Jozy and the Nats

USA! USA! USA!

lineup for USA
--------Johnson-----Adu----------
Lewis---Edu---Bradley----Dempsey--
Pearce-Bocanegra-Onyewu-Cherundolo-
-----------Howard---------------

Bocanegra is a corpse. No way he stays in the Premiership.

Lewis is useful, but he is 34...what will they do to replace him? You would think this would be the time to get a young winger in the mix so that come South Africa, they are battle-hardened.

Goff,

Were you channeling Elton John when you though that headline (Benny & the Jets)???

Yes! Elton John, of course

However, Olsen/USA headlines have worked better: Benny and the Nats

;-)

Isn't the Spain game on delay? if so why cant i find a matchtracker for it? Anyone know the final score?

US/Spain starts at 4PM only on espn360.com. I believe ESPN Classic is showing it at 5:30 and Galavision is at 7.

As I said at the top, kickoff is at 4 p.m. ET

TV is tape delay at 5:30 on ESPN2 and at 7 on Galavision

isnt lewis like 45 or something? Time to try a young stud at the left wing....

Gilbert,

When in doubt track it on the USSF homepage...mayeb not live tracking, but at least they will update scoring...

http://www.ussoccer.com/

Is the link to Matchtracker on ussoccer.com not working for anyone else? Anywhere else to find match updates?

Fernando Torres just scored his 3rd goal

It's like the US defense isn't even on the field yet.

time to stop reading the blog until i get a chance to watch the game later tonight!

what are you guys talking about. the game hasn't started yet

For some weird reason I thought it had to do with "Josie and the Pussycats"...

-----------------

Yes! Elton John, of course

However, Olsen/USA headlines have worked better: Benny and the Nats

;-)

Posted by: Goff | June 4, 2008 3:44 PM

Maybe try this:

http://espndeportes.espn.go.com/futbol/match?id=238274&league=FIFA.FRIENDLY

Fernando Torres just scored his 3rd goal

Posted by: Ameobi | June 4, 2008 3:57 PM
================

He would have 5 by now, but he was offside for the first 2 :-)

Oh yeah! addo, thanks for pointing that out. phew.

Anyone have a guess whether tonight's United game will get delayed/cancelled? According to weather.com's interactive maps, there are two more storms headed our way with an estimated ETA for kick-off. They don't look quite a strong as this first one, but you never know.

Trivia Question for the Trivia folks:
Has United ever had a game cancelled because of weather?

(I don't have an answer)

Just to clarify for the humor-impaired, the Torres "goals" are all part of the pregame blog fun. Game hasn't kicked off yet.

There was a game stopped at halftime before against I think Kansas City.

Was wondering the same thing about tonights game? Tysons Corner area got a good whipping from the first of the 3 storms.

First minute and Spain is dominating possession!

Johnson offside in the 3 minute. That means we're in their half. YES!

Pearce is getting toasted at Left back

In the 7th minute, the Spanish fans are starting to whistle at the conservative play from their side.

Both teams just playing keep-away, nothing interesting happening at all. Adu with a nifty little move to create space.

Dempsy and Casillas collide on a Bocanegra free kick.

Spain with a dangerous header as Boca and Gooch loose a mark in between them. Howard with a decent save. That's a goal on Wells.

Spanish should have one. Guy turned an open header into the upper deck. Well not quite

Bradley with a slide-tackle in the box on Torres -- he always makes me nervous when he goes to ground...

Ramos loses Bocanegra on the ensuing corner and heads it ineffectually.

Howard makes a hash of a high ball,but then palms it to safety

Pearce with a nice shutdown on Torres.

Cross swerves on Howard and he is forced to flail at it, Wells-style.

Adu cuts one from the line to the six, just missing Dempsey!

edgeontou, where are you watching?

Adu slips one into Johnson, who scores!

But was offside...

im not watching the game, but am i correct in guessing adu is probably the best usa player so far?

ESPN360.com

Howard smothers a low shot from Torres.

damn, thanks

Adu is consistently making things happen.

Completely different from having Josh "Lawnmower Man" Wolff on.

edgeonyou
keep the updates coming. im still stuck @ work and dont get espn360.

Anyone have a guess whether tonight's United game will get delayed/cancelled?
===========
According to behindthebadge it is on track.

edgeonyou rules

Ref is consistently letting the game flow. Letting body on body stuff go, lots of playing the advantage, etc.

Sorry people, I'm only good until the end of naptime... Probably another 15 minutes.

US with some nice possession, forcing Spain to bunker. Then Spain responds in kind.

Adu's foot stepped on, foul!

Free kick from 30 yards, and Eddie Lewis hits it just high and wide of the upper corner.

Spanish fans whistling at their team again...

Nice quick buildup by Spain foiled by a timely tackle at the top of the box by Gooch (I think).

come on, ask them to please go back to sleep! for us!

fyi, justintv.com is streaming it for free.

freddy is playing well but has lost a number of possessions. pearce not doing well on defense, but ironically has pushed up hard and has been useful on the attack. johnson had a goal that was offside. freddy had a free kick that curled just over the crossbar. johnson just had an acute angle shot blocked by the keeper.

US playing balls mainly on the ground. Much better possession overall than vs. England. Still the problem of no #10... Everything's totally predictable as the US moves up the field. The only person who seems able to change that equation is Adu.

We're in the 38 th minute.

Hey guys, if you go to channelsurfing.net, you can get a streaming version of the game. It's of so-so quality (and there's no English commentary), but it's fluid and watchable (and the names you can recognize).

Overall, much better showing from the US in the first half than they put forth against England the other day. Adu's been much more effective than I expected.

Adu with a quick unexpected long flick to EJ, who is able to use his speed to beat the defender to the ball. Shoots at a tough angle forcing the keeper to parry out of bounds. US fouls on the ensuing corner.

This follows some sustained Spanish pressure around the US box.

That was Lewis with the free kick that went high, not Adu.

argh! stream has frozen!

Also, that's Edu who's losing possession a lot, not Adu.

stream back up, but appears like halftime

Adu wins another foul with studs to the back of his calf.

Scoreless at halftime.

That's the score I expect for tonight's United game.

any guesses as to the changes we make @ half? Jaqua for EJ? Beas for Lewis?

EJ is playing better than I've seen him play before.

OK... I'll hang on a long as possible, but baby duty beckons...

Overall, US looks much better than vs. England. Not sure if that's cause Spain is a little more casual about the game or an actual upgrade in play. Spain's definitely had the better chances, but it's been far more even than I expected.

In terms of the two different dudes in the lineup:

Edu > Clark (although he is giving it away a little too easily)
Adu >>>>>> Wolff

Curious to see how the 2nd half plays out. I would expect both teams to turn up the intensity a notch.

start of 2nd: bunker hard and quick counter...just like a Mexico match!

Heydujk in for Cherolundolo.
Guzan in for Howard.

I think Adu is out, commentators think it was due to a minor injury from being fouled.

did we just sub out adu? so we take out our best player. huh????

Bocanegra hurt from collision with Spanish player. Holding knee. Not serious.

Ugh. EJ receives a long ball in stride running at the defender and instead of taking him on and using his speed, he stops the ball, looks, and crosses across the field, compleltely killing the momentum.

Moments later.

EJ misses a point blank header inside the six from a great Eddie Lewis ball. YOU HAVE GOT TO BURY THAT!

Beasley in Adu, I think Dempsey has moved into Adu's withdrawn forward position. Commentators say that Adu got an ankle ding and that's why he came out.

Lots of subs in for Spain (including the leading goal scorer from La Liga), looking much more dangerous. Guzan looks like he'll get some work. (FYI, they claim that Guzan will start for Chivas tomorrow).

apparently the spanish goal is to spike each of our players in the calf. dempsey just got his turn.

im fine with adu coming out if he is hurt. just too bad he cant play the entire game. Im hoping to leave soon to watch the game on espn2.

Senna should get booked for the two-legged scissor tackle from behind on Dempsey... and yet... no card... Hmmm, I feel like I've seen that called a straight red by some refs!

Spain is dominating possesion, but the fans are starting to whistle again.

Seems like they're either trying to be too cute in the final attack (a la Jaime) or just don't have their A-game touch.

MLS style shanked shot from the 18 by a Spanish player...

xavi is a punk

Another sketchy tackle from Bradley gives Spain a free kick from the top of the 18... He does this kind of thing far too often.

Off the post!

At this point (60th minute), it's hard to see how the US is going to score. I predict Spain nets two in the next 30.

i would have disagreed with edge's prognosis, but wolff just subbed in for lewis. now i agree

Great series of passes leads to close shot off post for Spain. That should be a goal... Spain is dominating... No US possession or flow. Harkes blames the loss of Adu.

Crowd in Spain is pretty spare...

Anyone have a guess whether tonight's United game will get delayed/cancelled? According to weather.com's interactive maps, there are two more storms headed our way with an estimated ETA for kick-off. They don't look quite a strong as this first one, but you never know.

Trivia Question for the Trivia folks:
Has United ever had a game cancelled because of weather?

(I don't have an answer)

Posted by: TCompton | June 4, 2008 4:09 PM

MLS All-Star Game at RFK in 2002(?) was rain delayed in the middle by one freaky storm for about 30 minutes. Why they played the second half through the puddles I will never know.

Sorry, "sparse" crowd... as in, lots of empty seats, not a lot of atmosphere.

In the 70th minute now...

US conceeds corner #6.

harkes is working the broadcast? maybe i wont watch the tape delay.

xavi scores

Eddie Johnson = really bad player. Why is he even on the team.

Freddy has looked good (watching on the delay)

Dempsey has looked bad. seriously bad. lazy and a poor touch.

Johnson doesn't look like he sucks, which is a massive improvement from him.

Where's the pregame thread? Where's the turkey, Chuck? Where's the mashed potatoes? Where's the pumpkin pie?

Heading to RFK.

It's time to start Adu up top with Landon(INJ?) or Altidore vs Argentina. E.Johnson should find a job kicking slow grounders to Babe Ruth league kids, would be perfect for him. Dempsey is in a serious funk and it's time to get him a seat on the bench. Boca's lack of playing time is really showing last 2 matches. Overall a better match vs Spain than Engalnd, but God help us vs an all star Argenitina lineup on sunday eve.

This is after the fact, but:

75th minute, EJ passes back to Bradley, whose touch goes straight to a Spanish player whom he then has to grab as he busts by with the ball, earning a yellow.

Classic.

man our forwards suck. it's time to start begging mcbride to come back, praying that altidore doesn't bust and hoping that someday johnson will reach the wolff level of mediocrity. im slapping myself as i write this but at this point i might just bring twellman back until a decent player emerges.

dempsey is the new bornstein

It seems to me that the USMNT has regressed of late. Wish the powers that be had manned up and paid for Klinsmann. I hate to say it, but Eriksson was a brilliant get for Mexico.

Bradley could not carry Klinsmann's, Erikkson's, Mourihno,'s, etc. shoes. Bradley just does not have the talent to compete on the world stage with the best coaches.

At least it doesn't cost anything for me to dream of better days.

at least the announcing crew of JP and Harkes has been pretty good.

So what really happened? Who won? Who scored? How many? I do know that only Adu and Donovan is worthy of mentioning but sounds like Adu is now injured and so is so is Donovan. Can we get a decent forign coach now? Russian coach will be available.

That was a really nice goal for Spain. That wasn't very good defending by Onyewu, he sure got his ankles broke. Absolutely no communication b/w Onyewu and Bocanegra.

If Freddy Adu is not penciled in as a starter from this moment forward, Bob Bradley should be fired. He's head and shoulders above every other American technically, he showed that he now has the strength to hang with the big men (i.e. when he held off two spanish defenders in the corner, then ended up beating them down the endline), and he's one of two players that doesn't show fear or timidity on the field (Dempsey being the other).

He's ALREADY the best player the US has. Take that how you want (either sad because he's the best player at 19, or great because we definitely have one bright future with him at the helm).

Please don't let me see E.J. out there any more, any forward worth a lick heads home that cross. It's not even the difference between world class and average, it's the difference between average and pub league.
Jaqua, anyone?

On a positive note, Freddy looked quite capable--the only US player with composure AND creativity...

Spain wins 1-0 on a goal by Xavi, who receives the ball and proceeds to dribble through four defenders (Bradley, Gooch, Bocanegra, Heydude) en route to slotting it home.

However the best chance of the game was EJ's point blank header from the six...

What this game taught us:
-- Wolff = Poo
-- Dempsey = The Invisible Man
-- Adu = Starter
-- Guzan = Solid
-- Edu = Too Many Turnovers
-- Beasley = Rusty

For the life of me, I can't understand going into the defensive crouch for the second half. We've got a decent defensive squad, and Guzan is a good keeper (Howard was fantastic in the first half, by the way), but letting a dangerous group like the Spaniards spend the entire half with the ball at their feet on your side of the field is just asking for trouble. No matter how solid your defense, sooner or later, they're gonna catch you sleeping and get an easy goal, which is just what happened.

And what this team needs is to find ways to put the ball in the net. Our best chances go wasted because nobody can even get a shot on goal, let alone a cheap goal on a rebound.

Freddy is the only player showing some creativity and resourcefulness, and he's the only one who looks like he can create scoring opportunities at the moment. I think Johnson can be a scorer, but he's not going to progress getting as few chances as he's gotten. Clint Dempsey went into witness protection a couple of months ago. Frankie Hedjuk's been a pleasant surprise.

Bring back Brian McBride!!!

All in all, a better showing than last week, but that's d@mning with the faintest of praise.

bb