You must understand that there are a group of USMNT supporters.........who legitimately thought we were going to win this game 4-0. And those are people who haven't paying attention to El Salvador over the last 2 years. This isn't your father's (or even older brother's) El Salvador. This game was never, ever, ever going to be easy. El Salvador lost in Honduras 1-0, and twice this cycle at the Saprissa stadium 1-0. Plus they haven't lost at home to anybody. El Salvador still have home games against CR and Honduras. And I expect them to take points from both games, just like they did against the US and Mexico.
it is true. Forget that we should have won easily. This ES team is the best ever for them. They have some good players!
I just watched the game this morning. (I had the result spoiled for me during the half time show of the Alabama -VT game last night. [roll tide]) Defensively we were all over the place. I think Spector looks great going forward but looked pretty poor in defense. Bornstein just looked poor in general. There were a couple times when Bocanegra and Marshall had pulled up on the offside trap, only to have Bornstein and Spector stay behind them. I think this is a familiarity problem. Clearing the ball is a problem! If you're not going to contribute anything offensively from the back third put your foot through the MFing ball and put it out of play. Although, Chad Marshall did have a couple useful balls from defense. We looked great in the attacking third. Michael Bradley is legitimately dangerous coming up from the deep midfield. When have we ever had that threat? Davies and Altidore and Dempsey and Donovan combine very well together. Landon had a great game. He was all over the field, he never gave the ball away and his passing was very useful. Feilhaber did a good job acting as an outlet both for the defense and for the attacking players. He moves the ball from side to side very well. Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley both dawdle with the ball at their feet too long in the midfield. Get the ball off your feet boys! Somebody called Clint Dempsey's goal a lucky poachers goal. That's ridiculous. Dempsey was smart enough to beat El Salvador's (rather weak) attempt at an offside trap, and then put a diving header in from about 12 yards out. Altidore is HUGE. He looks even bigger when Gooch is not on the field. As I said earlier, Spector is a huge weapon going forward. I'm not sure that he's a better crosser than Cherundolo, they are both very good at it. Beckerman crapped his pants. He contributed nothing except poor touches ceding possession to El Salvador and a little bit of running. Having him on the team instead of Clark was hopefully just a pat on the back for a good Gold Cup and an Off you go back to RSL, never to return again. Stuart Holden looked very dangerous. He gives us a true option wide right. His crosses late in the game were very dangerous. However, I feel that with as much trouble as we always have killing games off in the final minutes Holden may have been better served running into the corner. Yes he almost created a goal. That's great. But in the 88th minute you need to hold onto the ball. Both times he put the ball into the penalty area we had the ball coming right back down our defenders throats seconds later. Torres looked fine. Too bad the Keeper makes that save. Referee was OK for me except for the truly bizarre calls that have been discussed. I hate to get into conspiracy theories... but aren't we tied on points with Honduras now? How does our goal differential look at 2-1 as opposed to 3-1. There were positives and negatives in this game. I don't think our attack has ever looked more dangerous. We finally have killers in the final third. Our midfield is sloppy at times and gives away possession too much. Our defense was hodge-podge and it showed. As usual, the Bob Haters pull their heads out of the sand for five seconds to waste server bandwidth with their screaming. edit to say: I actually enjoyed watching this game more knowing the final score because I wasn't swallowing my heart and chewing off my fingernails with every kick of the ball. =P
What I learned in this match 1. We're an injury/suspension or two away from being a much weaker team,. Not having Onyewu, and also Demerit, was a real blow. The replacements are much weaker. This further highlights the importance of Onyewu to the team, and thus the importance that he gets PT with Milan. Think where we'd be if say Donavon got injured, or both Altidore and Davies? We're still a very thin team. Lots of people point out the faults of players like Bradley or Bocanegra, with some validity, but the fact is that our options, mostly from the MLS, are simply not that great. 2. Altidore and Davies are our best strike partnership. I think that's obvious. Altidore needs to polish his skills somewhat and Davies needs to improve some decision-making, but these are by far our best forwards and today they combined well. Brian Ching may still have some use but he's likely a role player now. 3. All-star MLS players can still suck against even Concacaf opposition, let alone what we'd face in South Africa. We already knew this, but it's sort of a reminder. Our B/C team of MLSers managed to get to the final of the Gold Cup, but the 5-0 defeat to Mexico was already a reminder of the gap in class. This matched served as futher confirmation. There is the unique exception of Landon Donavon and other standouts like Stuart Holden. But Bornstein, Beckerman, and Marshall were exposed as 2nd rate players against a team far weaker than teams we will face next year (If we get there). Standout MLS players do have a place on the MNT if they can prove themselves, but we are still going to have to rely mostly on Yanks who have proven themselves in higher level leagues.
A true example of "WINNING UGLY". Jonathan Bornstein was definately the festering wart on the ugly face of this shallow victory. And anyone who takes away anything but a sour taste from this win over a "minnow" like El Salvador is just dilusional. A few bright spots; Landon Donovan played well, Clint Dempsey, despite two misses that he would normally bury, got us back into the match. And Jozy, well, what can I say about the kid except that he played great. Charlie Davies continues to impress. When our first team in on the field (Onyewu, Cherundolo, Clark, etc.) we can play with anyone. We showed that in the Confederations Cup this summer. The skill and composure drops off considerably when our best players are not on the field. We need three points from the T&T match, and with our best team on the field, I believe we have a chance to go to the top of the table, one point ahead of Mexico, and take a huge step toward qualifying for WC2010.
Well, considering El Salvador lost 1-0 at Honduras, 1-0 at Costa Rica I'm not sure why anyone expected we would beat them 4-0. And take away a HORRIBLE call by the ref and we beat the "minnow" 3-1.
But...the question is -- why were we disorganized? And then, what to do about that problem so that it doesn't happen in South Africa. Really, one good thing about playing actual games is that you can see where the team can be improved. ps -- re Torres -- he gets to play 8 minutes at forward in a game where the US couldn't hold possession at all.
You mean 2-1. Anyhow, El Salvador is a much better team than most people here give them credit for. I just hope that El Salvador continues to play hard (since they're virtually eliminated) against Costa Rica on Wednesday.
Steve Davis at EShttp://m.espn.go.com/soccer/story?storyId=673839&lang=ENPN is reporting that "Honduran ref Pineda did not explain to Jozy Altidore or the US coaching staff why the goal was disallowed." So it's not only a phantom call, but we aren't even going to tell you what the phantom call is.
I haven't read that anwhere, other than comments here. We were sitting on that side of the field and didn't see a foul or a call. I don't know why the ref would allow play to continue if the foul was on Dempsey. I looked at the ref at that point because the ES defender slid in to Dempsey studs up. Dempsey jumped over him and made the pass. No whistle at that point and if you're playing advantage it's US advantage.
I'm just reporting what I've read on here as well, plus, after the match Jozy was asking the refs you can clearly hear one say "foul" and when Jozy asks for clarification the refs walk away and Jozy, sarcastically, says "thanks." As for the advantage call, the ref was pretty incompetent. Remember when Donovan was starting a counter after a foul on ES and the US had numbers and the ref, instead of allowing the US to play the advantage, called them back for a FK? He was just incompetent overall.
That is clearly untrue and obvious to anyone who watched the games. Spain sent it's A team and Brazil nearly so. You are just reaching to find something negative to say. The fact remains, one of the most significant victories in Nats history was the win over Spain and it happened without Nowak, thereby rending your point invalid. I'm sorry? You point is...? I was responding directly to a comment about Petr Nowak's role with the team, one disproved by those results. Your comment is a nonsequitor.
I concede your point. If you think the CC match successes show that we hold the ball and pass well, against the evidence of how poorly we have done so in WCQ, then you are right. But I think that misweighs the evidence and fails to take into account a very important point. Freed from pressure, Bradley's teams did well in the CC (well, in 2.5 games anyway). In WCQ's, the teams have not. Bradley's teams fail when it matters.
Dempsey played the pass with his left foot, and then swung his right leg through and tripped the SLV player as he went over. Not a foul in my opinion, but that is what the referee called. All of this was reviewed in detail with replays during minute 61 of the ESPN Classic broadcast.
Its games like this that make me happy I'm finally 21. Without this I'd be one upset SOB but I'm happy that we won. As others have mentioned before me this is a results orientated business and that win propelled us foward to a big away match on Wednesday. But with a win does come the proverbial good;bad;ugly of what our boys did. But we do have to sort it out and find out why our team played the way we did. First off our backline was more all-over the place then a travel agent looking for new clients. First Spector is a great crosser of the ball but being a backliner means you play d first. He looked uninterested and out of his relm playing last night. While he was lucky no one put a serious effort on his side; he was almost as waste of a spot as Bornstein. Where was Dolo and why was JB in there. I apologize that I find Bornstein starting puzzling but I also would apologize to US fans that I find his skill pathetic. Its scary to say that if Pearce was healthy JB would be an afterthought but I find Bornstein's luck amazing. The man was a good college striker that was drafted by MLS and converted to a defender. His career savior Bob Bradley has put more in Jonathan and his developement rather than his own son. Bornstein only has speed which can save you from a mistake but doesn't prevent them. Positioning and intelligence are the main factors to a good defender and facets that JB lacks. Marshall and Bocanegra are solid individually but together as a backline I would say lack the skill to work together. They are like two lawyers; great ones but when they form a partnership lack the skill to suceed. Both need to communicate and realize that they need each other to be good defenders; skill is good but skill in numbers is better. Granted; that this was a shorehorn job I'd still prefer Boca and Califf. (I Know Danny!) Donovan and Dempsey played well but rather as a team both controlled the wings differently however; LD was MOTM. Strikers played great. Howard did what was needed. And the center midfield is something that hurts my head. So inconsistent.
I think you have the right word for the central midfield -- inconsistant. And not just from game to game, but within games. But is it any wonder when one starting CM just turned 22 and the other is a 24 year old with less than 40 appearances in a professional club match spread over 3 years, most of those as a sub? Inconsistancy is exactly what you will get from that demographic. I bet there isn't a top-20 national team that starts such a young and inexperienced central midfield. It is quite unusual. As an aside, that's why I think Jermaine Jones will become a key addition to the team. Not only will he have somewhat better skills than the other CM's, but crucially he will be a 27/28 year old veteran of many years as a starter in the Bundesliga. The central midfield is the spine of any team, and right now the US is relying on some talented kids who are prone to very inconsistant play. Jones should solidify and stabilize that spine.
JP on ESPNC said that the crowd was 70/30 El Sal. I did not see that. If anything I would say that the US had the majority of fans. Does anyone else see it that way?
Everyone who posted anything on here about the game said 60/40 or 70/30 US but a lot of US fans were wearing non-US colors and ES fans had more flags and were loud until we scored.
Good point. I'm getting a little bit upbeat about this Jones guy - hope it's not just hype. Question is - does he stay at DM and Mikey goes forward? Or the reverse? I can't see Mikey being dropped. For me this guy's stopping ability is expected, what I'm really hoping to see is consistent passing ability, good judgement and a cool head that will help us keep the ball. ....(off topic sorry)
Close calls in soccer at this level are a sign that you are playing against a strong opponent in a must-win game. The sign of a good soccer team is that you win more than you lose. This is true in every competitive qualifying region in the world. The drunk-driving analogy doesn't work. That isn't true, sorry. Maybe, anywhere else in the Americas (other than Canada) that would be true. Most countries and federations know that knee-jerk reactions are ultimately bad for your team. It might also be who we had playing on the field, the fact we had a chance to spend time together during the Confederations Cup, etc. The problem on these boards is not being happy with winning when we need to. El Salvador is a good team - what is this 5 one goal losses in a row for them? It's strange that some of the whining on this board is from people who seem to have a higher opinion of the USMNT that wasn't lived up to. Not so sure what you mean by 'trying so hard to decieve', but get used to the fact that qualifying out of CONCACAF will be a dogfight. We have players flying in from all over the world and then playing together after one, maybe two training sessions together. Things will look 'mediocre' sometimes, so long as it results in a win, what's the problem? Someone else quoted you on this 'what if' contradiction. We won, we don't have to rely on a 'what if' we get to rely on a 'what happened' scenario. This post seems to reflect a 'US is much better than what I saw' attitude, but do you really ever appreciate the US team? Is there always something wrong with them (outside the rare wins against Spain?) I'm sorry the fouls were 15 to 14 for the US....exactly how is that lopsided? This is the whackiest post I've seen in a long time - exactly how many points did we lose for the actual victory??
http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1679.../1484684/winners-and-losers-us-vs-el-salvador Contrary to the criticism he has received from some people here, Noah Davis called Michael Bradley one of the "winners" from the game.
He is also predicting Mike and Benny to pair up together on Wed. night. Its hard to predict Bob but I can't see this happening. I think Rico will regain his spot in the midfield which I would actually prefer at the moment.
Yeah, that's crazy, to single out Mike as a winner from that game. It seemed to me that his defensive contribution was weak on Saturday. El Salvador were passing it through the midfield too easily. Jozy looked better than Mike in his respective role. I see good new things from Jozy almost every time he plays. Dude is quality, a scorer. Goalzie. Goal got it right with Landon and Charlie though. Damn it's exciting to see Charlie up there for us! He's everything people hoped for from EJ. If he can keep this up and get even better, then he's gone from fringe player to an absolutely essential one in 6 months. If Jones is the defensive destroyer he's made out to be, I would love to see Mike, Benny, Freddy and Torres competing for time for 2010 and doing a lot of attacking behind this really promising front line. (And yes, Freddy needs to get up to speed at Belenenses before he's even considered.)