Excellent. My Jedi Mind Control techniques may have worked on Bruce Arena. Grant Wahl provides more evidence for Beasely moving to the right side. This is an excellent idea as it allows you to have Convey and Beasely on the field at the same time. Yes, yes. Good. It is all falling into place now. MWHAHAHAHA
Reader Sherri sent in a link to this awesome photo. Thanks!
(If you are wondering about the title of this post, see here.)
The United States MNT won 1-0 on a goal by Brian McBride in their final tune-up game against Latvia.
The starting line-up included some more of the big guns than the last game and the passing and the pace were much better. Keller had to make one save at the end of the game and the defense did well with Pope and Conrad holding down the middle. Cherundolo and Beasley were running the right side and while Cherundolo continued his steady play (crossing the ball that McBride headed home), DMB looked a little off. He was OK, but the DMB we have come to know and love wasn’t out there today. On the left side Eddie Lewis played left back and did well again throwing in some crosses and for a few minutes in the second half running wild on the flank, although at the end of the game he seemed to be taking some knocks. JOB played left mid and it was encouraging to see him out there. His vision and passing were pretty decent but his fitness still looked a little bad but at least he walked off the field in one piece. Landon and Pablo ran the middle of the field and Pablo played well stunting the few attacks Latvia threw at the US, LD was running at guys and making some good passes and while not playing great he seems poised to step it up in Germany.
Eddie Johnson was more aggressive as Bruce Arena called him out on. He was offsides a lot (some that were called incorrectly) and was pushing forward more using his speed to his advantage. McBride scored the goal from Cherundolo’s cross after getting another bump on his head. He played a classic McBride game, winning the 50/50’s and scoring the game winning goal.
Convey came on as a sub and over the 3 games he seems to be pushing the listless DMB for a position. Overall, the team played OK but not great. Over the next two weeks they will prepare for the Czech Republic and use these past three games for Bruce to point of their weakness and strengths and get ready to show the world we are for real.
USA MNT beat Venezuela 2-0 on goals by Clint Dempsey and Brian Ching. The starting line-up sounded like this:
Howard
Albright, Onyewu, Conrad, Bocanegra
Dempsey, Olsen, Wolff, Convey
Ching, Johnson
The man of the match by far was Bobby Convey. He was running down the flanks, attacking guys and throwing in some good crosses. Gooch was great again and overall it was a good effort. The first touches and passes are still off but hopefully they can be sharpened. Olsen and Wolff didnt look so good but DMB and LD came in as subs and it payed off right away with USA’s second goal. Despite an enormous amount of foul calls it was still a decent tune-up game. Hopefully with the next game on Sunday they can bring some momentum into Germany.
A second change has been made to US World Cup Roster, as Cory Gibbs is out with a knee injury, to be replaced by Gregg Berhalter.
You always feel bad when a guy loses his chance to go to the World Cup, but in Berhalter we gain someone who could have been on this roster anyway. He’s more experienced, but he’s slower than Gibbs. Unfortunately, we also lose a bit of flexibility along the backline without Gibbs.
What a messy game. Seems like everyone’s touch was off. Cherundolo’s rough second touch led to the Moroccan goal. Full credit to Morocco for taking this match seriously and thereby assisting the US in their preparations. Hopefully Claudio Reyna’s hamstring problem is not to serious, but really, shouldn’t we have predicted something like this would happen?
I was a little thrown by the formation Bruce put out there. It was kind of hard to tell how close the actual formation was to the announced one (I always have trouble with that when watching games on TV). Seemed as if Wolff and DMB were withdrawn and weren’t really forwards as ESPN had them listed. Gibbs managed to do well and look uncomfortable at the same time.Convey and Johnson showed potential while Dempsey and Ching didn’t much time to establish themselves.
In any event, I don’t want to hear stories of people predicting doom and gloom over this one match. Wait until after Friday’s match against Venezula before you begin the wailing and knashing of teeth.
Apologies for the long absence. I am presenting at a conference and moving all while trying to prepare for a two week journey to Europe. Here is a link to a nice little post camp round up. Hopefully I will be able to resume regular posting.
Seems like a lot of people are giddy over the fact that we will have yet another American in the EPL next season in the person of Eddie Lewis or Jay DeMerit (exactly which will be determined by Sunday’s Championship promotion playoff). However, I would like to take this opportunity to point out that Gregg Berhalter and his Energie Cottbus side also won promotion to the German Bundesliga. Yanks Abroad named Berhalter their player of the week.
Training camp began yesterday. While I’d love to say I have some original reportage, I would be lying to you if I did say that. So in lieu of of having a crack team of reporters on the scene, I will provide you, dearest reader, with a wealth of links:
Ok maybe that wasn’t a weath, more like a bunch. Whatever.
If you are going to Germany for the World Cup, leave a note in the comments. I was hoping we could get a soccer bloggers (and reader) meet up sometime before one of the matches.
Apparently Eddie Lewis has joined the camp in Cary, NC, and will return to Leeds United the middle of next week:
The Californian flyer has been given special dispensation by FIFA to take part in the Millennium Stadium showdown with Watford on May 21 – but the condition was that he attends a pre-World Cup training camp across the pond.
Nothing as of yet on USSoccer.com about the arrival of the team yesterday.
Tim Howard will spend next year on loan with English Premier League side Everton. Having spent as much time on the bench this year as Cecil Fielder spends at the hot dog stand, Howard appears to have a legitimate chance at first-team action with Everton. Too bad this loan didn’t happen a year ago.