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OSF
05-28-2008, 06:10 PM
Today's game at Wembley was arguably the worst game under Bradley and one of the worst for US of A. It's as if Bob had already decided that there was no chance in hell to win so we might as well go and just get some experience!

First and foremost, the most important aspect of the game, midfield play, was in complete control by England. Their all-star midfield comprised of Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham and Hargreaves played against of our, ahem, Beasley, Bradley, Clark and Dempsey! Whoo-hoo, it wouldn't take an Einstein to figure out who dominated the game!

With not much possession and definitely not much forward supplies from the midfield, our two "wonderful" strikers, Johnson and Wolff, had almost no effect whatsoever in the first half. England keeper, David James had zero action until late in second half with two saves, both from our subs; one by Eddie Lewis on the right and the other by Adu's long range shot.

By far our worst performer of the game was Ricardo Clark who appeared completely lost and out-played. He looked like a high school kid out there. Bradley was not much better as they were both just trying to get in England's way for disrruption rather than mounting any kind of offense. This type of team performance would warrant a coach fired in some many countries.

This makes me wonder why does Bradley keep starting players like Wolff and Johnson who had shown no touch and no skills? Clark has shown progressively worse performance in the last three games, I'm not sure he should even be in the WCQ pool any more, let alone be a starter. Tonight's game is vey apparent to me that Bob Bradley has not prepared the team enough to be in a position to win. This USA National team is much worse than the one that Bruce Arena had in the last two WC's. Chastise him all you want, our team without Donovan is a total chaos as evidence by today's performance! Any team that needs a moral boost, such as England, would gladly face this team any day! :angryf:

OSF
05-29-2008, 06:18 AM
Evidently, many people are not happy with our performance from yesterday. Jamie Trecker is one of them. :)

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/8186350


"Either the Americans cannot learn, or will not learn, but the coaching staff had better figure it out, and quickly. Right now, all an opponent needs to do these days is watch a single game tape to gain the information needed to pick apart this side.

The English, under Capello, obviously did watch that tape. They did not allow Michael Bradley or Ricardo Clark time on the ball. Knowing that Eddie Johnson is useless, they simply ignored him!" - That was priceless! :howler:

Ricardo Clark committed several silly fouls as he was constantly wrong-footed by hos opponents, and one of the fouls led to John Terry's first goal.

"The absence of Landon Donovan was important. With him on the field Dempsey can play more of a slashing role and get behind defenses. Without Donovan, the U.S. had no one apparently capable of holding the ball or making a creative pass out of midfield. Too often the 'creativity' was a hopeful ball forward, and it was just as often easily played by the England defense." - Exactly why we had no midfiled play yesterday!

"The truth is that the USA was simply irrelevant and passionless. They will get roasted in England tomorrow and will fully deserve it. That they probably will skate here at home is even more damaging, as it reinforces the feeling among the players and staff that they are accountable to no one.

That is damning. Sadly, no one in position of authority at U.S. Soccer has the guts to publicly acknowledge a failure when they see one. "

That's exactly how I feel after watching the sad, pathetic game! :angryf:

Herndonite
05-29-2008, 06:33 AM
It was, indeed, a sad spectacle.

Bradley gets failing marks for starting Wolf and Johnson. Neither had the touch , ability to hold the ball, or imagination necessary to compete with England.

And without their playmaker, Donovan, on the field, it would seem obvious that someone like Freddy Adu was required to make the imaginative passes, beat players one on one and take effective free kicks (which Beasley did poorly).

I thought Heath Pierce had a strong game, but Cherundolo was quiet, which became even more apparent when HeyDude came in for him and started making things happen down the right side.

Overall, a very regrettable performance.

Pila
05-29-2008, 08:05 AM
This game was yesterday? What channel was it on? And what was the score?

OSF
05-29-2008, 11:42 AM
Pila, the game was on ESPN Classics, ESPNCL, at 2:50 pm yesterday. England scored one goal each half and came away with an easy 2-0 victory. It could have been easily 4-0 or 5-0 if it were not because of great goal keepeing from our side.

Pila
05-30-2008, 09:00 PM
I've since have had a chance to read about it. Sounds like the team is missing Bruce.

OSF
05-31-2008, 03:59 PM
May be Bruce could have put more fire under this group. It did not appear that there was any leadership on the field. What is even more bothersome has been that Bob Bradley has not offered any insight or excuses. It's as if he accepts inferior performance just like when he was coaching in MLS. Two more games like that and I say he will need to be fired.

Oh wait! Spain and Argentina are the next two opponents! Bye-bye, Bobby! :popup: