6/3/2009 Costa Rica - USA - Live on ESPN2 and Galavision at 9:00 CT 6/6/2009 Trinidad & Tobago - Costa Rica El Salvador - Mexico USA - Honduras - Live on ESPN & Galavision at 7:00 PM CT 6/10/2009 Mexico - Trinidad & Tobago Honduras - El Salvador USA had their game on 6/10 moved up to tonight because of the Confederations Cup. Brian Ching and Ricardo Clark of the Dynamo both made the trip to Costa Rica with the US squad.
A bit more info on the games to be played... 6/3/2009: CRC vs USA @ Estadio Saprissa - San José, Costa Rica; 21:00 - ESPNHD, GALVISION 6/6/2009: SLV vs MEX @ Cuscatlán - San Salvador, El Salvador; 21:00 TELEMUNDO 47 ktmd TRI vs CRC @ Dwight Yorke Stadium - Bacolet, Trinidad; 17:05 USA vs HON @ Soldier Field - Chicago, USA; 19:27 - ESPNHD 6/10/2009: MEX vs TRI @ Azteca Stadium - Mexico City, Mexico; 20:30 TELEMUNDO HON vs SLV @ San Pedro Sula - Tegucigalpa, Honduras; 20:30 FYI, I looked up lots of football to enjoy on TV for many other teams I know have followers in ClutchFans. FSC will show 6/3 Saudi Arabia at Iran, 2pm; 6/3 Australia at Japan, noon; 6/5 Uzbekistan at Australia, noon; 6/6 Iran at Korea DPR, 3 am; Australia at Qatar 11 am; 6/10 United Arab Emirates at Iran 9:30 am; 6/11 Bahrain at Australia, 2 am; TELEMUNDO: 6/13 Argentina at Ecuador 1pm 6/14 Peru at Colombia 12am - 2am ; Paraguay at Brazil 12pm - 2pm ¡VAMOS, MEXICO! Good games, to all. May the best team win! I thought you were colombiano, Miguel? A la gran puchica... geez, tell everyone my name, why don't you, emmeffer.
A draw would be a great result tonight. Saprissa is an incredibly difficult atmosphere with a pretty good Costa Rica side. If I had my say in the starting 11, I'd go with... Howard Spector Onyewu Bocanegra Bornstein Dempsey Bradley Torres Donovan Ching Altidore I do not want to Beasley to see the field. Masteroni would be a good defensive replacement for Torres should we get a lead. Adu should see some time in this game as well...especially if Dempsey is not playing well. Watching Adu and Altidore work together can be an absolute thing of beauty.
Mastroeni is a lock to start along side Bradley against Costa Rica. I actually wouldn't be surprised to see a 4-5-1 in this match considering the difficulty of this match and that Jozy hasn't played a minute in about 3 months. I'd prefer to see Beasley at LB over either Bornstein or Pearce.
I know Pablo is starting, but I think Torres deserves a shot. He'll probably get in later on for either Bradley or Masteroni. Beasley sucks. I can't stand watching him play any longer. I don't understand what the infatuation is with him other than speed. He has no touch. He has no creativity. He can't cross. He weighs 110 lbs wet and gets pushed off the ball way too easily. I'd much rather see Pearce or Bornstein or Wynn or and injured Hejduk than DMB.
Adu won't get any midfield run today. His updates on Twitter imply that he's still working himself into full game shape since his coaches at Benfica/Monaco haven't really given him much playing time. He is bulking up, though, and says it's helping greatly. However, Costa Rica probably isn't the place to get him back into the swing of things. I expect him to play a large role in the Gold Cup this summer as I doubt he makes the Confederations Cup roster. Bradley did state earlier this week that Jozy is completely fit and available to start. He didn't commit to whether or not he actually would, though.
I felt like you about Beas back in the early part of this decade and I couldnt understand the infatuation with him other than his quickness cos he's not really fast he's just a quick player. But, I will say that he has worked on his crossing since he moved to Europe. It was coming along at PSV and got better while at Man.City. I guess after however many years at Chicago he finally figured it might be a smart thing to stay back after training and work on crosses. His touch still sucks though. Everytime I used to watch him I would get so pissed off at myself as well as my buds who messed up chances they had to play pro. I mean seriously sometimes I wonder about Beas but hey, he is quick and he also plays smart. I gotta give him that, he is a smart player and is one of the best in the US Nats when it comes to quick touches/one touch football(Albeit you'd prefer your winger to go at people a la Cronaldo, Robben, Quaresma).
I've been on a number of the other regular sites-BSoccer,SBI etc and I'm astounded by the lack of appreciation for Ricardo Clark and the amount of crap he gets from some fans. This is a Houston forum so most of the soccer fans here are probably Dynamo fans like myself but I was a fan of Rico back in his U20 days before getting drafted by the Metrostars and I'm impressed by how his game has come along. I think outside of Mastroeni, Rico is the best Dmid in the country and has a better attacking game than Mastroeni. Rico had one relatively bad match against England(along with the 9 other outfield players for the US) and he has barely seen any national team action since then. Some claim Edu should be the Dmid choice to partner Bradley if healthy and say Edu is better than Rico. I disagree and feel Edu has a better attacking game than Rico but Rico is better defensively(No slight on Edu as he's still adjusting to being a Dmid since he was an attacking mf his first few years at Maryland). Can't understand the lack of love for Rico and I feel it may have to do with him still plying his trade in MLS. I blame Rico for being too comfortable in MLS and feel if he wants to take his game up a notch he needs to finally make the move to Europe. The Dynamo have adequate cover for him in Mulrooney and Rico gets playing time in a decent side then I feel Bob and the rest of the US fans might start to appreciate him more.
Did you watch the T&T match, his first in a long time at LB, where he shut down Carlos Edwards, possibly the best winger in CONCACAF? Did you miss Bornstein's abomination of a game against a weak Sweden side, or any of Pearce's recent matches?
4-3-3 for the US: ---------------Howard---------------- --------------------------------------- Wynne---Boca----Onyewu---Beasley ---------------------------------------- -----Mastro----Bradley----Torres----- ---------------------------------------- ---Donovan----Altidore---Dempsey--
