We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
Had enough footer today? Not I! I'm continuing my policy of blatantly ignoring the economic plight of the country by settling in for an evening with the U.S. boys as they take on Cuba on U.S. soil for the first time in yonks. Gooner is at the match and we may have some live on site reports from him if his cell phone holds out.
posted by The Blue Devil @ 6:53 PM
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
57 Comments:
Gooner was right - the Cubans came to the U.S. with twenty members of the squad and two are "missing." Not exactly the preparation that they would have hoped for.
Like England, it's played three and won three so far in CONCACAF qualifying for the U.S. They should qualify for the final round with a fourth win tonight with two qualifiers to spare.
The U.S. side for tonight:
Howard, Pearce, Bocanegra, Onyewu, Cherundolo, Bradley, Kljestan, Beasley, Donovan, Dempsey, Ching
I still prefer Parkhurst rather than Onyewu at center back and Twellman rather than Ching up front but this is a settled side that's won three so you can't argue with that.
Good looking crowd at RFK. No sign of Gooner but I trust that he's had some BBQ and a few bevvies and is tucked into his usual seat with his mates. Hope it's a good show tonight. Wish I could be there!
And we're off! Come on Sam's Army!
After all these years, DaMarcus still gets knocked over at the first sense of a stiff breeze on his back. Can no one coax him into the weight room?
Donovan latches onto a wayward ball, slips through to Dempsey who should have scored early. Straight into the keeper's arms.
The Cubans seem really disorganized so far, as if they've just met. Lots of giveaways. Bradley goes wildly over the top when he might have tested the keeper.
GOAL! Lovely stuff there. Kljestan picked up an errant ball, slipped it quickly to Beasley who beat the keeper easily from an acute angle on the left.
U.S. 1-0!
That'll do Beasley a power of good. He's just back from injury and it's his first U.S. goal for a while. He's looking sharper tonight than I've seen him for a while.
Hey Bob,
what section is the Gooner in?
He's on the side that the camera is on, directly across from the Screaming Eagles banner.
I'd love to see Jozy Altidore get a match tonight.
I hate the stadium because of no stands behind either goal.
Couldn't they put something there?
What the heck is that smoke!!
Close to the field?
Yeah, I'm not keen on that either. Steve used to have seats behind the goal to the left but there was a huge space behind the stands and the pitch. It was originally built as a football stadium for the Redskins and it's not really suited. They're still wrangling over building a soccer-only stadium for D.C. United.
Yeah, Steve's a season ticket holder so he's got seats about five or six rows up from the touchline. It's great whenever I have a chance to be in town.
Bloody hell, they're kicking lumps out of Beasley tonight.
Why wouldn't it be suited for football? I could understand if it was baseball but A. Football is pretty much the same size pitch
Don't know what the smoke is. D.C. is sponsored by VW, which is why there's the weird Autohut in the top left corner behind the goal.
Isn't a gridiron field a bit longer? I don't know.
The biggest the footer field can be is 120 yards.
The Gridiron field is 120 as well. 100 yards and two 10 yard end zones. A footer field is a lot wider
I thought that the first goal might have opened the floodgates but Cuba have sorted themselves defensively since the first ten minutes.
Are your Sox going to win tonight?
TWO NIL
HE WAS WIDE OPEN. Was he offside?
ON BY A MILE
GOAL! Beasley with a second. Good persistence there from DaMarcus. He timed his run well and beat the keeper who was rushing out for no apparent reason.
A shock goal for the Cubans! The old adage, eh? You're most vulnerable when you've just scored. Flukey shot though, just toe poked it.
NICE SHOT!
Was Howard too far off is line? Was it a toe poke?
What is Harksey babbling about. "Took it well" and then "it was awkward" and "wouldn't want to teach that." One or the other John.
Sweet! My Revvies live on the Deuce on Thursday night.
So, have you had your cheese on toast today?
Another goal almost gifted to the U.S. Donovan played in Bradley well. Bradley forced a save out of the keeper.
It's asinine that MLS plays on during the international break.
Coming up on half-time. It would nice for the U.S. to pop another in before the half.
Donovan gets hacked and the Cuban #3 is getting an early bath. Off he goes.
That should open up the pitch for the U.S. in the second half.
Half-time: U.S. 2-1 up. It should have been more and probably will be in the second half as the Cubans will have to shore themselves up with only ten men and without a full squad of players.
Second half starting...
One change for Cuba; none from Bob Bradley.
GOAL! Well that was quick! We've barely started again and Donovan has a tap in from Pearce's cross.
3-1 U.S.
Could this be another 5-1 win?
Ching nearly latched on to one there but then it was Brian Ching.
Surely it's time to stick Altidore, Adu and perhaps Torres on for a bit of experience in a game that's been won now? There's really no need to pad the resumes of Donovan, Ching and Beasley.
GOAL! It's a mad scramble from a set piece and I think Klejstan might have scored but Ching seems to be claiming a final touch. Typical greedy striker behavior.
4-1 U.S.
Excellent! Bradley's going to give Altidore a run out. And it's a first look at Torres. I wish it were Fernando, but it's Jose Francisco, a Chicano kid from Texas who's been playing for Pachuco for five years. He looks a busy little player.
Great powerful run from Jozy and he nearly beat the keeper at the near post.
Freddy Adu will get another cap too.
Free kick chance now for the U.S. after a nice run from Torres.
Freddy Adu coming back to RFK where it all started for him at the age of "14" (read: 17 or 18).
Donovan with the free kick and it's just wide left. On second look it clipped off the left post. Very close thing.
Torres launches a long left-footed drive. This kid's got some confidence. Nice strike and just a bit over.
Neat little move there ends with Beasley slotting across but Altidore just couldn't reach it. Shame. That would have been a nice capper on the night.
GOAL! Tremendous! Altidore shows us the future of the U.S. national team with another powerful run and this time he did beat the keeper at the near post.
5-1 U.S.
That's two goals in two matches for Jozy and his first international goal.
GOAL! And Gooch gets in on the party with a powerful header after another great move from the U.S. midfield. Great cross from Freddy!
Bradley picks up a needless yellow card. He's going to miss the next match, not a bad match to miss after all.
Full-time - U.S. 6-1!
Well, that's was fun. In some ways it was a similar match to the England match this afternoon with a similar scoreline. But this felt much more satisfying with the U.S. always in control. There really aren't any blemishes. I was particularly impressed by Sasha Kljestan tonight, Beasley was back at his best and Landon had another outstanding game. Apart from the goal, the defense and Timmy Howard looked tight. Good subs at the end that ended a couple of goals at the death. Fantastic performance!
Hi guys,
Just a couple of comments. RFK is still scarred from the time that the Nationals played there. They've got a park of their own now, but the room that they left behind the home goal has still not been replaced. When the baseball was there, they'd erect temporary bleachers I believe.
It's a funny place because it's quasi-city-privately owned and managed by something called the Stadium Authority. They and the owners of the club have never been able to come to terms with what DCU has envisioned. For one, the SA gets 100% of the take from concessions and parking. DCU's sole source of revenue is through seat sales. For another, RFK can fit 80K. A really rocking crowd at DCU's games is normally about 20K. We've seen some nearly 68K games for games like the US v Jamaica qualifier some years ago, and some Olympic Games match with Argentina might have been about that. So RFK is too large a stadium in the MLS.
The city under Mayor Williams, gave the go-ahead to build a soccer-specific stadium in DC on a piece of land at Poplar Point on the Anacostia river, near where the new BB park is, but now, there's a dispute between the new mayor, Fenty, a re-energized city council and even somebody who is disputing title to the land. Not to mention an environmental study that may say that this development unenvironmentally sound. No-one I know is holding their breath for the breaking of ground on the new project.
What's worse is the almost yearly chest-thumping from the club about moving the team to the suburbs somewhere. Marylanders don't want to go to Virginia, and Virginians don't want to go to Maryland. DC denizens won't go to either MD or VA.
The smoke is also a running battle with the stadium security. In the first years of the league, the base of the Anglo supporter's clubs were former GI's that were drawn in to soccer during their tours in Germany. You saw a lot of those badge and patch denim vests, and a lot of flags. And the cheers were modified basic training chants. Stadium security has always hated the smoke flares, but the supporters love them. Now the Screaming Eagles have been told that to legally use them, they need to front up the money to pay for two to four firefighters to be on duty to put them out. Which financially, is a non-starter. I personally am pro-smoke flare. I've watched the SE and Barra Brava, the Latino supporters club merge and become a real part of the matchday experience, with game-long singing, sophisticated, opponent specific banners, and pre-game displays that put many Premiership grounds in the shade. When they get the red and black flags, the DC city flags, the Marco Etcheverry, Ben Olsen, Jaime Moreno, and black and red Skull and Cross Bones banners up, with a drop back of red and black smoke, you'd think you were in Milan.
Thanks for the update on RFK, Gooner. Glad that you had a good night out with the lads and saw a convincing win. Cheers!
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