you really are a mexico fan then. costly was turning the corner, mexican defender took him out.

here's the best video i could find that clearly shows the ball past and the defender sliding in and making contact without touching the ball: fast forward to 2:27 if the link doesn't take you there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9kwX...ailpage#t=147s

WCQ is always tough, to a degree, but the way concacaf is setup removes a ton of variance. We'll likely qualify with a game or two remaining, like always.

yeah, CONCACAF isn't as easy to qualify as euros and south americans make it out to be because the US almost never really has a true home game.

I don't think JSP is much better than Dempsey but I think most would agree he is a little better even though it isn't an apples to apples comparison. Park just covers so much ground and is more versatile.

This used to be true, but the USSF has done a much better job of scheduling to change this. It's why you'll see a lot of games in nashville, boston, etc.

right, we now get slight home field advantage sometimes. sometimes we don't even get that. but without being at every game personally...

I remember a pre-2002 WC qualifier in DC against Uruguay that I went to with my dad and brother-in-law. Uruguay is a country of like 3.5M people, and no reason to think they are concentrated in DC. Yet Uruguay sang "Yo Soy Celeste, Celeste Yo Soy" for 90 minutes, drowning out a 2-0 US win.

I know stuff has changed some. But if a nation of 3.5M can get 30k to RFK right after the biggest economic crisis to ever hit their nation...

i mostly disagree. Dempsey's versatility is underrated. He's not a great on-the-ball defender but he's a pretty good off-the-ball defender. And he gets in position to score goals. He has a much better goal-scoring sense than JSP. And as someone else said, I think he covered more ground than anyone else during the Confederations Cup.

It's not definite, because it depends on the players I have, but generally I'd take Dempsey to JSP any day of the week. As for a CONCACAF nation, there's almost no team where I'd prefer JSP to Dempsey.

The point you are making is true but Boston isn't a good example. I have been to many WCQ and Gold Cup matches in Foxboro and the US fans are outnumbered by any team except Canada and the Caribbean countries.

DW makes my point for me. Even in supposedly lily-white cities like Boston or Nashville, the US still only had neutral or slightly positive home field advantage. Given that being at home is generally worth about .5 of a goal per game in international soccer, that's a big deal.

I agree Dempsey is a better goal scorer and I think they are pretty close in overall value. Park is probably worth more to a top club because of he is very good at everything and can fill any role needed where Dempsey excels at creating goal scoring opportunities from the midfield but is not quite in that top tier of players that serve his role. Park is a more valuable player for Man U but Dempsey might be more valuable to the US than Park would be. I do think Dempsey has room to get even better while Park has peaked so I think Dempsey might surpass Park soon.

Boston metro area has a pretty big central american population. Cities like Salt Lake and Columbus have been used as venues in the past with decent success.

Prettay pretttttttay psyched for sat. I love the spot for our squad. We're pretty great as a decided dog. We've been a small dog to Mex plenty of times but never doubted like this.

USA! USA! AMERICA!!!! **** YEAH!

What do we think for lineup Saturday?

---------------Agudelo---------------
--------------Dempsey---------------
-Bedoya---Jones-Bradley--Donovan---
-Lichaj-----Boca--Goodson-----Dolo--
---------------Howard---------------

Also....

how? you haven't really explained why you feel this way other than you do feel this way.

deuce is almost never asked to play the defensive roles that park does. Without going by heatmaps either and just from what I've seen from deuce at both fulham and the US, he is in the attack more often while park will cover ground from box to box in the center and left sides of the midfield.

But, again, to the point, they are different players and its not really a comparison. Both have clear value to their teams and I've already stated why I would take park over deuce for united (trust me, I watch a ton of both of them and am a united supporter). You haven't explained why you would take deuce over park

I was at Nevada Smiths for the game last night and there was a collective grown, ironic clappying and laughter when Adu was announced, but FREDDDDYYYYYYYYYY

also, Park and Dempsey have different roles. That said, his defensive work is definitely underrated in the sense that he recognizes where he should be and has good defensive movement rather to compensate for his awful ability to tackle/man mark someone.

I'd compare Dempsey with Everton's Tim Cahill actually, even though Cahill often plays more centrally than Deuce.

USA vs Mexico at the Rose Bowl and the winner will be...

Vegas doesn't hate us. We're +110 to win including pens, +180 to win in 90 in 3 way betting.

Yeah I figure it's pretty close. Mexican backline has not been impressive. They were most dangerous on set pieces against Honduras... their run of play offense wasn't great.

Going to the game on Saturday, brother works for a major soccer clothing company and got amazing seats. Brother also has a big mouth, hope there aren't a lot of Mexico/Dodger fans there.

naw there wont be, youll be fine

you just gotta let the mexican fans know you mean good and they'll be fine unless they are total jackasses. I sat right in the middle of the mexican section at the last WC qualifier in Columbus and had a great time.

That or flex to assert dominance. Either is an appropriate play.

I had a local give me Mexico +175 in 90 minutes. Was too good to pass up. 1/4 of my summer vacation spending money is now on an emotional hedge that I feel dirty about.

FREE MONEY

i was actually pretty impressed with mexico in the honduras game...score didnt show it but they dominated the hell out of them