usa v. slovenia - my thoughts (or, maurice edu was robbed)

on the eve of the final group game against algeria, i thought it was time to give my thoughts on the usa/slovenia match.

the yanks fell prey to a problem that has plagued them for some time. the early goal. the team looked lackluster in the first half and the eager slovenians took advantage of it by potting two first half goals. the jose francisco-torres experiment seemed to not work as i, and i suppose bob bradley expected it to. a 2-0 deficit at the half was worrisome to say the least.

the changes made by bradley at the half were exactly what the team needed. dempsey moved to a more forward role where frankly he should have started.

the second half is a different story. when down by two at the half anyone who knows anything about the sport will tell you that an early goal in the second half greatly improves your chances of making a comback. not only did the usa get an early goal, it got a brilliant early goal from landon donovan. along with maicon from brazil, landon has the top goal of the tournament. the usa fed off of that goal and controlled most of the play for the second half yet it took untill less than 10 minutes left for them to find the equalizer through the coaches kid, micahel bradley. bradley's sliding finish to tie the game would have been just fine with me. a win would have been nice, but a tie was sufficient.

now let's talk about that win.

it should have been a win. moments after bradley tied it the usa won a free kick on the right hand side. donovan did what donovan does and served in a beautiful ball that maurice edu snuck in and tapped home for the win. oh, but wait. there was an offside call. or was it a foul by dempsey? or was it a foul by bocanegra? i don't have a problem with the fact the goal was disallowed. it happens. i get that. what i don't get is the referee and fifa refusing to discuss it or say what the call was. the only fouls i saw were the bear hugs from two slovenia players on bocanegra and dempsey.

moving on. the usa face algeria tomorrow in their final group game and it's quite simple. win and you move on to the round of 16. here's what i'd like to see. i want to see edu start alongside bradley in the midfield. i want to see dempsey starting up front with altidore. clint is better and more effective when he plays in a more forward position. replacing clint on the right wing has to be stuart holden. he has proved himself as more than a worthy replacement for dempsey on the wing.

final prediction. usa 2 algeria 0. goals from altidore and dempsey.

mark my word. micael bradley will be playing his club football in the english premier league sooner rather than later.

peace

~scott

23 men headed to south africa

i was going to blog about the stanley cup finals. you know a proper breakdown of how i see the series going, but you know what? i don't really care who wins. i have no rooting interest in the series. i'll watch it because i love the sport. so here is my short breakdown. i don't think the flyers stand a chance. they haven't faced the firepower throughout the playoffs that chicago will throw at them. i'm saying chicago in 6. although i wouldn't be all that shocked if the flyers pulled an upset.

now for the meat of this post

it's the world cup bitches!!

united states national team coach bob bradley announced his final 23 man roster for the upcoming world cup in south africa. here's the roster.

i think bradley picked a solid roster. the only player i don't competely agree with is damarcus beasley. he's been a man without a position on the national team playing at times on the left wing and even an ill-fated experiment as a left back. his club form has dipped as well not seeing as much playing time for glasgow rangers as he has in the past.

there were a few surprises among the forwards. brian ching was left off, and herculez gomez, and edson buddle found roster spots. ching has struggled with injuries which has seen his form dip. gomez lit the mexican league on fire with 10 goals in 14 matches. buddle likewise has been in rare form as he has 9 goals for the los angeles galaxy in just 10 matches. they made bradley's choice easy. heading into a world cup you have to take your in form players. and you don't get much more in form than buddle and gomez. although with jozy altidore and clint dempsey likely to get the starting nod, they may not see much playing time. the future however looks bright at least as far as stiker options go.

here's how i see bradley likely fielding his team:

                             Howard

Cherundolo-----Bocanegra-----Onyewu-----Bornstein

   Holden---------Clark---------Bradley---------Donovan

                     Altidore---------Dempsey

you could switch donovan and dempsey but i think the team plays better with landon on the wing and clint up front.

i see the states getting out of the group stage, though i'm not sure how far they will go. i'll break down their group, which includes england, slovenia, and algeria, prior to their first match on the second match day of the cup

come on you yanks!

avatar, great conversation, and geek cred

so i went to see avatar today, and i must say that it was as amazing and stunning as i had heard. i'm pretty sure i'll be seeing it again.

why haven't i seen it before now you may ask? well because i didn't know anyone that wanted to see and i've kind of had it with being lame and going to movies by myself. that's where twitter comes into play.

i've met some really great people on twitter but none that i have actually met in the physical world. while i was watching the incredibles with my brother and nephew last night i was tweeting, mostly about random things. i happen to see one of my numerous friends that i met through the #pens hashtag tweet that she wanted to see avatar again. i replied that i wanted to see it for the first time. so after a little back and forth we decided that we would go see it together today. i love meeting awesome people online who in turn end up being equally awesome in real life. it kind of reaffirms my belief that there more good people than bad out there.

so prior to the movie we had some time to talk. just about general things like favorite movies, music, the pens, football (of the european variety).

seriously? i met someone that likes hockey AND soccer. score! :)

some highlights from the conversation

music -  we both agree that anything tom morello touches is golden and that my musical tastes lie mainly in bands that originated out of the 70's progessive rock scene and that the combination of dave grohl, john paul jones, and josh homme as them crooked vultures is, well, epic.

sports - she is a penguins fan which is awesome in itself. but she is also a footy fan that supports chelsea which is fine because it isn't manchester united, and she has talked to ruud van nistelrooy. seriously, i can't make that up! just as a side note, i support celtic.

movies - it mainly centered around what i haven't seen. here is the short list, all of the harry potter movies and all of the lord of the rings movies. it was suggested that my geek cred is taking a hit because of this and that i can't fall back on the star wars movies to restore said geek cred. :)

so i think my goal in 2010 is to catch up on what i've missed and i think i need to turn to netflix for that. my reasoning for not seeing those, and other, movies is that they were so pervasive in the media that i tended to avoid them all together. i did the same thing when learning new songs on guitar. i avoided cliched songs like stairway to heaven and smoke on the water.

i think enough time has passed that i need to start catching up.