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Bobby Convey was the only star in the solar system last night, the rest of the would-be stars were in a galaxy far, far away - nursing injuries or disallowed thanks to this not being an officially sanctioned friendly. With one of his finest outings (maybe of his career), Convey kept getting us chances, but like a Buick LeSabre up against a BMW M3, capitalism wasn’t in our cards, or car as it were. I’m a little uneasy about what to say about this game besides, “Did you see that Convey run towards the end of the first half? Sweet right? How about Eddie’s near header? Isn’t it nice to him in near top fitness, if not form? Ok, so, you want to go to dinner, or should we just kill ourselves now?” Harsh? Maybe. But I think I died at some point last night, the cat living inside me is down to 4, 5, or 6 lives now. I lost count.
Gibbs said the result meant nothing on a team level, really. Really? While that may be true, pinning that modifier ‘really’ up there, makes me think it very well could mean something. Individual performances, Gibbs continued, were what the night was all about, not an outcome. Yeah yeah, but what about confidence, mood, expectation, and all those intangible things a brutal loss like this hangs around your ankles like a pair of concrete slippers at the bottom of the New York’s polluted East River? It aint good. Here we are questioning ourselves against European teams on Europeans soil. Again, the age-old problem of the US MNT. I don’t need to read the European Union papers to know what they are saying. Damn Yankees.
From a soccer standpoint, we must capitalize on re-starts. Period. If we can’t do a better job with free kicks – yes Landon wasn’t there I know – but if we can’t do the one thing on which so many outcomes this summer will depend, we have nothing. And if we can’t regroup after a bad minute, an ugly goal, we won’t make it out of our group. I’m notat the point of doubting – I still have myself down for us getting out of the first group, for our first team will look drastically different from the squad we had today – but if I’m the manager in that locker room after the game, let’s just say the papers wouldn’t have a clean quote to print, the papers devoid of commentary beyond, blank this, expletive that. And the TV news, well the whole thing would be one long beeeeeeeep. It might be the first time where the fact that we don’t see soccer news on domestic channels would be a good thing, you know for the sake of the kids.
So now we go and beat up on some lesser teams back home before returning to Germany. Time to find those last parts to make this machine run clean. Hopefully, when we go back across the pond for the war of the worlds, the American muscle car I know we can be shows up, instead of the Pinto we saw today. Then we can all be proud to Buy American.
you will be mine. yes, you will be mine
Eric Calhoun
on Mar 23rd, 2006 - 3:59pm
I think an interesting subplot coming out of this game is Kasey Keller’s role as a leader, spokesman, and captain of the team. I think the team’s response to his brutal post game rant (just a notch below what you threatened, Adam)will have a lot to do with the confidence, etc. going forward. And I’d love to feel that Keller assends to that upper level of leadership, especially with Reyna fragile and playing a fraction of the matches in the last year or two.
Andrew
on Mar 23rd, 2006 - 4:10pm
First off, Landon would not have done much better on those free kicks than Convey and Cherundolo. I don’t get why he gets the hype he does sometimes. DeMarcus wouldn’t have made a difference either, because he hasn’t played as well as Convey did last night in a long time. Eddie is nowhere near top form, as evidenced by his inability to keep the ball under close control except when he dribbled away from goal. The header was the only good play of his all night. When Josh Wolff played that slick back heel to him early in the game, he blew the chance with a poor touch, as he did many other times that game. Berhalter did enough to be taken off the World Cup roster. That was one of the worst defensive performances I have ever seen, and not just in the second half. His first half was awful at times too. Conrad wasn’t great either, but he at least made a couple decent plays. Cory Gibbs was great, and we need him. Mastroeni was good overall, but sometimes drifted a little too much. It was just pathetic overall, and I hope Bruce was filling the locker room with expletives too. I sure would have.
Aaron
on Mar 23rd, 2006 - 4:36pm
I think they played a good game for who we had out there. With a more solid defense and some of our more confident players like Reyna, Donovan, McBride we would have given that German team more of a fight. I’m just looking forward to when we can get our starting IV on the same field at the same time. A cohesive team is a better team.
kyle
on Mar 23rd, 2006 - 7:22pm
I think we’ll have a better shot with 11 as opposed to 4. Berhalter did enough to lose his contract with his club team. Can I play coach? As much as it pains me to say it, I’d feel a great deal more comfortable with Friedel in goal than Keller. I liked the fact Keller was spittin fire after the match, but 2 of those goals he could’ve done a lot better on. Getting beat near post is not acceptable. There’s a reason Friedel was selected for the all-world team a few years ago.
James Weise
on Mar 24th, 2006 - 8:23am
If Reyna’s latest injury keeps him from being near 100%, then you can stick a fork in ‘em because they’ll be done.
McBride, Donovan, Beasley, Gooch, etc. will all help. But, Reyna is the engine that drives this car. And if he’s not right, then I don’t have a lot of hope for the US chances in Germany 2006.
christian
on Mar 24th, 2006 - 11:18am
well,overall i feel that u.s. did not play at the top of there game, and we should have done better. but we were missing key players on the team, donavon, beasley, dempsey, onyewu, bocanegra. it did giva a chance to put up other players to see who can be on the choping block. obviously Cherundolo, and Convey each played incredibly. Gibbs played a decent a game, much better then Berhalter, who is not ready to play at world cup level. mastroeni played awesome i have faith in him if reina will be missing out because of injury. i’ am sure we all have a good idea whos gonna be on the roster. but who is gonna be where. beasley or convey on left mid, goalie? and starting on the right mid could be go to Klein or dempsey? Johnson or twellman up front with mcbride? onyewu or pope? hejduk or cherundolo? and it still goes on !!
Kevin O'Shields
on Mar 24th, 2006 - 11:23am
At first I didn’t think Capt America was necessary for success, but seeing the difference in level of play when he’s on the field has me convinced that it’s Reyna not Donovan that makes this team go.
On that note, I think a lot of fans have been waiting around, looking for Landon to step up and take some of that role, and we have yet to see that.
Connor
on Mar 24th, 2006 - 11:59am
Brian McBride isn’t going to save us from that 4-1 slaughter. With Beasley riding the bench at PSV and with Reyna suffering ANOTHER injury you start to wonder. It’s going to be one hell of a dissapointing summer watching a out of form Captain America chasing around the likes of Pavel Nedved and Fransico Totti in the midfeild. have to try and keep the faith though. i can’t imagine having my dreams dashed in the first 90 minutes of the czech game like they were in the germany game and we are out just like that. 4 years of complete devotion and attention and thought just destroyed in hopefully what won’t be 7 minutes of defensive hell again. we have got to right the ship in the next few months and a lot of the players and fans including myself have to stop thinking about what might happen but what needs to be done.
Patrick
on Mar 24th, 2006 - 1:21pm
This board is sounding rather similar to the media and newspapers in Germany before the game with the US. They lost a game 4-1 against a good Italy team but now they are rejoicing in their win over the US. Do not forget that before the last world cup our full strength team lost to Germany 4-2 and then came within inches of beating them at the World Cup. I can not understnad how you could not see how players that were not at the Germany game could have made a difference. Our defense would have been much stronger with Gooch, and Eddie Pope playing. Or that players like Reyna, Donnavan, and Beasley, players that are used to having the ball at their feet and controling it well would have changed the game. Hell Arena did not even put Taylor into the game until the 60 minute mark. So relax, enjoy the next couple games and when the World Cup comes around things will be better. These are the same things people were saying in 2002 with losses to the Dutch and Germany before the Cup. Oh and everyone watch the MLS season opener reguardless of if you think MLS is a lower league then others out there. I am sick of hearing people say they can not watch MLS because it is a step down for them to watch. The only way the league will grow is with ratings increases fueling money into the league.
GCNY
on Mar 24th, 2006 - 5:46pm
Arena should have subbed johnson and given feilhaber a shot. It may not have helped much but it wouldn’t have hurt.
Evan
on Mar 24th, 2006 - 7:10pm
I agree with patrick, watch mls, its great and you can watch the games for free on mlsnet.com. Christian, I don’t think that you really know what you are talking about, there is not as much up for grabs as you think. Keller will play keeper unless he gets injured. There is no way that Chris Klein can possibly still be in the disscussion for even making the squad. Last time i checked, crosses were supposed to go to people on your team. There is no way Twellman will start up front with McBride because they are too similar, it is between Donovan and Johnson, but no matter what, Donovan will be on the field. Onyewu will start and it may not be at the expense of steady Eddie, they might both play. However, by saying that Greg Berhalter is not ready to play at world cup level proves that you know nothing about US soccer. Yes, I agree that Berhalter should not be on the team, but incase you didn’t know hes 32. It’s not that hes not ready for European Opposition, it’s that he was ready for it 4 years ago, when he was in his prime.
Christian
on Mar 24th, 2006 - 9:15pm
truthfully having a full roster will really help if we had evry one i would have said from right back cherundolo, next to him onyewu then pope then boca negra next to him on left back would be a great defenseive line. and of course watch mls ill have to agree with this patrick guy it will ony grow in america if u watch it and if it gets bigger it will get stronger and we’d have a much stronger national team, not saying there not good now tho
Christian
on Mar 25th, 2006 - 11:48am
well evan i think ur just a little to harsh on ur judgments theres 22 people to make the roster, so chris klein can still make the squad and would be a valuable to have as a sub at least and yea that berhalter he just shouldnt play at all if u ask me but saying not ready cuz obviously he was not exposed to such and oppenet. saying i know nothing is like a about it is an asumption of urs i just keep postive outlooks for who ever is on the team and playing for u.s.
Francisco
on Mar 25th, 2006 - 10:54pm
How many of the players on the field will make it to the world cup? What do you guys think, half less, maybe a couple more. From what Arena said it sounded like none calling them his “second team” as if they were way below the level of the 4 or 5 who were missing. I don’t know but raising the ego of those 4 who missed and at the same time squashing that of those who played, was completely erroneous. A bad and uncalled move by Arena, I hope it does not cause some inferiority complex to some of the players bcause thats not what we need in the team going into the world cup. Yes it was not in the least best performance but to call the best US players available to play second string was just completely wrong by Arena. Just seemed like Arena is trying to wash is hands of all guilt. A coach as head of the team and the one who views the game from the outside should have the best perspective and watch for the mistakes of his team. Arena should have been looking for a way to correct those mistakes and not be looking for a way to wash his own hands.
Evan
on Mar 26th, 2006 - 9:07pm
first of all, 23 people make the final roster, but there is no way that Chris Klein should be on it even as a sub. Yes, we have very little depth at right midfield, but i would rather have dempsey, ralston (if he recovers his 2005 world cup qualifying form), or even left footers beasly and convey over Klein. Klein isn’t even a player who can play more than maybe two positions so therefore, he has no value to the team. Fransisco, I don’t believe that you should take what Arena did as a bad thing. Many of the US players have said that one of there favorite things about Arena is that he always let them know where they stood. There is no use in lying and telling the players that they did a good job when even they know that they didn’t, that would lead to the players having less trust in him and that would be worse for sure. I also think that unless you are knew to the US soccer scene, it would be unwise to judge anything that Arena does as bad. You can count Arena’s mistakes on one hand, and I don’t think that offering a bit of constructive critisism after a tough loss was one of them.
Kaiser
on Mar 27th, 2006 - 3:16am
Yes, well…talking about missing US star players is a futile excuse. It’s easy to forget that some top German players (Frings, Kuranyi, Hanke, Deisler, Huth) were also absent, so there’s no point in saying “it would have been better if…” Consider that the Italian team the US will be facing in the World Cup is the same team that beat Germany 4-1. Good football and no excuses is the only way up.
Evan
on Mar 27th, 2006 - 9:27pm
Kaiser, I read your comments and originally thought that you were probally right. But after thinking for a brief while, i realized, that lately, what do Germans know about going up. What happened to the “soccer juggernaught”? Your argument is as meaningless as it is stupid. How about you consider that of all of the players that Germany was missing, they were all role players. You still had Michael Ballack. But we were missing Landon Donovan and Claudio Reyna, who make our team go. Also have you ever thought to realize that just because Italy beat Germany and Germany beat USA, that doesn’t mean that USA will lose to Italy. Just like in every other sport, soccer is a game of matchups. USA, because of their fluid, attacking approach to the game, match up much better with the Italians then they do with Germany. There is a reason why USA is #5 in the world and Germany is not even top 20, obviously it is because these Germans have a miscoseption on they way to reach the top.
Kaiser
on Mar 28th, 2006 - 8:38am
Ok Evan. Firstly I think I should point out that, in spite of the connotations my name might have, I am not German. I say this to make clear that I was not trying to defend the German team with my last comment; all I was trying to say is that it is stupid to claim that if Donovan or Reyna had been there, the score would have been different. As big an icon as he might be, Donovan is not the US team, just as Zidane isn’t France and Ballack isn’t Germany (this last one goes for all the Germans who say Germany would have won the 2002 final against Brazil had Ballack been on the field). Germany had an amazing team against the US, no doubt, but you must admit that Frings is a vital player for the German midfield, that Kuranyi inevitably scores if he plays and that Deisler’s and Hanke’s speed would have strengthened the whole German squad (Huth, I admit, is a moron…a slow moron). Also, it is my opinion that Germany did not have their best goalkeeper against the USA, but this is of course a matter of endless debate.
Donovan, Donovan, Donovan…that’s what all the Yanks where I live seem to know. So what if Donovan got injured in the first World Cup match? Goodbye USA? By no means, at least in my opinion.
One more thing: I find it quite naive that you still believe in the infamous Coca-Cola FIFA World Ranking. Do you know how the ranking is made? The USA are #5 esentially because they get the chance to hammer Dominica, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and the like…while Germany have to test themselves agaist European powers. No wonder why Mexico got to be #4 a few years ago. Besides, in those terms, a B team which is ranked #5 in the world should be able to easily defeat an A team which is ranked #20.
Christian
on Mar 28th, 2006 - 11:54am
Aright Evan, i do really agree i would to much rather have ralston or dempsey on the right mid., and my bad on typing 22 rather then 23 but the thing is of all 23 players only about 16 of them will play majority of the time and im sure the starting 11 will switch around, beasley can play on the right he has for psv a couple times. but aside from that all the players will not be switching around to far from there prefered position because in world cup level theres no time to see what happens if you put a midfielder on full back, or a striker playing miidfeilder, so klein might make the roster but odds of him playing arent too great, and the fact we are ranked fith i agree very proud, i first felt italy should just go home because czech is ranked 2nd and U.S. was 5th, but germany is no where close to us on the table and they beat us, socer is an unpredictable sport like, when a couple weeeks ago mallorca beat real madrid and mallorca is in regulation threat. and kaiser we are ranked fifth and wining is wining and we do have the points to be ranked fifth it doesnt matter to who japan is a decent oppenent we beat them, and fifa street 2 is pretty hot u gotta play it
jeffrey
on Mar 29th, 2006 - 11:11am
This is unrelated to this article, but I’ve read that Chelsea FC is partnering with AEG who play a major role in the MLS. Do you think this is good for ammerican soccer. I personally do.
robb
on Mar 30th, 2006 - 2:28am
i’m all red, white and blue and i live in europe. i read yanks abroad everyday. it’s easier to find people to talk soccer with here but we (the USMNT) get NO respect and the 4-1 defeat to the Deutch didn’t help. peace
Anthony
on Mar 30th, 2006 - 7:08pm
Yes, we got our butts kicked, and we did well for the whole end portion of the game, they’re all young and needed an experience like that, they will keep being tough, and I know they all have plenty of heart to show, it’ll come out…it will come out
Sam
on Apr 2nd, 2006 - 9:57pm
Good post.
I think its time for us all to be realistic. Don’t get me wrong i love american soccer, and support it all the way. But personally i really feel bad for the team with all this hype they are getting. They enjoy coming into the tounament as an underdog, the team that no one expected to qualify, much less pass the group stage.
Like i said before, American soccer has made tremendous strides since Italia 90′ but they still have a long way to go before they have a realistic shot at winning the tournament.
This hype they are recieving is great publicity, but has nothing to do with their odds at the cup. Especially now that the team relies on younger players they need a few more years of experience under their belt before they can even MAKE the final.
Gio
on Jun 28th, 2006 - 4:16pm
Why was not Landon Donovan in the world Cup.
That’s why Landon needs experience, man go to Europe for a couple of years ( at least ) learn & come back, it was like waching an elementary school kids playing with pros, I don’t know Landon personaly & he may be a great guy, but as an international player he is not good at all, he did not even atempt to get the ball, Was he afraid of been ridiculed?.
What ever happen with that SUPER Star Addu, when people told me about him I always said the same thing, (we’ll see what he does in the World Cup) how come he did not play?
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