World Cup and European leagues

[Stinger]

Im looking forward to the CONCACAF Gold Cup semis and finals in Chicago this summer.   Im going to have to get on those tickets early.

[Browneagle64]

I hear ya on that stinger. I just finish trying to look into getting tickets for the U.S. match against Denmark at the home dept. center and it looks like they will easily sell out by the end of this month. In all, like i mentioned, with Bradley as the new general for the U.s. team be ready for see a preview for whats to come later in the future.   

Tickets for the U.s game v.s Denmark  $85 and up
Hot dogs and beer for the game $8
parking $10

Getting to sit next to hot blonds during a sunny and warm 5:00pm kickoff for the u.s. national team during Winter time in So. Cal ............priceless 8)

[ScotsFan]

Moves like this just point out that The U. is doing everything possible to be the best.

Kind of like what Chelsea does???  IMO, Chelsea is worse than ManU in this area.

However, its sad to hear and read that Freddy Adu was only invited by the U. to first be assessed and report that he should be ready by the time he is 18. What a lame excuse. If they really want the present to be better, the least they can do is have this fresh talent on the practice squad fighting for a chance to be an awesome player.

Actually, it's not an excuse at all.  It's UK employment law.  Here's an article that tells all about it from BBC Sport:

'Adu has to wait on Man Utd future'

[Browneagle64]

Looks like Coach Bradley is penciling in to play against our rivals south of the border sooner than we expected. It sould be fun watching coach "HuGoal" sanchez and Coach Bradley match their national team HC debuts.

[Stinger]

Watching Spain/England right now. Superb goal by Barca's Iniesta just put Spain on top in the 63rd. 

Im really looking forward to USA/Mexico tonight. Mexico is fielding a very strong side.   Nice article regading the matchup from SI's Grant Wahl:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/grant_wahl/02/07/us.mexico/index.html

[Browneagle64]

Tonights game between USA and Mexico should be exciting. The lines up have been announced by both teams and the expectations are just about right for a rivalary match like this.

Expect to see a fast and young USA score sooner and quicker in the 2nd half. I'll give team Mexico the first edge in scoring, but after their old farts can't hang in the game, expect team USA to dominate. Coach bradley will indeed capitalize on this.

Go team USA

[Stinger]

Excellent result for the US team.  I thought for sure the Mexican team would push through for a score. 

You gotta love the assist by the referee. Donovan absolutely sailed past those defenders once he got it. Awesome stuff.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I watched Iniesta's goal in the highlight they showed at halftime of the US game and all I could say was, "we have no one who can take a shot a like that and Iniesta's like the tenth best scorer in Spain; that's how much farther we've still got to go."


Regardless, we got some marked improvement in the match.  After the world cup we had two issues 1)not enough world class defenders and 2)no offensive creativity.

We're still struggling with two, but even though we were without two of our starting backs (Onyewu and Spector) the defense still showed a lot of life and Howard was just exquisite in goal.  Jimmy Conrad proved he can take Eddie Pope's place and Bornstein showed he can start as well.  I think there's definately hope for the defense.

Now we just have to get the scorers going.  I think with proper prep, Convey would be a lot better at the front, but he's in the middle of a rough season, so I'll cut him some slack.  As much as Donovan is boring and predictable, he's very good and now that he's actually trying to score goals, that can only help us.

The one glaring hole that I didn't think about was in central midfield.  The US can beat Mexico just fine without Reyna in there, but Clark is not a long term replacement if we're going to challenge European teams.  Maybe Cherundolo can fit in there (he and Beasley were also missing from out top line-up), but if not, Bradley really needs to be looking for someone who can step up into that role.

I would have liked to see Justin Mapp get some minutes, but we've got, what, three matches in the next month, so I expect we'll get more of him soon.

[Browneagle64]

What an awesome job Donavon did last night. Not only was his corner kick awesome but his attempts in spreading the ball to his teammates and ultimately going for the goal was beautiful.

Glad to see that Coach bradley had a good game plan. I surely thought Team mexico would have been the first to score, but several plays did not go their way. I am sure they will be fine once world cup 2010 rolls by.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I'm glad Howard is getting full time play at Everton out of the giant ManU spotlight.  He's really shown improvement over previous national team stints.  I would have named him man of the match.  He had to make more than one match's share of saves in that one.

[Browneagle64]

I concure with that Hoops. It looks like howard will be w good player this time around

[Stinger]

Exciting game at Anfield this afternoon.  Liverpool had some great chances in the first half, by Bellamy and Risse. Not sure how they didn't go in.  Barca broke through in the 80th from GudJohnson, but it wasn't enough.  They go down on away goals.

I'm a Merengue fan, and that 90' goal they let in at the Bernabeu could come back to bite them tomorrow.  No Becks, Reyes, and maybe not Cannavaro. Could be a tough go.  Just need Ruud to poke one in.

[sac]

Barcelona sure didn't play like a team needing 2 goals, they were pretty ordinary untill later, Liverpool dominated the first half hour and should have been up 2-0.

Liverpool seems to turn it up in the Champions League and are rather disappointing in the league.

Good shot at 4 English clubs in the final 8 if Arsenal shows up tommorrow.  Inter losing was a surprise.

[WLCALUM83]

Couple of questions:

Caught Ajax's 5-1 pasting of PSV Eindhoven. The press release I saw after the match indicated that kind of result wasn't expected. Has Ajax been down this year?

Also caught Leverkusen's victory over Lens that advanced the German squad to the final 8 in UEFA Cup action. Anyone want to chime in on Leverkusen's or Bremen's chances to take the whole thing?

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Eindhoven has taken over ownership of the Eerdivise over the last few seasons and securely hold the reigns at this point.  While Ajax is still competitive, they are not in the position where anyone would expect five goals.

The German teams probably have as good a chance as anyone.  I don't see a dominant squad left among the final eight.