USA vs. Colombia, Nov. 14 at Craven Cottage, London

vs Colombia
-------------------Altidore--------------------
Ibarra-----------------------------------Yedlin
-----------Nguyen---------Diskerud---------
------------------Beckerman------------------
Garza--------Jones-----Cameron---F. Johnson
--------------------Guzan----------------------

vs Ireland
--------------------Altidore----------------------
Wood-------------------------------------Rubin
-----------Bedoya------------Diskerud---------
---------------------Morales---------------------
F.Johnson---Besler-------Brooks------Yedlin
---------------------Rimando--------------------

 

We are going to kick your asses

 

LOL You wish!

 

What I'd like to see:


--------------------Altidore
Green---------------Fab-----------Yedlin
---------Mix---------------Cam
--Beaz------Besler-------Brooks------TC

Subs: Nguyen for TC, Put LN at AM and Fab to RB

Garza for Green, put Garza at LB and move Beaz up.

Jones for Besler or Brooks

 

you mis-spelled "lick"

 

Ahhh yes, the Colombian approach to pre-game analysis.

 

How old are you? Six?

 

No, but it looks a lot like 1990 with a player who boasts Stanford University as his club team.

 

So that's the standard, then? Not getting embarrassed? We can call in a full NCAA side next time, hang with some European team, and all is good? Look, it's great that we can draw the Czech Republic and Honduras with a bunch of kids who aren't playing top level soccer along with some Klinsmann preferred veterans, but if you honestly think that this is the best available pool of players, I don't know what to tell you.

 

We beat the Czech Republic. In Prague. And pretty handily, before the subs distorted the game late. It was an impressive performance, particularly from "kids" like Gyau who was dominating along the right side.

 

Yes, I for one are waiting to see what he can do because he didn't show much the last time out. Take the WC goal away and one might wonder exactly what he has that justifies his elevation to this group

 

Patience. The guy is 19 in the body of a 16 year old. He needs, if not to bulk up, at least to replace the baby fat with muscle. As is, every time he plays with the grownups I'm afraid they're going to kill him.

I see flashes, but he gets nervous and then makes a big boo-boo.

 

Holy crap, you're in Muscatine? No wonder you hold some resentment towards the US.

 

As far as Klinsmann and his players are concerned, I'm guessing an ass-kicking would be more welcomed than a flying-knee-to-the-lower-back.

 

Burned.

 

I hold no resentments towards the US, lol. You're crazy!

 

I'm just effing with you. I used to cover Muscatine in a previous life.

 

I love Muscatine, most beautiful and peaceful place I've ever lived in. I love the people there. But I'm currently at a university, out of state.

 

NMMatt, see Parmigiano's post. We won the game -- on European soil against a good European team, which, IIRC, was not very typical of the USMNT until relatively recently. So all this hand wringing over how young and inexperienced a team was selected and how stupid a coach JK is for selected said team was done before the Czech Republic game too. Are you saying then by extension that JK must be a really good coach to have taken "bunch of kids who aren't playing top level soccer along with some Klinsmann preferred veterans" and won? He can't be both a terrible judge of talent and a bad coach and be getting results against good competition. So, the point of my original post was that it seems we've been here before and the sky didn't fall then, so let's see how it goes.

As far as this being the best available pool of players? --- I thought the idea was to develop/figure out what the best pool of players will be in 2018, not in November, 2014, so experimentation at this point is fine by me. Now, the who do you experiment with is fine --- but you also need to make sure you separate out the 'developable' from the 'non-developable' . That is a very, very difficult task.

 

It is a pretty part of the country. The river is beautiful from there on south. A friend of mine has a stilt house just south of there. Just about the coolest living arrangement I've ever seen. Nothing cooler than sippin a beer watching the eagles dive off your deck/dock.

 

I see you view the game with USA as opponent.

 

Not only for 2018...
but some of these guys can play in the U20 WC (Qualifying starts in Jan)... and then the qualifiers for the Olympics sometime next year.

2015 U20 WC Eligible:
Rubio Rubin (18)
Julian Green (19)
Jordan Morris (19 or 20?)

2016 U23 Olympic Eligible:
Rubio Rubin (18)
Julian Green (19)
Jordan Morris (19 or 20?)
John Brooks (21)
DeAndre Yedlin (21)

 

Our players are brutally under-rated, which means:

a) They can give a surprise, but
b) sometimes they lack the 'belief' to hold onto a result.

We should teach our kids to do more feints and look-at-me moves. Too bad we teach them soccer is a team sport, where you're only as good as what the team accomplishes.

 

Julian Green is not eligible for the U20 World Cup.

 

This is the main reason why we're a hard working, punch above our weight NT--that is the mentality ALL around.

We don't have enough encouragement to be more individual or produce enough kids that can take the team on their back and pull a result like we see in sports like B Ball.

Soccer in this country is still a 'burbs sport so that fierce competitive atmosphere you see in other countries where the players are cut throat and come from cut throat enviroments isn't wtih our country--nor is there the real lust for the game yet.