USMNT vs T&T (2nd Leg)

I thought Adu looked soft last night. He was knocked down and off the ball far to easily and gave the ball away a lot last night because of it.

Kljestand and Edu gave the ball away a lot too. Overall our pasing was poor last night.

 

The pitch there must have been bad based on the number of bad hops and misplays, but at the same time, some of our guys struggled more than others. They also seemed bunched up a lot in the middle and, as stated earlier, there weren't enough supporting runs into the box. When they'd pan out for replay, there was a lot of standing and watching.

Defensively, the right side looked awol. My being a soccer novice, why would Hejduk keep leaving the right side and covering the left post (not on set pieces). And if he's supposed to then is that on Sasha or the right side holding mid to come back and fill that hole?

Only other beef was Bradley's subbing. No problems with who he subbed in (although Rolfe is useless and I'd have liked to have seen Wynne had circumstances allowed), but the sub outs were surprising. Sasha and Edu were pretty poor and gave the ball away alot. So pulling Freddy and Jozy didn't make much sense to me.

Good win for T&T though, especially combined with Cuba's win, so hard to feel too bad about it. I would love to see Guatemaulya eliminated.

 

If Altidore is going to be a lone striker, I'd really prefer if he didn't get out wide quite so often; Kljestan was really the only other guy on the field (leaving out center backs) with the size to challenge for the ball in the air in the box.

Kljestan needs a haircut. Seriously.

I don't really begrudge T&T the win; they went for it with their best lineup, which we didn't, and played some good soccer - Burchill stood out, maybe because he was the only white guy. And it's just amazing that Russell Latapy has been around for them for so long that he played in the Paul Caliguiri game.

And we were SO CLOSE to my Jamaica/Mexico dream scenario - the Reggae Boyz knocked off Honduras in Kingston but while Canada had two leads on Mexico (the second on a goal by one Tomasz Radzinski), they couldn't hold either. So close.

 

I thought it was terrible. The surface was bad, the stadium was bad, the play was bad.

It was all bad.

I didnt have a stopwatch, but I swear the ball was out of play or dead for more time than it was in play. Painful and boring to watch.

1 striker! Against T&T?

Too many smallish, nimble players. Someone that could get stuck in the center and keep possession would suit me fine.

I love creativity, but it only works when you have someone that is going to go out there and do the dirty work! We didnt have that player.

 

Now for my conspiracy theory. The US threw the game because we dont want Guatamala to qualify for the next round; we dont want to have to play there again. Evidence - lack of hussle on several occasions (one in particular was when Pearce clearly just let a player run around him), lack of US complaints or frustration with some bad calls, lots of niceness and pats on the back durning and after the game, Adu substitution.

The pitch was either bad or the ball was bouncy. There is no way that many of our players had a bad night and suddenly started misjudging the bounce the ball would take. I saw several near hand balls because of it.

 

I will note that the only error in my line-up projection was that Pearce played LB instead of Bornstein :-D

Guatemala has to beat us, at altitude, in Colorado in November, to qualify for the next round. I'm thinking our team will be 50% veterans (Donovan's season will be over, so he's in, for example)

 

Good call AndyP.

No takers on my conspiracy theory?

 

Mo. I'd believe the conspiracy theory better if our starting XI had played and lost. Many of the guys who did play needed this opportunity to prove their worth, try and make the starting XI or at least the bench for the Hex.

Plus, factor in the Altidore goal incorrectly called back for offsides and the other bad offsides call that called back a 1-on-1 situation between Jozy and their goalie, I'm thinking, if anything, the guys tried TOO hard (i.e., were afraid of making mistakes, etc.).