Clark was awful. Dempsey drew the PK, and Donovan made it. Feilhaber was very good. Let's face it, we controlled more of the match than Ghana, and that's down to the midfield playing well.
dempsey was inspired, donovan poor, clark unspeakable, bradley played well, edu strong defensively, feilhaber controlled play and we suffered when we stopped giving him the ball.
Clint played like a damn hero today. Donovan made consistently poor decisions. Edu played ok, Benny was great. Clark played terribly and I feel for him, since his play cost us a goal and a sub.
Bradley was gassed at the start, unsurprisingly. Donovan was awful. Dempsey was the best player on the pitch. Feilhaber was good, for a while. Our biggest problem is depth. We don't have the bench to make a deep run in this tournament. Torres, Holden etc are great young talents, but they wouldn't have saved us today anymore than a tired Bradley could.
I have never seen Donovan pull back from the penetrating play so many times,... or miss the 15-yard negative/lateral ball he chose instead so many times. Or not press the ball so many times. It looked almost as bad as the Azteca flu game.
Benny deserves some sort of gold medal. He was an absurdly underrated player in this tournament, and he was the reason we are even in the second round.
Only part of the field that we weren't played off the park in. Bradley was mediocre but not a liability. Clark was useless. Edu was a good stabilizing force. Donovan was overall subpar. Dempsey was good but gassed. Feilhaber was by far the best American to suit up today, and there wasn't a close second.
Maurice Edu was the US' best player today. Feilhaber was a close second. Dempsey and Donovan, in spite of the penalty sequence, were off, as was Bradley. None played terribly, but none were up to their previous standard in this Cup.
Donovan was poor. He's proven that he's shaken his big game bug so I think this is just a time when he had a bad game. A horrible time to have one but what can you do. It isn't what lost us the game. Rico was horrible. Edu was above average, Clint was a warrior, and Benny was the slick passing that we needed in the first half. When we have Benny, Clint, and Donovan playing in advanced positions we usually do well, so that was no surprise. Bradley did nothing either way to earn praise or criticism. The midfield was our only bright spot in addition to Bornstein.
Couldn't agree with you more. Overall, I very much prefer Edu in the midfield as a holder. I think he did very well in his role. Bradley is very offensively motivated but his defensive ability is still quite lacking. Although a bit premature and possibly idealistic, I'd like to see Edu and Feilhaber in the middle, MB off the bench. In his short time on the field, Feilhaber had sprinted more often at attackers than Bradley.
I thought Edu was good defensively but going forward he made really standard passes. Bradley was good at the beginning but faded because he was tired. Benny was our best player but its also because he came in pretty fresh and was able to play against tired opposition. I'd like to see him in the RCM position against fresh opponents. Dempsey was a hero, gave everything. Clark was unspeakable.
Edu was fantastic defensively and made pass after pass that took pressure off the US team and helped them hold the ball. While the passes may have been simple, the decision-making was outstanding. At that position, it is about the brains, not the looks. Edu played his role extremely well.
agree. Our best players were the subs (Feilhaber and Edu). I thought Dempsey was pretty good as well.
I thought it was Bradley and Donovan's weakest games of the tournament, though neither were terrible. Really proud of Feilhaber, he has come a long way since getting booted out of that Olympic camp. Dempsey was a warrior. And I cannot help but feel awful for Rico Clark. It was not a good game.
Seeing that again, the attacker still had a lot to do after getting that ball. Not all Clark's fault by a long shot. Same with their second, of course. We probably wouldn't have scored either of those if we had been the other team.
What? Bradley was absolutely gassed. Landon was invisible. Terrible first touch all night. Edu might have been our best player.
Clark's turnover reminded me of Benny against Italy last summer. A little turnover near half field and then we are picking a ball out of the net. Too much touch and too cute. Keep it simple. It sucks for Ricardo, but he played a role in two big goals against in that stadium. Bradley, LD, and Dempsey did their best but they were all gassed from minute one. Edu looked good again as a sub and Benny looked was above average as he has been throughout the cup.
Clark dawdling on the ball for three or four seconds too long, then trying to to beat the defender right in front of him had a lot to do with it. And yeah, that is Clark's fault by quite a long shot. He had plenty of time to safely pass the ball away.
Or play a square pass, or go Route 1. Hell, he could have even turned an played it back to Howard. Edu isn't flashy, but he doesn't make that mistake. Agree that Bradley looked gassed and Donovan was nearly invisible. Dempsey was really good, as was Feilhaber.
I have to see that play again. Didn't MB give him a crap ball? Mike had cement in his shorts. He was worthless. Probably a smart sub of Clark, but Edu was in the majority of our players who don't know what to do with ball when given it, particularly against an organized opponent. Edu looks decent when the ball's hopping around... Not so much when it's sitting at his feet. Benny F is an impressive character. Our key guys however were just spent.
Really? I see you're from Dallas. Here's the thing. Clark should have kicked Ruiz harder, because Ruiz is and has always been and always will be a bitch.