southsideirish71

QUOTE(illinilaw08 @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 03:49 PM) On the US, the disparity of talent was evident. The US lack of height on the front line is obvious, McBride is the only guy who brings anything aerially. Donovan needs to go back overseas, if he is the best American, him playing in an inferior league stunts his development. Gooch is a talented defender, but he played poorly today as well, his inexperience was evident. Dissappointing opener, if the US can somehow beat Italy, they are back in the tournament. Donovan was in Germany a year ago. He was put on the bench, and then he cried, b****ed and moaned about being homesick, just like he did before. He played a terrible game in the champions cup where he basically disappeared and then shortly after that he was sent back. He wants to play here, to be the big fish in the small pond. He can dominate the local league and some Concacaf. But he will have problems in the big tourneys. He is also way too short to play F. He is a midfielder at best. This team needs to develop a true number 10 player. A true midfielder that can distribute passes. JOB has been injuried so much its hard to count on him. And at his age this is his last WC. Gooch will benefit from going to the Premiership. Playing English style defense is a help to any defender. For the next WC we need to make sure that more and more of our players move on to play in Europe. The MLS doesnt have the strenght that it needs to develop a true world class player right now. All that we get are the retreads from Europe trying to keep playing well after their prime. And the college has beens, and never was. Tim Howard needs to play everyday on a Premiership team. He is by far our most talented keeper in the long run. He is young, and in 4 years will have the best chance to be a true stopper. We need to work on being creative overall. I would like to see the new coach for the US either be a motivational offensive visionary like Gus Hiddink or someone with a Brazilian/Portuguise background. I am a fan of either the 3-5-2 or the 4-4-2 system being used. This country needs to learn how to pass the ball on the ground also. All I see in the MLS and in our national team is long kicks, volleys, and high passes. That works on the local level, but when you are playing against tall european players who can outjump you you are doomed. In the long term US soccer needs to move its development to the inner city. Its a game that anyone can play, and it may attract a person who has the physical tools that are better than what we have, but may not be good enough to play football, basketball or baseball. We need to develop taller players, instead of the group of midgets we march out year after year on the national team. Our backline is starting to get taller, but we need our midfielders and strikers not to be 5'5. For the prospects of beating Italy. We need to attack with EJ and McBride up front, Dovovan and JOB in the mddle. Beasley and Convey on the wings. And true defenders on the backline. No more of the hey I want to get this left footed player in the game. I think he can be a defender. And Pope needs to be on the bench. We need Tim Howard out in the net. That is the only way, if we even have a chance. The funny thing is that everyone was all excited about the Freddy Adu era on how he is the next wunderkid. How we stole him from Ghana. He is young, but has been less than spectacular in the MLS. A few years older is a guy named Rossi. Born here in the US, moved to Italy when he was a teen. He is a machester united player who will get some starting time next year. The kid is a pure goal striker, and would help the team today to give us what we want a creative playmaker that can make a difference. However there is a problem, he wants to play for Italy. lets see who is better in the long run, Rossi or Adu. I am putting my money on Rossi.

QUOTE(kane0730 @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 04:22 PM) Pods, LF; Ozuna, 2B; Thome, DH; PK, 1B; Dye, RF; AJ, C; Crede, 3B; Uribe, SS; Anderson, CF. Contreras takes the mound. The last time Uribe had a long amount of success as a whitesox hitter was when he was fighting for a spot when he first came over. He hit the crap out of the ball for a long time. Lets see if he mans up and takes the strong challenge that Cintron is putting out there. Cintron might not have the glove of Uribe, but his stroke has been putting the sox in positions to win. I like the lineup though. Lots of speed up top.

Now is it fair to the league that we allow Pablo on the mound. When he uncorks his Bug Bunny Effus pitch to the American League the chaos will be unmatched. There could be riots, plague, madness, and SMOG!!!! Pray that we dont unleash Pablo onto the mound. If that happens the game as we know it will never be the same.

QUOTE(vandy125 @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 02:07 PM) Does anyone think it is possible that Grimsley might have a case considering that MLB had no rules against what he was doing? Maybe they shot themselves in the foot on this? I hope that it may be another thing added to the pile to make them fix this mess. Steroids are against the law. BTW Murdering a teamate is not against the explicit ruleset of Major League Baseball Rules, however I think if you get accused of Murder of a teammate you will get released and not get your money.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 01:16 PM) Oh my god. Wynalda just said "Gigi Buffoon." And while on the subject of goalkeepers, everyone want's to blame the new ball. GMAB. Every world cup they introduce some new ball that has a better flight to bring goal scoring up. They did it in the last WC. How about our defenders mark their men close and tight without fouling them. That an keeping the ball in the midfield or on the other side is a good way also.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 01:07 PM) Ya, they played tenative and did a lot of standing. I do think they really lost a lot of confidence falling behind 1-0 very ealry on. Its not like our guys don't have cup experience, so we really don't have an excuse. I still say we have the talent to get out of this group, but it will be really tough now. In 4 years time we should be an even bigger cup contender and even if we totally tank this year, I know the talent is there and I think we'll see a far sharper match next week. Our defense really sucked though, as bad as the offense was, our defense gave up 2 goals on horrid plays and the 3rd goal we made another mistake where we had the opportunity to tackle him in the open field and didn't. We had 2 shots on goal for the game. We gave up a long range goal. But on the good news. After this dismal effort Bruce is going to go away, and maybe we can hire someone outside of the US that can teach an attacking creative brand of football. We seriously need to work on our finishing. It has never been that good. If you watch world class teams, when they strike on the ball it travels near the net. When we strike on the ball, its a field goal or way way wide right or left. Too bad we missed out on Jurgen Klinsman. He would of been great.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 12:58 PM) More so how s***ty the US played. And i think SSI is onto something when he mentions how our top players all are staying locally to play in the less talented MLS. Because of that our players raen't able to get better. We are one of the most athletic teams in the country and played a slow tempo style that really was ugly. We are a far better team than that, but we may have just dug ourselves into too deep of a hole. We are not an athetic team. Beasley is coming off of a serious injury he suffered in the club season, he is a shadow of himself out there. We are playing a bunch of older players that have been injuried for qualifying and havent gotten a lot of time to play together. JOB hasnt been 100% healthy since he was in his early 20s. Reyna got hurt for the last part of qualifying. We have a guy named Johnson that has scored a ton of goals since he started playing for the US in qualifying. Where does he start on the bench. We play a 4-5-1 which lends to no creativity. We got stoned by Morrocco on the send off playing a 4-5-1. Eddie Lewis is not a defender. But he is one of Bruces pets. So he starts and it costs us. In 02 we had a solid back line. This year its swiss cheese. Keller is not a athetically talented goalie. Our best talent is Howard who spend most of his time on the bench this year. Marcus is another talent but he is not gifted physically as Howard. Howard would of stopped the first goal at least. The rest would of went in.

So much for the MLS producing class. Time to send our best players to Europe for the next 4 years so they can prepare against good players instead of playing against 38 year old retiring Ukrainians trying to make a buck in the twighlight of their career.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 12:33 PM) s***. Josh Wolf being on a world cup roster is the alarm. He might of been good enough to make the 02 roster, but he was hurt. He is over now. 3-0. See yah. Back to baseball. Note to Arena on your next job. Dont select players based on the fact that they played for you at DC United. Thank you. Eddie Lewis is not a defender. Point Proven.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 12:25 PM) That shoul dhave been a goal. Our f***ing defense parted and left him with a wide open shot. Geeze we look like piss. They should of given Spector a shot at making this team. At least he will be on the 2010 team. He can defend players in the Premiership, yet he gets passed on to put in a geriatric guy who cant defend MLSers.

Hopefully for the good of 2010 they sell Adu off to a Spanish team so he can start to play attacking football. Staying in the MLS is going to criple his development.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 12:02 PM) We are making two substitutions and have changed our setup as well. Johnson is coming in and he's really fast and O'Brien is also coming in. This should of happened from the start. EJ and Mcbride up front, Donovan in attacking mid. OBrien is a good distributor of the ball. He should of been in the lineup. But he didnt play for DC United so..... And here is a tip to the US. Start passing the f***ing ball on the ground. Going in the air with a team that is taller than you is dumb. Now a 3-5-2 is organized. Now f***ing attack. You have nothing to lose.

After this WC, hopefully they fire Bruce Arena and his non attacking style. And give whatever money is required to lure HIddink here. Let him coach a club team also in Europe. Who cares, he makes teams better. Arena loves old players, he is the Dusty Baker of Soccer. A 4-5-1 formation, who the f*** uses that with the talent we dont have.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 11:49 AM) Actually, I think the US would benefit most from a 4-4-2. With an offense like the Czechs, they need that extra defender and that's where Bocanegra could slip in. When we beat Portugal who had a similiar offense in 02, we used a 3-5-2. We ran their asses off, smashed the box with lots of large bodies and took the game to them. We have fast enough defensive mids that they can drop back in the counter.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 11:48 AM) Donovan hasn't been bad in this game, problem is we just aren't pushing it. ANd I agree, against a team like the Czechs we should be attacking them like crazy and force the issue for them to play defense. One problem is they are now pretty much keeping an extra man back, making it tougher, but the US speed should still be able to get some opportunities. As far as our D goes, they have made some fundementally stupid mistakes, resulting in that 2nd goal (although you also have to tip your hat cause that was an awesome shot). I question why Beasley is playing on the right side, he's so much better on the left. In the 2nd half, EJ needs to pair up with McBride up front. Donovan needs to drop to attacking mid. Beasley needs to move to the left. Pope needs to retire. And bocanegra needs to appear.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 11:39 AM) A bigger issue is our team, which is a lot faster, is playing a slow tempo right now. They are letting the Czechs set the tone of this game (and the Czechs helped that out by scoring early) but the US is now letting it happen. I have said this a bunch of times before. To play a powerful offense like the Czechs you need to attack them. You need to make them run and play defense. But when I saw that our defense included someone who cant play D, a geriatric player who was getting shown up by Crap in qualifying. Why is EJ who scored a lot of our goals in qualifying on the bench. Why is Bocanegra who plays back for Fulham FC sitting on the bench. And its nice to see the primadona Donovan getting shown up on international level again. I am glad he needed to come back and play in the MLS so he could be a big fish in a small pond instead of playing against world class players. In 2010. Pick only international players, not this MLS crap that cant compete. And it looks like we are playing a 4-5-1. We should be playing a 3-5-2 like we did in the last world cup.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 11:35 AM) 2-0 now. Our defense looks like piss. However, that was a hell of a goal. Perfect shot. What defense. Eddie Lewis is not a defender. He is a defensive midfielder. He is too slow to play D. Eddie Pope is too old and slow to keep with any world class players. He was getting owned by anyone during qualifying, but he played for DC United and for Bruce Arena before so he plays. There is a reason that Keller is not in the premiership anymore. Macus or Howard should of started, they at least have the atheticism that is needed for this.

Reyna hits the post. Well on the good news. If we get destroyed in this world cup it will spell the end of the bruce arena DC United connection.

QUOTE(Buehrle>Wood @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 11:24 AM) ESPN2HD sucks. Anyone else having problems with it? So our defense can't cover a cross. Keller had a bad distrubution on the play and then Eddie Pope was flat footed. Eddie Pope is Bruce Arenas version of Timo Perez.

Eddie f***ing Lewis is not a defender. memo to bruce.

QUOTE(whitesoxin @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 11:07 AM) Down 1-0 because players on our team don't feel like trying. We had three guys around the box and the Czech's had 1...and he scored. Stupid f***ing lineup by Arena. Donovan is not a F. He is an attacking mid. EJ should be up front to give us some size and strike capabilities. And why is Eddie Pope on this team. He is slow, and old and cannot cover guys like the Czechs. Outside of Gooch we are stacking guys in the box who cant outjump anyone. No Bocanegra who is tall and has played in the Premiership. No Spector who is tall athetic and has played in the Premiership. And isnt even on the team.

I played 2 years for Moraine Valley and one year for St Xavier University. At Moraine Valley I was a pitcher, played some 1st and played some LF. At SXU they just had me pitch. When I pitched I threw a pretty good fastball, 85-88mph. Of course it was straight as an arrow. The fastest was 89mph on a radar gun in Panama City against Miami Dade CC during a ST tourney. I fell in love with watching the gun a bit much in that game, and watched my first batter hit a close to 500 foot homer off of me that dinked one the top of the light standards. I threw 2 others pitches. A 12/6 curve which was my best pitch and a forkball/splitter. I learned how to throw a forkball later on in life, after watching a clinic that Don Paul put on. The spliter has no control whatsoever and was just used to get guys fishing. At SXU I had lots of problems with my control and my velocity dramatically dropped towards the end of spring. Which was my undoing. I was not a control pitcher by any means, and got by with stuff. I did a lot of stupid things with my arm. I played for 2 summer league teams and pitched for both the summer between Moraine and SXU. I was young and dumb and didnt understand that overuse and not stretching would catch up to me. I felt a twinge in my shoulder, just thought it was nothing. After the twinge I saw my velocity drop only 4 mph. But that was the start of my undoing. When I was getting into 3-1 counts with guys with aluminum bats and a very straight fastball I was done. My velocity ended up around 80-81 when I was done. My advise to everyone is to take care of your arm, ice it, stretch and listen to your body and try not to be a lunk head like me, who threw away any possibilities of doing something with thinking he was invinsible. I was a 6'2 150 pound kid that was throwing 85-88, to this day I wonder what would of happened if I took care of my arm, and grew into my body a bit more. Maybe nothing, maybe something. Coolest things I can say happened. I owned Ron Mahay at SSC. I think I hit somewhere around 400 against him with a few dongs. He still has one of the best looking swings that never got to the majors for his bat. I got to hit against Alan Benes iand was 0-3 with 2 strikeouts. But I hit a line drive directly at the LF. His stuff was great. I faced Casey Fisk in a summer league game in college and struck him out 3 times. One of his teammates came over when I was warming up to tell me that Casey predicted that he was going to hit 3 homers off of me. Casey couldnt hit a curveball that game, and thats pretty much what he saw. I still played semipro baseball for about 4 years after college. Playing a lot of 1st and OF.I could still hit pretty well. But my career finally ended when I faced a kid who pitched for Notre Dame in the regular season. Electric fastball, and he had some scouts there with radar guns. If anyone has seen a game where the scouts come with radar guns, the pitchers usually falls in love with "blowing" everyone away. I knew a fastball was coming, so I got lucky and got solid aluminum contact on it and hit it off the top of the football stands at Bremen High School. It was a moon shot. The next time up, the pitcher decided to brush me back. I didnt react fast enough and took a 91mph fastball off my elbow. It shattered and that was it.

I want some reporter to ask the question where has Freddys velocity gone. Its amazing that he just decides to reinvent himself and everyone just smiles and says, look its Freddy the control pitcher. Like that is normal.

QUOTE(Capn12 @ Jun 12, 2006 -> 12:18 AM) In case you missed it, heres more great info to read: Garland 19 HR allowed in 77 IP Garcia 15 HR allowed in 80.2 IP Its safe to say, if Garland doesnt get his head out of his ass, hes got a chance to set some nice records!! And Garland is a sinkerball pitcher.

It might be nice if our pitchers didnt walk guys in front of people like Hafner or Martinez. Garcia and Garland need to stop with the gopher ball fest. Both of them are giving up dongs at an alarming rate.