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USA vs. Canada: Match Night Commentary

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The U.S. men's national team begins its quest to regain the CONCACAF Gold Cup with a Group C opening match against Canada at Ford Field tonight (8pm, Fox Soccer Channel).

The Americans have struggled to get results in friendlies this year, but comes into the Gold Cup with a dominating track record in Gold Cup group play, having never lost a match. The United States has also won every one of its Gold Cup opening matches since 1991.

SBI will be providing commentary on tonight's match, so please feel free to follow along. As always, you are welcome to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action (Tonight's commentary is after the jump):

 

Comments

  1. I like Jones a lot. I think he has shown a willingness to integrate into the squad and not be just some mercenary.

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  2. Who ever said Dempsey was the worst. I have been on this site for a while. I have heard Jozy, J. Jones, Bradley, Altidore, Adu, etc but never Dempsey.

    Between the ridiculous haters, the apologist who can’t see any thing wrong with a player, and those who just flat out make stuff up (like calling J. Jones more of a liability on the field for cards then Bradley, when they are about even for total cards).

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  3. My apologies… I saw the first two nationally televised games for the Red Bulls and it was more like 10k. thats why I made that remark. I wonder where the dynamo stacks up, we have a crappy team but most of the games surpass 20k (must be the fireworks display that draws the crowd, thats the main reason im going back)

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  4. Pros get beat near post by great shots all the time. I’ll bet it’s happened to you too. I have plenty of ugly memories of screamers like that going by.

    Besides, it didn’t really go post, it went almost over his foot, so his position wasn’t terrible. Jozy had his back turned until he shot it and didn’t see keeper’s positioning. The main problem was keeper planted instead of shifting with the run. For a comparison, watch Howard here at around 1:45, hopping so he can cover any direction or get to ground quick:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPUop_oWGLE

    The Canadian keeper could have done better but it wasn’t shambolic. The shot was struck very hard. Credit to Jozy for deception and a powerful shot, and to Donovan for a dangerous pass.

    And by the way, Green was positioned perfectly, he just flubbed it.

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  5. You’ll have to look back in the archives for the two-to-three year span when many, many discussions had many, many people providing rational arguments for M. Bradley’s talent and worthiness to start. Over, and over, and over, people tried to provide reasonable points.

    The arguments have all been made, except for Michael’s being the best on the pitch game in and game out.

    People who don’t listen to “solid arguments” for years are likely haters. When they have to accuse Bradley Sr. of nepotism and find the two stray passes per game, when they have to find insulting nicknames, when they make extreme, negative, comments, then they are confirmed haters.

    Sure, the word is over-used, but still strangely appropriate.

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  6. Maybe he likes the idea of the national team manager wearing what amounts to a US uniform.

    Sort of like being proud to show your colors, maybe?

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  7. Are you serious? Maybe 5 years ago, but Salvador has caused much more trouble for the U.S & Mexico as of late. Canada hasn’t done jack squad in comparisson to El Salvador in recent years. I rather play a crucial game against Canada in Canada, then playing in Cuscatlan in El Salvador! Right now El Salvador is the better team.

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  8. 1. Canada is HORRIBLE!

    2. Honduras, Guatemala, Jamaica are better!

    3. Mexico, Costa Rica are much better, no really!

    3. Tim is GOD!

    4. No Tim, No Win!

    5. Either we get better, or we can forget about it!

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  9. Great game. The U.S looked average, I expected a little more from them since they got their butts kicked a couple days ago.

    Adu didn’t even make the bench?lol.. Sasha must be a killa in practice.

    It’s also official that Wondo & Sasha are a waste of space! Wondo is clueless in regards to opening up spaces or making simple cuts. Sasha is absolutely horrible? What position does this kid play, seriously! This guy is horrible on offense and way off on defense. His vision is horrible! Sasha & Bob have something going on, that’s the only explanation to why he is on the team or gets on the field…. As soon as Canada saw Wondo & Sasha on the pitch, the lines went forward for Canada. No respect!

    I love how the Mexican media seems to expect more from the U.S then our own media. They kept saying which U.S team will show up today.lol Why is Sasha or Rogers on the team. Why isn’t Adu getting on the pitch to help move the ball, etc…

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  10. I think it’s more tactical. I think we should have pushed a lot harder than we did. Hopefully the boys get some of that killer instinct. If they don’t, it’s going to be tough against a team like Mexico.

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  11. The Big Story was a solid central defense, which was and remains the team’s top priority. Granted, M. Bradley took much pressure off Ream and Goodson, but those two looked vastly better than any central pairing I’ve seen in years. Bocca and, to my surprise, Cherundulo looked a bit second-run and worrisome. Likewise, the jury is still out on who best pairs with MB in the middle-middle. I always thought Beckermann deserved a shot, but then I’m just a COF….

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  12. Really nice game by the Nats against a pretty decent side. They came out of the gate with serious heat. They may habe taken their foot off the gas a bit after the first goal, but were consistently threatening. There were more dangerous balls in the box than I can remember in recent memory. Defense was pretty well organized all night with some trouble defending one v one in spots. Best players: Altidore, Deuce, Jones, Bradley, Cherundolo. I also like Goodson’s continued development. He looks pretty comfortable out there and he is dangerous on set pieces.

    The biggest thing to take away is clearly Jozy’s confidenve boosting performance. We need this kid to keep developing.

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  13. Roger, Let me guess… you are a philly fan or a some other erroneous fan… NYRB is in the top 5 in attendance…. we average 18k…. why would you say NYRB when you could have said…dallas, colorado, columbus, Chivas, ???????

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  14. If the US gets to the final against Mexico, they need to truck in this same field to the Rose Bowl. That’s the only way our old guys will be able to keep up with the young guys from the south. Seriously, that was worse than playing in 10 inches of grass.

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  15. The norm with this squad is to not put those chances away.

    I wouldn’t expect any high powered offensive outputs, these guys just seem incapable of it, be it tactics or just a lack of skill.

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  16. yup. and it was a decent shot. but no professional goalkeeper should ever be beaten near post lower corner from that angle. that’s straight up poor positioning. good job from Jozy to see it an abuse it.

    a positioning error like that isn’t on the same level as Green’s howler. this was just bad play.

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  17. To be honest, if we would have put away half of the chances we had in this match it would have been a rout. We wasted so many chances, it was getting a little ridiculous.

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  18. Ives called it 2-0 USA. Good win for the US. Canada was unfortunate not to get a goal or two, but Tim Howard was magnificent, MOM along with Michael Bradley. Canada has nice attackers and should progress to next round. Everyone on USA side played well, however Boca will need to play better in future games. He tailed off badly at the end.

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  19. I love all the haters on this site, I swear. It seems like half of the people who actually watch football in the states enjoy watching the USMNT fail rather than succeed.

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  20. What about Bob? You can’t mention scapegoat without mentioning Bob. But in his case, killing the goat really would exorcise us of many, many demons (and probably invite a bunch of new ones)

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  21. Yeah man, Canada was a lot worse than I expected. If we squander chances like that against Mexico, Honduras, or any team of that caliber we could be in a for a lot of trouble.

    Tim Howard can only play God so often.

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  22. To sum that game up…

    1. Canada sucks way worse than I expected.

    2. With that being said, with almost any keeper not named Tim Howard this game ends at 2-2.

    3. No other team is going to just give us free range around the middle of the pitch. It could be a serious wake up call for the players to see two and three times that pressure.

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