Top Stories

SBI Live Q&A: June 20th Edition

It is SBI Live Q&A time.

I've had a busy few months, with a lengthy trip to England and the Gold Cup following soon after, but the time has come to catch up with first Q&A in two months.

We have plenty to discuss. From the Gold Cup, to the summer transfer season, to Major League Soccer and even the end of the European season.

Send your questions my way and I will answer as many of them as I can over the next two hours.

Let's get started (Live Q&A is after the jump):

Comments

  1. Why does it matter? Putting your hand on your heart during the national anthem is a personal thing, and all of this questioning of his patriotism is becoming borderline racist/xenophobic.

    Reply
  2. Hey Ike,post this alleged link to the 360 view…the 35-36 second mark of the clip Ives posted clearly shows Jones’ ankle getting clipped. I’ve seen many NFL receivers/running backs/return men fall down after attempting to regain their balance after being tripped up like that.

    Was there a foul? If the video evidence at 34-35 seconds is to be believed then absolutely. Was it embellished, without a doubt. But as Ives explained embelleshing is not a dive. The intent was to take Jones down, CLEARLY that was the intent, Jones had his man beat…and that intent on that play was enough for the foul.

    Had Thomas let him go what do you think would have happened? We’ll never know. Dive = what Zelaya (from El Salvador) did. Jones was fouled and ensured that the referee knew it. Kudos to Jones for that, had he just fallen down without the arm-throwing he may not have gotten the foul, he’s been denied in this cup on similar plays.

    I’m on a one-man bandwagon to defend Jones’ reputation it seems; though I deny this. It just ticks me off when someone calls a “foul” a ‘dive”.

    Reply
  3. i’m pretty sure the article specified that it was not counting friendlies – competitive matches only…which will largely be the same. concacaf might actually be worse now than it was under arena…

    Reply
  4. Somewhere on a Yacht in the mediteranian…Xavi just through up a little after hearing Ives comparing what Sasha does with the US to that of the magic that Xavi makes on the field.

    (SBI- The point was that simple passes that keep the ball and offense moving are valuable. Kljestan did that vs. Jamaica. Xavi is the master of it. If you take that to mean I think Sacha is comparable to Xavi you might want to think again.)

    Reply
  5. 1 – how do people think stu holden is an attacking midfielder? He sits incredibly deep for bolton and basically gets bypassed by long balls up to elmander…

    same putting a player in position they played years ago and not at a high level argument that is keeping spector in at RB/LB that makes people thinking stu holden’s winger days at houston are enough to keep in an attacking as opposed to holding role

    2 – maurice edu has gotten screwed. he was in the best form of any 3 midfielders, got played as an attacking player against Spain (he was at the head of the traingle), did horrible (as did most everyone against spain), and never saw a full 90.

    doesn’t mean jones-bradley isn’t better than any combo with edu, but the man has been on fire, got played out of position then summarily dropped.

    Reply
  6. “I do want to address the whole Arena-Bradley comparison this way. I invite anybody to go look at the list of opponents faced by Arena and by Bradley. Bradley’s team has faced MUCH tougher opponents. It’s not even close.”

    Thank you!! I’d much rather tie Argentina and lose to Spain than beat up on irrelevant minnows like we did pre-2006.
    As Bradley has said in interviews many times, you only get better by facing the best.

    Reply
  7. “2-2 vs. Slovenia and a lucky win vs. Algeria.”

    LOL. US should have beat Slovenia 3-2 and Algeria 2-0, on goals that actually went into the back of the net and were disallowed for no good reason. And if we had beat Slovenia we could have rested players against Algeria and been in a better position against Ghana. How soon people forget when they’re bashing Bradley.

    Reply
  8. Jermaine Jones appeared to be injured when he left for Edu, possibly a groin injury. Any word on how serious that might be? Between that and the yellow card perhaps Edu would be best against Panama, get Jones ready for the final.

    Reply
  9. Hey Ives, I’ve noticed that Altidore is the only player who doesn’t place his hand over his heart during the national anthem. Any story behind this or is it just a personal preference?

    Reply
  10. wrong. If there was no contact why did the player walk off the field without protest. Plus there is clear evidence that his thigh hit Jones’ foot.

    Reply
  11. Ives, on the Jones dive you need to watch the 360 view. I understand why you think he was fouled but the 360 view shows there was no contact.

    Reply
  12. If you haven’t already, please give us your thoughts on the entire FIFA/CONCACAF fiasco and what the future holds for Blazer, the US and the region.

    Reply

Leave a Comment