Eddie Johnson did not have a good game. Any game in wish Eddie Johnson does not run at defenders and instead decides to play the ball backwards 98% is not a good game. Eddie Johnson, you are a Grown Ass Man. So ********ing man up, and start taking on defenders, or go home.
Question: What would it look like if we had even one striker who had a quality first touch and never stopped to "think" while in front of goal?
god this is so true always a let down not to many highs in my 15+ years of watching 2002 was the only one.
By the way, I hope everybody is watching Argentina v. Colombia right now...great attacking soccer at an incredible pace.
gotta agree...he came in lost the ball, and looked slow on that run for the loose ball(which ill call run because i dont even consider that a sprint)...the kid might have talent so im not knocking his play right now, but buddy...you came in as a sub, you SHOULD be a step quicker to the ball then the opposing player
We are too hesitant in the final third. I don't even know if it's a matter of finishing (although indeed, Bornstein and Kljestan at least should have buried their chances), but we can never even make that final pass. We are just too indecisive and you will be absolutely punished for that on the international level. End of story. That said, Twellman was utter bullocks out there. Johnson showed well for himself.
i think ej played a very good game. didnt have a real great chance on goal and was a lot more aggresive. passed well and held the ball well. i really liked the game he played today and hope he continues to improve. twellman i think played the best game he has ever played for us. now i know im going to get flak but he was genuinely brilliant on the ball today and linked up extremely well. that being sad he cant score on this level to save his life and has proven that he never will and we should just move on. hey it was fun and all but he isnt the future and certainly isnt the present so goodbye. mapp came on and balled it up. just has to make a better final decision. has the ability just has to make a better decision and that is really why he came to this tournament. to hopefully learn that.
i'm watching argentina go up 3-1 against colombia. half just ended. argentina players don't miss much. they are deadly. when are we going to get there? not with these group of guys... fielhaber, clark and moor played well i thought.
Originally Posted by cpwilson80 View Post You're out on a date. You have a great dinner. You go to the bar. You have some drinks. You light up the dance floor. You move in closer. You take the girl back to your apartment. You move to the bedroom. And then she proceeds to punch you in the balls for 45 minutes. I just wanted to repost this. Classic.
There is someone out there who is an American, who is young and can finish. Unfortunately he wants to play for Italy.
Seriously though, Johnson's performance was not good against Paraguay. Relative to his other performances it might be ok, but that is still not good. He is not ready for this level of play, it is just so blatantly obvious. He, like this thread indicates, passes back again and again and again. He has done this for over 4 years now, just watch the tapes. Why they give him this playing time is unknown to me. Do we really just have no one with a nose for the goal? The only person I see is Mapp. He turns with the ball and moves toward goal. That is what we need. Johnson seriously needs to move aside and let someone else put in the time. It seems like you can almost see the same sentiment on the players faces sometimes after he screws up a play.
The first thing I thought of at the end of the game... "McBride would have killed it today." Twellman was not so great. I love EJ, the guy isn't Samuel Eto'o and he can't do everything, he needs some help out there. He was one of the best players on the field. Defnitely the best American.
I wouldn't exactly phrase it the way you did, but the sentiment is shared. I'd say, "EJ, grow some balls and show us you can work, take a foul and give one in return--while showing more than a teensy weensy amount of effort, for a change."
I look at Johnson as a long term project. He looked ready to become a G-14 quality player not that long ago, but his career has been seriously derailed. His potential to be excellent is still there, and the other options are pretty poor. So from Eddie, I'm looking for him to just keep taking baby steps. Even 2 baby steps forward, one back is enough. He was more aggressive tonight. More dangerous. I remain hopeful. I don't have much choice.
Yeah, Brian "Goalscorer Extraordinaire" McBride would have scored . . . You do realize that McBride is not a shot-striker, he has no pace, and he's not exactly proficient with the ball at his feet, and the only thing McBride was good at was winning balls in the air? Nevertheless, do not let me interupt the Cannonization of Saint McBride. Carry on . . . .
McBride would be a good coach, he needs to work One-on-One with EJ, and remind him "No Guts No Glory"
EJ and TT are like the girl in The Crying Game, look great, but the result at the end is not exactly what you are looking for.... Need to take more chances themselves and stop concentrating on setting up MFers and Backs who can't score in the proverbial brothel.....
The US attack is either: Benny Feilhaber launching a through/long pass. or It has to wait for some sort of a defensive blunder. Paraguay went 3-in-the-back tonight and kept forgetting to cover the US players in the penalty box. And the only player who scored was a defensive mid. The only positive point about the "attack" from tonight's game was that it showed how improved the US offense is when a deep mid like Rico Clark can pinch in and provide the outside shot. In the past, that deep mid pairing was usually Reyna and a destroyer like Armas or Mastroeni. Having two way mids there who can push the ball up and shoot on goal is a huge improvement from Arena's era. I just hope Bob is smart enough to realize that.
Well we had to learn one way or another that when playing against quality teams bad finishes will dismantle. We played as well we could but we had not one good finisher other than Clark. good second half though.
Lack of Donovan and Beasley has something to do with that. Aside from the shooting, I thought the attack was overall good tonight; lots of scoring opportunities against a team that's traditionally pretty stingy defensively. Johnson had a strong game - could have finished better, but none of the chances were really sitters (the late header was probably the best chance). I suspect that most neutral observers would pick Johnson as the US' most impressive player so far. Twellman can do good things if he happens to be in the right place at the right time, but doesn't contribute much otherwise. Nice setup for Clark on the goal, though. I'd like to see what Charlie Davies can do against Colombia.