usmnt

Ribery has looked like a World XI player this season, Cherundolo had better step up.

think cherundolo has been dropped for his last 2 or 3 club games, so either rusty or has a point to prove, or both i guess.

Some good defending happening.

Timmy!

no chance on that one

just a hoof up the middle really

so like under bradley we used to score goals once in a while, what happened?

wynalda is pissed

http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/15/put-eric-wynalda-in-the-win-now-category/?ref=soccer

“It is always important to win. I don’t understand people who say it doesn’t matter. It always matters. And what are we developing? Are we developing into losers who can juggle the ball?”

USA lineup vs. Slovenia: Howard, Cherundolo, Goodson, Bocangra, Chandler, Beckerman, Bradley, Johnson, Dempsey, Buddle, Altidore

This is entertaining.

Awesome goal from Buddle!

I like this Fabian Johnson.

This had better be a better side than the one against France; both teams looked liked warmed-over baby-shit on Friday.

They look pretty attacking and dangerous but both teams have had a bunch of great chances, the pitch is so densely covered in fog it could get farcical.

Gooch still out on a groin strain, right?

Could be, he's not on the bench.

1-1 now.

woke up to see i'd missed us putting 3 past slovenia!?!

ooh just saw a replay of buddle's. lovely.
who drew the penalty that jozy put in?

I thought he won & scored it, could be wrong though.

I didn't see, but my friend who is paying attention said Johnson drew the PK.

anyone else going to the game saturday? i'm taking my sister to her 2nd ever soccer game.

i saw a gold cup b-team once (holden! adu! guzan!) but this is my first US friendly.

i'm more excited than i should be probably. haven't seen a game in person since november.

this'll be a bit of a B/C team as well tbh, but I'm sure it'll be fun. venezuela is bringing their domestic players mainly afaik. be nice to see a win.

Zusi! Sapong! Shea!

and brad freakin evans, jesus christ

shea should be a first teamer someday if he keeps it up

p. crazy read about usmnt players down mexico way (violence, carjacking, bribery, the whole 9 yards)

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/news/20120119/usplayers-mexico/?sct=sc_t11_a2

explain wearing a horse head to a
game

well, it was a p awful game, anything to liven it up

watched zak whitbred defend pretty well against chelsea yesterday. will he get a call up in the future?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-18oQU73iCoU/T01Wf-ERNUI/AAAAAAAADDk/TqSjFXzgA0M/s1600/USAInItaly.bmp

good luck to the guys. pretty impressive record italy has against us. we are 0-7-3 with an aggregate score of 32-4.
think we'll see terrence boyd make his debut?

I would guess so, given that they yanked him out of u23 camp for this. He's already getting massively hyped a la Altidore and Agudelo.

1-Howard

2-Cherundolo 4-Goodson 5-Bocanegra (capt.) 3-Johnson

6-Bradley 8-Edu

7-Williams 10-Dempsey 11-Shea

9-Altidore

a half-empty stadium, the endearing italian whistles, ian darke's bloviations and dumb-as-shit sounding taylor twellman make this match a can't-miss!

surprisingly (occasionally) incisive at the front, shaky in the extreme at the back

pirlo is "not on facebook" thanks for that insight darke!

shea-johnson working the LH side have had their moments

Back at work - so I can't watch teh second half but flipping back and forth between Italy - USA and Eng - Ned, I thought at least the US game looked more entertaining.

DEUCE

johnson cross to jozy in the box, holds of his man and then lays off to dempsey for the goal, nice play

Nice!

from what I've seen so far johnson is gonna end up being the new lb

boyd is in with 10 or so min left

holy shit we win

end of the second half reminded me of the game against spain from the confeds cup, just manic defending

Did they just park the bus in front of goal or did they try to counter at all?

a couple attempts at countering, including one 2-on-2 with boyd and dempsey where it was pretty obvious only boyd had any gas in the tank, but mostly a lot of blocking shots and clogging up the front

brian mcbride and mike piazza chillin in the stands

for the obsessed among us, us u-23 vs mexico u-23 (friendly) here

and on Telefutura, I've just discovered

33' agudelo steams in and heads a corner 1-0
35' adu shoots from outside the 18, 2-0