SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums College, Pro & International Soccer USA vs Belgium Friendly

Any comments regarding tonight’s USA men's team vs. Belgium "friendly" game. I recently moved from Irmo SC to Solon Ohio and my son and I are going to the game tonight at First Energy Stadium (aka Cleveland Browns Stadium). The game will be on ESPN beginning at 8:00 tonight (They are only selling tickets for the lower bowl seating. There should be about 25,000 in attendance. We are looking forward to attending the match.

Is it me? Or, is our team making a habit of looking good in matches that mean nothing and not-so-good in important matches?
I hope to see something beside defense for 90 minutes. Enjoy the match.

I will be watching

Well, there goes the theory that we look good in meaningless matches...
Why are we always building and never built? The American Fan does not appreciate that. Neither do I. We do not have enough depth in our national pool to leave guys like Donovan and Bocanegra out. Klinnsman says he is not worried and players are not. Bull. The American player always worries when he loses, especially a spanking like that.

I was at the match last night. Weather was good (about 80 degrees at Kickoff). There was a decent crowd... for a exhibition/friendly, over 27,000... with the Indians playing the Cincy Reds in a Ohio Baseball Showdown a couple of blocks away.
The cheapest tickets were (after factoring in Ticketmaster fees etc) was over 30.00 per ticket. Beers were 8.25 (for somewhere between 12 to 16 oz draft). Belgium was just in another class. I believe that they feature 10 players that play on EPL teams, and lots of speed and skill and much bigger and better hair that the US team... Love the big hair look. Could and should have been much wider margin of victory by Belgium. All in all we had fun though. This was a good test.

Our best lineup in my opinion

Chandler-Cameron-Boca-Johnson
Jones-Holden(when fit)-Bradley
Donovan-Deuce-Gomes

I have tried to be a Jozy fan, and he has had some brilliant performances in the Erevidisie but he looks like he could care less when he puts on that USA shirt and his performances show it. I think our starting 11 could potentially compete at the WC (not saying we will win it or anything) but Klins is going to have to get out of his own way and play the players that everyone but him knows he needs to be playing. I was excited when he was appointed our head coach, he said all the right things. I have yet to be convinced by any of our teams performances. I was actually at the Scotland game, and that was a fun one to watch (especially bc one of my good friends is Scottish and was with us at the game) but past that can't remember another one. Good win vs Italy and good tie at the Azteca, but neither of those were good performances. So frustrating that a country with as many resources and people as we have can't find 16 guys that can play at the top level and consistently compete.

All comes back to the same thing. 18 years old all over the world are playing year round in second and third division.

here they play 3 months in college or usl...

Germany is about to embarrass the usa with their c team.

I think not having Bradley last night really hurt us. Klestjan is not an international player. He struggled all night. Cameron needs to be playing center-back with Gonzalez. I know the announcers were blaming Cameron on the first goal and he did slack off a little, but Goodson could have easily recovered to the goal when Howard came out, which is what you are trained to do and he failed. Just think Cameron is a beast a center-back and a waste on the flank. Hopefully Chandler comes back to us or Cherundolo is fit for RB.
We had some spells of good play but our movement offensively was non-existent. Lots of standing around and no creativity in the final third. My guess is that Klinnsman is still focused on the defense. Hopefully anyway.
I think Germany B or C team is going to embarrass us as well. Timmy will be busy between the pipes if we stick with that line-up.

Most of the countries in the world, especially those with a history of success-One governing body in control of development, one developmental scheme.

USA- If you drive 20 minutes from a destination in any direction one can find another person or entity that is doing something different, competing with everybody else for players, money resources etc and makes the claim they are doing it better than the other guy.. How has this worked for us so far?

Goodson out, Besler in against Germany. Bradley and Jones were a great pairing. Jozy started to make more intelligent runs. Evans was great at RB for us tonight. 4-3 USA. Great job Jurgen Klinsmann. Hope we see this side in a few days. I know Johnson got hurt but Davis can help on set pieces.