towards the system AVB had. Dempsey is not a fast, creative attacking player that can work very fluidly, and that's what we wanted/needed at Spurs. I'm not a Dempsey fan boy at all, in fact I think he should not be captain of USA nor given the regular starting that JK seems to think he deserves. But to say he was complete shit at Spurs is also grossly incorrect. And, lastly, yes I have been a Spurs fan my entire life. I have the used tissues to prove it
ideally we play 4-2-3-1 with another holding mid allowing a front 3 of Dempsey, Donovan and Bradley. Beckerman and Jones is something Klinsman never tried, would have been interesting to see this: -----------altidore--------- --dempsey-bradley-donovan -----jones-----beckerman----
I wasn't but since you brought it up, that's what I assume with most fans not from England. I have roots in England and North London in particular. My family go to matches regularly and some have been season ticket holders since the last time Spurs won the title. The only reason I've been a Spurs fan my whole life is because I grew up in N. London and lived in the city at different times of my life. In the 80's and early 90's it would have been near impossible to support Tottenham living in another country. I don't know how old you are, so maybe it's a generational thing, but the availability of English football in particular Tottenham on American television is a rather new thing. I moved to Italy after England and it was hard to watch Tottenham even in Italy. I remember for years, I mean until very recently constantly having to explain to folks that Tottenham or clubs like West Ham are located in London. I've talked to German fans about when Klinsmann came to Spurs and many didn't have any clue about the club. It's nothing personal but that's generally why I assume most non-English football fans, that they came to support Spurs later in life when it became more available. @barroldinho might know what I'm talking about. Not sure why that matters. I'm a mod on a well populated Spurs board. I'm not really interested in talking about Spurs on the BigSoccer section, like at all. I get enough of that on my Spurs board. I come here for the Galaxy, USMNT and to speak with English speaking Roma fans (I go elsewhere for the Italian chat). I never attributed that quote to you. Nor did I say he was complete sh-t at Spurs. I said he wasn't that great at Spurs, which is true imo. Whether the issue is tactical as you suggest or he was just declining, what's the difference. To me he was declining at Spurs, he wasn't as effective as some suggested. The drop off might be more severe depending on how effective you thought he was at Tottenham. It's not surprising his "decline" since leaving, you could see evidence of it at Tottenham. It wasn't just about tactics. The wasteful play, in particular shot selection had nothing to do with tactics, that was just him being wasteful. Still that was a general comment to some of the Americans on BS who don't even seem to support clubs, they just support American players. I had to ban a few of these guys from our board because not only would they excuse every average to bad performance from Dempsey but they would bash the club and it's fans as well. They always overstate the impact he had at Spurs because of his statistical output which flatters to deceive. He came up big a few times but he had sooooo many ineffectual matches. The guy I quoted took issue with me initially because when Dempsey was signed I wasn't enthusiastic. We were losing quality players and replacing them with "meh" quality. That's why his fan club took exception and started bashing guys like Modric or VDV and calling them overrated. Dempsey had some good moments but people should remember who he replaced. The influence he had compared to VDV is night and day.
I can see SCY's point. I've only been here 7.5 years and I've seen a bit of a myriad of attitudes among American supporters. I know people who have been to Old Trafford more often than United fans in England. I've known people who openly jump on bandwagons and drop clubs if they don't enjoy the way they play. I've even known people who have West Ham tattoos because they feel the club represents their "blue collar roots", yet stare blankly at you if you mention Geoff Hurst or Bobby Moore.
@MPNumber9 - appreciate your posts in the Nats thread. You'll notice no one really responded except me. So much easier to exist in their own beliefs rather than face actual data that shows differently, right?
ok well you weren't' referring to what I said about Dempsey and I have very close family in N London and visited them almost every year growing up so that's what got me into Spurs as a kid. Couldn't watch that often back then though but now I can. Sounds like you are a bit older than me though. Day Dempsey was signed I knew he was a desperation buy, he clearly didn't fit into AVB's system. Another forced Levy buy prob
so I shouldn't be a Spurs fan because I'm American? I became a Spurs fans because I had some Mates from North London and I would go to their house on a regular basis and I would marvel at their Shrine to Tottenham and it really struck a chord with me and the funnest part was when their friends would mail VCR tapes of the games from the previous week and we all sat around watching the games but I guess it was all for naught, since I shouldn't be a Spurs fan
You referring to my post? If so that's not what I meant. Trust me, if you seen me post on Spurs boards I'm regularly one of the most inclusive and I've had many arguments with the xenophobes in our fanbase. I was just explaining why I assume people not from London came to support Spurs later in life, like in the 2000's because of the lack of availability of PL in general on TV. That and only recently Spurs have become a fashionable team. When many current Spurs fans were kids it was the worst period in our history, short a couple seasons. We wouldn't define what I would call "typical support". I had to do similar things, at times in my life. I still have VHS and radio broadcast cassettes we all used to listen to as a family.
I wasn't targeting you, just the overall theme, I'm a hardcore Spurs fan and when they're rubbish it ruins my whole week, I may not post much in the Spurs forum but the struggles of Spurs affects me deeply, so I take exception on topics on who should or shouldn't be a fan. with that being said COYS!!!
it was a generalization on who should be a fan, and its not specific to Tottenham as I see other fans come to the same conclusion, so I said something. I may be an American, but being loyal to a team no matter the situation or country should not be a detriment, it should be rewarded as we are as passionate as home based fans, I will be COYS!!! till I die, I just take offense that I don't matter because I wasn't born into Tottenham and haven't been to WHL
Read what I said again because both you and Phoenix took it completely sideways. Never did I generalize on what constitutes true support. Never did I say that Americans are less fans than myself. Hell, my support was questioned in fact because I don't post on the BS section. "I'll take you know you're Spurs very well, but I've supported Tottenham my whole life. Besides the Croatians I've never seen a bigger support system for a player than Dempsey, closest would be Niko." That is what I said when qualifying my next statement about fanboy followings of Tottenham (Not Tottenham fans) and how I've rarely seen a bigger support system for a player than Dempsey. You're getting yourself upset over something I never said or insinuated. The follow-up post was in response to when Phoenix misinterpreted what I said, to which I elaborated on my default opinion of those not from England and how they came to support a foreign club.
at least your an american, i am too though, that supports MLS as well. I really can't stand these idiots that support a premier league team as diehards but gaffe at MLS b/c it's not good enough. on spurs topic, this season has been miserable
I think people are overdoing this too much. Bradley was fantastic as a #10 but when Mexico started to actually play the obvious problems with playing such an attacking formation were obvious, we gave WAY too much space in our midfield. Im confident Klinsy isn't that dumb to play it in Brazil though. Bradley is FAR more effective than Dempsey in a #10 role though so perhaps Jones +Beckerman in holding roles could be interesting to try out
After reading Klinsmann's quotes today....not sure what else he can do to make me detest him even more.
http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1...-vogts-give-us-team-extra-push-report?cc=5901 "We, of course, want to beat Germany, and cause a sensation at the World Cup," Klinsmann told Sport Bild. "But we think that Germany will be through by the time of our meeting in the final group game. And we cross our fingers that they will win the World Cup in the end." I am, I'm sure, making a mountain out of a mole hill, but wishing another team to win the World Cup besides the one you are coaching rubs me the wrong way. He may feel that way, but keep it to yourself, dude. You don't need to alienate your players or your fans. Course, I admit, I don't like Klinsmann. At all. So I am biased.
Interesting quotes from Omar about the breakdown on the play when Marquez scored: “On that play, me and Kyle were talking and I said, ‘Hey, they’re going to pick me, so we have to switch,’” Gonzalez told reporters postgame. “We just haven’t practiced enough set pieces, and I was picked and we weren’t able to switch.” “I’ve got to a bastard in [the box],” he added. “The only tough part is that you don’t want to be too handsy, because then you get called for the PK.” Without getting too much into whether or not Omar should be calling out his teammate publicly (probably not) and w/o getting into whose fault it was (a bit of both) I find his final comment interesting. I've noticed that for a while now -- seemed to start a season or two ago after a particular bad stretch of LA repeatedly giving up set piece goals -- Omar seems to be focusing more and more on his man and less and less on the ball when defending set pieces. Ideally he would be in a ball-you-man position, both physically and mentally, like they teach in basketball. This would help him anticipate where both are likely to go and give him the best opportunity to get to the ball first and to stay with his man. But by looking at and focusing almost 100% on his man and also by bodying up tight he is actually making it easier for his mark to shake him and beat him to the ball. And his statement that he needs to be more physical indicates he is stuck in this mindset. I remember in Omar's best days he was focusing most of his energies on just getting to the ball first and heading it the frick out of there. And he was enormously successful at it. He needs to get back to that approach or something close to it. And soon. For the US Nat's team and the Galaxy's sake.
Yeah, that is actually a really messed up thing for the US coach to say. It pretty much communicates his view of the US team as 2nd class citizens - "your adorable and all, but let's get real"...
Doesn't bother me in the least. We are not honest contenders to win the cup. We aren't even going to make it out of our group. That's reality. I'd rather he not be blowing some ridiculous smoke about the USMNT hoisting the cup. That kind of stupid fake optimism bothers me. And he's German, he wants Germany to win the cup. He doesn't have to stop loving his homeland because he coaches for us. If there was any indication he wasn't going to fight against Germany (and there isn't---there are indication instead he cares more about beating them than anyone) the we'd have an issue, but otherwise? We're underdogs, it's a huge challenge, and someone is going to win that isn't the USA. He wants it to be Germany. Big deal? Not in my book.