The forward pairing is exciting. Davies has so much confidence right now and causes so may problems for defenders with his pace and energy, Jozy is always drawing a second defender and has a great one-two game, good and flicking balls on and has the size and strenght to get goal side. It helps the two are also best friends so they will hopefully understand each other better as the get more games together. Jozy is still not there fitness and form wise (but still scored two goals) The midfield in attack was good i thought, although maybe too direct. Donovan did most the damage from the left midfield position with Davies. Dempsey did typical Dempsey stuff...fighting for balls in the box. Bradely and Feilhaber controled possesion in attack and worked in some tight space passes. I'd give the attack a B for this game. Could have used better finsihing.
Very impressed with Davies tonight. Had begun to think of him as primarily a 'speed merchant' up until the last few games, but he is really showing not only a great tactical awareness relative to finding the right spaces and making the right runs, but some impressive dribbling skills as well. Consistency in finishing will come in time as he sees more action, but even if he only serves right now as something of a set-up man or decoy for others, his value is rising exponentially. Altidore is puzzling. Perhaps it is a question of settling in at Hull, and not being completely fit, but even given his age, the promise he's shown in the past suggests that he should be completely dominant in a game such as last night's. I know he got a goal...which was a great finish...and perhaps shouldn't have seen the other disallowed, but I really would have expected a bit more physical dominance against an admittedly overmatched backline. Will say that as long as these two are fit and/or not suspended, appears that we've at least sorted out our attack.
Did they ever actually clarify that? I thought that was simply the best guess of the announcers. Dempsey's play was clearly clean, he got ball, released ball then contact. There was slight contact, altifore's arm on the last defender's back, which could have been the call, though it would be equally bizarre (there's that much contact and a lot more on every play). Couple things: Davies doesn't dive that much. When he's in an around the box and senses contact, he goes to ground, but that's simply smart. But i didn't see him dive, which to me means go to ground without contact. Altidore is going to be so f'ing spectacular. I do wonder, however, about him and concacaf refs. He is so physical, so strong. The way he plays fits perfect in a top league, but in concacaf, the refs don't react to tossing defenders around well (the fault, IMO, is this region, not Altidore's style, but he will have to adapt). Donovan is playing as well as could be asked right now. However, is he losing a step? A couple plays last night I thoguht he was off to the races, and he couldn't shake this defender on the outside, when all he needed and all he tried was a speed move. That said, he's better than he's ever been, IMO. His concentration, commitment and thought process is very, very good. Dempsey is putting himself in a lot of great spots. He could have had three, but while he missed two, and one IMO sitter, no one else was that often in such a great position to score. Hell, I'll take his recent nats strike rate any day.
Jozy just needs to mature. He holds the ball too long when he should be decisive and either turn his man, flick on and win with speed or pass. Too often he is dispossessed for just floundering on the ball without any direction. You dont see this in davies game. He turns and goes to goal, gets space and passes, crosses or shoots. Jozy needs to simplify his game. I hope he gets some coaching going forward because he needs it. Davies is going to end up at Arsenal if he isnt careful. Man, I hate the gunners.
yes, altidore and davies could use a little tutoring here and there. but when was the last time we had a 2 pronged attack that combines strength and speed to be so dangerous? not too long ago i remember donavan and dempsey being started as forwards. be thankful those 4-6-0 days are behind us.
The four Ds (Donovan, Dempsey, Davies and altiDore) played well. Not great, but well. A little out of shape for Jozy, a little rusty for Clint, but Charlie was good, and Landon was great.
Even tough the Altidore-Davies pairing still has some kinks to work out, I think we had a major break through in our attack last night. It seemed as tough we had a transformation from a team that uses a target man to a team that flows evenly up the pitch. We weren't using either Altidore or Davies to hold the ball or hold up play like we had in the past. I not saying that this style is naturally better, I'm just stating what I think will become a new trend in our attack.
Jozy's time will come. His first touch/trapping is still light years better than what I've seen of Ching for the USMNT. Playing the ball to Ching is like kicking against a concrete wall. This pairing is the most exciting to watch, but just wait I'm sure Bob will through Ching out there on Wed even if we NEED to get a win at TnT. This group is too tight to not go there and win - the others will.
I think there is no longer any doubt that our starting forward tandem is Altidore/Davis. If nothing else, we got that out of our game. Really, I haven't seen a forward for the US create his own space in the box with the ball at his feet like Davies since Wynalda. Dempsey missed some chances but he had that moment of magic that is so important in soccer. Donovan continues to be the man. Attack was decent really, it was our outside backs and out center midfield that let us down in this one.
If Davies is healthy, we need him and Jozy to start v T&T. That game is close to a must win. But I expect to see Ching.
To break up the "Duo" of Davies and Altidore up front at this point would be a crime. The fun they obviously have together and being good friends creates enthusiasm. This stuff tends to flow down through the whole team. Not only that, they were fun to watch. Give them caps so they can really gel. I honestly think we were only given a glimpse of what they will eventually bring to the pitch.
Does anyone realize that American referee Mark Geiger did the Honduras match last night? Please, stop it with the conflict of interest crap. It was a bad call, they happen all the time. It didn't cost the US any points, just some minor comfortability in the last 15 minutes or so...
Yes Davies and Altidore are on the pitch, the big question is going to be Davies injury situation, it would be an outright crime to sit him if he is healthy, I don't think even Bob would do that. Jozy sat in Mexico because he hadn't played 90 in so long.
If anything, it was a make-up call for the Dempsey goal being ruled onside, which the El Sal coach complained vigorously about at halftime.
I completely agree with this and I'm surprised that it wasn't given more attention by the ESPN commentary crew. We can count ourselves lucky on that goal. Much of the time when there are that many attackers in an offside position they will disallow it.
An offside call involving a "passive" offside player (here, more than one) is one of the most difficult calls for a ref to make. The offside play in general, and the passive player specifically, probably takes up more review time than any other Law. A referee has to believe that an offside player affected the play (for example, an offside player blocking the sightlines of the GK) in some way. If not, he's considered passive, and the play is not whistled for an offside call. The only question I have is Michael Bradley's involvement (or lack thereof) in the play. A case could be made that he was slightly moving, and perhaps by doing so somehow affected one of the ES defenders and/or the GK. Obviously, the ref did not believe his movement affected the play, so no whistle was called. Jozy (and someone else) were offside on the near post, but as best as I could tell Jozy stood still & the other player was also fairly still.
I thought the Benny and MB were the weakest parts of the attack. MB was the one most often going forward and he hardly brought anything at all to the attack. Benny was stuck covering for MB quite a few times and his involvement was limited. A few times both would go forward and gave ES a huge opportunity for counter attacks. While MB isn't the greatest defensive mid, he should of been the one covering for Benny whose attacking prowess is beyond MB's. Although I don't think the MB/Benny pairing is our best, a simple change of tactics would have improved the teams attack and overall performance. I'd really prefer Benny paired with Clark, Edu, or Jones.
Agreed. But we have to be careful of the solution. We don't want more refs from Belize or the Bahamas doing the Hex matches. The best solution is to have refs from outside the confederation doing WC qualifiers. Of course there would be travel costs and other costs involved. But I think it is the way to go.
No, he was arguing about 2 minutes of stoppage time. (Watch it again; he's got 2 fingers up.) Altidore scored in the 2nd minute of stoppage time. We're not lucky that a player who was onside by 2 ********ing yards wasn't called offside.
I'm not referring to Dempsey. I'm talking about having the goal allowed when we had multiple players in an offside position. If you watch Bradley he was not onside and was going for the same ball. That's why I said we got lucky; because another linesman could have easily raised his flag for something like that. If such a goal had been scored against us I would have been pissed off, and I'm sure I wouldn't have been alone. I've just never really really been completely sold on the passive offside rule; there are too many cases where there is way too much gray area involved.
I would like to think the average American soccer fan can at the very least be objective. Had the same exact play been scored against the US, I wouldn't have an argument. The bottom line is that the man who scored the goal (the player with the biggest impact on the play), was clearly in an onside position before scoring. There is no doubt about where Michael Bradley and Boca were on the play. They were in an offside position but they were passive. Had the ball gone through and either Bradley or Boca played the ball, the flag rightfully would have gone up. This is the part of the passive offside rule that so many people seem to not understand. The assistant linesman is not supposed to raise the flag until the ball reaches the offending player in question. Don't you notice sometimes about how often some linesmen wait until they raise their flags on players who are clearly offside? Well, those players are in an passive position until they are engaged in the play. bottom line is that neither Boca or Bradley were engaged in the play (and neither were in the line of sight of the goalkeeper) and thusly they were not flagged offside. Case closed.
Bad dancing? [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek-q9nwY0F8"]YouTube - Strip Tease Goes Wrong[/ame] You mean like that? The 1st, 2nd, 3rd and fourth misses by Deuce alone would have won the game! So Dissapointed ... Really wanted Torres to score on that header. Shout HALLELUJAH! I was really hating the Nats going the way of Everton. Whew, that was a close one! Timmy must have been chatting up BOB!? Put down the pipe!