Pre-game Match 38: United States vs Algeria, June 23

For the USA to win, we need our forwards to score. We cannot keep relying on our midfield to provide all of the offense for this squad. Our goal scorers have been Bradley, Dempsey, Donovan and Edu (yes, I count that as a goal). Our forwards need to show that they can produce on their own, and create some chances on their own. Otherwise, I fully expect Donovan and Dempsey to be swarmed by the Algerians whenever they have a sniff of the ball.

This game will come down to our forward tandem, and Jozy specifically. I love the kid, love his style of play, but he has not done the most important thing that a striker must do...finish a chance.

 

I'm not sure if it's Jabulani or anything else, but the attackers really have problems with the ball, while the goalkeepers struggle with shots form afar, meaning it is not so bad to rely on the midfield. Slovenian attackers also produced more than 3/4 of the goals in qualifications, but on the WC, 2 out of 3 goals have been scored by the midfielders ...

 

i honestly see this game playing out in similar fashion to this mornings DPK v portugal game. i'm not saying we will win by 7, or even be up at half. we will wear them out through the first half, as is our usual gameplan, and then pounce when the opportunities open up in the 2nd. whether that comes from the forwards or the midfielders is yet to be seen, but if jozy keeps holding the ball up as well as he has been, and we don't have a findley to run in behind, i see goals coming from the midfield. but what does it matter, a goal is a goal right? we're a better team, we will end up on top. it all depends on who sets the tone early, there will be no big comebacks on wednesday, it'll be decided within the first 20 minutes. hopefully, we'll come out ready to knock heads

 

I COMPLETELY disagree. Algeria is three times the team North Korea is. This will be a hard fought match, which will most likely come down to how Altidore and his strike partner can handle Bougherra.

 

In our case, it's usually the opposite that's true.

 

i am not comparing algeria and north korea, as that would give undeserved credit to north korea. rather i am comparing the course and action of the game on a macro scale. survive the first and wear them out, then win it in the second half

 

Jozy was an integral part of Bradley's goal, and he nearly got a goal on England.

 

Interestingly, a lot of English I have talked to have been impressed with Altidore. Though in calling him "The American Heskey" -- I am not entirely sure that is a compliment.

I was unimpressed with Findley however (he is suspended for Algeria). I wonder if Buddle has not been practising well. If not, maybe try Gomez up top (I prefer Dempsey and Donovan in the midfield) or maybe go with a 4-5-1 with Donovan, Dempsey, Bradley and maybe Edu and Torres in the midfield.

Everyone here was real impressed with Donovan both games.

Churchill (I believe) said the most terrible words in the English language are "what might have been". Is it too early to start a Charlie Davies "What might have been"?

 

Whittier wrote a poem about Charlie Davies? Who knew?

 

If you feel they don't belong, then which other African or Asian teams do you feel deserve there spot and would have a better showing? They came through Qualifying so therefore, they belong.

 

The more I think about it the more I agree with this. I don't think we will come out guns blazing. I think we will try to play it smart in the first half and see if we can catch a break going forward. I expect to see Clark starting this match. If we're still tied at half you'll see 2 subs being made and then possibly Torres in the 70th if we still haven't broken through.

I think our goal for the first half is to not concede a goal. That happens, I like our chances going into the 2nd half.

 

I said "that look like they do not belong" ,I wasn't saying I think they dont belong,they do for qualifying. It was in response to IKickAndIm50's post that if the USA loses the next match that we dont belong in the WC period(he said-If USA does not win this match we do not belong in World Cup yet. Period. ). If you noticed it was a reply with a quote to their post. I was just comparing them to our play because they have played worse in my opinion than we have.

 

I feel bad for N.Korea, which was able to surprise everyone in the opener against Brazil and keep the score close. Against Portugal, they started looking even brighter and created some chances, but then fell apart as Portugal scored their first goal, with N.Korea trying to come out even more to score, allowing Portugal to score more goals, with N.Korea then essentially losing its focus and composure, allowing the floodgates to open up completely.

All that said, there are several Asian teams that are stronger than N.Korea which are not in this World Cup. Take Iran. N.Korea has never in its entire history beat Iran and lost almost all games played against us. And they have played us many times, finding themselves in our group for both the Asian Cup and World Cup qualifiers last time around (2006) as well as this last qualifiers (2010). They had lost all those previous games, home and away. In the qualifiers for this World Cup, they lost to Iran 2:1 in Tehran and bunckered to get a 0:0 draw in N.Korea. They advanced because Iran (which is not that good right now, even if better N.Korea) had so many draws in its games. We only lost one match in the qualifiers, against Saudi Arabia at home, a game which we were dominating and were ahead before allowing 2 late goals. Other than that, no other side beat us. Even S.Korea was trailing Iran in both its games, drawing in Tehran and in S.Korea late in the game. The draw against S.Korea in S.Korea, with that goal with 8 minutes left to time, ended up being why Iran failed to qualify as N.Korea bunckered against the Saudis in Saudi Arabia in their last match and snatched a 0:0 draw.

Don't get me wrong: while Iran is better than N.Korea (and we beat them just a few months ago again in friendly match where we again dominated and they bunckered), N.Korea added something to this World Cup while Iran (which is pretty mediocre right now) would not have. I blame Iran for not being here, but am thrilled for the N.Koreans and only wish they would have played more cautiously and kept a respectable score against Portugal.

 

Yeah i can see that, i just thought maybe you had other teams in mind who would have produced more on the field. Basically you play the hand you're dealt and in N Korea's case they had a pretty bad hand. Put them in Group B or F and maybe they look a hell of a lot better. And I feel Cameroon is at least equal or better than say Senegal, Tunisia or Angola who have represented the region in World Cups past.

Heck, in this scenario, the US, England, France and Italy would all be relegated.
http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2010/the-world-cup-as-a-league-table-after-2-games.html

 

When i say we dont belong in WC if we dont beat Algeria, clearly im trying to say Algeria is going to be one of the weakest possible teams we would ever face in a WC group. Thats just keeping it real guys.... what if we had teams like Portugal and Brazil in our group? We would have 0 chance whatsoever to advance obviously. This group was a giant gift to the USA side, the England vs Algeria draw is another giant gift. If after both those gifts we still can't advance then i aim saying we are not ready for WC's, because we cant advance out of any group

 

No obvious at all.

You are sorely overestimating the abilities of those teams and underestimating us if you think we'd have 0 chance to advance.

 

Not zero chance obviously, but very very small.

 

Didn't we advance out of a group with Portugal in it in the last 10 years? Didn't that U.S. team contain at least a few of the players on this team?

 

Algeria have added several French players of Algerian descent to the squad as of May of this year. So I think it is a different, and better, Algeria squad than the one that played Malawi a year ago.

 

This.

In the England match all of

M'balhi
Yahia
Boudebouz
Lacen
Kadir

Started and none of them were even on the team when they played Malawi. Hell, the majority hadn't even ever been CAPPED. That should tell you something about how the complexion of Algeria has changed.

 

What we'll basically see is a mix of the old guard of Algeria (Bougherra, Belhadj, Ziani, etc.) with a mix of young frenchmen who have Algerian descent. This is not just a match against the best Algeria had to offer, but also what the U-20, U-23 french bench/fringe players have to offer (Boudabouz, Lacen, etc.), which is a lot.