prhoya
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Post by prhoya on Jul 6, 2014 16:35:14 GMT -5
Sent. The second one is mostly an interactive picture so not much I can do there. 10 out of the 12 prospects are midfielders (the other two are defenders)...the US team will look more and more like Germany...not a bad thing.
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Post by HometownHoya on Jul 6, 2014 16:58:54 GMT -5
Sent. The second one is mostly an interactive picture so not much I can do there. 10 out of the 12 prospects are midfielders (the other two are defenders)...the US team will look more and more like Germany...not a bad thing. Not bad at all. A few more dual nationalities too. Although I'm assuming that it is mostly midfielders because we already have a good amount of youth on the roster up front and on defense. In back, Gonzalez, Besler, Cameron, Fabian Johnson, and Yedlin are all young players. Up front, Alitdore will still be in his prime and Johannssen is still young. The second article lists Agudelo and Terrence Boyd as possible backup forwards so there is room for competition there but both those guys are young. The real room for new players will be in the midfield. We do really need to find a left back to replace DaMarcus Beasley as he will be too old and neither Cameron or Ydelin are right for the left side. The article has us playing with Altidore and Johannsson together up top and I'm not sure how well that will work since their styles are different, although on paper it is the same formation used this year with Altidore and Dempsey. I don't think Johannsson can play out of the midfield as well as Dempsey did while Altidore was still playing. If we do stick with Altidore as a holding striker, Klinsmann need to figure out what we will do if he goes down like this year because even in the projections we don't have another player on the roster with that skill set. Either way, the next four years will be fun for US Soccer and hope we can qualify as convincingly as we did this year, plus a strong showing at the olympics would be nice too.
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prhoya
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Post by prhoya on Jul 6, 2014 17:07:46 GMT -5
If he continues to look good and produce in Europe, Boyd is the closest JK will have available (for the foreseeable future) to play the Altidore role.
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Post by HometownHoya on Jul 6, 2014 17:12:24 GMT -5
If he continues to look good and produce in Europe, Boyd is the closest JK will have available (for the foreseeable future) to play the Altidore role. Didn't realize he was a holding striker, I haven't seen him play but it sure looks like he has the measurables to play that role. He was a part of the pre-WC 30 man roster but couldn't make the final 23 although even if he did, I doubt he would have played even with Altidore's injury.
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prhoya
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Post by prhoya on Jul 6, 2014 18:26:11 GMT -5
Still puzzled at JK's choice of leaving Donovan out. It must be a serious personality conflict (maybe going back to Donovan's Bundesliga days) compounded by Donovan's self-imposed sabbatical, plus Donovan's comments about "at his age" not going 100% unless needed. For a former world-class player like JK who played all the way to retiring age giving it his all, and then joining a semi-pro team in SoCal because he loved the game so much, it has to be a slap in the face not to use your God-given ability to the max while you can. JK's son's tweet making fun of Donovan crying over getting cut was telling too.
That said, could he rely on a player with that attitude? Regarding Donovan, I think the answer was yes. Donovan could have been the player in the midfield or behind the lone forward who could've held up the ball more, with Bradley backing him but without Bradley having the sole creative responsibility in the middle. Ask any expert/fan/guru, if given the choice, would he/she start Suzi, Bedoya or Kyle B. over Donovan, and most or all would say no. Sure, the starting 11 had to be moved around to put Donovan in his best position (i.e., not put Donovan in the holding midfielder role in place of KyleB.), but it would have guaranteed more control/possession of the ball and experience. Not being able to hold the ball, keep possession and move the ball forward is what led to Howard's bombardment at goal and the US breaking records it did not want to be associated with.
At the end of the day, the final roster is the coach's decision and JK made that clear. Before making the cut, I think he set up the Donovan scenario by saying that he thought of Landon as a forward and not as a midfielder (when versatility is very valuable). To have a player like Landon who can do both, with 3 WCs under his belt, healthy and who's not impressed by the big international names, but plays well against them was a luxury. Why limit Donovan to a forward?
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prhoya
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Post by prhoya on Jul 6, 2014 18:50:12 GMT -5
It's ALL about the midfield today. Control the play, win the game. Bradley can redeem his tepid play to date with a strong game. And having Josy even for a short stint will give us enough striking ability to get it done. 2-1 USA. Dempsey and Bradley with the goals. I agree. This is Bradley's time to shine or go home. Before the WC, I was looking forward to seeing Bradley shine in Brasil and go to one of the big clubs. He is in his prime and was great and dominating during qualification and the warm-ups up to Brasil. Once the WC started, I saw a different player, one who did not connect on passes he usually makes, who was following players when he's usually ahead of them and breaking up plays, who turned the ball over too easily when he usually values it, who was jogging at walking speed instead of his usual balls-to-the-wall running style, and who is a matador around the goal with rebounding balls and corners. I remember the commentator saying that Bradley never has two bad games in a row, yet this time he had four lackluster games. It will take some soul-searching by JK and Bradley as Bradley probably will have another Cup to play in. What went wrong? Was he put in a position to succeed? If not, why?
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Elvado
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Post by Elvado on Jul 6, 2014 19:02:04 GMT -5
Does anyone else think Bradley suffered by letting his skills erode in MLS? I go to several MLS games due to proximity and my son's love of the game. It is so far below what Beadley played against in Europe that I can't help but think his game suffered for it.
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prhoya
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Post by prhoya on Jul 6, 2014 19:22:55 GMT -5
The schedule for the USNT will be very busy leading up to WC2018. It is full of important international tournaments. Hopefully, JK also schedules friendlies with one of Belgium, Germany or Holland, an African team and a CONMEBOL team every year. Plus, two tournament lessons learned from the last cycle are: 1.) you cannot take a B team to a Gold Cup anymore, and 2.) you cannot take a B team to an Olympic or under-X qualifying tournament.
Here's the schedule: 2015 - CONCACAF Gold Cup - U20 and U17 World Cups
2016 - 100th anniversary edition of CONMEBOL's Copa America hosted in the US and with 6 CONCACAF teams participating. AWESOME!! - Qualification for the Rio Olympics - Rio Olympics (if qualify) for the U-23 team - CONCACAF World Cup Qualification
2017 - Confederations Cup (depends on the Gold Cup results) - CONCACAF Gold Cup - CONCACAF Final World Cup Qualification - U20 and U17 World Cups
2018 - World Cup
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prhoya
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Post by prhoya on Jul 6, 2014 19:49:35 GMT -5
Does anyone else think Bradley suffered by letting his skills erode in MLS? I go to several MLS games due to proximity and my son's love of the game. It is so far below what Beadley played against in Europe that I can't help but think his game suffered for it. I don't think so. He was playing great in the warm-ups against good teams before the WC. According to the gurus, he was the "player to watch" for the US. I think he was put in a bad situation by leaving out Donovan, by the way JK chose to play once they got to Brasil, and especially by JK's personnel decisions once Altidore went down. Plus, for whatever reason, as I mentioned above, he didn't look like the same player we were used to pre-Brasil. Bradley's role and the team's formation and style of play would have been completely different had Altidore been available with Dempsey roaming behind him. JK went back to the same shape and style of play that he wanted to get away from. He needs to learn from it.
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thebin
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Post by thebin on Jul 7, 2014 8:50:12 GMT -5
I was puzzled and disappointed when I heard Bradley was headed to MLS a few years too early in my opinion. Hard not to draw the link between him downgrading from Serie A to MLS to his performance in the WC. I'm not sure you can blame it on him playing out of position since his passing was pretty poor until Belgium. He frankly just looked nervous with the ball which is the last thing I expected to see out of him before the WC started.
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Post by flyoverhoya on Jul 7, 2014 10:00:50 GMT -5
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Post by HometownHoya on Jul 8, 2014 15:27:02 GMT -5
Wow...4-0 Germany at only 25 minutes!
5-nil at 28...jesus.
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on Jul 8, 2014 15:40:21 GMT -5
Sayonara Brazil.
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on Jul 8, 2014 16:31:31 GMT -5
Brilliant:
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Boz
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123 Fireballs!
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Post by Boz on Jul 8, 2014 16:49:56 GMT -5
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DanMcQ
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Post by DanMcQ on Jul 8, 2014 16:58:35 GMT -5
ouch
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Post by WilsonBlvdHoya on Jul 8, 2014 17:15:38 GMT -5
How do you say "jogo bonito" in German? Or "goleada" in German???
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Post by FrazierFanatic on Jul 8, 2014 17:23:33 GMT -5
Brasilia cries tonight.
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nodak89
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Roy Roy Royyyyy!!!
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Post by nodak89 on Jul 8, 2014 17:35:23 GMT -5
Brazil's Götterdämmerung
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prhoya
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Post by prhoya on Jul 9, 2014 12:13:26 GMT -5
How do you say "jogo bonito" in German? Or "goleada" in German??? Schweins-TAIGA!!
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