Man...sooo many missed chances in this game. As someone mentioned earlier the Conrad shank from two feet out was terrible. The second worst was when Quaranta took the entire Panama defense and went down to the goal-line and sent a ball through the keepers legs right in front of dempsey. Why did he stop his run. He's gotta be ready for that one. All in all we played poorly at best and I don't see how we can be too happy about it. Our finishing has got to get better and i'm sure it will when McBride and EJ return to take the two spots uptop. I think Quaranta is a great sub to come on and inspire some better play. He kept the pressure on late and helped keep the ball in their end. Happy bout the win but not too delighted by the play. It needs to improve unless we want an early exit from Germany next year. And lets quit the excuses PLEEEASE. Just admit we played like crap and be happy we were able to pull it out anyways.
In my reading of that play, Demspey had a choice - hang a little expecting the ball to be passed to the keeper's right or step forward and wait for the ball to come through the keeper ---- he waited for the ball to come by rather than through the keeper. Hence, he was a little too deep to get to that ball through the legs. If the ball is paced a hair slower he gets to it. OTOH, if he is behind the keeper and Quaranta passes it by the keeper, he is too deep and has no chance to get to that ball no matter how it is weighted.
Racist chants in Sam's Army? That ********** is completely wrong. I've stood with Sam's Army at several times...I watched us get revenge against Germany in Jacksonville in 1999 and took an all-night train ride to will us through to the WC against Jamaica in Boston in 2001. I moaned when Agoos gave the Reggae Boyz their goal in DC in '97 and saw Chris Armas bust his cruciate against Uruguay in 2002, chanting the whole game breathing a La Norte smoke bomb with the Army at RFK. Somebody with Sam's Army better read this and stand on that ********** right now. What kind of people have we become? I'm glad I wasn't there. There would have been a fight in the stands. I'm not kidding. Disgraceful, if true.
A couple of years ago Carlos Ruiz took 3 straight PK's (different matches) where he just chipped them slowly down the center.. The first two times they went in as the keeper dove and it was called "cheeky" and "genius", "beautiful" ..etc.. Then the third time he did exactly the same thing the keeper just stood there and it slowly floated into his arms and it was called a "horrible" and "weak" attempt.. I guess you get my point as it applies to the Armas PK attempt..
Interesting, thanks for the info. I'm not sure if I'm happy that the 4 players asked not to be included, or unhappy. On the one hand, it's good to see that they have confidence in their teammates. On the other, with so many of them asking to be excluded, it seems that they should know that the options are limited. They did get 5-10 minutes between when the game ended and the PKs were taken. Couldn't they figure out how to get themselves ready to take a kick? Since Olsen was only on for the last part of the game, you have to figure he was not one of the four. Wonder who the other was? I guess this makes me respect Donovan even more for what he did; he was the only guy who played the whole game for the US and made a PK. Maybe they should have selected Keller....I've seen keepers be some of the best PK takers at lower levels of soccer, they usually have the strongest legs , it's just a matter of getting it where they want it to go. And after a long game like that, they tend to be one of the more rested guys on the field.
So what you're saying is, Chris Armas is as good as Carlos Ruiz? God, you've gotta be the dumbest poster I've ever encountered! I mean, where do we find those morons? Thinks Armas equals Ruiz. Troll boy.
Wasn't there. Sam's Army is usually fine, but I have heard the lawmowing chant used against Mexico (...you'll be mowing our lawns when the World Cup is on...), not one of my favorites and I agree that if we are to ever expect Hispanic fans to come into the US fold that these need to stop. I hardly expect or want SA to be totally PC, but there's a fine line between what can go and what doesn't - let's be smarter out there. On another note, who's the moron who did the AP writeup on the match? Bland scoreless tie? I don't think he even watched the match.
I'd answer you but I don't have time.. I have to go lecture some graduate students at The California Institute of Technology on loop amplitudes in string theory..
Not necessary to trash Brad Friedel, who carried a good deal of the team deep into the last WC, to recognize how good Keller is playing now. They are both top-notch keepers, and it is great to see Kasey get his turn back there.
Only one of several whiffs or misplays by Dempsey during the Cup; he seems to lose focus up there. Concentrate, son, concentrate!
Goussoccer got it right: Dempsey had a choice and just made the wrong one, as it turned out. Quaranta's cross went right through the keeper's legs. Can't expect Dempsey, or anyone else, to expect that. OTOH, I agree that Dempsey had his share of errors during the match, but it's hard to fault him on this one. Just bad luck.
I don't know where he was looking for the ball, but it clearly wasn't where he got it; he didn't see it coming and was obviously very late reacting.
Re: USA v Panama, Gold Cup final post-game {R} This is not true. Here is a poll which summarizes the likelihood of our roster for the WC: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=221022 18-Kasey Keller (capt.); - YES 2-Frankie Hejduk, - YES 12-Jimmy Conrad, 4-Oguchi Onyewu, - YES 3-Greg Vanney; 14-Chris Armas, 5-John O’Brien, - YES 10-Landon Donovan; - YES 8-Clint Dempsey - YES 16-Josh Wolff, - YES 7-DaMarcus Beasley - YES Of the 3 that aren't in the top 23, Vanney and Armas are barely off and will have a very good chance given the likelyhood of injuries to whomever. And Conrad may very well have improved his chances dramatically over the past 2 weeks.
the conrad and dempsey chances were extremely difficult, expecting people to finish those is a bit hard... the best part of the match is going thru PKs and emerging the winner.... sometime next JUNE, hopefully usa goes through PKs again...this experience is only good.... as to panama, they are clearly on a roll, and have a great shot to get 4th in the hex
In today's (or was it yesterday's) NYT, Gooch was quoted as saying that he knows that he needs to work on this aspect of his game. He does get called a lot, and IMO, justifiably. Instead of using his bulk to lean on his opponents, he has a tendency to actually pound on his opponents, who would naturally flop to the ground.
Except that 3 of the 4 guys who took the PKs are highly unlikely to be taking any PKs in WC matches. Good experience for Keller, though. It was interesting to see his quotes after the game, he said that he guessed right on the first PK attempt be Tejada because he watched what the Panamanians had done in their shootout with South Africa. Tejada went the same way, and Keller guessed right.
Clint was anticipating the cross to come at an angle from the goal line towards the middle, not through the goalie's legs. As a result, you will see Clint hold up his run a bit to keep that lane open to him; i.e. he AVOIDED getting the goalie between himself and the ball. Usually this is the right thing to do. In this case, it turned out to be the wrong thing to do. As a result he didn't have a chance to get to the ball. That was not a lack of concentration or late reaction due to inattentiveness, it was anticipating one option (a very valid option) and hence getting wrong-footed for what actually happened. The pace on that ball was also VERY quick for a very short space...both those factors led to him missing the ball. But to me blaming him for a gaffe on this play is like blaming a goalie who is leaning one way to make a save and misses the ball when it deflects off a person and goes behind the goalie. It's a bang-bang play, you make a good decision based upon the play and sometimes it works (should be most of the time) but sometimes it doesn't. That's why goals are so precious...so many factors need to go right. Now, did he miss some others and should he have buried one of his other chances, yes.
While this may be a 'baited question' I'll bite. For the near term I would think you would agree that: Reyna would be better than Armas, McBride and Johnson would be better than Dempsey and Wolff (though in reality I don't think we'll see Eddie on the 17th), then Bocanegra and Gibbs would be better than any two of Conrad, Vanney or Hejduk. Not so sure I am in the Bobby Convey camp, and the way we started, Lewis would have had to replace one of DMD, LD or JOB and I'm not so confident that is a positive change. So yes, I would have expected a different 'look' and earlier result if we had Reyna, McBride, Boca, Johnson and Gibbs available to the team this past weekend.
Sam's Army was in Section 101. We were there for the second half, and I heard these chants with my own two ears, albeit from the fringes of the support... I don't think these we're full on 'sanctioned' supporters chants, but 15-20 guys in section 101 start one, and they caught on for a few rounds, then back to the usual chants... I'm just saying, I've been to several US games as well, and I think our supporters are class, but this was the first time I heard the "go mow our lawns/ go clean the toilets" etc. Of course, I heard Panamanian fans singing hateful ********** too, so I think it may have been fringe people on both sides. Anyway, I wasn't trying to implicate all suporters in Sam's Army, who were a lot of fun and terrific throughout the match. I just heard it from US fans in that section. Either way, it was bull**********.
I hope I'm not repeating but anyway this is not my understanding if I remember correctly in the Soccer America I was reading the other day it said that the next Confed Cup is in 2009 which would mean that the winner of the 2007 Gold Cup would travel to that tournament.
This is crap. I can only assume that, if the team is playing 50 yard long balls over the midfield, it's either (1) Bruce wants them to play this way or (2) he tolerates it because he can't coach a different style. Either way, he sucks. Mark my words ... everybody will be crying for his head after the debacle-in-the-making that is USA is WC2006. I'll be there to see it and supporting the team, but I see a repeat of 1998 more likely than a repeat of 2002.