The most critical day for U.S. Soccer this year was the win in Honduras that secured the trip to South Africa. But nearly as important was yesterday’s draw to set the field of 32. And after much gnashing of teeth when FIFA put the USA in the pot of what was essentially #4 seeds, after hearing from everyone we would once again get the Group of Death, the draw occurred. And lo! It was good…
Charlize with the Draw
It doesn’t get much better than that. We open against England on June 12 – a game that’s likely to set TV ratings records for soccer in this country. Get points from the limeys and we could win the group. Even with an opening loss, you’re looking at a pair of games against Algeria and Slovenia in which we will be the favorite. Watching the draw over lunch, I was so psyched to see Algeria (one of the weaker African teams) pop up on the screen, then for the final slot I was just hoping we could avoid France or Portugal… Slovenia has some good players, but it’s their first World Cup and they simply don’t provide as many problems as most of the other European teams. Read the rest of this entry ?
MLS Cup kicks off in about two hours, featuring the back-from-the-dead L.A. Galaxy, last year’s dysfunctional laughing stock, vs. hot-at-the-right-time Real Salt Lake – they of the many merry midfielders. The news from Seattle is the locals have embraced the championship with nearly as much vigor as they took to their Sounders this year, and 40,000 are expected despite the crap weather. Good news for MLS. Even better news if the Galaxy pulls it off – what a fitting final chapter to this whole Beckham Experiment thing. But Salt Lake has only beat two of the supposedly best/most talented teams in Columbus and Chicago to get here, and anyone who’s watched them the past month knows they are fully capable of controlling play and scoring goals.
Of course Beckham is carrying an injury (say this for the man – he knows drama) and could be fairly limited. He’s likely one crunching Kyle Beckerman tackle from being out. The real key to this match of course is league MVP Landon Donovan. Salt Lake will be completely fixated on denying him the ball, but that might not be enough. And maybe it opens the way for someone like Mike Magee or Alan Gordon to be the hero. I’ve been predicting L.A. would win it all for months (just thought they’d be playing the Fire) so I won’t change my pick now.
In other news, FIFA denied Ireland’s request for a reply against France after now-infamous Hand-of-Frog, featuring Thierry Henry (video after the bump). Of course what else are FIFA going to do? Admit that it’s time to employ instant-replay and other technology to prevent these kinds of mistakes? Yeah, right. It’s going to take something like this at the actual World Cup before they move forward. Read the rest of this entry ?
The World Cup field is set (though Ireland may yet have something to say about that), and the U.S. acquired another pair of losses in Europe over this latest international break. After dominating Slovakia everywhere except the final third, it was 1-0 Slovaks. And then, with an 80% second-tier squad, Team America proceeded to get spanked by Denmark 3-1.
I’ve often called for Coach Bob Bradley to trust his depth and play other guys beyond his chosen core group of 7-8 surefire starters, but performances like these illustrate that without guys like Donovan, Gooch, Dempsey, and yes Jermaine Jones, Team America looks very average. The midfield was completely overrun versus the Danes, with Michael Bradley (who starts every game he’s eligible) attempting to run the show. Not a good sign. A couple of upward trends from these games included Jeff Cunningham’s workrate and finishing ability, Jonathan Bornstein’s continued play and Jon Spector showcasing his versatility.
So without further adieu, here’s The 23 – the players Beemsville would bring to South Africa if we were in charge: Read the rest of this entry ?
Major League Soccer has survived the contraction of the early aughts to emerge as a league with 15 teams. This goes to 16 teams next year with two more expansion teams waiting in the wings. In the bad old days, 75% of the teams made the playoffs, but nowadays a playoff berth is actually an achievement so the final 8 are pretty solid teams. And the fact that going into the last two weekend’s of league play only two teams were eliminated from playoff contention made for a highly competitive and exciting finish. While the Eurosnobs would like to mimic the Old Country and do away with the playoffs, let me add to the chorus and assure everyone that our way is better. Read the rest of this entry ?
Yes, this game is really, really fun. After (ahem) only a few hours of dedicated play-testing, I can report a number of improvements over last year’s edition. Team America is tougher for one thing (finally garnering some respect), and the game physics and passing seem more realistic. Basically, everything mentioned in my demo preview still stands.
Soccer bloggers across the nation are watching their productivity decline. It’s all reminiscent of the summer several years ago when GTA San Andreas came out, and suddenly a number of popular comic books were inexplicable delayed as the freelance community suddenly had something else to do.
Hit me up on PS3 for a match: MacShark_72. But don’t bring the weak stuff. I’m like the Cobra-Kai dojo – No mercy and I will sweep the leg…
An eventful week for the US Men’s National Team saw qualification for next year’s World Cup overshadowed by the terrible news of a deadly car wreck that left promising forward Charlie Davies severely injured and a young woman dead. Much has been written about this, so I won’t add to it; suffice to say that our thoughts go out to the affected families.
So Team America battled to a 2-2 tie against Costa Rica in D.C. Wednesday. It was an emotional and error-plagued performance that really means nothing in the grand scheme other than putting the more-deserving Honduras in the World Cup instead of the Ticos. The U.S. wins the hexagonal for the second straight cycle, which is the rough equivalent of winning your low-major conference tournament by 20 in March: you still know you’re going to get a crappy seed. Also the U.S. lost defender Oguchi Onyewu to a knee injury that will keep him out for several months and puts his Milan career in doubt. Read the rest of this entry ?
Team America is World Cup bound. All the teeth-gnashing and hand-wringing about the squad’s inconsistent play, their inability to score goals from the run of play, Coach Bob Bradley’s squad selection – it can all go away, at least for a little while. The US beat Honduras 3-2 Saturday night in San Pedro Sula, the only team to win down there during qualification. And they did it by battling hard, refusing to quit even after going down a goal, and riding the superior skill and tireless efforts of one Landon Donovan.
I ended up watching this game on my computer via alternating webfeeds from Central America and Iraq (of all places). The quality was bad and the feed lagged at times, but at least I was able to watch. Five point in your bound-for-South Africa Pentagram…
In a strange and annoying turn reminiscent of the mid-90s, US Soccer has managed to not have the second-to-last World Cup Qualifier broadcast tomorrow. Oh, the game is available for viewing, via closed-circuit TV in a handful of bars across the country, but no pay-per-view, no web-cast, nada. For me, this would mean a drive to Chicago if I really wanted to watch this game. And I really want to watch this game – just not enough to spend six hours in the car.
It’s an important, vital match. Win or tie and Team America is in the World Cup. Lose and the last game against Costa Rica in D.C. next Wednesday becomes scary. Just to review: tomorrow I can watch Bahrain v. New Zealand or Denmark v. Sweden, or even freaking Liechtenstein v. Azerbaijan. But no USA v. Honduras. Read the rest of this entry ?
The demo for EA Sports’ FIFA Soccer 10 came out last week, so we’re on the spot with some early impressions after a stint of play-testing. Apparently, the game drops in Europe tomorrow, but on this side of the Atlantic we have to wait until October 20. That gives all those Euros nearly three weeks to refine their skills before I open up the whip-ass on them.
I’ve played FIFA 09 into oblivion so I definitely have some opinions about the next version. First off, based on the demo, the general physics are more lifelike and accurate. This not only improves player movement and the way the ball flies around, but nuances such as passing, defensive challenges, and shooting position. Most of the familiar online features will make a return, and you can always count on a few new tweaks. The graphics have some subtle improvements, the soundtrack will be updated, and most importantly, the rosters will be current and (hopefully) adjusted to reflect the world of football. For me it will be interesting to see if the USA team has improved in the eyes of the EA Sports developers – particularly in light of the Confederations Cup showing; I thought our players were given short shrift last time, but then again I’m biased. Read the rest of this entry ?
The US Under-20 World Cup team looked solid today en route to their 4-1 victory over Cameroon. Just a few days earlier, they looked extremely shaky losing to Germany 3-0. With youth teams, you can always cover yourself with the cliche: they’re young and inconsistent, blah-blah-blah. But Coach Thomas Rongen’s latest squad is even stranger than most. In the last cycle we had a group of heralded players headlined by Jozy Altidore, Freddy Adu, and Michael Bradley. This time we have Dilly Duka, Ike Opara, and Brek Shea – a group familiar to only the hardest of the hardcore US Soccer fans. The team includes a fair amount of college players, some guys from Europe, and some guys playing in PDL and USL-1. Not many guys from MLS (even fewer who actually play). It’s a very random-looking team. What does this say about the state of USA soccer development? Not much, unfortunately.
It’s a Catch-22 with American players getting lost in the shuffle. MLS teams would rather pay more for foreigners with pedigrees than develop the home talent, and since the Reserve-lead closed down last year, and with entry-level salaries so ridiculously low, staying in college has seemed reasonable for guys like Duka, and keeper Brian Perk. The young guys find it difficult to head for Europe unless they can secure a European passport, which eliminates many. That’s why you have guys like Tony Taylor and Gale Agbossoumonde who play in USL-1 (the USA second division). It all adds up to us being behind the countries with more established leagues – this despite many promises by US Soccer, MLS, Nike, and now Adidas. Take, for example, Germany. Their U20s are mostly signed to Bundesliga clubs. They train with the senior team and play reserve matches in the German Third Division, or go out on loans to Second Division teams, etc. This means they’re playing in competitive games. Unlike the guys warming the bench in MLS or playing NCAA soccer, with all it’s weird rules and questionable coaching. No wonder we looked disjointed and inept in the opener. Read the rest of this entry ?
MLS Cup kicks off 
I’ve often called for Coach Bob Bradley to trust his depth and play other guys beyond his chosen core group of 7-8 surefire starters, but performances like these illustrate that without guys like Donovan, Gooch, Dempsey, and yes Jermaine Jones, Team America looks very average. The midfield was completely overrun versus the Danes, with Michael Bradley (who starts every game he’s eligible) attempting to run the show. Not a good sign. A couple of upward trends from these games included Jeff Cunningham’s workrate and finishing ability, Jonathan Bornstein’s continued play and Jon Spector showcasing his versatility.
Major League Soccer has survived the contraction of the early aughts to emerge as a league with 15 teams. This goes to 16 teams next year with two more expansion teams waiting in the wings. In the bad old days, 75% of the teams made the playoffs, but nowadays a playoff berth is actually an achievement so the final 8 are pretty solid teams. And the fact that going into the last two weekend’s of league play only two teams were eliminated from playoff contention made for a highly competitive and exciting finish. While the Eurosnobs would like to mimic the Old Country and do away with the playoffs, let me add to the chorus and assure everyone that our way is better. 
The demo for EA Sports’ FIFA Soccer 10 came out last week, so we’re on the spot with some early impressions after a stint of play-testing. Apparently, the game drops in Europe tomorrow, but on this side of the Atlantic we have to wait until October 20. That gives all those Euros nearly three weeks to refine their skills before I open up the whip-ass on them.
The US Under-20 World Cup team looked solid today en route to their 
