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U.S. Men's National Soccer (Official Thread)

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Merih;1926387; said:
He is only 21 years old...all the talent is there I just think too much was asked too soon.
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Heard fortune, fame, and the things that go with it got to his head too. It's affected his play tremendously.

Robbie Rodgers from the Crew made the team, so congrats to Robbie!
 
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Pretty much the A-Team for this weekend's friendly.

http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Mens-National-Team/2011/05/Spain-Roster.aspx

GOALKEEPERS (3): Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Jos? Manuel Reina (Liverpool), V?ctor Vald?s (Barcelona)
DEFENDERS (7): ?lvaro Arbeloa (Real Madrid), Ra?l Albiol (Real Madrid), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Gerard Piqu? (Barcelona), Carlos Marchena (Villarreal), Joan Capdevila (Villarreal), Andoni Iraola (Athletic Bilbao)
MIDFIELDERS (6): Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid), Sergio Busquets (Barcelona), Santiago Cazorla (Villarreal), Andr?s Iniesta (Barcelona), Bruno Soriano (Villarreal), Borja Valero (Villarreal)
FORWARDS (7): David Villa (Barcelona), David Silva (Manchester City), Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao), Fernando Torres (Chelsea), Pedro Rodr?guez (Barcelona), Manu Del Moral (Sevilla), ?lvaro Negredo (Sevilla)

Who knows how hard they're going to play, since it's a friendly and most are coming off a long season. But they're not bringing a B team.

Should be a good match, regardless of the outcome.
 
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It's questionable whether the U.S. Soccer Federation should even waste their time and effort, considering how corrupt FIFA has proven to be throughout the years.

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news...rs_usa_could_still_host_2022_world_cup_060111

The United States could still host the 2022 World Cup after soccer?s governing body continued to be plagued by a deep-rooted bribery scandal that has rocked the sport to its core.
The American bid to host the tournament ended in disappointment in December, when members of governing body FIFA?s executive committee made the shocking decision to award the event to Qatar, a tiny Arab state with a population of fewer than two million people.
However, a storm of controversy has erupted around FIFA in the past week, reaching a head when it was revealed that general secretary Jerome Valcke wrote in an email that Qatar had ?bought the World Cup.?
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The confidence that Sepp Blatter will change that now is remote.

England concluded it was a waste of their time to even put together a presentation for 2018.
 
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Pretty interesting opinion piece. I don't follow soccer very much outside of EPL and MLS, so I don't really know what's going on with most of tne USMNT.

NYT Blog
June should be a telling month for the United States national soccer team.
On Saturday, Bob Bradley?s squad travels to Foxborough, Mass., to take on Spain, the No. 1 team in the world.
Three days later the Americans will square off against Canada in their first match of the Concacaf Gold Cup, a tournament the U.S. federation very much wants to win. If the Yanks make it to the June 25 final, they will have played seven intense international matches in the space of three weeks.
Many questions about the U.S talent pool will be answered along the way: Is Freddy Adu really back in the mix for the national team? Do the veteran defenders Carlos Bocanegra and Oguchi Onyewu still have something left in the tank? Will someone step up and stake a claim as Jozy Altidore?s strike partner?
Here are 10 observations about the U.S. Gold Cup in the build-up to the tournament.
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Alright, I'll admit I was pumped to play Spain. Of course you want to see how you measure up against the best. And that's supposedly how you get better- schedule the top teams in friendlies.

But this isn't good.

Spain can do whatever they want with the ball. They are far and away the BEST possession team in the world. The US are simply chasing the ball for 90 minutes. That does nothing for development.

The big names certainly bring in interest from casual fans and I don't want to stop facing the best, but perhaps facing this Spain team, especially before a crucial competition was terrible. It's not even a warm-up game because our players touched the ball more in autograph sessions with the fans than they have in the first 20 minutes. The guys won't know what to do with the ball as a unit when they start the Gold Cup because they're unable to actually get used to building an attack.

The US needs to get where Spain is, but playing them doesn't work like that. This just continues to drive home the bunker-and-counter tactic that we're stuck seeing. Not the free-flowing, taking-the-game-to-the-opponent style it takes to win consistently. Countering has worked wonderfully against the big boys in spurts and it's what the US has to do...for now. We're generally better conditioned late in the game and organized defense is something Americans are good at (moving as one unit, shifting, playing 'help D').

But our offense blows.

Sorry for the rant, but I'm already a little pissed off about the whole thing already. I love the big matchups. I generally don't want to shy away. But this was too much to bite off, especially when you want the team to gel before the tournament.

Luckily, besides Mexico (who we fucking OWN!), CONCACAF blows.
 
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OHSportsFan9;1934029; said:
Sorry to other Crew fans, but I have no clue what Robbie Rodgers is doing in a United States Men's National Team jersey.

I'm not sure I've ever seen actual soccer skills from him.

3-0 Spain 41st minute. Ugh.
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Well, payback is a bitch... I'll take the COnfederations cup win and trade it for this every day.
 
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3-0 Half.

Just as much as it brings it fans, this type of game quickly turns them away.



OK, I will say, perhaps I am being a little rough on a Donovan-less team. This isn't the Best XI the US has. And there's obviously an intimidation factor. But that also says that the scheduling needs to be better. No reigning World Cup Champs before the Gold Cup that's always been a big audition for younger guys, while also keeping the older guys. These kids aren't getting a chance to do anything. Oh well. Maybe this does help them. :roll1:

As some may tell, I'm pretty passionate about US Soccer. :lol:
 
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The perspective is that Spain's line-up features most of their regular international starters and the U.S. is sitting quite a few veteran impact players.

The frustrating issue is the younger generation, the future of the USMNT, isn't putting up much of a fight. Spain is awesome, yes. But our defensive midfield and back four have been getting smoked. They are playing a step behind and not proactively. The team seems to have a hard time making quick decisions and pushing through the midfield. They need to attack a bit quickly through the midfield and try to hold in the attacking third as opposed to holding in the back and sending balls to the front line without any midfield support. I'm not surprised at the outcome of the first half, I'd just like to see a bit more push and effort. The team has talent, but they're sitting back and not absorbing the attack or defending well. I'd just like to see a bright future for the USMNT, and it's tough to gauge against world class opponents like Spain, but there were few positive marks in that first half.
 
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One thing I kind of wish is for U.S. Soccer to change its ways or the machine.

I don't know what Gulati's realistic goals are, but I pray they aren't just making it to the KO stage of the WC.

Winning CONCACAF shouldn't be the measuring mark at this point. Still no victories in a WC on European soil (good thing the next three are not on European soil - although you could count Russia since they're UEFA).
 
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Bradley and Cherundolo looked good in the second half. Bradley is the only player who can control and distribute the ball for the US. When we play our offense through him, we actually have some decent attempts. Besides Feilhaber, who is not on the team right now because of injury, I haven't seen anyone who can effectively spread the ball out the of the midfield.

Cherundolo did get burned on the 4th goal, but he was the only person I saw who was effectively pushing forward and spreading the field.

Incredibly underwhelmed by the play of Spector, Gooch, and Lichaj in the back. Gooch looked slow, but even more than that he looked lackadaisical- it never looked like he was even trying. Spector and Lichaj got burned repeatedly in the back. I also didn't think that Agudelo played well at all, although its tough to evaluate forwards considering how little offense that we generated. It looked to me that he constantly ran into double, triple, and quadruple teams and coughing the ball up instead of passing it to keep control.

Obviously Spain is the best in the world and its hard to get too down after one match. Hopefully we show better in CONCACAF.
 
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well this hasn't gotten off to a good start.

nice goal on the corner. too little, too late?

Wondowlowski misses the equalizer from about 3 feet.

Bradley pushes it wide by a couple feet in the 90th min


ugh. pathetic.
 
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