Gold Cup

[El Kabong]

Well the US is coming off a huge series of matches vs some of the top clubs in the world in the Confederations Cup and now comes the Gold Cup vs our close rivals Mexico, Costa Rica, etc. We're in Group B with Grenada (who might be looking for revenge ), Haiti, and Honduras (whom we owe a beat down).

Apparently US Coach Bob Bradley is going to rest some of our key players and give our young guys a go at a high level of competition to get them experience. He's also giving a shot to some guys who didn't make the Confederations Cup squad.

The noteable players left off this squad are: Landon Donovan, Oguchi Onyewu, Michael Bradly, Demarcus Beasley, Jay DeMerit, John Spector, Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra, and Tim Howard.


The revised roster (x-will not be at all matches):
Goalkeepers: Jon Busch (Chicago Fire), x-Brad Guzan (Aston Villa, England), Troy Perkins (IK Start, Norway), Luis Robles (Kaiserslautern, Germany)
Defenders: x-Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover, Germany), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City), Clarence Goodson (IK Start, Norway), Jay Heaps (New England), x-Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Chad Marshall (Columbus), Michael Parkhurst (Nordsjaellands, Denmark), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock, Germany)
Midfielders: Davy Arnaud (Kansas City), Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Colin Clark (Colorado), x-Ricardo Clark (Houston), Sam Cronin (Toronto), Brad Evans (Seattle), x-Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus, Denmark), Stuart Holden (Houston), Logan Pause (Chicago), Robbie Rogers (Columbus) Forwards: Freddy Adu (AS Monaco), x-Jozy Altidore (Villarreal, Spain), x-Conor Casey (Colorado), Brian Ching (Houston), Kenny Cooper (Dallas), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF, Sweden), Santino Quaranta (D.C.)

Now of course I haven't heard of half of these guys but if Bob Bradley wants to field a competitive team it's going to be a bit more difficult with thise group of guys, but hopefully the move pays off and gives our younger guys some solid experience at a top level. I would love to see Kenny Cooper, Freddy Adu, and Heath Pearce get some run, it'll also be nice to see how Ching and Cherundolo come back from injury

[El Kabong]

I am kind of shocked that Maurice Edu, Marvell Wynn, and somebody like Justin Mapp didn't get added to the roster, Mapp is a quick little dude and I think could fill in the CAM role that is vacant due to the absence of Donovan, but I guess Freddy Adu would be more suitable for that spot.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF-dV2oqkE8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DCJDS8vaTU

[El Kabong]

I just read Edu got hurt....I also read that this Stuart Holden is pretty damn good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7N-bN2IoPU

I am still wondering when Sal Zizzo and Gabe Ferrari are going to step up too

[El Kabong]

Well 4-0 US win over Grenada, solid (yet expected) result, goals from Adu, Holden, Rogers, and Davies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ2IGNMKBrY


Rogers looked pretty good

[OumaFan]

fucking hell the defending on the second goal was horrible

anyway good for them. Is Mexico bringing their A team?

Davies is definitely growing on me. How little does Bradley think of Cooper when he can't even get a start on this team?

[El Kabong]

Well to be honest Ouma he played Adu at forward paired with Davies, so it's not as if we weren't deep at striker. We're less deep at midfield (which is where I thought Freddy would be playing) and fullback.

I will tell you, hands down Kenny Cooper is more quality than Connor Casey. He'll get his shot soon enough, I am sure vs Grenada Bradley wanted to experiment with the lineup a bit and how quality were Holden and Rogers

As for the actual game, come on, it was Grenada we were playing...the main points are #1 We played with confidence #2 We went for the kill and #3 We got the result we should have gotten.

We play Haiti next who really gave Honduras a hard time. Mexico beat Nicaragua 2-0.


Here's Mexico's squad:
G12 Jesús Corona
M6 Gerardo Torrado
G1 Francisco Guillermo Ochoa
F Omar Arellano Riverón
G Oscar Pérez
F13 pablo barrera
D8 Israel Castro
F9 Omar Bravo
D15 José Castro
F18 José Cárdenas
D4 Edgar Dueñas
F17 Giovani Dos Santos
D22 Efrain Juárez
F16 Carlos Esquivel
D2 Johnny Magallón
F Guillermo Franco
D5 Fausto Pinto
F20 José Martinez Salas
D3 Ismael Rodriguez
F7 Alberto Medina
D21 Juan Valenzuela
F14 Miguel Sabah
M19 Luis Noriega
F11 Carlos Vela

And Vela got hurt in the game vs Nicaragua, I don't know if that's their A squad or not, but there it is

[OumaFan]

that's much more of an A squad than we brought. How hilarious would it be to beat them again when their pretty much full strength and were not even close to it.

[El Kabong]

It's not impossible for us to beat them, infact I think having our scrubs play a real quality side like Mexico will help us out a lot as far as experience goes.

I would venture to guess that Davies would probably get a breather in the next match and maybe Brian Ching/Connor Casey/Kenny Cooper will fill in, I don't know how fit Ching is since his injury. Freddy may also get moved around to midfield which is what I would like to see as IMO he lacks the size to play up front.

I hope we can continue our success with our B/C squad, we tried one time to play a tournament with a lackluster squad but we totally phoned it in and got stomped out, I hope we can do better with this team, it'll improve our depth and our confidence and the more we win, the more coverage you'll see.

[El Kabong]

Quick correction, the US plays Honduras today AND Benny Feilhaber has been called up for the match

[OumaFan]

I'm thinking about joining the Freddy Adu sucks bandwagon Maybe not yet.

Rogers should make the World Cup roster

This hippie we've got is pretty good, Beckerman.

[OumaFan]

And Pearce>Bornstein. Still LB might be our weak link even if Boca plays there.

Edit, I'm pretty shocked at how well Feilhaber and Davies are playing. Really encouraging. I was real excited about this Jermaine Jones guy (though he did have a hairline fracture and is out for a few months) but to be honest our central midfield is starting to look pretty good with Bradley Jr, Feilhaber, Edu, Clark and even this Beckerman guy. He is supposedly world class though but I kind of wish he was a world class left back to be honest.

Right now I'm not sure Adu should make the world cup roster. I'd take Rogers over him, Rogers gives us something we don't really have with an out and out winger. I'm not really sure what Freddy is?

How many spots are there for the World Cup roster, is it 23? If so

Goalie-Howard, Guzan, Perkins (I guess)

Defense-Gooch, Boca, Demerit, Cherundolo, Spector, Pearce, Hejduk, Marshall

Mid-Demps, Donovan, Bradley Jr., Feilhaber, Jones (?), Edu, Rogers, Clark, Torres

Forwards-Jozy, Davies, Ching

The ones that are questionable are maybe Marshall, possibly Conrad, Parkhurst instead. Also Pearce I guess but I think he's better than Bornstein. Jones might not be ready. Torres could be replaced by Adu or a fourth striker like Cooper. The only reason I would list three strikers when I want to play a 4-4-2 is Demps gets moved up there and Donovan could play it too.

[El Kabong]

We got another good result, 2-0 vs Honduras with goals scored by Santino Quaranta and Brian Ching....they put Cooper on in the 82nd minute which is shitty, hopefully he'll get a start vs Haiti.

Maurice Edu will be able to play in September but who knows when he'll have his fitness up to help out our squad.

As for Freddy Adu, nobody doubts his attack or his offensive abilities, but his ability to defend and mark his man is what has him playing striker right now instead of midfield. I think he's got the tools to be a quality player already, but he's definently not as well rounded as one would have hoped and he had a couple of missed chances vs Honduras too, but they were kind of difficult, I'll give him that.

With Kenny Cooper on the roster you've got a guy the defense HAS to mark on set pieces, he's 6'4 230 and if you brought up Gooch on a corner as well, that would probably give you a quality chance at scoring OR defending on a corner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4ehv1047lQ

Overall we had some poor plays and we missed some chances but considering that this is our B/C squad and we still won 2-0, I can't help but feel good about the win.

[El Kabong]

Freddy Adu is now heading back to Benfica, I am assuming so he can try and win some PT over there. Supposedly this was the plan all along, have Freddy start and get some run and then send him off to Benfica with some confidence and some momentum.

This opens up the striker and midfield positions a little bit. I suppose if we're facing a tough team we'll go with a Ching-Davies pairing and if we're playing a softer side we'll get some other guys in there. Either that or they are ready to add Jozy to the squad

[OumaFan]

this guy seems like a bit of a prospect to me, a pure striker, was the player of the year in college last year and skipped the MLS where he was supposed to be the top pick to go straight to some club in Denmark, and supposedly is doing pretty well. Supposed to be great in the air but needs work on other stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy5VBwxKu-s

[El Kabong]

Nice to know we have more to choose from now

But overall, I find the video disturbing....perhaps that just the Synchranized Chanting/Shouting in German

Well I suppose since we have a sure pass to the semifinals, that Bob Bradley will give some players farther back on the depth chart some run.


All this makes me wonder.....what the fuck happened to Eddie Johnson When he first came on the scene he was fast and flashy and could finish, now he's never fit, he can't handle the ball, and he's not even on the team.