This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
any place online I can get a Dempsey Fulham jersey? gotta support my fellow Texan.For you Dempsey haters, watch how he was busting his butt to beat his defender in case that shot was saved or came back off the postSecond Fulham goal was pure class.Fulham getting important points on the road
I wish we would have given him another year to see if he could step his game up, but his form was very poor last year. He couldn't even keep Bojan off the bench down the stretch and was pretty miserable in Euro. Safe to say, Barca shouldn't miss him much.They certainly didn't miss him much yesterday with an impressive display.
Your statements are spot on, but the most interesting part of the Ibra ordeal is the financial aspect. Barça really took a bath on him.
I haven't been able to find one.Major said:any place online I can get a Dempsey Fulham jersey? gotta support my fellow Texan.Christo said:For you Dempsey haters, watch how he was busting his butt to beat his defender in case that shot was saved or came back off the postSecond Fulham goal was pure class.Fulham getting important points on the road
He's only started one of three so far.El Floppo said:Christo said:For you Dempsey haters, watch how he was busting his butt to beat his defender in case that shot was saved or came back off the postSecond Fulham goal was pure class.Fulham getting important points on the road
I laughed pretty hard when I saw that. The best part was the guy who received the slap not reacting to the slap for a split second...but to the thought of "OH ####, I BETTER REACT HERE SO THE REF SEES IT." He turned like he was going to take on the keeper but then clutched his face and almost went to the ground.
Same here. Strange that.
More of a system than BB?Not sure how I feel yet about this. I appreciate the job BB has done with the team. He wasn't exactly given a fleet of ferraris to wrangle- he had to take ok (on a world level) players and make sure they could compete against anybody with the focus on getting to the WC. I played against Bradley coached Princeton and, much like the USMNT, he got a bunch of ok players to play as a unit where the sum-total was greater than the individual parts (we still smoked them every year). I think too, he's slowly changed personnel and formations to try and get the most from the team and his players.
not sexy, but we could do a lot worse. I'd still like to see Klinsman get involved somehow
His Princeton team was exactly that- a bunch of mediocre players playing together well as a team, but getting beat by teams with better players.
Keeping Bradley is taking the safe route. He's a known quantity who understands the realities of US Soccer and won't insist on massive changes to the way the sport is organized in this country. Hopefully, he'll be able to build upon the successes of the past year and integrate some new players into the side in 2014.I would have rather seen Bradley try his luck w/ AV and have the USSF roll the dice with someone like Klinsmann.More of a system than BB?Not sure how I feel yet about this. I appreciate the job BB has done with the team. He wasn't exactly given a fleet of ferraris to wrangle- he had to take ok (on a world level) players and make sure they could compete against anybody with the focus on getting to the WC. I played against Bradley coached Princeton and, much like the USMNT, he got a bunch of ok players to play as a unit where the sum-total was greater than the individual parts (we still smoked them every year). I think too, he's slowly changed personnel and formations to try and get the most from the team and his players.not sexy, but we could do a lot worse. I'd still like to see Klinsman get involved somehow
I don't think there's any basis for your initial conclusion. All we know about him is that with a bunch of average players who bought into his system he's molded an above average team. Give him a bunch of above average players who buy into his system and he may be able to make them a great team.
i just think the base 4-4-2 is too conservative to ever get any further than we have gotten. Even if we got lucky enough to have a bunch of talented, creative attacking players, i don't think he'd change.I also think his lineup decisions will continue to hinder the USMNT in big time games. Starting Clarke and Findley against Ghana was a huge reason why the US lost. Clarke is useless on offense and inconsistent on D. And when you bring as little to the attack as he does, you need to be an Essien-level destroyer in the MF. Findley's only value was bringing speed against an inferior group of athletes. Putting him out there against Ghana, who had elite athletes all over the field, was a complete waste of time. His 3rd grade level finishing probably cost the US the game.
So you think he should coach elsewhere?
I agree with the comments about Clark and Findley.But the 4-4-2 he developed for the team allowed it's best players their best shot at performing- giving Jozy, LD and Deuce more freedom to attack while the center of the MF both played holding roles. And he went with the 4-4-2 after a couple of years of the 4-5-1, but realized the personnel didn't fit. With Davies, the US was primed to run a dangerous 4-4-2... without Davies not so much, and we were still stuck without the personnel for much of anything else.... unless you've got some ideas?
I think his hands are tied given the talent level of his players.
where he can find a bunch of above-average players
That's up to him. I was just voicing my disagreement with TLEF's statement that it's a foregone conclusion that he doesn't have the ability to coach better players.where he can find a bunch of above-average players
To be honest, i did sort of forget about Davies' absence. It was an awful break, and it certainly hindered was the US was able to do.
Is that statement somewhere else? I'm not seeing it here.
His hands are certainly tied to some extent. He doesn't have the talent of an elite team.
Again- yeah, I agree about the choices he made with starters in the WC. Of course, Edu and Buddle or Gomez weren't exactly lighting it up either, but Clark sure as hell looked off-form. For my money, the choices about starters were all about the shape they gave the team and specifically the attacking threesome of LD, Demps and Jozy. (btw- I never mentioned it, but I thought Dempsey was incredible in the WC- compltely proved me wrong about his hustle and determination to do the dirty work all game- he was killing himself every minute of every game). I like the idea of Holden on the flank with Dempsey up front.... but to be honest, I've never liked the way the US looks with him up top- at least paired with Jozy. And Holden was just oo much of an unknown (although Bolton seems to be giving him the reigns without too much concern).But again- disagree with the critique of BB's tactics and formations.
IIRC, he was playing a more central role for a bit- and IIRC, it didn't suit his strenghts. He has flourished on the flanks where can go at players and space with the ball at his feet. Seems to me he didn't do too well getting the ball in the middle with his back to goal and also tended to get crowded out by paired central MFs. If anything, Dempsey would be better suited as that attacking "1"... but with the way the US needs to shut down the middle, that lineup would leave the flanks a bit weak on both sides of the ball.Part of the problem with coming up with different formations is that Jozy needs to be on the field, but hasn't done too well with anybody but Davies. If Jozy can develop into more of a target guy (McBride) or more of a slasher (Davies), it would make pairing him up easier. But he's inbetween both (and don't get me wrong- I'm a huge fan of his).I'm a fan of the 3-5-2, as it might do better to free up attacking players- but it would put a LOT of pressure on the two falnking defenders, at this point we don't have the LB to handle it. It would also force the outside MFs to work even more than they do now.. mebbe not so good. and fwiw- that lineup would be like a 1-2-1-3-1-2...
When I say "system" I mean the whole USMNT system, someone that can shake things up a bit in terms of getting starting players for the US PT in the top leagues. For that to happen, the whole system of US soccer needs to change to a system that has at least some aspects of the way the rest of the world works.Bradley has a great system from a single team perspective. He showed that at Confed and the WC. He gets good (but not great) performances out of the players he has available.That said, his lineup choices left something to be desired at the WC, and at Confed a year earlier.I don't think that Bob Bradley is the coach to take the US to the next level. Furthermore, I think he's hurting the growth of the best up and coming talent that the USMNT has, and that's his son Michael.
Couldn't agree more with the bolded. Don't forget Gareth Barry. I can't really fault Capello for starting Green at gk, to be honest, I probably would have done the same. It's not as if England has a clear cut, world class, #1 starting gk, they went back to David James who moved on from relegated Pompey to championship Bristol City. Green is a decent younger goalie that at least is a started on the premier league level.But, Capello bringing 3 guys that were nowhere near game fit while leaving at home a number of quality players is a pretty major blunder.
I pretty much agree with all that. There's really no good reason to keep Bradley besides the fact that you can't get anyone else (and at this stage I can't believe that). More importantly, I think it shows how much the powers at be don't want anyone rocking the boat (in both player development and internal structure) especially with the WC bid coming up.While its true the talent level isn't there across the board, Bradley also knew such things as Gooch was hurt, Davies was hurt, and Boca/Demerit were getting long in the tooth for WC-level soccer, yet he really didn't do anything to attempt to correct them. There's really no doubt in my mind that someone like Klinsmann would have at least given a longer look to some of the young CBs in the league. Between no players tweeting any congratulations and Gulati waiting 65 days after the WC, this seems like a potential disaster at some point down the road. More importantly, I also question if he is necessarily the right guy to transition to some of the more technical younger guys while we know someone like Klinsmann would. Much like Arena's second go around, or the initial Bradley hire, I don't think the decision really matters for our performance in the next WC (we're going to be at best a quarterfinalist level in talent), but think it negatively affects the National Team going forward. At some point we have to realize our tactics, technical ability, and strategy have to change and Bradely certainly isn't the guy to make that happen.
I'm prefacing this by saying I like Bradley ok- but even though I'm supporting him here, I'm not a huge supporter of his.I've said for a while that US players have tended (although a slight shift is happening) to play to their strengths: conditioning, pace, tactical awareness and lack of technical foot-ability (but good tactical field-awareness). this leads them to play a 2-touch game from youth all the way up through MLS to the USMNT. it's a kind of bastardization of the central american short passing game (minus the dribbling/holding ability) with a more direct european game (I'm thinking more classical English and central europe here). I'm taking the leap, that it's been perpetuated because it's easier to teach those kind of skills and succeed than it is to teach kids advanced foot-skills and tactics (especially in the void before MLS).
Yep. However, it is better than paying his salary(12MM euro I think) to watch him sit behind Bojan and Pedro again and have his value fall further.
I'm also ill thinking that your team sold Yaya for 30+ and bought Mascherano for 16-22. Who in their right mind would ever pick Yaya over Masch at even money, much less Masch being the cheaper? I hope Hicks and Gillet end up like the Duke's from Trading Places.
There's simply no way that I put Bojan above Ibra right now. Pedro came on last season and did pretty well, but Ibra has a better top level than Pedro.The question in my mind is why did Ibra flounder at Barça? Style? Tactics? Motivation? Some other reason?Oh and just an FYI to y'all, my Atlético is 1st in la liga right now after putting the hurt on Sporting yesterday, 4-0.
I made some comments about the trade seeming like an ill fit for both teams... somewhere last year after it went down. The comments were probalby $$. Or complete horse####. One of those.
Correct. But, the big question really is, is if Bradley is the best coach we can get to institute/integrate those changes. There's really nothing to say that he is (heck there are a couple of MLS coaches who I'd rather have over him). In any case the one thing we can agree on is that the Red Bulls look like they've really turned the corner (as they should). Henry, Marquez, Angel, Richards, and the Estonian LW really brought it this weekend and Tchaini looked decent. Was really one of the more entertaining games I saw all weekend.
Yeah... see- I don't think it's Bradley's responsibility to institute/integrate those changes. It's his job to get the players we've got to get the best results possible.Unless I'm wrong here- I don't think the USMNT is the top of some kind of US holistic soccer pyramid that feeds the rest of the sport. Seems to me, it's the other way around- and once the base raises it's game, Bradley/future-coach will have more to work with. ... sorry... with which to work.
soccer.comAny jersey, any name. Just be sure to select the Premier League lettering, as the cheaper version is just block letters.any place online I can get a Dempsey Fulham jersey? gotta support my fellow Texan.For you Dempsey haters, watch how he was busting his butt to beat his defender in case that shot was saved or came back off the postSecond Fulham goal was pure class.Fulham getting important points on the road
You may not put Bojan over Ibra, but Pep does. Over the last 12 league matches, Bojan was constantly getting the call over Ibra and doing much better scoring 7 goals. He's earned more playing time. With the addition of Villa, it looked like Ibra could be as low as 3rd choice CF and is not versatile like Messi, Bojan, Iniesta, and Villa to play on the wing and as CF.To why it didn't work, certainly his style is different and playing Barcelona's style is difficult to get accustomed to(an advantage Villa and Bojan have). Watching him, he seemed to always be waiting for the perfect shot instead of going at goal. Very different from Eto'o and Villa's style and what Barca needs from the 9. It was no secret Pep wanted Ibra to help break down defenses that park the bus in La Liga and Europe(in particular) and he was unable to do that effectively. Additionally, what I am reading sounds like there was certainly a rift between him and Pep which I would think has something to do with motivation similar to Pep's conflicts with Dinho and Deco. Hearing a lot about how the team has more "hunger" for this campaign.
