Good morning everybody. I haven't been able to get together an SBI Live Q&A lately, and since I'm probably not going to be able to get one together for this week I wanted to give readers a chance to send some questions in for me to answer.
So I'm bringing back the old school Q&A format for this week.
Submit your soccer-related questions in the comments section below and I will post answers to some of them next week. Want to ask about the U.S. Olympic Qualifying debacle? The new MLS season? The senior national team? Whatever it is, send your questions my way and I'll try to get to as many of them as possible.
Send your questions my way.
Fulham For Life!
Fulham For Life!
Do teams keep stats and come to conclusions on how to play based on those ? Like a Bill James for soccer.
For instance, Joe Shootsfromtoofarout, has hit 1 shot outside of 25 yards out of 300, with 5 corners kicks earned, the rest being goal kicks. Conclusion: Stop shooting.
It seems to me that US Soccer has seen a shift in young talent. Whereas sevarel years ago most of our you talent was defensive it has now shifted to where a lot of our young talent is offensive. Any thoughts on this and how it might be impacting US Soccer in the coming years?
I’ve been thinking about my own question too much, glad to see I’ve got some takers 😀
Weird, Gooch is a little clumsy. Even though he’s strong, I’d give him about 5 minutes before he stumbles over something and gets infected. I’d go with Wambach: accurate in the clutch, which is good when clutch is you holding off a zombie and them with a fire axe. There’s another obvious candidate for this, but let’s be honest: can you really imagine Landon Donovan swinging a fire axe or holding a chainsaw?
As for most dangerous, Stuart Holden just won’t die and just won’t quit… and he’s not even a zombie yet! The most dangerous zombie is the one you THINK is dead.
+1
Just want to 2nd Ryan’s questions.
1)Poor game to game management & in game subs, was as much responsible for the Nightmare in Nashville as our poor showing in goal.
2)Why so little Gyau? I know coach decision… but come on.
Gooch for the first,
But Jozy makes the most dangerous zombie, no doubt: fast, big, and because he never bends his knees, you’ll NEVER be able to tell if he’s a zombie or not!
We could all tell on Twitter you were frustrated by the lack of the US not qualifying. What did you do to alleviate that frustration? I personally have beaten Mexico on Fifa every night since… still don’t feel better, though!
Ives, How does “Fair Use” work for copyrighted telecasts? There is an article on Soccer America today (3/29) about the YouTube video of Clarke’s gay slur. The legal folks interviewed for the article say that the clip is protected by Fair Use legislation, thus negating the DMCA request to take it down by MLS.
If that’s true, why do so many clips of goals or other incidents during games get taken down? Are those not also protected then by fair use or is the lawyer in the article wrong?
This U-23 group of players has been dubbed by many to be choke artists both for their most recent failure and their failure to reach the U-20 WC. Do you agree? Is their lack of effort due to a sense of entitlement that many claim plague the youth of America? How do we get them to actually play to their potential?
Easy explanation … Nowak.
What four players come out of Olympic Qualifying as viable National team prospects?
MLS teams have to grow a pair! Check out Grant Wahl’s story on life in the FMF,….rampant crime, crooked cops, clubs failing to make payroll! What good is it if you are ‘on the books’ for a large salary but never get paid?
My question,…will Mexico ever have any decent goalkeepers or are they going to continue rely on organ grinder monkeys?
I’m not SBI staff, but I’d have to say it had close to zero impact.
Porter had fresh, quality legs on the bench at both RB and RW (Sheanon Williams and Joe Gyau, respectively). Both guys have pace and could have offered relief at either position Gatt would have filled. Nonetheless, Williams didn’t play a minute and Gyau was restricted to late sub appearances.
Ives, couple questions:
1. Herculez Gomez. I somewhat understand the argument that “all he does is score goals”, and that if his goal scoring exploits in the FMF don’t translate to the international level, he doesn’t add much to the team. But given our inability to score goals under Klinsmann (Slovenia game aside), is there any way that Herc doesn’t get a call for the May friendlies? I mean, we can’t score goals. All Herc does is score goals. Isn’t it worth a try? And can you shed any light on exactly how non-existent his relationship with US Soccer has been since Klinsmann took over?
2. How big of a factor do you think Alfredo Morales not playing for the U-23’s was? In hindsight, I think the #6 holding role is THE most important position in Porter’s 4-3-3 high pressure attack, in that it needs to be someone with enough skill to maintain possession, provide an outlet for the defenders and link with the attack, while still being able to provide cover for the CB’s and break up attacks. In my opinion, not adjusting his tacticts to account for not having Morales was probably Porter’s undoing (goalkeeping blunders aside). Agree, disagree?
Unfortunately, this is the most striking thing about the whole ES debacle I’ll be taking away.
Honestly, I would have rather seen somebody confront that dirty SOB and get sent off than the complete lack of reaction that occurred. The final result couldn’t have ended up any worse.
He’s played one meaningful game for Philly thus far this season. Did he somehow telephathically cause them to drop their 2nd and 3rd results?
What, if anything, does MLS have to do for its teams to be competitive with FMF teams in the CCL?
Also, what direction is the FMF as a league heading? Are they continuing to grow, earn more money and attract better players? Everyone assumes that MLS is getting better so will definitely catch up, but is the FMF also heading up?
Onyewu on both accounts!
Ever see Brad Friedel playing one last game for the US?
Is Freddy Adu the most capped USA youth player ever? Has to be,….right?
What do you think of Caleb Porter playing Joe Gyau so sparingly, and playing Kofi Sarkodie – who plays inconsistently with Houston – over Sheanon Williams, a guy who regularly starts for Philly?
Yes, they missed U-17 in 2007.
Actually the current u-23 setup is the same age group who failed to qualify to the 2007 u17 and the 2009 U20.
Wish they don’t break the streak.
^^^
what he said
The stadium would be emptied if they ban all those who shout “Puto!” in El Tri’s games…
Is Freddy Adu the most capped USA youth player ever? I would be surprised if he wasn’t.
how do you envision the short term futures of the 3 yanks at Rangers?
Where do I send a resume?
Because in Czech, C with out diacritic marks is pronounced like english ‘TS’ as in “it’s”. This is the same in many non-latin European languages, for example, Slovak and German. The English C sound is written as K in these languages.
The 4-3-3. Is Klinsmann going to give it a real tryout, instead of using Altidore as a lone target man? Where would Gomez fit in such a formation?
Because that’s how it’s pronounced. It does not translate well from Czech to English, so that is the reason for the pronunciation.
Was Colin Clark’s punishment overkill?
The Galaxy are looking at 10 mil a year for 10 years between their Time Warner deal and Herbalife Shirt Sponsor. They say a huge chunk of it is going to their academy. What do you think the prospects are that their academy starts producing a staple of national-teamers, or is that kind of money a drop in the bucket compared to other countries?
Why is it so difficult for announcers to read the back of Tomas Rosicky’s jersey and realize his name is not RosITSKY?
+1
Canada lodged a complaint according to their press. Did the US?
I know there were other factors in the U23’s ouster from Olympic qualifying, but how much impact did losing Gatt at the last minute impact Porter’s plan? It seemed to me that that loss necessitated plenty of readjustment of roles in his first team.
Yanks Abroad had an article stating that Mexico failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympics, the 2009 U-20 World Cup, and the 2009 U-17 World Cup in an attempt to put this elimination into perspective. But didn’t Mexico play in the ’09 U-17 World Cup????
How big of a missed opportunity was the US failing to qualify for the olympics, not just for the team, but for helping the sport grow as a whole in the US?
Do you think CONCACAF should change the olympic qualifying schedule next time around to avoid 3 games in 5 days? Seems like that was an issue for all teams.
Another way to ask this is, when will fans start to realize that, when it comes to having the US play “attacking” football, Klinnsman is all hat and no cattle? At least Porter practiced what he preached. He lived and died by the 4-3-3 and by inserting the players into his system, instead of the other way around.
DO you think the U-23 lacked a esprit de corps? I mean after Boyd got clocked in the kisser, no one was in Larin’s face. If Gooch or demps was there they would have been all over that guy! thanks Ives
The 4-3-3. Is Klinsmann going to give it a real tryout, instead of using Altidore as a lone target man? Where would Gomez fit in such a formation?
Could you see Dempsey playing for a champs lge team in Portugal?
With the latest contoversy surrounding inappropriate language (from players), do you see MLS taking any steps to eliminate “anti-gay” chants from the fans? Or is it not an issue since it is mostly in a foreign language?
Peanut Butter & Nutella
or just Nutella
Did the U.S. file any complaints about Alexander Larin decking Terrence Boyd? Is nothing going to come of that, or the biting incidents involving either Canada or the U.S.?
Easily the best question so far, thus…I’ll take my own crack at it:
best chance of survival: GOOCH. Period. He took on Zlatan, who is pretty much a zombie.
which player makes the best zombie: BREK. I mean…look at him?? pale as hell, sometimes sleep walks through games, and his hair is sometimes streaked with blood.
With a country the size of the US we have a huge pool to pull from for USMNT players….but at the younger levels is the US system setup right? Does it make sense to bring players into a single camp or does the cost/travel/distance make it too easy to lose some talent? Should we look at some type of a more regional system at least at the U-17 so some camps are more local and then try to bring in the best of the best from there for U-17 competitions?
Similarly….there is only so much the US can do to help find and develop talent for the pool. What should the national program be doing to help work with the MLS clubs to improve their own development programs? Do we have any MLS clubs now whose approach could serve as an example or do we still need to look at systems setup by foreign club teams in Mex, EPL, etc.
+1