US Men's Olympic Soccer Team is announced

[Napoleon]

The team has been announced and on the same day the OC Registrar has a great story about Sacha Kljestan and his father. Mainly about his father.

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[groundss]

I like the idea of Jozy and McBride in tandem up front. I also think the midfield combinations bring some versatility. The back line looks weak to me, but that's just because I don't know much about those players...

Of course with Nowak at the helm, I'm not sure it matters who's on the field.

Game 1 is August 7 against Japan. Let's go Yanks!

 

[Knoxville-Horn]

Novak will **** it up.

As a US team follower for about 12 years, I never thought I'd see the day where one of our teams was so deep on offense and so weak on defense. Good Lord, can you imagine what a potential matchup with Argentina or Brazil would look like with that defense?

 

[SyracuseHorn]

I'm surprised to see Feilhaber on there. I thought he might have burned his bridges with his poor attitude earlier in the year. Otherwise, it's about what I expected. I was hoping that McBride would be there, so that's a pleasant development. Parkhurst is a bit of a surprise, but it's probably a good idea to see him get more playing time at the Intl level.

 

[Napoleon]

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[groundss]

I'll be pleasantly surprised if the U.S. can make it out of the group stage. If they are indeed able to move on, then I think you have to consider the tournament a success.

As Knoxville pointed out, Brazil or Argentina will eat that back line for lunch, but at the very least our youngsters would get some vital experience against world class talent. At this point, I'm hoping for:

a win against Japan
a draw against the Nigerians
a draw against the Dutch

I think this is a cautiously optimistic (and feasible) scenario where the Yanks could advance. Assuming we take down Japan, the game against Nigeria will loom large.