U.S. vs Argentina

*sigh*. Promising start and I would've even been fine with a 2-1 loss but it really fell apart at the end.

Keller was decent enough, and the palm save on Veron's shot that hit the bar was great, but he (obviously) didn't have the kind of performance that would've been required for us to get a result against Argentina.

Wynne was bad. He played like three guys onside on Argentina's tying goal. He didn't contribute anything, really.

Conrad and DeMerit were both solid. Not perfect, but good enough. Gooch and Boca are still better than either.

I'm not sure why people are complaining about Bornstein. He was good playing both ways.

Clark was practically invisible. We hoofed the ball over midfield a lot and he looked outclassed, though I suppose a lot of people would be by Argentina's midfield.

Mapp was unmitigated crap. I don't think he had one good touch all game.

Feilhaber had some nice dribbles and may have been our only player to put a shot on goal from the run of play.

Olsen wasn't as bad as Mapp and made at least one good defensive play that I recall. He's a whiny bitch though, and I'm predisposed to dislike him, so "not as bad as Mapp" is probably the best he could've hoped for from me!

Johnson had a couple of bright spots but seemed like a few times he would run ahead of everybody and then slow down and wait for someone to foul him or take the ball away. Run at a defender! Put the ball on goal!

Twellman was useless. There are like 10 guys in the player pool who should be starting over him. And he commits a foul basically every time he challenges for a header.

Gaven and Gomez were good enough. Not a whole lot to say here. Did we make a third sub? I forget. Edit: Beckerman. He was pretty good, but his hair is SO TERRIBLE.

Our crossing and service on set pieces were absolutely horrendous.

Ranking our starters from best to worst, in my opinion:

Conrad
DeMerit
Johnson
Feilhaber
Bornstein
Keller
Clark
Olsen
Wynne
Twellman
Mapp

And though this probably goes without saying, Messi was by far the best player on the field for either team.

I wish we hadn't gotten my hopes up with the early goal.

Hey, at least Colombia got hammered even worse than we did. I still think if we put a good lineup on the field we can handle Paraguay or Colombia.

Keller
Califf - DeMerit - Conrad - Bornstein
Beckerman - Clark - Feilhaber - Nguyen
Johnson - Davies (or Gomez, either way)

Please don't put Mapp or Twellman on the field again. Terrible.

Maybe the U20s will give me something to be positive about on Saturday.

Sorry about the rambling!

 

I thought Bornstein did really well. Justin Mapp was our only offensive hope (I disagree with you jmh). Wynne got run around a bunch which I don't understand. Bad positioning maybe? Was he afraid? Although he did look comfortable when he had the ball.

We have to remember though that Argentina contributed to our players looking bad. They could have beat our A-team 4-1.

Beckerman looks like a Pick or Angle barbarian. He needs to be kicked off the team until he figures out what century it is. Although he did show that he has that Viking, barbarian spunk, if not there size.

 

Quote sheet available for those who care:

http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewAr ... 14114.html

 

I would hope our top side would do better against the Argentines, but I have a lingering suspicion that both sides knew this match was a forgone conclusion.

Mapp did well for us. Conrad well done in returning to the USMNT and DeMerit shows he should be partnered with Boca in the center. Gooch...grab some pine.

 

I actually watched the game in an Argentine Cafe near DC - they were pretty stunned at half-time.

I thought our first half performance was great. Their first goal was a combination of a class chip and a bad decision by Keller.

I thought Bornstein had an incredible first half. Part of the reason that Argentina did better in the 2nd half was that they moved Messi to the other side, where Wynn didn't have the chops to even slow him down. Still, it says something that the Argentine manager had to make a formation change because one of our kids was shutting down his star.

Our lack of depth hurt us in the 2nd half. We would sub someone off and replace him with lower quality; Argentina would sub someone off and replace him with equal quality and fresh legs.

Player Grades:

Keller - 5 should have done better
Bornstein - 8 shut down Messi and helped in the attack. Couldn't have asked for more
Conrad - 7 solid performance
DeMerit - 7 solid performance
Wynne - 5 ok for his first game, but Messi owned him
Olsen - 6 played well defensively
Feilhaber - 7 ended up being the manager of the offense, but needs more experience to do that well
Clark - 6 did ok
Mapp - 4 never figured out that he wasn't facing MLS defenders and didn't defend well
Johnson - 6 has moments of effort, but still breaks off runs too soon
Twellman - 3 I watched him get subbed off and wondered where he'd been the whole game

Gaven - 2 we would have been better off playing with 10 men and keeping him on the bench. Completely useless.
Gomez - 5 didn't have much of a chance to do anything, but stayed active up front
Beckerman - 5 did ok

 

DeMerit and Conrad were the top players for the US on the pitch. Don't quite understand how many seem to rate Bornstein so high after that match. His speed is a great asset, but he relies on it far too much to save him. He left the US defense undermanned on the break a few times and made defending far more difficult than it needed to be.

 

I'm T_of_McB and I approved this post...

Haha, Gold Cup and Copa America...one seems far easier to capture than the other. I don't have much faith in this side to qualify for the next round, but I would love to be pleasantly surprised. If Twellman goes missing in the next match we will be in for another rocky road in attack.

 

McBride is in Canada? 8)

 

ToMcB. I'm not normally a big Bornstein fan, and he did have some lapses during the game, but shutting down Messi counts for quite a lot in my book.

 

No offense to everyone, but I'm delighted. My mother is from Argentina and I still have an aunt and first cousins there. Hey, I like the USMNT (after all, I'm American), but I've had family around me going bonkers over Argentina my whole life.

 

Well I'm glad you can find some joy in that performance...moving on before I start having flashbacks of the match.

 

Can I take a moment to link to something I think all of us as football fans could enjoy? (And still by far my favorite football-related moment of the last year.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMUd520np9M

What a brilliant strike (and in extra time).

 

Yeah, that was a pretty amazing goal.

 

I was watching the match with a friend of mine and we didn't realise that Twellman was playing until he got subbed...

Bornstein did alright, but he made a few mistakes. He did well against Messi. DeMerit and Conrad were amazing, Wynne shouldn't have even been in the starting lineup.

Mapp did poor on the offensive side on the ball. He could not get by any Argentinian defenders, but he did well on the defensive side and made some great tackles. Feilhaber didn't do much. Didn't realise Clark was in the match before my friend pointed him out for me. Olsen did very well. man of the match for the US.

I'm sick and tired of Taylor Twellman. He's not fast enough and has to realise that international play isn't that same as MLS. Johnson showed potential, he just needs better decision making. At one point he could have blown by the Argentinain defense and gone one on one with the keeper, but he held up and lost the ball.

Gaven... I'm not even going to talk about him. Only bad move by Bradley in the match, but that was an awful move.

Argentina are a bunch of flopping bastards. The free kick that led to the goal was obviously a flop seeing how Riquelme (?) tripped over the ball!!!

 

Nick...enough with Argentina...quality strike though.

 

I watched the first half again yesterday, and I must admit, Twellman did more than I thought he did. He applied a lot of pressure defensively and helped set up some of the chances and free kicks we got in the first half. Admittedly, he wasn't producing what we need our strikers to do, but I can't knock his effort.

 

I would like to see Davies and Gomez have a chance to start or have some significant time on the pictch in the Copa America. Davies has loads of pace, a good handle on the ball and from what I've seen has a decent shot. Gomez on the other hand has showed promise in the MLS and the US side seems to be an assembly of MLS All Stars so why not let him have a run out. Johnson and Twellman didn't seem to mesh well, although any strike partnership will have trouble attacking the Argentine defense.