2009 Dynamo & USMNT Soccer Thread

[Joel]

why so few mls'ers for the confed cup, and then so many for the gold cup? i understand they can't be gone from their clubs for all that time, but wouldn't mixing up the two groups a bit more now help with cohesiveness later?

[papabear]

Originally Posted by Joel

why so few mls'ers for the confed cup, and then so many for the gold cup? i understand they can't be gone from their clubs for all that time, but wouldn't mixing up the two groups a bit more now help with cohesiveness later?

I think what you saw in the Confed cup is basically what you are going to get through this world cup cycle outside of a few minor changes or injuries. Bradley is basically just sending the B-Team. He's got some older guys for leadership and a few guys who will be apart of WC qualifying getting a few more minutes. Other than that it's guys trying out to fill in an injury role.

[papabear]

usa usa usa usa

[popanot]

Originally Posted by papabear

usa usa usa usa

It's amazing how much better Brazil is/was at handling the ball than team USA (or a lot of teams for that matter). I missed the first half, but you could tell it was just a matter of time before Brazil got back in it the way they had the US on their heels in the second half. It seemed they played down the US end the entire half. The US played great and did us proud, but they still have a ways to go. They've got get better at passing and setting up plays, with a little more aggression on O' to have a chance in the WC.

[papabear]

Originally Posted by popanot

It's amazing how much better Brazil is/was at handling the ball than team USA (or a lot of teams for that matter). I missed the first half, but you could tell it was just a matter of time before Brazil got back in it the way they had the US on their heels in the second half. It seemed they played down the US end the entire half. The US played great and did us proud, but they still have a ways to go. They've got get better at passing and setting up plays, with a little more aggression on O' to have a chance in the WC.

They were able to just sit back against Spain and keep them out of the goal. I knew that if we weren't able to keep possession at least a little that Brazil would eventually pick them apart. While I'm thrilled with the effort, I'm not near as warm and fuzzy over this team as some of the stuff I read is. As a team our first touch and passing still isn't at the level it needs to be. They rely entirely too much on the long ball at times when they should just be trying to hold the ball. I liked the way they used their speed for quick counterstrikes the last few matches, but you can't let Brazil spend the entire match in the attacking third.

After seeing the Astros look like a good team on Saturday (took my nephew to his first Big league game) and the first half of the USA match I was having a pretty good weekend....then the second half came. To top it all off the Dynamo choked against Arena and the Galaxy. I was thoroughly depressed by the time I went to bed last night.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by papabear

I was thoroughly depressed by the time I went to bed last night.

Me too. Still a little sad actually.

The US has to sit back and play the counters. That's it. They play too many long passes forward sometimes, but sometimes that's because they aren't good enough to possess the ball long enough to matriculate it up the pitch, so to speak.

More bad news for Dynamo fans, though potentially good for the development of the USMNT... Rico is drawing interest from the French team Rennes, the squad that employs Bocanegra now.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,195...405043,00.html
http://blogs.chron.com/soccer/archiv...onversa_1.html

Talks are preliminary right now and might go nowhere, but Rico going somewhere overseas seems inevitable to me at some point. I'm a little surprised he didn't leave last year actually.

As for the loss to the Gals, I didn't like the starting 11, but with Hainault gone, Waibel and Barrett unavailable, options were limited... but I really would have preferred to have Mulrooney at D-Mid and keep Holden in his normal spot with Davis wide left. Maybe put Ashe at right back (or left... not sure which Chabala prefers more). I think that would have been less disruptive to the offensive engine. Heck, put Mullan at RB and Ashe in front of him, just keep Davis out left and Mulrooney in the middle without Rico.

[superbowlbound]

You're absolutely right. We are not good enough at possessing the ball, period. I think part of that is that we are a very good counter-attacking team, so whenever we win the ball in midfield the first reaction is "attack! attack!" which leads to the poor passing and ill-advised long balls. In the second half of the Brazil match, there were several opportunities for the US to hold on to the ball for 30-40 seconds more at a time before attempting to get the ball in on goal, and every time, the second pressure came, especially in midfield, they would panic and send an ill-advised long ball at a poor run, presumably because they were afraid of being dispossessed. That absolutely has to be improved before the end of WC qualifying, or it's going to be a very short cup for the US, especially considering how much FIFA dislikes us. You know we're going to be in either the Group of Death or the other one that's just as strong. Really the only thing we've got going for us as far as some love for the draw goes is that we currently lead the world in ticket sales.

But that's neither here nor there. What is really troubling to me is the way that our players seem to drift in and out of the game. feilhaber and altidore were two prime examples of players that played well against spain (altidore was in and out, but that's what you get from a 19 year old who doesn't get any club minutes), but neither of them made a mark against brazil.

Also, does landon donovan bother the crap out of anyone else? He's a talented player, sure, but he's nearly crumbled under the expectations of greatness, as evidenced by that ill-advised low cross in the spain match. He's afraid to make mistakes, though that's not entirely his fault. What bothered me most about him vs. brazil was his celebration after his goal. Running around the field shouting "me! me! me!" really? If it wasn't for the perfect ball you got, you wouldn't have even had a shot on goal in the first place. Congratulations on taking the shot when you literally didn't have any other options. I don't know, maybe I'm being hard on him, but when you're the face of a team that's been mired in mediocrity the way the US squad has, it just seems like a little more "we" than "me" could go a long way. Some of our players looked a little put off by his celebration. They just looked a whole heck of a lot happier for Dempsey than they did for Donovan. Maybe that's just me not liking him, but that's what I saw. Thoughts?