USA 1 Argentina 1

I didn't watch this whole match, only about 60% of it.  And it is only a friendly, which the US probably took far more seriously than their South American opponents.  But I thought the Americans were impressive.  They spent a lot of time defending, however they did a good job of it, their positioning was solid, some of the young players looked very capable, and whenever the US did put together an attack, there was really a sense of a legitimate threat.

Stuart Holden will be missed on both sides of the Atlantic, but the US actually looks better equipped than Bolton to cope in his absense.

Stuart Holden

The American midfielder has been Bolton's player of the season without a doubt, but now he is out for six months.  Just a terrible blow for the club as well as the player, who has had bad luck time and again in his young career.

I just hope that Holden can come back as good, or even better, than he has been this season.  At 25, he should be just entering the peak of his footballing powers.  The worst part is that it looks like he will miss the start of next season as well.  He his having surgery today, hopefully we will know more after that.  Just gutted with this news.

Stuart Holden Starts for The USA

I thought Holden would be a breakout star for the US at the World Cup, but he didn't get on the pitch.  In hindsight, he wasn't really fit after a rushed recovery from a broken leg.  However, he has been a revelation for Bolton in the center of the midfield through the first two months of the season.  Holden gets to show his versatility tonight though, as he is starting on the right wing for the US against Poland. 

I just hope he doesn't get injured again on international duty.  His poise on the ball and distribution in midfield is critical to the way Bolton play under Owen Coyle.  And let's face it, in between World Cups the US has a 3 year lull until qualifying for the next tournament begins.

USA v. Ghana

This game will come down to the defenders in the middle of the park. Which center-back pairing will hold up to the pressure created by the size and pace of the opposition?

Thing is, I don't know the answer. All of Africa is going to be behind Ghana, the stadium will be a madhouse. The Americans have encountered crowds like this before in places like the Azteca. Or maybe Landon Donovan has made us all believe that anything is possible.

USA 1, Ghana 1.

And on penalties...Ghana.

USA Win Group C, England Advance!

You will all have to excuse me if I am a little discombobulated, I have just got off a two hour roller coaster ride. Wow!

The disjointed, disinterested, disappointing English squad of the last two weeks was nowhere to be found today. Fabio Cappello made a couple changes, nothing too drastic. The English tabloids wanted Joe Cole, but he was the same place he has been for most of the competition, on the bench.

England scored early, and dominated possession for most of the match. Slovenia had a few decent moments, but looked nothing like the team the US played against a few days ago. This result was in little doubt.

That left the USA needing a victory over Algeria. This match was bit more even, although the US created loads of good chances. They even had a good goal ruled out for the second time in this tournament. They left it late. Boy, did they ever leave it late!

If the US is to continue to perform well in this tournament, Landon Donavon will have to put the team on his back and carry them. He is their best player, their most talented player, their most experienced player, and now he needs to be their leader.

Dour Predictions

I am afraid it is going to be a sad day in the states. England beat Slovenia, the US draw with Algeria, and the two European countries go through. I hope I am wrong, but the US team has just been too inconsistent to make me think they can breakdown an Algerian side that is very adept at holding the ball and slowing the game down.

Group C

This is the one that everybody in the US is playing special attention to. It was thought that English speaking countries would waltz through to the knockout stages, leaving the smaller countries of Slovenia and Algeria in the dust. Boy was that wrong.

I actually theorized on a way that these countries could cause some mischief in an earlier entry, but I still didn't give them enough credit. Slovenia are in the driver's seat. A draw against England puts them through. A victory puts them through as group winners. They could lose and still go through depending on what happens in the other match.

England are through if they win, but need a lot of help if they draw. This is not an ideal situation, but they do still control their own destiny.

Algeria need to win and hope that England don't win.

The US are in with a win. They need help if they draw, but likely go through ahead of England if both draw.

It will be an interesting Wednesday morning, to say the least.

USA vs. England

After a brilliant first day of the 2010 World Cup, we are ready for the clash most of the English speaking world has been looking forward to for 6 months.

I was quietly confident, and had been predicting a draw for the past several months, but I have been losing this confidence in the last couple days. I fear the talent gulf may just be too great.

What I have also been saying is that the USA needs to come out aggressive if they want to have a chance. Put out a positive, attacking team and take it right to England and their questionable defense, while keeping Wayne Rooney and co. away from the USA's own dodgy defense. But there have been several reports in the last few days that Bob Bradley is going to put out a defensive team and basically play for 0-0. I don't know why so many soccer coaches still think this tactic works, because it never does. Every time there is a big upset and the revisionist narrative becomes accepted in the media, people never actually look at the game itself.

So here is my conclusion. If Bradley plays some ridiculously conservative 4-5-1 formation with a Maurice Edu, Ricardo Clark, Michael Bradley midfield, then the US will lose 4-0. If Jose Torres and/or Stuart Holden feature in a more attacking midfield set-up with Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan pushing ahead in a front three, I predict a 1-1 draw.

World Cup - Algeria & Slovenia

I'll be honest, I know very little about these teams. They have both pulled off some big upsets in recent times. Algeria defeated Egypt to qualify for the tournament, and they knocked The Ivory Coast out of the last African Cup of Nations. Slovenia won the two-legged playoff against a very talented Russian team to qualify.

Both teams have a few players sprinkled around the bigger leagues in Europe, though none at big clubs within those leagues. And Algeria's best attacking player is out with injury.

It all comes down to this; The most important match for both these countries is their opener against each other. If one or the other manages to get 3 points from that match, that puts extra pressure on the US and England.

For example, let's say the US and England draw, then the US beat Slovenia and England draw against Algeria. Going into the final match, the US and Algeria would each have 4 points, England 2, and Slovenia none. Depending on goal difference, a US/Algeria draw might put both countries through. I am not saying this is likely to happen, in fact I am pretty much certain it won't, but my point is that if either of these "minnows" wins the opening match, one or both of the English speaking countries in the group could be in a difficult situation.

World Cup - The United States of America - Part 3

This is it for the US Preview, and here I will deal with the strikers. To be honest, it's the easiest part. Jozy Altidore is talented, and he has such an amazing physique that he is almost unplayable when on form. But he is not a big time goal scorer. And he is very young and inexperienced.

He will start for the US. I would start Clint Dempsey up top with him, but Bob Bradley may leave Altidore up there on his own.

And the rest of the strikers on the US squad; Not good enough. Nowhere near good enough.

The one who was good enough, and whose emergence during the USA's qualifying campaign was huge, is Charlie Davies. Unfortunately, his celebration of qualification involved a friend driving drunk. Davies was severely injured in the resulting car crash, missed the remainder of the season for his club, Sochaux in France, and still is nowhere near fit to play in a high level football match. The Yanks will really miss him.

Herculez Gomez led the Mexican league in scoring, but he is 28 years old, and this is the first real success he has had. If he can continue to show the ability to finish he might be a useful late game substitute. If he scores only 1 goal, and it is a late goal that secures a draw against England, or a win against Slovenia, his inclusion will be justified, but I think that is the absolute ceiling of what we can expect from him.

All told, the US goals will have to come largely from the midfield. If Altidore can effectively hold up play and get his midfielders the ball moving forward, the US should score enough goals to advance out of the group stage. Unfortunately, the second position in this group will probably play Germany in the round of sixteen. On the other hand, if the US were to get something against England and win the group, it looks like a much easier road to the semi-finals.

I am predicting a draw on June 12th, 1-1, but England will most likely still win the group. Getting into the knockout stages will be a solid performance from this team, especially after a disappointing 2006.

World Cup - The United States of America - Part 1

I watched a match last night in sunny East Hartford, Connecticut, but there were few bright spots on the pitch. The US is going to the World Cup while the Czech Repiblic is not, but you couldn't have known that based on the performance. The American crowd of over 36,000 was fired up, but they went home disappointed.

Neither team was at full strength, and it is no surprise that the European side has more depth than the Americans, but well-known weaknesses became even more glaring in a poor second half for the Yanks.

Left back is looking like a serious problem. Heath Pearce and Jonathan Bornstein are both terrible, and neither should be anywhere near the continent of Africa in June. That leaves Carlos Bocanegra and Jonathan Spector. Bocanegra is the team captain, and plays left back for Rennes in France, so he would seem the obvious choice. But he may have to slide into the middle because of health issues with Oguchi Onyewu and Jay Demerit. If that happens, Spector will probably start at LB. He is adequate, but it is not his natural position, and he doesn't give much going forward. If everybody is fit and in form, the back line of Bocanegra (LB), Onyewu (CB), Demerit (CB), and either Spector or Steve Cherundolo on the right, should be solid enough to get the US through group C.

Defense is going to be an issue though, and that puts a huge amount of pressure on goalkeeper Tim Howard. A friend recently told me he considers Howard to be 1 of the top 5 goalkeepers in the world. I am not prepared to go that far, but he is probably in the top 10. That is important. Those of you who remember the US's improbably run to the quarterfinals in 2002 will know that Brad Friedel was unbelievable in that tournament, and a big part of the success the Yanks enjoyed in South Korea and Japan. Tim Howard is certainly capable of a similar performance.

Stuart Holden

The young American had a rough night Wednesday, but it may yet have a silver lining.

Holden started for the US against Holland yesterday, and it was a one hundred eighty degree turnaround from just a month ago. At the beginning of February Holden was coming off an injury, not playing for his club, and barely surviving at the fringes of the US squad, not even certain he would be on the plane to South Africa.

Then, just last week Bolton Wanderers had an FA Cup replay against Tottenham, and Holden finally got an opportunity. Even though Bolton were knocked out of the cup, young Stuart played well enough that he was given the chance to start the next league match. He played great, Bolton won, and Stuart Holden went on to the Amsterdam Stadium, full of confidence and ready to play Holland.

When he arrived in the Netherlands, Stuart discovered that, thanks to 4 midfielders and 1 striker being out injured, he would be in the starting line-up. In the first half hour played well, maybe the only US player to play well, and I was thinking not only had he secured his place in South Africa, but he would be full of confidence and ready to take the Premier League by storm when he returned.

But alas, it was not to be. Manchester City midfielder Nigel DeJong wen tin high, late, and hard on a tackle at midfield, breaking Holden's leg and putting him out of action for at least 6 weeks. Damn the luck. Hopefully he will recover quickly.

There was other good news though. Holden had originally signed with Bolton on a short term contract through the end of May, with an option for Bolton to extend it to the end of next season. This week, despite the injury, Bolton decided to exercise that option. A good decision in my opinion.

Landon & Ashley

Oh, the irony. When Landon Donavon signed on for a three month loan deal at Everton they were myriad reactions. Some were pessimistic (He's too soft for the Premier League, he's a failure in Europe), some were optimistic (He'll dominate, the US will finally be taken seriously), and some were realistic (Please don't let him get injured, the US is doomed without him).

Well, not only was Landon part of an Everton team that upset Chelsea earlier this week, but his challenge has put Ashley Cole's participation in the 2010 World Cup in doubt. Of course England do have a ready-made replacement in...Wayne Bridge. Oh, this is going to be fun!

So much for an easy group...

The thinking after the FIFA World Cup draw in December was that the US and England had drawn an excellent group. Most assumed that after a tough opening match against each other, the two English speaking countries would cruise into the knockout stages of the tournament.

Slovenia is still something of an unknown quality, but Algeria has just thrown a wrench into these plans. In order to qualify for the World Cup, Algeria had to get past Egypt, a very good squad which has won the last two Africa Nations Cups. Now, Algeria has knocked odds-on favorites Ivory Coast out of this months showcase in Angola.

So, undoubtably the bookies will still have England favored to win the group, and the US likely to advance, but things have now become must more interesting.

World Cup revisits 1776

It's the Mancs vs. the Yanks in the World Cup, as England and the US have been drawn together in Group B. They will face off in South Africa on June 12th, and it should be great fun.

An England win is likely, but that will not be too big a disappointment for the US.


The headlines will be about LA Galaxy teammates Landon Donovan and David Beckham (pictured above playing chicken at a pool party in North Hollywood), but the match will likely be decided in the center of the pitch. where Michael Bradley, the young US midfielder who currently plies his trade for Borussia Munchengladbach in Germany's first division will come up against the likes of Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), and Gareth Barry (Manchester City). It will be very important who Bob Bradley (US coach) decides to partner with his son in the middle of the park. Ricardo Clark (Houston) is a dogged ball winner who has been preferred in the past, but he is a red card waiting to happen. After the last World Cup, where the US had 3 men sent off in 3 matches, players of Clark's ilk may be left on the bench, if not the tarmac. Which brings us to one of the most perplexing players on the US squad.


Benny Feilhaber, a Brazilian born midfielder who currently plays for AGF Aarhus in Denmark, has had an up-and-down career with a good, yet brief spell with Hamburg in Germany followed by a disastrous stay at Derby County in England. He has shown glimpses of his talent, and would be a great partner for Michael Bradley, yet a rampaging ego and inability to get aong with any manager he has ever played for have left him on the fringes of the squad.

I think the fact that England/USA is the opening match for both teams works in America's favor. All of the pressure will be on the English, who will be expected to win and win big by the media and fans, who deliriously overrate the team. The US can relax and just play their game. If England wins, it is no big deal, the results against Slovenia and Algeria will determine if the US advances to the next round. Yet if the US draws or (highly unlikely) wins, it will be a massive jumping off point for them. And it will be treated by the English press as the biggest disaster since Thatcher's election.