re: USMNT v Brazil May 30, 2012 7:00pmCST ESPN2/espn3

This game wasn't that bad. Bradley showed once again that he's well on his way to becoming a truly world class player. Gomez looked good and it'll be interesting to see if Klinsman plays him and altidore up top together. Fabian Johnson has locked down left back for years to come barring injury, which is nice bc the collective age of the rest of our D is about 1,000 years old. With some moderate luck this game could've very easily been 3-2 USA if Brazil's goalie hadn't played a 10.0 game on FIFA or if Gooch had a pulse. Solely responsible for 1st and 4th goals and i give him 50% of the blame on the 2nd as well. Brazil got the corner bc Gooch screwed the frick out of a clearance

Haven't read the thread, but Bradley was awesome tonight. Holy moly, his work rate was off the charts. The guy was everywhere.

The midfield selection sucked. I can't stand having a central player out wide, Torres, and having both Jones and Edu out there. More so Edu playing so high up the pitch.

Gomez really isn't all that good, holy shite is that guy slow. If he's the 2nd/3rd best option just behind Jozy then the US is in extremely deep trouble.

Can't really comment on the defensive marking, well lack thereof, it was obvious and disgusting.

And so slow he could never catch up to the ball. He really didn't do anything for me. He took down that lovely through ball off his chest, which he could have actually done better by redirecting it towards goal instead of somewhat missing it and having it go diagonal, and then had a good shot on target.

The guy was just so freaking slow and non threatening. Playing hard and having a high work rate can only get you so far, skill and results are what we need. The US pool of strikers is a huge disappointment to me at this point.

Not really hard to be "near" the ball when you are the target man(solo up top) the offense always tries to find/feed the ball to.

woke up this morning and could not believe we got smashed.

wish i was at home def would have gone 67k fans bravo DC bravo

Not reading this whole thing but I'll vent here:

- might be time for Gooch to give way to the younger CBs. I hate to say it, but his play was awful last night (and I'm not even counting the "handball"). He looked full retard trying to clear or even pass with his left foot at times. He kept the scorer onside for one of the later goals. He looked flustered on the ball whenever he got it. Instead of clearing the ball for a throw he kicks it out for a corner when there was nobody around him. Just very very bad. F
- disappointed in the whole back line pretty much minus Johnson. Twellman said it best when he said this is only Johnson's 4th cap but looked like it was his 40th. He had several runs that threatened when nobody else was. Beautiful play on the goal and wonderful move and setup on the near Dempsey goal (which he needed to run through and finish). A
- Bradley again showed he's one of our better players. Work rate off the charts and was involved in the goal again - A
- Gomez played his arse off. Very impressed with him last night
- I was shocked at how flustered we looked with Brazil's high pressure D. We were completely out of our game for the first 35 minutes of that match. Glad to see us settle down and threaten their goal in the 2nd half but in tournaments we cant start games like that
- It wouldnt have made a difference in a win/loss but as Shakespeare would say that ref fricking sucked donkey. The handball was a gift. He was inconsistent in his fouls (I think one of our guys got hip-tossed which led to their last counter and goal). No real reasons for his yellows other than when people complained a lot (the Jones yellow to me was BS - tackled the ball first, ref didnt even blow his whistle for a foul, Brazil gets all mad at the hard tackle, yellow shown).

So for tl;dr, Bradley, Johnson, Gomez - great job. Gooch - you have to go. Everyone else on the field, compose yourselves and play the ball you are capable of playing.

Yep. And we did the exact opposite at times. It was Gooch or Dolo on one of the goals but we just sat at the top of the box and watched them waiting to make a move. You cant let those guys have space and give them time to create. You have to close down early and get physical.

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he didn't look like a target man bc he's a little Mexican he's not fricking Mario Gomez standing 3 inches taller than everyone looking to poach a header

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Thats the thing, I know the guy has ability, I was just extremely frustrated in the roll we had him play. I feel we could place him somewhere where he is more suited, most likely with someone up there to help him out.

It was sad seeing him work his tail off chasing balls left and right but either not catching up to them, lack of pace, or simply not having anyone else on the team anywhere close to him. It's been the same thing with Jozy for me, the guy doesn't get near enough help being up there but if you are playing with one guy and trying to use him as an outlet or target man at least he has size and speed capable of latching on to balls and holding it up for support.

It's more of me being really frustrated with the coaching decisions and strategy. Gomez up there by himself was deflating for me, but more so the midfield lineup of having 4 central players out there.

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Herc played well tonight and did a lot of work offensively and defensively. He covered a lot of ground and, in case you missed it, was the only person to score tonight for the US. It's refreshing, considering our forwards never score.

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I can't dislike his effort, he tried to pressure the defenders and come up with possession on our outlet passes certainly.

It's true he was the only goal scorer, I was happy to see the US get a fair share of actually decent chances. As for the forwards part, oh boy is that true. It could be since we only ever play just one man up top by himself, or they lack the goalscorers instinct/skill to finish, but either way they simply don't score usually.

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Gomez really isn't all that good, holy shite is that guy slow. If he's the 2nd/3rd best option just behind Jozy then the US is in extremely deep trouble.

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You didn't watch the game last night?

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You didn't watch the game last night?

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He'd be fine as a 2nd striker paired up with someone, but I'm still sticking to my opinion that him up top alone just isn't all that good for us. Unless of course we improve at the midfield with maintaining our possession and playing him into space or to his feet more accurately rather than the half clearance/passes we sent his way last night.