The Official United States National Team Thread ***Possible Spoilers***

[dsp87260]

Not to make too much of the result in the Argentina friendly (), but something of note is that it's only the 3rd time ever that we've shut them out...making Howard only the 2nd US goalkeeper to ever do it. (Keller did it in the 1995 Copa America, a 3-0 win for the US; and in a June 1999 friendly, a 1-0 win for the US. Incidentally, Keller is also the only US goalkeeper to shut out Brazil, and in our only win vs them...1-0 in the 1998 Gold Cup SF. I can't wait 'til Howard does that too. )

[USAManUtd13]

The drubbing of Barbados is over. 9-0 on aggregate. Who'd have thought that an 8-0 scoreline would be putting me to sleep.

There's really not much to say about these two games. The regulars did enough.

Szetela looked poor; I expected better from him. Heath Pearce has the LB spot locked for the foreseeable future after his recent performances. Adu was ordinary after looking extremely impressive in the friendlies.

There has to be another way for teams like Barbados to get a chance, right? I felt bad for them. The US and Mexico should get byes so that countries like Belize and Barbados don't have to be humiliated.

[dsp87260]

The drubbing of Barbados is over. 9-0 on aggregate. Who'd have thought that an 8-0 scoreline would be putting me to sleep.

There's really not much to say about these two games. The regulars did enough.

Szetela looked poor; I expected better from him. Heath Pearce has the LB spot locked for the foreseeable future after his recent performances. Adu was ordinary after looking extremely impressive in the friendlies.

There has to be another way for teams like Barbados to get a chance, right? I felt bad for them. The US and Mexico should get byes so that countries like Belize and Barbados don't have to be humiliated.

We did get byes to the SF round (coming up in August/September) up until the 2006 cycle. They changed it at the start of last cycle for $$$$ reasons (my opinion). The smaller teams like Barbados make quite q bit of money (compared to their normal take) playing the bigger teams like US and Mexico.

[dsp87260]

USA starts the next round of qualifying on Wednesday (Aug 20) away to Guatemala...will they be able to overcome the oppressive jungle heat and atmosphere and the bunkerball played by Guatemala?..stay tuned...

Bradley Names Initial Roster to Prepare for Guatemala and First Semifinal Round Match of 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifying Campaign

DaMarcus Beasley Added To Roster For August 20 Qualifier Against Guatemala

[funkdoctorspock]

What is Freddy Adu's standing with the US NT? Was he getting caps during his time with Benfica? and will the move to Monaco on loan help with him getting regularly selected?

Also, with Maurice Edu siging with Rangers [sad to see him leave Toronto FC ], will this effect his callups with the US? It will be hard for him to get matches for The Gers.

[dsp87260]

What is Freddy Adu's standing with the US NT? Was he getting caps during his time with Benfica? and will the move to Monaco on loan help with him getting regularly selected?

Also, with Maurice Edu siging with Rangers [sad to see him leave Toronto FC ], will this effect his callups with the US? It will be hard for him to get matches for The Gers.

Adu has been an automatic choice for most fans in the online forums for a while now (it seems), but has been brought along more slowly than these fans think proper by the US coaches...right now I would say his position is that of a fringe player, a "super sub" possibly...His youth team play has generally been put ahead of any time with the senior team. He's been getting call-ups more and more often and has been getting more minutes as time goes by...I expect that to continue even if it's not as fast as some fans would like. (He played in several of our friendlies this year and also in our last WCQ against Barbados IIRC.)

As for Edu, I expect he'll still get call-ups but playing in Europe does complicate that somewhat. Our MLS players can generally be released to the USMNT any time the USMNT deems it important or wants them (some clubs may raise a stink like LA did with not releasing Donovan for last year's Copa America or saying up front that they don't want him to go to the Olympics, but if the USMNT is determined to have the player then they will). We don't get our Euro players released nearly as often (mainly for WCQ, etc and friendlies in Europe...sometimes for friendlies in the US or elsewhere outside Europe if it's a FIFA date).



edit: here are the results/line-ups for this year...

The Official Site of U.S. Soccer - Men's National Team

Adu came on as a sub vs Mexico (Feb 6 in Houston) and England (May 28 in London), started (played the first half) vs Spain (Jun 4 in Santander), subbed in vs Argentina (Jun 8 at Giants Stadium in NJ) and in the WCQ vs Barbados mid-way through the 1st half (Jun 15 in Carson CA), and started in Barbados in the second leg (played most of the game, subbed out around 86th min...Jun 22 in Bridgetown).



edit 2: if anyone's interested, here's a write-up with a bunch of facts and figures on the US team and specifically with regards to the match-up vs Guatemala...

U.S. Men Begin Semifinal Round of 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifying Wed., Aug. 20 at Guatemala
The Official Site of U.S. Soccer - Men's National Team

[USAManUtd13]

dsp covered most of it, but I just want to add a bit about Adu and Benfica/Monaco.

Adu only played in about 10 games for Benfica last season, most, if not all, as a substitute. In those 10 games he scored 3 goals and, according to many Benfica fans, was creative and influential in his time on the field (Qwerty might have an opinion on Adu in this regard). There was then a few staff changes that were made and Adu saw no playing time after that to the bewilderment of US fans and Benfica fans alike. This lead to some conspiracy theorists bringing up the possibility of a clause in Adu's contract that stated that if Adu played "x" amount of games Benfica would need to shell out an extra "x" amount of dollars. I don't necessarily believe it, but it is strange how he didn't see any more playing time considering how effective he'd seemed to be.

The loan move to Monaco is a good one, in my opinion. The chairman who just took over there is associated with the USSF and has publicly stated that he will be looking closely at bringing in American talent. I think Adu will see a significant increase in playing time at Monaco and I think the French league, while perhaps not perfectly suited to Adu's style, will prove beneficial in Adu's development nonetheless.

[USAManUtd13]

Two away qualifiers, two away wins. 6 points. Top of the table.

It's always good to get results like these away from home, but the US has looked anything but convincing. The Guatemala game was tough to watch. Guatemala had much of the better play late in the game.

The Cuba game was better for the US. I'm not sure whether it was the lineup, the venue, or what, but things seemed quicker/smoother for nearly the entire game. Beasley had a great game, which is tough to say considering he missed an open net, put a shot that should've at least been on target wide, and failed to play a decent ball into the box twice. However, he was the man getting into good positions. The movement off the ball was great and we were able to move the ball forward on the ground well. However, these last two games were against teams that the US should really be handling and 1-0 wins are not easing. I would at least like to be seeing more chances.

Anyway, next up is Trinidad and Tobago who tied Guatemala at home. Hopefully the US can build on the improvements of the last two games.

[dsp87260]

Two away qualifiers, two away wins. 6 points. Top of the table.

It's always good to get results like these away from home, but the US has looked anything but convincing. The Guatemala game was tough to watch. Guatemala had much of the better play late in the game.

The Cuba game was better for the US. I'm not sure whether it was the lineup, the venue, or what, but things seemed quicker/smoother for nearly the entire game. Beasley had a great game, which is tough to say considering he missed an open net, put a shot that should've at least been on target wide, and failed to play a decent ball into the box twice. However, he was the man getting into good positions. The movement off the ball was great and we were able to move the ball forward on the ground well. However, these last two games were against teams that the US should really be handling and 1-0 wins are not easing. I would at least like to be seeing more chances.

Anyway, next up is Trinidad and Tobago who tied Guatemala at home. Hopefully the US can build on the improvements of the last two games.

The Cubans weren't out to hack and foul and just be thuggish in general the way that the Guatemalans were.

The difference between playing home and away was clearly evident with the T&T game (a 3-0 win for the US for those that don't know).

With the win over T&T the US has an all-time team record 6 game shut-out streak going...(it started with the Argentina friendly and has continued through these 5 WCQ matches)...

June 8 vs Argentina 0-0 T (Friendly)
June 15 vs Barbados 8-0 W (WCQ, 2nd rd)
June 22 @ Barbados 1-0 W (WCQ, 2nd rd)
Aug 20 @ Guatemala 1-0 W (WCQ, SF rd)
Sept 6 @ Cuba 1-0 W (WCQ, SF rd)
Sept 10 vs T&T 3-0 W (WCQ, SF rd)

Coming up are the 2nd matches against our 3 group opponents (2 at home vs Cuba and Guatemala, and 1 away to T&T)...

October 11 vs Cuba (WCQ, SF rd)
October 15 @ T&T (WCQ, SF rd)
November 19 vs Guatemala (WCQ, SF rd)