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musiclawyer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jul-03-07 11:27 AM
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Comments on USA performance COPA AMERICA
Actually not bad. Better than I expected. Far better touch , passing, movement, possession than the best USA team of a decade ago. And this was a B team essentially. Nonetheless, attacking midfielders forget to play, or don't know how to play, DEFENSE at crucial times. Finishing is horrible. Brian McBride in his prime was a better finisher than anyone the USA can field at any time right now with the exception of Donovan and Dempsey, who really should be midfielders, but must often play forward out of necessity. Outside backs are not attacking threats, which hurts overall ability to vanquish elite teams. These deficiencies are all ther result of skills not honed on a daily basis years ago, when these young men were boys. Therefore. ...........USA is still a decade away from beating elite teams like Argentina etc. There's a much better crop of coaches at the youth level now, and the u-16 and u-18 superleague, which has replaced boys Olympic Development, will help greatly. As I've written before, the final step will be when MLS is healthy enough to run its own academies or co-opt the superleague teams.
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northzax Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-05-07 08:07 PM
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1. after watching US-Colombia tonight
Edited on Thu Jul-05-07 08:13 PM by northzax
which makes my tenth Copa game in a week, I actually concur. This team played better than it had any right to. yes, it came in last, but for half of the first two games, and all of this game, it gave as well as it got. We learned who can play at this level (bornstein, guzan, benny f, ricky clark, conrad and a few others) and who should never touch a US jersey again (Twellman, Gaven, Keller) and who needs some work to get there (Boswell, Beckerman, Mapp, Moor) and should get some more qualifying caps in the run up to South Africa.

a couple of corrections of note: first off, the super development league is not replacing ODP, which will still exist, just passing it by. ODP will fall by the wayside eventually. Also, MLS teams with Academies are participating in superleague (at least DCU and Red Bulls, in fact I think all have qualified except New England, which doesn't have an academy) MLS teams, starting next year, will be able to sign players directly out of their academies without exposing them to the draft (plus, if they sign them, they get to keep 80% of transfer fees if they go abroad) in 2008 teams can sign one player from their academies, 2009, two players and 2010 and beyond, three players. teams now have an incentive to develop young talent and invest in their development. in fact, it makes no sense for a team to not have an academy, and having 15 teams at least exposing young players to professional talent and coaching is going to make a difference. there is also, starting this year, an MLS youth cup to increase competition at that level. I know that both Red Bull and DCU are bringing talented youth players from their system up to practice with the big boys at times.

thing is, there aren't enough professional teams to really develop talent in the US, so it makes sense to have more and more club teams operating like mini-professional development squads.
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musiclawyer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-06-07 11:48 AM
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2. I stand corrected
Yes, MLS is indeed partially represented in the superleague. I knew that, but wrote inartfullly.
As to the grown ups, Roy Hudson thinks Twellman is still viable, or least can help in world cup qualifying. I disagree. (So I am agreeing with you). Gavan was a great younger player. He puzzles me because he has skills, but seemed to literally take minutes off. He indeed may never see another call up. And I don't think Eddie Johnson is the answer up front. He might be imposing to some defenders but he freezes up and seems to slow down rather than accelerate the attack unless he is at the very end of a run. I want Brian Ching , gutsy, ruthless, cunning, predatory, and fairly accurate---only 7 years younger, 2 inches taller and quicker. Close your eyes and imagine. That's who we want at the top of the triangle, back to the goal with Donovan and Dempsey etc streaking in, at a world cup finals. I don't see that guy anywhere right now, and it sure as heck isn't Eddie Johnson.
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