Is this your way of avoiding the truth? Well, I guess the facts don't appeal to everyone. Good cop out.
100% agreed. Thanks for injecting this into the discussion, dk. Keller has lost a step and his abilities have diminished in the past two years, but shouldn't it be enough to just point that out? Is there really any reason to drop such negativity on him? Just say he was bad, state your reasons for why you think so, and move on. As for the rest of the defense, I liked Moor, too, although he did look a little jumpy from time to time. As others have said, his crosses were excellent, and he ran the wing pretty well. He may lose the jitters with a couple more games in the Shirt, so I'll give him a pass for a couple blunders in the back in this game. The central defenders didn't have all the speed in the world, but I thought they played pretty well in general. I didn't see the first goal, so I can't comment on it. Bornstein. He can be frustrating to watch - brilliant one minute, with a boneheaded mistake the next. He does *very* well in shutting players down one-on-one and makes good runs up the wings (though his distribution could certainly be more consistent). But he needs to learn when to simply contain the play, especially when the opposing tem is countering. he often makes poorly-timed challenges well away from the goal, which can leave the rest of the defense exposed if the challenge isn't successful. He did this once or twice during this game (and once for the Mexico goal in the GC final). As for the backpass, I don't need to say anything more. Overall, I think we're pretty eep in the back, but our speed in the middle could become an issue. Hopefully it's a weakness we can eventually mask with solid play elsewhere.
Forgot about youtube. Go to 2:08 on this clip: Watch with Jay Thats right when Bornstine Fs up the back pass. Who's right next to the goal scorer? Demerit What does the goal scorer do at 2:08? Runs fast and scores What does Demerit do at 2:08? Jogs slow and watches It was Demerit.
The truth? You're a complete assknob. Here's the video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=e5C8TXlODmY&mode=related&search= Watch at 1:29 or so. Keller pushes off with his right foot, then steps with his left, then steps with his right, then pushes to dive with his left. One step, my azz. Maybe if he had actually used some technique and drove his right leg powerfully across after the first left step, he would have gotten there...
Agreed. For all the good things he does he has the knack for a bad mistake which at the international level will get punished.
I agree both that Kasey Keller's time is over and that, nevertheless, he should be celebrated and respected for his massive contributions to the USMNT. What I find strange, and unless someone can dissuade me otherwise, stupid beyond belief is that in a tournament where we are trying to get the younger players some overseas experience under difficult battle conditions, why are we playing Kasey Keller and not a younger MLS keeper?
Yeah, you should always cross your feet when you are moving across the face of goal. And I am an assknob? It would help matters greatly if you had any idea of how to play the position. You never cross your feet when move across goal. Everybody who has ever given instruction on this topic is laughing at you right now. Way to perpetuate falsities. It's like this, if you are diving to your left, you are going to push off with your left foot. If you are diving to your right, you are going to push off with right. But you never cross your feet because is impedes on your diving footwork. Man, go back to coaching AYSO.
All I gotta say is that I was yelling "KELLER" on those through balls 3 seconds before he did anything. He is WAY too slow coming off his line.
Any one who is next to bornstien will look bad , the back pass he made messed up Conrads good game. look at how bad he made boca look at times in the gold gup. Like i said some time before the kid is nothing special all he has is alot of energy to burn. He reminds me alot of Heydude just witha bit more skill, i hope to see pearce in the last game.
I'll need a 3rd party review of this. I have it on tape, which has a higher resolution than YouTube, and it's Conrad's marker. Further proof of this is the fact that Conrad plays the center-left and Demerit the center-right (as can be seen from every replay from CA when the two have been paired). Thus, when the ball comes from the left, it's Conrad behind Bornstein. Demerit (#3) ends up being the one picking the ball out of the net. As to Bornstein, the guy is a poor striker of the ball, as I had noted before. If you play a lot of back-passes, as the US does, something like this will happen sooner or later.
I think the save he made in the Argie game where he dove to tip a blast from (I-forgot-whom) against the bar was brilliant.
Only 2 goals scored in this tournament so far, and one of them was a PK. Someone told me once that you cant win if you dont score.
clearly kellers best is long gone, but the logic for keller at copa can be understood... lots of newbies, a veteran presence in goal should help... throw guzan to the wolves and who knows, perhaps he plays better, perhaps not... still, demerit and conrad lack sufficient footspeed against quickness....gooch is NOT slower than they are, and bocanegra too.... so, the key is not getting exposed played into space, where they can't defend properly... wynne got a match, and i hope he sees colombia, as their footspeed is outstanding.... bornstein learning on the job is ok with me, as long as progress happens... cherundolo will be the usa right back in 2010 barring injury... keeper is howard.... august 22 in sweden will tell us who bradley sees as his best keeper and defense
Actually, he had made several decent stops. His best one was on Roque Santa Cruz's low drive. He also smothered Barretto's shot off a turnover in the own penalty box, a piledriver from Cabanas and another rebound from the same. His problem is agility but his positioning and hands are still good and, when he takes a proper angle, he can make the save.
You are completely wrong. Califf has his right arm on the forwards back and Danny's restricting the forward from reversing direction. The forward grabs on to Califf's arm to remove it and then Califf pulls him down. Clear foul and stupid play by Califf because he had slowed the forward down and the US had numbers back. You need a Tivo.
Sorry, that was probably uncalled for. The fact is is that too many posters don't get there facts right when trying to analyze a play. We all have our opinions but posters comments need to be rooted in reality and that's impossible if they aren't correctly identifying what took place.
These are amazing sentences. Consider that 1 year ago we had Eddie Lewis playing out of position and starting at fullback in the World Cup.
I don't want to "bash" Keller, he's been such a stalwart for years and I agree that it made sense to have him do his swam song tournament with a young team and while he was looking for work. Unfortunately, he's lost his quickness. Does anyone else think he looks a little heavy? Moor did well for his first cap and Bornstein obviously still needs seasoning. Conrad and Demerit are too slow to run with speedy forwards.
Keller's reflexes have undoubtedly dropped some...as evidenced on the final goal....but you'd be surprised how little difference that makes in being a quality keeper. His real problem is his decision making (which is ENORMOUSLY important to being a quality keeper) isn't just bad...it's beyond atrocious. On the first goal...he makes the right play by coming out to challenge the ball, then inexplicably stops 5 yds from the ball to set himself. Sorry, but you don't do that. As someone said earlier...you either come off your line and commit yourself or stay on your line. Halfway is no-mans land. If he keeps coming on that ball as hard as he can he still gets beat to it by the shooter. But guess what...the shooter now has ZERO angle to shoot at because the keeper has smothered the play. You are never going to make a save by stoping 5 yds away from the ball to set yourself unless they hit it right at you. And guess what....if they hit it right at you you still would have saved the shot if you came out all the way. On the second goal he does the same thing!!!! He comes out way way late off his line (by the way...why is he stuck on his line at the start of that play anyway????), then after realizing he will get beat to the ball once again just stops and freezes....allowing the shooter all day to set up his shot. Unbelievalble. Keller, you've been great and made some unbelievable saves for the Nats. Thank you thank you thank you. But it's time to hang em up...you're really starting to embarrass yourself and tarnish your legacy.
Keller does not deserve the treatment he's getting here. No keeper could make up for the lack of quality on this team. You think Howard would have fared better with this exact same line-up? Timmy had quality defenders AND midfielders at the Gold Cup. These particular players are fine for MLS, just not good enough at this level.
Cool. Watch Demerit. Right before Bornstine passes he has the Paraguayan closely marked, as Bornstine hits the ball the Paraguayan blows past him like he's standing still. Conrad had his back to that. While the ball did come from the left, the goal scorer came from the middle, running away from Demerit. Was it the Mexico/Brazil game where they talked about the thick grass in Venezuela and how the ball would stick. That certainly was the case here, Bornstein's ball just died.
Your account is correct but they are not man marking in that situation and Demerit was way off the play. Conrad was in position to make the play and there was no reason for Demerit to think that Conrad wouldn't go to that ball when it was right in his zone. Demerit should have yelled man-on but who knows if he did or didn't, that's the only bit that he could be faulted on.
Your reading comprehension is as good (or crappy) as your analysis. Where in my post did I say that Keller should have crossed his feet?? I said that to dive to the left, you need to drive your right leg across to have any power going that way. Kasey didn't because he was too busy stutterstepping to try to gain ground to get to that side. The end result was a late, weak dive and he still got his hand to it. You're telling me Howard or some other younger, quicker keeper who might actually have used some technique wouldn't have made it another six inches and palmed that away?? I played keeper for 13 years. I feel pretty comfortable in my knowledge of technique for the position. Taking four baby steps and then taking a panicked flop at the ball is not the way I was taught, but I guess you know better.