Un-Fun Friendly: USA 0, England 2
Soccer May 29th. 2008, 11:30am
Missed the England-USA friendly yesterday. Inexcusable, since we consider ourselves soccer fans, but life happens. John Terry and Steven Gerrard scored, England won, 2-0, and here’s our favorite line from a former co-worker’s liveblog: “The American attack has been toothless without Landon Donovan and with Eddie Johnson and Josh Wolff. It’s time to start looking into getting some uncapped Brazilian forwards married to some American women or something because the U.S. forward pool needs some help (and that’s even with Jozy Altidore on the way).”
Never been huge on Josh Wolff. But Altidore and a body to be named later up front on the 2010 team should be good for a few goals at the World Cup, right? Couldn’t the soccer Gods have given Mia Hamm twin boys?
23 Responses to “Un-Fun Friendly: USA 0, England 2”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:37 am
I think clearly the soccer gods do not chant “U-S-A” at sporting events.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Y’know, for all the crap Donovan gets…he would’ve helped in midfield yesterday.
But Johnson and Jozy would be a massive improvement over Josh Wolff. Josh Wolff sucked in FIFA 2002. And his real-life self was worse.
And it’s been 7 years. C’est la suck.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Also, thread-jack: Doug Collins your next Bulls coach.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:48 am
The U.S. team will never amount to shit until they change their style of attack to emphasize ball control and touch passing, which means a fundamental change in how soccer is taught at the grass roots level here.
That long ball, rely on corner kicks to score stuff might work in high school and college, but it never has and never will work on the international stage. Which is why the American forwards and mids aren’t worth crap in overseas leagues.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:55 am
One look at the starting lineups should have set expectations in the basement. England had their A-Team, and Bradley chose to put together about the weakest midfield he possibly could have mustered.
Sure, it was interesting to see Adu out there trying to compete with Gerrard and Hargreaves, but that USA lineup had no shot.
About the only player who looked like he belonged was Eddie Lewis — and yes, I’m as shocked by anyone about that revelation.
Let’s hope Bob puts something more entertaining out there for the rest of the summer. Good God.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Isn’t, or wasn’t, McBride really good? And I think clearly the answer is for the US to get more immigrants who are good at soccer.
May 29th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Who cares about friendlies when there is much more important Cristiano Ronaldo-related news? (NSFW-ish)
May 29th, 2008 at 11:59 am
I think American coaches have problems teaching attacking. The US has had very few very good forwards, but the defense has been pretty solid for years.
I mean England plays a lot of long ball and set piece stuff, but when they get a dynamic scorer, like a Rooney, they change and let him roam.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Fetch — McBride is indeed very good, and a US legend, but he retired from international soccer after WC2006.
I think Ronaldo has entered the “Tyson Zone.*”
Donovan needs to come back pronto. The Johnson/Wolf duo was a predictable disaster. That lineup was just kind of sad. There really isn’t anything nice to say about any of it — they could play that game 10 times and might never score.
*TM, Bill Simmons.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
+1 to sportsdork… Ricardo Clark was an unmitigated disaster yesterday. Beasley was better at 20 than he is now because he thinks he has skill instead of using his best asset, speed. Bradley’s kid is actually very good and should continue to get better, but was relegated to bailing out everyone else yesterday.
Wolff is a joke. Can’t understand why he would ever see the field anywhere, let alone wearing the national team kits.
There were few bright spots. Heath Pearce did look very good on the left side. Hejduk, despite his age, still must see the field. He is probably better now than he was 6 years in the Cup. Lewis looked great when he came in, which as stated above, is beyond puzzling that he can do so now when he was so terrible for years and years. And, not shockingly, Guzan also looked good. I wish we could trade goalkeepers to South American countries for strikers. We would have a great deal more success.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
@clown:
NSFW-ish?? Where do you work, a brothel?
May 29th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
+1 benji
Sportsdork, I know but until yesterday he was still an American forward in an overseas league. But nitpicking aside offensively the US is awful. How we can have awesome defense/keepers but nothing for strikers kind of baffles me.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I love British newspapers/tabloids.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
really isnt shocking, qualifying for europe aside england is better than the US at every single position.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
oh man
DOWN GOES TEN CATE
roman isnt messing around
May 29th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I’m sure the Russian mob will get them both within 72 hours. Who do you think they’ll get as the next manager?
May 29th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
well it wont be rijkiard, as ten cate was his assistant back in the day
shouldnt be anyone coaching in europe this summer, you dont want to wait that long
mancini is the right choice
May 29th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Nice to see Terry can score when it doesn’t count. Clutch!
May 29th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Sadly, I chose a old Deadliest Catch over the second half of this game. You know you’re american when you prefer watching people catch crab to soccer.
May 29th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
If only that Ives Galarcep guy could run a fantasy league on the up-and-up.
May 29th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
landycakes pee pee hurt yesterday so he didn’t wanna play. what a wimp!
May 29th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I caught part of the match. I second the comments about Wolff. He’s old. He likely won’t play a role in 2010. Why run him out there? They should be blooding the kids in matches like this.
Of great soccer significance, I think we are seeing the nascent beginnings of Fabio Capello’s England squad, who should perform far better than the McClaren equivalent.
May 29th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
“Couldn’t the soccer Gods have given Mia Hamm twin boys?”
Wouldn’t have mattered much anyways. With Garciaparra genes in them, they’re bound to a life of groin tears and quad strains.