Oso planning to go pro
Or Villa
At some point, I finally saw Barcelona play and it took me about 3 minutes to think to myself, "man that Villa guy is a jag". He turned me into an anti-Barc-ite immediately.
Is that similar to being an anti-dent-ite?
Midfielders: However, despite Bradley saying form and recent club time is what matters, why do I have a feeling that Michael Bradley will play virtually every Gold Cup minute? He hasn't cracked Villa's lineup, while Edu and Jones have been very solid. It'll be interesting to see if the younger Bradley sits at all.
I chalk yesterday up as a game that simply showed how far we are behind the world's elite. I heard plenty of people making the excuses "Donovan and Dempsey didn't start..." but that's crap. Neither did Xavi or Iniesta, and there's little doubt that they are Spain's two most important players. We were decimated, and frankly, the scoreline favored us more than it did Spain. It easily could have been 5-0 at halftime.Back to Spain...the only real problem with it is that was our warm-up match. That's the game to get the players ready to play and to get the neutral fans interested in the Gold Cup. Great job, the players looked like assclowns and the neutral fans will be saying "why would I bother watching this team?" We'd have been much better off scheduling a Norway, Slovenia, Australia, or even Portugal, a team that we could have at least competed with yet was respectable on the world scale. I'll still watch the Gold Cup, but I'm a diehard. What borderline supporter would be interested in watching us after that crap?
While I agree Portugal would have been a better opponent, they had a Euro Qualifier yesterday so that wouldn't have been possible. What bothers me more than scheduling Spain is waiting til the second half to bring in "the starters." I get the whole rest and no injuries excuse, but playing the first half instead of the second half would have given them the same amount of minutes. It just seemed like a terrible decision by Bradley Sr. now that we were outclassed and embarrassed. All I know is if I was Timmy Howard and I was out there for target practice in the first half, I'd be mightily peeved.
And houwarrior, why knocking the Yellow Submarine? They were still a top-4 side in Spain and made it into Champions' League qualifying. They also finished ahead of Barca in the standings just 3 years ago and have qualified for Europe 6 of the past 8 seasons. Santi would probably walk into the starting lineup of any club side in the world outside of maybe Barca and Madrid, and would also likely start for any other national team in the world, including Brazil. He may not be Xavi, but he's probably still a top-150 in the world player, if not top-100.What can I say...Villarreal is my favorite La Liga side...gotta defend 'em
Keeping Bob Bradley around this long has been a true detriment to our national team. His strategy/pre-game planning is average at best. His overreliance on veterans hurts in that he keeps guys around way too long after they bottomed out. His/his coaches ability to spot young talent and develop it is horrible. I'm not sure where our next coach should come from, but Bradley is not the answer.
I understand most everybody is a nativist at heart and really wants the entire US program to thrive but a foreign manager would cut the fat in this squad in six months not having to be hung up by the bullcrap politics and favorites that snarls an ineffective Bradley.We're stuck in a marriage of fear.up
I am not knocking any La Liga side. La Liga is the best quality soccer, in el mundo. "Soy de Real" (Real Madrid) is my lifetime loyalty, although I have to admit as a pure fan of great soccer , FC Barcelona plays the beautiful game most beautifully of any side in the world. To me, World Cup is like olympic basketball, in comparison to the NBA game....one finds in the Champions, La Liga and Premier, every year. USA fans tend to jump on world cup, but watching regular play in the Euro club leagues, is my preference. To me, the recent Copa del Rey (Real/Barca) and Barca /ManU matches were as good or better than any world cup match. With Fox and GolTV, we now get pretty good regular coverage.
HOU,...
Absolutely true. After Bruce arena, klinsman wanted the job and he would have done a great job. But when he was told he couldn't have free reign to select his own players for the roster, he walked. And he should have. Unfortunately USA soccer problems don't start or end with Bob Bradley. Gotta start at the top where resident moron gulati day in and day out shows he doesn't know what he's doing.
Thank god USA rested in the Spain match , allowing them ,Saturday, to relax, watch and enjoy the energetic team from Panama jumping on them for a 2-1, loss, the first USA loss in a group stage match, ...ever. This may be good...USA needs an awakening, and some shake ups.http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/6652766/panama-stuns-united-states-2-1-gold-cup
The one thing even a casual observer could see last night was an athletics team that looked like they had no worries in the world. They've simply tuned Bradley out, which always leads to giving up early goals after lackluster starts. He has no leverage over them and everyone knows that.