The Official US Soccer thread

[Zeno]

Beasley got a start for Rangers today and had a goal and an assist. Hopefully he is feeling well enough afterward that he can start against England now.

[Renz]

McBride to leave Fulham
Veteran striker to return to America
By Lewis Rutledge Last updated: 28th May 2008

Veteran striker Brian McBride is to return to America after calling time on his Fulham career.

The 35-year-old moved to Craven Cottage in 2004 and went on to make over 150 appearances for the club.

He suffered a serious injury at the start of last season and missed much of Fulham's campaign, but he returned to play a key part in their successful battle against relegation.

McBride scored 40 goals for Fulham in total but he has now confirmed that he will be moving on this summer.

"After much consideration with my family, we have decided to leave Fulham after four and a half fantastic years," McBride told the club's official website.

"I have always stated my intention to return to America at some stage and this seems like the right moment in my career to move on.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank the club, the chairman, the staff and wonderful fans for all their support, on and off the pitch, during my time at Fulham.

"I take great pride in the fact that my last appearance for Fulham saw the club maintain its Premier League status.

"I leave with some wonderful memories from my time at Fulham and the Club will always be in my heart.

"I would like to wish the Club, Roy Hodgson and my team mates every success for the future."

[Zeno]

The score was not indicative of how badly outplayed the US was. I fault Bradley for a couple of things.

Clark and Bradley are not ideal playing next to each other in the midfield, both are by role and play holding or defensive midfielders, neither is an attacking/playmaking type of player. Bradley scored most of his goals in the Dutch league by playing off of more attacking players and making smart runs off the ball, he can't do that when he doesn't have that type of player alongside him. Dempsey, Donovan and Adu(and to a lesser extent Feilhaber) can play that role...Clark & Edu can't.

Josh Wolff should never see a US camp again...period. He hasn't scored a goal for the US since 2005 and was much less than average today, is it any surprise he was released by his awful German club when the season ended?

Eddie Johnson might have played his best match for the US in a long time but that doesn't really say a whole lot. He is a striker he is expected to score goals...how long has it been now? I haven't completely given up on him because he is still relatively young but he probably only has 1 season to prove himself before US soccer needs to look elsewhere.

The defense played solid, Bocanegra was beaten on the first goal and Pearce/Onyewu on the second but the score could have been much worse had they not played as well as they did. I expected Hejduk to be beaten at some point when he came in but inexplicably, almost all English attacks came at our left side in the scond half. Didn't stop Hejduk from errant passes and poorly timed runs...I have no idea what the fascination is with that guy.

Bring on Spain...I guess. That team has a lot more attacking flair than England, it'll be interesting to see how we match up there. Torres & Fabregas could shred us.

[Stout]

And somehow, for a big match on foreign soil, Donovon came up limp and couldn't play. Funny how that works.

I disagree about our defense. We had a few good individual efforts, but made critical errors and played altogether pitiful defense. It isn't to the defense's credit that England wasn't very good either.

[Zeno]

Originally Posted by Stout

And somehow, for a big match on foreign soil, Donovon came up limp and couldn't play. Funny how that works.

I disagree about our defense. We had a few good individual efforts, but made critical errors and played altogether pitiful defense. It isn't to the defense's credit that England wasn't very good either.

I would criticize Donovan too if he hadn't made the trip. That was his MO before, find a way to not make the trip. He was icing his groin on the sideline of the last Galaxy game...I'll give him a pass on this one.

I thought the defense played well especially when you consider we had zero attack and the midfield couldn't maintain possesion. The distribution from the defense was horrible though, Bocanegra especially seems to get in a mindset that if the MF can't seem to hold the ball he launches it in to the stands. None of them contributed anything to the attack with the exception of Pearce on a couple of runs.

I do have a few questions for Bob Bradley...What more does Adu have to do to prove he deserves a chance to start? When do you finally give up on Wolff? When will you figure out 2 defensive Mids doesn't work? Why in a friendly if you are trying to look at everyone do you wait to sub out a player until the 89th minute(especially an ineffective Johnson)?

[Stout]

I disagree about the defense because they were often out of position, made a bunch of really stupid fouls, and couldn't pass a lick. Plus, these guys are supposed to be National Team vets. Shame on them, and shame on Bradley.

[Zeno]

Originally Posted by Stout

I disagree about the defense because they were often out of position, made a bunch of really stupid fouls, and couldn't pass a lick. Plus, these guys are supposed to be National Team vets. Shame on them, and shame on Bradley.

Speaking of stupid fouls, Ricardo Clark was the biggest culprit and seeing the replays of Gerrards goal is was either him or Bradley that failed to mark up Gerrard leaving him a turn from being one on one with Guzan.

The whole team as a whole was disappointing but if I had to pick one area that played better than the other it was our defense, they didn't give up an inordinate amount of quality shots despite England having the vast majority of possesion.

There need to be a lot of changes but I wouldn't change our back 4(or 5 if you include GK).

[Zeno]

Newcastle after Altidore, Bradley
Posted: Thursday May 29, 2008 10:25AM ET

Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan is planning a swoop for USA pair Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore. New York hitman Altidore, 18, wants a move to Europe while midfielder Bradley, 20, has impressed for Dutch side Heerenveen.

The Sun

If it happens I hope it works out better for them than the last American at Newcastle...also if they both join Newcastle I'll join Stout on the bandwagon.

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Roster for US-Spain (pretty much the same as England. Stupid MLS schedule):

GOALKEEPERS- Dominic Cervi (out of contract), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Tim Howard (Everton FC)


DEFENDERS- Carlos Bocanegra (out of contract), Dan Califf (FC Midtjylland), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United)


MIDFIELDERS- Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Eddie Lewis (Derby County), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids)


FORWARDS- Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Nate Jaqua (out of contract), Eddie Johnson (Fulham FC), Josh Wolff (out of contract)

[Stout]

Originally Posted by Zeno

Newcastle after Altidore, Bradley
Posted: Thursday May 29, 2008 10:25AM ET

Newcastle boss Kevin Keegan is planning a swoop for USA pair Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore. New York hitman Altidore, 18, wants a move to Europe while midfielder Bradley, 20, has impressed for Dutch side Heerenveen.

The Sun

If it happens I hope it works out better for them than the last American at Newcastle...also if they both join Newcastle I'll join Stout on the bandwagon.

Really? Where's that article from? I'd take them, but to be honest I wouldn't count Bradley a full-time starter. I love our young American stars, but like Gooch learned, you have to be a step above to start in the Premier league.

And you KNOW you want to join the Toon Army

[Zeno]

Originally Posted by Stout

Really? Where's that article from? I'd take them, but to be honest I wouldn't count Bradley a full-time starter. I love our young American stars, but like Gooch learned, you have to be a step above to start in the Premier league.

And you KNOW you want to join the Toon Army

Here is the article....

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...cle1213552.ece

[Zeno]

Originally Posted by coyoteshockeyfan

Roster for US-Spain (pretty much the same as England. Stupid MLS schedule):

Only change is the addition of Mastroeni. Why bother scheduling higher quality opponents if you don't bring your best players or if you just plan on running out players who are not going to be factors in 2010?

Sigh...its almost like USSF doesn't want us to get better

[cardfaninfl]

Originally Posted by Zeno

Why bother scheduling higher quality opponents if you don't bring your best players or if you just plan on running out players who are not going to be factors in 2010?

Sigh...its almost like USSF doesn't want us to get better

Yep. This was a perfect opportunity to put the 22 players, you envision for 2010, on the pitch with world class opposition. Not only to see how they perform against some of the world's best, but to see how well they perform together. Zeno made the point that Ricardo and Bradley don't fit together. This would be a perfect time to try the combination of Sasha, Alverez or Holden with Bradley...oops, my bad...they are not good enough to make the team. Ok..., maybe Freddie in a central mid or trailing forward with Bradley. My point is the MNT has a number of question marks that need answering, but a number of possibilities as well that need to be tested.

Excluding younger players from this opportunity and leaving them off this team is bad decision making. Stubornly playing a 4-4-2 when the team make up will force you sit one of your better players for someone of much lesser ability is arrogance in your own stupidity. Starting players that have no chance of going to South Africa, while a potential starting XI is sitting on the bench, uninjured...that moves from the arrogant, bad decision area to the you don't get it on a fundamental level realm.

[Zeno]

Originally Posted by cardfaninfl

Excluding younger players from this opportunity and leaving them off this team is bad decision making. Stubornly playing a 4-4-2 when the team make up will force you sit one of your better players for someone of much lesser ability is arrogance in your own stupidity. Starting players that have no chance of going to South Africa, while a potential starting XI is sitting on the bench, uninjured...that moves from the arrogant, bad decision area to the you don't get it on a fundamental level realm.

There are plenty of younger players who deserve a chance to prove themselves in friendlies going in to WCQ...players you mentioned like Holden, Alvarez, Kljestan and others in Mapp, Cooper, Rogers, Szetela, Zimmerman, McCarty, Subotic etc. The excuse they give for Adu is he is too young..he's 18 been playing pro soccer since he was 14, he plays for one of the best clubs in Portugal, so what he doesn't start its not like he is 31 and was just released from a Div 2 German Team *cough*Wolff*cough*. The excuse for Altidore is alot of the same, he's only 18, he has played a lot of games, blah blah blah...he is the ONLY US forward to score a goal this year against Mexico no less. We hear no excuses for Cooper only a puzzling silence from USSF, his last game he came on the field and scored a goal in like 5 minutes.

How I'd love to see Cooper and Altidore given even half a game playing next to each other with a MF of Dempsey & Donovan on the wings and Bradley & Adu in the center or better yet a 3-5-2 with Beasley & Dempsey on the wings and a triangle of Donovan-Adu-Bradley. Does US soccer not think Donovan has the range or pace to play the entire length of the field? Or is US Soccer too rigid and unimaginative?

I can imagine what Guus Hiddink would do with this team...I assure you that the players would be put in the best position to make a difference on the field and the 4-4-2 would likely be scrapped. Hiddink was there after WC '06, he speaks English, is well established and there is no way we could not have outbid Australlia or Russia for his services. Every one of his National Teams have made it out of the group stages and he has a 52-20-19 record as an Int'l coach with 2 4th place finishes in the WC(his only team not to make it to the third place game was Australlia which lost to Italy 1-0 in the last WC on a last minute PK)....our federation could only dream to be that successful. I guess the salary for $2.5 million a year or so scared away the USSF but you have to pay for quality.

[Milgod]

Originally Posted by Zeno

How I'd love to see Cooper and Altidore given even half a game playing next to each other with a MF of Dempsey & Donovan on the wings and Bradley & Adu in the center or better yet a 3-5-2 with Beasley & Dempsey on the wings and a triangle of Donovan-Adu-Bradley. Does US soccer not think Donovan has the range or pace to play the entire length of the field? Or is US Soccer too rigid and unimaginative?

That actually excited me. It's what everyone (well a lot of people) would like to see. There is a pretty good chance that would be able to compete at a good level too. Unlike Wolff not being able to hold onto the ball for more than one pass.