Friday, December 2, 2022 John O'Brien on the spirited USA, the untraditional Dutch, and what Louis van Gaal may be thinking by Arlo Moore-Bloom From the USA's 2-0 win over Mexico at the 2002 World Cup (L-to-R) — Tony Sanneh, Brian McBride, Pablo Mastroeni and John O'Brien — that led to USA's only quarterfinal appearance in modern World Cup history. * * * * * * * * * * . Link to Scott French's article on O'Brien in the Nov. 20, 2000 issue of Soccer America, HERE. * * * * * * * * * * 2022 World Cup Group A Netherlands 2 Senegal 0. Goals: Gakpo 84, Klaassen 90+9. Netherlands 1 Ecuador 1. Goals: Gakpo 6; Valencia 49. Netherlands 2 Qatar 0. Goals: Gakpo 26, de Jong 49. Group B USA 1 Wales 1. Goals: Weah 36; Bale (pen.) 82. USA 0 England 0. USA 1 Iran 0. Goal: Pulisic 38. * * * * * * * * * * A key player on the USA's 2002 World Cup quarterfinal squad and the USA's fourth-place team at the 2000 Olympics — both historic U.S. finishes — John O'Brien, PsyD., is now a psychologist based in Boulder, Colorado.
I met and talked at some length with O’Brien at a Soccer Without Borders event in Oakland a few years back. Very cool guy.
- - - included the link to the 4th of the 4 music videos - - - I am not a heavy metal fan, but I used to subscribe to Howler Magazine. The current owner is trying to revive the publication online, and one of the crazy things he is doing for WC 2022 is to post 4 videos from the Howler heavy metal band "Group of Death". Video 1 - Black World Cup Winter (I liked this one the best) Video 2 - The Cup is not Coming Home Video 3 - Field of Screams (this one is very disrespectful to the migrant workers) Video 4 - Death Roll Call
A family member who met him while he was still playing said the same thing. Totally unassuming, really nice guy.
Man, you go from being hopeful that we will advance to worrying that we are going to give up 7 goals.
The good thing about this WC is that there are so many examples of minor teams coming back from being down against the big names.
Hubby points out that Tim Ream is 10 years older than the guy he is defending, so it was pretty good that he caught up to the guy.
And those goals are what we usually give up. Midfielders and defenders missing players that are joining attack late at the top of the box.
Adams and Dest - two deadly errors today. To quote Clark Griswold: “If that isn’t the biggest bag-over-the-head punch in the gut.”