Wagman: US lucky against Poland

[Scotty]

Lackadaisical Americans are lucky to tie Poland

With a lackadaisical effort, the United States men were lucky to salvage a 1-1 draw with Poland tonight on a late headed goal from defender Carlos Bocanegra off midfielder Landon Donovan's corner kick.

At Soldier Field in Chicago tonight, both sides, in fact, were lucky to score their goals. Poland went ahead in the 76th minute when U.S. keeper Tim Howard could not control Marcin Burkhardt's low cross and pushed a short rebound right to Piotr Wlodarczyk who knocked it into the net from four yards.
http://www.soccertimes.com/usteams/2004/jul11.htm

[JohnR]

The second paragraph is a lot more accurate than the first.

Both sides were lucky, yes. The Poles were the luckier of the two because they had about one damn chance all match, whereas the U.S. forced the Poles into a bunker defense and forced the Polish keeper to make several saves.

[FC Tallavana]

Lackadaisical Americans are lucky to tie Poland

With a lackadaisical effort, the United States men were lucky to salvage a 1-1 draw with Poland tonight on a late headed goal from defender Carlos Bocanegra off midfielder Landon Donovan's corner kick.

At Soldier Field in Chicago tonight, both sides, in fact, were lucky to score their goals. Poland went ahead in the 76th minute when U.S. keeper Tim Howard could not control Marcin Burkhardt's low cross and pushed a short rebound right to Piotr Wlodarczyk who knocked it into the net from four yards.
http://www.soccertimes.com/usteams/2004/jul11.htm

Like it's supposed to be easy to break through 9 men in the box?! Geez, and I thought I knew nothing about soccer! (Talking about the writer, not the poster)

[Dr. Wankler]

Well, this is a sign of progress. I mean, it beats the hell out of a headline like "US Beats European Team!!!. Higher expectations (though not unrealistic expectations) are good.

[Ghost]

Like it's supposed to be easy to break through 9 men in the box?! Geez, and I thought I knew nothing about soccer! (Talking about the writer, not the poster)

It's not easy, but it's something we needto figure out how to do. WE're going to see it for the next year and a half.

[MLSNHTOWN]

Like it's supposed to be easy to break through 9 men in the box?! Geez, and I thought I knew nothing about soccer! (Talking about the writer, not the poster)

Has Wagman wrote an article that was worth reading in the last two years?

[Scotty]

It's not easy, but it's something we needto figure out how to do. WE're going to see it for the next year and a half.

Perhaps Wolff's newly-perfected swan dive in the box could be the key.

[Northcal19]

Has Wagman wrote an article that was worth reading in the last two years?
No. He was bad, now he is ridiculous.

[E Diddy]

We are definitely in the generation of soccer fans in the US that rightfully expects more than at any time in the past.

MLS is closing in on its 1st decade, our nats are getting more and more experience overseas, and our younger players have REAL opportunities to become professionals in their mid to late teens.

This game illustrates the good and the bad that comes with those expectations.

And I agree with Ghost. We're going to see nothing but the bunker thru qualifying. We'll get a taste of what Brazil's been facing for oh, about 30 years now.

I'm glad though, it's something we need to figure out as a national team. Once we can beat the bunker, we'll be a true threat to any team, any time.

[drew_VT_6]

Gaven had little effect on the game? He only drew the foul that set up the game winning goal. And he drew 4-5 other fouls it seemed right in a row.

[Juan Luis Guerra]

In the contrary, Poland got lucky tying USA because we clearly dominated the whole game exept for the first 8 minutes of the game.

[FC Tallavana]

It's not easy, but it's something we needto figure out how to do. WE're going to see it for the next year and a half.

I agree that it is something we need to get better at but Wagman seems to think that if you don't score at will against a team that bunkers, you are lucky to get a draw.

I've read the postmatch comments from the Polish coach and he sure didn't seem as though his team should have won if not for the lucky Americans. He said that they were thrilled to get a draw against the 7th ranked team in the world.

It seems we now have gained respect in Europe, yet we have very little at home.

[papa surf]

[QUOTE=FC Tallavana]Like it's supposed to be easy to break through 9 men in the box?! Geez, and I thought I knew nothing about soccer! (Talking about the writer, not the poster)[/QUOTE

I am sure your right, but we did break through at least 4 PERFECT times, this was an otmatched Polish team ripe for a beating. Beasley had two chances he needed to finish, no questions, you cant always pull the ball to your strong foot. Wolfe should have hit that shot no matter who was open, he was inside the box a bit and should have put it on the goal. We did not need Claudio like the Soccernet report says, Donovan played well and many times put Beasley through Convey and Bease looked well together. We should have put this away, but thats sport.

[FC Tallavana]

[QUOTE=FC Tallavana]Like it's supposed to be easy to break through 9 men in the box?! Geez, and I thought I knew nothing about soccer! (Talking about the writer, not the poster)[/QUOTE

I am sure your right, but we did break through at least 4 PERFECT times, this was an otmatched Polish team ripe for a beating. Beasley had two chances he needed to finish, no questions, you cant always pull the ball to your strong foot. Wolfe should have hit that shot no matter who was open, he was inside the box a bit and should have put it on the goal. We did not need Claudio like the Soccernet report says, Donovan played well and many times put Beasley through Convey and Bease looked well together. We should have put this away, but thats sport.


I agree with you in that we managed to get several opportunities on goal. Unfortunately, Convey was on the end of one of them! My initial reply was to the Wagman line that basically said we were terrible because we couldn't beat a team that bunkered. It's one thing when Grenada bunkers, but when a decent side of Euro professionals does it, it's not gonna be easy to break through. That said, we did a few times. We just didn't finish well...but, what else is new there?

[onefineesq]

What does this guy think Claudio would have done? He is a possession guy. He is not a guy who drives forward with the ball and creates a bunch of chances. the US didn't have any problems with possession. They just failed to finish their chances. McBride penalty. Beasley flubbing the ball on the break. Convey blasting the ball into Row Z from the top of the penalty box. Seeing as Reyna's accuracy is worse than all of those guys (maybe equal to Convey), how would he have been the magic elixir? We finish decent in this game, and we win by 2 or 3. Reyna wouldn't have helped that.

[FC Tallavana]

What does this guy think Claudio would have done? He is a possession guy. He is not a guy who drives forward with the ball and creates a bunch of chances. the US didn't have any problems with possession. They just failed to finish their chances. McBride penalty. Beasley flubbing the ball on the break. Convey blasting the ball into Row Z from the top of the penalty box. Seeing as Reyna's accuracy is worse than all of those guys (maybe equal to Convey), how would he have been the magic elixir? We finish decent in this game, and we win by 2 or 3. Reyna wouldn't have helped that.

Convey's shot used to land in row T. Man, he's getting much stronger now that he's at left back!

[JohnW]

What does this guy think Claudio would have done? He is a possession guy. He is not a guy who drives forward with the ball and creates a bunch of chances. the US didn't have any problems with possession. They just failed to finish their chances. McBride penalty. Beasley flubbing the ball on the break. Convey blasting the ball into Row Z from the top of the penalty box. Seeing as Reyna's accuracy is worse than all of those guys (maybe equal to Convey), how would he have been the magic elixir? We finish decent in this game, and we win by 2 or 3. Reyna wouldn't have helped that.

I agree 100 percent.

I would add that while Donovan did not have a dominant game, he certainly played very well. It seems as if he is more comfortable when it's his show (i.e., some of his strongest recent performances have been games without Reyna).

Anyway, Wagman generally gives the worst interpretation of any game. It was a friendly that we dominated and managed to tie. We need better finishing. End of story.

[StillKickin]

Anyway, Wagman generally gives the worst interpretation of any game. It was a friendly that we dominated and managed to tie. We need better finishing. End of story.

I often get the feeling after reading Wagman that there is no way he could have been watching the game to come up with his analyses.

Lackadaisical is not a word I would use to describe our performance.

And I agree. We did not miss Claudio Reyna in that game.

[Red Card]

Good teams have a way of scoring to get a result in the final minutes. Didn't Brazil do that to us in the Gold Cup? And there were a couple of other games like that where we could not hold on. It's good to have the shoe on the other foot.

[superdave]

Wagman has the same problem aLOT of bigsoccer posters have.

He doesn't realize that soccer is hard.