USA vs. Czech Republic | 05/25/2010 | 7:00pm CT | Rentschler Field; East Hartford, CT | TV Coverage: ESPN @ 6:30pm CT

I've never watched soccer. Should I start tonight?

why not?

i hope one of Gomez/Johnson/Buddle separate from the pack today.

(05-25-2010 01:01 PM)Derby Wrote:  why not?

OK, soccer it is. Anybody wanna fill me in? It's a national team so obviously everybody is good. Who's the Kobe of the team? I don't know any players lol. I know a few rules though because I played FIFA a few times :)

We don't really have a Kobe. In attack, Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey are the catalyst. Our Goalie, Tim Howard, is world-class and really the best player on the team. He is also married to a Houston High School alum and gave thousand of dollars of equipment to Kingsbury HS last during their state tourney run.

Should be interesting to see what the home shirt looks like in action. I liked the look of the away kit, but with the invisi-sash, who knows.

vs.

What the hell is Guzan wearing?

I think it is safe to say that Gooch shouldn't play in the world cup. It's obvious that he is not fully recovered. He can barely run and can't jump at all. I hate it for him and the team but it looks like Bocanegra and DeMerit/Goodson in the middle.

Nice energy from the guys who will be our subs in South Africa. Gomez is pretty good. He better make the 23 man squad.

I can't see us going without Gooch. He'll be fine before England. This WAS his first match since his injury and went 65 minutes.

Lots of plusses and minuses tonight. Kljestan is crap and should never wear the national shirt again. Guzan should be #3, at best. I was encouraged by Buddle and Gomez. Torres had his moments, as did Edu. Without the big stars, this is about what could be expected. We'll play much better against Turkey and the Aussies.

Overall, I'd say I'm encouraged. We were in the game until the 90th minute, with a few good chances. We're struggling to maintain possession, especially in the final 3rd.

The only thing that disappointed me was that we couldn't clear the ball and it cost us two goals. We need to shore that part of our game up or it could be bad in the WC.

Overall we played pretty good, had lots of good looks

I don't think Onewyu will be ready for England. He has no jump. He's not going to recover that in a two weeks, at least not all of it. Maybe he can give some minutes, but he won't be effective enough to play 90 which is what the US will need against England and the rest of group play.

Defense better improve a lot. I know we played mainly subs, but some of that was ridiculous. We'll see more against Turkey and then Australia.

(05-25-2010 10:02 PM)TN_Tiger Wrote:  I don't think Onewyu will be ready for England. He has no jump. He's not going to recover that in a two weeks, at least not all of it. Maybe he can give some minutes, but he won't be effective enough to play 90 which is what the US will need against England and the rest of group play.

Defense better improve a lot. I know we played mainly subs, but some of that was ridiculous. We'll see more against Turkey and then Australia.

If you cannot clear the ball out of the box, the US MNT are going to lose against good offensive teams in the World Cup, no matter who is playing defense for the Yanks. That is a salient fact regarding the US defense in the end.

(05-25-2010 10:06 PM)BARTLETTTIGER Wrote:  

(05-25-2010 10:02 PM)TN_Tiger Wrote:  I don't think Onewyu will be ready for England. He has no jump. He's not going to recover that in a two weeks, at least not all of it. Maybe he can give some minutes, but he won't be effective enough to play 90 which is what the US will need against England and the rest of group play.

Defense better improve a lot. I know we played mainly subs, but some of that was ridiculous. We'll see more against Turkey and then Australia.

If you cannot clear the ball out of the box, the US MNT are going to lose against good offensive teams in the World Cup. That is a salient fact regarding the US defense in the end.

Agreed. Which is part of the reason I'd rather see someone else in their if Gooch doesn't improve. England has some great players at the striker and forward positions. If Onewyu is only 80% and can't jump with them, we're in big trouble.

They'll eat us alive with crosses into the box. The good thing is that we played some subs and this wasn't the true team we'll see in South Africa.

I dont see why people are freaking out about our defensive effort tonight...especially in the 2nd half. We played without 3 of our first choice defenders(Boca, Spector, DeMerit), our 1st team Keeper, and our 1st choice DM(Bradley). Today was about individual players showing that they could at least add something to the team. In that regard, it was a successful night. Buddle, Gomez, Goodson, Torres, Beasley, Ching, and Edu all showed that they can serve a purpose.. Holden showed he could go for 90 minutes after his injury, and Gooch showed that he could hobble around for 65 minutes without his knee exploding.

I do have reservations about Gooch and pray that a lot of his issues are mental. I dont think they are, but we can hope. If Gooch can't go, be prepared to see Beasley used in defense.

-----------Altidore------------Dempsey------------
------------------------------------------------------
-Donovan------------------------------Holden-----
----------Bradley-------------Edu------------------
-----------------------------------------------------
-Spector-----DeMerit---Bocanegra----Beasley---
------------------------------------------------------
---------------------Howard------------------------

Bench:
Gomez-F
Ching-F
Feilhaber-M
Torres-M
Clark-M
Bedoya-M
Cherrundolo-D
Goodson-D
Gooch-D
Pearce-D
Guzan-G
Hahnemann-G

I wouldn't be shocked to see this lineup if Gooch isnt set to go June 12th.

(05-25-2010 10:44 PM)TN_Tiger Wrote:  

(05-25-2010 10:06 PM)BARTLETTTIGER Wrote:  

(05-25-2010 10:02 PM)TN_Tiger Wrote:  I don't think Onewyu will be ready for England. He has no jump. He's not going to recover that in a two weeks, at least not all of it. Maybe he can give some minutes, but he won't be effective enough to play 90 which is what the US will need against England and the rest of group play.

Defense better improve a lot. I know we played mainly subs, but some of that was ridiculous. We'll see more against Turkey and then Australia.

If you cannot clear the ball out of the box, the US MNT are going to lose against good offensive teams in the World Cup. That is a salient fact regarding the US defense in the end.

Agreed. Which is part of the reason I'd rather see someone else in their if Gooch doesn't improve. England has some great players at the striker and forward positions. If Onewyu is only 80% and can't jump with them, we're in big trouble.

They'll eat us alive with crosses into the box. The good thing is that we played some subs and this wasn't the true team we'll see in South Africa.

Thats why I think Beasley in defense against England is a good matchup. His pace will definitely keep their wingers busy. Well, compared to Bornstein.

One thing I've been thinking about is, how many of our problems tonight could be chalked up to just mental mistakes. Consider this: most of the players we played tonight are players that are essentially on the bubble; this was their chance to either secure their spot or ruin their chances altogether. They might have tried to do too much and set themselves up for costly mistakes.

In the case of Gooch, maybe he IS back to 100% physically. But mentally, he might not be there. This was his first match since he injured his knee. This was his chance to really get back out there and see what he can do, and was having trouble adjusting. His jumping problem could easily be a result of this; he injured it jumping at a corner kick. Naturally he didn't want to take too many risks and injure it again.

These aren't excuses, but if Gooch knows he's practically guaranteed a spot (he's going, I have no doubt) he wouldn't have tried too hard for fear of reversing seven months of rehabilitation.

But Kljestan should never be seen in a USMNT shirt again. He was terrible.

EDIT: Also, what aTx said.

(05-25-2010 11:19 PM)TigerEye Wrote:  One thing I've been thinking about is, how many of our problems tonight could be chalked up to just mental mistakes. Consider this: most of the players we played tonight are players that are essentially on the bubble; this was their chance to either secure their spot or ruin their chances altogether. They might have tried to do too much and set themselves up for costly mistakes.

In the case of Gooch, maybe he IS back to 100% physically. But mentally, he might not be there. This was his first match since he injured his knee. This was his chance to really get back out there and see what he can do, and was having trouble adjusting. His jumping problem could easily be a result of this; he injured it jumping at a corner kick. Naturally he didn't want to take too many risks and injure it again.

These aren't excuses, but if Gooch knows he's practically guaranteed a spot (he's going, I have no doubt) he wouldn't have tried too hard for fear of reversing seven months of rehabilitation.

But Kljestan should never be seen in a USMNT shirt again. He was terrible.

EDIT: Also, what aTx said.

US Soccer should institute a no-Chivas USA policy. That way we get rid of Bornstein and Sascha. Life would be great.

I agree with much of what you said. We basically played our Gold Cup team from last year and played respectably against a solid European team. that is definite improvement of the travashamockery that we had at the Gold Cup just last year.

(05-25-2010 11:19 PM)TigerEye Wrote:  One thing I've been thinking about is, how many of our problems tonight could be chalked up to just mental mistakes. Consider this: most of the players we played tonight are players that are essentially on the bubble; this was their chance to either secure their spot or ruin their chances altogether. They might have tried to do too much and set themselves up for costly mistakes.

In the case of Gooch, maybe he IS back to 100% physically. But mentally, he might not be there. This was his first match since he injured his knee. This was his chance to really get back out there and see what he can do, and was having trouble adjusting. His jumping problem could easily be a result of this; he injured it jumping at a corner kick. Naturally he didn't want to take too many risks and injure it again.

These aren't excuses, but if Gooch knows he's practically guaranteed a spot (he's going, I have no doubt) he wouldn't have tried too hard for fear of reversing seven months of rehabilitation.

But Kljestan should never be seen in a USMNT shirt again. He was terrible.

EDIT: Also, what aTx said.

I hope Onweyu is back 100% and that he was nervous for that game last night, because he did not play well otherwise last night against the Czech Republic. The Czech MNT played good last night as well from what I say. Guzan made some bad mistakes last night, as do did goale Peter Cech. I cannot tell much about both team yet though.