Sunday, July 26, 2009

USA Lineup vs. Mexico

The United States starts the final with the same lineup that earned a victory in the previous game against Honduras:

Perkins; Heaps, Marshall, Goodson, Pearce; Holden, Beckerman, Pause, Rogers; Arnaud, Ching (capt.)

- On the bench for the U.S.: Busch, Evans, Cooper, Quaranta, Clark, Cronin, Parkhurst

37 comments:

Unknown said...

Why doesn't Cooper get a fair shake in these games? Ching has been playing for a while with the national team, and we pretty much know what he can do, yet Cooper doesn't get much time to showcase what he can do.

The Ching situation is Eddie Johnson 2.0

nmjsoccer9 said...

well at least mexico can finally have some glory beating our b squad with their a squad. On a side not Brian Ching is absolute garbage, he should not even be condered for the world cup. He is the laziest forward ever, charlie davies is way better

Army of Dad said...

Fire Bob Bradley now!

Tyler Loosier said...

Why do we sit our stars in the second cup final of the year? Bob Bradley is a good coach but come on. Let's win one to get a boost going into the World Cup.

AdamTheRed said...

Good job not bringing in Clark and Jozy Bob.


FAIL!

Hugo F. Scheckter said...

Not a single one of those players should ever play for USA again. A disgrace every single one of them. 5-0 loss to Mexico at Home? What the hell.

Anonymous said...

How come Donovan and other first string players are not playing in any of the Gold Cup games? Is it because they need to play in the MLS games that are being played?

Thanks

Unknown said...

I agree with Roland.

I'm saddened by the outcome.

USfanCA said...

I was really disappointed with the way the US lost in the 2nd half. The entire defense and the coaches need to go back to the drawing board on how to set up an offside trap. The Mexican offense was running freely and scoring at will through a porous US defense in the 2nd half. The team just lost their heads after yielding the 1st goal!!!!

Unknown said...

Tough loss to Mexico!!! I'm just wondering why we didn't play some regulars against Mexico? I payed good money to see us win the gold cup and was greatly disappointed. I hope there was a learning experience behind it.

Anonymous said...

good job for mexico, but such a score reveals USA was playing with very young players. Mexico was playing with young players too, but they are much more experienced and better. I hope to see the best USA players against Mexico's best Aug 12th.

This tournament was a great experience for the US team. Now they need to learn from it and hit mexico where it really hurts: WC Qualifying in Azteca.

PS. let's play all 90 minutes this time, regardless if it's 5-0, 10-0 or 100-0.

Unknown said...

well, just another way the US can show their arrogance—Not taking our continental tournament seriously. "Hey, we don't give a sh*t about this Cup, only tournaments in European countries." I mean, c'mon.

I get that we need to develop our jr. players but playing an untested team in the final of a cup tournament and getting our ass handed to us just looks very bad and actually hurts the reputation of US soccer.

5 to zip!!!! I can't wait to hear the coaches try to explain this disaster.

Hey Bradley, thanks for leaving me sitting in a bar in NYC with my US jersey on feeling like a complete IDIOT!!

pmax said...

Ching isn't garbage and he isn't lazy. He just doesn't get a lot of support up front and opposing defenses hammer him incessantly. When he can't get anything going up front he runs back to prop up the midfield or even help on defense, like he was doing constantly today. It's a disappointing loss, but don't forget how well they played to get to the final in the first place. I think it was a mental letdown and loss of confidence more than anything else. We dominated the first half.

Winston said...

What a momentum killer before a BIG and important qualifier in Mexico next month. Embarrassing.

Dude said...

Hopefully this young team learned a little about response under pressure. The true test of a team is how they respond to difficult situations. Once the flood gates opened, there was no resistance. I think that kind of composure comes with age and experience, and maybe that wasn't our strength today. Bradley is not to blame. This was just the logical outcome when you put a B-level (or C-level) team against an A-team. This time Mr. T was the victor.

Unknown said...

I am disgusted in the outcome of the final every player that was in the field don't deserve to wear the U.S. jersey we need to get Mexico BIG in August 12.

doorworker said...

Almost headed up to the bar to watch this one...good thing I stayed home.

Well, MLS can feel...good. A field half-full of their players warded off any European teams that might've been tempted to lure anyone away with a contract.

The 'suck it, yanqui' face of the final scorer that's front and center on the nytimes website right now is a pretty humbling thing to have come across. What the hell happened? The first half was fairly evenly matched!

One thing was that some of our skinnier dudes were getting manhandled. Which begs the question of why Cooper wasn't put on much sooner.

Julio said...

This is definitely not good, even though none of these players will be in the starting team on august 12 in the Azteca; this is what comes to my mind:

1. The “A/B” team of Mexico beat the US “B” team 5-0. So that means that the US “A” team will lose only 2-0? However, because the game will be in the Azteca should we add 2 extra goals since the Azteca is the 13th player for Mexico? So, another 4 or 5 to zero sound about right?

2. As far as Roland comments in the beginning, coaches always have a few players that trust no matter what and they will be always on the field. Torrado is one example for the coach J. Aguirre. My guess is Ching is for Bradley. I agree with pmax, Ching is not garbage, but it is slow and cannot keep the paste and speed that we need at this point. The players need to understand that in final game, YOU CANNOT MISS YOUR CHANCES TO SCORE. We had clear chances to score before them, but we did not, and this is what you get. Like we say in Spanish “El que no pone, se hace poner”

3. It is not fun so see how we lost 2 finals in a row. Today’s game was embarrassing, and I had to force my eyes to keep watching to the end. After the penalty kick everybody went up like little kids from elementary school. There was plenty of time to keep the same discipline slow down the paste and try to tie the game. I do not know how they panic so easily. We just need to try to get one goal to force the extra time, re-organize the team and keep playing…or worse to worse lose 1-0

4. Being positive I could say that B.Bradley has now an advantage because in a way he tested the Mexican team that will be the based on August 12th. So, Bradley has time to figure out who is going to stop Dos Santos, Vela, Franco and Medina…

I will do my best to forget and ignore this game while my Mexican friends will rub this victory in my face, I am extremely angry and I am doing a huge effort to not let my emotions to write this note.

I said before and I am going to say it again. I think B.Bradley is a good coach. However, this game was another opportunity to realize, that as long as things are happening the way he plans, we are ok, and victories can come. But, as soon as the game changes direction and thing are not happening as expected, he has no clue what to do.

"L" said...

We will be waiting you; August 12 in the magnificient Aztec Stadium...

120,000 persons; 7000 feet above sea level, 15:00 hrs with the biggest and polluted city in the world.

It will not be easy, but is a challenge for you. C'mon try to win us, we will be waiting you...

You have all to win and nothing to lose...

Greetings From Mexico and today, we are the best team in concancaf!

Popochas said...

Not here to mock, but to say good match! However, I do have to ask: what happened? There was a moment in the 2nd half that I wat thinking "why aren't they defending? They're just standing there...." Obviously, this helps our morale, and you guys didn't use your best wepons (Donovan, Onyewu, etc), so I think the next match is going to be something completely different... By the way, I saw some comments about us using our A team against your B or C team... well, we were using our B team, at least that's how they named it here in Mexico, our "European players" didn't come... Well, you win some, you loose some, but just keep it up, you have an excellent team!

Unknown said...

i can't believe it!! 5-0!!! come on! how do you let in 5 goals. that group should be ashamed and they are an embarrassment to soccer and this country. all the work USA has done has been trashed by these buffoons that played in the gold cup. NONE should be called for the "A" national team! now i have to take the heat from all the mexicans at work! :( :( :(

MadMexican said...

the fact that Bradley said at his press conference, that he doesn't know what went wrong, can't explain why there were so few defenders, clearly shows he must be fired.
Isn't he the bloody coach? He played two at the back for the last half hour. Both fullbacks went missing for nearly 30 minutes, and Bradley can't figure it out. After the game, both Marshall and Goodson should have beat the p.$$ out of them and the coach. USMNT, not to late to remove this fool.

Unknown said...

Ching seemed to walk the whole time...
the defense absolutely was non existent in the 2nd half... where was the heart??? its amazing how fast the whole team lost it... they should have pulled some fans from audience to play..
No words to express...

Ky said...

Doorworker: Spot on comment reference European league contracts. Maybe next time we could just get the European players in the MLS to play for us, they already are here.....

lagunetro said...

Mexico # 1

wilde man said...

have to disagree Dude, I think coach bob has to shoulder a lot of the blame on this one. the boys played well in the 1st half, then lost it in the 2nd. they could not even run the offside trap, pretty basic stuff. These show lack of preparation, and thus poor coaching. Even if it was a mexican A-team (which it wasn't), 0-5 is embarrasing. shame on you bob.

rep21 said...

What I really love is how people keep calling this a young team. Their average age is like 26 or 27 years old! Ridiculous.

i like tuesday said...

I think the U.S. MNT Blog has gone into hiding. No post following the 5-0 yesterday.
To be honest, I'm not that bothered about the loss - you simply can't have your best players playing two tournaments the year before the World Cup. It was definitely best to see the European-based players to head back to their clubs for preseason. So what did we learn?

First, we learned that our second 22 players are good enough to beat anyone in CONCACAF save Mexico. However, you can't bring your second 22 players to a final against Mexico without any veteran presence. With hindsight, calling in a couple more experienced MLS players for the final might not have been a bad idea though.

Second, we learned that US Soccer needs to push CONCACAF towards holding the gold cup every 4 years, 2 years after the world cup rather than the current schedule. For the top teams, there's no point in playing it every two years. The US should look for an invite to Copa America the year following the World Cup (2011), play the Gold Cup the following year (2012) and play the Confederations Cup the year before the World Cup (2013) if they qualify, or arrange a "US Cup" friendly invitational tournament if they do not.

Third, a US victory at Azteca is needed to reassert our dominance and restake our claim to the CONCACAF seeded spot in the WC draw. This spot definitely eases the path to the second round, and Mexico always seems to be the beneficiary. Victory will put Mexican qualification in difficulty and makes the politics of the situation moot.

THE FLINT SKINNY said...

I believe there is a limited amount of time that players can be away from their club teams, which is why we didn't have any of the stars on this team. I for one would rather have the top tier players in the WC qualifiers, like the next game away against Mexico. Call it arrogant or whatever you want, but this tourney didn't really mean anything with the WC next year. We played the stars last year because by winning it we got a spot in the Confed Cup and therefore some experience down in South Africa.

That being said, they looked like an absolute joke out there. I don't care if they are the B(or C?) squad, they couldn't do anything right. It was embarrassing to see our defense getting owned repeatedly.

Let's get a big win down in Azteca, and we can forget all about this past game.

i like tuesday said...

@Julio:
On point 1, just calm down a bit. The result of this game has no bearing on what will happen in Azteca. Any team can beat any other on any given day in football, that is part of the beauty of the game. We treated this tournament as an opportunity to experiment with new players. Mexico's young attackers had a great day and scored 5 because our young players completely lost composure after the first goal. Everyone was in the attack trying to score immediately - everyone was trying and failing play the killer pass, leaving our central defenders stranded and exposed to the counterattack. This kind of thing just will not happen with our best 22 players, and hopefully it will teach our younger players a lesson they wouldn't have learned if the score had been 1-0. When the opposing team is ascendant, first stop their momentum by staying tight at the back, being patient, keep some possession and realize you have plenty of time to score.

The harsher fact is that Bradley did not have his young players mentally prepared for the possibility that they would go behind to Mexico. That is managerial negligence in my book. Unfortunately I think he's the guy through the World Cup, but after the US should be taking a fresh look at options.

Unknown said...

Guys, you really shouldn't be concerned about the result. Our objective was met, which was to evaluate new players with little national team experience.

The only thing I was concerned about was that some players didn't get a fair look. In particular, I would have liked to have seen Colin Clark and Cooper a bit more. I think both showed good promise this season and I don't think you could say that they had a fair amount of time to prove themselves.

Unknown said...

I think everyone needs to calm down a bit about this loss. 5-0 looks embarrassing, and quite frankly it is. But there's no reason why this game has to affect how a completely different US team (as far as players go) plays against Mexico on August 12. I seem to remember the pre-tournament expectations for the MNT being focused on getting to the semis or hopefully the finals. While it would have been fun to watch a final with Jozy Altidore, Jonathan Bornstein, and Charlie Davies playing, it just wasn't realistic to expect that. Maybe having Jimmy Conrad would have helped in the second half...

Dude said...

Another point worth making is that the U.S. team that will be playing at Azteca recently beat Spain and nearly upset Brazil in a much, much bigger tournament.

Unknown said...

Cesar said that mexico didn't call up their european players yet Vela, Dos Santos and Franco play in europe. he doesnt even know his own national team!! LOL!! oh boy...

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to inform everyone that thinks US lost to Mexico because Mexico had their a squad and US had their b squad. Mexico had their b squad just as US had theirs.

US didn't play Donovan, Davies, Johnson...

Mexico didn't play Blanco, Salcido, Osorio, Marquez, Pardo.


Honestly, I don't think US will win come August 12. US lost in NY, it'll be a lot tougher to win in Mexico City.

Unknown said...

Look guys it was both 2 young teams. And it wasnt mexicos A team they did have 3 players from the U17 World Champion woot woot haha another championship we won just saying it was bascially a U25 team "b" team. And usa future seems hopless still playing the same old ppl. and mexico has been working on there young team for quite awhile thats why they havnt been doing well .. now thats all changed. haha 5-0 cmon. even fifa and ching said it was embarrassing losing a final like that. And usa player play dirty as he!! gaww every tournament they play in theres a red card for example how do you get 3 red cards in a tournament that isnt long in the Conferdations Cup and losing 3-2 when you could of won 2-0 what a shame! Dirty players i must say mexico is goin to beat usa Aug. 12 and from that only 4 players form the gold cup is playing that game. This is where its going to get good.

bluekrod said...

What?! an A team, you will see an A team coming Aug. 12 for Mexico. The lineup for Mexico came out and its looking unbeatable. Just going to name some of them: Dos Santos, Vela, Nery, Marquez, Guardado, Ochoa so I say call up your best USA call up Jozy, Donovan, Davies, Howard, Bocanegra and Onyewu( btw best US DF). Mexico will put a fight can't wait to see the game.