USA v Venezuela

[DCHeather]

http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Mens-Natio ... ining.aspx

In case you're in the Glendale Arizona area, you might want to check this out.

The U.S. Men’s National Team is inviting fans to attend a public training session from 5-6 p.m. MT on Friday, Jan. 20 at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann will address the crowd prior to the session.

The training session a will be free and open to the public. Fans who would like to attend the session are requested to register on this site. U.S. Soccer Supporters Club members must RSVP here by 12 p.m. CT on Jan. 18 to reserve premium Supporters Club seating. For more information on National Team public training events, go to the Fan Zone at ussoccer.com.

[DCHeather]

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/story/_/id/7479854/us-vs-venezuela-american-players-get-chance-prove

Klinsmann doesn't yet appear decided on a formation -- switching from a 4-1-3-1-1 to a 4-4-2 between his November 11 game against France and November 15 match with Slovenia. This suggests he is still very much auditioning midfielders for his various shapes and roles in the middle of the park, offering an opening for these re-treads.

Klinsmann hopes this game will shed some light on his pool of strikers. Now that he is playing with two of them -- for the moment, at least -- the conditioning-fixated manager is increasingly curious how many can cope with his taxing demands of high pressure and constant movement. With Klinsmann's incumbent first string strikers, Jozy Altidore and Edson Buddle, absent, he will be keen to see which of his backups in camp -- Juan Agudelo, Teal Bunbury, Chris Wondolowski and C.J. Sapong -- can cut it.

"Are our strikers able enough to go full speed for 90 minutes?" asked Klinsmann. "The first three or four months, they were not. And we'll see now how far they can go. How dangerous are you up front? How many people can make a big difference up front for you to score you the goals? That's why we have to start to produce more strikers who guarantee you X amount of goals in X amount of games."

But Agudelo sprained his ankle in a scrimmage against the U-23 team during camp, throwing a wrench into the coach's plans. Rather than four healthy strikers to shoulder a half each, he will have just three, all of whom are in their off-seasons. "You saw Juan got injured in the scrimmage -- for us that's big," said Klinsmann. "We will make the best out of it. But this is now another challenge going into the friendlies. If I don't have an Agudelo now and they trained for just three weeks, who gives me the second half as well? Because I can't blame them for not being able to go 90 minutes. It is just reality with such a short camp."

Well, if we get anything out of this camp and friendlies, it might be which formation Klinsmann prefers and who the back-ups might be.

Anybody know much about Sapong?

[Clevelandmo]

all I know is he was MLS Rookie of the Year and he serenaded Hope Solo with an original song he wrote for her. I found it a wee bit Oh, he is also a big strong kid.

I'm looking forward to the game, but expect to get beat.

[nevzter]

I want to see Feilhaber pulling the strings - also, Shea and Zusi are intriguing. Let's see how Cameron holds up to the pace of the international game.

Looking forward to the match.

[DCHeather]

Ricardo Clark!!! Thank you for making sure the game ended with a deserved US victory!! My goodness, those Venezuelans are pretty good at wrestling. Perhaps they will be a little more interested in playing soccer next time.

Overall, I think the defense looked fairly solid. But they were hardly tested. Parkhurst and Cameron did well enough to get some more looks. Feilhaber had some really nice passes, especially in the first half. However, I think he got gassed towards the end. But who could blame him? He was tossed to the ground enough times by the Venezuelan pro wrestler team that he needed someone to tag for assistance. Wondo was channeling a bit of Dempsey's right spot at the right time skills. Shea really wasn't effective out there, and that's what 2 or 3 games in a row he hasn't looked great in a US shirt? He has shown a lot a bit of quality in some previous matches, so he won't be written off yet.

The man of the match probably has to go to the "worst German import of all time", Jermaine Jones. The guy was everywhere asking for the ball, could have scored twice if it weren't for the brillance of the GK (who was a complete muppet in stoppage time for invoking the dreaded art of fake injury time wasting). Alhtough, he may have been yellow carded twice if the ref was interested in calling any fouls last night. But i think we needed a little bit of that "edge" out there last night.

[Clevelandmo]

Nice summary Heather. I didnt see much of the match but from what I saw Wondo was impressive. Good for him. Happy Clark got the winning goal.

I DVR's it so maybe I'll watch more latter.

Anyone else annoyed that the toe stomper was given the captain's armband?

[nevzter]

Thanks for the write up - I couldn't find it on any channel so I had to rely on the post-match commentary. Either I'm getting older or they didn't show it in the bay area.

[DCHeather]

Thanks for the write up - I couldn't find it on any channel so I had to rely on the post-match commentary. Either I'm getting older or they didn't show it in the bay area.

It wasn't broadcasted in English on any of the standard cable channels. It was on ESPN3.com. And it was broadcasted in Spanish on Galavision.

I think ESPN3.com carries the replay for a limited time period, so you might be able to see it there.


Mo, I was upset at first about him getting the armband. But during the broadcast Twellman said that the captain's band may influence him to act more responsibly on the field. Seemed like reasonable explanation to me. That and he had the most caps over the other the players out there. Who else would you have given it to?

[nevzter]

D'oh, Galavision! I didn't even check the Spanish language channels.

Jones, by all accounts, seems to have been a beast last night.

[LaxAttack]

Jones is one of those irrational confidence guys who can either be really good or really bad. Last night was a really good performance.

I saw bits and pieces of the game, but no one else overly impressed or looked really bad.

Shea was blah. This is sort of the team (Venezuelan B Team) where I was hoping he would step up, but he didn't

Cameron and Parkhurst played well enough that I wouldn't be opposed for some future looks, especially with Gooch and Boca getting older by the day.

I'm not one to rag on Ricardo Clark like some USMNT fans, but I was happy for him to score a goal.

[SoCalJoe]

My wife, daughter and her friends had scary movie night, so I was able to be upstairs and watch the match in spanish. Venezuela was dreadful going forward and they looked content leaving w/a 0-0 result. As said Jones was clearly the best player on the pitch and looked like he was very grateful to JK for giving him the opportunity.

One factor that must be added is the fact the MLS guys haven't played a match in months. Shea looked rusty and for large portions of the game must of thought we were wearing burgundy kits because every one of his passes went to a guy in that color. However he did have a good moment or two at the end.

Props to Wondo for giving the team a major spark. His ability to control that rocket pass from Teal then give a beautiful backheel back to him for a shot was impressive.

Have to agree w/Lax about Clark. Really happy for him to get the winner.