But it's not the solution. I'm tired of these false remedies. Castillo or Orzco at LB, or Boca I guess.
5 = Poor And Bradley was more effective than Feilhaber, though not by much. Neither had a particularly good game.
Benny was tidy in the middle third but not much in the final third or defending third. Kind of laid back.
Players hitting the end of the road: Beckerman, Bornstein. Losing points: Marshall. Players below expectations: Bradley, Feilhaber, Holden, Dempsey, Howard. Players matching expectation: Donovan, Jozy, Spector, Davies, Boca. Earning points: Torres. Donovan should be the captain. The best ideas start with him.
Apparently we have different expectations. I'd move Bocaand Spector down to below, and move Holden and Howard up while moving Torres down to matching. To each his own.
I wasn't impressed by Holden today, he only had one good play in the 20 minutes he played. I think Spector did all that was asked from him, except helping in attack. I don't rate him as a top defender, either. I must admit I feel happy about Torres, and I feel he's earned points to make The 23. As for Boca, no, I don't expect too much from him any more. I think he's on the down side of the hill at this point.
Holden played good defense, was the only guy who could clear the ball from the box, made good runs, sick crosses..... wtf do you expect from him? Torres made a nice header that was created by a brilliant play on Holden's part.
<rant> I'm assuming here and not trying to single anyone out here, but I'm chalking it up to what I hate most about bigsoccer, someone feeling they have to tear another player down to build up there favorite. I noticed he had Torres as gaining points, so I assume he likes Torres, and he and Holden happen to both play in the midfield, so to make Torres looks better one could say a competitor for that spot is below average. The same mess was going on when Holden was breaking into scene where people were bad mouthing Kljestan to build him up. Bradley and Clark have also been the target of off handed remarks by Feilhaber, Jones, Torres, etc. supporters. I don't mean to rant too much, but I can't stand it when people feel they have to belittle our players to try to build up another one. Sorry, back to the topic. </rant>
i think we missed gooch in the middle. davies looked dangerous at times. him and altidore caused a lot of problems. howard made a big mistake on the goal and otherwise was only tested once... donovan was the clear star. i thought holden did well in his brief stint. had two good crosses, one almsot resulting in a goal, one that went straight through the center and a third that he didn't quite get off. he's the best bench creative spark we've had in a while...
Holden is good. IMO he will make the 23. Perhaps my expectations of him are too high. If anything, I think this game is making Torres a strong contender to be in the 23, while putting Kyle out definitely, and perhaps Bornstein too.
These were my thoughts exactly. I just didn't want to rant. Of course the guy has responded, so what I'm doing is the equivalent of talking about someone while they are standing right next to you. Which is also annoying. Sorry.
Just in case, I was one of the first asking for Holden and Rogers to be included in the USMNT roster. Right now I have my doubts about Rogers, but I'm 100% behind Holden being on the team.
Maybe someone is inflating his performance, but most are pointing out that with the limited opportunities he had he sent in two nice crosses and brought some needed energy, not to mention that he helped out on defense. He wasn't in long enough to get a top-grade performance, but I wouldn't sneer at his night, either. Based on this night and his prior outings with the USMNT he'll continue to get minutes.
how in the hell is dempsey goal offside? please tell me. when the ball is kicked dempsey is still behind his man. after the ball is gone dempsey defender pulled up and dempsey made the run into the box and scored. bradley is offside. not dempsey, wtf is wrong with some people eyes. howard-5 sometime i think he comes off his line a bit too much. spector-6 played well boca-5 played very well had to cover for chad a lot. marshall-4 not the best of showing borestien- -3 yes it is a negative 3 and it speaks for it self. dempsey-6.5 danced on the ball a lot, scored a good goal. need to keep it simple. donovan-8.5 played very good. gave the ball away twice that almost cost us but you can blame bradley for not controlling it. benny-6 i thought he played very well made some nice passes. bradley-5 gave the ball away, broke up some passes. not the greatest display from him. davies- 6.5 did very well almost scored that nice goal but it was cleared off the line. and someone need to tell him the pitch isnt a pool. altidore-7.5 i dont know what the hell that reff was thinking. but thats an honduran reff for you. being a honduran american, im really imbarssed. (is it that hard to find a european reff or a south american reff) holden-5.5 nice cross to torres. played well in the time given. beckerman-3.5 brought nothing to the team other than another body on the field. torres-5 can we please get this kid some f*&king playing time!!!!