USA v Belgium

The game is tomorrow at 8pm, I'll be there in the flesh. Unfortunately, Mo Edu is now injured, Bradley wont be there, Shea injured again, illogical decision regarding Donovan, etc. Anyway, it's looking like we will be fielding a relatively weak USA side vs a full-strength Belgium. Bummer to say the least as I was fully expecting the USA would want to take advantage of this match up by having our strongest 11 in this match. I guess that will happen more with the German friendly.

The bright side of this story is that I will most likely get to see Demarcus Beasley get his 100th cap for the USA!! I'm going to the open training session today and will hopefully get his signature on my son's USA Beasley jersey. I registered for the chance to meet Jurgen Klinsmann but unfortunately didnt win. Probably a good thing because they only thing I would have done was ask him how my son could meet Landon.

I predict this will be Klinsmann's starting XI:

Howard
Cameron, Gonzalez, Besler, Beasley
Zusi, Williams, Jones, Davis
Dempsey, EJ

What I would do:

Parkhurst, Goodsen, Gonzalez, Cameron
Dempsey, Kljestan, Jones, Beasley
EJ, Jozy

 

Mo, bummer you didn't win the JK meeting, just the thought of you two having a picture together makes me smile. Like your lineup (Jozy needs someone running at the defense, and that's not Clint's bag). WIll say that Gonzo and Belser played excellent together at Azteca and really seem to compliment each other's abilities, and would expect them to be the combo going forward for awhile. I don't dislike Goodsen being on the squad, but only as backup.

It's only friendlies, but really happy that we are playing two very good squads before jumping back into WCQ.

 

At the open practice today the bulk of the soccer-playing portion was a scrimmage on a compressed pitch with Stuart Holden as a neutral player. Based on this scrimmage I think I know the starting line-up for tomorrow. To me it looked like the scrimmage was set up with a starting back four + Timmy on one side while the starting forward and midfielders + the back-up defenders were on the other side. If my reasoning is accurate then this is what we'll see. Of course Klinsmann could easily change his mind

Timmy
Cameron, Gonzalez, Goodsen, Beasley
Zusi, Kljestan, Jones, Dempsey
Gomez, Jozy

If that is the line-up I very much like it considering the players available - with the excepton of Beasley at LB. I know he played well there v Mexico but he is a winger and we need width. However, as much as I love Da Beas, if I have to be honest he didnt impress me at the practice compared to a lot of the other attacking players so maybe it's for the best. He is a veteran, has vast experience compared to the other defenders so maybe sticking him at LB is the best for the team.

Also, Dempsey was so much fun to watch at the practice. Always messing around, being creative, and just refusing to be beat by anyone. Others who impressed me were Jozy, Gomez, and Gonzalez. I took one son and his friend, and we failed to get Beasley's autograph despite flashing a Beasley jersey to him which I'm sure no one else had. The boys did manage to get autographs from Herculez, Cameron, Jones, Kljestan, and last but not least :shock: Klinsmann.

Dempsey, EJ, and Guzan spent a lot of time with the fans signing autographs and taking pictures but we were in the wrong spot trying to get Beasley's autograph :doh:

 

Have fun at the match Mo!

 

thanks for the report, Mo and represent at the match!!!

 

Great report Mo! Enjoy the match!

 

Great stuff Mo :clap: Hope you guys have a good time and looking forward to match report.

 

When I have been in attendance the USA Men are 7-0-0. I imagine that perfect streak will end tonight. I predict a 2-0 loss. If you're watching on TV dont be shocked if you see a pretty empty stadium; I expect a late-arriving crowd. Much of downtown Cleveland around the stadium is shut down for the filming of Captain America so it makes it difficult to get there. Great planning by Cleveland as usual. Also there is an Indians v Reds game at the same time, not expert timing by USSF but I'll still take a game here whenever I can get it.

As a soccer fan, I was pleased to see the amount of coverage this match is getting in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It was on the front page of the paper and the front page of the sports section which I think is a first for soccer coverage. They had a big article on the Belgium team which should draw some of the more casual eurosnob fans to the game, and a really nice article on Dempsey.

 

Here's the article Mo referenced on Demps: http://www.cleveland.com/sports/index.s ... drive.html

COUSMNT!

 

So that sucked.

 

Totally agree on Beasley. He was one of the lone bright spots in an otherwise predictable evening. Belgium have no one to blame but themselves if they do not make it to Brazil and cause much havoc amongst the big boys with that side. Should have done better at Euro last year with that talent. Despite the talent difference, we've got a lot of work to do. Positives? Someone besides Deuce scored, and Clint kept his international scoring streak alive. That's about it.

 

:text-+1:


Belgium w/Hazard??? Young, but extremely dangerous. Let's be honest, JK is not a good coach, but take whoever you think is one and he ain't going to make up for the GULF in talent between us and the top teams.

How come when you see the Dutch league highlights, Jozy's first touch looks great, then he pulls on a US jersey and he has the first touch of an anvil??

Omar, I think he is the most talented CB we have, but can you imagine if he made one of those bonehead moves in England? He'd find himself in the Tim Ream zone real quick. At the international level, he needs to make the simple play.

Everyone likes and respects Beas (100 caps deserves a :bow-yellow: ), but he did get torched for the final goal, and is simply not a starting LB, he should be used as a winger off the bench. Fabian Johnson is the best option by far, and glad to see he is back from injury and played LB in Hoffenheim's relegation playoff win to stay up in the Bundesliga.

Cameron scored, but dude is a clunky RB, he should be in the competition to start at CB. DOLO better be called into camp, this isn't the time to try different combos (leave that for the Gold Cup), the best RB we have is DOLO, he better be on a plane in the next day or so.

 

We had a great time at the game as it was a beautiful night in Cleveland. The weather was perfect and there is just something so cool about seeing all the fans, dressed in red and blue, decending on the city. And there were double the number of these red and blue clad fans due to the Indian's game. With half the streets shutdown for filming or construction, it was a traffic nightmare before the game, but no one seemed to mind too much. I guess it's Cleveland so we are used to diversity and beer probably helped too. We ate before the game in the warehouse district where lots of the American Outlaw fans gathered and then made the walk to Browns stadium in mass. I was wearing my signature red white and blue boa and made friends with a guy from Columbus who was also donning a patriotic boa. We've now got some locals to tailgate with when we go to the USA v Mexico qualifier this September in Columbus. I love meeting other USA fans and hearing their stories. This particular guy was at the snow bowl in Denver and said conditions were so bad he almost left. Imagine, then, what the game must have been like for the players.

Once at the stadium I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with the crowd. Over 27,000 on a Wednesday night for a friendly when Ohio's two major league baseball teams are playing each other is pretty darn good. I dont think they were selling tickets for the upper tiers of the stadium so it was basically a sell-out. However, what was most impressive was the entire stadium, other than about 10 fans, were supporting the USA. Now if we were playing Slovenia, Serbia, or a handful of other eastern european countries it would be a different story, but it still goes to show that soccer in the USA is on the rise. Hopefully for Cleveland, US Soccer took notice. In terms of those few Belgium fans does anyone know why they wear devil horns and carry pitch forks?

As far as the match itself, not only were the Belgians, in general, more skilled than the players we had out there, they were way more athletic. Lukaku is a complete beast. The next time I hear someone criticize US coaches for placing too much emphasis on athleticism over skill, I am going to point to Belgium. Yes you need to have the requisite technical ability, but in the international game you've got to have athleticism too. This becomes very clear when you see how players like Zusi struggled and failed to impact the game last night. Speaking of Zusi there is no way he should be ahead of Donovan in the pecking order after last night. Same goes for Holden, Evans and Davis, but everyone knew that anyway. In terms of Holden, he is carrying some weight so I cant imagine he is back to his former level yet and nothing I saw last night or in the open practice made me think otherwise.

Once again the US defense was not good enough. On the first goal, Goodsen stopped and watched Howard come out rather than run into the goal like he should. Omar was watching too rather than being ready to pounce. On Belgium's second goal, Omar needed to just clear that ball rather than trying to dribble it out with Benteke and Lukaku bearing down on you. Belgium is just better so they were always going to give our defenders trouble but still these are basic defensive things that should be fixable. And they are mistakes I'm not sure would happen if Boca was around.

In terms of positives, congrats to Beasley on his 100th cap and I'm glad he was able to get it so close to his hometown. I agree with others that he had one of the best performances last night. Well done Beas, but I still dont like him at LB. I also thought Dempsey played well with both an assist and goal. He would probably get my MOM. I was very happy to see his placement on the pk rather than going down the middle which he did too often with Fulham. Jones was decent as was Sasha considering who they were up against. I thought Jozy and EJ had some bright spots, but I wish I could see replays on some of their missed opportunities as I couldnt quite see what went wrong. I didnt think Davis, Holden, and especially Boyd had much impact. Zusi tried like hell but he was overmatched by the Belgians.

Sorry for rambling when I could've kept it simple and concise with FIRE KLINSMANN. Oh and that reminds me. When they were announcing the line-ups, Klinsmann got the loudest applause by far. Really Cleveland? :text-bs:

 

:clap: Great stuff Mo, loved reading about the prematch stuff (especially the meeting of a fellow boa brethren), so can't wait to see the US v El Tri match report from tailgate to finish. I confess to changing the channel after the last Belgium goal so missed the pk and Holden's run out. So he looks like he is carrying extra weight? or did you mean he has bulked up?

 

I thought I saw love handles, and when he came on my husband immediately remarked that he looked heavy. It's possible it's muscle bulk but to me it looked to be mostly in his waist. Even if it's true, I'm sure he'll take care of it.

 

That was me, Mo, not Stu.

Great write-up, Mo.

I made it out to "The Office" in San Carlos with Ms. Nevzter, the wee ones and my sister in law to catch most of the match while sitting outside in beautiful weather. Belgium is a solid, if not greatly talented, squad - and they didn't even have Hazard. The US left something to be desired: that being Bradley, Fabian, Donovan...