Now that his hair is growing out he's a dreamboat. Some reporter asked where he was from, and he just lit up with that smile and said, "waaaay out in the Texas boonies". Several girls nearby fainted.
Hey! Don't get too bent out of shape (a little is just fine, however)! Yes, I did find that thread rather amusing. You just triggered the amusement.
Oh, wow, check out the new video they just put up. The team is getting fitted with those special Nike contact lenses...Beas is hilarious. You gotta see it. It gives them "red" eyes. So cool.
From the contact lens video: Frankie: "Whoa, these would be perfect for parties and stuff." JOB: "They make me look evil? Maybe I should go with that..." Great stuff, there. Didn't look like the guys who'd never worn contacts before were too excited about them.
For the uninitiated, the link: http://www.ussoccer.com/home/default3.sps?iType=8239 Click on "Seeing is believing."
It will be interesting to see how they liked playing with contacts. I always found them to be really irritating--guess my eyes are too dry to comfortably support contacts. It was also intriguing that many of their eyesight range is better than 20-20. Not surprising when you think about it but still interesting.
In the video Dempsey is really the one that cracks me up. As tough as he is on the filed he looked like a scared little boy. He kept jerking away and finally got up and said "I can't do this." I lauged and thought it was so contradictive to his toughness on the field.
Did anyone else find it odd that Nike let those adidas balls through their gates. Trivial point but I found it strange for a company so enamored with slapping their logo on any and everything.
I did catch your post on Casey in the other thread. It's nice to hear a different perspective other than what we see during a game. Granted, what happens on the field is more important than looking good in practice, but I think it sheds a little more light on why he is in camp at all. I also agree that Dempsey is a heading master. It seems that every game of his I watch he is flying around just looking for a ball to connect with his head. It's pretty fun to watch but I cringe sometimes at the prospect of him getting a bad knock.
If I had to guess since the Gold Cup is a FIFA sponsored event and Adidas is the match ball provider, it makes since they would be using them in practice. Even though Nike probably isn't happy.
i need corrective lenses, and had difficulties heading as a kid in the late 70's-early 80's before i wore contacts (which i did at 16) as it was before the days of sports glasses. i wouldn't wear glasses, but had problems seeing to head correctly; if i wore glasses, heading was out of the question. contacts are a necessity for me to play. i'm also very sensitive to light, so i would think the amber lenses would help vision a lot -- when i wear amber driving sunglasses, i can see better details. but for non-lens wearers, it will be an adjustment. i always have eye drops around when i wear my contacts to deal with dryness.
It's there all right. But it's not called 'seeing is believing" on the web page. Do you see under the USMNT blurb on the front page the words audio/video/podcast? Click on the word video.
Go to www.ussoccer.com. Look at the box that says "All Access Video" on the front page (green lettering). Second one down (it adjusts as they post new video, though): MNT: 2005 Gold Cup: Seeing is Believing.
You guys see Yallop called up Will Johnson from the Fire for the Gold Cup- the one who was in the recent U-20 championship. Now that's interesting...
And why wouldn't he call him up? Seeing as how Frank is looking to 2010 WC now. . . having missed out on the 2006.
Because winning the Gold Cup would be huge for Canada too. He has 3 years after that to break in new guys for next World Cup run. That issue could be argued both ways...in fact, I'm inclined to say Canada could use a strong finish (therefore, you play only your best) than the US- although it is debatable.
I've only worn contacts for about 18 months.For the first four months I seriously considered going back to glasses because it was such a pain to put the f-ers in. it's fine now and I wouldn't be without 'em,but if they're new ,it's a learning process.After all,we grew up thinking it was bad to poke yourself in the eye.
Friday morning practice Now we're talking soccer.... Everybody's in camp. Everybody's fit as a fiddle. Weather was sunny and around 70 I'd guess. Nice day for a tan. A huge crowd of 25 in attendance, most associated with the team. The team started off with the field players doing warm-ups, GK's getting shots hit at them by staff. Right away this was more intense than what I saw Wednesday. Again, though, there was that feeling of supportive focused intensity. After stretching and while the keepers were still getting shot at, Arena used half the field for the first drill. Dividing the players in half (10 on each side) he placed two small goals each on each end and a set of orange "speed bumps" to note midfield. (The "goals" were two poles about two yards apart.) So to give you a picture here, the 'ends of the field were one end line and the midfield strips of the normal length field while the normal sidelines were used. Thus the field was wider than long. I can't recall with enough clarity the makeup of the two teams, but it wasn't so important in this exercise. The emphasis was on quick passing and attacking; moving the ball around quickly- especially out towards the flanks. Arena exhorting the players to attack more was ever-present in the air. But it was hard: with Mastroeni, Armas, JOB, Olsen, Dempsey all in the middle and the defenders just a couple of yards behind them due to the short field (even shorter than in San Jose- and I'm not kidding! ) it was pretty clogged. But the play was pretty crisp and the players were in a later before 5 minutes were out. Lot's of little stand out impressions though neither team "dominated" each other: - Ralston waiting under a popped up ball... waiting... waiting... and Gooch cruises over and heads it away like he didn't even notice the normal sized human. Later Dempsey tried to challenge Gooch... big jump and... Gooch calmly heads it away. -Ralston though was just like we see him- always sneaking in to open space on the flanks. Towards the end he did a nice right-to-left dribble around Davis and slotted the ball home. -Hedjuk was very active on his right flank (opposite from Ralston). - Pope making several fine plays, keeping Casey at bay. - Cherundolo just owns his right back position. If there is one player all morning who never had a problem and contributed several sweet plays, it was Dolo. - JOB again showed no evidence of injury. Moved fluidly with and without the ball. He was always placed in the middle of the field, BTW. - For the second practice the player that Arena expressed the most displeasure (at least vocally) was DMB. Nothing awful, just telling him to get a move on. -Conrad was also very solid all morning. Drill two upped the stakes a bit. Using the keepers this time in a normal goal, Arena took "the four central defenders- Gooch, Pope, Sanneh, and Conrad" (his words, not mine) from the rest of the team and then divided the rest into three groups of attackers: Right wing: Cherundolo, Hedjuk, and Ralston Left wing: Beasley, Davis, and Vanney Central: Donovan, Olsen, JOB, Mastroeni, Armas, Dempsey, Noonan, Quaranta, Casey, and Wolff What happened is this: 1) One of the central guys (not part of the rest of the play) serves a ball to one of the flanks (they'd alternate. I didn't pay close attention to this, but the server always seemed to be one of the more defensive mids- JOB, Olsen, Armas, or Mastro. When not serving up they'd be part of the rest of the play.) 2) A flank player would receive the ball and usually would play it to another flanker on the same side who would dribble forward and then cross the ball. 3) Meanwhile, three of the central players (no specific "teams" here- they'd interchange) would move in on goal to receive the cross. They were joined by one of the flankers from the other side coming in the back door. 4) The central defenders and keeper were the only defense. Play lasted until a score, ball out of bounds or a defender cleared the ball decisively. Usually one of the three central attackers stayed back around the 18 yard line while the other two ran for position. The standouts? Hands down- the central defenders. Gradually the crosses improved (remember- they were undefended) but the defenders had the attackers covered- which got Arena to yell out several times for the attackers to do a better job at getting position. There were a couple of good attacking plays. Olsen had a nice shot for the first score. Low and hard. The best cross was delivered by the US's best crosser- Hedjuk right onto an onrushing Casey for a slam into the net. Quaranta had a nice play for a score. LD did everything but score on one sequence. There may have been one or two more good attacking plays but that's it- out of 15 minutes of this drill. Not the best. The final drill was a full field 11 v 11 game. Two fifteen minute halves with teams changing ends at halftime. Reis sat this one out. The teams: Blue- --------------Hahnemann Hedjuk--------Pope-----Vanney -----------Sanneh-----JOB -Ralston--------------------Beasley --------------Dempsey --------Donovan------Noonan Yellow- ----------------Keller Dolo-----------Gooch----------Conrad Olsen---Mastroeni----Armas---Davis -----Quaranta--Casey---Wolff I think that's right. 1st half and the yellow team dominated possession and scoring chances though they didn't score. Blue barely crossed midfield. Pablo seemed to be the de facto a-mid for the yellows though the entire midfield (as I have it) attacked freely- yes Armas too. Pope did a good job calming the blues down and conceding nothing. Really, Eddie's game was all over Casey especially. Dolo, as I said above, owned his corner. Of the yellow attacker, Quaranta seemed most effective, ultimately drawing a foul just outside the 18 yard line. Davis took the free kick. It banged around but missed ultimately. On the other end, the blues had a free kick and LD took it. I didn't notice Noonan all day except to note that he's taller than I thought. At halftime, Noonan went to the sideline, his day done with ice on his ankle. I didn't see it happen- maybe it was bothering him most of the morning and he was just being cautious. Onalfo subbed in for him pushing Sanneh more towards goal. Tony was very involved in the attack in half 2 and the blues played the yellows more evenly thereafter. One nice play involved Casey. Gooch had won the ball and made a nice pass to Casey crossing mid-line near the left touch. Dempsey was right on Coner's heels. Casey received the ball, made a move back towards his defense as if to lay the ball back and with one very very fluid deft motion swung around Dempsey like he was a traffic cone and flew up field. You see a move like that in a game and you are oohing and awing, believe me. Unfortunately the play comes to naught as Coner has a clear path towards goal and from 7 yards miss hits the ball so it becomes a bad cross that Quaranta can't corral. If Casey had either shot the ball cleanly or crossed the ball cleanly it was an easy goal. Oh well. The goal was a pk. Vanney took.. uh... Wolff down in the box. I think it was Wolff. At any rate, Wolff hit the PK for the only score. The game stopped soon after that. I have to go to lunch now and I'll come back when I can remember any more details. I'll be at the practice tomorrow with BS poster Red & Black. If you have any question- fire away.
Back for just a sec.. During the scrimmage, Arena and Mooch were looking and talking to each other a lot, pointing out things on the field, etc. I would have loved to have overheard them. Those two seem to work well together.