Official Team USA Soccer Thread

[fatlever]

ok on 2nd thought, perhaps better to sit goodson to get a quicker option back there. maybe edu at centerback and sacha in midfield. i just liked the idea of keeping the back 4 in tact for the 1st time in a long time.

[jerrod]

i think i'd go edu at cb and sacha in the midfield too. which cb should sit then? i think i want Omar out there

[Little Italia]

Horrible, HORRIBLE performance. We deserved to lose that game.

[Slava]

The US defense had a blinder but the ref was horrible

[BUCKnation]

Great result. I thought the defense played great but we got lucky quite a bit. The ending was scary.

[Wooderson]

2nd half was poor. They deserved to give up a goal and penalty. When Twellman admits the US was given a favorable call, you know it was bad. There were some great individual defensive plays at crucial times though - credit to the US backline.

Besides a rough stretch in the middle of the first half, I thought they did really well in the first 45 minutes. Dempsey and Altidore found success linking up. More of that in the future.

In the end, they got what they came for though, so hard to complain too much.

[Da Schwab]

Defense was terrific tonight. Beasley, Biesler and Gonzalez all played great.

I want to send a muffin basket to the ref, though. Anyone wanna chip in? He got us a point at Azteca after all.

[kdawg32086]

4pts after 3 games. It was ugly but it makes me feel a bit better about our chances of actually qualifying for the World Cup...

[jerrod]

I liked what Altidore did so I'm a little confused by the early sub.

he was heavily involved in every decent chance we had and johnson did basically nothing after coming on.

[and1GS]

Lone Striker is the easiest position in football to justify an early swap-out. Playing well but no goals? Sub. Not getting any service up top? Sub. Scored one goal but look kinda tired? Sub.

Altidore has been getting subbed at the 70th minute for the full duration of his time with the USMNT. If we want to maximize his potential we need to start building around him and I think an educated eye can see that he has great potential. He's big, strong, deft touch, composure, nice touch and can hold the ball up from the forward position. When was the last time we had that? We need Altidore and he needs to be better integrated into the gamplan. Plying Dempsey closer to him might help with this.

[and1GS]

Horrible, HORRIBLE performance. We deserved to lose that game.

Bad offensive performance, but we were solid throughout the middle of the pitch. When it comes down to it, that's where goals will be scored and conceded so the fact that Bradley, Gonzalez and Besler were dominating made us pretty impenetrable.

I've been high on Gonzalez for a while and wow he was impressive per usual. Beasley on the outside was bound to be a disaster and Cameron had his mental lapses but overall I liked what I saw. The build up play offensively was poor, namely because we got nothing going on the outside. But we were at Mexico, what more can you expect?

[GS Warriors 1]

It's hard to get anything going on the outside when Zusi and Gomez are the wingers. Those guys shouldn't be starting but we needed their hard work in the midfield last night and they provided that. I thought Dempsey was terrible. Edu was hit and miss for me. He won some balls but gave some away. Bradley was quite good in the midfield. Besler and Gonzalez, what else can be said? For such little experience, they did excellent. Besler was a little shaky early on but once the 2nd half started, he was very much settled into the game.

I found JK's subs to be puzzling, at best. Brad Davis gets in then JK puts in another left winger in Shea a few minutes later and plays Davis out of position on the right? Just odd.

[BUCKnation]

Yeah, I would have subbed out Gomez for Shea or had Johnson come in for Gomez and leave Altidore up top.

Gomez and Zusi didnt get anything going offensively but Zusi did a really nice job getting back and helping out the defense with some crucial tackles and deflections.

[and1GS]

I think he really loves Brad Davis for some reason...which is odd because at this point all he can do is cross the ball.

I think what this game showed us is that we need something, literally ANYTHING, from our wing players to be successful. EJ and Shea should be starting on the wings. They bring speed, creativity, flair, crossing ability and goal scoring potential. Gomez/Zusi makes no sense other than having Zusi basically play fullback out there, heck tehre was one play where he came all the way back and made a tackle on the touchline. That was probably the way to go at Azteca, but Gomez should not be on the wing.

Gomez' #1 asset, much like Chichadoritos, is that he has phenomenal positioning and awareness in the final third. Putting him on the wing negates that and he's slow so he's useless on the wing.

[PANDEMONEUM]

May 29, 2013
U.S. Men vs. Belgium
8 p.m. ET
FirstEnergy Stadium
Cleveland, Ohio
ESPN2, WatchESPN, UniMas

June 2, 2013
U.S. Men vs. Germany
2:30 p.m. ET
RFK Stadium
Washington, D.C.
ESPN2, WatchESPN, UniMas

June 7, 2013
U.S. Men vs. Jamaica *
TBD National Stadium
Kingston, Jamaica
beIN SPORT

June 11, 2013
U.S. Men vs. Panama *
6:30 p.m. PT
CenturyLink Field
Seattle, Wash.
ESPN network, WatchESPN, Univision network

June 18, 2013
U.S. Men vs. Honduras *
7 p.m. MT
Rio Tinto Stadium
Sandy, Utah
ESPN, WatchESPN, UniMas

[PANDEMONEUM]

Bradley will b OUT for that first Friendly game vs Belgium
Roma will b playing 3 days before

that opens the spot for Zusi or Kljestan
if its Z., then opens the RM spot for someone

word is :
Chandler has been moved to RM for his club
Cherundolo is playing 90
Bocanegra getting some starts

im a little concerned about Over playing some of our guys
we have 2 friendlies, then 3 very important WCQ games
i hope he doesnt overplay the starters in the friendly games

[BUCKnation]

Those friendlies look like awesome games.

[PANDEMONEUM]

that Belgium team...they are in a "golden age" of soccer, for Belgium
lots of guys in their young/mid 20s
they play a high level, quality soccer

[kdawg32086]

Preliminary List of 29 guys called up for National Team duty:

Goalkeepers
Tim Howard
Brad Guzan
Nick Rimando
Sean Johnson
Bill Hamid
Tally Hall

Defenders
Clarence Goodson
Michael Parkhurst
Geoff Cameron
Fabian Johnson
Edgar Castillo
Omar Gonzalez
Matt Besler

Midfielders
DaMarcus Beasley
Michael Bradley
Maurice Edu
Sasha Kljestan
Jermaine Jones
Stuart Holden
Brek Shea
Daniel Williams
Graham Zusi
Brad Davis
Joe Corona

Forwards
Clint Dempsey
Jozy Altidore
Eddie Johnson
Herculez Gomez
Terrence Boyd

[PANDEMONEUM]

GAME DAY

U.S. Men vs. Belgium
8 p.m. ET
FirstEnergy Stadium
Cleveland, Ohio
ESPN2, WatchESPN, UniMas