chingy is gettin his inner thief on lately. he is poaching goals left and right, and suddenly you can't count him out of anything. get it boy. the goal he stole from sasha kljestan on saturday was dirtay. however, as well as he has been playing, you cant argue with his production and level of play. well done chingaling.
oh clint dempsey, how you play with my heart. you are inconsistent, maddening, and i love you. you may pain my heart, but your moments of brilliance are incredible. please, keep playing for bob b and the cottagers. because everytime you are on, you remind me that you could be the great white hope.
thoughts from the us game
- way to clutch up dempsey. you brought the sizzle, and your runs were dangerous again. i still dont think the right flank is your spot, but you were good anyway. the run midway through the first half showed the grit that you have been missing the last couple games. and that finish was clinical. -after the goal, the us really looked like they were killing off the game, and as much as i didn't like it, i didn't hate it either. 1-0 is not the way to go but it is def better then a loss. the posession was good, especially for a sloppy field. -having damarcys beasley in the line up makes the team so much more dangerous, especially going forward. you can tell he isnt completely fit, but he created some sick chances, and how there wasn't a pk awarded to the us on his cutback where the defender slid in the box and stopped his cross with his hand is beyond me -chingaling (brian ching) played classy again. he might be better then i thought. i have always loved him, but he is playing some really impressive target forward right now. granted, its against cuba, but still. -cuba 5 nothing but respect for these peeps right here. literally straight up, well earned, i may not like you but i respect you Anchorman status respect. and love. and jealousy that i am not one, but cuba cinco has a lot nicer ring then cuba seis. -overall game - meh, us needs to start finishing chances. the field was poor as was the referee, as he missed at least 3 dangerous fouls that would have given the us great free kick/pks. a win is a win, and clint dempsey sacking up makes this game a B+. the formation was better, landon wasnt on the wing, but they need to try sasha wide, with landon as the withdrawn forward and demps as the attacking midfielder, or call freddy into camp. please.
Friday night in the bay area we had a minor earthquake. Tonight we had a major one. HUCK STRIKES AGAIN!!! who knew that Washington DC was so earthquake prone??
again, the quakes WILL make the playoffs. huck and artie are rampaging up top right now. well done frank yallop well done.
saturday is critical for two teams i love. first, the reincarnated quakes are making a run. a very unlikely, slow centerback recieves the ball at his own box dribbles 7 guys and deftly chips the keeper from ten yards out kinda run. I know they can keep it rolling, because they are rallying behind this man he is quite a talisman for them to rally behind. and he is producing in a big way, especially when the refs don't notice he is offside. the quakes are only 3 points out of a playoff spot. i think they are gonna get there. i'm not biased at all.
up next is a math problem. you tell me the answer.
if you don't, the lovely lads of the USMNT certainly will help answer this question saturday at 5pm, in cuba. it will be on either espn2 or espn classic, or hopefully espnFutbol channel, which espn will not only introduce tomorrow but have the US game as its kickoff game. well, one can dream...
-National team games get me fired up like none other. Seriously the blood flows when I turn them on. Especially when watching them with my boys. The only thing that is better is going to them with my boys. Its also amazing that I have at least ten friends who are real solid USMNT supporters, and at least 5 of them didn't come from a soccer background. word to you kmad, trev, petah, nuge, and clayt.
-After the game, my brother was ready to fight someone. He was so pissed at how cheap the Guatemalans were, it was amazing. He isn’t quite as big of a US fan ( you messi argentina bum) but seeing his rage was amazing. That and the fact that he is coming to South Africa for the world cup makes me joyous
-I saw this "Eddie Lewis, new to the Galaxy, talks to Nick Green of the Daily Breeze and reveals that he thinks the Guatemalans targeted him personally because he was just signed by the Galaxy and their teammate Carlos Ruiz was sent packing." today, and I seriously hope some of the guys who play in the MLS inflict some pain upon carlos ruiz. Dude is scum. That is the nicest way I can put what I really think about him.
-USsoccer.com has solid highlights and behind the scenes action from the game, which I am a big fan of. Even though they interview pretty much the same guys every time. I want to hear what Gooch has to say about the game, or maybe demps. That woulda been an interesting one, considering he was not so pleased when he got pulled midway through the second half. Check out the first vid, it is sweet.
-Please people in Chicago, Columbus, and Denver get out to the US qualifiers, sell the place out, pack the house with red white and blue, be obnoxious and make life suck for the opposing teams. PLEASE. For those of us who cannot (yet anyway). The crowd was solid in Guat, lets make playing the US in the states an away game, instead of a neutral site or even home away from home for these other teams
-Check the onetwo initiative, to hopefully help foster this idea. Join it on facebook if you have one, even if you don’t plan on seriously participating. Just getting the word out would be a huge boost to its rather pitiful current membership.
couldn't have been much more true. the game was poorly played by the US, and they didn't look particularly special. However, a win is a win, and certainly on the road it is a brilliant win. scattered thoughts from the game:
-wtf espn. cut away from the baseball game and go straight to the soccer. the pennant race is not going to be decided in august anyway. bump them onto espn classic. - Landon needs to attack from the wings when he gets the ball out there. He did way too much pulling the ball back when either driving a ball in to streaking forwards or dribbling at defenders were both much more dangerous options. - On the same note, that kinda went for the whole team. where was the creativity/flair? I think it is time to bump bradley or mastroeni from the center mid, and let either dempsey/adu have a run as a withdrawn forward with the other as an attacking mid. we aren't beating world powers attacking like tonight, and unless Bradley gets some attacking freedom, two dmids is not getting it done. - well done Chingy. you didn't do much early, but second half you were a difference maker. loved the backscreen on Boca's goal, and your workrate up top was first class. - Oh how having Damarcus beasley on the field changes things. We miss you D, get back to fitness quick please. -Carlos Ruiz is a piece of crap. how he didn't have a red by sixty in is beyond me -Scrappy win fellas. good teams win even when they suck, and so does the US apparently.
Usain bolt is incredible, his running is so dominant. It made me think how sick Olympic track events would be with soccer players only. think of donovan, messi, eto'o and torres all squaring off in the 200. the combinations would be awesome.
so today, after spending some lovely time at work on www.ussoccer.com and watching some videos to distract myself from the fact that i still had 6 more hours of work left, i stumbled upon the Men's National Team: Playing in Guatemala vid. it was talking about the stress of playing in a different nation and how some of the players deal with the adversity of not only playing in front of a hostile crowd, but the fact they deal with people calling their rooms at 3am, radio stations setting up outside their hotel, fans jeering them at the airport and the like. pretty legit stuff. but when these teams come to play the US in the US, do they face the same sort of treatment? not usually. why not? shouldn't their games on the road be as stressful as possible BEFORE the game starts too? I certainly feel like it. and that is where the onetwo initiative rears its (optimistically) very ugly head.
basically, the onetwo initiative is an attempt to organize US Men's National Team fans across the US to rally behind our boys and also make life suck for their opponents. i will start a group on facebook that allows us to connect and work on how to screw with the Guatemalans, the Cubans, the T&T fellows, and quite certainly the Mexicans, along with any other team the US might face along their road to WC2010. Unfortunately, because a) i am poor and b) i am on the west coast, I can only do so much. but if someone can get me the hotel name and room numbers in Chicago, Columbus or any other city in the US, I would love to waste my precious family plan cellphone minutes giving mr. ruiz and mr. blanco calls to discuss items such as why they suck and that nobody likes them. because its time to take being a fan of the USMNT to a whole new level. so, if you are interested, post, or look on facebook for "the onetwo initiative" and join up, so that we can start acting like the rest of concacaf, while playing like the beast the US national team is.
