5 is average Howard: 8, Well done. MOTM 'Dolo: 4.5, Made some good runs into the attack, played a slightly better than average game defensively, but a couple stupid yellows brings him down. Gooch: 7.5, Quite solid. Didn't make mistakes, bailed out the defense, even got a shot in the attack. Boca: 6, Played an average game defensively, but gets a bump up for the goal. Pearce: 1.5, Was the least classy of our players, imo, and got owned on the left side all night. Donovan: 4, Had a tendency to disappear. Mastro: 4, Let them control the center midfield in the first half. Bradley: 4, Gave away too many balls, let them control the center midfield in the first half. Lewis: 2, Not much good to say about his play tonight. Dempsey: 3, Disappeared more than Donovan Ching: 4.5, We knew he's not a goal-scorer, but he did all we could really expect him to do. Bumped his score slightly just because of performance relative to potential. We really need another option at striker though. Beasley: 7.5, Really changed the game when he came in. Hejduk: 5, Covered his side quite well. Nothing spectacularly good or bad. Edu: 6, He looked better than the other two mids in his short stint. I would've liked to see him come on earlier, especially with Mastro's yellow. BBradley: 3.5, He gets points for making some good substitutions, but midway through the second half, he had his guys in a position to lose. The forwards couldn't hold possession, Guatemala was dominating the midfield due to the hole left between the d-mids and strikers, the US were not playing with fire. The foul on Lewis really bailed him out. Overall Team: 4, Had some bright spots, and got a tough result in a hostile environment, but generally got outplayed. Below average performance.
What, were you expecting Kenny Cooper out there? Shots are for pu$$ies. Real forwards hold onto the ball until they can pass it back to a d-mid and play defense.
Howard (6) Strong game when it came to shot stopping. Sloppy playing ball with his feet. Poor distribution. Why all the punts to Donovan? Cherundolo (2) Dumb yellows. Allowed his man too much room. Decent going forward. Pearce (4) Allowed his man too much room. Didn't contribute much going forward. Onyewu (6) Solid defensively. Poor distribution. Bocanegra (6) Not as solid as Gooch defensively. Poor distribution. Did a good job snuffing out some dangerous chances in the box. Donovan (4) Just ok playing wide in the first half. Disappeared at forward in second half. Lewis (2) Hope Eddie is ok. Turnover machine tonight. Mastroeni (4) Lucky not to pick up a second yellow. Very active breaking up Guatemalan attacks. Poor distribution. Bradley (4) Decent positioning. Not as active as Mastroeni. Poor distribution. Ching (5) Not much of a threat. But worked hard to maintain possession. Dempsey(3) Bright start. Then disappeared. Beasley (7) Excellent corner. Good defensive pressure. Helped to maintain possession while defending lead. Edu (6) Good composure. His quickness was very helpful. Hejduk (3) The usual usual.
Ching chested a ball down, turned and shot just high in the first half. That was more creative than anyone else on the offensive half all game. He held the ball up great toward the end of the game to maintain possession.
Howard 8, nice to show Ruiz and 30,000 Guatemalans he was the man clean sheet in historic win Bocanegra 8, Our captain scored the goal and was strong tonight Gooch 7, Played solid, came up time and time again, no stupid fouls or cards. Needs to complete more passes. Pearce 3, Played poorly and got picked on too. Cherundolo 3, Stupid red card while sitting on a yellow. Act your age please. Mastroeni 5, It is good to have your own assassin in a match like that. Another stupid card. Managed to avoid red. Brought the fire tonight. M. Bradley 5, Did fine, stepped up in the last 20 minutes. Donovan 4, He needs to show up big in games like this. Dempsey 3, Played poorly and a bad attitude when subbed. Ching 6, Worked his azz off. Never lost his composure. Lewis 4, Did nothing much other than motivate US after injury. Hope yer ok, laddie. subs: Frankie 5 He did fine in a streetfigher's brawl. DMB 7, I was impressed with his work ethic and the old quickness. Edu: 5, Got some good minutes in a harsh environ. Referee:6 Nasty match to have to do. Made some tough calls, missed some others. Cograts to USA players and coaches for the determined effort tonight.
He did, one of the better from the run of play we had. He didnt have many though, because there was no service.
I thought that was Dempsey. Okay. One shot off. From 20+ yards. Not on goal. And zero shots inside the box. Everyone happy?
What's wrong with a 20 yard shot? It keeps the D honest, and that was a damn good chest trap, turn, and a good shot.
timmy- 7 , if we went down 1-0 it would have been over//Should be captain pearce - 4 , bad game los - 5 , not bad , should not be captain as he is not good at positioning himself let alone the team// GREAT GOAL gooch - 6, shut out ruiz(i now officially hate)never gets benfit of doubt cause of size/strength. dolo - 3, dumb from the get go eddie - 4, ??? are deepest position and we play a 30+ year old pablo - 5, he always gets a 5 and a card// START EDU!! bradly - 4, depotism issues becoming valid. he should be out classing other team, and watch film of pablo pre 04 ld - 3, worst WCQ for him ever clint - 5, no service and is misunderstood due to style. ching - 4, invisible in 1st half/ good hold up play in 2nd / as a veteran needs to adapt. BB - 3, Where to start? -empty bucket doomed to fail, 4-3-3 PLEASE!!!! - started players out of season/form -however pretty good subs after cards/injury
Sure it is. Keeps the D honest. Next time he could rip one from 20 yards, and its 2 feet lower and a goal, so the D has to respect that. Then you can catch them stepping up and play behind. Missed shots aren't always bad.
Howard-7.5; is he perfection at the goalkeeping position?? Gooch-7; the twin towers.....are going nowhere Boca-7.5; .......and your only kidding yourself to say otherwise Dolo-3; most bonehead performance ive ever seen Dolo give Pearce-4; made El Loco look legendary Lewis-4; Tired legs, its just his time now, we need someone else. Mastroeni-5.5; i didnt see a problem, u fight dirty play with dirty play bradley-6; cool headed baby bradley? AND composure?? impressive Donovan-6; really our most creative midfielder, not saying much but.... Dempsey-3.5; Grit is gone, slow, not creative. Ching-5; Commanded attention, played physical, sucks with ball at feet. Jozy will inevidably overtake him, but Ching is bare minimum #2. The improvement over EJ is tremendous. Edu-6; really helped close it out, wil be nice to see him next time around Beasley-6.5; improvement was notable, he needs to start at left mid Hejduk-6; ran his butt off, played D like im not so sure Dolo can anymore That was one of the better CONCACAF refs that we have had as well i have got to say that. Doesnt say much, but the improvement in judgement was notable from what we normally get.
That's right, Rico doesn't bother with the yellows he just goes for the straight reds. Now this I will agree with you on!
My ratings after NOT reading anything above, watching 1/4 of the game in Spanish, and the 2nd 3/4 commentated and demonstrated by my 8 year-old on a field/TV that looked so dark you couldn't tell our "grey" kits from the grass: Howard - excellent. Could have kept his cool better but hard to tell that to a guy who just got kicked in the head. Great match. Dolo - silly first yellow that prob shouldn't have been given. Stupid second yellow. What was he thinking? Heydude - like all 3 of our subs he came in a did very well. Gooch - solid match. Boca - excellent match. Great goal. MOTM. Cleaned up a lot of mess left by a god-awful ... Pierce - even my 8 yr old said our left back sucked. Schooled all night. Been a while since I've seen that bad a performance by one of our fullbacks. Pace had a lot to do with it but his positioning was consistently poor. Lewis - OK performance. I hope he's OK. Beasley - changed the game - exactly what you want from a sub. Set up the goal and his pace instead of Lewis helped calm things down a bit on the right. Looked dangerous on attack a few times which is more that the rest of our front 6 could say. I assume he was about to go one for Pierce before the Lewis injury. Maestro - good match but was a red card waiting to happen. Edu - fresh composed legs had a big positive impact late. I predict 100+ caps in his future. Great young player. Bradley Jr. - good match. Composed and strong/smart effort until the final whistle. Donovan - was quiet tonight. Too much time on the right and when briefly in the middle (I think) in the early 2nd half didn't get enough ball/chances to show anything. Gives good effort on D. Dempsey - quiet. Borderline invisible. Looked like a whiner when he was subbed out. Ching - good match trying to make something out of nothing in terms of lack of service and held the ball well. Great pick to help set up the goal. Good defensive effort. Announcers - about as good as we get. I liked Davis as he's a bit more exciting than Dellacamera (who I also like). I guess Dellacamera is stuck on Olympic duty. Crowd - intimidating. Refs - pretty bad on some unimportant calls, but got all the major ones right. Didn't really effect the game despite being crappy. Handball on Pearce would have been harsh. Opponent - Ruiz is an assshole who should have the crappp beat out of him. Rest of their team is pretty dirty too. Lot of fouls early on. Decent side at home anyway. Our position - huge 3 points. We're not thru yet, but getting 3 points in our first and toughest match of the semi-final was huge. 3 more in Cuba would be awesome. Coach Bradley - I don't like the empty bucket so much at times but the team is technically very tight under him. We close down opponents every move. Guat never really looked that dangerous except when they were working Pearce over. Should have subbed Pearce 10 minutes earlier but in the end perhaps it's best he didn't as he was able to use that 3rd sub to get Maestro out of there. All 3 subs were good. I'm sure people are going to be screaming for Altidore but Adu over Dempsey would have made a huge difference affording us much more positive possession if nothing else. Bottom line is we got the 3 points, the team hustled and kept it's composure and WC qualifiers are never beauty contests. I guess I'd have to say good job.
Bradley's "offensive plan" depended on Lewis sending crosses to Ching and Dempsey in the box from the left or Cherundolo doing it from the right. It looked like a bad plan in the first half and outright worthless in the second. As to Bocanegra - just before the two cards, a Chapines mid was advancing with the ball into the penalty area while Bocanegra kept looking at him. The guy got off an open shot and barely missed wide. That's horrific defending. He scored a nice goal but I'd bench the guy immediately.
It was the best shot of the first half, too, for either team. Pathetic commentary on the game, but there you have it.
Timmy's yellow is one of the few occasions when I don't take exception to a player picking up a "stupid" yellow. Getting in Ruiz's face after a dirty dragged boot near his face was perfectly justified, and let his teammates know he was appropriately fired up to hold the clean sheet in the late going. Overall, the referee did fairly well in a tough match to officiate, but his one real mistake I thought was not handing Ruiz a yellow for the challenge on Timmy. At home, I think the decision would've gone the other way. Still, whistling fouls against the Fish for contact he'd initiate in an attempt to provoke a retaliation is a big step up from the sort of refereeing we usually are treated to in these sorts of matches.
Howard- 7 distribution still not intelligent at times. But can't fault him as a shot stopper Dolo- 1 sorry, but you got bailed out. A symptom of the US problems under the Bradley regime evidenced tonight Gooch- 7.5 definitely played the strongest of the defenders tonight. Boca- 6.5 Was kind of running after people a bit. Was it because of Pearce though? Well taken goal Pearce- 3??? I don't know if I can rate him as he didn't have a left sided midfielder playing in front of him and the right side of the Guat attack had to worry about zero defensive responsibility. Is he carrying a knock? Lewis- 1 I thank you for your service. Never had the speed for a winger at the INT. level, but could serve a great ball. Now he's even slower and can't get into positions to serve a ball... Hung Pearce out to dry Donovan- 4 Did some defensive work... did nothing going forward Mastro - 5 I guess he did his job... Bradley - 6 at least someone played in the midfield tonight Demspey - 3 Worst I've seen Clint in a long time Ching - 5 Did his workman stuff, set a good pick on the corner play. Generally held the ball up well... had zero quality service. Subs- all 6's They all came in and hustled their butts off and beez even got on the score sheet with the assist. Bradley Sr. - 0 His players won in spite of him tonight. This midfield is wretched and can't link up with the forwards, so how can you rate the forwards??? This guy is an abomination and needs to be canned immediately. Dempsey looked pissed off at the end because before the game even started he was given zero chance to succeed. Playing 2 d-mids doesn't work. Playing 2 shackled d-mids really doesn't work. Donovan is lost out on the right, how hard is that to figure out? And once more, the symptom of the US team under Bradley showed up tonight, stupid cards. Stupid, Stupid cards. Tim howard's was the only good card. This man coaches afraid and it shows. His style is boring to watch and will never net us a win against a quality opponent not on U.S. soil. Absolutely, and unequivocally 100% pathetic. He is a waste of time and should never have ascended to his current position. Yes, England does beat Andorra 1-0 but I've never seen one of those games where Andorra took it to England. Bob... LEAVE!
I loved Tim Howard's yellow card. Someone needed to get in Ruiz's face and fire up his teammates. Howard - 7 - MOTM...excellent shot-stopping & intensity...mediocre distribution though Cherundolo - 4 - uncharacteristic mental lapses Pearce - 3 - surprising after his strong showings in June Bocanegra - 6 - put out a lot of fires...had the one screw-up as SFS mentioned Onyewu - 6 - did alright, but like Boca, lacks comfort on the ball Donovan - 4 - Either he didn't come to play or being out of position emasculates him Lewis - 3 - I like him, but he did very little tonight. Mastroeni - 5 Bradley - 5 Dempsey - 3 - I'm losing patience Ching - 5 - workman-like effort, but not a huge attacking threat. subs: Hejduk - 5 Beasley - 6 - nice corner..i feel bad for him b/c he really needs a creative central midfielder in order to blossom Edu - NR
howard - 7 would give him an 8 but don't like how he slapped ma boy ruiz! lol dolo - 0 really let the US down almost as bad as orozco in the olympics ( need to us wynne) gooch - 7 boca - 7 pearce - 4 (when is Johnny Bornstein gonna be healthy again or spector or somebody please!!!!!) LD - 4 no spark nothing, he was just in the game, one good ball to gooch that was it.... Pablo - 5 age starting to get to him.... Bradley - 5 i'm guessing he will start every game now and play every minute of each game till the day he dies right??? Duece - 3 forgot he played Ching - 4 not much of a threat, but was kind of the only thing going..... subs - beez - 5 only because of the crozz, back then he use to run around all over the place and make the game exciting, what happened?? Edu - 4 nothing much should of had a better shot to kill the game... frankie - 5 lost the ball a couple of times or would give it away, his time is done with the nats referee - ????? Caribbean refs do not belong, they do not know the game, don't think cabrera deserved a red, it was a 50-50 ball, maybe a yellow but no red... also when freddy garcia was clapping in his face, that was a yellow card.... Team - We won, got 3 points and not all of the wins are gonna look pretty, especially in a scrappy physical game like today, but that don't mean BB can't juice it up or spice it up a bit... But we must play better if beaz is gonna be getting called up he needs to have that spark he used to have, he hardly runs now in these games.... I am looking forward to seeing Adu, Altidore, Wynne, Sascha, and Cooper against cuba.... Bob Bradley - ????!!!!! I am not gonna talk about why he didn't call up Cooper or Wynne, but if you saw that dempsey didn't do crap in the first half, why not take him out halftime.. instead of using frankie should have used edu right away... Don't see the need of using 2 stopping midfielders against the powerful guatemala.... i am dying to see a 4-1-2-1-2 4 def, 1 stopping mid, 2 wings (left and right of course) an attacking midfielder (LD) and two forwards, i would love to see duece play his natural right mid almost right wing position which he would play so well in with bruce... and well ama stop here cuz i can go on for days.....