September 6th, 2011 at 3:19 PM ^
He is bad. Imagining this team at full health gets me excited though.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:20 PM ^
No doubt. How can such a fast player play so slow?
September 6th, 2011 at 3:24 PM ^
He already was out ran on a long ball that was between him and just a defender
September 6th, 2011 at 3:32 PM ^
He is fast, but his instincts and game awareness are bad.. Also he has some bad touches. As I watched the Costa Rica game from the stands, I understood why Shea was getting interest from European clubs.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:23 PM ^
I wonder sometimes how frustrated Klingsmans gets with our lack of depth and low talent level at spots compared to what he had at Germany. Hopefully we can develop some depth quickly because the majority of our starters have good talent
September 6th, 2011 at 3:22 PM ^
Howard's already had a couple nice saves. Nice job not to give up a rebound on that point blank shot from his Everton teammate.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:26 PM ^
September 6th, 2011 at 3:40 PM ^
Its already half. Tied 0-0 Belgium has had much more control in this game so far.....Game is played on ESPN2 at the moment was suppose to be on ESPN but there was a rain delay on a NASCAR race so they are finishing that up
September 6th, 2011 at 3:29 PM ^
It's football season c'mon. Go find a euro-blog
September 6th, 2011 at 3:31 PM ^
Per Brian: USMNT = Detroit pro sports in terms of local teams.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:38 PM ^
For Brian, USMNT is probably his second or third favorite thing to watch after Michigan sports. For me USMNT is second only to Michigan sports.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:35 PM ^
Party-pooper.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:42 PM ^
You can take a Tuesday to root on good ole Team USA its not like the game is on football Saturday or something
September 6th, 2011 at 3:35 PM ^
myp2p and firstrow seem to be down?
EDIT: its on espn3.com if you get that.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:33 PM ^
I really feel like we lose a lot of posession on headers during the run of play. I feel like other teams are far more precsise and we head the ball with no real precsision. Maybe I'm just imaginining it, but I just feel like we sometimes can't start our offense because of a poor bring down.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:36 PM ^
and they give away posession too easily. Our defnders also have an annoying tendancy to just clog the ball downfield rather than slow it down, pass, and move.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:41 PM ^
I think that's one of the things Klinsmann's trying to break our defenders of. May be ugly until he finds the right fit.
Also, Timmy Chandler looks good until he has to cross. Then, not so much. It is his off foot but still, something in the vicinity would be nice.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:41 PM ^
He is not built to play in midfield, at least not in this game. He just looks uncomfortable getting the ball so far back. I'm sure he'll be on the wing/up front later in the game.
edit: I meant he's not built to play central mid
September 6th, 2011 at 3:34 PM ^
towards soccer. Anyways, it looks like we've settled down a little bit and are getting some movement on the attack. They just need to go a little bit slower on the build up, Altidore just isn't agile enough to spear head a faster counterattack.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:40 PM ^
That is not the problem. Altidore is not a player like Aguadelo who will run at defenders. He is being left alone up top with not much help. Altidore needs another player to run off of him. This is why the Davies/Altidore combo was so effective.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:43 PM ^
This 4-5-1's always going to look ugly offensively if we're struggling to maintain possession because Altidore (the 1) is going to end up very isolated from the wings as they get pinned back.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:49 PM ^
I think they need to take out Rogers and bring in Kljestan and then push Dempsey more central and forward like a 4-4-1-1.
Like you said the 4-5-1 is going to look bad offensively. Many people think the 4-5-1 is an offensive formation, but it is actually more defensive because of the one striker.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:02 PM ^
A faster breakout would be warranted...if Altidore was a "run at the defender" type of player. As it is, he is not that type of player. The man...and the formation warrant a slower buildup. Note, that if they put another man up top they might be able to push it with greater urgency.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:35 PM ^
Put Donovan in Rogers place and this might be pretty close to the first 11 right now.
Half: US looked good for first 15 minutes and then got bossed for the last half hour.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:42 PM ^
I can haz Stuart Holden?
September 6th, 2011 at 3:44 PM ^
For Torres or Shea?
September 6th, 2011 at 3:48 PM ^
if Jurgie is so intent on only playing one up front, I'd say for Edu:
Shea Altidore Dempsey
Donovan Torres Holden
<Insert Back 4>
September 6th, 2011 at 3:55 PM ^
It is going to be interesting to see where Holden gets his time now that he is back. How he preforms at Bolton and at camps will determine, but I think he competes with Shea more than Edu.
The one thing that Holden does well is service into the box during the run of play and on set pieces. The thing that might get him on the field over a player like Shea is that he can play at any attacking midfielder position because of his ability to cross balls with either the left or right foot.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:58 PM ^
Yeah, I think if we're going to play Torres, we're going to need a midfielder who's mainly defensively minded - Edu/Bradley/Beckerman (though I don't really believe he's in the same class).
Boca. Ouch. Cleats to the groin.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:57 PM ^
IMO you never take out Torres from central midfield. He is our best deep lying playmaker. Nobody on the USMNT roster possess the skills that Torres has. Him being left off the team by Bob Bradley will continue to be the biggest mystery to me.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:03 PM ^
Bradley just didnt value his ball holding and distribution. He much more wanted midfielders who were ball winners who could transition quickly from defense to offense.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:07 PM ^
I would say that Torres has really improved his ball winning since the WC. Which makes him even a better player to have in the middle. He is just so small and really looks like a little kid when he is standing next to someone like Shea.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:17 PM ^
Ball holding/distributing defensive midfielders aren't valued in the current German system either--the stress is on rapid transition to offense as soon as the ball is won. Everything's quick, as much one-touch as possible, and the ball should never be held.
One of Loew's first moves when he took over was to permanently remove Torsten Frings from the national team--his ball-holding was getting in the way. I'm not sure why that move had to wait for Klinsmann's departure--it was completely consistent with the philosophy he claimed to be trying to implement.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:02 PM ^
I'm actually in Belgium by chance this week for business. Not exactly Brazil, as the nation hasn't shut down for the game. Luckily my driver was listening to the BBC when I arrived so I remembered to head back to my hotel early from the club.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:03 PM ^
"and the US are undone" what a strike though.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:06 PM ^
Tough with the wet surface and that ball was struck well, but Howard could have done better with that.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:05 PM ^
Well, that looked like it was coming for the past 35 minutes or so. Interesting to see what Klinsmann does now, especially with two defensive MFs in the game now.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:14 PM ^
I can't watch the game at work, but it seems like he inverted the triangle in the midfield. I think this was probably the right move.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:17 PM ^
Yeah, that looks like what's going on, with Edu playing a bit in front of Beckerman. The problem being that neither of them are exactly full of ideas when they have possession 30' out. A lot of passing along that line right now, without much going forward or Belgium seeming particularly concerned.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:19 PM ^
Classy move by Dempsey to create space to shoot. Not so much on the shot.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:29 PM ^
is pretty solid.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:34 PM ^
From the match reports I'm reading it seems like our crosses from our wingers and fullbacks have been off today. Can anybody confrim that?
September 6th, 2011 at 4:36 PM ^
Pretty much. Lots of crossing, not much danger. Chandler in particular (who's played well otherwise) has been aimless in his crossing.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:39 PM ^
It seems like he has been pretty solid in defending. Does he ever play on the left for Nuremburg?
September 6th, 2011 at 4:35 PM ^
Edu's the king of the wrongly waved off goal.
September 6th, 2011 at 4:37 PM ^
September 6th, 2011 at 4:41 PM ^
They're speculating the AR called for hand ball, but very unclear.
Soccer really could use some kind of definitive hand signal from the referee in situations like that to clarify what was called.
Edit: and suddenly, its an interview with the noxious Pat Forde.
September 6th, 2011 at 5:15 PM ^
Belgium has a really talented team, Hazard in particular, holding them down and not taking a beating tonight is a good performance.
September 6th, 2011 at 5:52 PM ^
September 6th, 2011 at 8:23 PM ^
...but it looks like they started 9 of the 11 that started their qualifier last week (a grim draw against Azerbaijan). Ciman was in for Vertonghen and de Camargo for Lukaku (who both played in both games, they just switched the order). Pretty much the first team.