usmnt

The midfield looks surprisingly composed and then you remember it's Azerbaijan.

Yup. But it's still good to see them working as a unit, regardless of the competition.

Setting the Table ‏@settingthetable 35m Mix and Aron were probably used to it being windy and 50 degrees at the end of May.

azerbijan what can u take, buuut
bradley best on the field for stretches but what about the other times?
cbs+howard fine not a lot to do but generally composed out the back against slowness. didn't see gonzales totally fucking up but i watched on a spotty connection and had to pee a lot
jozy frustrating but helpful? his game is too reliant on the ref. bad touch but good spacing maybe
wondow i just like where he gets to. my expectations of him are so low but he seems to show up.
yedlin i watch like a hawk and he had no out and out terrible moments. dude's quick
johnson was involved, bedoya and zusi looked sharp. set piece delivery in the first half was legit. beasley always looks like he's wheezing.
do we really have two players with dreds? does any other wc team?

<<inserts 20 minutes where every player had jello legs and no one ran>>

bedoya and zusi in the first half were pretty surprising ya

oh lord this backline will get shredded by any kind of quality

I didn't see beyond the first ten mins but yeah that has always seemed like an inevitability. That's basically why Beckerman is on the team as far as I've read, because he will stay home better than Jones. Jones has always seemed to me like he's surplus to requirements, especially paired with Bradley.

12 years ago today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rX1bbTaJ40

two good, long articles about jurgen (he says his name is jonathan when ordering at starbucks); nyt argues that he is struggling against americanness, while the wsj suggests he is attempting to form a style of play out of americanness.

favorite tidbit:
Decades later, Klinsmann has embraced even the most mundane parts of America. “I like that someone asks, ‘How are you?’ ” he said. “I always say, ‘I’m fantastic!’ ”

the anti-/pro-americanness contradiction is pure klinsi

Are Ghana much better than they were in 2010? cos everyone was surprised that they were the African team to go furthest in that tournament. If they beat Ghana, I could see USA getting a draw with Portugal which might be enough to get them into the second round.

Yeah, that's what everyone is saying. I read a quote from Klinsmann that they were approaching the Ghana game as "a final". I don't know a whole lot about Ghana beyond Asamoah, Essien, etc. Popular consensus seems to be that they play very narrow and have suspect defense. The US has some pretty good wide players but the defense is suspect as well. Midfields are probably pretty well-matched.

he's ready

http://media.utsandiego.com/img/photos/2014/05/21/0f1688568b089616560f6a706700b196_t180.JPEG?6ec45598a0efd272cf6d6631efc8bbae7a2ee918

he's ready

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bpp9vTcCUAEhL-9.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyWVia7hzGs

am I wrong in feeling slightly embarrassed by this

Watching the marathon of Inside march to Brazil on espn and getting really excited for this thing to kick off. Ghana game is going to be so nerve wracking.

http://www.animateit.net/data/media/nov2011/ATT00010.gif

http://37.media.tumblr.com/feec85b1d31e96d5249cafe6caa6f16e/tumblr_n7hnl9WRTB1rvn2ylo1_400.gif

Ahahahha

jermaine jones to skc rumors jfc

http://www.espnfc.com/united-states/story/2060791/nasl-minnesota-united-winger-miguel-ibarra-to-get-usmnt-call-upsources-say

interesting imo, both because I sorta follow MN and the guy's a pretty good player, and I like the willingness to call up ppl from all over

Hamid; F. Johnson, Cameron, Besler, Chandler; Beckerman; Bedoya, Diskerud, Morales; Wondolowski, Altidore.

How Wondo gets any time is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

not showing this on regular irish tv, will have to watch highlights later. ipswich's david mcgoldrick and derby county's cyrus christie making their debuts tonight.

US has been terrible except for the last 10 minutes of the first half.

usa! usa!

Very embarrassing against a 2nd-choice Ireland team, but their guys went for it and ours stood still.

January camp roster for games against Chile and Panama

GOALKEEPERS (4): Alex Bono (unattached), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire), Jon Kempin (Sporting Kansas City), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)

DEFENDERS (8): Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), Steve Birnbaum (D.C. United), Christian Dean (Vancouver Whitecaps FC), Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders FC), Jermaine Jones (New England Revolution), Perry Kitchen (D.C. United), Shane O’Neill (Colorado Rapids), Oscar Sorto (LA Galaxy)

MIDFIELDERS (10): Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Mix Diskerud (out of contract), Dennis Flores (Club Leon), Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake), Miguel Ibarra (Minnesota United FC), Lee Nguyen (New England Revolution), Marc Pelosi (Liverpool FC), Dillon Serna (Colorado Rapids), Brek Shea (Orlando City SC), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew SC)

FORWARDS (6): Tesho Akindele (FC Dallas), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders FC), Julio Morales (Tepic), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes), Bobby Wood (1860 Munich), Gyasi Zardes (LA Galaxy)

Never heard of a handful of these dudes, but it sounds like they're working on getting the Olympic qualifying squad worked in.

Enjoyed this http://fusion.net/story/112889/jurgen-klinsmann-usmnt-individual-ambition-team/

ok lol
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd118/embarchie/CCmAWhAXIAA-qAQ.jpg

That Herrera/Wynalda interview had so much potential.

!

ikr

!!

ikr?!

Michael Bradley is a master dribbler now apparently.

can't believe we are #1 in the world now

Now that we have mastered soccer should we do cricket or rugby next?

Goodass game

https://mobile.twitter.com/DuskySprngfield/status/608736561895591936

Whole lot of that shit out there

But still that dummy/goal combo was so great

granted its just a friendly but Klinsmann really needs to show something tonight. esp w/ no Bradley or Dempsey (an exercise that'll probably be good for em).

ya not sure why but this feels like a higher pressure friendly

MLS talking heads have certainly been pressuring him, which is so totally lol

better on attack than they've been so far, Jozy still with the touch of an elephant.

still some lapses in their own third tho.

nope, same ole USMNT

rocket from Jermaine Jones reminiscent of his goal against Portugal in 2014 WC (only this one was saved).

John Brooks takes a sitter that needs to be jsut tapped in and skies it into the fifth row.

*throws up hands*

they're starting to wake up

1-1.

US looking better on attack, pressing high, much better than I've seen in months.

defense still mediocre as hell tho. still rely way too much on bailouts

Guzan amazing save. Diskerud is useless