Good evening folks. We’re close to kick-off of tonight’s USA-Cuba Olympic Qualifying match. I will be providing a running diary of the match and you are welcome to follow along with the match here and share you comments below.
As a reminder, you can watch the match on Fox Soccer Channel at 8pm, as well as on ESPN360.com.
Enjoy the match and follow the commentary after the jump:
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FINAL- That’s all from me. Thanks for following along and be sure to check in to SBI for all your U.S. Olympic qualifying news.
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FINAL- USA 1, Cuba 1. A thoroughly disappointing result and Peter Nowak’s squad has to know it threw away two points today. Nowak will also have to answer for his decision to pull Altidore at halftime. I’m sure it had to do with fatigue, but Altidore’s absence allowed us to get a good (and ugly) look at the options behind Altidore.
On the bright side, the Americans still control their own fate. Wins in their final two matches will lock up first place in the group, but playing like they did tonight won’t win them a single game in this group.
And before I forget, you can book this one: The Cuban goalkeeper today will be starting in MLS by 2010. Just a hunch.
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93rd minute- A flurry of chances in the area go begging for the USA and the match is OVER.
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92nd minute- Another US corner and another Cuban player down with "cramps". Hopefully the young referee adds to the stoppage time.
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91st minute- Adu’s free kick misses wide right.
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90th minute- A great free kick chance earned by Edu.
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88th minute- Barrett has been just plain awful.
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86th minute- Kljestan with a great header chance off a good ball from Adu, but it’s deflected out for a corner. The corner produces nothing. The clock is ticking.
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82nd minute- An Ianni head goal is disallowed for offside. Good call.
And Cuba just lost Linares to a second yellow card, for of all things, kicking a ball into the net during an offside call. Terrible, terrible decision by the referee.
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80th minute- Nice work by Gaven on the left flank to earn a corner kick.
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77th minute- Eddie Gaven is coming into the match for Findley.
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72nd minute- Okay, so McCarty is starting to grow on me. The kid is showing good hustle and skill. The Americans are awake now. We’ll see if there is enough time for them to find a game-winner.
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70th minute- Nice run and shot by McCarty, who has been much better in the second half, but another great save by the Cuban goalkeeper Miranda. The U.S. team is starting to find a good rhythm.
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63rd minute- Cuba with a dangerous chance but the shot is saved easily by Seitz.
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62nd minute- Edu has been much better in the past 10 minutes.
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61st minute- Barrett coming in for Charlie Louganis, I mean Davies.
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59th minute- Looks like Chad Barrett is set to come into the match.
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55th minute- Findley scuffs a wide-open look on goal after Adu springs him with a beautiful pass. Those chances simply cannot be squandered.
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53rd minute- I must say that Maurice Edu looks a bit shaky, committing some bad turnovers.
And Freddy Adu misses just wide with an 18-yard blast. Nice pass from Edu on the play.
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51st minute- Another wasted free kick from the Americans.
As for the tactical changes. the clear purpose is to take control of the possession battle. Will it work? If it doesn’t I don’t see the Americans winning tonight.
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48th minute- Here is how the lineup looks now.
———–Davies———Findley——–
————-Adu———Kljestan——–
————McCarty——-Edu—————
Freeman—-Ianni——Sturgis——–Hill
———————Seitz——————-
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46th minute- Sacha Kljestan comes in for Altidore. Apparently Altidore was worn out playing as the lone striker. Not sure how the formation shakes out now.
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HALFTIME- Linares of Cuba was the goal-scorer, the same player I said looked like Sammie from Prison Break. Speaking of Prison Break lookalikes in this game, McCarty looks like LJ Burroughs.
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HALFTIME- What changes could Nowak make at the half? That’s a good question. I haven’t really been crazy about Dax McCarty so far and wouldn’t mind seeing Sacha Kljestan get a look. I wonder if Cuba will start looking to go after Hill on the right flank. He looked a bit vulnerable the final 20 minutes.
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HALFTIME- We are tied at halftime and Peter Nowak CANNOT be happy with the effort in the past 15-20 minutes. I can’t help but wonder if there just aren’t enough ball-winning defensive-minded types on the field. Other than Maurice Edu, Nathan Sturgis and Patrick Ianni, who in the lineup is winning challenges?
Adu started off strongly, but faded. Altidore can’t get service and the wingers (Davies and Findley) haven’t gotten much of the ball. Not much is going well.
On the bright side, the Cuban defense looks ripe for the thrashing. Now all he Americans need to do is get the ball to Altidore in the final third and the goal will come.
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45th minute- We are tied and this game has a strange feeling to it. The U.S. team has lost any sense of control of this match. This is the type of game Maurice Edu and Freddy Adu need to take over and they have been barely visible the past 15-20 minutes.
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42nd minute- GOAL CUBA. It was bound to happen. Cuba with a nice passing sequence leads to a tap-in from close range. The U.S. team just got too lazy. USA 1, Cuba 1.
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40th minute- A yellow card for Kamani Hill, who commits a foul right on the edge of the penalty area with a high boot. Hill has looked shaky the past few minutes.
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39th minute- Charlie Davies with a horrendous attempt at a dive in the penalty area. If he had just stayed up the US team probably scores a goal. Apparently that gets called in Sweden.
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38th minute- I like what I’ve seen from the Cuban goalkeeper, who looks like he could be Benny Feilhaber’s long-lost brother.
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36th minute- Cuba is knocking the ball around pretty well at this point. No chances yet.
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33rd minute- Cuba forces a save out of Chris Seitz after a forward who looks like the bad guy from Prison Break tries a bicycle kick.
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31st minute- The subsequent corner is terribly defended by Cuba but the American’s can’t convert it. The set piece defending has been pretty bad by Cuba so far.
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31st minute- Adu’s curling free kick forces a diving save by the Cuban goalkeeper.
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30th minute- Altidore catches an elbow to the head, drawing a dangerous free kick. A rough day so far for Altidore.
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28th minute- The American fullbacks have looked good today. Kamani Hill is doing well on the right and Hunter Freeman has been solid at left back. You wonder if Juan Carlos Osorio will consider him a candidate to play the left-sided defender role on his team (I doubt it, Osorio loves Freeman’s passing from the right too much).
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27th minute- Still waiting for Altidore to make an impact, someone needs to get him the ball first.
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24th minute- Somebody tell Christopher Sullivan to stop pretending to be Ricky Ricardo, saying Coo-bah. The American English pronunciation is Q-bah.
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23rd minute- Imagine being a fan at this game who bought their tickets months ago to beat the rush. Okay, so maybe nobody did that but it would be funny if they did.
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22nd minute- Still waiting for a second U.S. goal. The midfield needs to do a better job of keeping possession.
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16th minute- Nice to see Patrick Ianni getting the start today. I wonder if he’s still seeing Gamba Osaka forward Bare in his dreams.
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15th minue- Nice job by Findley to lay the ball off to Adu, and a good job by Charlie Davies to jump out of the way of Adu’s shot, which left the Cuban goalkeepers screened.
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13th minute- GOAL USA. Freddy Adu curls in a shot from the right flank that looked more like a low cross than a shot. USA 1, Cuba 0
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12th minute- Still waiting for the midfield to start stringing some passes together. Part of it is the grass but the U.S. midfield could do better.
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8th minute- Adu with a long-range blast the forces a diving save. Cuba’s midfield looks non-existent early on.
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7th minute- Altidore gets in behind the Cuba defense but his shot is saved. Altidore is going to score at least one goal today.
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4th minute- The waterlogged field isn’t helping the speedy squad Nowak is using.
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PRE-GAME- Here is the US lineup, which boasts SERIOUS speed:
——————–Altidore—————-
Davies————–Adu———–Findley
————McCarty——-Edu———-
Freeman—-Ianni——Sturgis——–Hill
———————Seitz——————-
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PRE-GAME- Looks like a packed house at Raymond James Stadium (kidding).
absolutely diabolical.
4-2-3-1 formation to start with? Really? Can we cut this crap already. Cuba was rip for the taking. We should be coming out in a ‘proper’ 4-3-3 at worst. (3-4-3 would be my choice)
Altidore deserved to be dropped. He looked utterly ineffective and uninterested. Of course that was largely due to an absolute absence of service for 45 minutes.
Davies needs to go back to Norway or wherever and never come back. His sole offensive tack was ‘run as fast as I can and dive when someone gets within 5 feet of me because I have no confidence in my finsishing skills’ He is gong NOWHERE with that kind of attitude and it’s not the first time he’s shown it.
The Brit-ball that took over in the second part of the 1st half killed us.
Seriously, this was as bad as it gets. Nowak should be ashamed of himself. (and this is coming from a Fire fan)
“Barrett has been just plain awful.”
How on earth does this guy get picked by Novak ahead of Arturo Alvarez, hell how is he even still on Chicago’s roster?
You only have to see some of C.Blanco’s expressions at some of his misses last season to know Barrett is a dreadful, dreadful striker.
I think Nowak should be cut a little slack. If you’ve noticed, he’s built a team around penetrating CONCACAF defenses that are content to put 11 behind the ball when they’ve got us tied. As Cuba did tonight. There might be a method to his madness. Moving the ball in confined space and bringing the backs into the attack, he’s taken a page right out of BB’s playbook. Just give the boys some time to get comfortable with eachother. I saw alot of nerves out there tonight.
And 3 games in 5 days, you’ll never see a best XI in this format. He’s gotta be real strategic about his lineup. Adu, Edu, Dax, Hill, will probably see limited minutes Thurs.
We had a lot of good chances around the goal, just didn’t finish. If they played that game again, score probably would have been 4-1.
Poorly played, poorly officiated, poorly announced . . . yowsers, what a mess. Bright sides? Dax, Kljestan, Freddy. Badness? I think we’re gonna need Gooch and possibly Boca too if we get to these Olympics, we didn’t play any wing midfielders aside from Eddie Gaven which seems idiotic when I considered that a strength w/ Zizzo and Holden.
Jacob
3-5-1 is only 9 people. If that is what we were playing, then I completely understand how Cuba was able to hold possession.
C’mon people, lets not be too harsh. Its the first game of the series so there are nerves involved, many of these guys haven’t played a competitive match in a while and some are playing out of their regular positions.
I wasn’t impressed with the performances today, outside of Adu who I thought had a pretty decent night, although not the best I’ve seen him play. That said, I know that Altidore, Davies and Findley are very capable strikers. They just happened to all be off tonight and Davies and Findley don’t appear to be very good wingers (especially not Findley). I’ve seen each of these guys finish excellently, so I know they can do it. What happened tonight? bad game.
I wasn’t impressed with Dax because I think he had a typical Dax game. I have even seen him play better. But for the formation the team was playing, Dax needed to provide the link in the midfield and he was inconsistent in doing that. Likely that role would have been played by Bradley or Szetela, had we had them, so in a way Dax is really our third choice there (not counting Feilhaber, who needs to get out of his funk).
The defense didn’t do a good job locking the Cubans out. I would have preferred to see Spector as a centerback, considering he has higher level experience than Ianni and Sturgis. Kamani Hill was effective at times and frightening at other times. Overall I would say he wasn’t very good as a right back but has potential. Hunter Freeman doesn’t make a good left back, probably because he is not naturally left-footed.
Overall for the team, I would say they saved themselves blushes by walking away with a point and I know they can play much better. I expect Nowak to hand them their asses tonight and for them to come back much stronger and ready for business on Thursday night. I wouldn’t read much more into individual performances, team formation or team unity considering it was their first competitive match and they hadn’t even really played serious friendlies in the past few months.
I did not see this match, so I can’t comment on individual performances, however its pretty clear that Peter Nowak has continued his consistent trend of mystifying roster selections, bizarre team selections, and ill timed substitutions. Hopefully the U.S. will win anyway.
Jacob
I get your point, but keep in mind freddy’s only 18.
Not many 18 year olds around the world are dominating
on the highest level. I believe he’ll be damn good in another 2-3 yrs.Plus word out of argentina is that bianchi (old boca jrs coach)
is in the top running for coaching Benfica. He’s done a great job
with players like tevez , riquelme, etc. so hopefully things will
turn out for the better with Adu.
cheers.
What a joke. Games been over for 2 hours and the front page of the MLS web site says we won 1-0.
Don Garber thy name should be Walt Disney as you run a Mickey Mouse operation half the time.
Poor outcome. As disapointed I am in many facets of the game over all you have to say we did not get a deserved result.
Like many of you I do not understand Nowak squad choices but then again I was not at the camp.
Dax looked very, very good.
Adu was his typical maddening mix of pure talent and mental lapses. Some lovely stuff on the whole though.
Barrett, well lets just say I don’t get it at all when it comes to him.
Hill has lovely pace and that is about it. No soccer IQ is what someone said and I think that perfectly sums it up.
Davies was just awful,really awful. With his great pace he should pursue track because he does not understand the sport he is currently playing. This flopping at every touch is making me crazy. Between watching him and EJ over the weekend you would think it must be encouraged the coaching staffs and if that is wrong then why aren’t they punished for it.
Freeman should be a defender and never allowed to come forward. He has no touch and no concept of what to do.
Finley and Altidore were both off their games and had poor nights and Gavin………..let’s just say the greatest mystrey in U.S. soccer continues.
AND yet we still should have won 4-1 so what does that say? I don’t even know.
PS- Christopher Sullivan is a pedantic phony and Max B. just talks entirely too much without adding really anything. I wish FSN would hire Derek Rae and fire every other live event pairing. Once FSN leaves the studio it is all down hill and in a hurry.
Could have used Rogers tonight. We could really use him on Thursday night! What a $%%#@@ game! Hopefully Sizzo and Holden can open things up next game.
As many of you, the very first thing I thought during and after the game are these. I felt sorry for Freddy he came out to play and most of the team forgot that they were supose to be playing. I also think Nowak should be fired immediately. Also don’t let Bradley choose the next coach. Because we saw what happened when he picked Nowak. But to sum it up, Nowak needs to go now.
My initial reactions after this game are that:
1. This game would have been perfect for Arturo Alvarez.
2. The US forwards were terrible…every one of them.
3. Why does the US insist on playing people who a) do not even play for their club teams or b) stink when they do play for their club teams. I thought Danny Szetela was going to enter the game in the second half.
I cannot wait for the day where the Residency program is no longer needed because mls teams have environments for young players to grow. I feel we are too determined to win at the U17 tourney that we stunt the growth of the most promising players. The effect shows up on later national teams. Some of the more creative players for the US either were not in residency (Dempsey) or out by the time they were 14 (Adu). Some very good players have come out of residency, obviously, but I don’t see much creativity at all.
A) Jozy was pretty bad in the first half and was just going to get hacked all second half. You’ve got three games in five days and Jozy isn’t exactly the world’s most durable player. No problem with that decision.
B) I expected more from Maurice Edu particularly in the first half. McCarty was the best player in the field over the entire 90 minutes, Freddy’s probably MoM but Dax bashers have to shut up for a few days.
C) As a Fire fan its good to see Chad’s in mid-season form. Fun ain’t it?
D) The team created a gaziliion chances and didn’t finish which means that its not the coaches fault (and that they’ll fit right in on the sr. team). Bunch of Monday Morning QBs in here. ‘This guy would’ve done this, this guy would’ve done that.’ THEY DIDN”T FINISH ANY CHANCES THAT IS NOT THE COACH’S FAULT, ITS THE PLAYERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and I’m not buying any of the guys left home would have done any better. How many goals have any of the guys everyone’s complaining about scored in their careers? 5? Total? Amongst all of them?!)
E) Feilheber plays only central mid and Freddy and Dax played that position just fine. So he is not the answer get over it guys!!!
You know this was the U-23 team, right?
Derek –
From around the 20th through the 45th minute, Cuba DOMINATED possession with crisp, quick, and accurate passing (the game should still be on ESPN360, go ahead and look for yourself). This is exactly what the 3-5-1 is meant to disrupt…when the players implementing it put in any sort of effort.
In the second half Cuba played for the tie and sought to defend/break up plays/counterattack as the U.S. [half-heartedly] sought the win. Possession was no longer their game but that doesn’t mean they weren’t capable of it.
Now, the U.S. actually does fairly well at the possession game under normal circumstances (and is certainly better at it than Cuba under normal circumstances) so with the 3-5-1 the Nats should have dominated possession. Instead they played errant balls and made poor decisions.
I think my statement is still completely valid. Just because a team chooses to all-out defend/disrupt in the second half doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of possessing the ball, which the Cubans certainly were in the first half (much more than our team).
Can someone explain to me why we don’t consistently see:
———–Altidore–Dempsey———–
—Beasley—Bradley—Edu—Donovan—
-Bornstein-Onyewu-Bocanegra-Cherundolo-
——–Howard / Guzan / Seitz———
Bench: Fielhaber, McCarthy, Holden, Johnson, Parkhurst, Spector, Adu, Olsen
I realize that injuries come up (Beasley) and some players are in Europe, but I just don’t get why we don’t strive to always put our best team on the field… doesn’t make sense to me. Out of those players named above, I don’t understand how some of them don’t play. Can someone please explain to me why
Donovan, Parkhurst, Bornstein, Holden, and Olsen
didn’t play?!?!?!
By the way, what do you guys think is our best line up?
“Cuba was obviously quite skilled at possessing the ball.”
This should disqualify Jacob from making any more comments.
Ok just returned from the game at Raymond James. Not sure which game some of you guys were watching but here are some thought. IF you thought NOvak’s selections looked bad on TV they looked even worse on the pitch. Freeman and Davies both played on the left and neither had a decent left foot. For the entire night they kept switching the ball to their right foot looking for a chance to cross. It never really happened. Freeman looked like rubbish and so did Davies. He’sa forward not a left midfielder. same thing for Finley on the right. The only time he looked dangersous was when he was in a front runner position. And Kamani HIll? The big question is what is he doing in Europe? NO skill, no touch, no soccer IQ. He was being pushed around all first half and didnt really do much until late in the game when the cubans had bunkered in.
Tonight wasnt josy’s night. HE looked terrible. He was outjumped and outhustled by the cUban defendeers all nihgt.
Edu was absent in the first h alf but got angry in the second half. He plays well angry. Everyone who questions Dax’s inclusing owes him an apology. Over 90 minutes he was the best player on the pitch. He playe dwiht energy, he played with heart. Thats what he brings to a game. Heart. Late in the first half when CUba was running circles around us, McCarty stuck his foot in. Freddy was good but as everyone noticed he just faded in and out of games. He needed to demand the ball more.
And Gaven, his shot was awful but he brought a good spark. The US deserved a draw. And the Coach. He has to go. Not one decent leftsided player (other than FReddy) he has no idea what hes doing. If Hill is a better right back than Wynne we are in more trouble than we know.
Ugly game.
ugh… just… ugh.
Lost interest at halftime and turned it off. Watching the US give the ball away in the midfield just wasn’t that entertaining after a while. The two goals scored were some of the biggest no one on defense was paying attention and the goalie was blocked goals I have seen in a while. Sounds like a didn’t miss much in the second half.
Just a thought. Freddy Adu makes more money than every player on the Cuban team combined. Means nothing but I had to throw it out there.
frank –
I wrote that as it caught me by surprise. Quite frankly, Adu hasn’t yet lived up to all the potential that I think the kid has. (note, I said potential, not hype…he’ll never live up to the hype).
He has been fairly average for Benfica when he gets on the field and when he plays for the senior national team…well…he’s not very good as he loses the ball with unsettling frequency.
Now, I DO expect to see Freddy become one of the best U.S. players in the future. I was just simply surprised to see him play as well as he did today THIS EARLY. Then again, based on his prior U23 outings, maybe this shouldn’t be too shocking; but, based on his recent non-U23 form, it certainly is surprising.
And let me just finish off by saying that while I don’t think Freddy will become a “Riquelmy-type” player any time soon (maybe never, I have no idea), I do think that of all the U.S. players, he has without a doubt the best natural ability and hence the greatest future potential. I feel much more strongly about Adu’s chances of becoming a bonafide MNT star than I do those of Altidore.
jacob , you said adu was one of the best players of the game and then
wrote “i can’t believe i’m writing that” why?. What do you expect the US to produce a Riquelme type player?. The coaches in this country don’t allow ANY player to do his “thing”. That is why there is no Alvarez in the team. Adu is the real deal at 18!. What do people like you expect american players to play like. He is the only one that !gasp! gets the freedom to display some creativity.
C’mon now?!…..
jacob , you said adu was one of the best players of the game and then
wrote “i can’t believe i’m writing that” why?. What do you expect the US to produce a Riquelme type player?. The coaches in this country don’t allow ANY player to do his “thing”. That is why there is no Alvarez in the team. Adu is the real deal at 18!. What do people like you expect american players to play like. He is the only one that !gasp! gets the freedom to display some creativity.
C’mon now…..
I don’t think Barrett was that bad. He moved for the ball, had decent touches and set up some good to decent chances in the last 15 minutes. Chasing down that bouncing ball and crossing back towards Adu was a good idea that didn’t work out. Trying to shoot a ball moving away from him at that angle to goal was never going to work out. I’m a Fire fan, so I’m always up for a little Chad bashing, but give the kid a break. He was as good or better than any other forward on the field tonight. Not saying much, but it was something
Quick note. We started 4-5-1 as Cuba was obviously quite skilled at possessing the ball. How do you destroy such possession? You load up the midfield and apply pressure, forcing the other team to play long balls. Unfortunately, the U.S. team mailed it in…
So, other than Nowak, what have we learned here?
Bye bye Charlie. In some ways he exemplified the team’s problems. Didn’t even want to play, was more interested in practicing diving.
Altidore gave us very little and also seemed disinterested. Even if it was from being hammered, we need to find a way to deal with that.
Bye, bye, Barrett. Just not enough justification in the first place, and now he has had his chance.
Ianni shouldn’t play for any team. He must have powerful friends. If he plays regularly for Houston there is no way they will repeat. He’s a curse.
Team effort and desire was shameful. Did they even really care that much about this result?
Was this Jozy’s best game? No, but a lot of that had to do with the formation the US was lined up in. Whether it was a 4-5-1 or a 4-3-3 when your two wide men(Davies and Findley) are more interested in diving and giving the ball away your lone striker gets very little support. Cuba knew Jozy and Freddy were are two biggest threats, and they were able to double team Jozy, since it was 4 defenders against 1 forward with little support. I’m convinced that Jozy got subbed out at halftime because he was injured after the pounding he took in the first half.
Has anyone seen Feilhaber play in the past 9 months? I’ve seen him play maybe 30 minutes since the Mexico triumph, and in those minutes he was awful. The consensus of coaches who’ve worked him out everywhere is that he’s out of form.
Lay off Jozy – he was stuck in an idiotic 4-5-1, a formation that no one in his right mind uses unless you have 5 incredible midfielders who are very slick and skilled at supporting and feeding a lone striker. Call me crazy, but I don’t think Davies and Findley fit that description. This falls completely on Nowak and the awful player selection and player utilization.
We are all gonna die! Fire the coach! Fire the players! We suck! What a terrible game!
We got a point and are still in it. Nowak made the adjustment and the team did better. (Yes, Barrett is not all that impressive).
Let’s see if they can come out and dominate on Thursday. Until then…..
While pondering the Holden question, please tell me why we started the game in a 4-5-1 against CUBA’S U23 team?
If I have a son I’m going to focus him on making the US U8 team because the way the US Soccer fed is run, once you’re in, you’re set for life all the way up through the senior team whether you suck or not.
I have to agree with JKR. This is not Nowak’s fault. Quite frankly, none of the players played up to their abilities (including Jozy, whom everyone here seems to adore…I have no idea why).
In the first half, the U.S. dominated early and then just simply laid off. If anything, the formation was fine – with the emphasis midfield heavy, the U.S. should have dominated possession. Instead, Cuba did. What does that say? After the goal the U.S. players seem to have switched off and taken the game for granted.
For those of you asking why Altidore was taken out…are you kidding me??? Did you watch the first half? Not a single good touch and a wasted one-on-one opportunity.
I saw very few valid points here tonight. One, the Feilhaber thing…I have no idea why he was left out but on the face of it, that seems like a legitimate gripe. Two, why the hell was Findley (Finley?) playing? HE IS TRASH. I really don’t get commentators’ collective obsession with his “skill and speed.” His speed shows his lack of skill as it makes it harder for him to control the ball. Third, Barrett = awful. But, what can Nowak really do? Jozy isn’t playing well…he needs to get someone in there and doesn’t exactly have too many options.
I think part of the problem is a lack of team depth. That perhaps may be blamed on Nowak/his scouting team.
Otherwise, his choices seemed reasonable enough today. Play with one forward and dominate possession. His players obviously did not carry out that task. So he changed things around and took Jozy out as he was COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY INEFFECTIVE. Again, he simply doesn’t have too many choices in Altidore’s place…
Anyway, I really don’t think this performance reflects on the team nor the coach. It was merely one of those games where they thought they’d coast and once they realized they wouldn’t, it was too late and nothing went right.
Players of the game definitely have to be Adu (can’t believe I’m writing that) and that McCarty kid (outstanding!).
Agree about Jozy.
I agree with you about JkR. But I have a feeling even if Adu scores a second goal or third, there still would have been grumblings about Nowak. But that’s hindsight. Anyway, OK, I’m really out.
Can someone tell me again why Stuart Holden wasn’t playing in this game?
OK, I’m out and plan to not remember anything of tonight’s match except for Adu’s flashes of brilliance.
I’m not bagging Adu at all. I’m pointing out a few inches in the other direction and Nowak’s a genius.
Jozy was pulled because he was ineffective, and was getting hammered (injured?)
Davies needs to stop flopping. He wasted a lot of opportunities. He should have been subbed out first.
What a disapointing game, unbelievable…
Positives
-Adu, created tons of opportunities, easily the best player on the field, despite fading out a couple of times
-McCarty, maybe it wasn’t as crazy to take him over Feilhaber, had a very strong game
-Edu, in the 2nd half
Negatives
-Forwards, Jozy was disapointing in his time-looked tired, Davies dove all over the pitch and was an embarrassment, Findley blew an unbelievable chance that should have put the game away, Chad Barrett-enough said
-Edu, in the 1st half
-The Ianni/Sturgis partnership, looked lost at times, but a bit stronger in the 2nd half (though maybe thats because Cuba bunkered down after getting the goal)
-Nowak’s decision-making, this has to be the most troubling negative in regard to the rest of the tournament, he made some really questionable moves
JkR, I can’t believe you’re bagging on Adu’s chances. At least his looked close.
Nowak was the guy who put in Findley (I won’t even mention or try to remember his scoring chance), Davies the Diver, Barrett (who should have not been on the team anyway), Jozy alone on top then pulled him at the half.
If better players were put in the right positions, the US wins.
Fire Nowak!! If he would have kept Alvarez we would have a true winger, not forwards converted into mids. Feilhaber would have been a guy that would have brought skill as well as long range shots.
We started dominant, Cuba made the game a little rough, and we folded.
Freddy looked ready and willing all game though. I was really disappointed with Edu, they need him on his game behind and with Freddy. Dax looked decent, but I think he’s going to be the Taylor Twellman of the US midfield, good at what he does against bad to decent opposition, but just doesn’t have much of a ceiling beyond what he shows.
Barrett might look like Wayne Rooney, but he plays like Andy Rooney.
What is it with all the talk about how great Klejstan is? He is not good. I hear the talk. I watch Chivas. Not convinced. I hear the talk. I watch the Nats. Even less convinced. He can’t cross the ball. He has no quickness.
We need Adu on every National Team we have or we have 0 creativity. Even if you look at the U-20s, Adu created almost every one of Altidore’s goals. Everyone wants to give him crap, but I think he’s the most talented, creative player we’ve ever had.
His free kicks are a thing of beauty.
Any ideas as to what we can do with this roster from here on out? Altidore looked bored tonight.
Ianni is horrible. Didn’t Nowak look at the Dynamo-Japanese team(?) game during the Pan Pacific tournament. Orozco would have done a lot better. Barrett? Gaven? When will the US coaches stop recycling some of the garbage we have accumulated from the previous youth teams.
Get off my back! You think you can do any better? Alright, maybe you can, but I will let this team have it in the locker room and let them know that this effort was completely unacceptable. These players don’t even seem like they want to win. @%^^%U&*!
yeah reminiscent of our senior team in that we never seem to play our best 11 but are always in experimental line-up mode. I’m sick of this crap.
I know its just one game, but I bleepin hate Nowak! Seriously, he is worthless. His roster selection was piss poor, his lineup selection was piss poor, and his mid-game adjustments were piss poor. And how does Zizzo not see a minute?
barrett sucked. adu couldve had a hat trick, just a little unlucky.THEY SHOULDVE BEAT CUBA!!!!!!!