This is international soccer not recreational league. If they can't take a beating like that they shouldn't be there, these guys are adults representing their country and preparing for the biggest tournament in the world anything less than a best effort is unacceptable. It is not tacky and classless it is their job to go out and fight for a spot and show what they've got.
Why does every thread have to be a fire Bradley thread? I know there's not much to say about this game, but.... just try. Criticize the players, criticize specifics about the coaching, let's keep it more interesting than the game! I thought the 2nd half was unwatchable and my attention wandered, but enjoyed a few of Rolfe's plays. As for Freddy's pass to Lewis & Lewis's finish for the goal in the 1st half, I give full credit to both of them for a great play, even though Fred's pass deflected a little. Heath Pearce had a cross to Freddy in the box that was mouthwatering & hit Fred right in the chest. Pearce had an overall good first half. I thought Freddy held onto the ball too long sometimes & had trouble with turnovers. But I'm glad he got the time & i definitely want to see more with the Senior team. But first, the Olympics! I'm also dying, ready to see a game without Bradley in the middle, but Shep Messing doesn't agree with me. This is a point in favor of my opinion. FIRE BRADLEY! Oh, wait. I'm worried about Beasley who had 2 games that were kind of weak. I hope he was just holding back & making sure he did enough but didn't get injured. The halftime interview with Nowak told me almost nothing (softball questions, evasive answers), but he did seem to hint they might have trouble getting European players released, and I was worrying about Altidore. You guys are probably way ahead of me on this.
It's kind of hard to critique the players really although there were some bad performances in my opinion it really does come down to managing. For example Beasley played terrible but can you really blame him? He is not exactly cut out to play as a lone striker. Also experimenting is one thing but experiment with players in their positions, try a new alignment with more attacking oriented tactics for once!
USSF: Oh well, we couldn't get who we wanted, so another three-and-out World Cup, and then we'll try again.
I missed the interview, but was he talking about for the Olympics? Because unless he's concerned about the overage guys, release for U23s is mandatory.
I'm not going to lie...I chose Spain vs Italy. So, my only two questions are... How did Adu and more importantly, Szetela look? Details would be great.
Speaking of which..........the saying goes in probability that if you put one million chimps in a room at typewriters, sooner or later, one of them will write Hamlet. Well Bob, if the shoe fits..........
Adu was pretty quiet but with Beasley playing as a lone striker he was forced to play with his back to goal often which really takes away from his abilities. He did have a nice assist for the game winning goal though. Szetella played very well in my opinion, did well in the midfield won balls and distributed pretty nicely, and made some good runs forward, outplayed Bradley and got subbed out. Bob Bradley feared it was becoming to obvious that Szetella and Edu are both playing better than his son so he had to take him out.
Because you'll get to cheer on your team's amazing work rate as it 1-0s its way into the World Cup and 0-0s and 0-1s its way out! Imagine the excitement. Each of the four times per game that our "lone striker" ventures past the center circle, your heart will pound as you scream "here it comes!"
If a team is winning by 8 goals or more during the first leg, the match ends and the winning team moves on to the next round. That makes more sense to me.
Wasn't able to watch 1 minute of the match live even though I wanted to knowing it would blow goats; tonight's scheduled replay on ESPN2 appears to have been yanked in favor of poker, evidently due to the poor quality of the broadcast, if not moreso due to the play and the result. Seriously though, consider for one moment giving it all a rest already. Stage 3 is going to be a walkthrough; I'd be surprised if we don't qualify first out of the hex - again. Can we possibly just give the man a chance to do his job? Perhaps - just perhaps - he has a plan for the younger players that supersedes our Wrath-of-Khan(ish) superior intellect. Perhaps - just perhaps - our best possible 18 or so will have been developed to be the best they can be by June 2010. Will that be good enough? Of course not. We could always emigrate to western Europe or South America, joining Deniro, Sarandon, Baldwin, and the like.
In the last 8 national team games that Bradley and his little buddy Nowak have been in charge(including the "meaningless" Toulon games and the 3 "meaningless friendlies"), they are 2-5-1 (American Style). What's their plan?
Really, that's news to me, thanks. Yes, he was talking about Olympics, but didn't specify what age group. IIRC, Baby Bradley wasn't released for Olympic qualifiers - wouldn't that be mandatory, too?
I'm sure this has been argued before in this thread and I apologize for not going back, but like the refs in today's game, I reserve the right to neglect past actions and just do what I want. The Barbados goal should have counted. the guy was barely offside, I didn't see the flag go up, and there was no foul on the keeper, and it was a fair goal. But then the refs "decided" to wave it off. Why? It seemed to me that the linesman missed the "offside" call (which was BARELY offside, one of those that is CLOSE enough to miss, easily. And the collision was just both players fairly going for the ball. I could be wrong about this, but Barbados should feel robbed of a draw here. How pathetic is that.
Agree, and I wish it would of counted. Barbados played us off the pitch. That effort off the crossbar was a close one too, they had the better chances, and really did outhustle us as well. If we tied though, no big deal, the ussf is okay with it. In all reality, this match was awful. On top of the worst broadcast I have ever seen in my life, wether it be the angles, picture quality, announcers, it was awful. Now, I still expect us to breeze through qualifying, and with are starting 11 we'd be much better. And for the people who think other wise are crazy, but that was embarrasing. Even though most players aren't are big time starters, it should of been better.
When Ireland could only scrape a 2-1 win at San Marino a couple of years ago, everyone knew Steve Staunton's number was up. That's because it was a crappy result, even if it was a "result". Performance matters. Escaping Barbados with a 1-0 victory is not the same as getting the job done. Sooner or later our inconsistency and lack of cutting edge is going to catch up with us.
Because he hasn't been fired yet. It's like asking why the only actor ever criticized in the April 14th, 1865 showing of "Our American Cousin" wasn't even in the play
I am failing to see the logic in your post where the goal should have stood. I mean you just said he was offside. On what planet is "barely offside" a legitimate goal?