USA News & Notes

"This match provides another great opportunity to face quality opposition in a road environment," Coach Bob Bradley said. The Danes finished first in Group 1 of European qualifying, ahead of Portugal and Sweden.

'Til I read the second sentence, I thought Bob was referring to tomorrow night's match @ RFK...

Great friendly...better than Iran.

"Live free or die." Best state motto ever.

Aarhus, in the middle of the street
Aarhus, its our Castle and our Keep
....

Please stop with that song. I'm still scarred from the Fire fans' rendition of it.

Nice to see that Mexican refs will be doing the USA-CR match!

We should definitely schedule a friendly against the Czechs. US team have had problems being competitive against them in '90 and '06. 5-1 and 3-0 losses aren't exactly barometers of progress. Is it a case of not doing well against the Tomases (Skuhravy in '90, and Rosicky in '06) ? Maybe we just don't do well against teams that are bigger and faster (mentally and physically) than us. So a match against them before South Africa should tell us where we are and what we need to fix.

Great get, in scheduling Denmark. The USA may be a little thin in defense at that time. DeMerit's career is hanging in the balance ( http://origin.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11688_5624805,00.html ), Marshall and Hejduk may be getting ready for the MLS Cup final (who knows -- Bornstein might be, too). Hopefully, Castillo will be healthy and fit, because Boca will be needed in central defense.

I read the YA piece on Adu's game -- sounds like he did pretty well. In the first 20 minutes, he earned a corner kick and then a free kick that nearly produced a goal. When he was injured, it was on a tackle that resulted in a yellow card. It sounds as if Belenses didn't do much on offense without Adu in the second half. He's going to get his chances, and it looks like he's going to do something with his chances. Ghana's U20 about to sail into the tournament final, up 2-0 on Hungary. Wonder if Freddy would have made this team?

Whoops -- Hungary scored to close the gap with 15 minutes left.

Timmy looks on as Hamid, his potential successor (2 generations away,) practices.

http://mattmathai.smugmug.com/photos/679658127_sykYs-XL.jpg

USSF should schedule matches against these teams to it help identify our weaknesses and ways to overcome them:

Czechoslovakia
Croatia
Uruguay/Chile
South Korea/Japan
Ivory Coast/Senegal
Algeria

All these countries come from different regions and play differently than what we are used to so we will not see any surprises come June.

Ghana hanging on with a 21-14 lead in the final min... wait, wrong scoring method. Make that 3-2 in the final minutes.

And I think I just saw some CR soccer officials out my office window, doing some shopping at Pentagon City.

I have heard the Denmark game's TV rights have already been purchased and will be shown on closed circuit in Danish.

They are only showing it in select bakeries in the United States.

(rimshot)

And I think I just saw some CR soccer officials out my office window, doing some shopping at Pentagon City.

Posted by: joedoc1 | October 13, 2009 12:18 PM
----------------------------------------------------------

Sounds like another defection in progress...

Soccer scarves at the ready, check
Kids up past their bed time, check
Expensive tickets in hand, check
Celebrating qualification no matter what happens at RFK, not exactly priceless (see above), but pretty cool

I have heard the Denmark game's TV rights have already been purchased and will be shown on closed circuit in Danish.

They are only showing it in select bakeries in the United States.

(rimshot)

Posted by: IamAM

The concentration of bakeries showing the match would lie in Solvang, CA.
You right coasters might need to google Solvang to understand.

Charisma_Man, you want to us to play against a country that doesn' exist, or do you want us to play against 2 teams - the Czech Repulic and Slovakia - at the same time?

"Live free or die." Best state motto ever.

Posted by: CYork1 | October 13, 2009 11:44 AM
================

I dunno, CYork. Living a safe, protected, vanilla, pain-free life while being closely held to the bosom of the federal government has its benefits, I'm told.

Czechoslovakia

Posted by: Charisma_Man | October 13, 2009 12:11 PM

Maybe we should see if Siam, Abyssinia and Zaire are available too.

Sorry, /geography snark

@Kev29: What, no love for Belgian Congo?

I still miss the Siamese national anthem (to the tune of God Save the Queen)

Owa thana Siam...

Did you know that the national anthem of Liechtenstein is set to the tune of God Save the Queen as well?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oben_am_jungen_Rhein

IamAM -- The game will also be available at LEGOland.

Oops -- I forgot to note that the US midfield could be sorely tested, as well, since either Donovan or Holden and Clark (or all three) are likely to miss the match for MLS playoffs. Ching, as well. I guess this match will be strictly for the European-based players.

Kev29 -- it was the tune for our national anthem (My Country 'Tis of Thee) until the 1900s.

"Live free or die." Best state motto ever.

Posted by: CYork1 | October 13, 2009 11:44 AM

Definitely better than Live Free or Die Hard.

Talk about a stinker.

USSF should schedule matches against these teams to it help identify our weaknesses and ways to overcome them:

Czechoslovakia
Croatia
Uruguay/Chile
South Korea/Japan
Ivory Coast/Senegal
Algeria

All these countries come from different regions and play differently than what we are used to so we will not see any surprises come June.

Posted by: Charisma_Man

To rephrase an old saying..."jack of all styles, master of none". It is best to wait for the WC drawing to see who we play. Base the upcoming friendlies on the styles of the three teams we play in our group to be well prepared. Friendlies opponents should be as good if not better than our opponents in the WC if possible...these matches are not easy to arrange. If we make it to the round of 16, you take your chances and you have 3 recent matches of your Rnd of 16 opponent to breakdown and hope for the best....maybe we can play Mexico again? :-)

Lay off Charisma_Man about Czechoslovakia, just last night on Jeopardy, a guy had a wrong answer when he said Czechoslovakia and the answer was Czech Republic. And what the heck happened to the country of "O"???

Whoa, big bummer. From Goff Tweet:

SoccerInsider Charlie Davies in surgery after car wreck on GW Parkway. Not life threatening. Fatality involved in accident. #usmnt

From the Soccer Insider (SoccerInsider) Twitter feed:

Charlie Davies in surgery after car wreck on GW Parkway. Not life threatening. Fatality involved in accident. #usmnt

http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1784525

http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1784525

Posted by: EssEff | October 13, 2009 2:52 PM

Oh my gosh - that looks horrendous. Very sad for the young woman's family (who passed away). Hopefully Steve will have some more news on Davies' condition soon.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local-beat/One-Dead-Road-Blocked-in-GW-Parkway-Accident-64073357.html

Live Free or Die....and with our lack of seatbelt laws you can legally increase your odds of the latter!

/proud NH native
/government bosom promotion

oh crap, i didn't mean to have that look like i was making light of an accident. i had the window open for a while and didn't see the news about Davies and the death until after posting. my condolences to the family of the young woman.

but how very weird for my comment to end up being topical in an unintended way.

ESPN is reporting that Davies was in a car accident in which someone else was killed. Any more details? I assume this took place here in or around DC?

@Doug http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/13/AR2009101300297.html

Was Alecko in the car too? The poor girl's fb page showed she was a fan of Alecko. He's in town right now, according to his tweets.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Ashley-Roberta/9417379

Never mind. Alecko tweeted 4 hours ago. "What a beautiful day in Washington DC." Oblivious to the accident this morning.

Alecko was in G'town last night for MNF...

ah___ -- legolands 'bout a 1.5-2hr drive depending on traffic. It might be the smallest "International Airport" ever.

Goff- love the New Hampshuh factoid. That is wicked awesome.

Wow, we have to "BUNDLE UP" for tomorrow night's game? You mean -- parka, wool cap/facemask and scarf, snow pants, long underwear,three pairs of wool socks and antarctic hiking boots... gonna be a lot colder than the that March Harbor View game at the soccerplex a coupe years ago, huh?

What? You mean its gonna be 52-56 degrees at gametime?

So how about instead of "bundling up" like an eskimo, we do something appropriate for 50+ degree weather, namely, put on a long sleeve shirt?

Sorry - just a pet peeve of mine. This is the Southern US. People almost NEVER "bundle up" here, since a medium-weight coat almost always suffices, even in January.

From Mexico to North Korea, Sven to coach North Korea?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/oct/13/sven-goran-eriksson-north-korea