US vs. Colombia pre-game thread

we'll know by game time if we have a shot of moving on or not. if we're out i say throw out everyone who hasn't played much. davies,beckerman, nguyen etc..

looks like our best shot at moving on right now is mexico beating chile.

i'm not sure i can pull for mexico under any circumstances.

i actually just vomited in my mouth a little thinking about it.

 

I agree wholeheartedly with this post, albeit I don't care if Mexico beats Chile. Whatever helps us = good.

If someone could do a statistical analysis of what are chances are, they'd deserve a great deal of positive rep.

 

This is going to be a tough match for us. Colombian players might not be able to go home and walk the streets if they lose. We had better be prepared for a cornered and desperate team with a lot of pride. It was not long ago that Colombia won Copa America (in 2001).

I think Colombia will salvage their dignity with a 2-1 victory in one of the most thrilling matches of the tournament.

 

if uruguay or chile both win or tie....we're out...unless we hang 7 or 8 on colombia

we need one of those to to lose (both have 3 pts and -2 goals). then make up whatever goal differential in a win over colombia

 

Gomez also should be thrown in if we are eliminated. Maybe he can teach the boys something about finishing (I'm been pulling for him big time).
And I as well puked at the thought of having to pull for "El Tree"

 

Since we are at -5 now, we would have to win by 4 to advance, no?

 

Our best shot is for both Mexico and Brazil to win by 2-3 goals each, and for us to beat Colombia by 3 goals. Those are tall orders, but possible. I wonder how we're going to rebound from this experience when it comes time for the World Cup qualifiers. Our guys are pretty shaken up right now. Confidence has got to be at a 4 year low.

 

The U.S. is not mathematically eliminated but will have to hope to advance as a third place finisher if we beat Colos by 3 goals regardless what the Trio and Brazil score is.The agony continues if we move on to second round. Last night I broke the remote control because I was pissed with all goasl we could have scored.

 

This tournament is a perfect microcosm of life as a passionate fan of any team. We hurt with the players when they are devastated, we writhe in anger at our coach when the decisions turn out to be the wrong ones, and we yearn for more success.

Sometimes it just turns out that it is a growing pain that never gets better until you're grown. Every team goes through this, and our young men are getting their baptism. It's not to be avoided, it's to be placed in perspective.

It's our team of borderline players, with the exception of Benny, Rico, and EJ, and now MAYBE a couple of others. These are young men fighting for their international careers. A little perspective will help everyone, including us, the fans. Qualifying will be here soon enough, and we won't be fielding this kind of team. Personally I think Mexico better watch out this cycle. Nery can't do everything, in every game. We've learned that with Landon.

I just want to see Davies, Nguyen, and Moor. I'm hoping for the best, but I'll settle for seeing these players get more minutes on Thursday.

 

I think that Colombia looked really tough last night against Arg., they really gave them hell until Arg. pulled away and it wasn't in a defensive posture like the manner in which the U.S held them off, Colombia was making runs and taking it to them. I really don't see us winning this match.

 

I like the idea of the 4-3-3, not being all gloom and doom about it but just go out there guns blazing. We'll know where we stand by game time and if fate doesn't go our way so be it, let 'em rip. Here's what I'd go with

~~~~~~~~Guzan~~~~~~~~
Moor~~~~Conrad~~Boswell~~~~Pearce
~~~Mapp~~~~Feilhaber~~~Nguyen
Davies~~~~Johnson~~~~Gomez

I'm not calling for Bornstein's head by putting in Pearce, I just think he may be exhausted physically, (maybe mentally too). Nothing to lose except the game, but our guys gain some experience, and possible future invites to the copa, not necessarily due to our results but for SA teams to beat us down. Colombia will still have a lot to play for so i see a wide open entertaining match.

 

I like it.

 

Im frustrated trying to figure out why we even participated in this event in the first place?

If it was to get our young guys some experience, then why on earth is Keller starting? Or Twellman and Johnson?

It seems that Bradley couldnt make up his mind what he wanted to do. On one hand it was about experience, on the other, about the best players to win.

We should have taken our u-23 team and let them lose 4-1 and 3-1.

It certainly would feel better than today does.

 

I recall that it was supposed to be the tourney to evaluate the players who have not played much to see who would emerge as at least possible solid USMNT regulars as a top priority as well as using it as a learning curve in a top level competition. So far, not so much of that. The only uncapped and undercapped guys he played were Wynne, Moor, Gomez, and Nyugen. I commend Bradley for that but I am sooo frustrated that I wondered if he realized that the biggest weakness that USMNT have is the forwards who CAN ATTACK the defenders. Davies have shown that against China but yet he have not played!!!! I hope that he get to start against Colombia. Sorry about my rants.

Edit: Thanks to Kilmer17 to remind me, please, please, Keller, do us a favor by retiring after this tourney!!!

 

What? Rebound? Shaken up? Affect the qualifiers? What on earth are you talking about? We sent a B/C team to a very competitive and meaningless tournament and lost to better competition. There is absolutely nothing to be shaken up about. This tournament has been fantastic experience for our younger, less experienced players. They have gotten a trial by fire, and I'm sure have learned some important lessons.

If anything, their confidence should now be soaring. They played fantastic defense for 65 minutes against arguably the best team in the world. Then they played all even against a top 30 team. After collapsing against Argentina and not showing much offensively, they rebounded and played fantastic offensively against Paraguay except for critical finishing, which is more mental than anything else.

After the Colombia game, Coach Bradley will have a pretty good idea who is in his player pool for WCQ, and we've booked our ticket to the Confederations Cup the year before the WC. It was already known before Copa America started that we probably wouldn't advance out of the group stages. The summer plan has been a roaring success.

 

If MEX can beat Chile (-2 GD) by a couple of goals, a two-goal US win puts us through. I'm not sure what the tiebreakers would be with a one-goal US win, since GD would be tied. This is our best and most direct option, though.

In the Uruguay situation, we also would need Bolivia not to beat Peru -- otherwise, they would have four points and the third place team in that group would be almost impossibly ahead of us on GD. Group A is a lot stickier than the "MEX clobbers Chile" route.

 

After yesterday's game, my gut feeling was the same as during the last WC: The U.S. came into that tournament a bit confident from their rankings and for their abilities - and was outplayed in game one. In this tournament, they came in not confident but were probably on a semi-high from the GC. But, reality again hit and they couldn't recover after the second goal. Game two was better though the results were so-so (a tie to eventual WC champ, good play but poor finishing, respectively).

Going into game three, they still have a slight chance, but hopefully history does not repeat with a loss. Let's see if BB follows BA's tactics and keep the same starters, or throw in the players who have seen little time on the pitch.

 

That is what I said in my earlier post but why Twellman????? Should have at least try Davies and develop him. He have much more talent than Twellman ever had. I, personally, have pulled the welcome mat out under him after seeing enough games. He can't compete internationally.

 

I don't think Donovan, or Beasley, or Howard, or Dempsey, or Dolo, or Gooch, or Boca, or Convey's confidence is at a 4 year low. And that's who is going to qualify us for 2010 not most of these guys. And the guys from the CA squad who are key to 2010, Benny, Bornstein, Clark, are having good tournaments and should be confident.

 

What? You do realize most of the guys playing in the CA had nothing to do with the GC right? Its not the same team. How hard is that for some of you to understand?

 

First of all: Can anyone actually believe we are still in 3rd place in our group?

Anyway, seeing that 2 out of 3 third place teams make it.....And no, we DO NOT have to hope Mexico wins vs. Chile....

we should hope that today:
-Peru beats Bolivia, so they stay at 1 point... By no means do we want Bolivia to win, they´d get 4 points...Come on, cheer with me: Peru! Peru!
- Venezuela blasts Uruguay, so that they stay at 3 points..... right now Uruguay has a -2 GD, but we have a -6 GD...Since we HAVE TO win and hope Uruguay loses, this might be more attainable than previously thought....say, we win 1-0, URU lose 3-0.....or both games end 2-0 (US win, URU loss) we are both at -4 GD but since we "will have scored 3-4 goals" and presumably, Uruguay only scored one....we´d go through....

anyway ...today is time to cheer for Peru and Venezuela... F Mexico! (maybe! )

 

We actually have a -5 GD (2-7)

 

Sadly, Twellman does not produce enough to warrant his inclusion. He works hard out there, but he just doesn't see the ball enough to create. Besides we need a striker that can score right now, not a guy that can head down to a midfield to shoot. Nice setup on the goal though.

 

Several reasons. First, Davies has no caps. Second, he hasn't scored a goal for his club yet. Third, he may not be good enough. Fourth, after losing to Argentina, we needed to score goals against Paraguay. Fifth, TT is not really a starter, and so this gave BB a chance to see how high or how low he could go. He hasn't shown much in this tournament, and so his stock has dropped. He's not quick enough. He just doesn't have it.