Olympic Qualifying starts this week...

Knoxville-Horn

Knoxville-Horn

1,000+ Posts
Apparently all games are on FSC as they picked up the English language rights.
Adu and Altidore should see the majority of time up top. That ought to be interesting.
Assuming the US advances out of the group (2 or 4 advance), they'll play in Nashville in two weeks. I've already got tickets.
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An absolute disaster of a performance. Other than Freddy Adu, and perhaps Dax McCarrty, no one showed up to play. 1-1 draw against Cuba at home? Yikes.
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Great. I already purchased my tickets for Nashville. I had to as the Sam's Army tickets go on sale before they hit the general public.
If we don't play better the next two games, my tickets will be worthless. And there will go my defacto Spring Break next weekend.
Do Mexicans use Ebay?
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Is it a good thing, or a bad thing that Adu is playing in this tournament? Clubs were under no oblogation to release players, yet Benfica did so anyway. Is that alarming, or no big deal.
 
I only caught the second half, but Adu played marvelously. The team clearly lacked a talented striker, as Adu but the ball where it needed to be several times, but the team couldn't capitalize. I didn't get to see Altidore play, but it was disappointing to hear that his performance was uninspired.
 
Freddy has been productive at Benfica, but hasn't seen a lot of playing time. Most of his appearances have been 2nd half substitutions. This tournament gives him a chance to get some meaningful minutes.

For a while, I didn't know if Adu would ever become much of a player, but he's really blossomed over the past year. He has a strong will and a great personality on the pitch. He's also stopped diving so much. I expect that by the time 2010 rolls around he'll be cemented in the U.S. starting XI.

Altidore didn't play well yesterday, but he was alone up front for most of the first half. He's a good player, but not good enough to be a lone striker. He blew a gimme 1 v 1 with the keeper that was just horrible, as did Charlie Davies. It wasn't a good showing by our young forwards, who all struggled.
 
The Cubans defecting is pretty funny. I was actually going to make a joke in my 2nd post about how we couldn't even beat some crap team whose players were probably thinking more about disappearing than winning the game. I wasn't sure if it would be taken the right way.

Anyway, when we were tied at 1 going into half-time, I wondered aloud if there was going to be a Victory-esque half-time escape that would save them and us simoultaneously. If you've seen the movie, Victory, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, we'd better get our **** together tonight. I don't want to waste $40 bucks.l
 
We have to WIN these two games to finish first. (Because Cuba isn't even tying another game.) Well if we beat the loser of the last game, then we come in 2nd and most probably play Mexico in the semis again.
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Cuba lost 2 more players, so their squad is down to 11. I am guessing a forfeit is forthcoming. That means that Honduras, and Panama would get 3-0 wins (isn't that the forfeit score).

Also, there is no guarantee that Mexico wins their group, either. Their team is an anemic, puchless side without their european contingent (vela, gio, guardado, moreno), so it could be interesting.
 
Why Cuba continues to send its sports teams to America is puzzling. They know they're going to lose people every time they come here. 7 defections from one team is pretty amazing.
 
Don't forget, one of their players was red-carded. Don't know if he's one that defected.

There's talk of a forfeit of all three games giving each opponent a 3-0 victory. Either way, we still need to show up tonite.
 
They can play short-handed with as few as 8 players, but I doubt they would actually do it.

As for Match #2, I hope Edu watches from the Bench. He's not looked very good in midfield in the few International appearances I've seen. Insert Spector and Wynne, Zizzo and Kljestan, and put someone up front who can help Altidore (maybe even Kamani Hill).None of the forwards who played on Tuesday could even control the ball for one touch. I'd like to see Holden come in for a bit as well. He brings good energy.
 
MatchTracker isn't working on my computer. Anyone have any updates at about halftime?

Score?
Starters?
Tactics?
Who's playing well?

Necesito ayuda por favor!
 
Nap - much different lineup. US on top 1-0 at the half. Freddy with a PK on an Altidore-drawn foul in the box.

Seitz
Wynne Edu Orosco
Holden Kljestan McCarty Gaven
Adu
Altidore

I'm forgetting someone. But I want to hit enter so you get the update.
 
Sturgis is also starting

McCarty is controlling the midfield pretty well. The Defenders are playing great. The wingers aren't doing much, and Adu is playing a bit too high. He's better dropping back a bit to take players on going forward.

Altidore is still puzzling me. He can play better than he's showing. I think his confidence is a little shaky. Overall we're looking pretty good.
 
I found the BigSoccer thread and have been reading that. There are enough yahoos that keep posting that I get a few different opinions on each play. I kind of like it that way, because then you get all sides of what happened.

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You think Hornfans is bad; wait until you get a few threads of BigSoccer under your belt. Those guys will argue anything. Someone will post something about Landon Donovan. The next guy will say he's the worst, most overrated player ever. The next guy will call that guy an idiot and so on.

Going into this tourney, the big question mark was defense. It was so bad that they actually had to take players like Kamani Hill - who is normally a forward or attacking mid - and put him in the back four. As it turns out, our attack sucks. Of course, I guess that can be expected being America and all. I'm really disappointed with everyone on offense except Adu.

Do they even teach these guys how to attack? They can't control the ball, they can't win headers, they flop, etc... Very pathetic IMO.

We're getting set up to play Mexico again in the semis one way or another. Both the US and Mexico have a chance to finish 1st or 2nd. I'm pretty sure Mexico will win their bracket. If we tie on Saturday, we finish 2nd and get Mexico on Thursday. Great.
 
The picture on the front of ESPN's Soccernet site (USA section) is this-

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It was taken after Freddy scored the PK, but it almost looks staged. There is not one single person in the stands and you can't see anyone else other than the 3 Amigos.

Leaves a strange feeling.
 
For some reason, they put all the fans on one side of the stadium for alot of games. They did the same thing for a game I attended in Birmingham against Guatemala. I can understand leaving the end zones empty but it doesn't make alot of sense to leave one entire side open. Especially, considering the game is being filmed from the attended side.

By the way, we just beat Honduras on a PK in the 94th minute. This more than likely sets up a first round matchup with Mexicon on Thursday. Could be payback for '04; however, we're not looking very good thus far.
 
We rested just about everybody today so it should not be held against them. Not today. I think we are okay when considering some of the guys we need to get experience are getting just that. I wish I could have seen the rest of the match to see the pk go down.
 
My problem with resting the players is this two-fold.

First of all, do they really need reast? It's not like it's Brian McBride and Kasey Keller out there. Some of these kids are used to playing 5-6 games in one weekend.

Secondly, we're not exactly tearing things up right now. If we had won our first two games 5-0 and 3-0 (like we should have), then I could understand the deserved rest. However, we look like ***. We're playing really bad. We had 2 goals in 2 games - one of them on a PK. For F's sake, put the starting 11 out there and get them some cohesion.

p.s. There must be alot of Honduran players in the Mexican League because they were flopping all over the field. You know it's bad when the announcers continually bring the topic up.
 
Just to update this thread a bit...

US plays Canada on Thur. @ 9pm ET on FSC. Should be interesting, as Canada has a player who scored a pretty classy hat trick against Guatemala.

I haven't gotten to watch any of this tournament as we're moving and the TiVo isn't set up yet. Hopefully I make it home in time for the game on Thur.
 
US-Canada on tonight at 9pm ET.

From what I've read, the US has looked like total ****, despite a very talented roster. Canada's coming off a big win over Guatemala so they should be brimming with confidence.

Game will be aired on FSC. I'm gonna duck out of work early to catch it.
 
Jozy wins a foul about 20 yards out. Freddy takes it with his left foot, curls it around the far post, and Sacha Kljestan dummies, forcing the keeper into a decision. The ball was spinning like a top and the GK can't stop it. 1-0 28th minute.
 
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