Bear Down Wildcats

As a friendly reminder the U.S. is in the Group of Death.

Group G:
Germany
Portugal
Ghana
USA

Monday June 16 @ 6 p.m.: Ghana vs. United States
Sunday June 22 @ 6 p.m.: United States vs. Portugal
Thursday June 26 @ Noon: United States vs. Germany

I don't know about everyone else but I have been enjoying ESPN's "U.S. Soccer march to Brazil."

Thanks for creating this thread.

I don't have high hopes for the US, but its always fun to watch them and the other teams play during the WC.

I don't think anyone has high hopes for the U.S. Even Ghana has ruined many of U.S. chances in the past. I am hoping that U.S. is just over looked for the bigger teams like Germany. I'm not sure what to really expect. Klinn looks like he wants to press and attack, but I'm not sure that will work to well with the group we are in

ESPN Twitter posted this on Wednesday "UPDATE: Cristiano Ronaldo has left leg tendinosis, a degeneration of tendon's collagen due to chronic overuse; still training w/ Portugal."

Don't wish any injury during the World Cup, but it wouldn't hurt US chances.

Interesting lineup today. I think it might be our best lineup.

4-2-3-1
------------Altidore----------
--Dempsey---Bradley---Bedoya---
------Jones--------Beckerman--
Beasley--Besler---Cameron-Johnson
-------------Howard-----------------

I like Beckerman as a destroyer more than Davis or Zusi on the wings. The biggest question I will have is if Dempsey can play defense for a full game.

OSUCat wrote:Interesting lineup today. I think it might be our best lineup.

4-2-3-1
------------Altidore----------
--Dempsey---Bradley---Bedoya---
------Jones--------Beckerman--
Beasley--Besler---Cameron-Johnson
-------------Howard-----------------

I like Beckerman as a destroyer more than Davis or Zusi on the wings. The biggest question I will have is if Dempsey can play defense for a full game.

I just wonder if having Altidore on the field is a waste of a position player at this point. He's supposed to be our primary striker, but I'm not sure I have any confidence he can score even a single goal.

I generally like the formation because 1) I very much think we need two DMs and 2) if we want to get Bradley more into the attacking third then the 4-2-3-1 is probably the way to do it. So put Dempsey up top and bring in Zusi for his crosses and tireless defensive work?

So now the question is: can I reverse jinx us into the knockout rounds?

Personally I'd guess that was fools gold, but we'll see.

SCCat wrote:So now the question is: can I reverse jinx us into the knockout rounds?

Personally I'd guess that was fools gold, but we'll see.

If Altidore didn't score and we played a 4-1-2-1-2 diamond I would argue for Johansson should get the start. Kinda a moot point (interesting one goal could do that). Whats really interesting with the formation USA is running is the freedom the team has on switching. Dempsey playing RM,LM, and striker. Altidore has actually played a good amount of LM and RM with his normal striker position. Jones and Beckerman has passed Bradley on numerous occasions.

It was a good half for USA.

Our defense still looks sketchy.

Nigeria has been controlling the field.

But the offense has been pretty creative and starting to click.

Nice GOAL Altidore!

I'm chuckling.

No goals/confidence in 2014. Then this five days before the start of the WC.

You have to admit that was a square square and shot for a goal.

Hope he can keep it up.

Never thought I would see Beckerman, Jones, and Bradley at the same time. Beckerman allows Jones to go forward. Jones and Beckerman allows Bradley to do what he wants.

Beasley is clearly the starting LB if Johnson is on the right. Besler and Cameron have trouble with simple clearing.

Welcome back Alitdore.

Although I hope Dempsey can put some away during the World Cup.

100% agree about Beasley starter on left and Johnson starter on right. They look pretty decent.

Our shape is completely gone with Altidore leaving and Gonzales coming on. I think we are trying to be in a 5-3-1-1 but it isn't working. Pretty sure this also means Gonzales shouldn't see the field during the world cup.

So now that we've seen what we've seen, it's time to play "shotcaller" where we post what we think will be our starting line up for Ghana.

Howard

Beasley, Besler, Cameron, Johnson

Jones, Beckerman

Dempsey, Bradley, Zusi

Altidore


So basically I think the line up we see for Ghana will be very similar to what we saw with Nigeria with the one change being Zusi at right midfield for Bedoya.

I also agree that we will likely see the 4-2-3-1 that we saw against Nigeria.

Howard

Beasley, Besler, Cameron, Johnson

Jones, Beckerman

Dempsey, Bradley, Bedoya

Altidore

Subs with the lead:
Brooks for Beckerman
Mix for Bedoya
Zusi for Altidore or Dempsey

Subs when down goals:
Johasson for Beckerman
Mix for Bedoya
open for tiredness and injury

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/soc ... ?tid=sm_fb

How to stream the World Cup the legal way. I'm sure the standbys like First Row Sports are available.

WORLD CUP!!!!!!!!

Love watching the 30 for 30, US Soccer March to Brazil. I'm not a big soccer fan but it's got me pumped!

so i know really nothing about soccer and the last time i watched it was about 20 minutes combined of the 2010 world cup. i have no idea how soccer time goes. i know there are 45 minute halves, but the end of every wc game i watched 4 years ago went some random amount of like 1-10 minutes past the end time. why was there no rhyme or reason to when it ended? games just seem to end whenever the referee feels like they should end because he gets bored...i don't understand it at all haha.

My word.

Oh. My. God.

i went outside to water the tomatoes and i missed the croatia goal haha

ASUHATER! wrote:i went outside to water the tomatoes and i missed the croatia goal haha

Own goal on deflected cross.

It was stunning.

ASUHATER! wrote:so i know really nothing about soccer and the last time i watched it was about 20 minutes combined of the 2010 world cup. i have no idea how soccer time goes. i know there are 45 minute halves, but the end of every wc game i watched 4 years ago went some random amount of like 1-10 minutes past the end time. why was there no rhyme or reason to when it ended? games just seem to end whenever the referee feels like they should end because he gets bored...i don't understand it at all haha.

The official time is kept on the field by the head referee. He stops it whenever someone is hurt or there is a penalty, etc. The time shown on the clock (the TV) is a non-stop ticking clock that continues ticking. It's up to the ref to when time is up. (I THINK)

that seems like a dumb and corrupt way to run a sporting event to let one guy just decide when to end it....

Got involved in a blind pool at work and just found out I got Mexico.

FML

ASUHATER! wrote:that seems like a dumb and corrupt way to run a sporting event to let one guy just decide when to end it....

It's so the game doesn't get held up with the refs having to coordinate with the time keeper. But that's one of several things that makes the sport more curious than it has to be.

Longhorned wrote:

ASUHATER! wrote:that seems like a dumb and corrupt way to run a sporting event to let one guy just decide when to end it....

It's so the game doesn't get held up with the refs having to coordinate with the time keeper. But that's one of several things that makes the sport more curious than it has to be.

Maybe it's me, but that's what makes the sport a little unique. So much subjectivity involved, especially when it comes referee calls (e.g. foul calls). when your team is behind you are hoping for generous stoppage time - over 3 minutes - and when you are ahead just the opposite.

Anyway, in this game Brazil came out really sluggish but I expect them to do enough in the second half to walk away with a win.

The vagaries of international football are many

It's part of the sport's blessing/curse

or they could just stop the clock like every other sport does and then end it after 90 minutes haha. add a 5 minute OT if it is tied...

That seemed like a bullshit call in the brazil/croatia game.

The fix is in.

Definitely BS. Also was an interesting Fred Flintstone running start.

How was that not the tying goal?

The Croatian goal keeper sucks

Yeah, Croatia got hosed on the PK, but their keeper is terrible.

Not impressed with Brazil. The PK was bs, and Croatia should have a second goal. The Croatia GK was bad, that third goal should be saved at the high school level.

Mexico looks good in the first seven minutes

There's the "vagaries of international football" and then there's whatever this is...

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOal

Mexico - 1 Cameroon - 0

EDIT:

FINAL SCORE ;

MEXICO 1
CAMEROON 0

Damn RVP, don't hurt 'em!

Spain might be out after this game on GD alone

isn't spain supposed to be good? haha

ASUHATER! wrote:isn't spain supposed to be good? haha

This is a rematch of the 2010 final.

It is going very differently this time around.

ASUHATER! wrote:isn't spain supposed to be good? haha

Confederations Cup final last summer (Brazil 3, Spain 0) started showing the Spanish cracks. This year's club performances for many of these Spanish players (read: Barcelona players) were not very good to compound those issues.

That said, I thought this game might see a listless 1-1 draw as this was the first game for both teams so they are both more focused on getting points later on. I thought Spain would stumble through the group stage, basically barely qualifying for the knockout rounds and then being beaten in the round of 16 or 8 (so never being much of a real contender to win it).

I had no idea we'd see a 5-1 beatdown by the Dutch.

Bruins01 wrote:

ASUHATER! wrote:isn't spain supposed to be good? haha

This is a rematch of the 2010 final.

It is going very differently this time around.

A true revenge game , how sweet is that !

I hope the Spanish players didn't spend any of the 1 million dollar bonuses they would have received for a repeat gold cup .

Well that was a fun game.

Chile 2, Australia 0 in the 14'.