(EDITOR’S NOTE)– SBI Mafia member and pro sports writer Dominghosa made the trip to Los Angeles on Monday and took the time to head to Home Depot Center to watch U.S. national team practice. Here is his report.)
Hafa Adai and Mabuhay SBI Mafia. (I wanted to get my own foreign language greetings in, apologies to Ives.)
So I got up this morning, looked outside and it was 65 degrees and partly cloudy. You know, Southern California weather in January. Otherwise, it was perfect. I decided to stop by the U.S. Men’s National Team morning practice at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. Why not? What else was I going to do on a weekday. Work?
Arrived at the site around 10:17 a..m., parked and watched the team practiced on Glenn “Mooch" Myernick Field, the practice field just west of the Home Depot Center. After warming up and stretching, the team worked on crossing and finishing on each half of the field and on each side of the field.
Here are my observations from training:
Landon Donovan wasn’t in today’s camp. Either that, or I didn’t notice him. He might have sat this one out in the sidelines. Someone with actual press credentials should track that down.
Brad Guzan, in his first practice with the team in this camp, looked great. With a possible transfer to a team in Europe looming, Guzan may have had another jump to his step. Compared to the other goalkeepers that participated in the drill, Guzan’s reactions looked much quicker.
Players who stood out with nice touches included (in no particular order): Kyle Beckerman, Maurice Edu, Chris Rolfe, Clarence Goodson, Pat Noonan and Jeremiah White.
The team then gathered for a pep talk from coach Bob Bradley, who let them know what he was looking for in the next portion of practice – 11v11.
The team broke into two squads – blue and red.
Players that saw most of the ball and did some good things with it:
Blue team: Danny Califf, Marvell Wynne, Chris Rolfe, Jozy Altidore, Sacha Kljestan , Rico Clark, Taylor Twellman, and Jozy Altidore.
Red team: Brad Guzan, Jonathan Bornstein, Kyle Beckerman, Justin Mapp, Maurcie Edu, Eddie Johnson.
Scoring opportunities were rare as play was relegated to midfield. Each team had one good scoring chance. Red threatened first as Beckerman’s arching shot from 20 yards out hit the top of the crossbar. Blue had its chance 10 minutes later, when Clark’s long ball found Altidore in stride. The ball bounced in front of Altidore, who headed it down, showed his strength by fending off a defender, and shot just wide.
There were some nice passing combinations at midfield, especially a sequence featuring Clark and Twellman, but the pass to find an open scoring chance was missing. Through Bradley’s tenure, the USMNT has stressed quick one-two passing and that was evident during the scrimmage. The Blue team saw most of the ball during the scrimmage.
That’s about it from Southern California, folks. The weather was great, though I still wore a hooded pullover in 65-degree weather. Brrrr. I Even got a chance to meet a coach in the Everton FC system. Good times. Be well. Good night to all SBI’ers and to others, a good Rico Clark kick to the shoulder.
And thanks to Ives for letting me contribute to the best site on the Interweb, besides, of course, the free porn ones.
Hey fellas, thanks for the love and the good-intentioned shots, I deserved it. (At least I think they were good-intentioned, ha). Anyway, Tim F., the Everton coach showed up at the end of practice so he wasn’t scouting. He was there to check out the HDC and its facilities. The only things we really talked about was Tim Howard and Timmy Cahill.
Mike, glad you got the Chamorro (Guamanian) and Tagalog (Filipino) greetings. Awesome stuff.
Also, as a bonus for the SBI Mafia, here are two videos from the USMNT practice I put up on youtube…
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0IYs1HkB7Lw
and
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bNuHfPWYF7Q
Love the Guamanian and Filipino love!
Great report thanks!
Really? Dominghosa is a pro sports writer? I never would have guessed 😉
Good stuff in the report.
Beckerman is an anomoly. He looks good domestically, but is just a step too slow to have an inmpact at the international level.
I think Edu needs to be added to the Europe transfer list in waiting. H ewill clearly stick around another 6 months or year, but the way he is developing, he’s definitely going to get a lot of attention. I for one, didn’t think anyone would break the already young midfield of Bradley, Clark, Fielhaber. But, Edu is already a strong choice to start next to Bradley almost every game now.
I believe that had to be Ramiro Corrales and not Bornstein, whom Dominghosa refered to, since Bornstein is laid up and Corrales is a LB.
Great USMNT scouting report, thanks. I’ve got to say, with the additional posts – late night, early morning – I check SBI almost twice as much as I did before, which is a little scary. Time to click on ads…keep it up Ives!
Excellent stuff, my fellow SBI captain. I’m glad to hear that the coaches are continuing to stress quick passing. American soccer players need to develop better vision and quicker decision making. Too often our midfielders will play as such: prepare to receive the ball, trap, look around, dribble, look around, make telegraphed square pass. It’s difficult to generate offense unless you are one step ahead of the defense at least some of the time. This is largely a mental issue, and I’m glad Bradley is stressing it so he can work it into the players’ mindsets.
I’d like to see an Altidore, Altidore pairing up front! 😉
Droscot,
I’m sure lot’s of posters check at odd hours EST. 3:45 AM EST isn’t 3:45 AM everywhere!
Jozy is so good, he’s on the Blue team twice! Yaayyy proofreading!
Good stuff!
This guy’s a professional writer? And Dr. Phil doesn’t like a camera? Just kidding. Great idea for multiple writers. No one soccer scribe can be everywhere.
“Red team: Brad Guzan, Jonathan Bornstein, Kyle Beckerman, Justin Mapp, Maurcie Edu, Eddie Johnson.”
I was under the impression that Bornstein would not be at camp because he was recovering from ankle surgery. Has this changed? He is not listed on the final 26 man roster in this article (posted on the 7th):
http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_4587524.html
Thanks for your report.
Hopefully more offensive chance will be created against Switzerland
Would like a report on the Everton FC system. What was an Everton coach doing there?
I love the late night posts. Thats right some people do check the site at 3:45 AM.
Great Work with the new site Ives.
Best of luck!!!
And thanks for the excellent post dominghosa