US vs. Honduras - Wedneday July 8

I enjoyed the game. Liked considering"the others" to round out the WC 23. Don was right, Beckerman does appear to have some serious quality. Versus Grenada, I thought he stood around too much and had sloppy passes, but that wasnt the case tonight v. better competition. Stand outs for me were Perkins, 'dolo, davies, benny, ching, beckerman, and Rogers. I fear for Adu. Chips in both club and national team not falling his way, but from what I've seen lately he does have his limitations.

The un-named commentators for tonights match were once again insufferable

 

I thought Honduras was the better squad in the first 45. They pressured the US and gave very little time on the ball. The US was the better squad in the second 45 and were by a wide margin after the Feilhaber and Davies substitutions. For what it is worth here is my player summary for the match:

Perkins put in another solid shift between the pipes. He was not overly tested once again but he came out when he should have and stayed back when he should have.

Dolo had a very good match going forward. He looked quick, dangerous and put in some quality crosses including Ching's shoulder goal. He put Mr. Spector on notice that he is not going to give up the right back position without a fight.

Parkhurst looked like the weak link in the back four in trying to deal with Houduras speed up top.

Marshall put in a very Gooch'esqe' performance clearing everything that came in through the air and he kept Costly quiet all night. Marshall reminds me of McBride in terms of fearlessness. There does not seem to be anywhere that he will not stick his head to win a ball.

Pearce worked well with Robbie Rogers and put in a good shift. If he can learn to put in a good cross he would improve his stock immensely.

Quaranta had a tale of two halves type of match. I was not impressed with his first half play but after the Davies/Feilhaber substitutions his play improved dramatically. My gut reaction is this guy is a true winger that wants to stay out wide and that his first half play suffered from a lack of creativity in the central midfield.

Pause was for the most part invisible tonight. If he is going to get a chance with the USMNT it will need to be alongside someone like Feilhaber and not Beckerman but he is way down the pecking order of defensive midfielders.

Beckerman had several very nice moments including a lovely through ball to Ching early in the match. Much like Pause he is down the pecking order although he seems be gaining ground on both Kljestan and Pablo.

Rogers was our only consistent threat until the substitutions were made. He seems to channel Duece on occasion and tries and force things a bit at times and go down a bit easy on others but through two matches he has undoubtedly been a bright spot. With some improvement he could become the true left winger the US now lacks.

Adu did a few nice things tonight but after two matches it is clear that Bob Bradley was right and Freddie needs to find some consistent playing time with a club. He also needs to find the weight room and a change of pace coach.

Ching had the same kind of match that Quaranta did and much for the same reason. In the first half I thought he looked very rusty but after Davies and Feilhaber came on Ching looked much better. The combination play with Feilhaber leading to Quaranta's goal was very well done.

Feilhaber needed only 27 minutes to be the MOM. His combining play and incisive passing was exactly what the US was missing during the first 63 minutes of the match. Benny showed once again that he can be the creative difference maker the US needs in the middle of the park.

Davies is simply the best forward the US has to offer right now. He has a high work rate, speed and a goal scorers mentality. Oh by the way that was a beautiful lay off to Quaranta

Cooper probably got fewer than ten minutes but he made sure he was noticed in his short stint. I am convinced the keeper deflected the half-volley shot that went wide. He and Davies looked like they could work well together if given a chance to partner.

 

Nice review, Barry. The quality of our subs killed Honduras.

It's great to have 'dolo coming back. And his hair is beyond reproach.

Feilhaber is so smooth, again, and he was on another plane against this competition. If he keeps it up, I may refer to him with one name, to better reflect his Brazilianness, i.e., Benaldo or Beninho or just Ben...

 

The upgrade of Feilhaber over Pause was pretty well expected. What I really took from the game was just how wide the gap is between Davies and Adu. I'm probably the biggest Davies fan on this site, so his excellent play came as no surprise to me. But I can't say I expected such a large disparity between him and Adu. Freddy needs to dig deep and find himself some playing time because as of right now he's fading from the WC picture. To that end, I'm happy he's leaving the team to join Benfica's preseason. I hope he finds a spot and learns to channel his obvious ability into effective play.

 

Well said BC. And to me this is the benefit of Bob Bradley. He knows these players and he cares about these players. He will not be as likely as a foreign mercenary coach would be to write-off a promising player for the next World Cup cycle after a few looks. I think that is important and I think the US will ultimately benefit with greater depth.

 

Benny is a talented player who should be in the starting lineup for the qualifiers and WC.

 

Bradley seems to not instigate a lot of change for whatever reason. With a Honduras win likely against Grenada and Haiti sitting on 3 points as well, I expect we'll continue to see a lot of the regulars from the first two matches. I would like to see Robles, Colin Clark, and Davy Arnaud get a run out though, Cronin a spot on the bench and a chance to come on as a sub.

 

Freddy is all of 20 years old. When Clint was 20 nobody had even heard of him yet and we're all quite happy with how he's turned out. Far too early to be giving up on Freddy yet.

Am I the only one who has a visceral negative reaction to Kyle Beckerman because of his hair? He's like that friend you had in college who went to Jamaica for spring break one year and dude it was so awesome and I smoked soooo much weed and everyone was so laid back and check out these awesome dreads I got bro and it's May and everyone is studying for exams and this one guy just won't admit that it's time to get rid of the dreads, and Beckerman is that guy except it's been six years and he STILL won't get rid of the dreads and DUDE YOU'RE WHITE AND IT LOOKS STUPID AND YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO GET AWAY WITH HAVING ECCENTRIC HAIR. RONALDO IS GOOD ENOUGH TO GET AWAY WITH HAVING ECCENTRIC HAIR.



BUT YOU ARE NOT.

Sorry. Like I said, visceral negative reaction.

 

JMH, I take it Kyle and I won't be seeing you at any Phish shows this summer. His dreads are fairly silly, but it could be way way worse:
http://www.freshbrine.com/mang/wook_original.jpg

 

That was a fun game to watch. I know there was a lot of talk about our bench and the quality subs we lacked during the Confed. Cup, but this tournament is making me feel much better.

Yes, I know it's Honduras, and I know it's not the same level of competition. But it's clear to me by watching their effort in these first two games that the 432 guys Bradley was allowed to bring to the Gold Cup are competing hard for the few spots that are left on the WC squad.

The other thing I noticed was how much I love Davies, what a discovery he has been, he's so confident and he should be. He's our best option up top and when Landon is in the midfield and Pearce or 'Dolo come forward in the attack from the back, we will have one of the quickest counters in the world.

I'm really excited about this next round of WC qualifiers to see what kind of side and what kind of performance we bring.

 

I agree with you Don. I especially loved it when the official shooed away the the Honduran (Costly I think) player when Pearce received his yellow. The look on the official's face was the same look I might give my kids for trying to raid the refrigerator right before dinner.

 

Haha! I'm glad you guys brought this up. I mentioned it to my roommate last night too. I loved the official, he let the game flow well and his actions and reactions were classic. Well done.

And I think he may have been the tallest guy on the field. Good work.

 

who was the official and from what country?

 

I know he was Jamaican.

 

JMH, Stop hatin' on the kid because of his 'do. I'm sure most of us have some bad hair pics stuffed in the drawer. To be able to say I capped for the USMNT, I'd would have worn a dirty old kitchen mop for hair.

If you ever make it to Negril, you'll know it's one of the best spots on Earth, and home to some of the most respectful people on the planet.

 

Beg to differ -- A) Good God it looks like he never washes it or owns any mirrors in his house, and B) Every white guy or girl I've ever known with dreads was a little too well taken care of my Mommy and Daddy growing up and spent too much time at Grateful Dead concerts hitting the pharmaceuticals. (yes, Grateful Dead. I just showed my age.)

He's a good, not great, Holding mid, in the MLS and on the NT

 

I'm with JMH on this one. I wonder if he could put a little more mustard on his passes if he weren't balancing 30-40 lbs on his head.

I only caught the 2nd half of the match and agree with most of the analysis. Benny and Davies changed the match completely. Embarassingly, I'd never heard of Quaranta before last night, and I was duly impressed with what I saw. I'm continuing to like Marshall on defense, he's living up to the billing. Cooper did as well in very limited action.

 

Almost cut my hair,
It happened just the other day.
It's gettin' kind of long,
I could've said it was in my way...