Wednesday, August 22, 2007

The First XI

Without further ado, the team that will trot out against Sweden for the first meeting between the nations since 1995:

Howard

Cherundolo   Onyewu   Bocanegra (c)   Bornstein

Bradley          Mastroeni
Feilhaber*                                                  Beasley

Donovan           Dempsey

Brian Ching was a late scratch from the starting lineup after suffering a left calf strain. Benny Feilhaber has replaced him, and Landon Donovan will slide up top from his wing midfield position.

The U.S. is deploying a familiar formation, using two central midfielders in deeper positions and pushing Donovan and Beasley out wide. Carlos Bocanegra earns his 50th cap tonight, while Donovan closes in on history.

His next goal will place him at the top of the USA's all-time goalscoring list and would also give him the record for most goals in one year. Any point he picks up will mean the record for most points in a single year as well.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

That's a nice first XI...NOW. How about in 2014. After the u-20 world cup, i got to thinking about the 2014 world cup. This is the first XI that i came up with.

Howard

Simek
Gooch
Wallace
Spector

Zizzo
Bradley
Adu
Szetela

Donovan
Altidore

what do you think?

Lucas said...

On ussoccer.com right now:

"GOTEBORG, Sweden (August 21, 2007) - The U.S. Men’s National Team is scoreless after the first 45 minutes against Sweden. Despite scoring opportunities on both sides, the defenses have held strong. Tim Howard denied Zlatan Ibrahimovic from close range and then got some help from the post to keep the score 0-0. Watch the second half on Fox Soccer Channel and Galavision, and of course, follow online on ussoccer's MatchTracker"

Where is the link for the match tracker?

Anonymous said...

ummm where in the hell is feilhaber in your XI there. Theres no way bradley goes in over feilhaber

Unknown said...

Hopefully Donovan will retire before 2010, let alone 2014. He is worthless.

I'd replace Spector with Pierce and move him into the center alongside gooch. But Wallace was outstanding in Canada so we'll see.

Unknown said...

Oh an another thing...

Where the hell was a center forward today? Donovan and Dempsey? Bad choices together up front. We essentially played a 4-6-0 today.