Earnie, Man of the Match I think Earnie Stewart showed today in the US victory over Venezuela that we still need him on the National Team roster. The first half of the match was pretty slow and our boys looked uncoordinated in the attack. Then, Earnie came on the field for the second half and made an immediate impact to the American midfield play and attack. They looked more in sync with Stewart holding it down in the midfield and sparking the attack. Also, I love seeing him taking the corner kicks because he drives them in and places them where our attackers can get to them. It didn't appear to me that Convey is the right man to be taking the corners (like he did in the first half). I believe Earnie's leadership and experience is something that will be needed for this young team's World Cup qualification matches that are coming up (soon enough!). I just hope Earnie will still have it in him for the national side in the next couple of years.
both earnie and bob showed well for the side tonite. convey placed a nice ball to mchead to set up the first goal, odd as it was, and he also played some nice balls from spots kicks. the game obviously picked up when earnie came in. he has such an impact on the squad when he plays. i hope to see such play from both throughout the year. surely earnie has to be in our gold cup and confed plans. he is gonna eat up mls...
I actually didn't think Convey played well. His corners were straight to the keeper, and he didn't get forward enough. Stewart looked great, at least. It was also Stewart who set up the first goal, not Convey.
guess we are gonna have to disagree on that one. he was the best player on the field the first 1/2 hour or so i thought. he put a nice ball right on (i think bocanegra, but it was hard to see, man those camera angles sucked) a guys head that ought to have scored. he played a couple of nice combos with beasley and i thought played rather decently. i will say he did vanish a bit in the second and didn't have the impact that stewart did on the match. virtually all the reports suggest convey had the restart to set up the first goal, which i thought, but you know, i was at the exchange and have been drinking... http://www.ussoccer.com/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=29695 http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=usaven&prov=st&type=lgns http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-dc&prov=reuters&type=lgns
If it had just been that Trecker article, I would have remained convinced that it was Stewart. Now, I think I was just confused. Which is odd, because they don't exactly look alike...
Yes, it was Stewart who set up the first "goal".. As for Convey, both Stone and Keough were letting young Bobbito have it after a second consecutive corner landed right in the keepers mitts.. But, what they conveniently forgot to mention was the free kick early in the match that set up Pope's header on net (albeit a weak shot) and the two ensuing corners that the Ven keeper had to punch away in heavy traffic.. I'm not saying Bobby was all world out there, but to shed light on those two crosses didn't do Bobby any service for a solid effort at left back today..
Admittedly Venezuela isn't a great team, but Convey's defending was very solid. Offensively he struggled mightily, as his passing and crossing just were not there today. His runs and dribbling were good, but far too many of his passes were unforced errors turning the ball over. His crosses were mediocre and disappointing IMHO. Even when he hit Pope's head, Eddie had to come back to get the ball, which led to a very weak header. Most of Bobby's crosses were simply too close to the keeper. IMHO, the best player on the field in the first half was DaMarcus. When Convey ventured forward he actually combined very well with DaMarcus, but Convey struggled royally with the medium to long passes. Not a good day for him passing/crossing the ball, but he played defense as well as anybody, and I'd say better than Cherundolo and Hejduk, which surprised me. I loved to see the Bocanegra and Pope pairing in central defense. That's what I had been calling for during WC'02 Qualifying, so I was very pleased to see it today. That's our "A" team central defense. Eddie looked awesome. Stewart was subline. What is there not to love about Earnie Stewart? -Digital
Another thing our fearless announcers were forgetting is that Bobby has had two corners lead for goals already this year for the US and two or more for the U20 team. Yes they were weak yesterday but lets not act like he has not been doing the job up to then. Overall he played OK, not great. Earnie looked in great form.
Corners that hang I remember thinking during the game, that Convey's corners kind of hung around to long in the air. That allowed the Venezuela keeper to get under them. It was if he wasn't really "aiming" for anyone in particular. One of his corners even ventured out or bounds. On the field, I thought Convey played great at L back. He seems to be picking it up. Now he just needs to combine his defense from this game with his attacking in the Argie game. If he can do that, he'll be where he needs to be. I think that Convey and Beasley worked pretty well together, especially when putting pressure on Venezuela's players. It was their work that got the ball to Donovan for the second goal (a beautiful goal I think). as for Earnie... happy birthday I'm just thrilled he's United.
I think most all of the corners and cross were bad, not just from Bobby, but from everybody. I think it had something to do with the newly laid sod.
OK, here are my thoughts: The first part US performance was really SCARY !! Against a team(Ven) playing soccer from the last century,slow, inept posession,predictible and inefficient, our team's performance was truely SCARY. the Ven team almost score ( on Convey side) if it was not for remarcable performance of our keeper. We had no strategy, no meaningfull combinations, no shoots on goal, no nothing, crap performance from midfield and forwards !! Again, I think, Arena's experiments are rubbish, crap strategy !! Second half , a different story, it really showed Earnie's class ( one can tell he was playing for a different league) and Donovan's educated talent. Althought, I was not impress with US colective playing in the second half, I have to acknowledge the forwards' performance. I would like to see more playing time for Buddle. I think McBride performance was crap, he should have been replaced long time before Arena did take him out. Overall, the US game, is very low. I do not think we would be able to beat Costa Rica, Honduras or Columbia, at this time, even if we play them in the US. Those are the most likely teams we are gonna face in the qualifications one year from now. I want to see more US games against meaningfull teams before I can draw a conclusion . PS Yes, Convey played a mediocre game against a low performance team wich means he actually played crap soccer !!! IMHO.
I doubt we'll ever play Colombia in qualifying unless FIFA makes the radical decision to combine TFC and CONMEBOL.
it absolutely was earnie despite what the reports said or my own hungover mind reminds. this has all usmnt goals this year and earnie clearly takes the restart (watch donovan's just for fun) http://www.richardefidler.com/usasoccerclips/
Interesting game but I thought that the "game" player was Landon Donovan... and he doesn't seem to get much covereage even though he seemed to get an assist + a goal in 2nd half. Stewart was chosen the man of the match for some reason.... must have missed it! Demarcus Beasely seemed very good...too bad he never exhibited that kind of good play while he was with D.C. United! Anyway... what I don't understand... why aren't players taught by soccer coaches to gently tap ball into goal (a la Donaovan's goal) instead of killing it and missing the net? Men's Team score would have been 4-0 if players don't try to kill ball and instead gently tap it in the net! IntheNet
Landon's goal was sweet, he's got a great touch but I don't think he had an assist in the game. He came in for Jovan, who scored the first goal. When was DeMarcus ever with DC? Also, when players shoot from far away, gentle taps usually don't cut it.
Plenty of photos: 3/28 practice http://www.ibiblio.org/footy/2003/0328_usmnt_ajm.php 3/29 game http://www.ibiblio.org/footy/2003/0329_usa_ven_ajm.php (photo by Andy Mead/YCJ)
We were having some raging debates at my house about this. I thought everything was ok on the initial kick, but that once the ball came back, whoever moved in front of the fellow taking the header was then offsides. Refs, any thoughts? Andy, exactly home many snaps have you taken? It must be thousands. Keep up the good work.