dude both those first goals a young fast keeper get s without a problem. Either you come out and challenge or you stay on your line. Both times he put himself in the worse possible position. No mans land. Both times by a veteran keepr. He was very poor today and although those gaffes weren't his fault he should have helped his players out. The second goal if he reacts and runs when he sees the ball kicked its an easy clearance..nothing. First goal the guy did not shoot the ball hard in fact he was falling down and barely touched the ball. If Keller stays on his line there's noway he scores. IN fact he set him up to score and gave him an impossible angle to miss. Really he sucked tonight!
The man he was right next too when Bornstien f'ed up his back pass to Keller was the guy who scored. Demerit just watched.
Keller is garbage. He is not a calming influence. He is Evander Holyfield. Did Hannemann beg out of this Tourney? Thank you for setting an early bar for US keeps... now, please put this dog to sleep. I am not as enamored of Demerit as most around here. I think on the whole (in the Copa and the Gold Cup) he has been shite. Is he really better than a Boswell or a Califf? Maybe a better athlete... better pace... but isn't it time we try to develop a different type of CB? Someone like Parkhurst or, dare I say it, Ugo Ihemelu to supplement our big bodied duo of Boca and Gooch? Having to sub him out at the 70th minute because he was gassed / ill was a waste and is not that impressing. Conrad had possibly his worst game for the Nats. That being said, he's still a top 3 CB choice, and will be servicable for any WCQ game. At 30, 31 years old though, he's on the downside of his career. Bornstein basically lost the game for the US today. He's still kind of great. I'm not sure why he's getting every start (behind the scenes 75% work permit issues?), but I have no problem with it other than the fact that I'm kind of intrigued with Pearce... a bigger body, supposed ridiculous pace, kind of a dick. Moor was better than Albright, but less intriguing than Simek or Wynne.
On the first goal Keller stopped because he had to set himself for the coming shot. Maybe he should have gotten off his line earlier, but coming out further doesn't seem like a good option at that point. Um, if Keller had still been on his line then Barreto would obviously have taken a different shot. He was sliding, not "falling down."
He has too start against Columbia. Doesn't he? Please say yes Bob. Keller as just about everyone here has stated is past it. Makes no sense to send him out there anymore. Moor was very impressive. His technical skill was light years ahead of Marvell Wynne. I don't remember a single bad control and he had to deal with some difficult balls and his crosses were excellent. As for his finishing the less said the better. Bornstein just leaves me extremely nervous. For me he is the opposite of Bocanegra in that when he is under duress he always tries to play himself out of trouble, while Carlos attempts to give people in row ZZ a souvenir when lightly pressured. He must have had a similar coach as I did at some point. "When in doubt, put it out". Conrad does nothing for me and combined with the fact he is 30 I just don't have time for his mistakes. He already is a bit slow for speed and I don't want to be at a place in 2010 where he is a Marcelo Balbao type roster addition. Boca, Onyewu, Demerritt and Parkhurst would be my four in order.
I've read a fair amount of poor analysis on the first goal. I think many people need to review the play, start at 28:40 and try not to be swayed by their bias. Feilhaber is the favorite son around here but he was the main culprit on the goal. Feilhaber and Clark made a lackadaisical attempt to cover back after the turnover on the goalkick. Clark jogs back never making an effort to pick anyone up, just watching the whole thing playout in front of him. Feilhaber does far worse. Benny marks the eventual goal scorer for about 15 to 20 yards from the midline and then just starts ballwatching behind the play letting his mark go free. Olsen covered back by picking up the link player in the give and go, unfortunately he didn't break up the play. Sasha covers back but is trying to mark the wide player instead of helping in the middle. Demerit gets burned on the give and go while Conrad is following the runner going to Keller's right. Bornstein is left in a no win, 2 v 1 situation, trying to cover the man with the ball and the runner moving into the box. No way in hell was that goal Bornstein's fault. It's clear as day that Feilhaber let's his mark, the goal scorer, run free and put Bornstein in a 2 v 1 situation. Benny F blew it and deserves the blame for the goal. Clearly Bornstein deserves the blame on the second goal because he was better off shielding the ball out of play for a throw-in than playing it in that position. I'm not sure if that was an over hit bad ball to Conrad or an under hit backpass to Keller. Conrad or Keller could've helped out but they both looked lost on that one. Bornstein should have never played that ball. Third goal was a dumb foul by Califf.
It's not a love fest. No one knew the guy coming in, so there were no expectations. He made a nice feed in to get the first goal. He sent in a another couple of very accurate assists that almost resulted in goals. He got turned a couple of times but tracked back fine. He was solid and he actually was holding back a bit offensively. Lot's of upside. I agree that he doesn't look like anything other than a good workmanlike defenseman. But I've seen him for a couple of years and even if he doesn't start big games, he will be nice to have applying some pressure to the starters. Frankly, I am not really pumped about anybody who was out there.
A dumb foul? Califf is 1 v. 1 from 30 yards out, stays with the forward (but he's too slow), limits the shooter's options through positioning (but he doesn't have enough foot speed), doesn't allow a shot, and when help finally arrives, he looked to close down the forward by stepping up. Both players lost their footing with the forward's cutback and they grabbed hold of one another and went down together (outside the box). A few others agree with me. If he's such a bad defender, why didn't the forward put him in the popcorn machine with his first move? If he's really an OTC, the Paraguayan should have been able to walk in on Keller untouched. Perhaps the forward was too tired to show-off for the crowd? Perhaps the forward knew he'd get a free kick out of the confrontation and was really focused on scoring via a wall-bender just inside the post. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Yes it was a dumb foul, he had his right arm all over the forward and was pushing him down before the forward grabbed Danny's arm. The US had 3 players back behind the ball and both of Paraguay's players were covered, plus Clark was coming into the play to help out. There was no need for Califf to pull the forward down there. It was a dumb foul. I'm not surprised a few others agree with you there's a fair amount of poor analysis around here.
did it appear that kk cannot kick that far any more? wheelchair city... moor deserves 1 more look, can cross. has to learn to convert. jb has had plenty of time in both cups. now try pearce. conrad and demerit acceptable, especially considering heat. califf should not have fouled like that.
Hi Mr. Passive-Aggressive. Nice to meet you. The foul was probably avoidable but Cabanos made every effort to draw that foul and the ref bought it. Both players were jostling with each other for position.
Didn't he get a hand to it ? I may be wrong but I think Howard saves at least 2 of the 3 goals Paraguay scored. While a tremendous play by Paraguay, Keller was slow off his line on the first goal as well and didn't "make himself big", but rather went down quickly to try to smother the dribble. Trouble was, the Paraguay attacker wasn't going to dribble Keller, he was reaching out to beat the keeper to the ball. As for the errant backpass, the turf must have been really slow as the US players were playing poorly weighted balls all day. I can understand that in the first few minutes of a game, but come on, you guys are professionals and (hopefully) internationals. How long should it take Bornstein and Feilhaber to get used slow turf ?
Wrong. Re-watch it. It is not even clear there is bodily contact. What is clear is that both guys are grabbing at each other while essentially stationary. Then, they fall, one guy off balance pulling the other. My take is that the Paraguay guy pulled down Califf. Regardless, fault was by no means clear and the whole thing was so benign (neither guy was even playing the ball or moving) that nothing should have been called. IMHO.
Yeah, that "slow turf" was a major problem. Amazing how it was there under so many US passes. Passes were MLS speed and even then some of them were underhit. This should have been solved in warmups.
Keller - arent you glad you didnt hang them up after your 100th cap? Now, you have lost the chance to play in europe as your skills have certainly deteriorated and it has been on display too much. Your distribution is still completely awful. Maybe you will get lucky and MLS will throw you a bone. Plus you have effectively made it painfully obivous we cant even count on you in early qualifiers.
See that's the thing with Keller, on a 1v1 or a situation where we need him to step up, most of us have lost confidence in him making a game winning save. Was it his fault? No, but he hasn't pull anything really special out of his hat in a very very long time. Any keeper would be solid if his defenders didn't make any mistakes. It just seems his judgement and timing is off, good time to start bleeding some new blood. Califf's foul was dumb because he should know that Latina American teams fall down with any hint of contact. Still, I don't think that free kick was unstoppable. I think Clarks second shot on goal was just was good or equal. Moor, sure the guy's new, but had a heck of a game. Should he had finish the cross, hell yes, but how bad are our fowards when we are pissed off that a defender can't score. The guy made great runs, had a good showing for his first time. I would like to see him and Donovan play that side. Demerit - solid in a good way. Bornstein - I like the guy, but the more I see him play the more I think he's a Frankie v1.2. Did you see that field goal attempt he took when he tried to cross it? He did shut down Messi, but I still like to see some more competition in that spot. Remember how everyone was talking about how Mbradley was doing a great job, but most here probably realize that Rico is better right now. Conrad- good defender but what the hell was that pass. Everyone is entitled to a bone head play, but I've never been completely sold on him either. I wish Gibbs would hurry back. Gibbs and Demerit would make a pretty good center line.
hey as long as he plays solid defense, i dont care how much offense a defender gives me. id rather see him pass it off than cross it.
I thought Drew Moor had a great game. His service into Twellman on Rico's goal was superb. He also had another great serve that Eddie Johnson missed. Although I don't think he's ready to pass Cherundolo (sp?) and Simek (my 1st string), I'd definitely like to see him called in some more. BB, Please give someone else a chance at LB (Pearce?). Why have we annointed Bornstein our LB of the future? I really hope this is just to get him a work permit overseas.
Man - I just don't know see why as a fan you would want to abuse a player who has given us so much over the years - especially over a glorified friendly and where he was hung out to dry by his defense. Keller looks like his skills have dropped off with age, but he deserves a lot more appreciation from us fans, IMO.
I felt Drew Moor had an excellent first cap with the US. He didn't panic in his own end, made good clearances, and passed well. My one issue? HE HEADED THAT BALL RIGHT TO THE KEEPER. But that will change - I hope - in the future. Bornstein was also good in his own end, his passing could be a bit better; but I got no issue with him at LB. Demerit was OK; but the goat of the back line was Conrad. He was caught ball-watching on goal #1 and he made a careless giveaway that led to goal #2. In both instances, he hung Keller out to dry. It doesn't matter if Peter Schmeichel is in net, leaving the GK all alone is not going to end well for the defending team regardless of who the keeper is. Conrad did not have a good game because of those two vital mistakes and I'd rate him 4th on the CB depth chart. Keller made the saves on shots he had a chance on. I'm not going to throw Keller away because he was hung out to dry by Conrad twice and that perfectly placed free kick beat him.
No it was Demerit. Conrad was all by himself on the left when Bornstine f'ed up the back pass to Keller. Demerit was in the middle marking the goal scorer. Demeritt just stopped and watched. We all know that Conrad looked bad because he ends up closest to Bornstines f'ed up back pass. Go back and watch Demerit and watch the goal scorer run away from him and leave him spectating. The fault of that goal was Bornstine's (horrible back pass), Demerit's (watching his mark socre a goal), Keller's (the ball was passed to you, go get it) then Conrads (for not realizing what a f'ed up backpass Bornstine made)