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Olympics: USA Men vs. Japan (Your Running Commentary)

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Good morning everybody. It is bright and early and the U.S. men’s Olympic soccer team is set to begin it’s tournament with an opening match against Japan (4:55pm, MSNBC). The match is crucial to the American team’s chances of advancing out of a brutal group that includes the Netherlands and Nigeria.

If you want to follow the match, the best place to do so is at the NBC Olympics website, which has live streaming video as well as my live commentary during the match. As always, you can share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section here on SBI.

Enjoy the match.

Comments

  1. For people who are interested in the graphics capabilities of Silverlight, last week I bought the book “Microsoft Silverlight Graphics” (authored by Oswald Campesato). I’m really hoping that he’ll add more video streaming stuff, maybe in a second edition of his book.

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  2. I think Sasha’s performance was the worst out of an attacking midfielder at the national team level since the loss to Iran in ’98. They need to put Adu at the top of the diamond and start Jozy. The rest of the roster is fine for the next game.

    I thought Edu and Orozco played well out of position. Wynne didn’t have too many bad touches and his recovery is great.

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  3. regarding adu: did anybody notice that almost everytime adu got the ball, japan had two people glued to him. It seemed that japan was determined not to let adu beat them. When he did have a little time, he did hold the ball too long.

    I suspect that the other teams in the group will not defend him in the same way that Japan did, and he might end up with a little more room. Hopefully, he’ll be angry about his own performance and channel that energy in a positive manner on the pitch.

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  4. Klesjtan was atrocious. Gave the ball away cheaply almost every time he touched it and didn’t defend well either. He was horrible in the qualifying tournament too. I can’t believe Nowak left him in for 90, he looked spent after 70.

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  5. Adu didn’t impress me all that much. It’s frustrating when he just puts his head down and tries to dribble through 2 guys, sometimes in his own half of the field. I also though he went down a little too easy on a couple of occasions. I don’t get why Kljestan looks so off when he plays for the US. He seems to be ill-suited for the outside, but he turns the ball over way too much when he is in the the middle of the park. He’s capable of much better than what he’s shown. McBride was pretty invisible, but he wasn’t given much help. On the bright side, I thought Edu looked very smooth out there for the most part, thought the backline as a unit was shaky at times, especially on Orozco’s side of the field. Overall, an opening-match victory is always a good result, especially if you didn’t play your best game. Still, they must play much better if they have any medal aspirations.

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  6. well the U.S. is lucky that none of the overage experienced forwards went to beijing or else we could of lost 3-1. I still dont like nowak.

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  7. I remembered to set the Tivo and everything! Unfortunately I forgot to mute the car radio when the sportcenter update came on. Dammit. But hey at least we won.

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  8. MSNBC is a disgrace. By all accounts the game was to air on MSNBC at 4:55am ET. Instead I’m treated to a caught on tape show and Lock Up. Sounds like I wasn’t the only one to get screwed. So mutch for NBC airing all events. Screw them!

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  9. We won, as I thought we would. That’s not saying I thought it would be easy, but I thought we’d win.

    It’s too early to start figuring scenarios with wins/draws, etc. Personally, I’m one of those people who HATES the expression “Get a result.” We should go into every match looking to win, then let the chips fall where they may. If we beat Nigeria and Holland, we have obviously nothing to worry about. Why look at it any other way??

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  10. how long before Rogers gets a look from another team in europe? he is very dangerous on the wing. Munich maybe (via the Klinsmann connection)?

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  11. Just watched the game here in japan with my Japanese friends. They can’t score so bad that everyone in the bar just got really irritated and lost interest towards the end. The way japan was playing so tight just shows that even with the US they had to play like a weaker team.

    In the first half they looked pretty good mostly due to the fact that the Japanese coach is waaaaaaaaaaYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!! more savvy than our own polish maestro.

    wynne being scary was never mentioned in Japan, but the guy stuck defending him on the goal is one of their main attacking threats going forward and not much of a defender.

    well that was the general view from here, no one here was impressed by the USA other than just how monstrously big number 12 was when he came on…

    they also mentioned about 40 times in case we forgot that Japan doesn’t have any over age players.

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  12. I am sorry if I offend anybody sensitivities, but I take an ugly 1:0 win (!!! Thank you, guys !!!) over any beautifully played 1:2 loss.

    First impression: I liked Japanese guys a lot. But, if you can’t finish your chances… Our left side defence is very shaky. Orozco is much better in center, than on the wing. Spektor is badly missed.

    Freddy got to learn to endure the bumping. He is not going to be 6’4″ 200 lb, got to play smart-er. He was fouled up and NOT called many times, but he deserved the yellow for lashing out in return. Patience, man.

    Officiating was very spotty. Reform is long overdue, at least for the high profile cups: with additional officials watching each monitor, etc. Japan almost scored from a 2 yards offside that was not called; we got lucky.

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  13. I was appalled at some of Balboa’s opinions.

    Of course, Balboa is entitled to them but I feel they were inaccurate and I would rather have someone else doing color. For Balboa to say that Adu was not fouled in the box on a clear push and that Edu got away with two PKs is in my opinion out of line. Edu’s plays were potential PKs but less obvious than the Adu PK that was not called.

    My opinion is get Balboa out of the broadcast booth. Did others agree with Balboa?

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  14. I was appalled at some of Balboa’s opinions.

    Of course, Balboa is entitled to them but I feel they were inaccurate and I would rather have someone else doing color. For Balboa to say that Adu was not fouled in the box on a clear push and that Edu got away with two PKs is in my opinion out of line. Edu’s plays were potential PKs but less obvious than the Adu PK that was not called.

    My opinion is get Balboa out of the broadcast booth.

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  15. Danny, I was just about to ask the same thing about Guzan’s tooth, but thanks Kent for answering that one. You got to admit that from far away it looked like he belonged in a jug band.

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  16. Nice of Balboa to wake up and shower beforehand — did he find that shirt on the floor?

    bacon, I thought the same thing — Toronto might want to prepare to lose Wynne to Europe soon. Not only was he fantastic…he scares the crap outta me:)

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  17. NBC’s studio coverage is so patronizing that I could barely keep my breakfast down. But, I at least congratulate them for having a commercial free broadcast, good broadcast quality, and they have Ives on online commentary.

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  18. From the comments, seems like it might be better without it, but is there a way to get the tv commentators on the nbc webstream (Ives is great, but hard to follow while walking around the apt getting ready for the day)

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  19. over. not a bad performance. we got lucky on some occasions. especially the first half. other than that Holden took his goal well and Edu was solid in the central defense. Toronto might want to put him there.

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  20. NBC’s studio coverage is so patronizing that I could barely keep my breakfast down. But, I at least congratulate them for having a commercial free broadcast, good broadcast quality, and they have Ives on online commentary.

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