U.S. v Argentina
I failed to post last night during or after the game b/c I've spent too much time lately on the box, but it was an interesting game to watch. I haven't read any reviews this a.m., but holding a big gun like Argentina to a nil draw is a pretty good result, especially after looking so bad against England and Spain. It's proof positive that I've watched alot of Euro futbol this past year, b/c so many of Argentina's starting squad are fresh faces for La Liga especially:
Abbondanzieri- Getafe starting keeper
Heinze- Real Madrid defender. I saw alot of him this year
Gonzalo Rodriguez- Villareal defender
Nicolas Budisso- InterMilan
Zabaleta- Espanyol midfielder
Maxi Rodriguez-Atleti (Atletico Madrid) midfielder
Gago- Real Madrid midfielder. I saw lots of him too.
Mascherano- Liverpool midfielder
Julio Cruz- InterMilan starting striker
'Kun' Aguero- Atleti starting striker
Messi- Barca Mr. Everything. Need we say more.
Not only do these players play in the "Bigs", but many play for the better teams in those leagues. Real and Inter won their respective leagues. Atleti, Villareal and Barca were best of the rest in La Liga. Liverpool was top-4 in the Prem. Espanyol underperformed, but is usual a top club.
Contrast that with our players:
Tim Howard- Everton. Obviously the US's best player, and that wasn't never more evident than last night.
Pearce- F.C. Hansa Rostock. His team was recently relegated. :-(
(Lewis)- Derby Co. team was by far the worst in all the EPL and was relegated with many games left in the campaign. I'm not so sure he started, but that could've been Feilhaber.
Califf- FC Midtjylland. Team was 2nd in the Danish Superliga. The Danish league is not usually known as one of the "big boys".
"Gooch" Onyewu- Standard Liege. 1st in Belgium Jupiler League. Played a few matches on loan to Newcastle in winter of '08 but deal not renewed.
(DeMerit)- Watford in England's 2nd Division (AAA ball, right?).
Cherundolo- Hannover 96 in German Bundesliga.
Bradley- SC Heerenveen in Dutch league. Again 2nd tier league.
(Edu)- Toronto FC in MLS. Toronto is a pretty bad club in this league.
Mastroeni- Colorado Rapids of MLS.
Dempsey- Fulham. Fulham almost relegated.
(Adu)- Benfica. Big transfer news but rode the pine.
Beasley- Rangers. Coming back from injury but another top American
(Hejduk)- Colombus Crew in MLS.
Donovan- LA Galaxy. It's evident he's one of the drivers of our "attack".
Johnson- Fulham. Almost relegated. He's been the "next big thing" for a long time and doesn't seem to have that nose.
(Kljestan)- Chivas US. Funnily, after watch the Chivas US/Red Bull game the other night, I've now seen this guy twice in a week after never having seen him play before.'
OK, it's evident Argentina's starting side is playing "big leagues" while our guys are a smattering of local MLS players and 2nd-tier Euro players. That said, I thought the US played pretty well last night considering you have an attach with Messi, Kun, Cruz and Maxi Rodriguez. Yikes! What impressed me more last night was that Donovan and Beasley seemed to be in the mix, and that defensively Califf and Gooch weren't terrible. Oh course, Howard completely saved their asses, and picked Cruz's pocket repeatedly. Without some excellent Howard saves it could've been 4-0. What will be interesting is in a year or so when Donovan, Beasley, Adu and maybe Johnson or Altidore get some time together. Can they become a unit that can actually score goals. I also watched part of the Germany/Poland match and Germany, up front, has Klose, Ballack, Podolski and Schweinsteiger (my favorite name) all up assaulting the goal. Yikes!
In the Spain match my loyalties were a smidge torn, but last night I was very much hoping for a big US result. A 0-0 draw to many American eyes isn't worth much, but to futbol fans, it's understood that it's a result to be more pleased with. Here are some other thoughts:
SoccerAmerica
soccer365.com
SI's excellent Grant Wahl
Goal.com
That's on point
ESPNsoccernet/soccerbyIves
That's enough. Time to do something productive. The professionals have more constructive things to say than I, but I'm glad to see several gives Heath Pearce some props for a well-played game. Finally someone stepping up in the back.
Abbondanzieri- Getafe starting keeper
Heinze- Real Madrid defender. I saw alot of him this year
Gonzalo Rodriguez- Villareal defender
Nicolas Budisso- InterMilan
Zabaleta- Espanyol midfielder
Maxi Rodriguez-Atleti (Atletico Madrid) midfielder
Gago- Real Madrid midfielder. I saw lots of him too.
Mascherano- Liverpool midfielder
Julio Cruz- InterMilan starting striker
'Kun' Aguero- Atleti starting striker
Messi- Barca Mr. Everything. Need we say more.
Not only do these players play in the "Bigs", but many play for the better teams in those leagues. Real and Inter won their respective leagues. Atleti, Villareal and Barca were best of the rest in La Liga. Liverpool was top-4 in the Prem. Espanyol underperformed, but is usual a top club.
Contrast that with our players:
Tim Howard- Everton. Obviously the US's best player, and that wasn't never more evident than last night.
Pearce- F.C. Hansa Rostock. His team was recently relegated. :-(
(Lewis)- Derby Co. team was by far the worst in all the EPL and was relegated with many games left in the campaign. I'm not so sure he started, but that could've been Feilhaber.
Califf- FC Midtjylland. Team was 2nd in the Danish Superliga. The Danish league is not usually known as one of the "big boys".
"Gooch" Onyewu- Standard Liege. 1st in Belgium Jupiler League. Played a few matches on loan to Newcastle in winter of '08 but deal not renewed.
(DeMerit)- Watford in England's 2nd Division (AAA ball, right?).
Cherundolo- Hannover 96 in German Bundesliga.
Bradley- SC Heerenveen in Dutch league. Again 2nd tier league.
(Edu)- Toronto FC in MLS. Toronto is a pretty bad club in this league.
Mastroeni- Colorado Rapids of MLS.
Dempsey- Fulham. Fulham almost relegated.
(Adu)- Benfica. Big transfer news but rode the pine.
Beasley- Rangers. Coming back from injury but another top American
(Hejduk)- Colombus Crew in MLS.
Donovan- LA Galaxy. It's evident he's one of the drivers of our "attack".
Johnson- Fulham. Almost relegated. He's been the "next big thing" for a long time and doesn't seem to have that nose.
(Kljestan)- Chivas US. Funnily, after watch the Chivas US/Red Bull game the other night, I've now seen this guy twice in a week after never having seen him play before.'
OK, it's evident Argentina's starting side is playing "big leagues" while our guys are a smattering of local MLS players and 2nd-tier Euro players. That said, I thought the US played pretty well last night considering you have an attach with Messi, Kun, Cruz and Maxi Rodriguez. Yikes! What impressed me more last night was that Donovan and Beasley seemed to be in the mix, and that defensively Califf and Gooch weren't terrible. Oh course, Howard completely saved their asses, and picked Cruz's pocket repeatedly. Without some excellent Howard saves it could've been 4-0. What will be interesting is in a year or so when Donovan, Beasley, Adu and maybe Johnson or Altidore get some time together. Can they become a unit that can actually score goals. I also watched part of the Germany/Poland match and Germany, up front, has Klose, Ballack, Podolski and Schweinsteiger (my favorite name) all up assaulting the goal. Yikes!
In the Spain match my loyalties were a smidge torn, but last night I was very much hoping for a big US result. A 0-0 draw to many American eyes isn't worth much, but to futbol fans, it's understood that it's a result to be more pleased with. Here are some other thoughts:
SoccerAmerica
soccer365.com
SI's excellent Grant Wahl
Goal.com
That's on point
ESPNsoccernet/soccerbyIves
That's enough. Time to do something productive. The professionals have more constructive things to say than I, but I'm glad to see several gives Heath Pearce some props for a well-played game. Finally someone stepping up in the back.
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