I think this is mostly gonna be a try-out for the rest of quals and the World Cup next year.

6/25/2009 9:15:57 PM

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Euro clubs didn't want some of those guys playing in the Gold Cup.

6/25/2009 10:16:19 PM

^True. They hate all international tournaments.

6/25/2009 10:51:02 PM

why is the gold cup roster so much different than the wc qualifying team or confed team?

6/26/2009 12:29:40 AM

Look at how many games are being played in such a short period... this is far more physically demanding then any part of a typical European season...

With the Confederations Cup and the obvious most imporant qualifiers they made a choice to make the Gold Cup the lowest priority. Hard to complain...

6/26/2009 12:33:52 AM

So... what have we learned from this tournament? I think first of all, this tournament proves we have to have two forwards not named Donovan playing to have any kind of success. He doesn't see enough of the ball if he's one of them and we don't have one guy that can do it all himself. Secondly, I think we've finally established what our best back line is. Other things I think this tournament showed - Beasley is done, Kljestan can't cut it, Casey should stick to MLS, Davies could be the long-term partner for Jozy, Bradley will continue to make baffling substitutions... anybody got anything else?

Potential Roster for WC2010:

I think these guys are locks...

Goalies: Howard, Guzan
Defenders: Gooch, DeMerit, Boca, Spector, Cherundolo
Midfielders: Bradley, Dempsey, Donovan, Feilhaber, Edu, Clark
Forwards: Altidore, Davies, Ching

That leaves 7 spots, one of which will probably be a third goalkeeper.

6/28/2009 6:39:51 PM

I'd like to see Cherundolo come back strong so Boca can move up to the middle, which would give us a very strong midfield.

6/28/2009 6:49:46 PM

Yeah, a healthy Cherundolo gives us options... Spector could play midfield if Dolo plays RB

6/28/2009 6:55:24 PM

am I the only one who thought davies was garbage? he's fast and he hustles, which is great, but he can't pass and i didn't see him create any shots for himself. the goal he got against egypt was a product of that hustle and he had a nice little cross to donavan today, but it looked like he was just chasing down balls the whole tournament.

altidore wasn't terrific either, but he's 19 and he's shown he can create. do we not have any better forwards on the roster or are their performances masked by our style of play?

6/28/2009 7:11:39 PM

Quote :

"I think first of all, this tournament proves we have to have two forwards not named Donovan playing to have any kind of success. He doesn't see enough of the ball if he's one of them and we don't have one guy that can do it all himself. Secondly, I think we've finally established what our best back line is. Other things I think this tournament showed - Beasley is done, Kljestan can't cut it, Casey should stick to MLS, Davies could be the long-term partner for Jozy, Bradley will continue to make baffling substitutions."

I pretty much agree with all of this. I was just telling someone that the US doesn't have the creativity up top to have a lone striker, and that donovan plays so much better when he's in a position to distribute. Davies stepped up this tournament, and our team plays much better when we keep opposing defenses on their heels to begin the game. I think one thing you left out, is that US players have to learn to make wiser tackles. Yes, our red cards were harsh, but also very poorly timed. Bradley may have the worst track record of wild tackles resulting in red cards. If we can keep these poor tackles to a minimum, and come out every game looking to get on the boards quickly, we have a chance to make some noise in the cup.


I, for one, am really interested in seeing how this team responds and finishes up the remainding WC qualifiers. It seems like bad habits may be easy to slip back into when playing lower competition, but hopefully they still play with the fire they showed in the past 3 games.

6/28/2009 7:11:58 PM

yea pretty much spot on, i would like to see adu get more pt though. kjlestan was a walking turnover out there today, he shouldn't play until he gets a lot better. i really hope bradley takes conor casey, kjlestan and beasley off the roster, they can't cut it in international play.

jozy and davies played pretty well, it has looked pretty obvious that altidore is either slow or not that well conditioned at times, because he kinda walks around a lot when it gets to about the 55th or 60th minute. hes young though and he'll definitely get better.

6/28/2009 7:16:55 PM

Quote :

"am I the only one who thought davies was garbage? he's fast and he hustles, which is great, but he can't pass and i didn't see him create any shots for himself. the goal he got against egypt was a product of that hustle and he had a nice little cross to donavan today, but it looked like he was just chasing down balls the whole tournament."

Garbage??!?

Nobody's saying he's the next Torres or anything but there is definitely a lot of potential. Both Jozy/Davies need to work on their touch but that will come with more game experience. They're both strong and fast and really wear down defenses. Hustle from a forward IS that important compared to lazy fucks like Casey who just jog around but I think Davies has the skillset to turn that hustle into goals too.

Quote :

" altidore wasn't terrific either, but he's 19 and he's shown he can create. do we not have any better forwards on the roster or are their performances masked by our style of play?"

Davies is only 23 and he went to college so he's very raw in terms of international and club play... both still have a lot of developing to do. But yeah, our forwards are really that bad that it's pretty much them by default. It's probably going to be a three way battle between them and Ching for minutes. I just hope Davies doesn't turn into the Eddie Johnson 2.0.

6/28/2009 8:53:04 PM

The one thing that Davis does need to work on is his passing. He should have passed the ball to Donovan in the Spain game when he was wide open at the top of the box right in the middle. Instead he took on a defender and lost the ball. He seems to be a dribble first type of player which is good, but learning when to pass and take people on would make him even better.

6/29/2009 12:17:44 AM

^ Basically the same as my thoughts on Davies, though I'd say decision making in general is his weak spot, which in turn leads to passing decisions.

6/29/2009 1:37:41 AM

just saw on espn that jozy wants out of villareal due to lack of playing time.

not sure how i feel about this. after this performance, he should be in a position to lobby for playing time. but, his talents may be better suited for the epl.

6/29/2009 1:54:36 AM

^^I'm not going to complain too much though. We played in a very tough group at the Confederations Cup. We won't see anything like that at the World Cup in our first 4 games because Spain, Brazil, Italy, England, Germany, Argentina, etc will all be in different groups. It sucks we lost in the final, but most teams besides France are still trying to figure out how to beat Brazil in any Tournament. And in 1998 France had home field advantage at the World Cup which didn't hurt them when they played Brazil.

[Edited on June 29, 2009 at 2:00 AM. Reason : .]

6/29/2009 1:59:47 AM

i just read the 23 man roster for the gold cup and lolled my head off at the last name on the list:

Santino Quaranta

talk about dropped off the earth. how has made his way into the top 40ish pool of american players???

someone please tell me

6/29/2009 11:44:29 PM

^Norway has the same schedule as MLS because of the cold weather. A lot of our players had to return to the European summer leagues, or MLS. They didn't want to keep the players out for the entire season, or piss off the EPL clubs, so that is why we have the roster we have for the Gold Cup.

6/30/2009 12:55:21 AM

yes i know why we dont have the same roster as last cup...thats not my point. my point is that our last roster was basically our top 25ish. i would assume these next crop are our B range players...

sorry but quaranta is garbage and i have no idea how he even is getting a chance at getting any more international caps....oh and jay heaps is garbage too.

6/30/2009 1:03:44 AM

^It probably has to do with the club schedules. The Rapids already lost Casey for the Confederations Cup, so they probably want to be nice and not take Mastroeni from them for the next month.

6/30/2009 1:10:18 AM

What will happen with the U-20 National Team this fall? The World Cup is in Egypt from September 24 to to October 16. That is right in the middle of the NCAA soccer season.

6/30/2009 11:34:13 AM

COOL! I just bought a 1994 World Cup set of collector coins. They look like this.





[Edited on June 30, 2009 at 4:41 PM. Reason : .]

6/30/2009 4:29:30 PM

didn't you have an old World Cup medal of some kind too? I don't think I ever saw the picture of it

6/30/2009 5:31:33 PM

1930 FIFA World Cup. These bronze medals are easy to find on ebay and are about 1 and 1/8 inches in diameter. You can get one for about 40 dollars. Do a search for 1930 World Cup. The coin collectors in Uruguay seem to have a lot of them. World Cup 1994 coins are easy to find too.





[Edited on June 30, 2009 at 7:25 PM. Reason : .]

6/30/2009 7:23:59 PM

latest rumors are Bradley and Dempsey to Everton...


Very important transfer period for US soccer - Adu, Altidore, Bradley, Oneywu, Clark, Davies, maybe Dempsey, perhaps Donovan in the winter - could all potentially get new clubs. We could be in trouble if they don't find starting spots and get regular minutes... but on the flip side, most of them will probably be moving to better clubs, so if they move and actually play... we could be a whole lot better this time next summer.

7/2/2009 8:31:19 AM

I THOUGHT LANDYCAKES DIDN'T NEED TO PROVE ANYTHING IN EUROPE

7/2/2009 8:40:14 PM

lol

7/2/2009 8:45:10 PM

I heard today that Landon Donovan is pretty upset with the way Beckham has treated his stay in MLS, so one, or both could be gone soon since he opened his mouth. Hopefully it is Beckham.

7/2/2009 9:02:49 PM

hopefully it's donovan - he should be playing in the epl anyways.

7/2/2009 10:13:06 PM

Quote :

"hopefully it's donovan - he should be playing in the epl anywhere but MLS anyways."

Laugh all you want but I think he could be a major contributor to pretty much any CL-level team except for maybe the elite clubs like Madrid, Barcelona, or United.

7/3/2009 12:49:35 AM

i seem to remember a headline about donovan with leverkusen that read something like

"single worst performance by a player in champions league history"

7/3/2009 2:10:55 AM

did bill walton write that?

7/3/2009 2:27:09 AM

yeah but he's a completely different player now

7/3/2009 11:58:21 PM

this is true

but i'll always remember donovan's shitty attitude when he got kicked the fuck out of leverkusen

he came back home and was spouting stuff about how you didn't need to play in europe to show that you could compete at the highest levels

give me a break

7/4/2009 8:58:34 AM

maybe donovan doesn't need to play in europe, but christ, 90% of the rest of these guys do.

7/4/2009 10:37:54 AM

7/6/2009 11:27:04 PM

Gooch to AC Milan

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=659479&sec=europe&cc=5901

7/7/2009 7:54:02 AM

SWEET

I wish milan's jersey didn't have that awful polo collar but I will be getting a gooch shirt anyway

7/7/2009 8:01:45 AM

He'll never see the field

7/7/2009 8:44:05 AM

^I don't know, Nesta is injury-prone. I bet Gooch will play often.

7/7/2009 9:28:39 AM

damn, I saw a report that Madrid was interested the other day which I thought was retarded...

It's pretty cool to see an American on a top club, especially one in Italy. Not many Americans play there... hopefully, Gooch will actually play

7/7/2009 9:45:54 AM

gooch did really well in the confed cup. hes solid. he'll get some playing time there

7/7/2009 11:39:07 AM

Maldini is retiring too.

7/7/2009 3:00:31 PM

If he thought the racism in Belguim was bad, just wait until he plays in his first away match against Lazio...

7/7/2009 9:32:15 PM

That's good news. Lets just hope some of our Euro based players actually see the field this season.

7/7/2009 10:00:37 PM

I'm watching the Grenada - USA match right now and Davies has absolutely got to work on his conditioning. It's the 65th minute, we're playing against Grenada and we're giving them the run around and he is completely out of gas. Tired passes, tired dribbling attempts, tired decisions. He's a player with a really high ceiling but he's severely limited by his stamina right now.

He just scored a goal, but he could have walked that one in and my point still stands.

7/8/2009 6:26:10 PM

Also... Beckerman is complete and utter garbage. I can't tell what position he's trying to play and whatever it is, he's doing a piss poor job of it.

7/8/2009 6:33:38 PM

Haiti? Fucking Haiti?

I don't care if they build a team of all college players, you shouldn't be down to Haiti in the 71st minute. Jesus...

7/11/2009 8:35:07 PM

^We had a team of reserves playing in a tournament that has no Confederations Cup bid on the line, and we had already made it to the group phase. It was the perfect situation for an upset.

7/11/2009 9:49:30 PM

Charlie Davies to French Ligue 1 side Sochaux. If he gets playing time, this is a great move for him. I think France suits him well.

Monaco is not leasing Adu again, so back to Portugal for him. In fact, rumor is the USMNT already sent him back there due to performance in the Honduras game. I still think he's overhyped and will never be anywhere near as effective as he was predicted to be. I still don't get what you people see in him.

Possible good news for Jozy. He's being loaned to Olympiakos. That means Champions League competition if he can crack into the starting XI or become a recurring sub.

7/12/2009 1:44:08 PM