Sorry wasn't trying to imply he said anything biased, but if you had no audio, listening to him was like reading a police officer's report--there were only facts, and all of them were spoken in the audio equivalent of courier font. "Dempsey passes it to Johnson. It is too high for Johnson. The ball has gone out-of-bounds. The Americans have the ball back. They shoot. The American shot was caught by the goalkeeper. The players from both teams are turning to run back up the field."

Being 'what we are' is fine. Whatever. But what we are is BETTER than this.


Also, when MB was doing his damndest to get into a fight, where the **** was Boca? We got a game to win and you are the captain.

obviously tonight is not was a good indication of it, but I've felt that our ball retention has been much better. Our passing and short play has been better. We haven't been as reliant on individual spots of magic from landy and deuce.

Our defense was crap under bradley. It's crap under jurgi. The goal tonight isn't on jurgi's system, it was on mental mistakes at the back.

We quickly forget a lot of the dire performances under Bradley now. The fact is, we were a last minute goal against algeria away from being knocked out of the world cup two years ago.

then what is the answer?

tonight was a **** performance, but in the end we got the result that we needed

We HAVE seen improvements, at least at times. Tonight was not an impressive performance, but we could have scored more. Herc Gomez, who for my money has been the best player in a US jersey over the past 6 months had 2 chances that a finisher with his ability often puts in the net. He squandered both horribly.

Looking back at this game, I think this field size and conditions may have called for at least one change I can think of. I think Parkhurst should have played instead of the captain.

Well obviously even if there is an answer, it's a pretty complicated one that I probably wouldn't know.

I think one player I'm about ready to move on from is Clarence. This isn't because of the goal tonight, but I guess I just don't think he gives us much. I guess he's servicable behind Boca, but Boca is better and I'd rather bring in other guys going forward. Omar Gonzo etci. I'd prefer that both be replaced in time, but we are running out of that time before 2014. Edu just isn't going to be able to step in as a CB at the World Cup.

Some people will probably say they'd rather Goodson than Boca I suppose, but I'm not sure I even see that.

That said, I'd be grasping at straws to list more than a few players who I believe can really begin to start and be groomed to play CB for us at the WC.

Also I think Ruiz just scored. Guatemala leads 1-0.

Anyone dared to read bigsoccer at all since the game ended? That place scares me. Probably people overreacting and being ******ed even more than me!

I enjoy reading the bigsoccer referee forum for reasons I couldn't explain. I avoid the rest of it.

just lol

Maybe I should calm down a little and start blaming the pitch/conditions more.

Jamaica ties it up in Guatemala.

Running down scenarios, a tie against Guatemala gets us through regardless but I believe if Jamaica wins tonight by 1 then Guatemala would have to beat us by 2 to knock us out. So lets go Reggae Boyz and all that.

Guatemala wins 2-1.

[edit]--So we're exactly tied with them on top with 10 points (same exact +3 GD and goals scored), with Jamaica 3 points back and at 0 GD.

Right so it sounds like we'd still go through if we lose to Guatemala by 1 and Jamaica beats A&B by 2 since we have goals for in our favor for the tiebreak (unless they win 4-2 and we get shutout).

Or we could just not lose at home to Guatemala...

I feel like we need two things at the moment: one more defender who can pass the ball out of the back, and to play deuce as a false 9. All of our out and out strikers aren't good enough except for the 1 game in 5 that Jozy has everything working, but cramming a "striker" into the formation forces us to leave too much talent off the pitch.


Oh and 3, naturalize Ozzie Alonso, play him and MB as double pivots with a front 4 of Landry, Deuce, Brek and whoever is playing the best out of the next tier.

If only Tim Ream didn't suck horrible amounts of everything. Makes me sad.

the fact that we can lose and advance is fine.. but let's just get a tie+

Seth, completely agree with both of your points. But, who do we single out as someone who can be that ball playing CB? It's kinda like staring headlong into a major storm as all of our options aren't great

I couldn't resist doing a more complete and hopefully totally unnecessary analysis of qualification scenarios.

Basically we advance if:

1. US wins or ties against Guatemala

2. Jamaica loses or ties against A&B

If the US loses to Guatemala and Jamaica beats A&B, things get a little more interesting. The US currently has a +3 goal differential and +3 goals for compared to Jamaica. Tiebreakers in order are

a. Goal differential
b. Goals for
c. Head to head points
d. Head to head goal differential
e. Head to head goals for

In the even of a tie on a. and b., the US and Jamaica are also tied on c. and d., however Jamaica has the edge on e., thanks to their 2-1 win vs our 1-0 win.

This table should cover potential outcomes when the US loses and Jamaica wins.

Thanks Chrome. I more or less knew this, but helps to see it. With Jamaica at home I wouldn't be all that shocked if they won big in this game, so not losing would probably be a good idea. Thankfully, I don't think we will.

I'm predicting a 3-1 win, at least prior to seeing what our lineup will be. If we tout out 7 DMs I might have to change that.

One note is that Guatemala has no incentive to win, either. If they tie, they move on. So a 0-0 tie has the highest plurality outcome, imo.

Yeah. If Guatemala can pack it in hard and get to halftime 0-0, I think there's a good chance that's how the game ends. JK has been saying the US will try to win, but if it's tied and the game comes closer and closer to ending 0-0, you'll see us fall back. Depends what the score of the other game is too of course. If Antigua is somehow winning, we'd have no real reason to not press as hard as we can for goals and a win, even if it resulted in a flukey counterattack goal for the Guats.

u 2.5,3 seems like a really good bet.

GUA + 1.5 seems OK too.


Even if USA goes up 1-0 GUA would still be unlikely to come out of their bunker. A 1 goal loss has a pretty chance of advancing them on.

What do people think are the chances that the US and Guatemala both really pack it in, give just an enough effort to give them plausible deniability if people call out their unsportsmanlike sham?

Interestingly, playing the last group stage game simultaneously in most major tournaments was done in respose to this type of collusion, in light of the controversial Non-Aggression Pact of Gijon Game. But in this case, playing at the same time doesn't help. Unspoken collusion forthcoming? The Non-Aggression Pact of Kansas City? Both the US and Guatemala checking down full houses with Jamaica on the short stack on the bubble and all in?

I think the teams are going to be reasonably competitive (albeit somewhat defensive) for the first 60-70 minutes or so. Just look at the badminton fiasco at the Olympics--there would be tons of controversy if the teams just pack it in from the opening kickoff. (Yes, there's a difference between trying to draw and trying to lose, but it would still be controversial.) But if we get well into the second half, it's still 0-0, and Jamaica has a big lead over A&B, 20 minutes of passing around wouldn't surprise me, nor would it draw that much controversy.

Yeah its probably worth pointing out that since we are exactly tied with Guatemala the chart up there more or less applies to them as well.

I also just noticed that Guatamala and Jamaica had identical results against each other, both 2-1 wins at home. So something like a 3-1 Jamaica win paired with a 1-0 Guatemala loss would have them tied on all the tiebreakers, I'm not sure what would happen...coin flip?

http://www.ussoccer.com/tournaments/...-breakers.aspx

USA has long way to go as a footballing nation if they are having presidential debates at the same time as a WC qualifier.