By JUSTIN FERGUSON
The Fourth Round of the FA Cup continues Saturday with a large slate of matches involving some of the English Premier League’s top teams and some potential Cinderella stories in the sport’s longest-running tournament.
The day’s action starts with Championship side AFC Bournemouth’s home match against Liverpool, who are currently hanging onto fourth place in the EPL. Bournemouth have lost just one of their last seven matches, so they will look to keep that form going against one of England’s highest-scoring sides. After a disappointing draw with Aston Villa last weekend, a victory Saturday could give Liverpool the momentum they need heading into next week’s derby match against Everton.
Sunderland’s match against non-league Kidderminster Harriers highlights the mid-day matches in the FA Cup. Jozy Altidore and the Black Cats are coming off a penalty kick shootout victory against Manchester United that put them into the Capital One Cup final — can they avoid a disappointing upset against the underdog Harriers?
In matches outside of England, first-place Juventus visit Stadio Olimpico to face Lazio in an important Serie A fixture. Later, second-place Cruz Azul’s matchup with fifth-place Veracruz will kick off a night of action from Liga MX.
If you will be watching today’s action, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action. (Today’s TV schedule is after the jump):
7:45am – AFC Bournemouth vs. Liverpool – Fox Sports 1
9:30am – SC Freiburg vs. Bayer Leverkusen – GolTV USA
10am – Real Madrid vs. Granada – beIN Sports USA
10am – Sunderland vs. Kidderminster – Fox Sports 1
10am – Bolton vs. Cardiff City – Fox Sports 2
10am – Southend United vs. Hull City – Fox Soccer Plus
11am – Guingamp vs. Paris Saint-Germain – Univision Deportes
12pm – Napoli vs. Chievo – beIN Sports USA
12pm – Real Valladolid vs. Villarreal – beIN Sports en Español
12:30pm – Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Hertha Berlin – GolTV USA
12:30pm – Stevenage vs. Everton – Fox Soccer Plus
2pm – Valencia vs. Espanyol – beIN Sports en Español
2pm – Ajaccio vs. Sochaux – Univision Deportes
2:45pm – Lazio vs. Juventus – beIN Sport USA
2:45pm – PSV Eindhoven vs. AZ Alkmaar – GolTV USA
4pm – Sevilla vs. Levante – beIN Sport en Español
6pm – Cruz Azul vs. Veracruz – UniMás/Univision Deportes
6pm – Corinthians vs. São Bernardo FC – ESPN3
7:50pm – Costa Rica vs. South Korea – ESPN Deportes
8pm – Tigres UANL vs. Pumas UNAM – UniMás/Univision Deportes
9:05pm – Club León vs. Pachuca – Telemundo
10pm – Atlas vs. Club America – Univision Deportes
Well that was fun. Nothing like getting worked up over some football on a Saturday afternoon.
Sunderland sucks. Jozy isn’t doing anything to help himself and everyone with their head on can see it.
At least the sun is still shinning, right? 😉
peace to you all
It’s just a game of soccer after all.
It’s snowing. I see no sun.
What did his agent tell him exactly to convince him to join Sunderland over other relegation bait clubs like Cardiff or Crystal Palace or West Brom?
Jozy just needs a few goals. He might go to Brazil and score some goals. He might not. But I recommend a move to France or Germany or Italy in the summer.
I don’t think he had much of a choice…Sunderland came in with the highest bid and AZ took it…he had to work out a contract with Sunderland….
Jozy has zero confidence right now. The team around him is bad, but he isn’t doing much to elevate their level of play. A lot of people have a problem with Jozy’s touch, but I hate watching him because of his effort. Jozy could learn a lot by watching the effort Suarez(say what you want about his character) puts in every game.
+1
Sunderland is not bad anymore… can’t use that excuse.
Clearly you didn’t watch this game. They were putrid. That might be offensive to putrid people but I can’t think of a worse word that would get through the filters.
chuck,
Suarez has never played on a team this boring. Ajax, Uruguay, Liverpool were all a lot better.
Jozy at his very best is a very good player not top class and it would have required at least one or two top class players to make that game anything more than more exciting than watching a butcher learn his trade.
Jozy is a blade,not the guy wielding the sword.
Sunderland is god awful. Just terrible. If we picked any one player from the team and only analyzed his performance we’d come to the same conclusions we have about Altidore.
The team blows. It’s absolutely painful watching people focus in on Altidore and over analyze these performances.
Hmmm, now that is true. Even the guy that scored gave away some backpasses. Sadly, I’m not sure our guy is any better than the rest of them.
I remember watching a WC qualifier with Italy where they had a midfielder score the tying goal. His name is Giacharini (sp?). That same guy has shown flashes of creativity at Sunderland, but he hasn’t been playing that much or well of late. Well, if an Italian international is having problems at Sunderland, I think that illustrates that the problem isn’t a particular player, but the totality of the team.
Interesting tidbit: during the game today, the announcers remarked that there were “six full international players” (or something to that effect) on the field for Sunderland.
Mr. Page,
Sunderland has only one creative guy.
Did you ever cut the head off of a chicken?
Ki is Sunderland’s head.
Without him they are just like that bloody headless chicken.
Jozy will be fine. He’ll go to either Italy or Germany and revive his career. Everyone forgets about Rossi at Newcastle. Or people just hate Jozy. Also, let’s not be so quick to condemn Jozy and put Bacon on a pedestal. If he doesn’t go to a top five team, he’ll have to deal with the same every-man-for-himself deal in the attacking third of the park…
And Michael Bradley at Aston Villa. People were going to write him off there after a half season where he played very little and the gaffer played a dreadful player ahead of him. Well, that manager got the sack at AV, Bradley went to Chievo and starred. A lot depends on the manager and the situation.
fantastic point. u.s fans are way too hung up on league status when evaluating us players. I think that pressure led to dempsey and altidore making moves that werent necessarily in their interest. Donovan is the best proof that international quality is not necessarily determined by what league you play in. Dos Santos ( until recently) bounced from team to team yet performed for Mexico. Chicharito plays sporadically for Man U, but has struggled recently for Mexico. One does not necessarily lead to the other. Bottom line is MB90 and Jozy are the US team’s best players. The US team will thrive as long as they are both playing with confidence (regardless of where they play their club football).
Good point. I’m concerned about Jozy at Sunderland, but I still think he should start for the Nats. JK won’t do it, but I like Jozy up top alongside AJ.
Thanks.
I don’t even know why I bother watching this games.
One thing I think is a pattern with Jozy is making the same near post runs. Maybe it wouldn’t make much of an impact with Sunderland midfield not being able to cross and wasteful long distance shots, but would like to see more variety in his positioning and movement – it’s becoming predictable and he’s not opening up channels in the box. Not a Jozy hater. Trying to make an observation and hope he grinds it out and succeeds.
Cheers all
His EPL career is all but over. Sunderland are done with hi Will sell when they get relegated. .
Jozy apologists abound… It’s the coach, it’s the team, its the service… etc. The facts are he has played nearly a season and a half in the EPL and has not been successful. 48 EPL games and 2 goals… 2! As the #1 striker for a top 20 national team, its not good enough. For those who harken back to his play this summer, just stop. That Jozy is not this Jozy. That Jozy came off a great season high in confidence. This Jozy has zero confidence and he is not going to get it back anytime soon. The reason Jozy has “hot and cold streaks” is that he does not have the mentality of a #1 striker and that is something that wont change. He will always let us down on the biggest stage. Jozy is a C+ striker at best. I’m holding out hope Johannson can develop quickly.
Let’s us down on the biggest stage? Like the 2011 gold cup where he was killing it before getting hurt? Or the 09 confed cup with a goal against Spain? Or the way he was manhandling John terry at the 10 WC? Or how he carried us at a crucial time this summer? The man is off form right now, no doubt, but to say he’s let us down on the biggest stages is false.
You are an ‘F’ poster no matter what name you use to post under here.
Impossible to tell whether he’s not making the right runs or if he’s just doing what the manager wants him to do. Wynalda said he should split himself put wide just to get the ball. I don’t disagree, nut have n idea if that would be at odds with what Gus wants and get him in trouble. Fletcher isn’t getting the ball either and he’s an experienced, proven BPL striker, so I’m thinking it’s Gus’ system combined w poor midfielders but only someone on the inside could tell you for sure. So we are stuck with wild speculation, the specialty of soccer blogs. Ultimately, he’s a striker and strikers need to score goals. Objectively, it’s tough to see anything really wrong with his performance. You can always nitpick and find things, but most matches I see, his touches are overwhelmingly more positive than negative, so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. I understand it if people are frustrated, though.
Great points. I am disappointed in the over-reaction of fans on here about Jozy’s play. You are bringing up a key point that people are missing: Fletcher is not scoring either. Fletcher and Jozy have pretty much split the time this season at forward. Fletcher has 3 goals and Jozy has 2. It would be one thing if Fletcher had 7 or 9 goals at this point. If that were the case, it would be very sensible for folks to say that “Jozy can’t cut it”. Say what you want about Fletcher but he has proven that he can score at the EPL level. There is obviously a reason why the forwards are not scoring and if you watch Sunderland regularly it is obvious: that midfield is dreadful. Today was pretty much a snapshot of what has been happening all season long at Sunderland.
Ironically, a few posts above, a commenter stated that Jozy is not making a near post runs, but only far post runs.
Intersting to me that our view points on every level are so different.
It’s funny you mention that, because he started making those runs after I made the comment. Now it appears he won’t go far post. Real problem, apparently, is that he won’t mix things up. Won’t take chances. This makes him easier to guard, leads to fewer opportunities. This and his poor touch combine with a poor, selfish midfield to… well… produce the level of play we see at Sunderland every week.
Thank god that is over.
If Jozy doesnt want to go down to France or Holland again he may just go to MLS.
Jozy and Sunderland are going to the Championship league
Red Bulls
Jozy may just go back to MLS.
I think he should. The reason for being in England is to play against the best and train against the best. Sunderland only provides good opponents, the rest of his team is terrible. He would have a better opportunity to express himself in mls. He would also have more touches during a game. If not mls then somewhere…. I can’t believe I was watching a “premier league” team. The style of play and lack of all aspects of soccer was terrible during that game. I’m in disbelief about a lot right now…especially because
1) an American coach could build a better team than that
2) most NATS would upgrade any position on that Sunderland team
3) mls teams play better soccer than what I just saw (most)
4) euros nobs support bpl teams like that over mls teams
I thought Kidderminster played better than Sunderland during the last 15 minutes. Jozy needs to be a lot faster to be effective where he is. Has Jozy had any offers from MLS?
He should be so lucky.
thats just dumb.
Sunderland execute a corner like a U 12 team, just dreadful
Fantastic pass from Jozy to Borini. Deserved the assist there.
Ball passed behind Jozy ..crowd boos the pass, the run both?
Jozy breathes through his mouth.
This wasn’t funny during the Sunderland – ManU thread either.
Observer tries to be funny.
I had a laugh or to, so maybe I can pass on the happiness. Everyone on here is over-analyzing his play, so this should make people laugh. Lighten up mate.
everyone? I don’t think so. I think some have determined their position with Jozy back in October and only see what supports that. typical of internet boards but only a part of it. others are much more balanced here thank goodness
Observer tries to explain himself.
Observer tries to explain himself with words
I thought it was kind of funny when it was done the last time even though I was the one being mocked. Less funny and more annoying with each iteration, though, IMO. To each his own.
Jozy runs near post and the ball is delivered far. have to start using my toes to keep count of how many times that has happened today
Jozy looks with his eyes.
hahahaha
hahahaha
Very funny man.
Maybe the others on here don’t like your posts but they put a smile on my face.
The fact that the above poster is the only one who finds your posts is funny speaks volumes man. Time to try a new shtick.
He’ll stay in the Prem. He’ll just go to a team that wants to pass the ball to him like they did at AZ.
No he wont stay in the PL> No one will want him. No one.
No first touch.
We got it Matt. You don’t think he is very good. I think EVERYONE knows that Matt does not care much for Jozy.
haha
Yeah.
You guys are missing it. Jozy is never going to make it in the PL. He is gone after this year. It doesnt matter how well he performs this summer. He is a known commodity now. Good enough for a midtable side in a mid league like france or holland.
Aron is the next hope.
Jozy never developed that first touch. Ruined him.
? A mid table holland or France team would be a step up from Sunderland, not sure what you are saying
not missing anything, have watched all season. disagree on his first touch, has actually shown good first touch and one touch passing all season
If you think a good first touch takes you 8 yards away from goal and/or gives the ball away, then I guess I would agree with you.
if you think you can start and score at an international level with a “poor first touch” then you know nothing about soccer. I suppose drewbles and matt fancy their “touch” over Jozy’s
“if you think you can start and score at an international level with a “poor first touch” then you know nothing about soccer.”
Ever watch Chicharito?
.
To be fair to him and many other international regulars, except for the very top tier of players, first touch is not always consistent on every single touch for many internationals.
I’ve seen Jozy display excellent first touch. And then sometimes he doesn’t.
He would not have come this far if his first touch was as consistently horrible as everyone keeps making it out to be. Jozy is not that most fabled of things , a WORLD CLASS player.
But he is perfect capable of being the #1 USMNT striker and possibly , of being a regular striker in the EPL.
Dempsey scored for one goal in his first season in the EPL.
Lukaku scored 0 goals in his first EPL season.
that’s not what I think a good first touch is. Jozy’s has come a long way and is not the problem on Sunderland
99% of American players have inferior touch compared to S. American/European players. However, many of the younger Americans coming up now have better touch.
Dude we get it. Stop spamming
matt has become the new usaalltheway
Anybody else think altidore should play more on the wing?
Turkey put him out there.
underneath. he’s shown well underneath on this team since beginning of December, in 2 striker formation
matt knows soccer so well he cannot even name the Turkish club jozy played for. Some fan, this guy.
Jozy runs with his legs.
Observer attempting more humor. Nobody laughs. Observer tries again.
These commentators could not be more critical of jozy.. Wanna know why he isn’t scoring? Because suderland have zero creativity and jozy needs that to score. He’s not the big target man that you want. Typical English play…
Wilfried Bony with the double today.
Christian Benteke made it work last year for villa and is rounding into form.
Either produce or get out.
Back to Eredivisie or Germany or France for the josmer.
Aron Bacon is the man now. Especially if he scores again today.
No Adam Maher and bacon is on FIRE>
Someone has a man crush
You really just don’t like jozy do you? Every one of your comments is “against” him. I can understand where you’re coming from though. I think he needs a change of scenery..
He isnt made for the PL. Must be good with the ball in tight spaces.
He would do fine in france or holland or MLS.
That’s ridiculous. The PL is all about physicality and playing balls in the air.
What are you talking about?
Drogba is not praised for his touch in tight spaces.
Peter Crouch is not a wizard on the ball.
Wayne Rooney is not known for his flicks and trickery.
PL is all about power.
I love AJ, but powerful he is not.
Drogbas touch is light years ahead of jozys
Indisputable, but Drogba’s touch is not what made him a star in the PL.
Admiring Drogba’s touch and ignoring his physicality is like describing a tsunami as “wet”.
The PL is known for physicality and aggressiveness.
Remember when Jozy did the same thing last year? What were you saying then?
I thought he had found his level and was doing well. Felt he should try EPL or Bundesliga and if he failed then when knew what we had.
A player with no first touch who is physical and needs to play slow average defenses to score.
Aron is next. We shall see how he does when he moves up.
“A player with no first touch who is physical and needs to play slow average defenses to score.”
It these kind of blanket statements that make it hard for people to take any of your analysis seriously. How do you explain his goals with the USMNT? Are they all scored against “slow average defenses” with “no first touch”.
i like Jozy a lot and ALWAYS want him to do well. But it’s true, Aron should seriously be considered as our #1 striker at this point.
hilarious, so now scoring goals in the eredivisie makes you a legit #1 striker? I thought they “played no defense there”. Oh wait. Thats only when Altidore is the one scoring the goals with his “poor first touch.” My bad.
Thanks for the dose of reality and negating my need to post. It amazes me how posters can focus on one game and ignore the past. I would like to ask people, how many caps does AJ have? He did score a goal against Panama, but compare that to Jozy’s scoring in qualifiers and the fact that Jozy played a lot in the last WC. The pressure in the WC can only be matched, I would guess, by an UEFA final. AJ hasn’t faced it yet while Jozy has. I’m not saying don’t play AJ, but it is ridiculous to ignore Jozy’s past accomplishments and throw him under the bus.
Truth spoken Nate, would have been great to have Jozy and iceman together at AZ. Imagine a season working together before the WC.
Jozy watches the ball being passed around.
Observer looks for attention.
Listening to the commentators beat up Jozy at every opportunity while giving complete passes to some of Sunderland’s hacks pass after pass is frustrating. At the end of the day, though, Jozy has to prove them wrong on the pitch or its going to keep happening.
The verdict is over for Jozy. He cant cut it in the top flight. Off to france or maybe germany at a midtable side.
+1
I always thought Italy would be perfect for him.
Are you suggesting Bundesliga mid table is a step down from bottom of the table Premiership?
The verdict might be in for you if you don’t think Bundesliga is top flight. You know, they have this thing called th UEFA Champions League where the German teams have been consistently outperforming their English counterparts the last few years. You may want to watch it some time.
Idk if any of ya’ll watched the Chandler vs Fab J game. Chandler pretty much dominated Fab J until he was replaced by Toljan also. His goal was pretty beast and idk I think he had assist on the last drmic goal
If Chandler keeps that form up he will be in Brazil.
Jozy runs around.
Jozy gets tripled teamed in the box and the announcers groan
thew thing is his confidence is shot, but at least he makes smart passes and can hold the all better than the rest of the fools.
Is Tim Ream playing at LB for Bolton?
Are we allowed to talk about anyone besides Jozy here? If so, livescore.com is crediting Onyewu with a goal.
onyewu isnt making brazil sooooooooooooo
he had an assist last week on his debut
An “MLS assist”.
From BBC website commentary (ESPN tracker was down?), it seems that Gooch was very active, besides scoring the winning goal. It would be great see him reach his pre-injury form. Can’t judge much from FA cup matches against a League 2 team, however.
And Wilfriend Bony gets the double!!!
Best striker from the Eredivisie last year.
so will aron johannson “cut it” in the premier league?
The more and more I watch EPL teams like Sunderland the more and more I think the MLS is pretty comparable to the EPL. There are 6 teams that would probably dominate the table, but the other teams are pretty comparable to MLS squads.
The best MLS squad is lucky to reach promotion playoffs in the Championship.
Yep and once Sunderland is relegated they will struggle in the Championship unless they get better players.. So the MLS comparison still holds
Only luck? Maybe an own-goal or something?
Then how do you explain the disparity in salaries? The majority of Premiership teams simply have no clue when it comes to determining salaries?
But there is also a salary disparity between EPL teams and equivalent sides in Germany and Italy. . . .
To the same degree that exists between MLS sides and bottom half of the table Premiership sides?
simple explanation: tv contracts
That’s like saying because you had season tickets to watch the Houston Astros last year, you feel like the Columbus Clippers & the Louisville Bats could play in MLB. Makes no sense…
Hey,
The Louisville Bats could take on the Astros. So, your comparison is dumb. Louisville native 🙂
You’ve made my point for me. You can’t look at a team like Houston, who was historically awful, and think that “since Louisville can beat them, Louisville can play in MLB.” Sunder land is complete crap, and an MLS franchise like Columbus or Chicago would be embarrased on a near weekly basis.
Lmao even sunderland wouldnt have too much trouble winning the mls cup.
Top MLS teams might be good enough to escape relegation in the EPL, but one big difference is that most MLS teams are seriously lacking in depth, thanks to that ridiculously low salary cap.
I have my doubts that any mls team at the moment could avoid relegation. The only possible one i see is sporting kc and thats because they have such great defenders
Gooch scored for Wednesday.
Gooch with the second goal. Wednesday hanging onto a 2-1 lead, down to 10 men.
Headed goal?
All the chatter about Jozy not being able to score,…and Gooch comes along and scores in his second appearance for the Owls,…playing defense.
Jozy has to be careful,….his teammates will soon lose confidence in him.
Man, his touch is not top shelf. He should have a hat trick against this level of competition.
Arons touch is light years ahead of Jozys.
Yes, that belly button goal was a sublime example of touch.
matt obviously is only a us fan when they play the players he “likes”…
Jozy was open in the middle, but no pass to him. Would have been an easy tap-in, if it had gotten to him.
How is cattermole captain?
Another terrible player. Cattermole is awful.
is that a dozen blasts over the bar from 25 yards+ for Sunderland? nothing remotely close either, not one
How is Jozy supposed to do anything when their sole idea is to ski the ball every time they get near goal?
most of us understand and see it too
Well they passed to him often in the first half and he just turned the ball over. So, not sure what you want them to do?
thy did not, and certainly not in the area.
Sorry, but yes, they did.
Yeah, this isn’t up for debate. You either didn’t watch the first half or are intentionally lying.
In fact, the number of times he received the ball in good position to take a touch and a shot is amazing for this team.
He messed up every single one of them.
Flat out lies. He touched the ball in the 18 twice. One pass was bounced around and the 18 year old finished it. The other was lost but recovered by Sunderland and promptly put in row z
His other touches were no where near goal because he drop into the mf like a false nine to help the build up. He had one pass delivered to his feet where he was facing goal. This is when the crowd booed him for not pulling the trigger. I was p o ed that he did not pull the trigger as well
Good decisions today from the Sunderland midfield. That is about the 4th or 5th time a midfielder has decided to shot from 25 yds out or more instead of work the ball around.
Borini has a go — same effect.
That is pretty much the only observation I can take from this as well.
Jozy seems to has lost his confidence and the confidence of his teammates. Hope he can bang in a few over the next couple of games
Doubt he will score much. He has one goal in all competitions. Atrocious.
two goals. plus the one they horribly dissallowed against arsenal.
Two goals.
1 vs Chelsea
1 vs MK Dons
(and one against Arsenalllllllnevermind)
What’s up with Chandler?, USMNT could really use him,
He is finally 100 percent fit and in good form.
Starting regularly for FC Nuremburg. Game winner today!,
also seems like a great catalyst down the right flank winning corners, free kicks and performing dangerous crosses, all while playing lock down D.
Easily out performed Fabian Johnson, albeit playing different positions, Chandler had a far greater over all impact on the game as a final 4 nil scoreline would suggest.
Furthermore Chandler seems to be back in team mode, He truly seems well received and highly valued by his team mates. Plkease fix whatever is wrong with the Timmy Chandler Situation, He is a good player who would surley benefit the USMNT in Brazil.
Chandler is also very familiar with the German side no doubt. He said it today post game interview, “eine grosses lernen spiel”. The Kid is really coming around.
Watch for chandler to make an appearance against Ukraine if he keeps this form up.
Hopefully he has gotten over his selective bouts of fear of flying.
And let’s also hope he can learn to adapt to hot weather conditions. He absolutely wilted in the game in Honduras.
@TomG: his fear of flying is a myth. If anyone has a link to a news article that states categorically that Timothy has a phobia of flying, please post the link here. He was quoted in G dot com last year saying he didn’t like to fly and had trouble sleeping on a plane. I’m sure the other guys who busted their bu++s last year flying in from Europe for WCQ games to do the dirty work just loved the flights wished the flights were even longer. But seriously, those guys most likely don’t like the long flights and jet lag but they did it for the shirt. Timothy didn’t.
+1
Hence the word, “selective”
Chandler has a terrible fear of flying so medicating him for brief breaks on international breaks is not a good option. It is hard to evaluate him in most training camps.
USMNT personnel has been actually going to watch Chandler play in person since December. I would think you have to give him a call up, especially if he is on form.
Ditto!. and that fine young man I can’t remember his name?, who was born in Tampa/St.Pete.
Oh yeah, I got It, think I’ll just call him “Money”,
because his last name is Green.
Gertjan Verbeek, current Nurnburg coach and Jozy’s old AZ coach, was not satisfied with a long string of Chandler’s performances before the winter break and was quoted in the German press saying he would like to bring in a right back in January “who makes us better.”
(Last Paragraph)
http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/596829/artikel_wechsel-zum-club-kirchhoff-hatte-noch-keinen-kontakt.html
So even if Timothy had a good game today, it would be premature after 18 months of bad form to no proclaim him in good form. Let’s see what happens in coming games.
As for Fabian Johnson, I don’t see how anyone in their right mind could even compare the talent and 100& commitment to the USMNT of Fabian and Timothy Chandler. Fabian was injured in a friendly (against Bochum, I think) a couple of weeks ago and had to leave the game. Possible he was not 100% fit today. Plus, contract is probably on his mind, as his ends in June and Borussia M’Gladbach want him (and not Timothy Chandler) and I would not be surprised if Fabian would be happy to make them move now rather than risk injury this spring playing for Hoffenheim as his contract winds down.
Fabian only returned to training this week and went out of this match at half with an injury to his right hand.
I’ve only just caught the match from the start of the second half but from what ive seen, I can’t begin to imagine what all the fuss is about. Jozy hasn’t remotely had any chance to do anything. He’s got four guys surrounding him in the box and the duffers Sunderland has on the pitch can’t get the ball within twenty feet of him. I’m not sure what some of you expect him to do. This isn’t a comic book. He can’t stretch his leg out twenty feet to the side and pluck the ball out of the air like Plastic Man.
Maybe it was different in the first half? I’ve got it on dvr and will have to check it out later, but this is ridiculous.
Jozy missed a couple early in the game should have scored twice in my opinion. In the second half he was almost non existent. We can blame that on the midfield to some extent but he also needs to come up with some more dangerous runs.
If you blame the crappy team, your a homer who doesn’t understand soccer.
If you blame Altidore, your an ignorant hater.
It’s the internet, this is what happens when you give people a forum for their opinions that do not deserve such a forum.
Wilfried Bony is the only halfway decent striker from Eredivisie in PL and he isnt that great but he is excellent in tight spaces and ALSO big and imposing.
Jozy off to france or turkey or wherever they will take him.
Hope Aron goes to Bundesliga.
I think there is the guy named Luis Suarez who was a Eredivisie forward
and a guy named robin van persie…
From last season I mean.
i’m talking to you
some of us are balanced in our analysis, please do not lump us all as extremes.
Yep it is why the announcers are throwing the Sunderland team under the bus. Their MF is dreadful, uncreative, selfish no talented….
this style of play is atrocious!
Jozy wasn’t subbed off.
It’s a miracle.
look at that pathetic decision from Ba! Sunderland wins he turnover outside the 18, Jozy alone to played in in front of him, and Ba rips it high and wide!
pathetic
Ba subbed off, 65th minute
Jozy wont be at Sunderland next year. He will be transferred to another league.
damn no wonder altidore does fight for the ball all the do is play the wings and take lonshots, and they cant cross either
Sunderland has the most selfish group of players. They are the poster child for what’s wrong with English football.
No their not. Man City is. Their the poster child for “this is what a disgruntled team in chaos looks like”
Is Sunderland always this bad? This is my first game all year. Most MLS teams could take these guys.
Yes, they are usually this bad. Sometimes a little less so.
At best Top 4 MLS side
Top 4 MLS side? Not even a chance.
Top 8 ?
Even on their bad day they’d take Toronto or Seattle, LA or Portland
Did you guys see Nuremberg (spelling?) is killing it at 4-0.
There new coach is Jozy’s old coach at AZ.
Also, I don’t think they have won a single game this whole year.
And didn’t that same guy coach MB90 in Holland?
Their* new coach….
Yup, dude knows how to score. But Hoffenheim also know how to let people score. I mean… Hoffenhein games always have like atleast 4 goals.
I see.
Still, there seems to be something about that guy. He seems like a real quality coach.
Maybe he’ll want Jozy back and can continue to teach him a thing or two more.
“”And didn’t that same guy coach MB90 in Holland?””
Who cares, really?
Giaccherini with a ball into Jozy that sails wide, but great look! first one today, and Jozy applauds
Announcers have backed off Jozy this half, most likely because he has not touched the ball.
thanks for noting that key reality in the analysis. still like Jozy better when he plays underneath on this team
So not when he plays in an advanced forward role, but like a false 9? So basically as a midfielder where he can keep stockpiling those assists stats.
Makes sense for the good of the team but not for Jozy
not all bad for Jozy, especially in the maturity category
and not as a false 9 but instead partnered up top so he can duck underneath and still have someone else stretching the backline deep to create space underneath. make sense? that’s when Sunderland and Jozy have looked best imo
Even the announces are beginning to see that it’s not just Jozy. Sunderland is just bad.