I thought our defense played pretty well. I hope Pope’s performance is an indication that he is returning to form. I though he played an outstanding game. Regis did well until he got completely turned around and forced Friedel to make a good save. Sanneh, however, worries me. He is a very talented player, but he’s not a great defender. Arena seems to want to convert him to a defender to take advantage of Sanneh’s general soccer skill. And, of course, Agoos needs to cut his hair.
Watermelon Man: Friedel is now playing for Blackburn in the English First Division.
Nice to have a Turk on board as well! I think you’re the first, actually.
Ömer proved himself to be a good goalie indeed. And I’m a GREAT fan oh Hakan Sukur. I think he’s one of the most underestimated strikers in Europe. MAN, I recall a goal from just a month or two ago, at Inter: Seedorf provided a one touch pass-volley to Sukur, who BLASTED it in the roof of the goal. Fantastic.
Wednesdays game was typical for Holland: I honestly believe they were better (they pretty much controled the game most of the time), but it’s all about using your possibilities. A few great chances to score were messed up.
Of course, when we’re playing Turkey, we never have a real home advantage - even in Amsterdam, the stadium is 50% Turkish.
US-Soccer (the American FA) were at one point considering no longer holding US-Mexico games in LA for the same reason.
android:
Are you taking the piss, or are you genuinely unaware of the sectarian abuse Lennon and his family have received (on and off the pitch) over the past week?
The Jeff Agoos story outlines neatly the whole last decade of American National Team play. Back at the beginning of the decade, Goose was a marginal player for the outside of the defense, known to be suspect in his skills. With players like Dooley in the middle of the backfield, he wasn’t likely to break into any position of real importance.
Now, of course, we use him as the main central defender. It is a little naive to believe he has somehow drastically improved his play, so the conclusion one must reach is that our quality of defender available to the national team has seriously slipped. Support for this concept is often found whenever Pope is off his game, and we can’t stop the Easter Bunny from scoring.
I don’t fault Regis for getting his feet tied up on that one play; that was during the one spell Mexico actually played attacking, inspired soccer. Most any outside defender would have had trouble with the move that was put on him. Of course, on most teams, the central defense would actually understand the principle of support…
Still, we are doing better than four years ago, and I look for better things next year.
I thought we (the US, that is) were pretty lucky to notch a shutout. Several times, the back line seemed get caught flat-footed by Beckham-esque crosses to the far post. Still, the first goal was simply inspired, and Josh Wolff showed amazing composure in setting up the second and laying the ball off for Stewart.
But when is Luis Hernandez going to be carded for diving? You’d think he played in the Serie A!
I, too, thought the far-post efforts were something we didn’t handle all that well, but, then, neither did the Mexicans. A number of times those crosses found no one at the other end. Maybe we didn’t defend them ‘knowing’ there was no danger from them?
I dunno 'bout anybody else, but I observed a blank screen. We lost power just before game time, and it didn’t come back on until just after. It wasn’t a rolling blackout, but it was just as effective.
Couldn’t watch it, didn’t really care, friendlies get us in trouble because we always have a good team available and the visitors often lack important club-based players, then we do well and feel like we are on the right track, until we get to the real thing, then WHAM, we discover that Brazil at a World Cup final isn’t Brazil having a good time at a friendly…
Besides, nothing will ever be able to compare in my mind with being at Stanford Stadium 7/4/94.
This was mostly Brazil’s real team (80% according to their coach)…and we were starting a couple of teenagers.
It was a fun game to watch (great crowd). Both teams attacking & the U.S. looking pretty creative at times. In the end, Brazil’s talent wore us down, but I was real happy with our boys. Mathis was a standout. Wolff looked good again, and the kids (Donovan & Convey) showed flashes of what’s ahead for us (and got some great experience in the process).
Low points were Ritchie 'Williams, Hejduk & Cobi. Willaims doesn’t belong anywhere near the national team, Hejduk is aan emergency replacement at best & Cobi should never start another match.
I have to giggle, reading the reports of the match. Mind you, I didn’t watch, so I’m trying to keep an open mind. But when I read about Bobby Convey declaring that he can really play with the best Brazil has to offer, based on the result of this game, I just have to laugh.
I’m sorry, but when will the US national team learn that it takes friendlies MUCH more to heart, and plays harder in them, than any other nation likely to make the WC finals? For our team, these games represent the best chance we have to play a really good game; for Brazil, it is just warm-up for the REAL games, such as the WC qualifiers currently ongoing, or Copa America games, etc. When your continent boasts the national teams of Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia and Columbia, it’s not like you have to rely on friendlies to get a really good game.
Having said that, I’ll again have some cautious optimism as we approach next year’s finals. It would help if we could find a really creative mid-fielder. And it MUST have been great experience for Convey and Donovan, if nothing else. I mean, you are 17, and you get to play left wing against Cafu? WOW!
Amen. What’s really frightening is that he is ten times better than when he first started on the national team. He’s actually learned to dribble. He used to run really, really fast to track down poorly played balls and then try to kick them so they got close to the penalty area. He was occasionally successful.
