There are only two club matches of any consequence today, but since both will feature American players, it is worth having a running commentary for.
Brad Friedel and Aston Villa face Liverpool while Jozy Altidore and Hull City takes on Bolton in a relegation battle. Altidore earns another start for the Tigers.
If you are watching today's matches, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Once again Phil Brown sticks Jozy out there with a more defensive minded midfield and plays “boot the ball” to Jozy. While Jozy did not have a great day, why not start Ghilas with him up top and play Geovanni at central mid? When Geovanni was on the field the whole mentality and distribution of the ball changed for Hull, yet Jozy didn’t get to benefit from this more competent approach as he was yanked at 55min. Sad.
Landon Donovan Interview before leaving for Everton here on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYcDCUhHKbw
Beasley at striker? You must off your rocker
Ted, Hunt had a pretty good game today but he is a hot and cold player. He typically starts the season on fire and is DOA by January. Ask Reading fans the past two seasons when Hunt just didn’t show up for the last half of the season and as a result, Reading didn’t win. There are a lot better left wingers out there and many of them will be in South Africa. Hunt missing the world cup is no loss.
Jozy has shown some promise, but right now he needs to score goals. Jozy has one goal to his credit, a free kick in a cup game against a lower tier club. Same problem for Freddy Adu, an attacking player who hasn’t scored in 2 yrs. You need to play guys in form. Conor Casey and Jeff Cunningham for all their faults are in form strikers and both have scored more goals at intl and club level than Jozy or Freddy in the past few games.
I read posts on here that Hull’s team is poor and Jozy gets no service. This is not an excuse. Jozy has scored more goals at international level when he can get pinpoint service from Donovan. Freddy Adu was sensational in the 07 under 20 wc, playing with the caliber of player like Sal Zizzo, Jozy, Michael Bradley. Jozy and Freddy needs to create their own shot, make the right runs etc. But these things are a product of when a player is in form.
Right noe Jozy is not in good enough form to start against England. Unbelievably, Beasley is a better option than Jozy for striker as Bease is killing it right now.
Jozy has demonstrated the delicate touch of an atomic bomb. Dude needs to seriously work on holding up / laying off the ball – or Hull, and the USMNT this summer, are in serious trouble
i agree with some of what you said but i do think there’s a MAJOR difference in Jozy’s game when he plays like he did against Costa Rica in the last game of qualifying. in that game he was a man amongst boys against the CR back four and had he had a real partner and not casey the US would have run them over attacking. he was getting much better service in that game but at the same time he created opportunities on his own in that game just by pressuring the other side and i think that is something he could do for hull. as for torres, i think part of liverpool’s struggles this year rest in the lone striker formation they use. torres is often asked to play target man and he takes a beating from it. its like taking a porsche off-roading, sure it can go there but do you want it to? boateng sucks, geovanni and bullard need to be out there and they could use holden and/or clark but i wouldnt want more US players on a sinking ship
Here Here!
Jozy needs to stop being Lazy Altidore.
Torres!!! Last second smash and grab saves the season for the Reds. 2 deflections and the ball found Torres unmarked from 18 who takes a touch into the area and slots home far post to take the full 3. Commence the annual Villa slide out of the top 4 and Liverpool’s ascent into it. Cruel way to finish the game for Villa, but thats the difference between Agbonlahor and Torres. Gaby, 3 chances and no goals. Torres, 1 chance , 1 goal. YNWA
WHAT!!! Houston, DC, LA, and Salt lake would rape hull, your delusional! They couldn’t hold on to a ball to save their lives. Did you see there back line? Even MLS teams can send crosses into the box! Ridiculous.
Whats the point of running around aimlessly like Fagan? Several people have made this point about atleast he runs around, but he’s not doing anything? The problem with Jozy’s output is simple he needs someone to playoff of, switch Fagan with Venegoor and Jozy is more effective he is not a back to goal forward, Neither is Fernando Torres and Liverpool do not ask him to play that way, he plays towards his strength which is to run at defenders. With Geovvanni on the field hull are a different team. And since we are bashing the 19 y/o for not busting his but and running the whole game what a bout boateng, He walked through the majority of it.
Maybe I’m wearing rose colored glasses but Hull’s midfield was just awful until going down by 2. Jozy was dnagerous when he had the ball. He made a very nice pwerful run down the midfield and won a free kick. then he set up his teammate with a very nice through pass but instead of one touching it towards the net the guy chunks his first touch and turns it over. I saw Jozy playing (chasing down) balls on both wings. There was another foul he drew outside the 18 where he took the free kick which was powerful and cleared the wall but he put to much funk on it and it swerved off target. I wouldn’t say he killed it on the pitch today but in the 50 odd minutes he was on the pitch he looked as dangerous as any of his teammates.
It wasn’t until Bolton thought they had the game wrapped up and gave Hull room that Hull were able to make the come back. That incidently happened after Jozy was subbed. Hull being 2 down was 100% on their midfield unable to maintain any possesion at all. Them coming back was 100% Bolton being a suck a$$ team that stopped competing – nothing to do with Hull being better wothout Jozy on the field.
and if Freddy Adu becomes a free agent hull should try and sign him too……
Why doesn’t Hull extend an offer to both Holden and Clark….. they could use a good attacking mid and a good defensive mid… both are free transfers
right on Andrew… and the fact that Boateng stays in the game after he walked more than half of it is laughable. Jozy can’t wait for this loan to be over.
#4…nilmar is nasty.
hmmm, sounds like another US forward in the pool. whats his name again? ching?
And there it is. Depressing day for Jozy. Decent day for Hull
not really but he damn well got his moneys worth out of it
Dive?
Too many passes. One of them should have just shot it. The let it get blocked. Where is the greed? Terrible cross by Fagan. Great ball by Hunt. I’m really starting to like that guy. He is like a magical little leprechaun.
Hull have a knack of scoring right after Jozy’s subbed….seriously, check the results. Depressing for young Josmer.
What a coincidence. Jozy leaves the game, and Hull scores…twice. Totally taking over the game. Too bad he wasn’t in the game when he goals were scored, huh?
Tevez not much skill. I respectfully disagree.
That is strange or not. Since I see Hunt running more, I see Geovanni playing, Fagan had his fisrt good cross of the game, etc… I also see a Bolton D that is terrible and it was only time before they conceded a goal. Are you saying Jozy made all that magically happen by going out of the game?
HA and as I’m slowly typing Hull get back in the game.
man. aston villa just got hosed … they outplayed liverpool for 90 minutes and have one guy slip and get one bad ricochet and torres kills them … as a man utd fan i really wanted to see a tie or more scouser misery, but i have to hand it to torres … that guy is good. i’d take him to pair with wayne any day.
He’s out and Hull score two!! That’s Jozy benched for the next few games.
Yes he was doing more when he had the ball but you can see the value of having two strikers on the pitch willing to chase balls down. Things happen. Errors happen by the defense and goalie. Look at Tevez – not much skill but runs his socks off enough that something is bound to happen. Same with Bellamy.
only a matter of time until altidore is mid 20s and still full of ‘potential’.
Yeah Jozy needs to find his legs and use them like there is no tomorrow
Definitely turned off the game once Jozy got subbed, couldn’t watch any more. Hull are astonishingly poor, their closest thing to a moment of quality was Jozy’s decent pass to Fagan who promptly dribbled it right to the keeper.
Hull defense does suck. I agree with you. But Jozy really wasn’t doing much, to be fair.
Martin O’Neill looks heart broken on the sidelines. Feel bad for him.
Hunt is really really impressive. Would have loved to see him at the world cup…
That goal was the best movement Hull had all day other than the free kicks that Jozy won, or his pass to Fagan and the corner that Jozy won that was cleared off the line. Jozy is playing fine IMO.
The guys that need replacing is he Hull defense.
And Hull ties the game 2-2. Everything goes right without Jozy, huh?
Hull gets magically better just as jozy leaves…I really hope that is just a coincidence. There is the tie
He saves Liverpool…well mostly, Rafa.
Torres scores!!!!!
Nice qoute. Well done making good point.
wow, being wrong really leaves a bad taste in my mouth
Most soccer players have minor injury here and there. If Hull City is starting him, then it can’t be a major injury. Jozy needs to suck up and instead, develop other technical skills to compensate for loss of pace/speed if he did have minor tear in his leg.
Jozy had a cross to head in against ManU! He got the PK but he didn’t exactly inspire much confidence with his approach to the header. It’s impossible to say what “would” have happened had he not been fouled, but it seemed to me like he wasn’t going to get a very good shot on the ball and the foul was ticky tacky.
PS – I love the guy, but it wasn’t a great attempt.
hull isn’t so bad that they are going to just bend over. NICE GOAL HULL CITY TOO BAD JOZY WASNT IN THE F***ING GAME.
Jozy tweeted a couple days ago about a tear in his leg that he’s had for two years, excuse or a genuine injury that is slowing him down?
It is tough to keep watching this slop. Hull is miserable. I don’t know who I would compare these bottom two sides to but, seriously, they don’t look too different from MLS teams. Don’t want to start the whole discussion thing but the best from MLS are probably worse (IMO) but they can’t be far off.
he’s out
I doubt Jozy will be 3rd option at Villareal even if he returns. No way Villareal is gonna depend on Jozy when he can’t even score for Hull City
I’m not going to deny that. Jozy has looked lazy. However, when he has got the ball he has done something with it. Fagan up until that shot had just been wasting posession (spellcheck on that?). I’m not sure what is worth.
Is Jozy still playing? I haven’t seen him in a while.