Post anything negative on this thread and you're an idiot. We just outplayed the 3rd best team in South America with our C team. You can have complaints about the squad and the players that are there and the execution by those players, but not the coaching tonight. But our gameplan was spectacular, we dominated this game.
I give coaches all across america an F for not spending more time on finishing. I can't back that up.
What Coach ------put in lee nygunen who is small enough to be one of their defenders kid for Gods sake he got pushed down and he never got up
Way too long of a wait on the subs. Lee Nguyen didn't show us much, but if you look at the bench, it's hard to say who Bradley could have brought on instead. Minus two million points for starting Keller over Guzan.
Mapp was the best guy we had on the field tonight . So BB starts him on the bench. If we're not going to bring a team that can compete, lets not even go. This is friggin embarrassing. I'm going back to my previous feelings and that is, fire Bradley & son
Mapp was the best player on the field partially because he was a sub... he was running at tired defenders, and he was about 6 inches from being a perfect substitution.
I really can't understand how anybody could think that Bradley is a good coach. This guy is constantly throwing togthere crazy lineups, I don't understand using guys like Moore, Olsen, and Twellman. These are 3 guys that have absolutly no shot at making the world cup team in 2010. I also don't understand the love affair for Johnny Bornstein, the kid is just to damn inconsistent, its one horrible cross after another with him, why bring Pearce here if he isn't going to atleast give him a look. I just don't get bringing guys like Davis, Nguyen, and Pearce here if you aren't to give them real looks. With all that being said why the hell does Bradley wait until there are 14 mins left, down a goal to start bringing in offensive subs???? I mean Califf for DeMerit!?!?! I understand Mapp, I like that he brought in Ngyuen even though there was only 11 minutes left, but I really truely don't get leaving Taylor Twellman in the game. PUT DAVIS IN!!!!!!!!!! This whole idea of needing an American Coach because we need a guy who understands the American players is such total BS, when the hell did we Americans start knowing more about the game then the Euros and South Americans. This game is an absolute product of American Soccers inept way of thinking. We need to start playing these young guys togthere so we can have a good dynamic team come 2010. The Copa tourny would have been a great place to start, oh well I guess. Sorry I'm pissed but this is how I feel...
the only sub that I had a problem is neither Mapp nor Nygen it was Califf for Demerit. I know Jay was hurt and had to come out but why not go to 3 in the back and put Nyguen in then and then come back with Davies for ??? up front and go for it. Yes i know we are exposed at the back but who cares. Playing 4 at the back we are averaging giving up 3.5 goals a game. How bad could it get if we put three. Their strikers were and are clever but not fast so we would not get beat for pace so why not. If we are losing and need a draw, it takes time for players to get into a match so go for it. If we are going for experience, get forward and try to score more. We played well, created chances and I liked the game plan but why not try 3-4-3 or even 2-5-3 in reverse when you are losing.
agree about Davies... seeing him run against bone tired defenders could have been entertaining... but Demerit was sick or injured... that sub wasn't by choice...
I do not think Bradley did anything wrong at all as far as coaching and tactics went. His starting lineup was great. WE came out and attacked, but of course no finishing which has nothing to do with Bradley, just with our players sucking. The Subs were fine, Demerit was inured some how. Mapp came on, because olsen was burning out. Mapp had some good runs. Nguyen came on as a last gasp effort. I don't see how you really fault Bradley for anything today. The players just couldn't convert.
Sorry, but only God and Bob Bradley know why Klejstian started the second half. He was horrible.....literally AWOL from the left side the entire first half.........and missed a sitter. To make matters worse, after Paraguay pulled ahead he left Mapp on the bench for another 10 or 15 minutes. Then he pulled the wrong guy by subbing Olsen instead of Klejstian. Of course, Mapp changed the entire game and he should have been on the second the go-ahead goal was scored. Unacceptable and terrible game management.........I would have yanked Sascha in the 35th minute..........that's how poor he was. Then, I remembered he is one of Bradley's pets. Another Bradley pet, Bornstein put in a shoddy performance too. It looks like we are going to have to witness would we did with Arena.....coach's pet projects. In Arena's case it was Albright.
And what do you want to bet Keller plays against Colombia? I wouldn't handle that action. Sub needed to be made immediately after our second gift to Paraguay. You can't blame Bradley that these slugs can't finish. We should have won this game.
- Presumably Bob started Kljestan because he thought he'd be a bigger defensive presence on the left than Mapp was against Argentina on Thursday. Well, he was wrong. Kljestan was totally caught ball watching and didn't cover Bornstein's man on the first Paraguayan goal. Were it not for Bornstein's tireless defensive work in the first half, Paraguay would've run their attack on the left side far, far more often. - I can understand starting Keller again, but it was the wrong decision as Nutmeg has pointed out. I don't see how Guzan's athleticism couldn't have helped us, and at this point, he'll need to get games at some point so it might as well be now. - Not only was DeMerit clearly gassed by minute 60, but his miscommunication in the back continued again tonight. I still like his composure on the ball and his aerial presence, but his miscommunication with Conrad, Moor, and Bornstein was disconcerting to say the least. - I didn't mind the substitutions so much. I didn't expect DeMerit to run out of gas as soon as he did (and boy was he out of gas...just go back and look at the substitution again), but Califf over Boswell? OK, but Califf's stupid (STUPID) foul led to Paraguay's final goal. Still, given our limited options I can't fault Bradley too much. Olsen for Mapp was pretty much a given, as was the Kljestan sub. I'm happy to see that Nguyen is healthy and it was nice to see him get some minutes even if he didn't do a whole heck of a lot (he showed far better than Gomez did on Thursday though). - U.S. came out of the gate attacking. They did not lose their shape and composure after Paraguay's first goal, and countered it by equalizing. However, the team's tendency to fade late and the continued miscommunication in the back is really, really disheartening. What is Bob telling these guys at the half?
It's not a problem of finishing, it is a problem of execution. Poor finishing is simply a symptom of that more general problem.
Even more than experience for the players, this tournament needs to be valuable in providing experience for the coaches. Bradley does some things well: evaluates players well, communicates well with them, has a system. If he can learn to make the hard decisions about players who don't cut it (Twellman, Keller) and if he learns to make more intelligent substitutions, then the experience at Copa America this year, however painful, will be worthwhile. With all that said, count me as sceptical until I see it happen.
Twellman played the entire match, Twellman is a known nonentity at this level F Keller looked about as old as his castle. (But I didn't rate Bradley on his performance)
Ok now that was a much better performance by the US. Although the score didn't give any justice to our play. it's so clear that we can play with them and this is our "B" team. In this game, we learned a lot who of our young players wanted it more, and can step up to the challenge. Great game.. our young players gain so much from this. Mistakes that they can't do in this level. I know, I should never blame a goalkeeper. but KEller need to retire now!! I never like the guy, ever! Him and now retired Reyna, both had this losing attitude that they carry to the team. This is a mistake Coach Bob failed to recognized. Today, those goal by Paraguay could have been stopped by Guzan. This is supposed to be a tournament to gain experience, so why isn't Guzan gaining valuable experience in a top tournament? He is young and very athletic, he could have done better.