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World Cup Sendoff Series starts tonight!

Started by Lionheart88, May 27, 2014, 11:24:03 am

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Lionheart88

05/27 9:00 PM US vs Azerbaijan
06/01 1:00 PM US vs Turkey
06/07 5:00 PM US vs Nigeria

The Little Rock Chapter of the American Outlaws will be meeting at Dugan's in Little Rock (3rd & Rock Street) for each and every one of these, and would love to see you there.



(Yes, I know, this probably fits better in General Sports.  I'm going to cross-post it to the World Cup thread there, but I figured there might be some soccer fans here who might not check down there very much.)

Go Postal

Has anyone seen any Nike World Cup commercials yet?  Just wondering.  They have had some good ones in the past.

VHSCoach2

USA 2-0 Azerbaijan.

I personally felt that tonight's showing was alright. Wondolowski had those two good looks in the first half of play that, unfortunately, didn't find the back of the net.  Biskerud scored for us in the 75th, and Johannson converted that beautiful set piece in the 81st to wrap it up.

On the flip side, there is always room for improvement, and I don't feel like the team we saw tonight would make much noise in the World Cup, unfortunately. Hopefully the next two send-off matches will be used to fine-tune the USMNT where they will be ready for Germany, Portugal, and, dare I say, Ghana.

One more addend: it's time to support the team that Klinsmann has selected, even if we don't all agree. Landon Donovan may not be a part of it this time around, but we have 23 other men representing our country in Brazil. Let's give them all of our support and hope that they can perform to the best of their abilities in the Cup.

chaoslord

I am hopeful the poor showing was due to it being a warm up game and no one wanting to get hurt rather than an indication of a lack of quality.

That said, here are my thoughts:

  • Wondo should not see a minute on the field at the World Cup. Well, that might be harsh. He shouldn't see extended minutes, I'll say that. He had two glorious chances and didn't convert against Azerbaijan. He is 31 years old and if Donovan, who has international pedigree, is past it at 32 then there is no way Wondo will be around much longer. Let Aron have the time to gel with the team. At 23, he is the current future.
  • Speaking of, Aron Johannsson should be starting ahead of Jozy. Jozy has zero confidence right now. I rate Jozy as the better player, but you can't depend on players in a poor run of form for something like the World Cup. If Jozy can find the net against Turkey or Nigeria, then put him back in the starting lineup, but right now I would think Donovan is more likely to score at the World Cup, and he will be on a different continent.
  • I like Mix. He came off the bench and actually showed he wanted to play. It will be tough for him to find a spot in the lineup but he showed a lot of energy in an otherwise forgetable performance.

Based on what we've seen so far, I'd like to see the following against Ghana.

            Johannsson
       Mix Dempsey Zusi
           Bradley Jones
Beasley Besler Cameron Johnson
              Howard

...yeah, formation should be tweaked, but ignore that for the moment since this is just a quick post and focus on those 11. I'd absolutely love it if Jozy can show me what I have seen from him in the past that means he deserves a start but he hasn't done yet. (Of course JK disagrees with me but thats fine, he gets paid actual money to do this and I'm just an armchair dude)

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