usmnt

congratulations to jones, lichaj, and brek shea on their callups

Oct. 9, 2010 U.S. Men vs. Poland 7 p.m. CT Soldier Field
Chicago, Ill. Fox Soccer Channel & Galavision
Oct. 12, 2010 U.S. Men vs. Colombia 8 p.m. ET PPL Park
Chester, Pa. ESPN2 & Galavision

Goin' to the Poland game w/ about 50 or so S8 folx including a bunch of Polish fans, should be fun.

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/news/newsid=1310662.html?cid=rssfeed&att=

Germany coach Joachim Low is concerned that next week's UEFA EURO 2012 qualifier against Turkey in Berlin could be an away game for his side given the amount of Turks living in the German capital.

hi dere welcome to our world

That should be a terrific match - those are two fabulous attacking sides.

lol thought u were talking abt us and poland for a sec and was like Whut

http://www.blending-mashine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/tumblr_krkj2njh001qzpwi0o1_500.jpg

a 4-2-3-1 is intriguing, tho I don't know if they can play like that yet

would be good to try and get more midfielders out there, our 1 strong suit

Ives had a 4-3-2-1 xmas tree posted with Jones, Bradley, and Edu as the 3... just call that one "the bone-cruncher"

btw Bradley on the late run to goal is one of my favorite sights to see w/ these guys

hi dere welcome to our world

yeah

also cosign on the potential of that game

just learned Lichaj's from Chicago and his parents are Polish immigrants

wish he would grow his hair back out
http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/schools/unc/sports/m-soccer/auto_headshot/573906.jpeg

report on Charlie Davies' comeback and some o_O scar pics

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/5655430/soccer-us-forward-charlie-davies-talks-recovery-espn-magazine

lineup
4-5-1 w/ edu at centerback huh

Howard;
Cherundolo, Onyewu, Edu, Bocanegra;
Jones, Bradley, Holden, Dempsey, Feilhaber;
Altidore.

i'll be curious to see how high dempsey plays. and gooch is really ready for this, is he? wanna see lichaj at some point

Does anyone else think the US goal was offside? I'm heavily medicated with Nyquil and my eyes are burning but F thought it was.

from that camera angle it sure seemed so.

gooch is driving me crazy, booting it out of the back

bedoya for feilhaber, is that all we've got as far as possible forward-looking changes?

^wrote at halftime but could have said it later tbh

huh. jones looked good, physical, except for his fuckup. same with holden, great except for his fuckup. so many chances, both jozy's and the set pieces. thank god for tim howard

fun times, good seats, lots and lots of poles

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs368.ash2/64641_444156571895_509986895_5400916_6674090_n.jpg

they looked like a team with a bunch of guys who don't quite know how to play together yet, and I still am not sure if 4-5-1 is something they can pull off. jones/holden were fun to watch tho.

http://worldsoccerreader.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/JJwhiteboard.png

What do you guys do with those things?

nod sagely

i'm still trying to learn how to watch the game. i want to understand a midfielder's most common passing locations. i want to see passing lanes before they develop. this was jones' first game with us. does the visual representation match what i saw on tv? what doesn't the chart tell me (in this case, about his physicality) ? if i look at enough of these what patterns will i see? i have so much trouble comparing two players against two different teams, could this help?

where, how, and who did he link up with? (have to reach to remember the who) what was his average pass length?

i'm american, i love stats and charts, this chart may not tell me much but can we be so sure that the tenth or hundreth chart won't reveal something? we never know where tactical breakthroughs are going to come, who will see the game differently. i will stick to national type and hope it's us lol

^ could totally get behind this level of analysis for spurs, tbh. the analysis of what players do that works during a game. i bet mourinho is up to his neck in this shit.

I assume you meant Allardyce

easy mistake to make, that

I'm not knocking the concept either btw - if there's going to be some revolutionary development in the game (there only appears to ever have been two so far as I can tell) then I'm pretty persuaded that it'll come from some kind of synthesis of this and set-plays. I'm sure not going to be able to spot it though.

i think it's fair to speculate that improvement on a systemic level can come from the analysis of repeated actions

/banaka

what were those two revolutionary developments ismael ?

442, sam allardyce

I've written about them before, but basically:

(i) the Scottish passing game taking over from kick-and-rush around the 1880s; and
(ii) the whole pressing/offside trap/possession system of Ajax in the 1960s.

We're basically still exploring the world invented by (ii). There's a terrific book (Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson) looking at the development of tactics through the ages, not sure if it'll've reached your shores Jibe. There are lots of interesting innovations discussed in it, but those two seem to be the big ones. The others usually mostly happen every few years when one guy stands in a slightly different position, and everyone else gets confused

And that's my 10,000th post. It's been a pleasure, I'd like to thank my agent, etc.

congrats, it was worthy imo

ok thx. that book looks quite interesting, will try and get ahold of it as soon as my finances allow me to.

football finances thread

It's a great read, enlightened me to many things + helped me relate my hockey tactical knowledge to similarities on the pitch.

apparently Spector is starting tonight, should be a lot of other changes too

also lol @ < 10k tickets sold for this match, wtf

apparently Spector is starting tonight

GAAHHHHHHHH

we are mediocre huh. lucky for us colombia is so far too

i love edu's composure on the ball. he doesn't make me start drumming my fingers nervously in possession.
it seems like holden out wide takes away a lot of what's best about him: getting involved, cutting into passing lanes. you'd think the idea would be he'd send in crosses from out wide, but i don't think he's had a cross yet.

EJ for jozy? lichaj for spector (hey, he was only burned twice! not bad). any other changes?

lichaj looked good
ummm, other positives?

(we need to put it down on record that our first shot on goal was in the 55th minute)

I was at the Fire/KC game so I missed this. Doesn't sound like much of note. From the descriptions I've read/heard it sounded like a 4-3-3? Last time I saw that Costa Rica kicked their ass.

yeah i guess it was a 4-3-3, in the first half. jozy was so marooned and alone i'm tempted to call it 4-3-2-1. but i'm bad with formations. brek shea looked okay, not totally outclassed at this level with his first cap, so that's something. EJ came in at HT and edu went out (i think, i missed some) so the formation changed but i'm not sure how. the second half was better, dempsey with some spark, but yeah, you didn't miss much.

the pronunciation of Lichaj's name sounds exactly the same a "lihai" （厉害） which is a common slang word in Chinese that means "awesome."

same for (Luis) Figo in Italian (actually 'fico', but close enough) - any other examples?

Iiiiiiiinteresting

BREAKING: FIFA has approved Folarin Balogun's one-time switch to represent the US national team, FIFA has confirmed to The Athletic.

Balogun, 21, has 19 goals in 34 games on loan at Reims from Arsenal. He most recently was with England youth int'l set-up. pic.twitter.com/iEITZIIAea

— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) May 16, 2023

finally a real striker

Fucking disgusted

https://www.outsports.com/2023/6/15/23763078/mexico-fans-gay-chant-team-usa-put-chant

Until it costs them points in a competition it's never gonna change.

Maybe not even then, sadlol

they should be forced to play in empty stadiums during the Gold Cup imo.

like CONCACAF or USMNT officials would ever let that happen

Or SUM for that matter

Lot more pace in this one than it would have had 20 years ago

Balogun opens his account.

Canada is struggling to deal with him

Balogun is pulling Canada out of shape.

They're resorting to mauling him when they can

Canada seems to have regressed since the WC. The Balogun goal was so good.

Yea Davies looked terrible last night

Been meaning to say I was at the USA/Jamaica match on Saturday, Jamaica looked really good from the start, gave the B- US team all they could handle, lucky to get a draw. Also Soldier Field sucks, kinda? Maybe I am too used to empty Fire games.

My friend Jeff retired from day to day work with usmnt at this match. He will definitely still be a good follow for any American fan of the game.

A few days late, but a message about my 118th and final game embedded with the @USMNT.

Thank you everyone, but especially these four standing next to me. 🙏🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Ac3isMmkcd

— Jeff Crandall (@jefecrandall) June 27, 2023

really a disservice to have the Gold Cup immediately after the Nations League final.

This quarterfinal between Canada and the US looks like what a match between these two might have looked like in the 80s. Both B squads playing miserable soccer, zero pace. US fans cheering like they won off of Vazquez's (admittedly nice) goal, only to give up a stupid PK minutes later and let them equalize.

the PK was Canada's first SOG all match

lmao the crowd groaned at the end of regulation. I agree, sucks that htey have to play more of this.

and hilariously, even if Canada wins, three of their key starters are suspended for the next match

lmao Canada just took the lead

HAHAHA tied again.

I want to like Busio but he has been frustrating up to that point

he had maybe one decent moment prior to that but agreed.

I did lol at the announcers falling all over themselves to compliment Cowell's play as he repeatedly made the wrong decision with the ball in the final third (though admittedly he improved a bit in extra time).

loling at USMNT fans freaking out on Twitter as if this was the Pulisic/Zimmermann version of the squad not being able to beat Canada

prediction: US 5-3, and any misses aren't saved but are shot over the goal

lol

After all that trash talk that is amazing

Ok lol, b team

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

lmao....oh my fucking god

prediction - this one goes backwards

Cowell seems to have both a cross neck tat and a cross razored into his mullet

yeah lol....and god that hair

It's a shitty version of Ferreira's look

Saint Turner

lol. at first he seemed like "lol that crossed the line mate" and then was like "man I suck"

Panama having 66% possession not something I thought I'd see

imagine spending $200+ to take your kids to *this* match

LMFAO

No more Roldan plz

kinda glad someone else gets a chance to win this time. if the US had managed to win the tourney with this terrible roster of misfits, lord.

really dk why I watch US vs T&T matches cos they always are lopsided and prove nothing but I'm itching for a football match so...here we go anyway

(big asterisk next to "always")

watching teams sit in a low block for 90 minutes and throw 9 men inside the box is oh so thrilling

lmao T&T player sent off. well this is about to be even less entertaining

still 0-0. jfc this is embarrassing

lol 3-0 within 8 minutes

Mexico losing the first leg to 78th ranked HOnduras wasn't something I anticipated, even with Mexico's current decline

celtic's own luis palma on that honduras squad <3

Sergino Dest sent off just before halftime due to the most childish tantrum I've ever seen.

Got mad that the ref ruled a ball out of bounds and punted it into the stands. Then screamed and insulted him and blew him a kiss.

Entire squad, especially Walker Zimmerman, totally laid into him.

They were winning 1-0, 4-0 on aggregate at the time!

USWNT vs Canada match is a farce.

it rained heavily and the pitch is waterlogged and the drainage is abysmal. the ball is barely moving and is often getting stuck in puddles.

the match's sole goal came when a Canadian defender attempted a routine backpass to their goalie, and to her horror, it moved two inches before getting stuck, and Trinity Rodman ran to the ball and poked it in the goal.

if I'm Canada i'm filing a protest

sorry it was Jaedyn Shaw