cincyred

Would be nice to see this ball used in a WC some day. It changes color once it crosses a touchline or the goal line. http://theoffsiderules.blogspot.com/201 ... -hate.html

Beckham has torn his left achillies and is lost to England/AC Milan/LA Galaxy/Posh for the next 6-9 months

We did beat England 1-0 in 1950, didn't we???????????????? I knew it would not take long for some US soccer bashing by the Brits! This video is pretty funny, however.

Can't wait until English Soccer Guy gets his smack talking game on about the US vs Limey match. Check out this link to the London newspaper cover from The Sun! http://www.flickr.com/photos/27365656@N06/4166604564/

Two-part interview with Grant Wahl, author of THe Beckham Experiement. http://www.thisisamericansoccer.com/soccer...-pt2/#more-2535 Great insight into the whole debacle. Will be interesting to see how the 1st place Galaxy deal with the return of Bechham. It all starts tomorrow when the Galaxy take on the Red Bulls in NY. Can you say media circus? Can you say 60,000 fans?

Mock WC 2010 roster http://soccernet.espn.go.com/players/power...h=7&cc=5901

Great comparison of SEC football teams and soccer-playing nations. Alabama is like Italy. Good stuff. http://www.dawgsports.com/2009/7/10/939400...ot-like-germany

great article about the development of youth players in the USA. THis should be a year around topic. http://www.thisisamericansoccer.com/us-men...e-brad-friedel/

Don't let the negatism of this article about Beckham be another rung that soccer haters can grasp on to in order to bash soccer. Shame on Wahl for writting this book.

While I don't like the "ME ME ME" strut by Donovan (act like you've been there before), I do think he is maturing into a much better player than he used to be. I can only hope the same happens to Adu.

I too thought we had this game in the bag. Brazil was there for the taking in the 1st half. Their goalie was having a nightmare half. One more goal, and it was hasta la vista (in Portuguese), baby. I was already thinking about whether or not I would wear (or frame) my Confed Cup Champions T-shirt. Oh, well. Look at it this way.............If we had played an inspired 1st half, kept Brazil on thier heels, really carried the match, and it was 0-0 (moral victory?), but got beat in the 2nd half, giving up 3 goals, I would have felt much worse and would have wanted BB to be fired before he got on the plane back to the USA. While I do think BB made some questionable moves in this tourney, the results speak for themselves. If we lose to Mexico on August 12th (granted in Asteca - US has never won there before), the drums will start beating again for BB's head.

I take a lot of possitives away from the Confed Cup. We gained a tremendous amount of experience playing against some of the top teams in the world. Playing Brazil (twice), Spain, and Italy....in meaningful games.......was a great test. I hope we benefit from these games in our mental preperation for playing in big matches and how to handle the pressure. Having the majority of these players back next summer for the WC and knowing they have gone thru this will only help our team's development. The negatives.......poor possession and poor coaching/player management by BBradley. I think if we had been able to maintain even half of the possession that we had in the 1st half against Brazil during the 2nd half, we might have been able to hold on and get it to an overtime situation. Not sure it would have turned out any differently had we gotten to OT, however, as our team was handicapped by injured/suspendedbenched/ subs not being available. BBradley has got to open up his bench. One of our biggest strengths is our depth. We played this game with one hand tied behind our back because of BB decision not to give more players a chance on the pitch during the previous matches. As our team wore down in the 2nd half. the only subs BB thought he could bring on the field were Bornstein and Kjlestian. Not having Michael Bradley was a HUGE loss for us, as having him would have enabled BB to bring Feilhaber in as a 2nd half sub, a better answer than the other two players. I would have liked to have seen Torres or Pearce come in during the 2nd half (Pearce for a struggling Bocanegra), Torres for another possession player inplace of the "winded" Altidore. (How are you 19 years old, on the USMNT, and not fit to play more than one half?) Lastly, read this information I got from another soccer site about the referee that issued the Red card to Michael Bradley. He has a history of sticking it to the US team: Larrionada (this referee) has now pulled the trifecta on us. In '03 he was reportedly the ref in the Confed Cup opener against Turkey. Kirovski (US player now with the LA Galaxy) was rugby tackled in the box, no call. Halfway through the game, a Turkish forward blatantly handled the ball, Hand of God style, to redirect it to his feet on a long ball brought down at the top of the box. After handling it, he tripped and fell between two american defenders. PK. No whistle on the blatant handball, just a PK. We lost that game, and got bounced out of the tournament (had Brazil next, then Cameroon and finished 1-2 to Turkey, 0-1 to Brazil, and 0-0 to Cameroon), that performance likely cost us Mexico's cake group phase seed at Germany '06. 3 years later Larionda is behind the even up bogus call on Mastro against Italy in Group Game 2, and the horse manure double yellow/red Pope got. Now he's at it again another 3 years later. (Red card to Michael Bradley) Spot the trend? Every three years this guy completely hoses us. Even worse he was suspended by his own domestic fed for corruption back in '02. Why in heck is he allowed to ref at the international level?

Keys to the game: 1. No silly fouls. Brazil is too leathel on their free kicks. Eliminate those and you have a chance to hang around. 2. Keep pressure on the ball from our Mids. Our back line is playing exceptional ball right now. Brazil is not as strong as Spain was in possesion (granted, slightly less). Just try to force as much wide as possible. I like our chances if Brazil has to play out wide 3. Bocanegra must be able to contain the outside left flanks of Brazil. 4. Play physical and hope the referees will let play happen. Brazil had a very easy game of it against S. Africa from a phyiscal challenge stand point. We could rattle them with strong pressure. 5. Brazil can match up with Altzidore in the middle. Need Dempsey to continue his form and find space 6. Cold weather is expected. THis is more to the US comfort zone. Prediction: Brazil 1-0. I wish we had Bradley, but our team is not built around one player. Unless Brazil plays as poorly as they did against S. Africa, we will up against it. Granted, we should have the advantage of Brazil taking us lightly, just like Spain did. Can we counter, get a lead, and then hold on for the rest of the match? I doubt we can be as fortunate as we were with Spain. Our team, without a clear cut star, must play with heart and the belief they can beat Brazil. No pressure on the US, as Brazil is expected to win. I think that helps us stay in the game for at least the 1st half. If we can get to half at 0-0, what a joy that would be to play for the championship in the 2nd half. Help us out refs and don't get deceived by the dives and fake falls that Brazil used in the first game!

US showed how they could be a quality team. Phyiscal play by tall players. The spanish tried to beat the US with crosses - are you kidding me? The spanish midgets couldn't get "tall" enough to make this work, so they resorted to short corner kicks. Xavi was completly taken out of his game, his worst performance in a long, long time. Each time he touched the ball, Bradley made him play it square or backwards. Still want to know why the US is penalized with red cards for hard tackles. The card to Bradley was pathetic. Hoepfully Brazil will lose some players to cards today, as I think the S. African team will get quite chippy when they fall behind. Do watch the fouls in this game and see how they compare to the fouls/resulting cards that the US has been given. You will see a clear double standard.

I hope FIFA gives the US vs. Spain game a fair chance by assigning decent referees. I am so tired of the US getting shafted by poor officiating. If you have watched any of the other games in this tourney, you have seen fouls just as bad - if not worse - than the fouls that the US did that earned red cards. And that no call on the handball in the Egypt game yesterday really would have been a travesty if Dempsey had not scored later.

I have had the opportuity to watch our US U16 team train, and they are all 6 foot plus players. Our player pipeline is stocked full of taller players. I think the game is evolving towards taller players, and the USMNT it trying to take advantage of this north american trait.

I will say that our USMNT has not played very well this year. They had a much better year in 2008. Better possesion, better passing, much better midfield work. We have hit a rough patch right now. I think Beasley not being up to form - maybe never will be again -has really set us back. We have no one right now who can play like he did -speed/skill down the wings. Now we must find someone or change our style of play. I do think our style of play is unique to the world of soccer. We want athletes who are tall, physical, smart, and in the best physical condition in the world. (Toss in the best goalkeepers in the world.) Those qualities rule out many very good players - The Rossi kid from NJ that plays for Italy comes to mind (too short). I think US Soccer sees this as a short cut to top flight soccer. Win games with set pieces, not necessarily run-of-play goals. Play phyiscal soccer. Run for 90 minutes, exhausting our opponents. This works against most all teams in our hemisphere and places us in the top 15 squads in the world. But when it comes down to playing Brazil, Spain, Italy, and Argentina - we don't have the quality of players with the ball at their feet that these teams do. Until we find some players who can handle the ball with speed and strength, we will continue to play our current style.

What is everyone saying about the Chattanooga United and ER Express boys soccer tryouts? How have the #'s been?

RE: TSSAA: If my son played tennis on a HS team, and I wanted to hire Bjorn Borg to coach him, the TSSAA does not prohibit this. Why should they stop a Select coach from training a team in the off season?

playing by the rules.............you know what makes soccer so great? It is that there are only about 10 "rules". The rest is up the the interpretation of the referee. A dog pile to celebrate a goal? No "rule" against it, however the referee could issue a yellow card for unsportsmanlike behavior. Adding extra time for retreiving the ball? Sounds like that would have been appropriate, but no rule that says he had to. Taking a knee to get a sub? Not sure the ref should have stopped play for that. He should have asked the player to crawl off the field if he was not seriously hurt. Sounds like you had a basketball referee instead of a soccer referee.

As I said, referees must be respected because their decsions can win or lose games for your team

I would be upset if a refree apolgized before a match for the bad calls he/she might make. Referees can win/lose matches for your team. They should be given the respect they deserve because of this authority, not beg for it during the coin toss. I would expect a ref to know the rules and call 'em as he/she sees 'em. As has always been the case, the best refereed games are the ones where you don't notice their impact on the outcome.

Are Pedro's teams still practicing at East Ridge? If not, where?

Chuckles for the first coach to call out a player for a shin-guard measurement after he scores the winning goal. Just like the pine-tar rule. Where is George Brett when you need him.

Read where the coach of the team that won a recent basketball game 100-0 was fired. Good. I think the same thing should happen to soccer coaches if they run up a score. When should you "call off the dogs?" Is 20-0 in soccer the same as 100-0 in basketball?