A Soccer Post

As most of you already know... I'm a big fan of the US Men's National Soccer Team. They had a couple of games over the last week that were very important and meant the difference between qualifying for the 2010 World Cup or else possibly going to a playoff against the 5th best South American team (the winner of that game goes to the World Cup and the loser stays home). Their first game was on Saturday in Honduras. Honduras is actually a much better team than people realize. Their lineup is littered with players who are either starters for European club teams, or else key contributors. And making things more difficult is the fact that Honduras was unbeaten at home in qualifying (8-0-0). The US was expected to lose this game and go home to face Costa Rica needing a win to qualify.

However, that's not what happened. The US Men's National Team came into Honduras charged up and unafraid of their rowdy fan base. After a rather boring first half, the second half opened with a Honduran goal from Julio Leon. Leon plays for Torino, one of the best teams in Italy's 2nd division, Serie B. After that goal, Conor Casey decided to go to work. Casey plays for the Colorado Rapids of MLS and was a surprise inclusion in the game. Most thought that Bob Bradley would opt to start both Charlie Davies and Jozy Altidore at forward, with the possibility of Brian Ching starting instead of Altidore. To everyone's surprise, Casey got the nod ahead of Altidore, who plays overseas in the English Premier League for Hull City. Casey had looked poor in his previous stints with the national team, but on Saturday night he buried two goals in 7 minutes to put the US on top. Another beautiful, curling goal from a set piece off the foot of Landon Donovan put the US on top for good. They just need to weather another goal from Leon and a missed penalty kick from Carlos Pavon to get the win, which no one expected them to get.

So with the win over Honduras, the US did not need a result in its final game of qualifying in order to get into the World Cup... it was already done. There was nothing left to play for but pride. That is until Charlie Davies got into a life-threatening car accident on Monday night. Davies had been making a lot of noise over in France with the first-division club Sochaux, and had been very effective as a forward for the US team. The accident claimed the life of a 22 year old woman, and it left Davies with multiple broken bones and a lacerated bladder. It will take a minimum of 5-6 months for Davies to heal, and several more months to get into soccer-playing shape. He will most likely miss the World Cup. The car accident has been kept under wraps, and it leads me to wonder why that would be. The names of the two other people in the car have not been released, one of whom was the driver. Nor has there been any explanation of how the car was literally severed in half. The accident took place later than 3:00 AM, during which time Davies was in violation of the team's curfew. I'm just really interested to hear what the real story is here.

So with the crash still fresh in the minds of everybody on the USMNT, the Yanks took the field at RFK Stadium in DC against Costa Rica with a resolve to play for Charlie. Roommate and good friend Jozy Altidore had the letters "DAVIES" written on his shirt beneath his jersey, which were easy to see thanks to the combination of rain and white team USA jerseys. The crowd held up papers with #9 on them in support of Davies and the families affected by the accident. However, as fired up as the US team was, they were shaky on defense in the first half and gave up two goals to Bryan Ruiz, who starts at striker for FC Twente in the Netherlands' Eredivisie (top division). The second goal came about 5 minutes after the first goal, where Ruiz was unmarked about 5 yards from the top corner of the penalty box, and he ripped an amazing shot into the top left corner of the net. Tim Howard stood no chance. After these goals, the US shored up its defense and put together a ton of chances on goal, but the formerly adept Conor Casey looked horrible and couldn't finish the easiest of chances. Jozy Altidore was all over the place and created tons of opportunities, but he couldn't put them away. Landon Donovan was also active, but couldn't get the ball in the net. Some second-half subs saw Jose Torres and Robbie Rogers come into the game, and both created the spark necessary to finally put the ball in its home. Rogers crossed a ball that bounced around a little and finally found Michael Bradley's foot as he shot it home off of the goalkeeper's leg. That was around the 72nd minute... the tying goal wouldn't come until 4 and 1/2 minutes into overtime. Costa Rica had done their best to waste time off of the clock, including having both their manager and assistant manager sent off by the referees for complaining (supposedly about a substitution issue, but I am fairly certain they were just trying to waste time). That left the Strength & Conditioning coach as the man calling the shots for Costa Rica. The tying goal came off of a last-minute corner kick where Jonathan Bornstein flew in unmarked to nod in the goal into the bottom right corner of the net. The defender on the near post hardly had enough time to react and just barely got a toe on the ball. The loss sends Costa Rica into a playoff game with Uruguay for a shot at the World Cup. I would not be envious of that position.

So as you can see, it's been a terribly exciting week of soccer. The US is headed to the WORLD CUP in South Africa!! The last week, both on and off the field, has cost the US two of its best players in Charlie Davies and Oguchi Onyewu, our gigantic defender who plays for AC Milan. Onyewu was injured trying to plant his foot on the wet field of RFK in order to jump for a ball that was sailing over his head. The motion caused Onyewu to tear a tendon and he's out 3-4 months. He should be back for the World Cup, but the lack of a chance to play for AC Milan during that time is extremely unfortunate. But there's also a lot to be excited about. The US team has had great contributions from a bunch of young players (Robbie Rogers, Jose Torres, Benny Feilhaber, Stuart Holden, Chad Marshall, Jonathan Bornstein, and even Conor Casey). There's a lot more depth to the US team than there was four years ago when the US Men's National Team traveled to Germany for the World Cup. And, for once, the coach of the US team has some decisions to make as to which players he will use to match up with whatever teams are drawn. In previous years, there wasn't much of a decision... the best players were obvious, but the player pool has gotten so much more talented since then that it leaves a lot of possibilities.

There are certainly several players who will compete if healthy. Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu, and Tim Howard are definite starters if they're healthy. Even with Dempsey's seeming lack of effort in qualifying, he is still going to be a starter because of what he can do offensively. Nobody else on the team has the same skill with the ball at their feet or the ability to finish like Clint does, so he'll be included in the starting lineup even if he's half-assing it on defense and giving the ball away by trying one too many fancy tricks. But we also know that Clint brings his "A" game for the World Cup, so I am not worried.

The remaining decisions are who else should join those players. Defensively, you would think Steve Cherundolo and Jonathan Bornstein will join Bocanegra and Onyewu. As wing backs, they both get forward well and help out the offense with incredible speed and good crossing ability. Defensively, they are both lock-down defenders when on the ball, but they can get caught wandering out of position on occasion. They are also both short in stature and have a hard time beating tall strikers for balls in the air. Jonathan Spector is a nice option to replace either if there is a need for height. He also possesses a very good ability to pass from wide positions, but is more inclined to be beat in a 1-on-1 matchup.

In the midfield, Bob Bradley has opted to keep Donovan and Dempsey on the flanks, using his son Michael and either Ricardo Clark or Benny Feilhaber as the other center mid. The positioning of Donovan was a stroke of genius, in my opinion. Donovan has always been a forward at the club level in MLS, but on the international stage, he has been extremely ineffective as a striker. I think it's because he's just too small to be a target forward, and if he's playing a withdrawn forward, his ability to defend and hold the ball up is missed. He's not a player you want running onto a cross to try to head the ball into the net, he's a player you want to be the one crossing the ball because of his accuracy. He's played incredibly well on the wing. Michael Bradley has had his moments and definitely seems to have a nose for goal. Something like that can't be replaced, so I think he's going to be in the starting lineup come June. The other position seems to be much more open. At this point, the only true defensive midfielder on the roster is Ricardo Clark, and his size and passing abilities are both negligible. He might win the ball for you, but he's going to give it right back to the other team. He also hasn't really shown the ability to score, save one fantastic shot against Trinidad & Tobago that secured a win for the US. I think his spot is likely to be claimed with by recent US acquisition Jermaine Jones (who had been waiting to play for Germany's national team, but opted to play for the US because he wanted more playing time), or else by Maurice Edu when he finally gets back into playing shape. Edu is a young, up-and-coming defensive midfielder who players for Scotland's Glasgow Rangers. Edu is just now getting over his injury and starting to play again, so he has some work ahead of him to get back into shape.

Finally, the forward position. It's a little tricky to see what will happen here. I think most USMNT fans would say that the best pairing is Jozy Altidore and Charlie Davies because the first gives you world class ability and athleticism, plus the ability to hold the ball up, while the other gives you the blazing speed and finishing ability that you want from a striker. However, since it looks like Davies might not be back for the World Cup, you have to consider other options. Conor Casey has a nose for the goal in MLS, but he's mostly just a blunt instrument. Not a lot of technical ability, just a lot of mass. He's hard to keep away from the ball when it's in the air. This works okay in the MLS and against Honduras' suspect defense, but not against most of the teams we will see in the World Cup. Brian Ching is a similar player to Casey, with maybe a little more ability to win fouls and hold the ball up, but you can't expect him to beat anyone with his talent. Personally, I like Kenny Cooper as a possibility. He's huge for a soccer player... 6'3" and 210 lbs. It's all muscle. He looks like a poster-child for the Aryan race until you hear him talk. He's soft-spoken with a love for just about everybody... kind of like a huge teddy bear, and maybe that is why he's not terribly physical. However I don't think he needs to be terribly physical alongside Altidore... Jozy is physical enough. Cooper needs to be the player who finishes the chances that Altidore creates and gets himself into good positions to score. Cooper had been doing that with FC Dallas in the MLS and is doing it now with 1860 Munich in Germany's 2nd division. He has very good speed to complement his size, and I think he may eventually wind up being a starter for the USMNT. It might not happen until the next World Cup though... my gut tells me Bob Bradley will use Brian Ching in this one to pair up with Altidore, and although that's not exactly an offensively potent decision, it's a decision I can live with.

Okay, that's it for now... no more soccer talk for a while, I promise. We can get back to football now. I am just extremely excited about the World Cup. You understand, right?