Other Team Discussion Thread 11: All Leagues, All Results, All Sports - now with more lacrosse!

Ah, I guess they were lacking the second half of that which was "run into the space" or at least shoot through it.

 

Yeah. He was definately worse this game than the last. Maybe he was trying to show off home us? It really doesn't look like he has improved since he left United.

 

Very nice to see Tino get that goal, but more enjoyable to see him play so well, he was the best guy on the field with the ball at his feet and defenders near him. The game was pretty entertaining, except for the referee making me miss big parts of it while I yelled at him for being such a waste of plasma

That was the ********ing MPD, they were pricks last night. Lisa was drinking a Miller Lite in a bottle, which she bought on the concourse, and the bitchy female cop down there told her she had to slam it, throw it away, or find a cup or they'd throw her out. I tried to tell the lady she bought it that way but she got all rude and told me she wasn't talking to me and I should be quiet or I might get tossed.
I complained about her to the one good Sgt that works our sections when he showed up later, and the regular lieutenant was a bit nicer, but he and that bitch were the ones that would not let Troy come over.

Stainless Steel is better than tin, but it still ain't silver

 

Very well said.

I would also like to add that he, very effectively, does a lot of the up-top pressure on the ball work that contributes to the USA winning back possession of the ball.

 

Considering that we don't have gold, I don't care about silver.

Stainless Steel works for me (Brian Ching the man of steel).

 

I thought Rogers did fairly well, his crosses aren't the most accurate, but often there just weren't any real targets running into the POMO (point of most opportunity: The "box" from the 6 to the 18)

I still believe that Ching is one of the most overrated Forwards around. I'd rather have Cooper getting minutes and further developing. Ching seems to get surprised by the ball too often, that is, the ball will take a fortuitous bounce onto him, and he'll completely blow the chance. His goal was luck, pure and simple. Off his arm, off the defenders back and in. It wasn't an intentional handball by any means, but not something you try to do...

Freddy was Freddy. He shows flashes of brilliance, but still can't put together a solid 70 minutes of soccer. Hopefully he'll end up with a team that will give him minutes this year. I'd prefer somewhere in Holland rather than Portugal, France, or Spain.

Troy was solid, but really wasn't called upon to do much. He was great at closing down space when someone was coming in 1 on 1 though, and I appreciated him actually looking short for distribution. Too often our goalkeepers look to push everyone down field and blast it deep. That's a 50-50 ball as opposed to a 100% complete pass to a full back.

Churundulo was pretty damn good. Dangerous when he gets into the attack. He'd have been a welcome addition to the Confed Cup team if he were healthy.
Marshall was pretty good, but there were a few times he got caught ball-watching.
Pearce scares me.
Parkhurst has no business in a Nat jersey.
Pause has no business in a Nat jersey.

 

I agree about Ching, and can't understand why we aren't interviewing ALL other candidates. He's not going to beat anyone at the higher levels.

As for poor Freddy, if he goes to the Dutch league my fear is that he will look even more like a bush among the redwoods (avg. Dutch man, let alone player is like 6'2"). If this got him to somehow "play tall", I'd love it but not expecting that would happen.

 

Last time I checked a soccer ball was only about 10" tall... There's no reason an attacking midfielder should need to have any significant size on him. Freddy simply has to learn how to better shield the ball, and to not get knocked off the ball so easily. I bet he actually weighs more than I do at the moment, but I guarantee I'm harder to push off the ball than he is. Maybe he should play a little rugby or something.

 

I agree with most of your post.

Pearce, imho would be a good substitute at lb.

But I have to call you out on Ching. He is there for garbage goals. On the funny bounces, Adu tried to control the ball but it went way away from him and Ching got a decent shot off. I think if he would have been paired with Davies from the beginning, they would created all kinds of chaos in the penalty area. He is much better than Casey and also Cooper (who could not get off a decent shot when he was wide open!).

Ching is going to be the target forward for the foreseeable future until someone comes along who can play the position half decently. (I do think Pontius may be able to play position as he does have very quick reflexes and is not afraid to pull the trigger).

 

Adu needs to learn that there is no "I" in team! (which at this point I don't think he is capable of doing)

Unfortunately, his coaches growing up let him get away with playing the way he does because of his skill on the ball, to his detriment. IMHO.

 

Leo Messi is one of the shortest players in Europe and that certainly doesn't hold him back.

 

Yeah, but that's different -- he was bathed in magical sparks after a truck hit an electrical pole.

 

After watching my recording of the match, I was more disappointed by FSC than normal. Their announcers are bad. Why make things worse and not have them at the match? Why does FSC's picture suck so much? Other channels use the same feed and it looks better there. It has been a while since I've been in the upper deck. Are the football markings visible from there or have the markings just been burnt into the cameras?

 

The Guadeloupe vs. Nicaragua match in Houston that is on Galavision sounds like South Africa. It isn't the typical CONCACAF few horns here and there. It is full on South Africa, non-stop, you can barely hear anything else buzzing bees. The field looks great though.

 

Mexico just scored their first goal in South Africa... er Houston. For those interested the match is on Univision. Mexico leads Panama 1-0 in the 11th minute. Panama has been very physical early. It is almost surprising that Panama only has one yellow. Anyone know what type of team Mexico is using?

As I typed, a Mexican player got a weak card for taking the ball after a questionable call that ended up being against Mexico and not Panama and the Mexican keeper was taken out by a Panama player going for the keeper when the ball was going easily out of play. It almost looks like Mexico is getting US calls. Hopefully for everyone involved, people keep their composure.

 

Not sure what you mean by "what type." If you mean A/B/C type of thing, I'd call it a half-A/half-B team. I'm pretty sure they've all been capped, and about half are regulars.

 

Thanks. That is what I meant. It is 1-1 at half. Both teams are down to 10 men. I'm still surprised there hasn't been an all-out brawl with how the match has been officiated.

 

I should qualify what I said earlier and say that that was based on the team roster I saw a week or two ago. I dunno how A-ish or B-ish the actual starting lineup for tonight's match is; I didn't see it. I just saw that Ochoa was in goal, and that Medina, DosSantos, and Torrado are out there; they're all fairly regular players for El Tri.

 

There's some strange shit going on in Houston right now. I think another Panama player got a red because of Joe Gieck.

 

I don't know how to begin to describe what just happened in the Mexico-Panama Gold Cup match in Houston. Panama was physical early and the officiating was horrible. The match had the potential to boil over and be a bench clearing brawl, but the players actually kept their cool for the most part. Panama continued to be physical and Mexico responded more in the second half. The officiating continued to suck and the fans were horrible. A fight could even be seen in the first few rows at midfield and people were shown getting closer to the walls so they could easily throw stuff at players.

 

Here's what happened, as I understand it:

- Panama and Mexican player going after a ball that's moving parallel to the touchline, eventually heading out;
- Aguirre (MEX coach) tries to trip Panamanian player Phillips as he goes by;
- Phillips stops and gets in Aguirre's face; Aguirre pushes Phillips; Phillips shoves Aguirre; both benches clear;
- red card for MEX coach Aguirre and PAN player Phillips;
- Aguirre leaves promptly; Phillips is very slow to leave because 1) he argues his red card, and then 2) he's afraid he's going to get pelted with stuff as he leaves;
- Ochoa (MEX GK) goes along with Phillips almost to the tunnel as escort, on the theory that the fans won't pelt Phillips if he's there;
- Phillips gets pelted anyway.

That took 10 minutes to resolve.

THEN, more circus:

- Big fight breaks out in stands;
- During an injury stoppage after a MEX foul, PAN player Perez gets hit in the back of the head by something thrown out of the stands. MEX player Torrado goes over to try to calm the fans down; someone throws something at him, too. Another 4 minutes stoppage.
- Ref calls match after "only" 10 minutes of added time.

 

Classy fans, as usual.

 

I should also add that it didn't help that

1) Panama spent much of the match playing very physically, playing real hack ball. The Mexican team took it for much of the first half; in the second, they started giving what they were getting. So the match was really ugly to begin with.

2) The refereeing was atrocious -- not in the sense of bad foul calls/no-calls, but in the sense of game control. The center let it get pretty physical all through the first half, and then ended the first half with a red card for each team because of a comparatively minor round of post-foul shoving. That match always had the chance of boiling over on the field; I'm kinda amazed it didn't.

I don't think either (some of) the Mexican fans or the Panamanian players have much to be proud of.

 

You're right, but saying "Classy people tonight at the stadium" just didn't have the same effect.

Regardless of what happens on the field, fans should not throw objects onto it with the intent to hurt/provoke/etc. There's a big difference between tactics and what the referee needs to control versus paying observers forgetting that they're not on the field.