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vs. Costa Rica Wed 10/13 at 6PM. Now a must-win game.
Keep wanting to post some commentary analysis about last night's match, but there is simply nothing to comment on. Oh wait! yeah, Zimmerman, who I have always liked and think has potential had a "good" game. That's the extent of the positives...
Inept.Originally Posted by dawg80
Nonexistent in the forward third for about 95% of the match. Way too many bad giveaways in the middle third and coming out of the defensive third.
Panama nearly scored on at least three corners before finally getting it right.
0-1 result was actually flattering, it probably should have been much worse.
The midfield drop from Weston, Adams, and Musah is staggering.
Lleget, Acosta are awful. Lleget never tried a single ball forward. He shouldn't see a usmnt uniform again which means he will be starting in the next game.
Zardes finally scored...own goal.
No creativity. No tactics. Nothing.
Huge game tonight. Have to have the 3 points. It's a home game, and coming off a dismal performance it's important to bounce back. The short term, immediate concern is protecting the home turf and remaining high in the current standings.
Beyond that are the long term concerns. Beating CR is fine, for the short term reasons, but HOW we win tonight is more important. Simply getting a "W" because of luck or bad play by CR doesn't address the future. This team needs to find itself. It has no identity. We have to see the US win tonight, not CR lose.
Berhalter has shown some brief blips of promise as a coach. But, overall, he is more a "training" guy or a "youth development director" than a coach of a frickin' national team with aspirations of being successful in international play. Does he know he is head coach of the USMNT who is in the middle of a critical World Cup qualifying tournament? There doesn't appear to be much urgency to actually get better and deliver positive results.
Wow, that didn’t take long
Alarm clock wasn't set on time. And the alarm bells are going off now.
Several changes were justified through performance and injury. But 9 appears to have been at least a couple too many based on early returns.
Laser shot into the upper 95 by Dest equalizes in the 26th minute.
Great goal there! Good answer from US attacking like they have. Several close chances.
Much better pressure leads to an own goal to make it 2-1 USA. And that pressure nearly led to a second own goal.
Job done. Wasn't pretty, but a result means more than style points.
Stayed on the attack. US youth took CR out of the second half. They were out of gas.
Youngest team to start a WC qualifier in US history, average age 22. To concede so quickly, fall behind 1-0 in less than a minute, and then come back is pretty good. I thought Weah got robbed, that being called an own goal...it was a hard, wicked shot that the GK tried to block, did block actually, and the ball spun in. Dest's goal was marvelous. Looked like McKenne was wearing a hat, a beret! I like his energy, he is always in attack mode, turns with the ball and off he goes. Gotta tighten up on his passing some, but he's developing.
We are still missing two players...a true holding midfielder who can slam the door on attacks, and either an attacking midfielder or a striker who can possess the ball playing with his back toward the goal. Altidore showed flashes of doing that...when he was healthy. Haven't anyone since then who can possess the ball under tremendous physical pressure, hold it and allow midfielders to make attacking runs off of it. Zardes made some physical plays tonight when he came in, and that is what is needed, but is needed for 90 minutes, match after match. Not just brief flashes.
At the end of the night, it was US 2 CRC 1 for three crucial points. Canada is whipping Panama, Mexico is at El Salvador later.
Next up, in a month, is Mexico at home. Need a result.
As I have said, I don’t watch much soccer, so my take may be expressing excitement for something you guys see all the time. I really was impressed when we advanced the ball with multiple touch passes instead of individual dribbling to move it. Several times we got good shots on goal and it seemed it was all very fluid and not forced. Kind of like a fast break in basketball when the ball never touches the floor. Almost seemed like they have started to understand how each man plays and what their tendencies are.
I would also imagine that Mexico will be a much tougher test next month.
I won't argue on the own goal because it was deflected off the post back off the keeper and then spun in.
Mexico gets road matches in Cincinnati and Toronto in the next window November 12 and 16.
USA gets Mexico and then a trip to Kingston.
Table after 6 of 14 matchdays
MEX 14 +7
USA 11 +5
CAN 10 +6
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PAN 8 ---
- - - - - -
CRC 6 -1
JAM 5 -4
SLV 5 -5
HON 3 -8
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