Tom Dart, speaking on TheGame podcast (of the Times of London), said the US were worse than Hull City in this World Cup. Just thought you all should know. Edit: He's now backing off that statement...a little. Said we were relatively even with Ghana.
Nothing. After he said that, the host (who is part American I think), jokingly asked all Americans listening in to send in hate mail. When they actually discussed the game, he was pretty much spot on. Said the US was tired, and needed a few more players with the quality of Donovan. Also said we lacked pace in defense and up front. Said a draw and penalties would have been a fairer result.
Simple for me: Bradley the elder cost us the game. For all his strengths (hard working, dedicated) his is still largely tactically naive. Starting Clark was a major mistake. And his excuse is even dumber: he had a yellow. Well, a CM that you don't trust to play with a yellow probably shouldn't be out there in the first place, yes? And Findley. A forward who is so good at scoring goals that he has to be substituted every time we are trailing at halftime should never start. Think about that. A FORWARD who gets substituted at the half every time we are down a goal. Coach obviously thinks he's a goal scorer. Anyway, the players worked and played hard, hats off to them. Hats of to Ghana, despite their awful feigning of injuries over and over (again).
iTunes is the best place to find all of them. The best one, IMO, is the Guardian's. Guardian World Cup Daily I think it is. If you don't mind listening to nothing but England stuff, Alan Davies has a very funny weekly podcast. I've been meaning to get around to some others, but haven't yet. Here's a non-iTunes link to the Guardian's: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/audio/2010/jun/27/worldcup2010 Can't find TheGame anywhere outside iTunes.
And arguably would not have advanced had they not been assisted by referee's decisions!! USA on the other hand by anyone's standards had to overcome very poor officiating as well and the spector that it could even be in today's games which of course, was not thanks to a good job by this Hungarian crew.
I am disappointed but I could tell from the get go that we just did not have it today. That we managed to struggle back and earn extra time is a credit to our players. I believe we just didn't have enough gas left in the tank after three heart-wrenching games. It was close: both Jozy and Benny could have put us through. But the finishing just wasn't quite there. Did Bob make some bad mistakes today? Yes. But does he deserve the venom a lot of folks are giving him? No. Bob has guided us to great results in two major tournaments. Today's result could have been better, but it could have been a lot worse. I think Bob will know that the time has come for him to move on. I hope the next coach learns something from him. I think the future of American soccer is bright. We are going to have to grow a new backline, but if Charlie can come back to the same level we could see ---------Altidore-----Davies-------- Holden---Bradley----Edu-----Fielhaber -----Backline----- ------------Howard----------------- With Donovan and Dempsey in reserve or perhaps starting. One the backline there is a LOT of young talent which needs to be developed, but I still think the future is bright. Just not today. Color me proud of the team but disappointed it did not get farther. But very, very hopeful for the future.
The long road to South Africa ended up on the road to nowhere....at the 3:00 am of the soul. As bad as we feel, let's reflect a little on what the players and staff are going through.
I think the issue is that he seems like a child that put his finger on a hot stove and got burned. And so what happens next time the stove's on, he does it again and burned again. It's the obviousness of it all that's driving people nuts.
Yeah, but at least we don't have a weak economy, crazy polarized politics, rampant crime, and lack of good paying jobs... Oh wait!!!
Maybe it was the voodoo, the muti, I think I saw them shaking some powder around our goal. http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/wo...ica-at-wcup--fbintl_ap-wcup-safrica-muti.html The belief in those things are real and it is popular in places like Ghana.
He probably ignored Bornstein because he figured out that Bornstein would end up kicking it nowhere. I mean, Bornstein exceeded expectations on defense, but he's completely pointless on offense. Did he ever manage to pass/cross the ball somewhere useful? Even once? As for calling Dempsey lazy: Enough. He is not lazy. Period. I'm sick of this BS claim that Dempsey is lazy. It has been shown again and again that Dempsey is one of the most active players on the team despite the fact he does not have very good natural endurance (noted in an article somewhere). Here's how "lazy" he was: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/statistics/players/distanceandspeed.html I'll just copy the first 3 lines in case you're too ummm... "lazy"... to click: Players - Distance covered Players MP MNP DC↑ DCP DCN TS LA MA HA USA Michael BRADLEY 4 390 51.69 20.24 20.34 26.72 199 31 29 USA Landon DONOVAN 4 390 48.47 18.42 18.54 30.31 207 25 29 USA Clint DEMPSEY 4 390 46.99 18.83 18.17 27.09 208 23 28 He left it all on the field. If he didn't get back onside, then it was probably due to exhaustion. "Lazy"
Except it's not. I don't remember a single post on this board where Clark was preferred over Edu to start. That's Friday night quaterbacking... or, dare I say, coaching
Stop urinating so much on Clark and his role in the goal: Mikey set him up with a poor pass, Jay was slow to react, and our great Timmay failed to adequately cover his near post. Sure, his card was woeful, but many of you are just Bob-shyting because that’s what you’ve been up to for 3 years. Don’t forget that we gave up an über-early goal in 3 of our 4 matches (and almost against Algeria…), and you can’t fault Rico on all of those! More than anything, having a 20-year-old potential-only striker matched with anyone not Charlie Davies will only get you so far. And a Gimpy Gooch. Great run by the Boys, first in the Confed Cup, and now in the World Cup. I am proud of them.
I've had almost a day to let the emotions simmer down so here goes...first of all, congrats to the USMNT for making it to the second round. It was a fun ride. In hindsight I wish that we would have had another day or two off before this game. Our players were gassed with about 15 minutes left. We usually own the late minutes of games. I guess that is the reality of tournament play. All or the teams that make the final 16 in a world cup are dangerous but we will most likely never again have a potential run up to the semifinals that would include none of the traditional world powers. We really let an opportunity slip through our fingers yesterday. Give Ghana credit, they did what they had to do to win (though the constant rolling on the ground in agony shows a lack of sportsmanship IMO). ...and a few observations... Whether it was necessary or not, the real or perceived need to replace Clark at around the 30' minute really cost the USA in this game. Yes he made an absolutely huge mistake and may have needed to come out. The fact that we had to burn a sub that early really effected our options later. Bradley neede to be subbed in about the 80th minute. Our thin depth at fullback finally bit the USA in the @$$. Others may disagree, but IMO Cherundolo and Bornstien struggled all game long. They were physically overmatched. I thought that it was very interesting watching Ghana walk by the USA players as they shook hands before the game. Ghana definitely had the size advantage. Players like Altadore and Bradley, who are normally physically imposing, were forced to play more of a skill game and couldn't adjust. I thought that we would have to use a skill game and keep the ball on the ground to have any chance. Our team is just not physically big enough to play long ball against Ghana. We also couldn't get our head on a set piece cross to save our life. I thought that both Ghana goals should have been stopped by Howard. On the first goal he didn't close the angle down properly on the near post. The second one was shot either at his head or about a foot over his head but he dove backwards.....????....All in all Howard had a very solid tournament but I'm sure he would like to have those two opportunites back. Anyway, it is hard not to be down on the team due to my own disappointment. However, making the round of 16 is a huge accomplishment. Well done USA! All of the coaches, players and fans will be disappointed over an opportunity missed. Life goes on. Good luck to the USA in the next cycle. and I also hope that we have some talent coming up through the ranks on the back line because we need to replenish aging talent across the board.
Perhaps bad timing but I'll ask anyway. Do PK's usually get awarded when the defender clears the ball, then trips the attacking player in the box? I watched the play again last night and the defender clearly clears the ball before making contact with Dempsey. This point seems to have been lost in all the conversation.