By IVES GALARCEP
HARRISON, N.J.– The U.S. Men’s National Team takes on Turkey at Red Bull Arena today (2pm, ESPN) in the second match of their World Cup send-off series, and the Americans know Turkey will provide a significantly tougher test than their last opponent.
Clint Dempsey is back in the starting lineup for today’s match and Jurgen Klinsmann has made a pair of changes from the Azerbaijan match, with Brad Davis and Timmy Chandler in the lineup in place of Alejandro Bedoya and DaMarcus Beasley.
SBI will be providing live commentary on today’s action so please feel free to follow along with all the action here. As always, you are welcome to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Today’s commentary is after the jump):
-Bradley is way high up the field leaving JJ all alone against smart, fast turkish players…
-Davis not athletic enough to cover the LM side of the field, turks recognize this and are going at Chandler with vengeance. Thats why the switch to send Zusi on that side… actually it kinda slowed Turkey’s attack on that side.
-Zusi has the skill, tools to take on defenders on RB but he lacks confidence… at least in this game and I dont think it’s tactical.
-Good half up the field for Altidore, Davis. Bad passes from many US players in midfield but good game for JJ.
-Not enough from Bradley who had a minor exchange of words with JJ.
I wish JK stops playing Chandler and Fabian in inverted positions. They would produce more in their original spots.
I guess Bedoya in for Davis to help contain Turkey.
PS. y’all can see Beckerman would get blown away by elite teams in the WC.
Well we’re going to see Beckerman against this competition right now…
Team looks better.
So question for the people who complain about which members of the team are or are not “real” Americans, or are not as American as others, or however you might want to phrase it. Do you consider that to be a fully good and valid goal? Is our team really winning right now or is it more like you’re watching a scoreless tie? And did we really win with a couple of fully valid 2nd half goals the other night against Azerbaijan? Or is that result similarly somehow questionable, in your minds?
I’m not being facetious, I’m just curious how you view these goals and the results that depend on them, if in the end you don’t somehow fully accept as legitimate the players who are scoring them…
How many assists did Fabian have in qualifying as well? At least a couple.
Yeah I don’t know but now that I think of it, I’d really like to hear some reaction to that question, because I just cannot imagine what it must be like for a supporter when his team scores/wins so clearly and directly because of the play of guys who supposedly should not be on the team. And I don’t mean a kind of Donovan situation, where someone thinks the coach picked/left off the wrong guy, but one where the supporter doesn’t even accept the player is fully legitimate, for reasons that have nothing to do with skill level or performance or who chose him.
This referee is pretty excellent. In addition to having massive cateracts and two left feet, he also has the excellent name “Slim Jedidi”. He reminds me a little bit of Peter Sellers character in “The Party”
He’s a Jedi
HAHAHAHAHAHA BRAD DAVIS HAHAHAHAHA I DIDNT EVEN NOTICE HE WAS SO BAD AT DEFENSE UNTIL MY PHONE NOTIFIED ME HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA
This Ref is just no good enough to be running this game. I have no idea why he gave clint “advan
What happened there… I typed words. =<
Everything i notice about Jones that is positive is about his defence. Everything i notice about him that is negative is offensive (his passes……)
He ia having a good game. Tactical set up is leaving space. I dunno if our back four quite know how to deal with it just yet.
I’m so sik of Demspey’s heavy falls, but that should have been a PK or st least a dangerous FK.
that was a definite foul tho, defender attempted to tackle, swiped and missed ball completely and took out Dempsey’s knees. FOUL. Dempsey fell appropriately.
I was wondering if someone was going to mention Dempsey’s turnovers. He has done everything that everyone kills Altidore for (no defense, bad first touch, turnovers, falling down, etc) but he will end up getting praised at the end of the day.
Of course he’s the poster boy for the USMNT
Is the whole Turkish team made of glass or something they keep fouling our guys and instead of out guys going down they go down.
Yedlin at RM
Stupid.
Seeing the defense from afar, I could swear Omar is playing… but turned out to be Besler!
Dempsey is really something else today had he been watching messi and ronaldinho highlights on YouTube or something
‘The one thing he brings is his speed’ Taylor Twellman on Timmy chandler. I believe he brings a lot more than that. Smh. Taylor is garbage.
Beautiful atmosphere at RB wish every mls game was the same
Aerial 50/50 balls in Altidore’s vicinity are more like 90/10 balls.
I can’t say enough about that goal. Excellent build up clean finish!! Come on Jozy take notes
jozy chased down the long ball, held off the opponent, played it back for FJ and FJ created the goal.
I was talking about the clean finish
Davis and Chandler look vulnerable on the left.
Bradley and Johnson connecting on a beautiful goal!!!
Brad Davis looks like bambi on ice on defense
It’s Davis, Chandler is composed
Great goal,
wow great finishing by Johnson. 🙂
oh but he didnt sing the anthem. Does it count?
Sweet Lordy. Sublime give and go with Mikey and FJ. Right on!
FAB J AWESOME! Creating the pass that lead to his goal. Props to MB90
Can we get Twellman off?
Maybe you can, I don’t think he is that attractive with an abnormally large head.
The other question is do we have time?
Twellman is 10000 times better than Wynalda and Gus Johnson…
And Ian Darke is 1,000,000 Times better than Twellman
But that was freaking beautiful.
Sweet goal by Johnson
Fabiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man Davis looks awful on defense…his guy getting free over and over.
Nice cut back pass by Jozy to set up Mikey’s shot. Seeing lively things from the front line so far; back line ughhhhh…
The US defense is in shambles and Brad Davis keeps getting beat.
yeah not looking good
Never seen besler play this bad. Brad Davis don’t even get me started on your marking
Oh, so this is what Red Bull Arena looks like with a true sellout.
Why was Jozy’s goal disallowed. Looked like the keep did some crazy backflip and landed on his a$$?
It was a handball by Jozy
Was it? Looked like the ref called it a push.
Coulibaly sighting
Ghost foul on Jozys goal. Concafed. I dont know he is from but concafed.
Play Dempsey, johansson, altidore, diskerud, together!!!
Suzi n Davis suck
Rossi is out of the world cup
Wow, knee injury huh?
he was just left off
Wonder if he still thinks it was a good idea picking Italia… He’ll be 31 in 2018
It wasn’t an idea for him. It was a choice. That’s where his heart wanted to go. I despise him for it but it’s hard to be mad.
Any alternate streams? Stuck in airport with NASCAR drones controlling bar TVs.
try first row sports
Inan likes to play dirty
Geez lady liberty really wants some KFC
LOL!
Why isn’t Fabian Johnson singing the national anthem like the rest of the players? Maybe because he doesn’t even know the words. Shameful.
Oh man slow. This might not be you normally you arent that transparent and you kinda like Fabian I thought.
I thought the same thing, fake name
Harsh perhaps but come on, did no one else see that?
Hand over heart was enough for me.
Dempsey wasn’t either
Makes sense Texan.
Why didn’t Dempsey and Altidore sing?
Cameron didn’t sing either. Kick the lot off the team eh? Some people just aren’t singers.
You’re so right. He’s clearly Al Qaeda.
Will be nice if they play this same diamond formation against Ghana’s 4 4 2 system too. Hehehe
I AM EXCITED
Turkey carving injuries are at an all time high
New purple jersey for Timmy not bad.
Lalas’ reaction to that Julian Green clip was nothing less than annoying
haha what he say?
“I mean, well yeah…”
How Lalas starts every sentence.
second half sub— Yedlin for Davis (moving johnson up to LM)
Where is this game televised? Anyone know?
As in location. .NJ. it’s aired on ESPN 2.
ESPN2
When will I get my chance to kick lalas in his throat?
I’m willing to predict a 2-2 draw on some back line errors. I’m also predicting that all hell will break loose shortly thereafter.
its the battle of the crappy shields.
Altidore and Dempsey up front with bradley as the attacking midfielder in a diamond shape midfield? No goals in the first half again…..
There was a goal, a very nice one. But, yeah expecting Jr. to help shield backline and start attack and play the point? Gonna be tough in Brazil. We’re lucky to have not given up a goal.
Streaming this from Cape Town, SA! Ives, a final scoreline prediction for tonight’s game??