Wednesday, June 23, 2010

us-algeria pre-game thoughts

First, a starting XI:
Howard
Spector, Demerit, Bocanegra, Cherundolo
Donovan, Edu, Bradley, Feilhaber
Dempsey, Altidore

If Onyewu plays, I don't think we can keep a clean sheet and thus we probably won't be able to win the game. I've never been so worried about a player singlehandedly destroying a team's ability to defend.

The temptation for Bob Bradley, and for the team, will be to come out and play a very cautious first half hour, considering the blunders committed against England and Slovenia and the early goals conceded. This would be another colossal mistake. There were early blunders in the last two games, but the biggest one was coming out and playing like we were scared to take risks. Tomorrow morning we should come out and attack, attack, attack right from the start and take control of the game. When we play without inhibition is when we've played decently, after England scored their goal, and in the second half of the Slovenia game. Playing with caution has only gotten this team into trouble.

[Praying Bob Bradley doesn't muck this up....]

2 comments:

  1. You're too pessimistic! Agree about the clean sheet, but who says we can't win without a clean sheet? Remember that Slovenia had allowed all of 4 goals during all of the qualifiers, and we got 2 (really 3) in one half ... [though that Algerian defense did look awfully good against England ...]

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  2. moot point now, but we needed that clean sheet after all! good thing bob bradley's been reading sam's posts....it seems that leaving onyewu out surprised most of the so-called "experts," or whoever projects the line-ups all over the internet. seemed a pretty obvious move to the rest of us.

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