Re: [R] v. Suisse (post game) You might want to ask FIFA about that, reportedly FIFA doesn't feel like following their written rules.
Re: [R] v. Suisse (post game) I don't think their plan was to have Adu be their play maker/savior this season, but to integrate him into their system for the foreseeable future and to replace RUI COSTA next season...or at least i hope that was the plan, otherwise he'd already is a disappointment in their view....
Re: [R] v. Suisse (post game) Man, watching friendly game between Mexico and Guatemala is like watching an action movie in which thugs kill each other...It's not a sports event. US vs Suisse is so much more civil...And the fans, mostly pro Mexico, is just like the blood-thirsty audience in the Roman era....watching those gladiators killing each other. Mexico creates enemies everywhere it goes...
Re: [R] v. Suisse (post game) I think he'll replace Rui Costly next season...Every legend will get older and slower
Re: [R] v. Suisse (post game) I think he'll be loaned out. Benfica haveat least 5 feeder clubs, and half the BWIN Liga want him.
Re: [R] v. Suisse (post game) well, someone gotta replace him because he's retiring after this season...hoping Adu will be next in line.
Re: [R] v. Suisse (post game) I hate to be a freddy Hyper, but i didnt get to watch the game and only got the play by play at big soccer and the match tracker. Did Adu and Edu really play that well? It sounds like they did, and i gotta say thats exciting for our national team. Im not calling him messi, but it sounds like Adu could be our spark plug in 2010, and eventually go on to take complete creative control over games as he matures. I mean, from the sounds of it, he really did make an immediate offensive impact. Edu sounds classy as well. To come into the national team for the first time, IN Europe, as an MLS rookie and perform more than competently (from what i hear) is nothing short of amazing. Whats the biggest kid this games played in before today? Toronto vs Los Angelas???? Hopefully Edu is the Kind of gut check character this team can rely on not to freeze up when we play the big boys. I know its only one game tho, and a lot is still yet to be seen so dont gang rape me for this.
My thoughts prior to reading anything on the game have just watched it on TiVo: Overall: Sloppy ass conditions. Hard to read too much into it. GKs: both Hahneman and Guzan looked good, confident, despite Guzman's borderline blunder. Cherundolo - very solid. Gooch - too much rough play always has me worried. But played well. Califf - the Orange Traffic Cone did well today. Bocanegra - great match. MOTM I suppose. Lewis - he's solid, he's ageless, he hussles, he was an Earthquake. But can we please end the Eddie At Left Back experiment, please?!? Solid game especially in midfield despite the lack of crosses (see weather comment above). Pearce - good solid match. Edu - having not watched much Toronto FC action this year, holy cow this kid can play! He's only 21?!? Me like. Fast, tough, reads game well. Did lose a few balls, but lot's of good play. Helped on goal. 2nd in MOTM race to Boca but it was close. Bradley - quiet match, but got the goal by playing tough and getting to the right spot. Feilhaber - pretty good, but I don't like him on the wing. Da Beas - got hurt too early to rate. Dempsey - didn't impose himself on the match the way he has for Fulham of late. Weather didn't help. Nice assist on the goal. Twellman - another ineffective match. Adu - wow. It was as if DANGER DANGER flashed all over the field with his every touch. Looked brilliant in his short outing. Absolutely brilliant. Totally changed the dynamic of the game. Szetela - reminded me of the U20 tournament. Just like then, his play looked pretty ordinary but then he'd score (or this time set up) a goal. Finley - nice to see him capped. Opponent - solid, well organized. Our backline did well and the field conditions were crappp so hard to rate their finishing and final touch. Overall - well, again, the field/weather. I figured if there were a goal it would be ugly. But at least it was OUR ugly goal dammit!
Not that solid, he should have scored from the Twellman pass to him inside the 18. His touch failed miserably and put him in a bad angle to shoot, it should have been a first time strike. Maybe it was the conditions….anyway, he could help in qualifiers?
This just shows how much a "system" matters because Taylor Twellman was the MVP of the league not too long ago and yet is an abysmal failure on the international level. Freddy was less than exemplary in MLS, at least in his final half-season, but is on a totally different planet when he competes wth people who can complement his talent.
Re: [R] v. Suisse (post game) FYI, uh...shit. Shit shit shit. No need to contort yourself where that word is concerned, the BigSoccer censorship gods are sometimes kind...
A historic victory for three reasons. First, as the announcers said over and over again, the streak is over. I don't know whether they meant the one stretching back to 3/1/06 (since our last win in Europe, also 1-0 over Poland) or the one stretching back to 6/24/07 (since our last non-loss, a 2-1 win over Mexico), but either way I don't care. Lord, let the stink of failure wash off us. We are clean once again. Second, please let's not forget that Switzerland permitted the following number of goals to be scored against them in the 2006 WC: none. We scored the following number of goals against them in a single game: one. Thus we are a more compelling offensive juggernaut than France, Togo, South Korea, and Ukraine combined. Or, put another way, Michael Bradley is greater than Henry, Adebayor, and Shevchenko all rolled into one. Third, and finally, Freddy Adu broke--no, shattered--the record for most name-chants from foreign fans in a European venue during international play. He may be merely an up-and-coming late sub earning his first official cap for the US (v. Canada in a non-FIFA sanctioned friendly doesn't count), but he's by far our biggest star in the eyes of the Swiss. Oh, glorious, this victory. Let the skies rain ambrosia onto an endless field of sweet, sweet candy.
Completely agree. Swiss attack in the first half could have been more threatening if they didn't lose their feet every time. I am not so sure how solid I felt he was in the midfield. Defensively he was slow and his positioning and speed were sub par in a lot of instances. I have never been a big fan of Lewis, so that may be biased. Years ago, on these boards, people were trying to convince me how fast he was. I have never seen him be anything close to fast. And now that he has lost a step, it looks worse. Good debut, but hardly MOTM material. His mistakes were plentiful. He was very involved...but I feel like so many of us on BS seem to equate that with good play. If you watch off the ball, Bradley did a lot of good things so that the ball didn't come his way--he was well positioned and played a smart game. Edu was not as effective at this, so he had more opportunities to engage. At least, that is how I saw it. As spectators watching on TV, we tend to watch the ball a bit too much and have a tough time seeing the overall shape of the team. From what I could tell, MB did a very good job of being in a position so that the ball DIDN'T come his way. As I said earlier, if your DMid was not that noticable in a 1-0 victory, there are pretty good chances he was effective---otherwise he would have been visible in his mistakes or the other team still felt like it could attack him.
87 mins -- The U.S. almost scores again. Dempsey sends Adu clear with a terrific ball but Adu shanks it over the bar with only the goalie to beat. This is what Jen Chang had to say about that sequence near the end of the game in his pbp thread on espn. I don't swing from Adu's junk like some people do but i think he's a good player. The way this statement is worded sounds like he thinks Adu is garbage and anyone (even TT) would've buried it. When I watched it, I saw a great ball played in, Adu stretched out to get his boot on the ball and hit it over by about a foot maybe two. Did I miss something on this play?
Re: [R] v. Suisse (post game) Or that the poster wasn't using the internet much until '99. You have no idea how long and closely they have followed the nats!
Re: [R] v. Suisse (post game) I see that and raise you a Donovan, Howard, Ching, Bornstein, Mastroeni (and probably a few more i'm missing). We also lost Beasley in the first few minutes. Excuses, excuses...
Re: [R] v. Suisse (post game) Actually, I think the biggest game he's played in before today was the NCAA D1 national championship game with Maryland. Toronto vs. LA is a step below...
Re: [R] v. Suisse (post game) Did anyone notice Szetela had his hand on the FIFA girl just before he was substituted in the game. For all us always on the prowl animals had to notice that was a conscious or sub sonscious move he made on her. probably to be continued after the game ended
Re: [R] v. Suisse (post game) Umm,that was the 4th official. And she didn't look like the Brazilian ref who posed nude.