So two nights ago my computer fell on the floor and the entire screen went black and has yet to return. I’m writing this from a library and it is a very sad day. Basically from now until I get a new computer, or at least a new monitor updates from here will be much less frequent, maybe about once a week. It’s quite disappointing seeing as the season just barely started, but I’m a college student and don’t have nearly enough money to go out and repair the screen. So from now until probably mid-May my updates will be much less frequent.
Of course I don’t want to skip over the Union, but at least for this week and any other that the USMNT plays, I will probably be focusing primarily on the national team. The Union played great, it was real nice to see Ruiz get his first goal in Chester and especially nice to see the defense continue playing as well as they had in the first game. Of course this was a brand-new Vancouver team without some of their best players, due to national team duty, but it was a win and a good game nonetheless.
What I want to focus on is obviously the US-Argentina game this past Saturday and the US-Paraguay game tonight. I’ve read and heard a lot of talk about how great Juan Agudelo could be and also a lot of talk the other way. That Agudelo is just a kid and we have no idea how good he could be. That Jozy Altidore played pretty much this well when he was coming up to. Personally watching him play I got the impression that Agudelo was confident at times, but very much balancing on the verge of overconfident. I watched Agudelo take on three Argentinian defenders, and naturally fail to get through them. That’s hardly a negative that he couldn’t get through three defenders, only one player can do that consistently and he only faces Argentina in practices. The problem is that Juan did this at least twice with open players by his side. He made a few solid passes, but it was also glaringly obvious that his on-field vision was lacking and that his ball-skills, while very good, where not exactly what he thinks they are. Agudelo is a kid and should be looked at that way. If he plays well tonight, I think it’s much more likely Bob keeps him off the field entirely than that he starts as many are calling for but I deexpect another second-half substitution, and starts making smarter passes I could see him getting starts in the latter stages of the Gold Cup. I think the kid is far from a star, but Jozy Altidore is not all that far ahead of him so he could easily compete for a starting spot on the team. He played as we expected, confident but sometimes cocky, well but sometimes fool-hardy. In short he played like you’d expect a young player to.
My biggest issue with the praise being laid upon Juan is that he was far from single-handedly the reason that the US turned their game around in the second half. Jonathan Spector was being torn apart by Angel Di Maria, again as we should expect. Spector has never played particularly well against speedy attackers. Chandler came in and played very well, again he may not have locked down Di Maria entirely, but few do. There’s a reason he plays where he does.
The most important change made at half-time was the substitution of Jermaine Jones for Juan Agudelo, but I believe this for different reasons. From what I saw Juan didn’t light things up from the front. Rather adding another attacking player lit things up. Jones, Edu and Bradley should never be on the field at the same time. If this game teaches us anything it is that. Spain only plays Iniesta and Xavi, and Fabregas sits. No matter how good he is, he does not help to form the best starting 11. Bradley would be a very solid super sub, for Holden if we need defense, or for Jones or Edu if we need offense. Maurice Edu plays Center Back for Rangers, he played attacking mid on Saturday.
Bob Bradley basically replaced Stuart Holden with Maurice Edu because he was the next mid on the chart. Agudelo is not better than Edu or Jones or Bradley, but his position is more along the lines of what the US needs. Can you imagine what they could have done if they’d had Stuart Holden playing behind Jozy all game, rather than a combination of Edu and Agudelo? Obviously not much considering Holden barely has one leg, so he probably can’t run well at the moment, but if he were healthy he makes this entire discussion moot. The conversation is about whether it is more important to have your best 11 players on the field or your best team. This game showed me that it is more about having your best team. I don’t believe Juan Agudelo is part of the best team. I personally believe that Mixx or even Jose Torres would do better there maybe bringing in Clint Dempsey and using Chandler out on the wing if he continues to play well with his club.
Ultimately I believe Bradley’s starting lineup looks like this with everyone healthy
————–Altidore/Agudelo——————–
———Donovan –Holden ——Dempsey———-
————–Jones——–Bradley————-
Bocanegra–Onyewu–Demerit–Spector/Chandler
With everyone healthy, the only substantial change I would make is to try Edu in the defense, I think that is the best way to combine the ideals of getting both your best 11 and your best team on the field. Edu has played in central defense at the club level and I’d like to see if he can do it on the international level.
The lineup I expect to see tonight looks significantly different from the lineup we saw Saturday, as many of the players are in the middle of seasons and their clubs likely wouldn’t approve of two games in four days.
————-Altidore/Agudelo———-
—-Donovan —Mixx—-Chandler/Klejstan—-
————–Edu—–Jones/Bradley———
Bocanegra/Spector–Onyewu/Ream—Demerit—Lichaj
Ultimately, if we can get the same kind of play tonight that we got in the second half of the Argentina game we’ll beat Paraguay and look good doing it. The bigger concern is getting a look at more players, a bit deeper on the roster and seeing how they play with at least a semblance of the top-team. I expect more substitution in this game, and definitely less familiar faces, but the starters will hold the key. The biggest problem is that this team has started so weakly in so many games recently. I think a part of this can be credited to Bob Bradley adjusting well at half, but at the same time why is he not making those adjustments before the game?
Most of the news this week is about the upcoming games, Union and USMNT. In case you somehow missed it the Union home-opener is this weekend against Vancouver and the USMNT is taking on Argentina on Saturday (and Paraguay next week.)
For starters here is a video put together by USSoccer of past games against Argentina, including goals from names like Wynalda, Lalas and Johnson, and big saves by Keller Of course there’s the same from Messi, Riquelme and Crespo.
And of course Tim Howard’s absolutely dominating performance against Argentina in the Meadowlands in 2008.
For starters a few links on US players you might not know too much about who got called up for this game
Marcus Hahnemann
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/mar/23/marcus-hahnemann-wolves-pilot
Timothy Chandler
http://www.yanks-abroad.com/get.php?mode=content&id=7549
Chandler and fellow German-American David Yelldell
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/double_deutsche_duo_of_timmy_chandler_david_yelldell_fitting_in_on_us_national_soccer_team/2011/03/24/ABr5z2QB_story.html?wprss=rss_sports
A few articles on other players you may know a bit more about, or just other things related to the USMNT-Argentina game in any way.
Jay Demerit on the game and a few other things, along with an article on Lionel Messi
http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/blog/_/name/young_mark/id/6254169/the-chance-stop-messi
Brad Guzan, who won’t be playing at all for the US this summer
http://www.dailysoccerfix.com/2011/3/24/2069728/brad-guzan-not-available-for-summers-gold-cup-not-in-u-s-camp
A look at how Bob Bradley makes these selections
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/sports/soccer/25vecsey.html?_r=2
Tim Howard talks about the 2008 game he played against Argentina in Jersey (highlights up top)
http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2011/03/howard-turning-focus-to-gold-cup-while-preparing-for-familiar-friendly-foe.html
Maurice Edu: The Last Action Hero
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/editor-s-picks/i-was-set-to-be-last-action-hero-before-maurice-edu-snatched-glory-1.1087319
Jozy’s from Jersey in case you forgot
http://www.yanks-abroad.com/get.php?mode=content&id=7551
http://www.nj.com/soccer-news/index.ssf/2011/03/tossed_around_europe_jozy_alti.html
The go-to Soccer By Ives piece (and comments) on who should start
http://www.soccerbyives.net/soccer_by_ives/2011/03/who-will-the-usmnt-start-vs-argentina.html
A little eye into Cary Camp
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/25/1079783/us-mens-team-ends-cary-stay-gets.html
A look at German-American soccer players, in light of Yelldell and Chandler
http://www.socceramerica.com/article/41714/usas-german-american-pipeline.html
And a look at the Union Vancouver Game,
Nowak says the lineup is still changing
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/soccer/118560839.html
A “keys to the game” style preview of the game. I think these things are almost worthless but I know someone will want to read it.
http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1110/major-league-soccer/2011/03/24/2409700/head-to-head-preview-philadelphia-union-vs-vancouver
Valdes is eager to please
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/118635839.html
A little bit of DOOP-troversy the Union have trademarked the word DOOP and its causing quite a scare around the supporter base. They’re very anxious to see how it turns out and what it means in practice.
http://www.brotherlygame.com/2011/3/24/2069616/philadelphia-union-trademark-doop-sons-of-ben
http://unioncityblue.com/?p=747
Video of Chad Ochocinco’s practice with Sporting Kansas Cityhttp://www.nfl.com/videos/cincinnati-bengals/09000d5d81eea388/Kickin-it-with-Ochocinco
The USMNT will take on Spain at Gillette on June 4th. Anyone interested in buying me tickets should do so because I want to be there.
More importantly the US has lined up a very legitimate list of teams to play against this summer. Obviously having all these teams in the US is a perk, but its also worth pointing out that the US is facing these teams. Between the end of the World Cup and this match up, the US will have faced Brazil, Argentina and Spain all in under a year. Of course they only played a handful of other matches but Chile and Paraguay are far from the bottom of the barrel. Both would compete and do well with the top teams in CONCACAF and dominate the bottom in the same ways that the US and Mexico do.
Here it is. The Red USMNT Jersey’s are officially out. The new motto which is yet to be decided will presumably be on the back, but here is what the kit will look like for this week. Pretty much what we expected, a red version of the World Cup kit, but I’m a big fan of the look.
More images here at US Soccer’s Facebook Page
Image via Wikipedia
After much fuss over the Carolina Railhawks losing their team and selling their assets online, the teams training facility in Cary, North Carolina will be hosting the USMNT. The national team will be playing games against Argentina (in NJ) and Paraguay (in Nashville) and it was decided that Carolina was the best middle ground for them to train at. Practices will be Monday through Thursday of next week and will not be open to the public. The roster for the upcoming games is expected to be announced by the end of this week. Wakemed has hosted the USMNT previously, before both the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.
USMNT websites have been abuzz over Teal Bunbury’s injury in a Sportingg KC scrimmage.
First immediately before the injury came this very good article on both Bunbury, and BoonBooree.
Also although the original time table I put up said that Bunbury would take about three months to heal, Sporting KC put up on their Twitter that it is merely a dislocated elbow and will only take 2-4 weeks to heal. In other words Bunbury will be fine by the Gold Cup, possibly even the Argentina/ Paraguay friendlies.
“Good news on Teal Bunbury’s injury today. No broken bones, no nerve damage. Teal is expected to return from dislocated elbow in 2-4 weeks.” according to the Sporting KC Twitter
Image via Wikipedia
I grew up watching soccer, playing soccer and learning to love the game, but I was a few years too late to really pay attention to the 1994 World Cup. I imagine it was beautiful, the denim kit, the prospect of attending a World Cup game as real as it could ever be, and of course the height of the Colombian national team. This team is most remembered for its tight connection with the Colombian drug cartels and Pablo Escobar. This is exactly what Faryd Mondragon, a young 23 year old playing in Argentina at the time, spoke about in a recent piece with Philly.com. Mondragon backed up the great Oscar Cordoba who backed up the legendary Rene Higuita.
Image via Wikipedia
Maybe when Peter Nowak hinted at the idea, that after signing Valdes and Mondragon, there would be more moves made before the beginning of the MLS season, you may have assumed that meant a nice big name coming in, maybe even a DP. Well no need to worry about things like that. So far at least the moves that have been made all seem to have been subtractions. Cristian Arietta was released, a few trialists were released and now they have let Argentinian Midfielder Eduardo Coudet move on also. They have brought a few new players into the midfield this offseason, so it is probaly just a case of too many pegs for not enough spaces.
http://www.phillysoccernews.com/teams/union2.php?article_id=6310
UPDATE: apparently Bielsa will actually not be staying with Chile. Barely a day after Chile announced that Bielsa would stay on for the Copa America, Bielsa has again announced that he will be leaving.
http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/news/newsid=1377371.html
For all those interested, (and because there’s not much going on right now, with the USMNT Egypt friendly being cancelled and the Union still in pre-season) Marco Bielsa, head coach of the Chilean Mean’s national team will be staying on. Although it had been constantly reported leading up to the recent US-Chile friendly that he was coaching without a contract and that no one really knew what exactly the situation was. It was known that Bielsa had a problem with the election of Jorge Sergovia as President of the Chilean federation, and he announced that he would be retiring due to the election. Later that election was proved to be invalid and the position was revoked from Sergovia. Eventually Sergio Jadue became president and Bielsa’s claims were called into question. Since then no one has really known what Bielsa would do, although it seems that a deadline has passed for him to resign from the post which apparently automatically reinstates his former contract through the Copa America this year.
Robbie Findley was hurt in training with his new club Nottingham. He injured his thigh and is expected to be out for up to 3 months. This also means that he will presumably be unavailable for both of the USMNT’s upcoming friendly’s against Argentina and Paraguay.
bpmangan
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