Photo by ISIphotos.com
The last day before the U.S. national team's match vs. the Netherlands had some surprises, some good news and some promising signs for the Americans.
Before we get into tidbits from Tuesday, here is my preview piece on Wednesday's match for FoxSoccer.com.
U.S. head coach Bob Bradley spoke positively about Clint Dempsey and Oguchi Onyewu's recoveries from knee injuries. He stated that Dempsey should be back in action for Fulham soon while Onyewu's participation in training with the U.S. team in Amsterdam was the latest evidence that he is close to rejoining AC Milan.
The biggest surprise was the news that Jermaine Jones was with the team. Jones drove up from Germany to meet up with the team and spent Tuesday with the squad. He could be seen around the team hotel in his U.S. national team gear in what has to be seen as a sign that Bradley is keeping the door open for the Schalke 04 midfielder if he can get back on the field and back to his stellar pre-injury form. There is still no timetable on Jones' return from injury, but the fact that he made the trip out here would seem to suggest that he's serious about eventually suiting up for the United States, even if that might mean doing so after the World Cup.
I spoke to Carlos Bocanegra about his situation with Rennes, and as you might expect, the veteran defender kept things in perspective when asked to discuss his somewhat unsettled position with the French club, a position that saw him lose his starting job, then get it back, then get pulled from a recent match at halftime.
"You get ups and downs with your career," Bocanegra said. "Luckily I’ve been able to be around the game for a while and you have to take it all in stride and look at the big picture.
"When you’re younger I think you get a lot more frustrated right at the beginning. You think the whole world is crumbling," Bocanegra said. "Obviously you want to be playing week in and week out, but when you look at the whole picture you just have to take it one game at a time."
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Landon Donovan deflected questions about his future with Everton and whether he would like to stay with the club. All signs point to him finishing out his loan and returning to MLS, even though a strike could still take place in MLS. His last match at Goodison Park is set for Sunday against Jozy Altidore and Hull City.
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Bob Bradley filled out his coaching staff on Tuesday with the official hiring of Lubos Kubik as the team's new assistant coach. Kubik joins Jesse Marsch as replacements for Peter Nowak and John Hackworth, who left the national team to join the Philadelphia Union.
The MLS Defender of the Year on Bradley's 1998 MLS Cup-winning Chicago Fire, Kubik is a veteran of Serie A, Ligue 1 and the German Bundesliga. He previously served as an assistant coach to Peter Nowak on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team, the same team that features current national team players Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore, Maurice Edu and Stuart Holden.
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Steve Cherundolo spent two days with the team, but left on Tuesday evening to resume training with Hannover 96. He is still a good bet to make the 23-man World Cup squad if healthy.
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There were several members of the English media in attendance as they worked on their pre-World Cup coverage. Bradley might have given them some good tabloid fodder when he light-heartedly revealed that there were some EPL managers who were rooting for the United States against England. Bradley didn't name any names but he pointed out that they weren't English managers. Something tells me Gianfranco Zola and David Moyes will be answering some questions about that.
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That's all for now. Feel free to share your thoughts on these items as well as on Wednesday's friendly in the comments section below.
GREAT STUFF IVES.
I’d like to see Jermaine come in even as a 75th minute substitute for a bruising defensive midfield hold a lead type guy, or play for the first 70 in a more conservative and patient look.
I’m interested to hear further description of Jones. I thought he was an athletically gifted defensive/central midfielder that makes tough tackles, has a very good passing eye, nice tough and a powerful shot. Am I missing anything?
We just got a couple of inches of snow over here in Apex/Cary, NC so school is pushed back 2 hours, and since my specific school gets out an hour early on Wednesdays, I’ll be home by 1:45-:50-ish and will have only been to school for 5 hours. This is shaping up to be a great day, and if we beat Holland, it will be the best day of the year so far.
Ironically, it seems to me that SBI’s infrequent commenters are the more likely to be “judgmentally retarded”.
Good to hear JJ met the USMNT squad, shows his dedication to the team. Everyone else getting healthy is a good sign.
Well, it’s time. 6 hours away from showdown! I’m so hyped up this morning. Here is my prediction and I hate to say it, but one has to be realistic when playing away. Holland 2-1. But we will show good futbol.
theres a name I haven’t heard since the ’08 Olympics.
i’m with you. its just a friendly. doesn’t anybody have DVR nowadays?
Im in australia and im waking up at 530 am before class to watch it….make it worthwhile landon and co. would love to see a W
He hasn’t played in a year. He shouldn’t be starting for ANYONE.
‘also its kinda gets me angry that it sounds like he got black-balled outta the german national team setup bc he doesnt look or act like the typical “german”‘
yeah.. that is pretty much bullsh*t if you look at the german lineup.. jones himself said he was misquoted there or maybe misunderstood because of his not so perfect english
That’s to an actual girl, with whom she and I will be taking off work to watch USA-Niederlande, not CD9, who also gets a shout out.
Who votes that CD, the girl, paints her ’67 Mustang with CD9?
Folks, does anyone else think Bradley starts Findley? I’m thinking that he will get, at the least, substantial playing time. Otherwise, why bring him along?I only mention this because most of the posts above that comment on our forwards don’t mention him at all.
Shout out to my girl, CD.
No wonder the Germans shied away from him…his tattoos rival Natasha Kai’s…
Pete – Ah yes, the life in Europe for a football fan is, well almost like heaven. Hopefully, the NATS get some deivine intervention this evening.
It may not seem accurate, but as a speaker of both languages, I’d translate Kampfschwein as something like… fighting machine.
Don’t think I’m splitting hairs here.
Remember.. this is the language that gives us the term: Eierliegendewohlmilchsau (my all-time favorite word).
But I like the sentiment in the latter part of your comment.
The Swiss you’re referring to is Oliver Neuville and I believe he’s been retired from the national team since 2008.
But yes you are correct. Podolski, Klose and Trochowski are Polish. Gomez is half Spanish. Jerome Boateng is half Ghanaian. Tasci, Ozil and Khedira are Turkish. Marko Marin is Bosnian. Cacau is Brazilian. Dennis Aogo is Nigerian.
You lucky dog.
You guys do realize that half the German squad called up over the last two years is of mixed heritage, right? I mean they have at least two or three guys that are half African (Ghana and the other escapes me at the moment) and a few that are part Turkish. They have a Pole and a Swiss as their best two starting forwards… The list goes on, so to say Germany may even be slightly biased on color makes as much sense as saying the USMNT is biased on lineage.
Driving up to Amsterdam this afternoon. For all the talk about sons of service members and ex-pats overseas, I can tell you that there is much more talent over here that we fail to capture in our scouting system. The Jones and Williams cases are numerous.
As for the match, I sure hope that BB watched video of the HSV defense against Bayern (Robben abd Ribery on flanks) this past Saturday. Tonight will need the same effort by Spector and crew.
Hahahaha best idea I’ve heard today
i respect your guys’ dedication. i was thinking about skipping my math and bio classes, but finals are coming up and all and i figured i could just watch the game later on espn360. but i’ll be wishing i skipped 🙂
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: any lone striker formation featuring Jozy as the target striker is not going to work. I totally agree that our strength is in midfield, but we don’t want to make our one dangerous forward completely ineffective. I’ll gladly change my tune if he ever shows that he can be effective as a target forward, but it has been tried a number of time for both club and country and has failed every time.
We do
Yeah, though that’s really not even the same since Jones has never played for the team before. We know that Davies at least at one point fit well with the team. Jones is a unique situation
futbol works
Yes, I’m aware
I’ve had to reschedule my regular weekly high-colonic, but it’s worth it.
Dude are you serious, that sounded so not smart, lol.
Clicky link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMNjqyt9YVM
Soccer, not football. No doubt, this is one of the top “soccer” sites.
Ives — any chance that Bob Bradley can get the U.S. government to set up a military base in Brazil so we can get a bunch of half Brazilian kids to play for the nats?
I think the U.S. will hold their own on Wednesday. I also think the U.S. will surprise a lot of people in the World Cup.
I’m hoping we see that tomorrow!
okay whatever, yeah because he was injured and then welcomed back earlier in the year.
Okay, davies is a better comparison. If davies comes back ballin he will be starting just like jones if he does the same.
Better?
Your comments are justified. Given the circumstances, Jones would indeed present a risk. But if I had to choose between Jones and Clark or Edu, I’d certainly go with Jones.
Personally I’m a fan of the Bradley/Torres combo. IMHO we’ve got no chance of winning the World Cup. Would love to see us at least play some decent soccer– as opposed to 2006. For me that pretty much requires Torres to be in the midfield.
Yes— I love watching that little guy play that(italics) much.
Go USA!
You’re still talking about Bundesliga ball as opposed to World Cup ball. I see it as a completely different game. Unfortunately, I think a team needs more of a tradition or reputation to get away with some of the the things were expeccting Jones to get away with in the World Cup. Then again, I would love to be wrong here!
Describe a “typical” American.
… clarification:
.. fan’s choice to captain Schalke
If you’ve watched Jones progression, you will see that his on the field behavior has gone from ‘controversial’ to pretty darn close to exemplary. There is no way he would be a fan’s choice to captain the team if he was as unstable as some would believe. He is certainly no longer a ‘risky’ player, or at least no more so than players like Van Bommel, or Ballack.
Whether or not you rate those players is another issue entirely.
lol im out of gen. psych. at 1 so i’ll be home just in time to watch the game.
in that youtube video “das kampfschwein”, which translates into essentially war pig, the 2:45 mark on is what i love about jones. he gets tackled recklessly from behind and then gets up and as he’s walking off the field he gives a glare and a finger point like “i’m keeping my eye on you watch out”. this usa team needs that little bit of arrogant bravado.
Beasley situation isn’t similar to Jones. How the hell do you come to that conclusion. Because they’ve been injured recently?
Everybody! You all keep going on about how Jones is a “badass” or Jones is a “psycho!” Is that really what we need? I think everyone is aware of our record wit yellow and red cards in big international competition. Jones gets away with a lot in Bundesliga and has absolutely zero experience in big international competition. We all know how stringently the rules are applied in the World Cup. I for one am not ready to gamble on such an unknown quantity.
Dolo sighting in that video!
M poses a legitimate question here. sbi frequenters shouldn’t be so judgmentally retarded , for the sake of sbi’s fan bases image.
Mo is and he hasn’t in 9 months. Beasley is similar. Though fishy’s response was funny, if its a good player injured, they are always welcome when they heal.
he is a bad mother, that’s right EasternBear
Ives, on another day when there is not much USMNT news, can you slam this article by Ben Triana? http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/usa/story/021010-why-no-challege-for-gulati-re-election Probably not, but I just want to say that it belongs on a conspiracy website or a British tabloid.
Gulati hired Bob, managed to keep everything on an even plane, no scandals or drama, successfully put two bids for the World Cup up with Concacafs backing, brought in Jones, Brought in Torres, Brought in Castillo, and our teams have fared well as well…Why fix it if it ain’t broken?
I’m afraid if we allowed everyone in on the USSF’s business then the administration of soccer in this country would be closer to the comments on this site or to player drama in England like the Terry affair.
Do you agree?
NOT, LOL!!