The Bruce speaks [R]

About time (i know it has only been a couple of hours) but someone needed to call these guys out.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news;_ylt=Ahl5bXlVVkQlV.9m2VSuV0Umw7YF?slug=afp-fblwc2006gpeusacze&prov=afp&type=lgns

Says Reyna had a good game, Gooch was "fine" and Convey was OK (paraphrasing: at least he ran at them).

 

Hopefully Bruce knows that he deserves some blame as well. Beasley should have been subbed out, and we should have known we were in trouble when Arena decided to have a lone striker.

the US has never won a big game with that formation, and probably never will.

 

Is it really a good idea to rip the guys so much?

I mean, yeah, we stunk.

I don't know. Hopefully it will serve to spurn them on rather than creating dissent and ill will.

But the last thing we need is a pissy locker room after only the first game.

 

At this point a pissy locker room is our only chance

 

Based on his comments, I think perhaps this team is f*cked. But I'll wait to see the lineup on Saturday first before I go with that.

Singling out Beasley and Donovan and saying Convey did OK? And so did Onyewu? Was it Onyewu who gave up the first goal?

What the f did Onyewu and Convey do that was ok?

 

Yeah, hopefully Bease is pissing sitting on the bench.

 

Hear, Hear! Finally. Hopefully he blew up at them in the locker room, or at least made them feel like crap. We need them going into the next game with a fire in their belly.

 

It's a 1-game tournament for us now, so who gives a darn about a pissy locker room. They should be pissy, and it's about time Bruce actually offered some criticism of his key elements instead of protecting their egos. That last thing Landon and DMB need to hear is platitudes about their play. They wanted the stage, got it, and failed in the first try. Deal with it.

As for Keller, he didn't play all that well in the send-off series, and he's not the guy who should be making small mistakes that lead to problems. He's not expected to be perfect, but I think Bruce is trying to press him to be a leader.

In my opinion, I'd like to see these guys give a collective "f-you" to Bruce and go out and play like they're pissed off about it.....

 

That's is so sad.

(Made up paraphrase: He sucks big time, but I really like his attitude. He is really small & weak, but at least tries to dribble even though he does so with his head down, loses the ball EVERY SINGEL FRICKIN time, but... at least little Bobby tries hard..and his mom brings good treats at halftime.

Run at em? Can he learn to run past them?

Aren't we better than that yet? Get Beasly AND Convey out of there.

 

how many times does it need to be said...

Its a press conference...Arena does not nec say what he means/is thinking at these things. It could be all BS or all motivational.

 

They brought good snacks at halftime.

 

A good coach shoulders the blame on that one.

A good "star" (aka LD) also tries to. But I'm sure he just wasn't "comfortable" playing in Germany and all.

 

I think Bruce has to say something. We here on the outside need to know that he thinks that the type of performance they put in is unacceptable. If he sees it then it means he can try to fix it. If he's going to be an ostrich and say he thought they had good games when everyone agrees that they were shit...well, then I think we're in real trouble. Good players should be able to respond to criticism if it's the truth.

That being said, he should point a big fat finger at himself sticking with a guy who we all knew has been snake-bitten for a long time now and for putting out a formation that has failed time and time again.

 

I hope Donovan talks about how much Arena sucked during his next interview.

 

Everyone who was criticised by Bruce fully deserved it.

 

No, Gooch gave up the second goal by clearing the ball up the middle, which landed at Rosicky's feet.

 

Agreed. Nobody did average (except for Reyna). Everybody sucked, including EJ whose touch was just plain terrible. Everbody gets excited because he had a nice shot after CR had backed ten yards from him...

Bruce screwed up and blames the players! DMB was not ready to play, Donovan was out of position, and Keller has lost a step. What did he expect?

Plus, doesn't he think the players know that they had a bad game? Do they really need the coach to tell them? Bruce needed to give credit to CR and just shut up...

 

If you followed Arena's comments closely, you'd know he doesn't offer a lot of praise for Convey generally.

The kid played fine. He was the only player that seemed to be able to find a way to send reasonably dangerous balls towards goal. It's not his fault there was never anyone making runs to get onto them.

OTOH, we have Beasley getting dispossessed every time he touched the ball. If we'd have gotten as much output on the right side out of Beasley as we did from Convey on the left, we might have actually have had some width that we could have exploited. The Czechs knew there was going to be no attack coming from Beasley's side and they made sure there wasn't a lot of space for Convey on the left. He didn't play great, but he wasn't the source of our problems.

 

well, who is going to call arena out for
1) playing beasley out of position
2) letting mcbride play as the sole striker: a strategy we know doesn't work.

 

In al fairness, clearing the ball with the head at that angle is a bit difficult. Real problem was Reyna an another player did not close Rosicky down at all.

Reyna didn't close down on two goals. Did nobody notice that?

 

Yeah, I waiting for the first US player to say something challenging the coaching decisions...

However, it probably won't happen.

 

Arena needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror while allocating blame for today's debacle. After all, he's the head coach of a team that came out flat and played with zero energy in it's debut game of the 2006 World Cup.

Bottom line? Bruce should be shouldering a commensurate share of the responsibility for today's piss-poor US effort. Otherwise, he could soon be looking for a job courtesy of "Uncle Phil" Anschutz... namely, assistant coach of the LA Riptide.