CONGRATULATIONS! Whether you’d like to believe it or not, this is your triumph. I believe Bob was relieved of his duties in large part due to your collective voices. Like the last point in my optimistic piece, 5 positive influences on US Soccer in 2010, suggested, I had never witnessed such a strong and sustained [...]
TweetOn Replacing Bob Bradley, Rongen, and the Whole Entourage
What are the expectations? That is key. I think people are getting it confused. Hiring a manager who actually has a clue will not get us the World Cup final, and perhaps not the quarters this cycle either. That is not the discussion we should be having. That is not the appropriate metric to use. [...]
TweetSooooo … Now What?
It’s been 5 long years of this: “It was our B-team.” “The players were tired.” “Bradley’s tactics were spot on.” “Bradley’s tactics were off.” “Bradley should try the youth.” “Onyewu never recovered from his injury.” “The ref sucks.” “We just don’t have the players.” “Give him time.” “We’re making progress.” “We beat Spain.” “We tied [...]
TweetUS vs Guadeloupe: 8 Thoughts and Feelings
1. Watched the game at El Torito (hey it was taco Tuesday). An American fan, who was surely several tequila shots deep, comes up to us around the 80th minute and says: “This is embarrasing. I can get 11 of us in here to play better.” We couldn’t stop laughing … a US fan with [...]
TweetApparently Clint Dempsey is World Class. Who Knew?
Let’s get something straight right off the bat: Dempsey is a quality player. He is one of the few worthy of representing our country. He has a good touch, a good brain, and is highly valuable to his club. But World Class? I know we want one of these badly, but people are reaching and [...]
TweetUS U-20 World Cup Qualification Failure: Who Cares?
I’m a bit late to the U20 topic, but this is not a news outlet; it is an education outlet. In case you’re not up to speed, we lost to Guatemala and were eliminated from the U20 World Cup for the first time in 8 cycles. And as with most US Soccer failures, many across [...]
TweetUS Soccer vs Paraguay: The Conclusions
This was much much better from the US! There was some intent to build an attack instead of firing cannonballs up field. Now for some context and conclusions: 1) The obvious one. This was not Argentina. Nor was it against a Uruguay, Colombia, Mexico, or any team whose style is to keep the ball. This [...]
TweetUS vs Argentina: Another Game, Another Rant (well not quite)
As the title suggests, this is me blowing off some steam after reading and hearing stupidities from people across the web. But there are takeaways here that are well founded. Is the result all that matters? It’s a damn shame when the majority of the media, and dare I say fans, focus on the 1-1 [...]
TweetUS vs Chile: 2 Hopefuls and Lots of Restraining Orders
There are pros and cons to watching games on TV versus being at the field. When it comes to assessing the details of a player’s technique, off the ball movement, and overall awareness, the television can not compete. I was at the Home Depot Center on Saturday to watch Chile vs the US and the [...]
TweetWinning vs Soccer Development? Part II
This winning vs development argument always seems to revolve around technique. I discussed a bit in part I of this series how a coach can only go so far in technical development. But people talk over and over again about how our professional player’s lack of technique is the biggest problem. Again, we’re missing over [...]
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