The moment has arrived. The first chance for the U.S. men's national team to clinch a berth in its sixth straight World Cup.
Standing in the way is a Honduran team that can also book its place in South Africa with a victory tonight.
I will be doing a live commentary for ESPN.com tonight, so I won't be doing the commentary here. This is still the place to discuss everything going on tonight. Be sure to have your computer opened to SBI and ESPN.com tonight.
If you will be watching the match, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play (or game web streams) in the comments section below.
Enjoy the match.
final shamless attempt to reach 800 comments
shameless attempt to reach 800 comments
“I don’t know about Dempsey being top 3 or 4 for USA. but the fact remains he is not a good fit in the USA system. He disappears for long period at a time. Does not provide service from the flank.
Fact is, he is a Forward. maybe BB should have him compete for that spot instead of forcing him to play on the right side.
-DCUfanTX
Why don’t you check on his record? Dempsey is a very rare thing, a clutch goal scoring midfielder. He’s a “tweener” of sorts not really a forward and not really a midfielder. I notice both of his coaches try to get him in the lineup as much as possible. Why? Because their chances of winning with him are greater than without him.
Shameless attempt to get this to 800 comments
Shameless attempt to get this to 800 comments
Still lots of debate on the yellow card situation then. Ives may have to clear it up.
USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA and Deez C shut up Casey scored more goals tonight than your favorite American player.
Here’s my summation of the Casey haters arguments here over the last months:
“Casey, like, sucks dude. I mean he so totally sucks. Cooper is the awesomest forward ever. Bradley is soooo stupid cuz, like, it’s so obvious that Cooper is awesome and Casey sucks. Like, ya know?”
So yes, I’m saying I am not surprised that the “analysis” of the Casey haters proved suspect.
Casey is not great. If we were a great forward producing nation he wouldn’t be near the team. But he is a top 4-5 US forward now clearly, though of course that’s not much of a standard.
Sammy, those forward slashes at the left back position were meant to represent alternatives in an inherent position of weakness. My lineup was imagined to bring on as many possession and skill oriented players as possible to preserve some control over the midfield while still maintaining our aggresive counterattacking position. Not sure if Holden or Feilhaber have have the speed for this system, probably not, but it seems better than sacrificing a thirty to sixty yard oval in the middle of the pitch altogether.
Eat Crow Bradley Haters
benjamin, yellows don’t carry over from WC group stage to the knockout stage but a yellow that leads to suspesion does.
no name, the site jomaiq linked says it does not carry over even if 2 yellows are recieved in different games. If the rules didn’t change and it’s only 2 yellows (i thought it was more) then we are wrong.
Yes yellows don’t carry over but suspension DOES.
Posted by: | October 11, 2009 at 01:36 AM
Yes, suspensions from red cards carry over. Suspensions from accumulated yellows do NOT carry over. Just trying to make it clear so others aren’t confused.
Joamiq, looks like I am wrong.
Yes yellows don’t carry over but suspension DOES.
Yellows don’t carry over from the WC group stage to the knockout stage. Would be suprising if they carried over from qualifying. The WC is a fresh tournament.
I think the US has to come out flying on Wednesday. Precious few opportunities to keep fine tuning.
is there anywhere showing a replay?
japan and nameless guy, unless something has changed since ’98 (and if you know that to be true, I’d like to see some documentation), you’re wrong:
http://www.fifa.com/newscentre/news/newsid=71634.html
USA!
I’m throwing my lot in with the “cards don’t carry over but suspensions carry over” crowd.
Not that anyone cares who I throw my lot in with, mind you. Just getting it on the record. 🙂
And yes, thank you to the Al Jazeera guy! Even got bonus footage of old Kahn in goal, there, at halftime! LOL
ok bg, i disagree but i see what you were trying to say
I just want a coach playing the best possible players and CREATING the system to fit the players.
Then again I don’t know soccer as well as others, i just know what makes sense to me and that is having Benny starting infront of Clark, Torres as first sub or starting and pushing Donavon up, having Dempsey up because we desperately need someone who backtracks and provides service.
Howard is by far the best player on this team, you can say Donavon is but Howard is the one whos showing crazy intense leadership and should be given the Captains armband.
Joamiq, yellows are only wiped clean only if it does not lead to a suspension. What region you play in has nothing to do with it. Every FIFA match whether its Cofederation Cup, Gold Cup, World Cup Qualifier, carries over to another FIFA match if it leads in a suspension. Its the same in the premier league. If you get your 5th yellow in the final game of the season, you’re suspended the first game of the next season. But if you are stuck at your 4th, it will be erased.
bg, I still don’t see 5 defenders but its all good. Enjoy your drink
To further clarify japan, in this scheme holden and feilhaber are wing backs. Dempsey, Jones and Donovan are the midfield.
@Joamiq: Like Japan said, if you get booked for a 2nd yellow in Wednesday game you will be suspended for 1 match. If not then you will be wipe clean. Wednesday’s game is still a Qualifying game believe it or not.
bg: That’s 13 people in your squad…
I don’t think 5-3-2 would work for the US, there would not be enough scoring chances going forward. I doubt we would be able to keep much possession. And lastly, I think we would be defending for 85 mins of the match with that formation. Bunkering down in our own half is not a formula for winning
Why do people like aristotle even watch these games? You make horribly negative predictions the entire time, then its hilarious that you guys say nothing positive after the US scores or wins, it’s truly like it never happened. The US was the only team to beat Honduras at home in qualifying, that’s a pretty solid accomplishment. Now to try and have some rebuttal to your comments of “ya but we got really, really lucky” my first response is… of course we did, every win needs a little luck. Second of all the officiating was truly terrible again but we kept our composure, didn’t make any stupid decisions that will impact us moving on, took our spots and got the win. Can you all please just shut up at least for like 3 or 4 days??? Then you can come back with all of the fire “BB, I swear we won’t win a single game in the WC” comments. You truly whine non-stop, for the love of god just give the SUPPORTERS a day or two to be happy? Please?
Supsam-
LOL.
@EA, yes it does since this was a WORLD CUP QUALIFIER hence it ties in with the WORLD CUP.
Posted by: | October 11, 2009 at 12:52 AM
This was a CONCACAF competition. WC qualifying is very different from region to region and teams play different numbers of games, so it wouldn’t make sense for yellows to carry over from all of those competitions. What DOES carry over is a suspension from getting a red card in the final match of qualifying. I’m almost positive that yellows are wiped clean.
Sorry japan , the formatting in my original post more resembled my suggestion. Lost in translation. However, you can regard what became visible as a distribution of offensive/defensive assignment. Catch my drift?–well into my eighth unit of alcohol.
hey guys lets all give a round of applause to the “AL Jazeera guy” haha You guys have to admit, he was drier than a triscuit cracker but he was still the best option of all the other streams. Thank you Al Jazeera guy. Wait a minute this reminds me of those bud light “Real american heroes commercial”. To all those who know what im talking about (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzOjt1e5W8c)Here is my take on it:
Narrator(N): Budlight presents, Real American heroes
Backround singer(BS): Real american heroessss
N: Today we salute you, Mr. Al Jazeera guy
BS: Mr. Al Jazeera guyyyyyyyy
N: Without you, we would be on one of those justin.tv links where everything is in a language we dont understand and the only things we can understand is the chat room box where words like “USA sucks balls” or worse yet, they call us “putos”
BS: Those wordsssss are for the ignorant!!
N: But you my arab sounding friend, bring it to us Americans in a language we do understand. Not spanish, but english!
BS: No comprendo espanollllllllllll
N: You do a job fit for two people. Color commentating, and play-by-play. So even though you dont do one heck of a job, you still do it. You may not never pronounce Bornstein’s name correctly….
Girl singers: Its not Bornstine!
N:…but you at least try, so open an ice cold bud light oh Al Jazeera man. So the next time we Americans cant watch our boys on TV, we know you got our back!
BS: Mr. Al Jazeeeeeeeeera guy!
(Dont sue me Busweiser! Its all for fun)
That was actually fun. Let me know if you liked this one and ill done one for Conor Casey
if someone got a 2nd card resulting in a suspension, if that player wasnt a very significant player, wouldn’t the team just leave him off the roster?
It makes sense that he would get tossed from the game but not suspended for the first game in the WC.
I don’t know about Dempsey being top 3 or 4 for USA. but the fact remains he is not a good fit in the USA system. He disappears for long period at a time. Does not provide service from the flank.
Fact is, he is a Forward. maybe BB should have him compete for that spot instead of forcing him to play on the right side.
Sammy, Portugal will be seeded instead of England if they make it. The rest is correct assuming France and Argentina go through which I am expecting
Add Bornstein to that since he got booked today.
bg, not trying to be disrespectful but how is that 5-3-2? I see 1-2-3-2-2 or 3-5-2 to keep it simple
Anyway, according to nytimes, the following 8 are carrying yellows:
Benny Feilhaber, Jozy Altidore, Carlos Bocanegra, Conor Casey, Steve Cherundolo, Ricardo Clark, Landon Donovan and Frankie Hejduk.
Scott USA Fan: The USA will not be seeded in 2010; we may have had a chance had we beaten Brazil in the confed cup final. As of right now the 8 seeds in 2010 will be: South Africa, and then in order; Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, Argentina, France
The next closest team to a seed is Netherlands
U.S.A. has qualified for the World Cup!!!…First off screw ESPN for not showing this crucial game…Now to the game…I don’t even know where to start…I guess I’ll say first half was pretty boring, but boy did things heat up in the second half…Honduras scored on a excellent free-kick goal to open up the half, and then out of no where the U.S. actually starts to play real well and scores three GOALS!, which is shocking since they always play like crap away from home…Soon after Honduras started to pile up some pressure and got a goal back…From there it was all Honduras…They created chance after chance, and even were rewarded with a penalty, but Costly beamed it well over the bar…Overall a very exciting, intense game to watch and so happy the U.S. came out on top and qualified for the World Cup…
South Africa here we come again!!!
I’d like to see us in a 5-3-2
Howard
Onyewu
Spector Cherundolo/Hedjuk/whomever
Holden Jones Feilhaber
Dempsey Donovan
Altidore Davies
my bad i meant EA is incorrect
I believe EA is right. If the next yellow you get results in a suspension, you will miss the first world cup game. However, if it doesn’t lead to suspension, they will all get erased.
Here’s the thing: we want a good number one seed: no more Czech republic first round match. We should be a top seed. That’s it.
@EA, yes it does since this was a WORLD CUP QUALIFIER hence it ties in with the WORLD CUP.
Notice how a said a referee not the referee, I should have said lines man, since he disallowed a goal that wasn’t offside. Karma is a b—-.
===
Karma had nothing to do with it. Forwards making sloppy runs into offside position because of poor situational awareness had everything to do with it. If you’re run takes you behind the second to last man while chasing a break-away, you have to stay behind the ball.
That’s something I end up calling every other week in U-12s.
Oh, and as for Wednesday – I do not at all expect the US to play 3rd stringers and get wrecked. Bob is not going to be happy if we don’t beat CR at home, and the players are not going to want to finish behind Mexico.
@EA, Well I’m 99% sure that if a player has 2 yellow cards he will miss the next FIFA official match. Seeing as this Wednesday game will be the last official match before SA, it does work like that.
Posted by: | October 11, 2009 at 12:47 AM
I’m 99.9% sure that’s wrong. Yellows don’t carry over between competitions.
Notice how a said a referee not the referee, I should have said lines man, since he disallowed a goal that wasn’t offside. Karma is a b—-.
Posted by: Portugal! | October 11, 2009 at 12:44 AM
No, that was offside. The replay was showing the pass before the actual “assist”. It was a good call.
NK- I agree that Dempsey is a top 3-5 player on this team…I’ve just been extremely disappointed with his work-rate and effort in recent qualifiers. I still think he can be a real asset to this team; I am just worried that his lackluster play and effort could be a serious impediment to our success in South Africa
@EA, Well I’m 99% sure that if a player has 2 yellow cards he will miss the next FIFA official match. Seeing as this Wednesday game will be the last official match before SA, it does work like that.
IS IT JUST ME, OR DOES OUR LEVEL OF PLAY RAISE ONE OR TWO NOTCHES EVERY TIME FEILHABER IS IN THE MIDDLE?????????????
I FEEL LIKE I’M TAKING CRAZY PILLS