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The Official USA Thread

spartans5

By spartans5,
in 2010 World Cup Forum

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Jason the Yank

Jason the Yank

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Only because you weren't there as the arbiter of excitement to determine precisely how they should react for them.

Injury-time winners that send you through to the next round are to be celebrated with a stiff upper lip and a quiet "chip, chip, cheerio." Maybe a golf clap as well, if you're feeling really emotional.

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noah08

noah08

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The first two games would have liked to see Spector go outside back to give speed and experience.

Bocanegra CD "gooch" bench:)

Amazing USA!!!!!

Go Yanks!!!!!!!!!

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mlyons

mlyons

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Late to the party, but can I just say... Holy. ****.

From out of the tournament to group winners in 11 seconds. This WC has been an emotional rollercoaster; I'm going to have to spend the next few days getting myself mentally prepared for Saturday. If we ever had a chance to get to the semis this is it, although I'm not getting my hopes up just yet.

I'm hoping we play:

Altidore - Dempsey

Donovan - Bradley - Edu - Holden/Feilhaber

Bocanegra - Onyewu (if healthy) - DeMerit - Cherundolo

Ick. Dempsey as a striker doesn't work for the national team. Bradley's system doesn't really allow one striker to play behind the other, so Dempsey loses a lot of his effectiveness. The first half of the Turkey friendly and the fifteen minutes they played with Dempsey at striker yesterday are pretty good evidence of that, I think.
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Ceching You Out

Ceching You Out

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Ick. Dempsey as a striker doesn't work for the national team. Bradley's system doesn't really allow one striker to play behind the other, so Dempsey loses a lot of his effectiveness. The first half of the Turkey friendly and the fifteen minutes they played with Dempsey at striker yesterday are pretty good evidence of that, I think.

That's essentially the formation we used the second half of the Slovenia game when we were most effective. Dempsey doesn't really sit in the striker's role, he does his usual wandering between the midfield and Altidore. The difference is that if he's nominally a forward, we have another midfielder behind him to give us width (in that game think of Feilhaber). When he plays as a right/left midfielder his floating routine leads him too close to either the two strikers or the two CMs and crowds the middle of the pitch. Since we're simply not a team that can play two-touch through the heart of a defense, playing that narrow leads us to splashing long balls over the top, whereas up top he can provide another link-up with Altidore while occasionally making the second run at the defense.

Honestly, I don't think Dempsey did a terrible job at striker on Wednesday. He wasn't at his best, but given the desperation of the game he had run himself ragged. If we had any depth I think he would've been subbed off; sadly an exhausted Dempsey is still better than our bench.

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mlyons

mlyons

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That's essentially the formation we used the second half of the Slovenia game when we were most effective. Dempsey doesn't really sit in the striker's role, he does his usual wandering between the midfield and Altidore. The difference is that if he's nominally a forward, we have another midfielder behind him to give us width (in that game think of Feilhaber). When he plays as a right/left midfielder his floating routine leads him too close to either the two strikers or the two CMs and crowds the middle of the pitch. Since we're simply not a team that can play two-touch through the heart of a defense, playing that narrow leads us to splashing long balls over the top, whereas up top he can provide another link-up with Altidore while occasionally making the second run at the defense.

Honestly, I don't think Dempsey did a terrible job at striker on Wednesday. He wasn't at his best, but given the desperation of the game he had run himself ragged. If we had any depth I think he would've been subbed off; sadly an exhausted Dempsey is still better than our bench.

I disagree; we looked best when Edu came off for Buddle and Dempsey shifted back to the wing with Feilhaber in the middle.
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Gordon Comstock

Gordon Comstock

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Andy, I found it in XL on ebay. It's way too big for me so I won't buy it but in case you're interested they're selling 10 of them apparently: http://cgi.ebay.com/US-World-Cup-2010-Soccer-Jersey-South-Africa-Nike-logo-/140420520524?cmd=ViewItem&pt=US_Men_s_Athletic_Apparel&hash=item20b1b71a4c
xl's too big for my skinny arms. thanks for thinking of me though, I appreciate it.
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mlyons

mlyons

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that was a result of pressure and tired legs more than anything else. buddle was absolutely woeful and should not see any game time for the rest of the cup.
I'm not sure there are better alternatives at this point if Bradley doesn't move away from the 4-4-2. Dempsey is much better on the wing, and Findley and Gomez have been just as bad as Buddle.
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Jason the Yank

Jason the Yank

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ESPN Earns 4.4 Overnight Rating For Yesterday's U.S.-Algeria Game ESPN earned a 4.4 overnight Nielsen rating for yesterday's U.S.-Algeria FIFA World Cup match, marking the second-best World Cup overnight ever on the network, behind only Germany-U.S. in '02.

h/t Sports Business Daily.

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Jason the Yank

Jason the Yank

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The change is taking place.

I hate soccer.

Strike that. I hated soccer until Wednesday morning. Despised it to the point where I was ready to back the bitterest man in Pittsburgh sports — one John Steigerwald — in his drive for a federal ban of the sport.

Of course, I had never watched a soccer game, er, match, in its entirety. And it only happened yesterday because a colleague, one Rob Rossi (the second-bitterest man in Pittsburgh sports), usurped my column idea by writing an analysis piece on Sergei Gonchar.

I don't like Rossi very much.

Crunched for time, I grew desperate — desperate enough to give soccer a try. I'd lived 16,362 days on this planet without a single morning devoted to soccer. This would be the one. I flicked on U.S.-Algeria at 10 a.m., intending to write a diary-style column in which I would surely spew ridicule and vow never to watch another game (sorry, match).

But something happened on the way to the rip job.

I became riveted.

My preconceived notions were shattered.

Indeed, I am going to watch the next U.S. game (match) Saturday. Heck, I'm gonna plan my day around it, and I imagine I'm not alone. If America can't get behind this team — which scored a dramatic late goal to win, 1-0 — it'll never get behind a soccer team.

To the diary ...

FIRST HALF

• I email a colleague that I am about to watch a soccer game (match). He informs me that his house is a "World Cup-free zone."

• Algeria's coach, Rabah Saddane, looks like what I'd imagine Matt Millen would look like at 102 years old.

• Who said soccer is void of scoring chances? Algeria just hit the crossbar, and the Americans are missing more open nets than Chris Kunitz.

• How did I manage to live 16,362 days without Ian Darke? He is the most entertaining broadcaster I have heard since Howard Cosell. He just said, in his thick British accent, of the Algerians: "They have looked a little bit punchless, almost as if they could go to the end of July without scoring."

• Nugget from Darke on the fabled Egypt-Algeria rivalry: "There's no love lost. In fact, the (Algerian) team bus was stoned when they went to Cairo."

• A U.S. goal is disallowed on a blown offside call. Why no video replay in soccer? I call a buddy who played in college. "This is the world's game, not America's," he says. "Ain't gonna happen."

• Pleasantly stunned to see no commercials the entire first half. Shocked at the constant flow of play. Hockey and baseball take note: When the ball (or puck) sails out of play, get it back in and go!

• Thirty-five minutes in, the shots are 3-1. And I'm enjoying it.

SECOND HALF

• America's Clint Dempsey just hit the post and flubbed a rebound. The tension is growing. Great theater. Algeria has not scored in the tournament and appears to have very little interest in doing so.

• The camera pans to U.S. fans dressed as Elvis impersonators. Darke is all over it: "It's now or never for the USA, you could say."

• My friend who played soccer texts me that ex-Pitt basketball player Jermaine Dixon, of all people, just posted the following on his Twitter page: "Get a (expletive) goal." Wait, didn't Dixon go entire games without converting a shot, too?

• Is injury time the same as stoppage time? Why is nobody saying exactly how much time is left!!! What kind of sport is this?

• Landon Donovan scores! He deliriously dives onto the ground, and his teammates dive on top of him. It is a classic American sports moment. I have no idea how much time is left. I have no idea if it's legal that a U.S. player was in the net before the ball. I don't care. This is incredible.

"Oh, can you believe this?" Darke exclaims. "Go, Go, USA! You could not write a script like this!"

He might as well have been talking about my morning. Maybe Steiggy will come over for Saturday's big game.

Sorry, match.

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Jason the Yank

Jason the Yank

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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama called the U.S. World Cup soccer team Thursday to congratulate it on an "extraordinary victory" this week and to wish the team luck in the next round of the tournament.

The U.S. team scored in injury time at the end of the second half Wednesday to beat Algeria 1-0 and advance out of group play.

The game was poorly timed for the president, coming as he accepted the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who had served as his top commander in Afghanistan. Obama was meeting with McChrystal's replacement, Gen. David Petraeus, in the Oval Office when he heard staffers in the West Wing erupt in cheers when U.S. midfielder Landon Donovan scored the winning goal.

During his call with the team, Obama congratulated Donovan on the goal. He also asked goalkeeper Tim Howard how his ribs were feeling after the injury he suffered in the team's first game, and checked on midfielder Clint Dempsey, who got a split lip in Wednesday's game.

Obama told the team the entire country would be cheering when the Americans face Ghana on Saturday.

Obama so cool. :cool:

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Jason the Yank

Jason the Yank

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The Sporting News talks to Ian Darke.

DL: People here are calling your call of that goal to Al Michaels' "Miracle on Ice" at Lake Placid in 1980. I don't know how familiar you are with that, but how important that sporting event is in America, that's what people are considering this goal by Landon Donovan and your call. I don't know if you've talked to people here in America, but do you have a sense of how important that was?

Darke: Only from what my bosses here at ESPN were saying in the bar last night, that it captured the imagination of the American public possibly like no other moment in this particular game in its history. To be honest, I don't. I'm sitting in a hotel bar in South Africa and I can only imagine.

What I’m absolutely delighted about, to be honest with you, is that soccer has taken a long time to take any kind of root, or really to galvanize people's imagination in the United States, but I think what happened here somehow…some kind of big step has been taken for the game. I don't know if that can be sustained – that level of interest – but I think somehow a boundary has been crossed and people who didn't care about it do care about it and everybody is talking about it. If my line of commentary has helped in any way in that, that's great. As a commentator you hope you do have the opportunity to come up with one line that will live a little in history. From my point of view, that's excellent.

DL: Let's talk about that one line because there is some debate here as to whether or not you say, "goal goal USA" or "go go USA." I thought just based on your accent and how you were saying it, you said "goal" we just didn't hear the "L" at the end.

Darke: I think it got lost in all the noise and emotion. I think what I said was "go go USA" because it just came out, like I said before, it is somehow instinctively what came out. They were playing it across the network yesterday and I think I might be the only one who hasn’t heard it back as yet. I'm not in the international broadcast center, I'm traveling to games – I was at the Italy game today – so I haven't had time, but a lot of people are talking to me about it.

I couldn't honestly tell you exactly what I did say. I can't remember what I did say. I will probably go and listen to it back. I just hope it was good.

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