Our defense is not really experienced, but they are ok, but they are defenitly our weekest line. Van der sar is a great keeper. for the distrubution we have Sneijder, who didn't play good. And Van der vaart(if he is healthy), and maduro(more defensive minded). But they are not our greatest players. Cocu and van bommel aree both more defensive. Cocu is getting old, he didn't play good, but he still is a great player. We played our best games against good opponents, and with robben and van persie on the wings we have some great weapons. We are a very young team, so this WC is more a test for them, the next european championship will be our tournament. (also with some young talent comming). Robben is and always be injury prone, if he gets injured we have a problem, so we hope for the best
STOP POSTING LAST TOURNAMENT'S PICTURES! You teasers, you... I am getting some tree product here looking at last year's chicks... something for EVERYONE: I don't have to type in what country they're from... you should know...
I miss Davids as he is one of my favorite players but Seedorf never seems to fit in on the nat'l team. He is great at AC Milan but not so much at the nat'l level. I also think his ego did him in, which is why Kluivert has not gotten a chance. We'll see how good this team is when they face Ivory Coast and Argentina. I think they are very young which can be good because they are not expected to win it all and they also have a home field advantage b/c of Holland's proximety to Germany. I watched all 3 games after I got home and Australia was not as impressive as I thought they would be. They played at such a slow pace and their passes were so weak and lacked pace. Those were some nice goals though. Italy looked great! Luca Toni looks like a beast, and Totti didn't look too bad for being out with injury. Ghanna was not bad either, Essien showed why he is so highly paid and hyped, dude was great. The Czechs were really good but I didn't think they played to their highest capabilities. The U.S. just stunk it up. They had no midfield presence at all. Beasley and Donovan were non-existent as you guys mentioned.
Since I decided to shun everything soccer after yesterday's collective throw-up-in-mouth performance, here is what I saw. 1) The defense was terribly unorganized. Who was running the show back there? Onyewu was asleep. Eddie Lewis was fairly solid for playing out of position. Cherundolo did was a non factor. His crossing (supposed strength) was terrible. They tried to be agressive at first with Oneywu collecting 3 fouls in the first 2 minutes. That backfired when he got the yellow in the 4th. There's being agressive and there is being stupid. He was the latter. 2) The midfield was also useless. Beasly didn't belong on the field, let alone out of position on the right. That didn't work. Don't do it again. Convey played the best in my opinion. He took players on and tried to make things happen. I keep hearing that Reyna had a good game. Other than the shot off the post, what did he do? He held the ball too long. He was too cautious, especially after we were down 2. He was in no man's land all day. Masteroni was persona non grata. In the midfield's defense, The Czech's pressured early all day and forced the midfield into a defensive stance. 3) Arena was right. Donvan was just bad. He needs to come get the ball early and make runs at the defense. He did it once and got us a good opportunity on a free kick. I never saw him run at the defense again all day. McBride wasn't winning headers. If he isn't doing this, what is the point of him even being on the field. He's not going to take you off the dribble. He's not a particularly good passer (as evidenced by his 3 attempted chips to no one). If you have this ball at your feet and space withing 30 yards...SHOOT THE F***ING BALL! Eddie Johnson was great off the bench and should start on Saturday. 4) Keller was trying to make things happen by punting the ball into space. When it was evident that it wasn't working, he should have stopped doing it. On Rosicky's break away, I think that was the first time I've ever seen Keller hesitate. If he comes out, he eats that ball up. 5) The overall team effort was nothing short of pathetic and embarassing. I was saying after the game that Arena should blast them publicly. He sort of did, calling out Keller, Donovan, and Beasley. What about Onyewu? What about McBride? Why not put in Dempsey when it was clear no one was going to take the initative? Since when does this team play scared? They sure as hell did yesterday. Free kicks in their the Cezch's half were passed back. Not one corner was played into the box. Only 2 shots were taken from outside the box. Crosses were simply terrible. Passes were terrible. I'd say the shooting was also terrible, but with only 4 taken, it's just isn't a large enough sample. All in all, we still have a shot. It's going to be extremely tough. Italy looked very good yesterday as well. We need a win, but a draw will help. We can beat Ghana. They have a lot of talent, but are unorganized and their keeper is shaky at best. None of this matters if we don't play with some heart. That was the biggest thing lacking yesterday. They played scared and like a bunch of pu****s and it cost them. Look for major lineup changes on Saturday. Even if we don't win, I just want to see a good showing. Let the world know that we do in fact belong in Germany.
The best the US could hope for on Saturday would be for us to beat Italy and Ghana to upset the Czechs.... Because even if the US beats Italy, and then Ghana loses to the CR, that would guarantee that the CR is through, and that they would have nothing to play for against Italy...... It is going to get hairy....hopefully we beat Italy like 2-0 and get closer on goal differential. DD
One last thing I forgot to point out that proves what a s***ty game the US played yesterday...0 offsides called on the US. Outsiders would say that this is a good thing. Total BS. This proves how uncreative they were yesterday and a total lack of agressiveness. I think I'm done ranting now.
France hasn't scored in 4 straight WC matches!!!! That's with Henry,Zi Zou,Wiltord,Saha and Trezeguet.
kpsta, Windows Media Player needed for: mms://wm-live.abacast.com/telehorizon-telehorizon-100 from your Haitian friends stealing an Univision feed... Gracias! WHOA... GO BRAZIL [chicks]!
