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USA vs. El Salvador: Your Running Commentary

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The U.S. men's national team is in El Salvador tonight for its second CONCACAF Hexagonal World Cup qualifier and first road qualifier.

With Costa Rica's loss to Mexico today, the United States can move into sole possession of first place in the Hexagonal.

If you will be watching tonight's match, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

Enjoy the match.

Comments

  1. For T&T, the US should e able to play a 3-4-3.
    Donavon – Altidore – Dempsey
    Bornstein – Torres – Bradley – Adu
    Bocenegra – Onweyu – Hedjuk
    Howard

    This probably the most skillful lineup available this week.
    There is some risk with such a young line-up. Inserting Mastroeni in for one of the midfielders (Adu or Bornstein) and sliding Torres to the outside would work.
    Another danger with this is that T&T might be able to get deep and cross, but Bradley getting back to win defensive headers could make that less effective than it might be.

    If it is 4 in back then, Specter, Bocanegra, Onweyu, Hedjuk, possibly Bornstein instead of Spector (I have not been impressed with Spector’s tactical decisions and concentration in his recent games with West Ham).

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  2. I see everyone giving Donovan a free pass. He was invisible last night. He had zero impact on the game. Did he touch the ball twice in the second half. THat breakway he got should have been on frame. Had it been EJ who played that ball the way he did folks on this thread would have been all over him. We keep hearing that Donovan and Ching work well together. If neither contribute to the offense then why do we need either on the field.
    I was happy about the comeback but I am still mortified about the original team selection and the first half performance. Also Bradley keeps one , count them ONE – offensive option on the bench. That’s not good coaching.

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  3. @ worldfootball and The Guy

    please take your personal argument elsewhere. Im sorry but people are trying to read up on the game and not want to read your heated debate

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  4. The Miami FC billboards were the highlight of the night. It was all downhill from there.

    I thought Donovan was good in the first half, but without guys making the runs or an ability to hold possession via our central midfielders his effectiveness was limited.

    Defensively, Pearce was hurt by Beasley’s poor play on the left side and Califf’s inexperience in the middle.

    Adu despite a lack of playing time still needs to be integrated in the midfield.

    Sorry MLS fans, I’ve noticed in general that because MLS players hardly ever play in truly hostile atmospheres (Seattle now changes that) that for years MLS guys have frozen up on the road in qualifiers. Kljestan is just the latest example of that.

    It’s no coincidence the two players we had last night with no experience outside of MLS or USL, Ching and Sacha were both horrible.

    At least Ching serves a purpose. Kljestan could be easily replaced by a half dozen or more midfielders in our player pool.

    Comment #500, aren’t I lucky!

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  5. What a sad and embarrassing display of soccer. I don’t care if anyone who doesn’t support U.S. Soccer talks sh*t about the USMNT’s performance on Saturday. It was well-deserved.
    The team resorted to boom ball to get back in the match. Yes, it worked. But it was awful to watch. Even when the goals were scored, it didn’t make me any happier.
    I would say the team played like a U-12 team but then I’d insult U-12 players.
    No matter what happens against T&T, it could be a 12-0 win, this bad taste in my mouth won’t go away until the USMNT plays well (and hopefully wins) in Mexico in August.

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  6. I’ve got a few gripes after that game, but my venom has cooled a lot since last night. The late comeback had a lot to do with that im sure.

    But a few things still linger with me.

    The first: How Califf is the #3 CB is beyond me at this point. Demerit is on form and captains a Championship side that stays in the promotion hunt more often than not. Edu can be an imposing CB and has played that spot before with the Nats. Parkhurst has hit the ground running in Europe. All of them are better options than Califf who has hit his ceiling as far as I can tell.

    The second: Heath Pearce and the entire LB situation. Pearce offers nothing going forward and his defending is stopgap at best. Beasley is a better option as an attacking LB, but his defense is terrible. Why not try out Spector there, or let Bocanegra swing out and plug in the #3 CB? Obviously Pearce isn’t the answer and Bradley only seems open to Beas at LB when we are down.

    The third: The CM quagmire. How can we have so many talented prospects at this position and still end up with Sacha Kljestan losing the ball everytime he turns around? We can all pencil Mike Bradley in whether we think the deserves it or not, but Feilhaber, Torres, Edu, Adu…can none of these guys play the possession game better than Sacha? Why do we stick with Sacha who couldn’t provoke a cheap transfer to Celtic on the back of a hat-trick against Sweden when Edu is turning into a star for Rangers?

    This game overall was bordering on torture. No one seemed to be able to link up. Sacha was playing balls late to runs made by Demps and Beas, turning it over left and right. Bradley was getting guys involved but not being creative. Dempsey was playing with the ball but had no one overlapping. Hejduk was in all kinds of space on the flanks and we played inside. Everytime we began to build from the back the chance to switch the attack point would be there but instead our CBs would play long balls that were easily collected. It was just ugly, ugly play for 70 minutes. Once we spread the back out and pushed the flanks the game opened up and we got our goals, but the rest of the game was still a joke.

    On the bright side, Landon played very well even though he had nothing to show for it. Bradley was terrific apart from the yellow. And Torres showed that he sees the game better than Sacha, and is a better passer. I hope JFT has convinced Bradley that he belongs, because we are going to need him to get points out of the rest of these road qualifiers.

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  7. worldfootball- why I don’t agree with your tone your basic sentiment is correct- we are not the 17th ranked team in the world by far. And we are in many ways like England in relation to being way overrated.

    The main reason is we play to the level of the competition and on any given day one of the phases of the game inevitably fails the other 2. Last night it was just atrocious midfield play and 2 crucial gaffes by Boca and Heydude on defense- although Beasley should have never got beaten and allowed the cross to get off in the first place.

    We were extremely fortunate to get out with a draw and the worst part is it will be treated like a victory by the USSF lackey’s because we came from 2 – nil down.

    I see it more like this: we didn’t even actually start to compete with any heart or passion until we were 2 nil down.

    Last note: If we don’t start hiring announcers from outside the little clique that is U.S. soccer I am going start an internet campaign to raise money to hire Andy Gray to do simulcast no matter what the costs. Any objective announcer last night, who was not either a friend or afraid of the stiffs at USSF, would have ripped the team and the coach a new a**hole last not full stop. Sometimes it feels like the reincarnation of the German announcer in the movie Victory is now calling games for the U.S.

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  8. Beasley is a starter. The USMNT can’t compete against anybody without Beasley.

    I love how quick everybody is to write somebody off.

    If we banned every player that people here have said need to go in the last 2 years than who would be left?

    EJ gone.

    Dempsey gone.

    Ching gone.

    Kjlestan gone.

    Guzan gone.

    Pearce gone.

    Moor gone.

    Beasley gone.

    Hejduk gone.

    Baby Bradley gone.

    Califf gone.

    Orozco gone.

    We can’t have kneejerk reactions after every game.

    Here is the squad I would field and I’ve felt this way for at least 6 months.

    ———–Altidore———-

    —Beasley———Donovan—

    Torres——Bradley—Dempsey

    Orozco–BlackMouth-Gooch-Dolo/Wynne

    ———–Timmy—————–

    Take your USMNT made up of Marcus Tracy, Jeremiah Johnson, and whoever else you’ve never seen play at a top level but think they are the answer and play this squad and you will lose. everytime.

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