I wonder if you can read anything into the team selection for the seven- a-side referred to in the blog. Holden, Rogers, Altidore, Hill, Ianni, Randolph and Seitz. Not surprising, the team won.
Hearing about the Seitz nutmeg of Alvarez reminds me of the legendary John O'Shea nutmeg of Luis Figo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gasxpPiews
... ¨There are two other players in camp who are married, as Adam Cristman and Tally Hall have also tied the knot¨ ... I know we want a close-knit team, but ...
I realize we may not have our top guys in March, and that qualifying is essentially a one-game elimination format for the semi-finalists, but it will be a huge disappointment if we don´t go to China. If we get there and have everyone available in August, I think we might make a serious run.
Recent article: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=502758&root=us&cc=5901 I think if we start the team that played the first half of the second China game we will have no problems in qualifying and can medal in August. It would mean putting Edu farther back but he played well there.
Doubtful. Add Adu, Bradley plus Landon, Howard and Dempsey as overage players would have a hard time medaling at the Olympics.
Its going to be tough for the team to go anywhere without some serious game time together. Big mistake not having the FMNT train with the 23's. I do agree with Missionary the team that played the first half of the second China game was a real buzzsaw and fun to watch. What struck me most was that we had a very solid defense in that game. It allowed the wings and center mid to be very aggressive in the attack and not have to constantly back track (that was the biggest problem with the U-20;s). Proving the point-second half against China, defense totally switched around. The team found itself on its heels, litttle attack, 3 China goals (actually 2, the pk was crap).
I just think the problem is our MLS teams dont think some of these youths are good enoufe to have an impact right away. DC united's Arguez never played then goes to the Bundesliga with a famed club. Wallace never playing with FC Dallas???? It just goes to show we should be developing our youth and giving them full minutes over giving out all this money and playing time to old and past thier prime players.
I just heard Riquelme(a top 5 player in the world) wants to play in the olympics. Wow this tornament is getting serious. Maybe we should put Adu and bradley in this tornament after all if they are not going to be.
Yes. all the people getting so pumped about our team should step back and reflect the fire power the rest of the world is bringing. http://hastaelgolsiempre.com/2008/01/24/the-olympic-squad-and-some-transfer-news/ look at the skins on their wall. They're not playing on a MLS reserve team
Don't discount these boys. They should have won the U20 WC. No reason they cannot go deep in this tornie.
The big difference between the two halves was the speed and aggressiveness of our outside backs. China's attack relied heavily on long diagonal balls to their wingers; Wynne and Randolph shut those down completely. Our second half outside backs weren't nearly as quick, and more importantly, played a lot less aggressively. (You don't have to completely overmatch your opponent physically to win the ball, but you do need to pressure aggressively - instead our second-half defenders tended to sit back and give the Chinese space to receive the ball and run at them.) Same went for the center back pairing we put out there, for that matter. One of the plays that I found most painful to watch didn't lead to a goal, but nevertheless exposed what was wrong: the Chinese forward received the ball and ran at our center backs, both of whom backed off as he advanced about 10 yards and then took a completely unchallenged shot from just outside the box, just inches wide. That's the kind of chance you only ever see in shooting drills, and one that any decent forward (including that particular Chinese guy, I assume) scores more often than not.
And keep in mind that Argentina has some world class players like Messi and Zarate that qualify for the Olympic squad but probably won't go. If this really is similar to Argentina's squad, on paper its significantly better than any squad the US can put out there. You might even pick this squad to beat the full US national team. Now I really like our U-23 squad, and it is probably the most talented U-23 squad we'll have assembled. Remember that our U-23 squad with Donovan, Convey, Beckerman, Eddie Johnson, etc. didn't even qualify. People saying our squad is even in the same ballpark as a team like this are dreamers and that's fine. I like optimism. Goalkeepers: Oscar Ustari (Getafe, Spain) Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar, Netherlands) Defenders: Federico Fazio (Sevilla, Spain) Ezequiel Garay (Racing de Santander, Spain) Pablo Zabaleta (Espanyol, Spain) Cristian Ansaldi (Rubin Kasan, Russia) Martín Demichelis (Bayern Munich, Germany) Midfielders: Fernando Gago (Real Madrid, Spain) Javier Mascherano (Liverpool, England) Ever Banega (Valencia, Spain) José Sosa (Bayern Munich) Juan Román Riquelme (Boca Juniors) Damián Escudero (Vélez Sársfield) Forwards: Sergio Agüero (Atlético de Madrid, Spain) Angel Di María (Benfica, Portugal) Ezequiel Lavezzi (Napoli, Italy) Gonzalo Higuaín (Real Madrid) Marco Rubén (Villarreal, Spain)
Pretty damn good looking squad today! I'm guessing on most of the 2nd Half squad 3-5-2 ----------------------- Seitz (Cervi) ----- Wynn (Myers) --------Ianni --------- Randolph(?) Holden (Rodgers) -- ??? ------McCarty ------- Kjlestian ------Alvarez(Christman) --------------Altidore ------------- Barrett (Davies) For those familiar with Nowak's tactical style with DC United from 2004 - 06, then you'll basically understand what he's trying to do. I did get a quick Q&A in with PN. I'll get it post to my radio station website as soon as possible and come back here link it. It will probably be Monday morning. Maybe someone can come in and cleap up the exact lineup. It should be up on DC United's website later tonight.
Not a whole lot (Altidore, Alvarez, Holden, Seitz, Davies get mentioned) about the u23s in this article from DC's website but it sounds like the youngsters were quite dominant in the early going. http://dcunited.mlsnet.com/news/tea...t_id=137562&vkey=news_dcu&fext=.jsp&team=t103
Here is the line ups off the U-23 blog. On Wings they had a Dallas line up the first half and a Colmubus line up the second half: First Half: Chris Seitz Marvell Wynne - Pat Ianni - Maurice Edu - Mike Randolph Stu Holden - Sacha Kljestan - Dax McCarty - Arturo Alvarez Chad Barrett - Jozy Altidore Second Half: Tally Hall Chance Myers - Pat Ianni - Nate Sturgis - Anthony Wallace Eddie Gaven - Sacha Kljestan - Kamani Hill - Robbie Rogers Charlie Davies - Adam Cristman