Neither. I don't know what's is wrong with him right now. Typically, he's an excellent defender and the force that makes the team go. It's truly a testament to where the team is now that we're sitting on 4 points and have an excellent chance to advance despite our best all-around player being such a non-factor.
What is wrong with him is that he is playing out of position he is a holding mid that occasionally creates, and he is being asked to be an attacking mid that controls the show. You know, Landon Donovan's role? The team is weaker because Bradley is not as good on offense consistently as he is at picking his spots and showing at big moments from the HM position. DD
People really need to get over the Donovan thing. It's the same set up they used against Nigeria just a couple weeks ago and he did quite well. He just looks lost for some reason. he's not coming back to command the ball. He's waiting for things to happen instead of making them happen as he usually does. I sincerely hope he gets his head out of his ass before Thursday. A team that played as well as they did yesterday WITH and engaged Bradley is certainly good enough to beat Germany.
Nigeria is NOT Portugal, Ghana or Germany. The Donovan thing was and is a mistake - we don't have that creative midfield player any more. Either way, Bradley needs to step it up. To me, it looks like he read his own press and is not playing as hard any more...at the end of the game on the giveaway he didn't bust his hump back....ridiculous. DD
LMAO. man you have no effin clue what you're talking about nigeria tied ghana in the africans cup semis and should've won that match outright. donovan looked like complete **** in his games leading up the decision of not having him on the team. stop pretending you know soccer
The more I see the highlights, the more I wish Beasley would've just fouled Ronaldo there. Just take him out and make them do it as a free kick. At least then we'd have everyone in the box (hopefully) marking.
x2. thats what i was saying since it happened. theres no reason not to take a yellow card there and take one for the team. give your defense a chance to reset
they didn't even give any effort thats the problem... no matter how well it was placed the defender should be in the position. There were 6 US defenders that could have been in position to defend the header had they given any effort at all. Every single person is just jogging and acting like the game was already over. Spoiler [youtube]FzgkZjCXAfI[/youtube]
More than Bradley losing that ball, THIS bugs me even more. What was Beasley thinking there to NOT go hard for the ball? Taking a yellow (or even a red) means NOTHING if you win the game. Instead, he backs off and allows Ronaldo all the space in the world to make that cross. Just a timid, BS play all-around by both Bradley and Beasley, and I hope they learn from it and come out aggressively on Thursday.
I moved a lunch meeting to Wednesday just for the game. Figure I can catch at least the 2nd half during my lunch break.
i'm flying out of town at 2:30 thursday... was thinking i was going to work a couple hours before heading to the airport but it now looks like i will be skipping work entirely and drinking early.
Guy I'm consulting for was at the game yesterday in Manaus. We expect him back in the office tomorrow or Wednesday. I'm hoping it will be easy to convince him to close early or take a long long lunch.
Newb here, looking for clarification on tiebreakers. Even after finding this handy link and reading a detailed explanation, I still don't understand the math behind the tiebreakers in our scenario. http://www.espnfc.us/fifa-world-cup/story/1904117/how-the-us-can-qualify-for-the-last-16 If the United States loses, Ghana would qualify instead if either game is decided by a margin of two goals or more. Either game? Isn't the margin something cumulative across both games? How is this goal difference: "Portugal would need to win 3-0 and U.S. lose 2-0" different from this goal difference: "this would happen with a 3-0 U.S. defeat and a 2-0 Portugal win" Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I keep reading the details on tiebreakers and I just don't get it. My impression is that this is about cumulative point differential (margin of victory), but I can't tell if the explanation above jives with that.
