USMNT v Brazil

Agree with Lax that tonight was Johnson, Gomez, & Bradley. If it werent for the 3rd goal Bradley would stand above those two as the MOM. And our defense was so bad I'm not totally sure that third goal was Bradley's fault because who knows what they're doing. I mean really.

Unfortunately Gooch did look bad out there tonight. I love him and if he is one of our starting CB's that's okay with me, but he can do better I think, I hope.

This has been coming on for some time but Hercules is officially my favorite USA player.

As far as the Kaiser, we got beat 4 -1 by baby Brazil. Yes, we had a bad call against Gooch and yes we had a few nearly goals, but Bob Bradley never had the luxury of excuses. And Pato was onside, it was a beautiful goal you whiner.

 

I agree it was onside and a brilliant strike - it killed off the momentum that the U.S. had begun to build, hence, a joykill.

 

I am beginning to fear that Nev is somewhere out there reading my mind.

My three bright spots:

1. Fabian Johnson - I know I am cursing the man but he is so much better than any left back I have seen in a US shirt that I don't have words to describe the gap and he is only twenty-four.

2. Hurculez Gomez - Worked his socks off and knows where the goal is.

3. Michael Bradley - Italy has been good for him. He is consistently one of the better US players on the pitch at this point. I did think he was well out of position for the third goal. Hard to tell from the camera angle but it sure looked like Marcello used the space Bradley vacated to score.

My three that looked out of sorts:

1. Gooch - The big fella never looked comfortable when the ball came to his feet but he wasn't alone in that department.

2. Edu - See Gooch but not quite so bad.

3. Donovan - Marcello stole his lunch. Donovan just looked like he ran out of ideas on how to beat the Brazilian jackdonkey.

The one thing I took away from this match

There is no question that Clint Dempsey is the face of American soccer. In his thirty or so minutes of play the US team looked transformed. The chip pass to Gomez was a thing of beauty and deserved a goal. My hat is off to the Brazilian keeper for two very fine saves.

 

Another bright spot that I forgot to post earlier: Blue numbers!

I can see them.

 

Penalty was for a handball on Gooch but I thought it was at best a borderline judgement but for me there was nothing there. Looked like Gooch just got unlucky on that call.

 

Watching the game with my son we both thought Brazil's ball pressuring was the biggest difference in the match between the two sides. Once the US got past midfield with the ball they pressured the Brazilians well but getting out of our own half was a real problem.

 

Having to witness a bad fight always puts a damper on the night. I feel for you Heather and the staff that had to deal with it. Hopefully the number of fights were few. What was the crowd breakdown in terms of Brazil - USA support. On TV it looked more even than in the past. I saw lots of red/blue shirts with yellow ones peppered in. I was also surprised at the # of fans wearing the new candycane jersey - Waldo was seemingly everywhere.

The result was ugly and bad, in my opinion, but it was a fun match to watch. I'm glad that Mr. DC got to see an entertaining game.

It is easy to say Brazil is that good, but it was our lack of defensive shape and tactics that doomed us. Regardless, I look forward to watching Brazil in the Olympics. Say what you want about Pele's comments - I think talking about the greatest player ever is an exercise in futility anyway - all I know is that I will watch Neymar all day long over Messi.

 

I was making fun of Pele and his delusional, self-absorbed behavior playing out in the media over the last several years, not Neymar's ability. Kid is obviously going to be a player along w/the next wave of young and amazing talent coming up the Brazilian pipeline. Will save the match comments until after watching the tape, but glad to hear Johnson looked good (and wants to be here) and bummed Gooch looked poor.

 

I was sitting 20 rows back behind the goal where the penalty occurred. What I saw from that angle was Gooch's elbow out from his body, and the ball hit the part of the arm that was not in front of his body. I was hoping it was outside of the box (because from behind I was not sure), but his arm deflected a ball that would have gone through if it had not been there. I wish it wasn't so, but when it happened live I thought it was a handball.

Many things about Brazil impressed me, but the two things I noticed the most were (1) their incredible speed, and (2) their ability to counter attack so quickly (which is related to the speed). It was like hockey where one team is attacking, the puck comes out, and the other team has a breakaway.

That being said, there was a pretty substantial period in the second half were we dominated. Anytime you can dominate Brazil for any length of time, that's great. Overall I thought the US played good. We're not Brazil, but over 200 countries can say the same.

 

And off topic, but Chelsea purchased Hulk today from Porto for 38 mil pounds. Jeebus!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012 ... hulk-porto

 

And what was Gooch's cut?

 

My favorite tweet of the week after this and the Hazard signing:

"The Man City fans that were Chelsea fans a year ago are really f**king confused right now. "

 

One thing that I am beginning to learn is that between the "nastiness", diving, and requiring that children decide to gamble on a pro career at 11 yrs of age that is being advocated as necessary for the USA to compete with the top fooseballing nations, I'm not sure I want it at that price. Nice to read someone express a similar sentiment.

 

If he is talking nasty like Jones tackle on Neymar that is a big no. If he talking nasty as in being willing to body up and move someone off the ball then yes. Anyone else catch the footage of Clint using his hand to tell the Brazilian right back that he was talking to much. That is the kind of nasty attitude I wouldn't mind seeing more of.

 

I'll start with the disclaimer that I did not listen to Klinsmann's actual words so I am going solely on what I've read he said and on journalists' and players' reaction. I have a hard time listening to him anymore so I skipped the video. I have a problem with Klinsmann's "nasty" comment because I think we are a sufficiently tough team, but "nasty" is different all together. Nasty is why I hate Mexico's national team and actually it's starting to look as if their nastiness might be a thing of the past because I dont see their younger players behaving that way - and this would be good imo. As Barry pointed out, Dempsey pretty much gets it right when it comes to toughness, trash talking, etc. Boca puts in the professional foul when it's necessary and I think he pretty much gets it right. Anything more is unAmerican. Our players are not naive, they know other teams will be physical, it's called CONCACAF qualifying and Nigel DeJong.

Another reason this comment concerns me is obviously Klinsmann is not familiar with the officiating the USA experiences. If we behaved as nasty as other CONCACAF teams we would be in big trouble. Yet another thing that doesnt bode well for our WC qualifying chances. Did Klinsmann not watch our WC's or the Confederations Cup and see the calls we get? We may have held on against Brazil in that Confed cup final if we had Michael Bradlely in that match but Lorrionda, a ref who had been suspended by his own federation, made sure he wouldnt get to play in that game.

Can you imagine if Bradley or Arena had made this comment. People would have jumped all over it, saying that's all they can do because they dont know football tactics and our players arent skilled enough.

 

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