|
|
Quick Latvia Grades
Monday, May 29, 2006 Keller - 7. Probably deserved a six until that late save. Again, his distribution was off. Bruce said four years ago that Friedel was a touch better than Keller distributing the ball. I'm finally starting to think he was right. Sad that Keller is one of the best keepers in the world, and he'll likely be the third best keeper in Group E. Cherundolo - 7.5. A much better game from Dolo this time out. Great cross finding McBride's head for our only goal. Great job pushing up on the right throughout the game. Same questions as four years ago, though--will our outside backs, who we know can get into the offense, actually be able to DEFEND against the tougher competition we'll face in the World Cup? Sanneh and Hejduk answered the call masterfully four years ago. Let's see what Dolo and Lewis can do this go-around. Conrad - 5. Deserved lower, but he gets credit for playing a full match just two days after he played the Venezuela match. Pope - 7. Very nice game. It's amazing how Eddie has gone from a borderline roster guy to one of our most trusted players on the field. Lewis - 6. Made some great runs and got into the offense very well. I (and everyone else) worry much more about his defending than Dolo's. Mastroeni - 5. Looked OK in the first half, but got tired in the second half and had several very sloppy giveaways. He's been battling the flu, so I'll got him some slack. I still think Reyna will be our starting defensive midfielder against the Czechs. I still think Pablo is very good, but Reyna is a difference maker. O'Brien - 8. Another extremely strong effort from JOB, and this time for 65 minutes. I'd put him in the starting 11 against the Czechs, with a plan to replace him at about the 70 minute mark. Beasley - 5. Come on Beasley, you're better than this. The one encouraging thing was that he looked faster than most of the other players in the 90th minute, which means his fitness is where it needs to be. But Beasley's form is now officially my biggest worry going into this World Cup. He can be so damn good too. DaMarcus Beasley. One time. Donovan - 6. A strong, energetic game running the offense, but he's driving me crazy with his lack of finishing. He was a little more aggressive tonight than in his previous two games, but he still has to go at goal a lot more often, or at least find a way for the offense to score more often. It's really laughable that we only knocked in one against these clowns tonight. Johnson - 7. He did everything but score. Still, it's hard to give a striker higher than a six if he doesn't score. I give him a seven because he played in the Friday match and didn't look winded tonight at all. That's a great sign. And it really looked like he would find the net tonight. The $6400 question right now is, will Eddie start against the Czechs? We looked much more comfortable in the 4-4-2 formation than we did in the 3-5-2 or the 4-5-1/4-4-3 (whatever you want to call it). Do we taylor our lineup to fit our best formation, or taylor our formation to get our best lineup out there? If Johnson doesn't start, he'll be a fantastic option off the bench if we need a goal. McBride - 7. There is no question McBride was more effective in the 4-4-2. Having Johnson running at defenders all night left McBride with a couple of clear chances, and he buried one of them. Convey - 6. Much less effective tonight, as he looked pretty tired. But let's give him a break--he basically sprinted for 70 straight minutes just two days ago. Here's my prediction for the Czech lineup (I reserve the right to revise this lineup as the match approaches), bearing in mind that Bruce says, "I think there's a chance that we'll make a few decision in the first eleven for the first game that will probably surprise some people." Hmmmm.... Keller Dolo Gooch Pope Lewis Reyna Convey O'Brien Donovan Johnson McBride substitutes: Beasley for O'Brien, 60th minute then either Mastroeni for McBride or Dempsey for Reyna, depending on whether we need to attack or defend 12 days until kickoff. Post a Comment | View (3) Comments Venezuela Report Saturday, May 27, 2006 Not perfect, but distinctly better than the match on Tuesday. Some quick player rankings. Howard - 5. He had one great save, but he looked shaky coming off his line several times, and his distribution was lousy (it drives me crazy when goalies boot the ball out of bounds). Albright - 7. Pretty solid game. Albright contributed on both sides of the ball. Conrad - 7. A surprisingly strong game from Jimmy Conrad. He combined well with the midfield, and did OK in the air too. He seemed to tire a bit in the second half, but that's to be expected. Onyewu - 7. Gooch looked good tonight, although I still think there's another level he can get to that we haven't seen in these past two games. Bocanegra - 6. He looked lousy early on, but he redeemed himself a little with a couple of nice tackles. Convey - 8. This kid has to start. He's been consistently fantastic for the Nats this year, and just might be the best player we have right now. The best part was when he put three different moves on three different defenders during the same run and then topped it off with an extremely dangerous cross in front of the goal mouth. Bruce has a great problem right now--he has to find a way to get Donovan, Beasley, O'Brien, Reyna, and Convey all into the lineup. I can think of a few ways, so I'm sure Bruce can to. (And of course, Reyna and/or JOB will probably get injured. I'm not trying to jinx them, it's just that you see the sun set every day, you start to expect it.) Dempsey - 7. He didn't look as dangerous as Convey, but he was a real threat all game, and he finished beautiful off Johnson's cross. Olsen - 3. I still don't understand why he's on this roster. Wolff - 5. He did some nice work combining with the strikers, but he had very little impact overall for an attacking midfielder, and he still looks lost when he gets chances to finish. Johnson - 6. Flashes of greatness from Eddie, including the perfect cross to Dempsey, and a few fancy moves to blow by defenders. But right now it still seems like his positioning is off. On several attacks tonight I found myself thinking Johnson should've been in the thick of it, but he just wasn't in the right place to receive that last pass. Ching - 7. Unlike EJ, Brian Ching is almost always in the right spot, and he did well to put away that gorgeous cross from Convey. Still, he easily could've (should've?) had one or two more tonight. A solid outing overall, but he missed a chance for a breakout performance. Donovan, Beasley - 6. They were generally OK for the 30 minutes they played, but both seemed hesitant to expend too much energy with the game in hand and the result meaningless to begin with. Latvia tomorrow (Sunday). 13 days until Germany-Costa Rica. Post a Comment | View (0) Comments Tune in Tomorrow (Friday) and Sunday Thursday, May 25, 2006 U.S. vs. Venezuela. Friday night. 7 p.m. eastern. ESPN2. Sendoff friendly number 2. Be there. U.S. vs. Latvia. Sunday night. 7 p.m. eastern. ESPN2. Final sendoff friendly. Be there. Expect Bruce to use a vastly different lineup tomorrow, as a lot of guys played a lot of minutes on Tuesday, and there is yet another match on Sunday, so he's going to have to rotate everyone in. My prediction for the starting 11: Keller Dolo Gooch Bocanegra Lewis JOB Dempsey Convey Donovan Ching Johnson Of those field players, only Dolo, Gooch, and Donovan played more than 45 minutes on Tuesday. I'd also expect to see off the bench at some point: Ben Olsen, Chris Albright, Pablo Mastroeni, DaMarcus Beasley, Josh Wolff. You will NOT see Claudio Reyna. We got the great news that Reyna's MRI came back negative, but there is no timetable for his return, and he has been ruled out for this match. Personally, I don't want to see him anywhere near the pitch on Sunday, either. He should rehab that hamstring without risking further injury right up until the last minute, as far as I'm concerned. If Venezuela learned anything from the Morocco match, it's that the U.S. is susceptible to the old Bunker Down and Hope to Catch Them on a Counter approach. As neither Venezuela nor Latvia is as talented as Morocoo, I expect these next two games to be similar in style to the first one. This is unfortunate, since the Italians and Czechs certainly won't go into a defensive shell against us, but we got the opponents that we got for these friendlies. Prediction: we will drub Venezuela 3-0, beat Latvia 4-0, and everyone will feel better about our chances. 15 (!) days until kickoff. Post a Comment | View (0) Comments Lousy Start, Please No One Panic Wednesday, May 24, 2006 OK, so we lost a friendly to Morocco, on our home soil, with more or less our best team out there. It's not as bad as it sounds. Well, the result is not as bad as it sounds. The real bad news is that Reyna went out in the 15th minute with a hamstring injury. We won't know how bad it is until tomorrow, but we already know it's not good. Please, please let it be minor. As for the result, look, we controlled most of the possession, Morocco had eight guys behind the ball throughout the match, and they caught us on a counter after we'd been peppering their net for ten minutes. Is that good? No, but it's not a disaster either. We should've been more aggressive in the attacking third, and we should've finished a few of the chances we had. There is time to work on these things. The biggest concern coming out of this match is, by far, Reyna's injury. The second biggest concern is McBride. He was the only guy who really looked out of form tonight, to the point where I'm worried about our ability to find the net in Germany. But I refuse to spend much time worrying--I've been looking forward to this for too long. Player ratings: Keller - 8. Not sure why other fans are being so hard on him. He looked pretty good and distributed well (with the one exception being his throw out of bounds), and there was nothing he could've done about the goal. Dolo - 6. He is usually more of a force on the right side than he was tonight. Gooch - 7. Seemed pretty solid, but the refs sure do love to call fouls against him. Gibbs - 6. Would be higher, except he was nowhere to be found on the Morocco counter that led to the goal. Looked good pushing up the left side, though. Pope - 7. Eddie's gonna be just fine. John O'Brien - 9. What a great half of midfield play from JOB. I'll take 45 minutes/game from him right now if he can play that way. Beasley - 7. Was great defensively, just average on the offensive side. Donovan - 7. Started a lot of the buildups, but he really needs to finish one of those. Please Landon, strike the ball as hard you can. Please. Just once. Mastro - 8. I didn't realize he was capable of dribbling at defenders as well as he did. He also gets a bonus point for being the one guy who tracked back on that fateful counter when Dolo was in trouble. McBride - 4. Did he do anything? His only touches in the second half seemed to come 50 yards from goal. Wolff - 6. Made some nice passes to keep possession, but he has to be more of an attacking force. Convey - 8. Looked good once again. Oh, if only that free kick had found the net, the tone of discussion on the U.S. fan boards would be so different... Dempsey - 7. Provided a spark coming off the bench, but he wasn't the world-beater he's been advertised as these past two weeks. EJ - 7. Put himself in the right position several times. Gotta finish, though. Finish, finish, finish, guys. Let's not revert to 1998 form. I know a lot of you guys can score. Now do it. Please. For me. Also, if the other team gets a counter, it'd be a nice if a few of you ran back to defend it--especially if you're, you know, a defender. Thanks. 16 days until kickoff. P.S. Anyone who's panicking should read the quotes from Bruce and the boys. They say everything a lot better than I could, and assuage the fears a little more. Post a Comment | View (7) Comments So Close Now Monday, May 22, 2006 The opening match is just two weeks from Friday. Germany vs. Costa Rica--a great "North American underdog squad vs. the hosts" contest to start things off. A bunch of knowledgable people are picking Costa Rica to advance from that group. I personally don't see it, having watched that team throughout our regional qualifying, but what do I know? Meanwhile, our sendoff friendlies begin Tuesday night against Morocco (7 p.m. est., ESPN2). Finally, we're going to get a glimpse of what our strongest team looks like. I really hope we trounce them and look great doing it, but please nobody panic if we tie or even lose this match. It is, after all, just a friendly in Nashville. That said, I can't wait to watch. To tide you over until then (and indeed, until the World Cup itself), I suggest everybody watch this video as often as possible. Post a Comment | View (3) Comments Another Must Watch Tuesday, May 16, 2006 Anyone looking to get psyched about the World Cup should be sure to tune in tomorrow (Wednesday) to the Champions League final between Barcelona and Arsenal (2:45 p.m. eastern, ESPN2 and ESPN2HD). This match features two of the world's megastars in Ronaldinho (Barcelona, and the Brazilian national team) and Thierry Henry (Arsenal, and the French national team). There are plenty of other great players on either side, but these two are the ones every soccer fan should know--and you'll be seeing a lot more of them this summer. Enjoy the game! 23 days until kickoff. Post a Comment | View (0) Comments The World Cup Draw (or, How and Why We Got Screwed) Tuesday, May 09, 2006 I meant to write this post much earlier in the life of this blog. But recapping the history of our team took longer than I anticipated, and then I got sidetracked by giving post-mortems for our friendlies and going over the roster battles. Now that the roster has been decided, however, it's time to look forward to the actual event--just one month away. As most readers of this space surely know, the U.S. was drawn into a brutal World Cup group consisting of Italy, The Czech Republic, and Ghana. Meanwhile, Mexico, our archrivals, face a group that includes Portugal, and perennial soccer powers Iran and Angola (that's sarcasm!). This post explains how this happened, and why it stinks. If you're a knowledgeable soccer fan, some of this will be old news, but I hope you take some pleasure in getting riled up over the injustice, and having your adrenaline pumping as we anticipate kickoff. First, know this. In the World Cup draw, eight teams are seeded and placed into eight separate groups. The seedings are based in part on the FIFA rankings, which shall be known henceforth as the Ridiculous FIFA rankings. Accoring to the latest Ridiculous FIFA rankings, the United States has the fourth-best soccer team in the world. We've always had an absurdly high Ridiculous FIFA ranking, so I stopped paying attention to those rankings, or how they're calculated, long ago. Still, they're relevant here. So knowing that Ridiculous FIFA rankings are part of the formula, how did we end up in a group with the Czech Republic, #2 on the Ridiculous FIFA rankings, and Italy, #14 on the Ridiculous FIFA rankings (they were higher at the time of the World Cup draw, but of course their ranking dropped after they crushed Germany--guess they were supposed to score 10 goals in that game)? For starters, despite their very high Ridiculous FIFA rankings, neither the Czech Republic nor the U.S. was seeded. This is because the results of the past two World Cups are also taken into account--and we finished dead last in the 1998 World Cup. How many players from the 1998 roster are on the 2006 roster? Three. (Claudio Reyna, Brian McBride, Eddie Pope) Yet our results from 1998 are somehow meaningful in the eyes of FIFA for our seeding in 2006. The Czech Republic also has a poor track record in World Cups, which cost them as well. "OK, fine," you might say, "we didn't get seeded. How the hell did we end up with two other teams with high Ridiculous FIFA rankings?" Well, once the seeded teams are determined the groups are filled based on geography. Unseeded countries from similar parts of the world cannot be in a group together. This is a nice rule, except that it meant we couldn't end up in a group with Costa Rica or Trinidad and Tobago, two of the weakest teams in the tournament. It gets worse. To accomplish this geographical diversity, FIFA lumps the 24 unseeded teams into three pots. All the European teams go into one pot, and then the other two pots are a mishmash of the rest of the world. FIFA chose to put North American teams in a pot with Asian teams. This meant we also weren't allowed to draw Japan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, or South Korea. Korea had a great cup last time out, but let's face it--we'd much prefer having any of these teams in our group over the Czech Republic. I can't really explain why the Asian nations were lumped in with the North American nations and not the African nations, or why there even needs to be a three-pot system in the first place. It seems as though they just wanted to accomplish their draw as easily as possible without confusing themselves, and without giving much consideration to how fair it would be. So then, let's analyze what are chances were before the draw even took place. For this, I'm going to use the World Football Elo Ratings, a vastly superior ranking system to some others I might mention, to gauge the strength of teams. Of the 32 teams in the World Cup, we were not allowed to draw the teams among them ranked 15, 16, 24, 25, 28, or 30. Considering we're the 12th highest-ranked team in the tournament, that seems pretty bogus, no? Next, let's look at how we actually did in the draw. Of the eight seeded teams, we drew the one (Italy) with the fifth-highest ranking. Not bad, although most people say Italy is the second best team in the world right now, but that's up for debate, and I'm trying to do this objectively, so we'll say drawing Italy among the seeded teams was neither particularly lucky nor particularly unlucky. From Pot B we got Ghana, the team with the second-worst ranking in the pot, and also the second-worst ranking in the entire tournament. Great! Not that Ghana will roll over on the pitch, but considering we could've drawn some more experienced, higher ranked nations, we have to consider it lucky that we drew Ghana. And then we come to Pot C. We were going to get a team with one of the following rankings (among teams in the tournament): 2, 5, 9, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23. We got the Czech Republic, the #5 ranked team in the world. I think it's safe to say we were quite unlucky in this pot. Overall, we were neutral in one pot, lucky in another, and unlucky in the third. That means it's a wash, right? Not really, because only two teams from each group advance. It would've been worlds better to get lucky in Pot C (with the European nations) than Pot B. If we reversed things and pulled the second-ranked team from Pot B and the seventh-ranked team from Pot C, our group would be Italy, U.S., Ivory Coast, Switzerland. And while no one would call that group a cakewalk, I think pretty much everyone would give us a better chance of advancing from that group than from the one we actually got. Make no mistake about it, not only was the deck stacked against us going into the draw, but we got unlucky on top of it. There you have it, the rant that's been stewing inside me for the past five months. Here's the thing, though. If we get out of our group, a group that contains two of the top seven ranked teams in the world; if we beat the best European teams on European soil, it will finally give us the respect we've been waiting for. Many more Americans will get jobs playing overseas--or maybe we'll get more top players signing up for our own league. Maybe (and now I know I'm grasping, but I'm having fun), just maybe people in this country will even recognize the accomplishment, and ESPN will actually start covering soccer during SportsCenter the way they cover the major sports. Who knows? The point is that, as screwed as we got with this World Cup draw, it might give us the best opportunity we've had yet as a soccer nation. So go get 'em, boys! Thirty-one days until kickoff. Post a Comment | View (6) Comments Albright! Thursday, May 04, 2006 I feel terrible for Frankie Hejduk. I feel terrible that he tore his ACL, even though I wanted him off this roster from the beginning. Maybe that's why I feel terrible. But, Chris Albright gets to make the trip to Germany! Albright convinced me of his skills in the Jamaica friendly, and I've stated before in this space, I think he makes a great addition to the roster, as he can fill in at several different positions on the pitch. Although Bruce had no choice but to pick a defender once Frankie went down, Twellman's got to be wondering how many times he can watch other players cashing their tickets to the World Cup before he goes insane. One week til our boys report to camp. Post a Comment | View (1) Comments Stunners Wednesday, May 03, 2006 So much for Taylor Twellman being a lock for the roster. The mighty Bruce has gone with Brian Ching and his six MLS goals in five games, over the reigning MLS MVP Taylor Twellman. I'm very happy with the decision, as I've been in the Brian Ching camp for the past few weeks now, but strangely I'm sad for Twellman. He's shown himself to be a hard worker, and he almost always gets himself in the right spot on the field, which means he's got a shot at scoring a goal just by accident. I ask for the last time, is Ben Olsen really this valuable? So valuable that we shouldn't take Taylor Twellman? But perhaps even more surprising than the omission of Twellman was Bruce's selection for the final defensive spot. The winner of the Gregg Berhlater/Chris Albright battle is...Jimmy Conrad! I still don't understand why we're taking five center backs and three outside backs, but I love that Conrad made the team. He writes hysterical columns for espn.com, and now we should get to read them throughout the World Cup! It's highly doubtful the 23rd player on our roster will make a difference to our prospects anyway, so I'm just psyched that my enjoyment of the tournament will be that much greater thanks to Conrad's presence. Besides, it's nice to see the best centerback in MLS (the last two seasons, anyway) get the nod over a centerback playing mediocre soccer overseas. Twellman, Albright, and eleven (eleven!) others were named alternates, so it's completely possible one or both of them will end up in Germany, especially considering our team's history with injuries. Tony Meola is the only alternate with World Cup experience. I'm not rooting for an injury, but if we have an injury, at least somebody else will get to live out his World Cup dream. Brian Ching! Jimmy Conrad! And 21 more-accomplished players! 38 days until kickoff. Post a Comment | View (2) Comments Decision Time Monday, May 01, 2006 Bruce announces the roster. Tomorrow (Tuesday) night. ESPN. 6 p.m. EST. Be there. The roster hopefuls seemed to take advantage of their final chances to prove themselves this weekend, with Twellman, Wolff, Ching, Donovan, and Olsen all scoring goals in MLS play. Speaking of that last dude, The Washington Post is reporting that Ben Olsen will be named to the roster. Apparently Bruce spoke to Olsen before the D.C. United game this weekend and informed him he'd be among the 23 selections. I have no reason to doubt the information, but I totally disagree with the decision. There are four people I'd rather see playing defensive mid ahead of Ben Olsen, namely Claudio Reyna, Pablo Mastroeni, John O'Brien, and Bobby Convey. I see no reason to carry Ben Olsen on this roster. I agree with soccer blogger The Metrologist, who wrote during the DC game this weekend, "Ben Olsen has struck again in his insidious one-man plot to sabotage the 2006 US World Cup effort by making the team. Yep - following that weak dribbler against Jamaica that my seven year old cousin would have palmed away imperiously, the former American Taliban-alike cued another one off the end of the bat and through the infield for a seeing-eye base-goal tonight. Nedved and Essien are now furiously saying novenas for him to complete the hat trick in the second half and nip that last spot in the US midfield." It's funny because it's true. With the not-so-surprising pick of Ben Olsen revealed, there seem to be at most two roster spots in question. Most pundits say Taylor Twellman and Gregg Berhalter will finish out the squad. I hope they're wrong, and would love to see Chris Albright and Brian Ching. In my opinion, both those players can be assets, Ching off the bench late in a game to get a goal, and Albright as a spot starter at various positions in case of injuries or yellow cards. Of course, I took Twellman in my initial prediction, but I made room for him AND Ching by leaving Olsen off the roster. Now that Olsen is coming, I have to say I'm back to where I started the year--rooting for Twellman not to make the roster. But at this point it would be a major upset if Twellman were left home. Really, I think it's down to Berhalter, Albright, and Ching for the final spot. Berhalter scares the hell out of me after that performance in the Germany friendly. Don't we have enough guys (Onyewu, Pope, Gibbs, Bocanegra) who can play center back? Wouldn't we rather have Albright or Ching on the roster? I really hope Ching gets selected, but I don't think he will. If I were a betting man (ha!), I'd bet with the majority. I'm hoping, however, for Ching and Albright. Hell, I'm hoping the whole Olsen thing is just a hoax. Anyway, it's gonna be fun tomorrow. 39 days until kickoff. Update: Albright is leading Berhalter for the final roster spot in the BigSoccer poll. Maybe he's got a better shot than I thought... Post a Comment | View (0) Comments  December 2005 | January 2006 | February 2006 | March 2006 | April 2006 | May 2006 | June 2006 | |
Copyright
© 2004-2005 by Matt Matros | All Rights Reserved |
