Add another game to the streak of Michael Bradley starting and never subbed. I believe it has been 3 to 4 years. Even Donovan was taken out.

Bornstein should be done. Every high level game i have seen him in he makes a critical mistake that leads to a goal. And even when its not necessarily his fault (the deflection) he seems to be right in the middle of a goal.

I thought Beasley was as good as anyone else. I came out of the game with a positive review for him. Maybe its because its the first time in recent memory that I wasnt calling for him to be pulled from the game and never return. Thats something, i guess.

sucks.

I understand that this is a friendly and Beasley played in Netherlands against/with some of these guys. But to see him come into the game laughing and slapping hands with the Dutch just rubbed me the wrong way. I mean de Jong just knocked out Holden and Beasley is playing for a roster spot. I know players have different mentalities, but when you but on the red, white, and blue to repsent our country please turn the intesity up. Like ChestRockwell above, if we play average we will be three and done. And just like conditioning, you can’t magically dial up the intensity.

Comment about the new jerseys. I am not a fashion expert and didn’t find the jerseys to be ugly, but I don’t understand why we switch our designs every couple of years. I mean countries like Brazil, Mexico, Germany, etc. pretty much have stayed consistent with their designs. Obviously a different colar or piping here or there not withstanding. An alternative third jersey for commemorative resons wouldn’t be bad occasionally. But can’t we just find a design and stick with it to build some tradition. At least our goalies aren’t wearing green anymore.

Steve – What are the odds a US player would have received a straight red for the leg-breaking, studs up tackle De Jong visited upon Holden?

I’m guessing the same ref would have soiled himself in a mad rush to grab his red card had Holden fouled De Jong in the same manner. It’s possible that the fact it was a friendly made the ref think it was more clumsy than malicious, but a leg-breaking tackle is a leg-breaking tackling, whether intentional or not.

While we are not technically and tactically at the level of a team like Holland, the US seems to suffer as a result of being perceived as “fit”, “robust”, “physical”, but not good at the whole soccer thing. I would readily concede we are not as technically or tactically strong as hollands, Italys, Germanys, Brazils and Argies, but we are not overly physical.

van de Vaart stated as much after the game:

“One person not so impressed with the U.S. was Netherlands and Real Madrid playmaker Rafael van der Vaart, who came on in the 60th minute. “A robust side,” van der Vaart said in Dutch, when asked what he thought of his opponents. “But not great in terms of quality. Hard to play against though. They played compact, we had trouble getting through. Soccerwise they’re not great but they’re hard to beat.”

The rush to grab for red was an issue the US dealt with at the Con Fed Cup last summer and also in the past in other comps.

I would argue that we are no more of a physical team than dozens of other soccer nations, however we are perceived as thuggish.

 I guess it is what it is.

It’s very doubtful to me that a referee takes a personal bias into account for any particular foul. On replay, the tackle looked bad. But live action, from where the referee is standing, it was a rough tackle but the studs weren’t in view. I would equate the tackle more to Michael Bradley’s tackle that he was sent off for in the Confed Cup. I don’t think that was a send off either, so I’d say that a yellow was right, even though the tackle on replay looked worse than a yellow. Maybe an orange card, somewhere in the middle.

For this idea that referees prefer one team over another, that’s a dangerous accusation. I don’t think that the US is overly punished rather than other countries. Every side on the planet somehow thinks there is a referee conspiracy against them. We don’t have the time to have the clandestine meetings to plot our devious referee plans against all the countries in the world. We would, but we just don’t have the time.

John Harkes sucks. He’s to busy regailing (sp?) us with tales of his playing days and saying “obviously” and “situation” to tell us about a formation shift. That’s even if he recognized it himself. He was probably too busy planning when he was going to bang JP’s wife.

And Mexico was wearing a black uniform last nite with green underarms and sleeve pipings. They didn’t look particularly sharp against New Zealand either, playing wise.

Steve, about that last post… It’s very doubtful to me that a referee takes a personal bias into account for any particular foul. On replay, the tackle looked bad. But live action, from where the referee is standing, it was a rough tackle but the studs weren’t in view. I would equate the tackle more to Michael Bradley’s tackle that he was sent off for in the Confed Cup. I don’t think that was a send off either, so I’d say that a yellow was right, even though the tackle on replay looked worse than a yellow. Maybe an orange card, somewhere in the middle.

For this idea that referees prefer one team over another, that’s a dangerous accusation. I don’t think that the US is overly punished rather than other countries. Every side on the planet somehow thinks there is a referee conspiracy against them. We don’t have the time to have the clandestine meetings to plot our devious referee plans against all the countries in the world. We would, but we just don’t have the time.
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I disagree. I ‘m not claiming that refs walk onto a field with the idea that "i don’t like this nation (or club), but I like this one, and I’m going to call fouls accordingly",but if you are saying that refs are 100% objective and not affected by biases, subconcious or otherwise, I will disgree.

It’s that way in every sport. It’s only human and officials are human.

I would also add that on a more conscious level, the line forms to the left of nations who DO NOT want to see the US succeed in soccer. And the reason that is the case has nothing to do with soccer. See the US / Mexico rivalry.

I’ll brace for impact now.

But we get accused of being sub-human so often, that it takes a very strong individual (which anyone who sticks to refereeing for more than 1 year has to be one).

Referees don’t have the time to watch a foul happen such as the one committed against Holden, consider his biases in his head, decide which team he is biased against, see who committed the foul and if he should go harsher or lighter with punishment, then dish out said punishment. It simply doesn’t work that way, no matter how many of you would like to attribute that ability on us.

But we get accused of being sub-human so often, that it takes a very strong individual (which anyone who sticks to refereeing for more than 1 year has to be one) “to not believe it.” Left that off.

Look, I think refs have a difficult and more often than not thankless job, but my comments regarding biases are less about consprracy than about psychology and what we know about the way in which people think and act. Think Malcom Gladwell, not Oliver Stone.

I’ll quit arguing with the ref now. :)

There just isn’t much value placed on possession in the US structure. In terms of marking and physical abilities, I think Demerit, Onyewu, and Bocanegra do a fine job. However, none of the US CBs has demonstrated any sort of ability to maintain possession of the ball after making a stop. Clearing the ball and just resetting the situation can’t go on forever.

I posted on today’s entry why I believe it was a yellow card rather than red. I’ll repost it here…

Let me be abrupt and frank:
1) It was a penalty. No question, and anyone who thinks otherwise is simply wrong.
2) The reason there was no red card was because the referee was screened from the tackle. The tackle occurred on the other side of the referee, and I believe there was another player coming into his vision, maybe even coming thru it. If he would have been on the other side, he would have seen the leg being bent backwards by the extended cleat. Then he would have produced the red. Was this bad positioning? Not really, as he was running from behind the play. There was no way he could have gotten to the other side. Simply an unfortunate incident.

All of this talk of bias against the Americans gets tiring. You want to know why the Irish press gets onto us after game against Italy? Ideas like this.

Love you Stevo, but this if totally misguided.