What will we learn from the SENDOFF SERIES?

[house]

I made some comment on another thread about waiting to see what lineups B.A. puts out next week before guessing his stretegy. Well, I decided to look at the last three games before 2002 - and realized I put my foot in my mouth.

The Nats played against Uruguay, Jamaica and Holland. Here were the lineups:


vs. Uruguay (2-1 win)

Friedel

Sanneh-Pope-Agoos-Regis

Cobi-Armas-Stewart-DMB

Mathis-McBride

Note: Armas lasted 25 minutes before injuring his knee


vs. Jamaica (5-0 win)

Keller

Heydude-Mastroeni-Berhalter-Vanney

Donovan-Reyna-JOB-Stewart

Wolf-JM Moore


vs. Holland (2-0 loss)

Friedel

Sanneh-Pope-Agoos-Regis

Stewart-JOB-Reyna-DMB

Mathis-McBride

There were massive subs each game, BTW


What does this mean?

My guess was that BA wanted the Pope-Agoos pairing to jell. I think he had decided on LD as a starter but wanted to see more of DMB. Regis and Mathis started that final game against Holland but didn't start against Portgual. Little did Regis know that it would be his final cap with the Nats. Keller had some health issues late, which saved B.A. from a tough decision on his keeper.

I wonder if B.A. already knows his 11 for the Czech Republic game? I expect that he will play JOB a lot to evaluate his fitness and sharpness. And if Dempsey gets a lot of minutes in the three games it may show that BA is seriously thinking of him as a starter at R-Mid. And where will he play Reyna?
But I doubt we will see his first choice for the first WC game during this sendoff series.....

[quitoamature]

when i read this and remember how stewart, agoos, armas, regis and even cobi were seen as a big part of our roster coming into the final weeks i feel so much better about our team's preparation.
gooch
mastro
dempsey
cheredolo
we're are light years ahead of where we were 4 yrs ago.

in the games comming up i am more concerned about injuries than scores.

[ProfZim1]

I'm looking for several things in the upcoming series:

1) form and fitness of the players;
2) on the field chemistry: combinations of players to see if they work well together(e.g. McBride and EJ, Pope and Gooch, etc);
3) position battles (Dempsey to start at RM? where does BA play Convey?)
4) tactics and strategy: can we glean anything new up BA's sleeve that he may try on our first round opponents?

[kylesoccer]

bruce will look to try his tactics he has in mind for the first round against the three friendly opponents. It's not important that we win but that we tactically do what bruce asks of the boys. For example, the holland game the last time around was clearly the portugal game in bruce's mind. Although we lost 2-0, as a person who was at the game, we counterattacked superbly and looked great at attacking. Although we may not have the ideal opponents this time, bruce will try formations/tactics that he wants to imploy on our 3 first round opponents. At the same time, he sees who can carry out the coaches game plan and who is in form. Also i hope with the all red uniforms for Latvia that the team throws them in the stands and i get one. Again, this is a three game tournament(the world Cup), if you are 1 or 2, we move on. Hence the 3 game schedule in a small time period

[livestock]

quitoamature-We are lightyears ahead without a doubt...but what separates advancing from the group and not might be something as unforgiving (from a Portuguese perspective) as a defender's shoulder (LD's goal vs Portugal '02) and/or the non-call-hand ball (JOB '02) that gets called this time around. We CAN play with anybody...and BA will do his experienced intuitive thing. So, far, he's proven to be pretty good at sizing up the moment. These next three friendlies do matter, if BA stays true to form, his insight will lead us to at least one line-up during the WC where we all say, "What the f%$!, Bruce?" and the US gets the needed points anyway.:D

[quitoamature]

i agree with the possibilty of a WTF lineup but i feel when we started group play vs portugal i was almost sick.

i really feel every thing comes down to June 12.

and right now we are so much better/healthy/ in shape/ confident vs. an oppenent that player by player is not at the level of Port 02' or even
Mexico 02'

[quitoamature]

quitoamature-We are lightyears ahead without a doubt...but what separates advancing from the group and not might be something as unforgiving (from a Portuguese perspective) as a defender's shoulder (LD's goal vs Portugal '02) and/or the non-call-hand ball (JOB '02) that gets called this time around. We CAN play with anybody...and BA will do his experienced intuitive thing. So, far, he's proven to be pretty good at sizing up the moment. These next three friendlies do matter, if BA stays true to form, his insight will lead us to at least one line-up during the WC where we all say, "What the f%$!, Bruce?" and the US gets the needed points anyway.:D


everybody on these boards talks about tatics and stuff and do not get me wrong it is insightfull.

but
i feel bruce is much like an american coach in a ncaa baseball or basketball championship.
you prepare for the first game with all our resources and then "improvise."

[house]

Luck is a factor, but let's no forget the no call on the handball against Germany - and how many times will an own goal with the pace and accuracy of Agoos' will ever be struck again :)


I want see what he does with Dempsey and Convey, but who will he pair in central defense? We seem to agree on Gooch but there has been great debate on who the other one will be.

BTW, have we figured out where JOB will play if he's healthy? He's got to be on the field if he's fit.

[ebbro]

quitoamature-We are lightyears ahead without a doubt...but what separates advancing from the group and not might be something as unforgiving (from a Portuguese perspective) as a defender's shoulder (LD's goal vs Portugal '02) and/or the non-call-hand ball (JOB '02) that gets called this time around. We CAN play with anybody...and BA will do his experienced intuitive thing. So, far, he's proven to be pretty good at sizing up the moment. These next three friendlies do matter, if BA stays true to form, his insight will lead us to at least one line-up during the WC where we all say, "What the f%$!, Bruce?" and the US gets the needed points anyway.:D


...or the own goal from Agoos and the hand ball from Frings (just as "intentional" as JOB's).

[BED-STYPUNDIT]

What will we learn form the 2006 Sendoff Series?

How "Don't Threda on This" will eventually get a remix with Jay-Z cutting a flow

[Adam Zebrowski]

i suspect the key core of 15-16 players play together for 1st half of morocco and latvia matches...we know who the top ones are, the 3 or 4 who don't start, come on as subs at half...

flip the process against latvia, so the key core get about 120 minutes together...

so it's a tuesday, coming back with a sunday match...

friday match, venzuela, start off with the 2nd 10, play them about 60 minutes...

then sub in JOB and johnson and a few other guys who you want to give some work to...like convey and bocanegra at left back for experiments sake

the main guys are very familiar with one another, just give them minutes together...the results are NOT important...

[mrliioadin]

the thing I'm most interested in seeing is which keepers play.

I'm not sure if i'de rather see Keller play every minute or if it might be nice to see marcus and timmy.

Plus if Keller plays in every game between now and the world cup as well as all the cup matchs, his 99th cap would be the round of 16... and highly likely to be Brazil. I'de hope that might put even more hunger in his belly to have a shot at #100 during the cup.

It'd be nice but I'm sure at least one of the other keeps will get a shot to play a full 90.

[um_chili]

Luck is a factor, but let's no forget the no call on the handball against Germany - and how many times will an own goal with the pace and accuracy of Agoos' will ever be struck again :)


Great points, and let's also not forget that after Poland scored early we had an LD equalizer very questionably called back (as though Donovan had really impeded a Polish defender who was like a foot taller and fifty pounds heavier than him). Who knows how things would have been different if that goal had counted?

As for what we'll learn from the SOS, I think we might learn that it's better to have the games in major venues in big cities. I'm not confident that there's going to be much of a turnout. I'm an obsessive who went to two of the three SOS games last time around and I'm not going to be at any of them this year. Still kind of baffled about the choices of venue/schedule.

[house]

I wonder how much he'll run O'Brien on Tuesday? Even if he's fit, does he need time to get sharp?

[cleansheetbsc]

How quick I can drive from Albany NY to Hartford CT.

[sammy87]

How quick I can drive from Albany NY to Hartford CT.

About 2 and a half hours

[Shibb]

I wonder how much he'll run O'Brien on Tuesday? Even if he's fit, does he need time to get sharp?

I'm also very curious about this. Will he play JOB a lot on Tuesday and give him Friday off to recover then again on Sunday? Or maybe ramp him up over the three games, subbing on late against Morocco then starting but subbed out early on Friday and a full game on Sunday?

As for formation and lineups, each of the areas holds some mystery:

Defense - who starts in the center positions and who is on the left. Will we see a three man back line at some point?

Midfield - formation, use of LD and the mix of Convey, Dempsey and RunDMB.

Forwards - who pairs with McBride? Is Ching a McBride-lite sub or does he have a legit shot at pairing with McBride up front? Is Johnson really back in form or is he just in practice form? A good run of form now could carry over well into the Cup.

[EEUU]

when i read this and remember how stewart, agoos, armas, regis and even cobi were seen as a big part of our roster coming into the final weeks i feel so much better about our team's preparation.
gooch
mastro
dempsey
cheredolo
we're are light years ahead of where we were 4 yrs ago.

in the games comming up i am more concerned about injuries than scores.

Yes & no. I'm still Uber-worried about the forward spots and would have been so much more comfortable if Mathis would have continued to develop on the pace that he was; It would have also been nice to see Eskandarian play over the last year and a half instead of battle a dreadful injury on the sidelines. Ching and Wolff were picked because there really was nobody else. Wolff may offer some veteran leadership out there, but I sincerely believe that neither will contribute much in the way of attacking. I'm left lamenting over what could have been on Mathis & Esky(Unproven, YES but the raw skills, finishing and nose for goal are what make me salivate), but hopefully we'll get off to a flying start against the Czechs and I'll forget all about it... (Fingers crossed).

[MarioKempes]

I felt like in 2002 the US derived a lot of benefit from the Holland match. Even though we lost, I felt the game was even, and the US played very well. I particularly enjoyed the duel between Reyna and Davids. So the US team left with a feeling of great confidence, but not overconfidence, and yet were still very hungry for a victory.

I'm thinking those feelings carried over into the Portugal match and could have only helped.

[house]

I can tell by some of the other threads that we will try to read a lot into starting lineups and formations during this series, and I say it is a mistake to do that. Looks at the lineup before the 2002 WC and compare them to what Arena put on the field against Portugal. B.A. may have a lineup in mind, but he will not show it.

Here's what I think we should look for:

1. Who is fit and sharp: O'Brien (fit and sharpness), DMB (sharpness) are at the top of this list.

2. Who the defensive pairing will be: B.A. did run Pope and Agoos together in the last SOS, so we may be able to figure out who will pair with Gooch.

3. Who pairs with McBride: B.A. could still be coy with this one, but to me, the pairing up front is almost as important as the pairing in the back.

Other than that, I don't think we should root for anything else other than health and entertaining soccer...