On a neutral or US field..

[kinstlinger]

I was going to ask which countries we could BEAT on a neutral or US field, but then since that number has grown to be many, I thought I'd ask on a neutral or US field, which soccer powers CAN'T we beat ?

I don't mean that we'd always lose to these countries, but they'd give us the most trouble.

Here's my list:

Brazil
Argentina - We beat them in 1999, so maybe we can.
France
Italy
Holland
Spain

Within the last 5 years, we've beaten Germany twice, but also lost twice, so we've shown that we can at least handle them. We've beaten Portugal, are 1-1-0 versus Poland, didn't get embarrassed versus Ireland. I'd really love to see how we'd do against England. Hopefully, we'll get a chance come this spring.

[ur_land]

Don't forget that we've beaten Brazil in the US as well. 1-0 (Preki, 65th? minute), 1998 Goal Cup Semi, Los Angeles.

[kinstlinger]

Don't forget that we've beaten Brazil in the US as well. 1-0 (Preki, 65th? minute), 1998 Goal Cup Semi, Los Angeles.

True - Don't forget KK's immortal performance.

[dfb547490]

There isn't a single team in the world that we aren't capable of beating on a given day.

On the other hand, there are many (maybe over half) that aren't realistically capable of beating us, even on their home turf.

[NoSix]

Perhaps a more definitive question would be: which teams would be favorites to defeat the USA in the USA? By my handicapping:

France
Argentina
Brazil
Netherlands
Czech Republic
Spain
Italy

That's the complete list - England would be a toss-up.

[Shaster]

Perhaps a more definitive question would be: which teams would be favorites to defeat the USA in the USA? By my handicapping:

France
Argentina
Brazil
Netherlands
Czech Republic
Spain
Italy

That's the complete list - England would be a toss-up.

The team we will have most problem is Brazil. (Of course, we gave Brazil enough problem too.)

The reason? US offense has only two factors--1) The height of McBride to beat short defenders in the air; 2) The speed of Donovan to beat slow defenders on the run. When we face Brazil, they have defenders who are tall, physical, fast and skill. They can beat McBride on the air and keeping the pace with Donovan. So we will not give up too many goals but we cannot score against them either. Unless we begin to produce skillful, fast, tall and physical strikers... :>)

We can beat Argentina on a good day. The game will be like the past U-20 games with Argentina has 60% of game and we have 40%. If we can finish our chances, then we have no problem to beat them at all.

We always have problem to deal with Netherland before but not right now. If Convey knows how to shoot a ball, we may pull off a tie last time even though our team are not gelled and cannot string two passes. We will create chances against them if we can finish them...

France in current state, we can beat them even in France.

I don't know how we match up with Czech, but I don't see anything to suggest me that we cannot beat them.

For Spain and Italy, we can beat them in their home. US right now is still a run & gun team but with more skillful players turn on with our physical ability, we have no problem to handle these two teams (plus Portugal too).

[Adam Zebrowski]

I think you ahve to put this into a WC finals setting, where ALL players on ALL sides are FULLY interested playing 100%, would rather die out there than lose.

teams who'd be betting favorites are:

brazil
argentina
italy
germany
spain
france
england
sweden
portugal
nigeria
cameroon
holland
russia
denmark

after that..you might argye either way for about a half dozen other squads

[NoSix]

I think you ahve to put this into a WC finals setting, where ALL players on ALL sides are FULLY interested playing 100%, would rather die out there than lose.

teams who'd be betting favorites are:

brazil
argentina
italy
germany
spain
france
england
sweden
portugal
nigeria
cameroon
holland
russia
denmark

after that..you might argye either way for about a half dozen other squads


On a neutral field I would favor USA over Nigeria, Cameroon, and Russia. To your list I would add Czech Republic, Ireland, Romania, and Croatia.

[crusio]

We are one of those teams that can beat anyone (or just about) or lose to anyone. This team seems to be settleing into a pattern of playing to its competition.

[TAKK]

I think you ahve to put this into a WC finals setting, where ALL players on ALL sides are FULLY interested playing 100%, would rather die out there than lose.

teams who'd be betting favorites are:

brazil
argentina
italy
germany
spain
france
england
sweden
portugal
nigeria
cameroon
holland
russia
denmark

after that..you might argye either way for about a half dozen other squads

Stuff like this usually doesn't interest me, but.......


Russia?????????????????????????????

Why would you think that??????????

[Soulphish]

True - Don't forget KK's immortal performance.


Thanks to that song by Barcelona...we shall never forget it....

"and we won't blame you for France in 98".....

[Sinter]

Yea who the heck would favor Russia over us. Then someone else mentioned Ireland and Romania... I'm sorry I don't see either of them being favored to beat us at home... maybe on the road.

Turkey is very talented as well don't put them down.

[mschofield]

I think you ahve to put this into a WC finals setting, where ALL players on ALL sides are FULLY interested playing 100%, would rather die out there than lose.

teams who'd be betting favorites are:

brazil
argentina
italy
germany
spain
france
england
sweden
portugal
nigeria
cameroon
holland
russia
denmark

after that..you might argye either way for about a half dozen other squads
If we're talking betting favorites, total agreement, as the patriotic money in other nations would overwhelm that spent in vegas, and unless it was a later round game there wouldn't be enough serious money to counteract it.
But, as someone noted you'd have to add turkey, czech rep., romania, ireland, croatia. You'd probably add Japan to the list. I thought SK was a flash in a cup, but I liked their style and pace of their qualified olympic team, so they might attract some money.
Actually, I love these boards for their dismissal of turkey. They perform better in the cup we have determined set our place among the world's top teams, have professional teams in their league far more accomplished than ours, have more accomplished turks aboard than we have yanks, and yet the notion is we've left them in the dust.

[Adam Zebrowski]

I'd agree with the concept that turkey is underappreciated, and it explains why a team like russia, i'd select more favorably than the usa.

teams we don't get to see, we just ignore and assume usa would dominate...

much like we see the costa ricas of the world and can appreciate them for their past play, we tend to assume those we don't see regularly are inferior...

my recollections of usa last visit to russia ending up in defeat....

[Aquarius21]

Maybe, maybe not on the netherlands. i guess you have to catch them on a bad day for them. they are the most challenged team i've watch. they have all the talent in the world but for some reason they just can't seem to pull it together. like, not qualifying for WC'02. But i think the major teams like brazil, argentina, france, maybe england would be better. but our team is better than most people think. they still see us as the US of old.

[SABuffalo786]

The only team I honestly fear playing, the only one I can't really seeing us have any chance against anywhere is Brazil.

[NoSix]

The only team I honestly fear playing, the only one I can't really seeing us have any chance against anywhere is Brazil.
That might be because of our woeful record against Brazil, or it might be because we play them more often than the European powers.

USA record since 1990 against:

Brazil 1W, 0D, 10L, 3GF, 15GA
Argentina 2W, 0D, 2L, 4GF, 2GA
France None
Netherlands 0W, 0D, 3L, 0GF, 5GA
Czech Republic 0W, 0D, 1L, 1GF, 5GA
Spain 0W, 0D, 1L, 0GF, 2GA
Italy 0W, 1D, 2L, 1GF, 3GA

Note that our combined record against the four European countries is 0W, 1D, 7L, 2GF, 15GA, comparable to our record against Brazil.

[ghazi]

There is no reason for the US to fear the current Italian, Spanish and French teams, from what I saw in the Euro Cup. Even in qalifying these teams had major letdowns and performance issues (except France which has since lost its core players).

Brazil is the only team the strikes fear in my heart. Other than that, i really think our newer, athletic and confident side can hang with them all. the only area that really worries me is our finishing. If the US had the finishing of top teams, we would be a righteous force in footy. No doubt.

As far as Holland goes, they look hit and miss all the time, and even when they beat us 1-0 in Amsterdam this year, they were well-oiled from Euro qualifying, while the US Nat team was playing together for the first time since summer 02. And still we played respectably (other than Arjen Robben horrifying the flank and Hejduk).

Once our players learn to finish their chances, rather than shoot a weak SCUD ball right at the keeper or launch it over the stadium, this team shoud fear nobody.

[dfb547490]

USA record since 1990 against:

Brazil 1W, 0D, 10L, 3GF, 15GA

Has Brazil ever beaten us by more than a goal since 1994? I don't think they have, and we've met 10 or so times since then.

[dna77054]

[QUOTE=ghazi]

As far as Holland goes, they look hit and miss all the time, and even when they beat us 1-0 in Amsterdam this year, they were well-oiled from Euro qualifying, while the US Nat team was playing together for the first time since summer 02. And still we played respectably (other than Arjen Robben horrifying the flank and Hejduk).
QUOTE]

I have to disagree here. We kept the score respectable by playing a cowardly game with 11 men in defense at most times. However we did play them very well in 2-0 defeat in that previous WC tune-up match. That is where our finishing let us down. Their goalie did not have a great game, we shot everything right at him. We played that game toe-to-toe with them, but we went into Holland with a poor mentality, producing a wretched game.