7/11: US vs. Poland International Friendly Post Game Thread [R]

Can just ask where do they get these refs from? If this isn't appropriate here then you can delete it. I just want to know b/c this sport isn't too difficult to ref and yet the ref crew did a horrible job.

 

I'll skip the overall analysis and head straight to - Mathis takes the best free kicks on the national team. They looked dangerous when he crossed them in the box and Poland felt the pressure and panicked on several.

 

screw the lucky Polish goal. If you have a tape of it, keep it because you won't EVER see Carlos Bocanegra AND Tim Howard make those kind of mistakes back to back.

In the end? BEAUTIFUL game from USA. Complete and utter domination from our boys tonight and a pathetic showing from Poland. They didn't want to play and they couldn't hang with our boys so they bunkered for the entire match. didn't see to many negatives out there. Convey made on mistake but that was it. Donovan had a few mistouches. Wolff held the ball up when he should have shot once. But almost all of our guys played well. Great warm-up for the qaulifer. If we play like this then nobody should touch us in the semis

 

Anyone know (seriously) where we can write to about the horrid near side linesman?


As for N&A, the Polish goal was completly against the flow of play. Frankly, the US could've and should've won, and Poland was lucky to come out with a draw.

 

The US woke up in the second half. Mathis is just cool, in-control, and always goes at the opponent instead of passing backwards all the time. Once he came into the game, the middle of the field opened up.

Beasley dangerous and was above average. Donovan was average but was always a part of the game defensively and didn't disappear. McBride has been a disappointment. I have yet to see him put a solid game together in a long time.

Bocanegra made up for that poor defense on the goal with scoring one. Albright actually looked good using his size, but he still needs more experience. Convey just scares me now. His passing was poor. Defense was average at best, and just can not shoot. He is working his way off the starting line-up.

Just the fact that Eddie was involved is a good sign. Want to see more of him in a NATS jersey, and playing.

 

Would someone please tell ESPN2 that Marcelo Balboa is a horrible commentator. I turn the sound off when I watch the game, so I don't have to listen to his inane comments and inarticulate gibberish. "Bang!" That's as colorful as he gets.

Do he and stone ever criticize an American player? Beasley had a pretty bad game, and McBride was virtually invisible. A real snorer.

 

Yeah...but X really really sucked. That's newsworthy.

 

I know he's not ready yet for prime time but I thought Gaven's impact was immediate, if only in subtle ways, keeping plays alive and winning free kicks, And I don't care what Rob and Marcelo say, he was kept on-side by the far side polish defender when he got behind the defense.

On a more serious note, I was wondering what everyone's thoughts were about us playing two holding midfielders in Pablo and Kerry. I thought today might have been a better opportunity for us to play a diamond with Landon at A-mid instead of a box with two defensive midfielders. Opinions on our tactics?

Mike

 

I thought Albright had a much better half than Dolo did at RB.

Kerry Zavagnin again failed to impress.

I wish Gaven would've had more time to play.

McBride did not impress, Ching was much better than he on the day.

Beasley looked dangerous, but he's still taking too many touches in the box, as per usual.

 

Not a bad performance. There was a stretch there in the second half where we were absolutely dead. A LOT of standing around.

Sorry to see such a soft goal come out of a really, really good performance by the defense.

 

well, we did hold possesion for nearly 65% of the game i imagine, but we also gave up some decent chances on the counter. tim & carlos did make a mistake on the goal (maybe convey should've been back to the line as well?) but boca dominated in the air and deservedly got one in the end.

beasley however didn't help himself in negotiations did he? blew two great chances--damn why didn't he shoot first chance he got on that first one!?!?

 

on the in-game thread people were ragging on Zavagnin and while I agree he shouldn't be playing for the national team he didn't play bad today. He broke up quite a few of their counterattacks though his passing was lacking.

 

relize that Poland was playing 10 defensivly. Considering that, USa played VERY well offensivly.

 

On Bocanegra's goal...did anyone else have a Blooter Burns flashback?

I thought we outplayed Poland for the most part, but that soft goal was very disappointing...

..as were, to be honest, most of Landon's corners.

But, a result in front of what appeared to be a pretty vocal crowd.

 

it looked on the replay that the ball popped up underneath his leg as he was about to shoot

 

i didn't see the first half but during parts of the game the U.S. couldn't connect passes very well. Also some of the shooting was way of target. Especially Convey's shooting.


P.S.
Anyone think Bruce should lay of the pizza and donuts.

 

I haven't seen Convey hit a shot on goal in about 3 years for DC or the Nats

 

A mixed bag tonight.

A horrible penalty miss,a bad error by Howard on the goal.As against this good games by Donovan,Boca,Ching ,(impressive I thought).I would have liked to have seen Gaven earlier.

I continue to be unsold on the Convey to left back experiment.

I am concerned about Pope's current form.

 

On a more serious note, I was wondering what everyone's thoughts were about us playing two holding midfielders in Pablo and Kerry. I thought today might have been a better opportunity for us to play a diamond with Landon at A-mid instead of a box with two defensive midfielders. Opinions on our tactics?

Mike[/QUOTE]

to me pablo still hasn't played all that well--matching up with zavagnin didn't help him either. i think zav probably didn't do himself any favors staying in college--what is he like 30 now? he might contribute some along the way, but I'm fairly sure he won't make our final roster in '06

 

I'm content with it.

Could we have won it? Yes. But it was a rather experimental midfield with Zavagnin and Mastroeni in the middle, so you can't expect too many chances and incisive passing from them. Neither one can play like Claudio.

I wish that Ching had started instead of McBride, since this was a friendly and we already know what McHead brings to the table. Timmy definitely should have done better on the Polish goal. A rare case of stonehands.

I hope that people won't go off on Albright. He did just fine in his first game for the US as a right back (at least I think it was, wasn't it?). In fact he played at least as well as Convey, I think, and probably made less mistakes.

Mathis looked good in the short time that we saw him. Excellent vision and probing passes. And some nice delivery on set-pieces. He made a strong case for a starting spot.

Wish I could have seen more of Gaven, though.

 

If Gaven would have gotten 40+ minutes instead of Zev. then we win that game by multiple goals. Gaven made some really nice cuts in the short time he was on the field. Really the Mast/Zav. combo in center midfield completely failed. This was the first time I wished that Armas had been playing.

Albright didn't look too great either. He didn't look bad, but not good enough to warrant a permanent place. Both of those dangerous crosses that happened right before Polands goal were from his man that he didn't mark.

Someone call up OTC, I think he can play left OR right back.

 

When I saw Pab and Ker together, I thought BA was being way too conservative. A extremely poor decision. Neither one can play offense. Maybe Bruce just wanted to see these guys play? Maybe Mathis wasn't fit to play all game. But Mathis should have started then, and gone for the throat in the beginning instead of waiting with 20 minutes left to bring in the most dangerous US weapon.

 

I wouldn't go so far as to say the US played beautifully, but i'll agree that they dominated the game-- the polish players had very few chances, but were lucky to convert one of them. The first half undoubtedly was a lot more exciting than the second, Donovan and Beasley had some exciting runs, and I wish there could've been more of that throughout the entire match but it was not to be I guess. Also, they need to work on improving their crosses and long balls because most of them were atrocious and off the mark.

Wolff's dive was disgusting and should've been carded; albeit the ref had a bad angle, thus the yellow for the gk. I was a little bit annoyed that the ESPN2 commentators didn't even give a damn-- they sorta shrugged it off as if nothing happened.