US v Australia

Final tune up. Mark in between the sticks for them. The Everton boys to meet up (Howard, Dononvan, and Cahill) Jozy listed as day-to-day with a "minor" ankle sprain...great news :x

Will BB start the eleven that will go v the 3 Lions? or will Jozy be held out for precautionary reasons? It will be very interesting to watch.

 

This is a pretty good match for getting prepared for the 12th. I would go with the intended 11 for England. Here is what I suggest.

-----------Howard
--'dolo--Onyewu--Demerit--Boca
Donovan--Bradley--Edu---Beasley
-----Dempsey
------------------Altidore------

Ideally I would have liked to see someone speedy like Buddle up front with Jozy to capitalize on a slow England back line, but I'm opting for Beasley on the left so that he can help Boca out with defending. While Torres looked good defensively against Turkey, I think Bob has to go with Edu and his experience in the SPL.

If Jozy's ankle is not 100% by tomorrow then rest him and start Buddle in his place.

 

My lineup for the Aussie match...

Howard

Cherundolo, Demerit, Gooch, Boca

Holden, Edu, Torres, Donovan

Dempsey,

Findley

It's a good mix of those who are on the cusp of the starting XI and those who are certainties. Should be a good match.

 

I certainly think you got the back four right, that looks to be the girl we are dancing with in the WC.

 

Not exactly the prettiest girl at the Ball is she??

 

Ah, well. If you get out the beer goggles, and squint....

 

That's gonna take a loooooooooot of beer...

 

I find all four of them very nice to look at.

 

All I can say is that boy Clint Dempsey is ready for this World Cup!

The USA a defense :3d nervous:

 

The disallowed goal STILL counted for this sort of game.

I now have more confidence in the strike force than I have for the Defense. Who knew!
added: Boca almost cost us a goal when he had the ball up on the line and passed back, an aussie was about 2 feet from the ball path and it probably surprised him. Not something I would expect a veteran to do, pass back into traffic.

However.... We did not show any sort of consistent form in the midfield and it's not good when 20 minutes go by without Donovan's name being mentioned.

Beckham scouting the team, and I dont think he came away with much of value except for maybe an idea on how to mark Buddle.

added again: Just out of the blue it occurs to me that a good coach who also knew basketball could prep their team to tear our defense apart.
Probably nothing.,. but makes me nervous.

 

Really not too much to add. We seemed to play with confidence and I think Buddle did a great job. This game eased my nerves and I think we got a very good shot of getting out of the group after the display today.

 

I don't think anybody on either team knows how to judge the flight of that ball yet. Time after time after time it was sailing over the heads of defenders, keepers, strikers who thought they were in the right place to play it. Are the ESPN commentators on a gag order not to talk about it? They kept blaming the sun for Hahnemann having trouble with high balls, even when the ball was coming from the side away from where the sun was setting.

 

I missed the match but the result exceeded my expectations. This ball issue may be a blessing in that the games may be less defensive. Since we've shown we can score and our backline is hobbled, that may be the difference in advancing and getting nicked in the group.

 

Thanks for the reviews as I missed the game. Very glad to see us win these last 2 games. Not sure what it does to the confidence of our squad, but sure helped mine after the czech game. One more friggin week!

I ve got all sorts of bets tied up with folks back in England and just as important, bragging rights.

 

Well - I dont know that there is an answer for our problems at the back, but there are always holes and people running free...

Oh well - the play appears to be good enough to get out of the group so I am happy enough.

Would have liked to see Torres, but it was good to get a look at Gomez.

 

What he said! This cant be emphasized enough.

As Don pointed out directly and I alluded to as '06 deja vu, this aint the first time.

But THIS fall we MAY have FIFA RULING there's no more trick balls or they're gonna take some heat.

 

The ball - That thing is a rocket when connected properly (Buddle's first goal look like it was shot out of a cannon).

A little worried about Dolo (was grabbing his back).