Denmark v US on Wed.

Duece tweaked his hammy and is out while Guzan and his wife are expecting their first child. Probably going to get worked, but should be interesting to see the lineup.

 

Out for 2-3 weeks from the tweet I saw. Bet Sigi ain't too happy about that. I think we'll be OK. JK's done pretty good at grooming replacements, so we'll see what he comes up with. I'm sure we'll see Rimando in goal, Jozy up top and Bradley in the middle somewhere... After that, I'm sure Green and Yedlin will be out there a lot since they're well rested. Shea and Bedoya too, then after that.....who knows?

 

Man, this friendly snuck up on me.

And, I know this horse has been beaten enough times to have taken its life a dozen times, but can MLS please recognize international dates and pause the league? Make it up, as other leagues do that recognize international dates, with more midweek matches. I know, travel time is more onerous in the US than other leagues, but adjust schedules for midweek matches according to geography. It's not rocket science, right?

COYW / COUSMNT

 

Methinks Nick had better be on his toes with this defensive lineup.

 

At the half, good strike by Jozy for the goal, bad defense on the goal conceded. And the uniforms are crap in action. They don't say USA on any level. We look more like Finland.

 

I agree Ag, enough with changing the kit. Where white unless the US cannot, and then, no solid blue.

*I like AJ and Jozy up front - as long as there's speed on the wings, I think they could develop a nice understanding. Conceding 2 in the last 10 or so minutes is never good, but this wasn't the A team and Denmark are a good side. On to the next match...

* I didn't watch the match, only have read reports and viewed highlights.

 

I missed the last 20 minutes but overall thought we were pretty poor. Jozy's goal came completely against the run of play. We were on the back foot for pretty much the entire first half. We looked a little better in the second half and the second goal was a beauty. But more goals conceded late. A draw may have been a fair result, but we definitely did not deserve to win.

 

The whole back and wings were a mess.

 

Spot on, Don. It's tryouts. But I like Ian. Twellman, not so much. I miss Darke and Macca on Saturday mornings. They seemed to genuinely disagree on more than one occasion. Whether it was just an act or not, I don't know. But I like them togthether.

 

Then you missed both of them harping on Jozy for passing to Aron for the second goal. "He should have shot" Also Twellman stating that he certainly wouldn't have passed in that situation. Twellman acts like he was the greatest player America has ever seen. 30 caps and 6 goals in 7 years proves otherwise.

 

Those are the concussions talkin'...or the Macallan single malt that he "borrowed" from Darke.

 

Twellman has the best strike rate (goals/min) of any American ever in MLS so he is actually one of the best forwards the U.S. has ever produced, by the numbers. Keane and possibly Stern are the only other players with significant minutes that have produced goals at a better rate than Twellman. His goal production in Europe was of a similar rate. Given that and the fact that he grew up in a family of professional soccer players tells me that he knows quite a bit more about soccer than astroman.
And anyone with at least partial vision capabilities saw that jozy should have shot rather than pass

 

I don't think anybody around here would disagree with the proposition that Twellman, when healthy, was a good striker for the US and MLS. That wasn't the point, though. Sometimes the situation requires a player to decline a "good" shot in order to make the extra pass to set up a "great" shot. That's a team concept.

The counterpoint, which I also understand is from The Great One: 'you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.'

COYW

 

No one is denying that Twellman was very good in the MLS. But the MLS is not on the same level as international play. And yes, Twellman netted 29 times in 58 appearances in Europe for the 1860 Munich reserve team who, by the way, were playing in the 3rd and 4th tiers of German football during Twellman's tenure.

Someone needs to check Jozy's vision then, since he felt the better option was to pass. And lest we forget, Johannsson scored, so does it matter what Jozy should have done? We got the result that we were all looking for.