- Spectator and PR march into Holland
The Amazing Americans take on the Dirty Dutch (sorry Joep, love your country and the team except if they are playing the US) today in a World Cup tune-up match. The US should have one of the stronger squads it has had in a while, with most European based players called up for this match, except the injured Clint Dempsey, Oguchi Onyewu and Charlie Davies.
Sam’s Army has also called up our beloved Precious Roy and Spectator to support the Red, White and Blue on the Continent. The Men of Action tour is in full effect and PR has pledged to taunt the Dutch over the speedskater that was disqualified in the Olympics last week. I fully expect him to be bludgeoned with wooden shoes. Hopefully, MOA can provide us with some in game photographs, but we won’t hold our breath and they did see the first picture at the bottom of this post before the fixtures.
Soccernet Prediction from March 1, 2010
If Soccernet is correct, Brian Ching scored for the US and Heath Pearce was booked, which is amazing considering neither were Ching was not called up for the match.
This isn’t the only fixture today, as several other World Cup qualifiers take on each other in these tune-up matches. France faces Spain, Italy challenges Cameroon, Deutschland duels with Argentina, Switzerland stands off with Uruguay, England examines Egypt, and New Zealand mixes it up with Mexico (boooooo!!!!).
Men of Action deliver: US v. Netherlands Warmup
Afternoon fixtures below.
14:00 ET – Luxembourg v. Azerbaijan
14:15 ET – Switzerland v. Uruguay
14:30 ET – Austria v. Denmark
14:30 ET – Poland v. Bulgaria
14:45 ET – Albania v. Northern Ireland
14:45 ET – Belgium v. Croatia
14:45 ET – Germany v. Argentina
14:45 ET – Italy v. Cameroon
14:45 ET – Netherlands v. USA
14:45 ET – Slovenia v. Qatar
14:45 ET – Wales v. Sweden
15:00 ET – England v. Egypt
15:00 ET – France v. Spain
15:00 ET – Scotland v. Czech Republic
15:45 ET – Portugal v. China
19:00 ET – Venezuela v. Panama
23:00 ET – El Salvador v. Guatemala
23:00 ET – New Zealand v. Mexico
The men in action have filed another picture! The moment Kuyt scored from the spot.
Dutch Dirk
OMG. England opening it up now. Wright-Ohillips made a big difference. His cross to Crouch and the big man tried an over head kick–nearly.
Great. Now ‘Arry will want to play Crouch all the f**king time.
Has Walcott done anything to show his form is turning around? I’m guessing he hasn’t.
@HL: Walcott was taken out in the 60th for SWP. Don’t know how he played. I only saw him make a couple runs.
TIMMAY!
What a save. Fantastic strike by Van Der Vaart
@HL No…He showed pace, but didnt get round the back or find space…SWP has changed game since coming on along with Crouch.
@Keith: Milner is on.
at midfield or at RB?
@Keith: Midfield.
And SWP scores. 2-1 England off a Milner shot rebound!
GOOOOALLL
SWP. He deserved that…been outstanding tonight. Walcott can kiss the chance goodbye–swp just took that right berth.
and if he scores, will he do that goofy-ass celebration he did last time he was on the Wembley pitch? (I’m as lost for an explanation to that as you are, TSE)
GOAL! BOCANEGRA! And he looked way offside
F**K! How did the U.S. score?!
@Keith: No goofy celebration.
And the Yanks are owning this game late. Edu and DMB are playing well.
@TSE: Beasley earned a FK swung it and Bocnegra broke free and headed it in. Sneider might have kept him on, but he looked offside to me.
Wtf was that did he think the goalie was really scared of him going over the wall?
Wow. Great strike from Jozy.
FT 2-1 Netherlands. Good spirit late from the Yanks.
Crouchaldinho! From SWP.
Well those two are on the plane…
Crouchie for 2!
Carlton Cole for Roons.
He has 5 mins to stick his luggage in the hold…Not happening.
Crouch has found his level. Maybe he can play vs. short Egyptian defenders, but so help me if ‘Arry sits Pavs to play that long streak of piss, I will f**king scream.
@Phil–Oh come on….
BOOOOO Phil…BOOOOOO.
Did Lalas just say we sucked?
De Jong is a c**t and Sneijder is a little bitch. That is all.
@Tno That dive was despicable. Like Goat said, the man is a c-word, but he’s City’s c-word, and we need more players like him.
As for the match itself, I actually don’t think we were too awful, decent fightback at the end there. Jozy with a few nice bits of skill, Beasley improved a little towards the end as well.
Below Average Jew was terrible, Bocanegra plays left back for Rennes, why not play him there full time with the Nats? Honestly what would make you feel better assuming you can’t have Gooch? A backline of Boca, DeMerit, Goodson, Spector or one of Bornstein, DeMerit, Boca, Spector?
Sorry.
/end rant
Ned, he ruins our tactics. We have Modric and Niko there to ping the ball about and create chances. With Crouch in, they’re bypassed by long balls lumped up to Crouch. Crouch is nice to have on the bench for when teams go negative and such, but he’s got no place starting.
I guess the rant wasn’t totally over. Let’s talk about Edgar Castillo for a second. The guy plays in the Mexican league, somewhat regularly. Jonathan Bornstein plays in MLS, regularly. Castillo got a brief run out against Denmark in November- in midfield, and that’s it. Bornstein gets two opportunities in friendlies against El Salvador and Honduras, and suddenly he’s our man? Why does Castillo get punished for playing in a superior league?
By no means am I saying Edgar Castillo is the US answer at LB, but he sure deserves more of a shot than he’s getting right now.
hell, Ryan, I’d even take moving Spector inside and playing Boca, JD, Spector, and Hejduk over having to play Bornstein.
@ Keith & Ryan: Agreed. I worry that maybe we’re just reacting to Bornstein having a complete howler today, but even if that’s the case, Bradley’s refusal to experiment at that spot is maddening. He’s got options and just refuses to use them.
or Frank Simek or Marvel Wynne (wasn’t he supposed to be the RB in the yeeeeeeeeear 2000?)
no, phil, Bornstein has been gash at the national level for quite a while. and BB is really that bad.
I don’t disagree, Keith. And Bradley just needs to go. The prospect of having to watch USMNT go negative in the WC does not thrill me, but it seems like that’s what Bob is going to do.
BRADLEY OUT!
From the little I’ve seen of Wynne, I don’t think we should wish him to be anywhere near the WC squad.
To be fair to Bornstein, he was pretty decent against Honduras back in January. But that’s exactly my point, Bob’s had the chance to see Jonathan Bornstein play in 9 straight US matches (4 WCQs, 3 “A” team friendlies, 2 “B” team friendlies).
He’s been decent in some of them and terrible in others (El Salvador back in September for one).
I guess all I’m saying is, Bradley should know by now what he has in Jonathan Bornstein, and should be at least looking at other options.
Hell, another which just came to mind is that Spector plays at LB regularly for West Ham, why not try that?
Football related things Marvel Wynne does well: He’s fast
Football related things Marvel Wynne does not do well: Take your pick
I thought so, but I remember him being cysed as the next big thing.
That’s exactly it, Ryan. Bob just doesn’t try and utilize enough of the players available to him. The same is true at midfield, where Bob’s maddening need to plug in his reckless offspring has prevented Torres and others from getting a real chance.
to be fair, though, phil, his reckless offspring has been way more dependable than say Sacha Klejstan or Benny Feilhaber, and J.F. Torres has looked a little lightweight to me.
Bornstein must give amazing blowjobs. I wonder if I could get him to teach my GF…
Has he been, Keith, or has he coasted on an hastily given rep since his brace vs. Mexico?
I think it’s been more than a bit of the latter. He’s easily one of the worst, if not the worst, tackler on the team, he’s not much of a passer or a kick-taker, and his shot, while powerful, isn’t anything near to accurate.
To my eyes, he hasn’t been any better than Feilhaber or Torres, and he’s a less creative player than both. I’ve never been high on Kelijstan. He has his moments, but, like you say, he’s very inconsistent.
Speaking of inconsistent, that seems to be the complaint about a lot of the USMNT regulars and I’m wondering just how much of that is a coaching issue.
I just saw some guy at Panera who was a dead ringer for Bob Bradley, right down to the stocking cap and track pants. He was even surveying the sandwich making with the same vacant stare as the real Bradley. What do you suppose it means?
“What do you suppose it means?”
That this guy at Panera probably picked the wrong ingredients for his sandwich?
#2 Football thing that Marvell Wynne does well: Jump really high.
I’ve just found this site http://www.holdenhistory.com, could I just borrow the technical
data from the web site or do I need special permission?. I am doing a school project.
Olivia