Photo by ISIphotos.com
If the starting lineup the U.S. team fielded in Saturday's loss to Slovakia didn't look far
enough away from Bob Bradley's first-choice squad, wait until you see the team we are likely to
have take the field in Denmark on Wednesday.
A Slovakian team that was (apparently) good in European qualifying, but not well ranked by
FIFA, played a defensive, counter-attacking game against the USA in a partially filled stadium,
on a pretty ugly field and won 1-0 on a weak penalty call. Not what you call must-see-TV, so it
is probably good that not many people saw it.
The Sin: Envy has always been associated with the color green, probably in a
large part thanks to the Bard's classic Othello. In that play, the jealousy that
accompanies envy is referred to as "the green-eyed monster". Proverbs 23:17 also warns against
it, stating that one should "Let not thine heart envy sinners, but be thou in the fear of the
Lord.
Until espn2 picks up the game, I'm relying on a sometimes reliable Danish stream, so let's hope we
have no problems.As always, you can also follow along at the U.S. Soccer Matchtracker.The USMNT
line-up:Guzan; Hejduk, Spector, Bocanegra, Bornstein, Holden, Bradley, Clark, Feilhaber, Altidore,
CunninghamBack near kickoff.
The U.S. men's national team takes on Slovakia on Saturday and the match is one of the last
remaining opportunities this year for head coach Bob Bradley to take a look at different players
and positional pairings before the end of the year.
With standouts Landon Donovan and Tim Howard not called in, and with key injuries to Oguchi
Onyewu and Jay Demerit, the squad Bradley will turn to to face the Slovakians will be a much
different-looking group than the ones that helped the team qualify for the 2010 World Cup.
The U.S. national team returns to action for the first time since qualifying for the 2010 World
Cup today when it takes on Slovakia in a friendly in Bratislava (10am, FSC).
The Americans are without Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, as well as the injured Oguchi Onyewu
and Jay DeMerit, but there are still plenty of starters who will have chances to show they can play
without the team's top players.
The USA played the first of its pre-World Cup friendlies against Slovakia on Saturday. With
nothing to play for, Bob Bradley utilized the opportunity to test his team's depth. The
results? Despite the 0-1 defeat, there were more positives than negatives.
Most promising of the group were the performances of our center backs and central midfield.
The final match of the year is set to kick off today for the U.S. men's national team as the
Americans take on Denmark (2:30pm, ESPN Classic/Galavision/ESPN2 after Ukraine-Greece) on the last
international matchday of the year.
The United States will be playing its 24th match of the year and this match is an important one
as head coach Bob Bradley looks to learn more about the depth of his squad.
BAM!G - Guzan, Howard, PerkinsD - Bocanegra, Marshall*/Califf/Gibbs, Castillo, Cherundolo, Conrad,
Goodson, Pearce, SpectorM - Bradley, Beckerman*/Cronin, Cameron*/McCarty, Dempsey,
Donovan*/Beasley/Bedoya, Feilhaber, Torres, WhiteF - Altidore, Casey, Cunningham,
Findley*/CooperThe players marked with an asterisk may or may not be available, depending on MLS
leg two results this week.
Photo by ISIphotos.com
If the starting lineup the U.S. team fielded in Saturday's loss to Slovakia didn't look far
enough away from Bob Bradley's first-choice squad, wait until you see the team we are likely to
have take the field in Denmark on Wednesday.
The USA played the first of its pre-World Cup friendlies against Slovakia on Saturday. With
nothing to play for, Bob Bradley utilized the opportunity to test his team's depth. The
results? Despite the 0-1 defeat, there were more positives than negatives.
Most promising of the group were the performances of our center backs and central midfield.
The final match of the year is set to kick off today for the U.S. men's national team as the
Americans take on Denmark (2:30pm, ESPN Classic/Galavision/ESPN2 after Ukraine-Greece) on the last
international matchday of the year.
The United States will be playing its 24th match of the year and this match is an important one
as head coach Bob Bradley looks to learn more about the depth of his squad.
The good news is in: Brede Hangeland has signed a contract extension with Fulham.
It's a win-win situation. If at some point in the next two years Fulham start to seriously
underperform, or if Hangeland takes his game to a new level, then at least we'll be able to get
fair value for him when the vultures circle.
