well, that was something. I wonder if we would have done better in a few months when match fitness is better.
Feel sort of deflated after that one. Boy, was that field horrible. Didn't help the quality of the match much. The Mexicans have great touch but not many ideas when they get close to the goal. We collectively seemed to tire about midway through the 2nd half. I thank god ESPN2 broadcasts these games. But it is my right as an American citizen to say how their production of soccer games is absolutely abominable. It's amazing how in a 90 minute game they can miss about 20 minutes worth of action with their various closeups, needless replays, commercials, etc.
Player ratings for the US 5 is average nat team performance. Starters ======== Howard:5.5 Bocanegra: 5 Pope: 5 Califf: 5 Armas: 3.5 Mastroeni: 4.5 Hedjuk: 4.5 DMB: 5.5 Mathis: 5.5 Donovan: 6 Mcbride: 5.5 Subs ========= Stewart: 4.5 Convey: 5.5 Jones: NR Klein: NR Edit: Adjusted Mathis's rating downward.
Good showings Among those who impressed tonight I'd have to put Boca and Pope, and Pablo, too. Howard wasn't tested, but the dude is awesome. What do you say, boys and girls?
He deserved it, though it's too bad he didn't one-time our best combination play of the night: Donovan-Bocanegra-Mathis-DMB. Donovan had a great first half too but seemed to noticeably tire in the 2nd. Mathis was out of it the first 30 but the last 15 of the 1st half he had some great touches. Pope got burned a few too many times for my liking but it's hard to argue when you give up a goose egg.
Now for a serious thought 8 years ago the US loses this game 2 Nil. Like the Irish guy says on SNL Not here, not now. An all MLS team runs faster, defends better, and nearly steals a Made For Mexico friendly in TayHass. It is one of the clearest indicators of how good the USMT has become and how far it has really come. Now back to your regular puke posts
Overall I think we (US) played pretty well. Just one question how many shots on goal??? 1 or 3 shots on goal or whatever it was is not good offensive.
I think it's extremely poor to only have 2 forwards on the roster and NONE on the field for the last 10 minutes of a FRIENDLY. What ever happened to Buddle, Cunningham, Twellman??? Why so many midfielders? Why leave Armas out there so long on his first game back (and apparently not very good)?
The mexicans looked more skilled but we created more and better chances. We just need to finish!! Donovan had jones wide open for a 1v1 with the goalkeeper late and underhit the ball... ugh, but I thought convey looked great in the midfield, Mathis looked much, much better than in his first few US games this year, beasley looked fast... Bocanegra really impresses me, and Armas impressed me too. Howard is great. It wasn't a bad result and it certainly was an entertaining game. Just finish!!!
I would have like to see Mathis stay in a bit longer. He was really starting to get into it towards the end of the first half. Convey played well in limited minutes. I was somewhat surprised to see Armas and Pablo out there together.
Well, Donovan's a forward and he was on the field the whole game. Jones has played forward lots in his career. Buddle was injured. I think Cunningham's had his chances (at least in Bruce's mind). Can't answer you re Twellman. I concur with your general sentiment. Playing with Jones and an exhausted Donovan up top for the last 10 minutes was almost like throwing in the towel. Although we almost stole one on the Cobi cross and Klein header.
I thought everyone played above average excluding Pablo, and Earnie did not show much in the half he played. I thought Mathis, DMD, Donavan, Mcbride, showed great touch, but they could not finish! not happy with the result. Our back three of Califf, Pope, Boca was fantastic. I also liked the flare that Convey showed in the short time he played in.
Hedjuk Why was this man left in soooo long. He did very well in the WC, but there he was asked to play DEFENSE and defense only. He has NO offensive skills and he was given OFFENSIVE responsibilities. Way tooo much time out there and the Mexicans knew that they would not have to worry about the US right flank. I would of much rather seen Stewart come in for him and leave Mathis in the middle to start the second. Calif was a pleasant surprise though. Quite solid.
Re: Re: Player ratings for the US Flashman, my problem with Beasley is that his final ball still tends to stink, wether its a cross or shot. I may be being to hard on them though. I rate Donovan higher simply because he is so brilliant with his touch. Mathis I think you underate, he had some nice dangerous balls to set up other players.
All in all not a bad performance by the U.S.. I really thought Mexico would have the edge gven the fact that they wanted some serious payback but the U.S. played decently. It was a pretty entertaining 0-0 match
Well, that's three straight shoutouts against the TriColores (with three different GKs), and one goal scored by the Mexicans in the past seven games against us. Yeah, we've only scored three the past three games against them, but it's still three more than they've scored on us. And, in the past 7 we've outscored them 10-1, going 5-1-1 in that time. I'll take that. BTW, my Man of the Match tonigt would have been Pope.
First 11: Howard: 6 Bocanegra: 7 Califf: 5.5 Pope: 5.5 Hejduk: 5 Mastroeni: 4 Armas: 5 Mathis: 5 McBride: 5 DMB: 7 Donovan: 5 Subs: Coby:5 Convey: 5 Klein: 5 Stewart: 5 Nothing to write home about tonight, as it was a pretty average performance by the nats with only a few standouts: Howard, Bocanegra, and DMB.
Great game! Non-stop intensity! The Superclassic reaches new heights! Convey had an excellent entrance. Klein just missed on an excellent cross by Cobi! DMB! I can't wait until the next USA-Mexico! BRING IT!
Re: Re: Re: Player ratings for the US re Mathis: I agree with you that he had 2 or 3 excellent balls/passes towards the end of the 1st half. My problem, and maybe I'm being too harsh, is he completely disappeared the first 30 minutes. We had no presence in the center of the midfield and hence we literally had almost zero possession. Maybe I shouldn't blame him for that. I'm just not sure he was working hard enough to create a passing lane so we didn't have to ONLY send a long ball towards McBride, which for the first 30 was all we did.