usa had no dempsey and donovan together for HOW many matches rack up the goals against AB, it'll be needed as everyone else will we have a deep roster, and tactics should drive who starts i'd like to see the core 11, then the next 3-4 guys emerge through these semis that then is the rotation of 15 for the hex a 3rd CB must be found...say boyd and gomez based on style boyd might well see PT time against AB, as i'm sure they will defend in numbers, and his prowess in the air, as a 5th or 6th attacker might be needed
everyone gives the ball away. without edu, we wouldn't have won that game. it was probably the best he's ever played for the Nats, IMO. I still think we are most effective with Edu as DM like you said, and Jones/Bradley in front of him as CMs
Thank you. Most people understood that I was being more comical than serious. For about 5 minutes out line-up took that shape but obviously we didn't play that the whole match.
Looks about right except I'm guessing Deuce plays free and Gomez is more central so it turns into more of a skinny diamond midfield with 2 strikers.
The long balls out of the back would be coming from the back four because they don't have a good outlet to play the ball short centrally.
Since that did not occur in the 3 matches he played as the #6 why would it happen v A&B? This match shapes up to be similar to the CR match that Edu played as the #6 in a central trio with Torres at the #8 and Donovan at #10. Edu completed 60 passes and only misses 6 with 0 other loss of possession!
If Edu starts vs AB it will be as DM. IIRC when he went forward in some matches we didn't score. Definitely Bradley and Jones will play 2-way CMs.
No doubt. I know next to nothing about the A and B players. But if they are athletic and determined, and they choose to pressure us early, this game could go 0-0 for a while.
They wont be fit enough to pressure us for very long. I'm pretty sure they have a lot of semi-pro players. Real jobs aren't conducive to world cup level conditioning. We will be playing a team that should play basically 5 or 6 at the back, and hope to have 2-3 decent counter chances in the match. If they come out pressing early, it could be a very ugly scoreline at the end.
Posts of this vein typically end in disappointment. I have a feeling they will play us pretty close. I don't have much faith after we got shut out by Canada....
There are platitudes that we hear about CONCACAF qualifying: "It's hard to get results against CONCACAF opponents, especially when the USA is playing away from home." "With CONCACAF referees, anything can happen." "Any win is a good win. Any away draw is a good draw." These platitudes are almost always true. I myself have cheered an away draw with El Salvador. Antigua and Barbuda is an exception. For the USA, failure to defeat Antigua and Barbuda in either of the two round-robin games would be a disaster. Winning by only one goal would be very disappointing. The expectation for the USA should be to win each game with Antigua and Barbuda by at least three goals. I know Antigua and Barbuda's roster is improving, but it's improving from "horrible" to "very bad". Antigua and Barbuda has an Elo rating of 1279. Let's look back at USA results against teams with similar Elo ratings. The last team the USA faced with a similar Elo rating was Grenada, with a 1280 rating, on 4 July 2009 in the Gold Cup group stage. The USA did not field its strongest team, but nevertheless won 4-0. The last team the USA faced in World Cup qualifying with a similar Elo rating was Barbados, with a 1273 Elo rating for the first match and a 1270 Elo rating for the second match, on 15 and 22 June 2008, in a home-and-away total-goals head-to-head knockout. The first-leg result in the USA was USA 8-0 Barbados; the second-leg result in Barbados, without the USA's strongest team, was Barbados 0-1 USA, and it was rightly viewed as a disappointment. But knockout matches are different in that any aggregate win is good enough; in a round-robin, goal differential matters. The last team the USA faced in a World-Cup-qualifying round-robin with anything close to a similar Elo rating was Barbados, which had a 1370 rating coming into the match on 16 August 2000. The USA led 2-0 in the 38th minute when Barbados started accumulating red cards, and the USA ended up with a 7-0 victory. Barbados's rating had dropped to 1330 before it hosted the USA on 15 November 2000, and while the game was scoreless late, the USA ended up with a 4-0 victory. Even so, Barbados that year had a notably better rating than Antigua and Barbuda does this year. The last team the USA faced with a notably worse rating than Antigua and Barbuda's current 1279 was Estonia, which had an 1195 rating when it visited the USA for a 7 May 1994 friendly. The USA won 4-0. Note that we're already back into the dark ages of USA teams notably weaker than those of the modern era. The last team the USA faced in a match of consequence with a notably worse rating than Antigua and Barbuda's current 1279 was Panama, which brought a 1217 rating into its Gold Cup group-stage match in the USA on 14 July 1993. The USA won only 2-1. Has the USA ever faced a team quite as bad as Antigua and Barbuda in a round-robin situation? The closest I can find is 1972 Olympic qualifying (long enough ago that the under-23 restriction didn't apply), when the USA faced Jamaica. Jamaica hosted the USA on 16 January 1972, bringing a 1219 rating into the match, and drawing 1-1. The USA hosted Jamica, whose rating had improved to 1239, on 14 May 1972, and the USA won 2-1. Emerging from the mists of history into the present, the USA must come out with an attacking mindset against Antigua and Barbuda on Friday. The Scotland match does indeed provide a good example, and the line-up should be similar, with the additional advantage of the availability of Dempsey and Altidore. 3-0 or bust; 5-0 would be a good result.
I'm not saying they can't and wont keep it close. What I'm saying is that their best chance to do that is by packing it in. They'd be foolish to press us. We'll slice them to pieces if they aren't tight at the back.
Oh yeah, for sure. Sorry if I misinterpreted a bit. I know this game is infinitely more important than the friendlies, but I'd still like to see JK give a run to a lot of the guys who haven't seen too many minutes in these friendlies.
Altho Gomez is conceivably better against Antigua than Jozy, I think Jozy gets the start so he is tuned up for Guatemala just a few days later. We need Gomez fresh and in good shape, anyway. I think Goodson is the best current RCB, all things considered. Howver, if Cameron is considered the speediest and we want to go with high line to practice our recently combined starters in the formation (inc Dempsey and Altidore, i.o.w.), then maybe Cameron should get the start. so, ------Dempsey---Jozy(Gomez)---Dono-- ------Bradley--------Edu--------JJ------- -Fabian-Boca----Cameron(Goodson)--Dolo
It seems to me that you have to assume that the players that got the most minutes in the friendlies will start Friday. I have a hard time believing players that weren't favored in the friendlies suddenly start when it matters. My expectation is to see the Scotland lineup with Altidore for Boyd, Dempsey for Torres, and likely Gooch or Goodson for Cameron...although the latter switch wouldn't be my preference. So no I don't believe Beckerman etc will be starting. We need to run up the score if possible and then start subbing. edit: forgot about Dempsey... as much as I love Torres, he has to sit in favor of Dempsey.
This match is different. For me, it's not so much confidence in the USA's result against Antigua and Barbuda as it is the realization that just winning the match is not good enough. This time, goal differential matters.
Fans' and outsiders' collective level of pride and/or confidence has not much to do with a fall being suffered (or not). We have no (true/accurate) idea of what will matter at the end of the day on Oct. 16, 2012. This first WCQ match this cycle (while very important in its own right), is just 1 of 6 WCQs that the US will play in the next 19 weeks. Getting the six (or possibly fewer) necessary results in this round is what is required. Goal differential might be a tiebreaker that comes into play, but finishing in a clear 1st or 2nd place in this group seems far more likely for the USA, imo.
I understand. I read your thread. It just feels I dont know, premature, not pre-match. I was taught to always respect the opponent and that means taking the match seriously. Guadalupe we beat 1-0 on a wonder goal. You never know. The pride we all feel as fans and the potential disrespect carries over one way or another to the team, either by perception or in reality.
Howard, Bradley, Boca, Cherundolo, Jones, and Donovan have had very little (Bradley none) rest these 3 matches, and will now also be expected to play 90's in the next two meaningful matches as long as the scores are close. Johnson would have been a 7th such player had it not been for his sudden injury minutes before the Canada match. The only 3 starting positions purposefully rotated have been one CB spot (Cameron, Onyewu, and Goodson), one midfield/attacking-mid spot (Edu, Dempsey), and one striker spot (Boyd, Gomez). JK has built a very short bench for these first two qualifiers.
Hmmm... let's see: USA tied Canada 0-0 in Canada; Canada tied St. Kitts 0-0 in St. Kitts; and St. Kitts tied 1-1 Antigua in Antigua. So a 0-0 should enter into the picture, as a possibility.