England v USA

[ICB]

I don't really watch football but i watched this yesterday and i thought England were pretty bad in 1st half, but we did play much better in the 2nd half. And the USA didn't play that good IMO they wasted some free kicks and never really looked close to scoring a goal. But they have for certain got better from the 60's, remember we scored 10 goals against USA in the 60's

[HattonTheHammer]

I don't really watch football but i watched this yesterday and i thought England were pretty bad in 1st half, but we did play much better in the 2nd half. And the USA didn't play that good IMO they wasted some free kicks and never really looked close to scoring a goal. But they have for certain got better from the 60's, remember we scored 10 goals against USA in the 60's

USA actually played well

Caused more than enough problems for us and for a side still well in development they shaped up quite well, if they play anything like that in the WCQ they should have no problems making it to SA for 2010.


lyle - i completely understand where your coming from and you make a very valid point about how the US should open up a bit in order for the country to accept them.

But playing away to england going 5-4-1 is just common sense, Every great side down the years has had a great defence, who was it that once coined the phrase "defend from the front".

As long as your defence is working you`ll grind out results and although i doubt they`ll be as pretty as what the neutral american footie fan would like it has to be done im afraid!!!

[OumaFan]

Lyle it just is annoying when Bradley puts out a lineup that you know is not gonna have a real good chance to win.

I'm not sure about how he always puts two somewhat defensive mids as our center mids but that seems to be his thing so well have to go with it. But why people like Josh Wolff? I'm sorry he doesn't add anything. If anything he's fast so bring him on late to try to take advantage of tired defenders but not early. Why not just give Adu a start? Might as well, playing Wolff isn't exactly building towards the future. Johnson, meh.

I don't totally disagree with your criticisms of Dempsey but I thought he was our best player yesterday. At least in attack.

[Master]

England were poor last night but the USA were worse and should have gone for us.

[El Kabong]

hattonthehammer, Lampard doesn't play well with Gerrard and if ANYONE is going to help England score it's Stevie G!


As for your assesment of the US and their formation....they are away, they are playing England, they don't have their best players.....what do they have to lose? Sure by playing a heavy defense they kept the score low and thus it didn't look like a total blowout but did the US have any decent chances

Playing a 5-4-1 crowds the midfielders and it's based upon the assumption we have a striker that can actually take over a game by himself which is just insane.

The US should run a 4-4-2 with one midfielder in attack and one dropped back in defense WHY? Because Landon Donovan (who didn't play the other day) is a man without a true position as is Clint Dempsey...those guys are midfielders/forwards Landon because he can't cope with the traffic running through the midfield and Dempsey because he's slower than most midfielders.

We NEED two strikers because it takes the pressure off of just one guy to score they share the load and therefore can divide and conquer the defense.

I would like to see:

Strikers: Johnson, Altidore (Cooper, Zizzo, Donovan)

CAM: Dempsey (Bradley, Altidore, Donovan, Mapp)

LM/RM: Adu, Donovan (Bradley, Beasley, Mapp)

CDM: Feilhaber (Edu, Ricardo Clarke)

LB/LCB: Cherundolo, Onyewu

RB/RCB: Bocanegra, Hejduk

GK: Howard

You free up the midfield, give athletic guys space and let Dempsey distribute the ball and you're going to get a ton more goals.

The US is athletic enough to compete with anyone, we just need to hone that and turn it into goals.

[OumaFan]

Now tomorrow we get Spain. Maybe I'm just not thinking positively enough.

[El Kabong]

Here's the players on the active roster for the Spain game...


Goalkeepers: Dominic Cervi (no club), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Tim Howard (Everton, England)
Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham, England), Dan Califf (Midtjylland, Denmark), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover, Germany), Jay DeMerit (Watford, England), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard Liege, Belgium), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock, Germany)
Midfielders: Freddy Adu (Benfica, Portugal), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland), Michael Bradley (Heerenveen, Netherlands), Maurice Edu (Toronto), Eddie Lewis (Derby, England), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado) Forwards: Clint Dempsey (Fulham, England), Nate Jaqua (Rheindorf-Altach, Austria), Eddie Johnson (Fulham, England), Josh Wolff (1860 Munich, Germany)