U.S. getting spanked

[DallasDog]

Soccer Dawg- sorry I missed you guys, had a club meeting that didn't end until 4:30.

I am so mad right now I am not going to give a break down of what went wrong. I had to give a tactical breakdown this afternoon at a camp and by the time I finished I was so mad I think I scared the players there to train. lol

I say we try a 3-5-2 it can be deadly and we have to have 3pts from this game, no need to even discuss point differential yet.

3-5-2
Keller
Pope, Bocanegra, Berhalter/Cherundolo
Reyna, Landon, Beasley, Lewis on the right and Mastroeni as a defensive mid in front of Pope- allows Pope to sag and control the field.
McBride and Johnson up front

That being said a 4-4-2 is probably the way Arena goes and I think it might look like this

Keller
Pope, Bocanegra, Mastroeni, Chernudolo/Berhalter- hope he leaves Onyewu on the field to learn and atone for this game- worked well against Mexico the second time around.

Reyna, Landon, Beasley, Lewis

Johnson McBride

[soccer_dawg9]

You missed a scorcher Dallas Dog. It was so hot at the match in Dallas, but it was a good one. I think Arena will start out with a 4-4-2 because of Italy's forwards. They looked really good against Ghana. Their defenders are very good,also, but as individuals they are good. As a team defense Ghana showed that there were holes that you can get into. I sure hope Dempsey gets a chance to play Saturday because he isn't afraid to take it to somebody.

[DallasDog]

We need anyone to take on the defense. Reports are Pope might have a broke hand, and Beasley may not start.

[soccer_dawg9]

We need anyone to take on the defense. Reports are Pope might have a broke hand, and Beasley may not start.

After that performance from Beasley he doesn't deserve to start the rest of this tournament. I know he wasn't on his left side like he usually is, but he looked tentative all day, his touches were horrible, and every time the U.S. tried to go up the right side through him he killed the attack by either turning the ball over or passing the ball back to the defenders. Pavel Nedved even outran him for a ball on the wing. Not taking away anything from Nedved or the Czech's, but we played uninspired soccer.

[theprofessor]

mcbride, johnson.
convey, dempsey, donovan, reyna.
cherundolo, pope, bocanegra, lewis.

wouldn't mind seeing mastroeni for either cherundolo or lewis and going with a 3-5-2.

we have to play inspired soccer and have to beat the italians. a tie right now does us absolutely no good. we must win. end of story.

i apparently watched a different game than bruce, who praised onweyu for his play. i thought the big fella turned in a poor performance. the effort was there, which you can't say about many of the u.s. players, but the execution was very bad. i expect onweyu will start. i just don't agree with that.

bruce apparently wasn't very happy with keller's performance. however, i don't think he'll sit keller and put in howard. unlike last cup when we had friedel and keller, there's not a seasoned veteran as the backup.

[dhussdawg]

The U.S. got a tough draw...to say the U.S. got screwed would be saying you get screwed every time you don't win the lottery because of what balls get drawn. And after today's performance you can't say that the U.S. deserved a Top 8 seed position to be placed in a separate group from the other 7 top seeds.

To use some European football lingo, it was a pedestrian performance by the U.S. They watched a good match...too bad they were playing in it.

Yeh, I dont even understand why they rank them if they are going to draw for groups. It is stupid to have a 2 and 5 in the same group regardless of whether who deserved what. It really wouldnt have mattered, though, we would have gotten spanked by the worst team in the world yesterday. I watched the replay and all of the 50/50 balls were more like 80/20 balls. We didnt even try half of the time for them. It was a microcausm of our country and the lack of pride that many take in it. Other country's teams are out there spilling their guts for their country and our guys could give two craps it looked like. It reminds me of how many in the US view our country. A great land of opportunity, but many dont take it as their own or have pride in it.

[RealityCheck]

Yeh, I dont even understand why they rank them if they are going to draw for groups. It is stupid to have a 2 and 5 in the same group regardless of whether who deserved what. It really wouldnt have mattered, though, we would have gotten spanked by the worst team in the world yesterday. I watched the replay and all of the 50/50 balls were more like 80/20 balls. We didnt even try half of the time for them. It was a microcausm of our country and the lack of pride that many take in it. Other country's teams are out there spilling their guts for their country and our guys could give two craps it looked like. It reminds me of how many in the US view our country. A great land of opportunity, but many dont take it as their own or have pride in it.

Seedings weren't based only on the rankings in December 2005 when the draw was held...and the U.S. was #8 then anyway.

The host (Germany) and defending champions (Brazil) were seeded and placed in the schedule first to guarantee maximum stadium capacity for those teams' games. Then these six teams (England, Spain, Mexico, France, Argentina, and Italy) were seeded based on 1998 and 2002 World Cup finish and final 2003, 2004, and 2005 world rankings. The other 24 teams were divided by geographic region to avoid being placed into a group with other teams from their region more than necessary...maximum two teams from Europe in a group, otherwise one team per region per group.

The full draw procedure is way too complicated to go into...here is the official draw procedures document if you are interested.