Match Recap: USA 1 - 0 Guatemala
I haven't felt this bad after a USA win...ever.
That was one horrible match tonight. The officiating was awful. The play of the USA was deplorable. The Guatemalans were completely gutless and the FSC production staff should be taken out back and shot.
First off, the officiating was awful. The referee practically did everything that he could to get a result for Guatemala. I am not saying that the cards he gave out to the USA players were wrong; they weren't. Hejduk had a WWE headlock on the Guatemalan player that he took down, so he deserved a yellow card. Gooches first yellow was a little soft, but everything that Gooch does looks like he is breaking bones, so the ref probably felt that he needed to card him. His second yellow was stupid. Bocanegra's card was a soft one, but by the rules, he deserved it.
My biggest complaint was how the ref really failed to make the same calls against the Guatemalans. There were four or five times when Beasley was laid out and the ref never even looked twice at him. Carlos Ruiz (who I utterly fucking hate now) took out Gooch and Bocanegra so many times, that I lost count. The ref should not be allowed to ref again.
With the two following exceptions: the goal and Tim Howard's play, the rest of the USA looked like they had just been put together 20 minutes before the match started. Where was the side that took it to Ecuador? How about the side that took everything that Mexico threw at them? How about the group that served China four goals? The goal was very nice; Beasley with the header pass and Twellman with the instinct to pounce and pass. But he rest of the match was pretty bad. The funny thing is, it got worse once Guatemala opened up and stopped putting 10 guys behind the ball.
Uh, hello!? Did the USA fail to say that the Eddie Johnson who has 9 goals in MLS was the one who was called up and not the shitty forward of last year? How many times do I have to see that guy pass the ball? He is a fucking forward, his sole mission is to try to get shots on the goal. He barely had one shot on goal. When he had chances to actually take a chance on goal, he looked for a way to pass the ball away.
What the hell happened to our backline? I gave up on Bornstein around the 40th minute mark and Hejduk really didn't show me that much either. I would rather see DeMerit and Simek get starts on Saturday...oh wait, one of them will have to start, Gooch has to sit the match out. Howard did well, evern though there were several shakey moments in the second half by his defenders. I am hoping that the guys give Keller a better ride on Saturday.
So, the USA came out and finally scored against Guatemala in 2007. I am happy that they were able to do that. I am extremely unhappy at how they played. I really hope that Nowak has the guys running laps around the stadium right now. I am not sure if T&T will come out with the same game plan as Guatemala did (they should, as Guatemala has pretty much shown twice that it really does work) and bunker and hassel the players. Regardless of how T&T comes out, the USA has got to get their act together. The passing out of the midfield needs to be crisper and more accurate. The defenders need to get better support form the midfield in linking up together. I would say about 10 minutes of the match tonight was wasted by the defenders passing between themselves as they tried to get a midfielder to come back and help link up the attack. I want to see the midfield that we had against Ecuador and China. The midfield that showed up tonight, they can go home.
In a parting note, I would like to say that FSC has got some of the worst camera men and producers in the sports business. There were at least 4 different times when the camera was focused on the Guatemalan coach and not the match, yet we here the FSC announcers calling out a play, 2 of them were right at the goals. They have two days now, maybe they should borrow some tapes from ESPN and watch how to produce a proper soccer match.
That was one horrible match tonight. The officiating was awful. The play of the USA was deplorable. The Guatemalans were completely gutless and the FSC production staff should be taken out back and shot.
First off, the officiating was awful. The referee practically did everything that he could to get a result for Guatemala. I am not saying that the cards he gave out to the USA players were wrong; they weren't. Hejduk had a WWE headlock on the Guatemalan player that he took down, so he deserved a yellow card. Gooches first yellow was a little soft, but everything that Gooch does looks like he is breaking bones, so the ref probably felt that he needed to card him. His second yellow was stupid. Bocanegra's card was a soft one, but by the rules, he deserved it.
My biggest complaint was how the ref really failed to make the same calls against the Guatemalans. There were four or five times when Beasley was laid out and the ref never even looked twice at him. Carlos Ruiz (who I utterly fucking hate now) took out Gooch and Bocanegra so many times, that I lost count. The ref should not be allowed to ref again.
With the two following exceptions: the goal and Tim Howard's play, the rest of the USA looked like they had just been put together 20 minutes before the match started. Where was the side that took it to Ecuador? How about the side that took everything that Mexico threw at them? How about the group that served China four goals? The goal was very nice; Beasley with the header pass and Twellman with the instinct to pounce and pass. But he rest of the match was pretty bad. The funny thing is, it got worse once Guatemala opened up and stopped putting 10 guys behind the ball.
Uh, hello!? Did the USA fail to say that the Eddie Johnson who has 9 goals in MLS was the one who was called up and not the shitty forward of last year? How many times do I have to see that guy pass the ball? He is a fucking forward, his sole mission is to try to get shots on the goal. He barely had one shot on goal. When he had chances to actually take a chance on goal, he looked for a way to pass the ball away.
What the hell happened to our backline? I gave up on Bornstein around the 40th minute mark and Hejduk really didn't show me that much either. I would rather see DeMerit and Simek get starts on Saturday...oh wait, one of them will have to start, Gooch has to sit the match out. Howard did well, evern though there were several shakey moments in the second half by his defenders. I am hoping that the guys give Keller a better ride on Saturday.
So, the USA came out and finally scored against Guatemala in 2007. I am happy that they were able to do that. I am extremely unhappy at how they played. I really hope that Nowak has the guys running laps around the stadium right now. I am not sure if T&T will come out with the same game plan as Guatemala did (they should, as Guatemala has pretty much shown twice that it really does work) and bunker and hassel the players. Regardless of how T&T comes out, the USA has got to get their act together. The passing out of the midfield needs to be crisper and more accurate. The defenders need to get better support form the midfield in linking up together. I would say about 10 minutes of the match tonight was wasted by the defenders passing between themselves as they tried to get a midfielder to come back and help link up the attack. I want to see the midfield that we had against Ecuador and China. The midfield that showed up tonight, they can go home.
In a parting note, I would like to say that FSC has got some of the worst camera men and producers in the sports business. There were at least 4 different times when the camera was focused on the Guatemalan coach and not the match, yet we here the FSC announcers calling out a play, 2 of them were right at the goals. They have two days now, maybe they should borrow some tapes from ESPN and watch how to produce a proper soccer match.
posted by Brian at 10:03 PM
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