Your Teams starting 11

[VCFan]

I agree obviously. Both Altidore and McBride are players who need good service. McBride can or could create more than Altidore (obviously Jozy will get better at this with age an experience). Adu provided the service at the U-20s for Jozy. Hopefully he can do the same in China. I would really like to be able to play with two real forwards for a change.

You really think so? I'm not terribly familiar with Altidore, but if a striker who I've always thought looked slightly clueless with the ball at his feet can create more chances...

[FW__]

You really think so? I'm not terribly familiar with Altidore, but if a striker who I've always thought looked slightly clueless with the ball at his feet can create more chances...

I don't think I made my point clearly is all. McBride has proven over the last 15 years he can. People think of him as "McHead" but he's scored a lot of goals without his head and a lot of goals where he didn't just get great service into the box or knocked in a rebound. A lot of Jozy's goals seem to be of that nature.

It's not fair to judge Jozy or compare him to McBride yet since one is 36 and the other 18.

[larc-en]

How many players named to the Olympic roster were on the Toulon roster?

From the 18 in Japan's Olympic squad, I think 13 were in the Toulon squad. Some players who have been with the full Japanese NT (Uchida and Nagatomo and Kagawa) weren't at Toulon but are in the Olympic team, so I guess the team is a bit stronger than it was at Toulon.


I foresee that Japan and Nigeria will advance from this group :)

[VCFan]

From the 18 in Japan's Olympic squad, I think 13 were in the Toulon squad. Some players who have been with the full Japanese NT (Uchida and Nagatomo and Kagawa) weren't at Toulon but are in the Olympic team, so I guess the team is a bit stronger than it was at Toulon.


I foresee that Japan and Nigeria will advance from this group :)

Erm, I wouldn't get so carried away as to predict that Holland won't make it out of the group stages. They're the best team in the group and have been playing fairly well as of late, so I have no reason to think that they won't do well in the group stage. As far as the other spot... I can't even begin to guess because I haven't really kept up with Nigeria.

[vancity eagle]

more problems for Nigeria, as Marseilles Taye Taiwo has supposedly decided not to play in the olympics. So now Nigeria is missing their 2 best U23 players for the tournament. Mikel and Taiwo were both voted the 2nd and 3rd best players respectively at the U20 2005 WC, behind Argentina's Messi. I think Nigeria are also the only team to have not played a real meaningfull friendly match. I don't know what to expect.

[FW__]

Well after 2 matches in the ING Cup I'm not so worried about the US defense anymore. They conceded 1 goal on a PK. I'm now worried about someone scoring since they didn't in either match (0-0 against Ivory Coast and 0-1 against Cameroon). I originally thought the US would finish the group 2nd behind the Dutch but now I'm not so sure anymore.

[man_in_the_middle]

Those are pretty disappointing results. The problem is not in the midfield, but I just don't think Altidore and McBride complement each other. Scotch, this midfield is actually capable of stringing passes together, and even providing some imagination.
The US can get away with 1 true striker if Adu plays the SS and the holding mids are allowed to make north/south runs. The players themselves are fairly creative, but the US always plays with such a rigid structure, especially in regards to the defensive mids. I think this lineup would suite them best.

--------------------- Guzan --------------------

--- Wynne --- Parkhurst --- Edu ---- Orozco ----

------------ Bradley --------- Holden -----------

------ Kljestan ------------------- Rogers -------
---------------------- Adu ---------------------
--------------------- Altidore -------------------

McBride and Altidore need to platoon, and Szetela and Feilhaber coming on in the midfield.

[rslgoonermassacre]

Those are pretty disappointing results. The problem is not in the midfield, but I just don't think Altidore and McBride complement each other. Scotch, this midfield is actually capable of stringing passes together, and even providing some imagination.
The US can get away with 1 true striker if Adu plays the SS and the holding mids are allowed to make north/south runs. The players themselves are fairly creative, but the US always plays with such a rigid structure, especially in regards to the defensive mids. I think this lineup would suite them best.

--------------------- Guzan --------------------

--- Wynne --- Parkhurst --- Edu ---- Orozco ----

------------ Bradley --------- Holden -----------

------ Kljestan ------------------- Rogers -------
---------------------- Adu ---------------------
--------------------- Altidore -------------------

McBride and Altidore need to platoon, and Szetela and Feilhaber coming on in the midfield.

Love this lineup!

[9diamonds]

I know this is pretty OT but what time, day, and channel will they be playing the US vs Japan game? I can't seem to find it anywhere!

[FW__]

Its on MSNBC at 5am (Eastern) and also on the NBC Olympic Soccer Channel (which either your cable company gets, mine did not, or you have to order it specially from them).

[9diamonds]

Its on MSNBC at 5am (Eastern) and also on the NBC Olympic Soccer Channel (which either your cable company gets, mine did not, or you have to order it specially from them).

Thanks a bunch for the info!

[scotch17]

18 Brad Guzan (G)
2 Marvell Wynne (D)
3 Michael Orozco (D)
15 Michael Parkhurst (D)
6 Maurice Edu (D)
4 Michael Bradley (M)
7 Stuart Holden (M)
14 Robbie Rodgers (M)
16 Sacha Kljestan (M)
11 Freddy Adu (F)
17 Brian McBride (F)

1 Shusaku Nishikawa (G)
4 Hiroki Mizumoto (D)
5 Yuto Nagatomo (D)
6 Masato Morishige (D)
7 Atsuto Uchida (D)
8 Keisuke Honda (M)
10 Yohei Kajiyama (M)
12 Hiroyuki Taniguchi (M)
14 Shinji Kagawa (M)
16 Takuya Honda (M)
15 Takayuki Morimoto (F)

[rslgoonermassacre]

1-0 US over Japan...seems like some may have underestimated our boys :D:D

[scotch17]

Having watched the game -- as opposed to people who are waking up now and reading about it -- I stand by everything I said about the US. Even playing just 1 CF they were put into a defensive game where the aforementioned players were anonymous but found a nippy goal.

[rslgoonermassacre]

Having watched the game -- as opposed to people who are waking up now and reading about it -- I stand by everything I said about the US. Even playing just 1 CF they were put into a defensive game where the aforementioned players were anonymous but found a nippy goal.

I watched the game as well, and yes we played defensive, but outplayed the Japanese in the second half and took home the victory. A win is a win. It may not have been pretty but it was effective!

[scotch17]

I watched the game as well, and yes we played defensive, but outplayed the Japanese in the second half and took home the victory. A win is a win. It may not have been pretty but it was effective!

I wouldn't say the US midfield outplayed anybody for longer than a few minutes; but a win is indeed a win. Japan created plenty of chances, but in the end couldn't finish any of them. That's how it goes sometimes.

[aveslacker]

What's most important is getting through the group stage. Look at Holland in the EC: crushed the group stage in amazing fashion and then got their butts handed to them in the first knockout game. Better to start rough and work your way to form.

[tomwilhelm]

I wouldn't say the US midfield outplayed anybody for longer than a few minutes; but a win is indeed a win. Japan created plenty of chances, but in the end couldn't finish any of them. That's how it goes sometimes.

We've heard that same post from the other perspective more than a few times in recent years, here's to a little luck now and again.

Take the 3, know you got a little lucky, learn from it, advance.

[FW__]

I'm please with the win since it was close to a must win for both teams. Orozco was a little shaky and Adu needs to handle getting fouled and not complaining when its not called and I think the US can advance from this group.

[A-Zilis]

I'm somewhat surprised at the negativity surrounding the US after this game. Yeah, they should be playing with 2 forwards and looked shaky in the last 20 minutes, but I do think they controlled the game for the first 70 or so minutes and deserved the narrow win. Playing the 1-forward formation (which was not good IMO) made the on-field mentality look more defensive than it actually was.

On replays, the two major penalty appeals late in the game didn't look as obvious as they did in the run of play, but I think the US was lucky to not have either one called. Japan created the better scoring chances early in the game, but overall, the chances were limited to a few quick clever attacks.

That said, I expect the next 2 games to be more difficult, so the US will have to play substantially better if they hope to advance.