USA vs. Spain

ESPN2 at 4:30 CT

 

I know it shouldn't anymore, but it always throws me off that Jen Chang is a dude.

Edit: I giggled at the little shot he took at Zat though.

 

Besides, I thought Dempsey took the second half of the season off. He should have been well rested!

Doh! :shock:

 

Ooh man, I think it just got a little colder down there in Florida!

 

Thanks mo.

 

If you have ESPN 360 you can watch it live at 4:00/3:00ct. While it may only be a friendly, The USNT could use a good showing here before the Olympics.

And while this is somewhat off topic, does anyone know if they have released the Olympic soccer tv schedule yet? I would actually like to watch some Olympic soccer this year.

 

The latest FIFA rankings, coming into today's friendly:

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranki ... nking.html

I know these rankings are a joke, but how is the US #21?

 

Does anyone have Beasley's Ph #, I'd like to ask him to get the ball to someone in our colors from a restart, horrible.

 

Are you saying we should be higher or lower?

 

I think the US should be much lower (as in the 30s or 40s)...

(I hope they prove me wrong today)

 

We beat Mexico in the confederation cup competion (Gold Cup) and beat a team away that qualified for the EuroCup (Poland). Mexico is ranked 14th. I think 21st is about right. We're not top 20 material, but we're on the cusp of being. We'd give any of the 11-20s a good game.

 

Starting XI, per Ives:

-------------------Johnson--------------------
Lewis--------------Adu---------------Dempsey
--------------Bradley----Edu-------------------
Pearce---Bocanegra---Onyewu----Cherundolo
-------------------Howard---------------------


Into the Chat Room with ya, if you're fan enough!

 

I'm waiting to watch it with all my boys at 5:30pm.

I like his lineup - given what he's got available.

Hope you're not alone in the CR

 

Let's just see some effort this time. I do not expect us to win, but I do expect a solid effort. That is the thing that aggravated me the most with the England game.

 

I like that line up but I expected to see Dempsey in the middle with Adu on the wing. This will gives a little more muscle on the outside but a lot less speed.

Wish I could join you in the CR Christian but I am off with the kiddos to clut tryouts so it will be a late night DVR for me.

 

Enjoy!

Chat Room was like a ghost town..........

I'm off to play soon.

 

i missed most of this because i went to summer league ultimate...which was cancelled anyway, but...


blah.

 

Regarding the FIFA rankings, I think they make sense in light of recent results. Beat #30 at home, drew with #14 at home, beat #28 on the road, lost to #4 and #9 on the road. #21 isn't really inconsistent with any of those.

Regarding today's match, I really liked the way we played in the first half. I thought it was most accurately described as a 4-2-3-1, and I thought it looked dangerous at times. I thought we could've played better in the second half if we'd stuck with the same idea and stuck someone else in Adu's role, but the approach seemed to change and it didn't work as well. I'm awfully disappointed that the Grown-Ass Man didn't at least make Casillas work on that close-in header from Eddie Lewis' cross.