USA @ Panama friendly
Anyone aboard for this?
posted by gooner71 @ 8:30 PM
Lakenheath Old Boys
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!
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Lakenheath Old Boys
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!
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46 Comments:
It's about to start on GALA TV if you get that, or ESPN3 if you get that. I also found a link on ESPN360.com
US Lineup when I figure them out.
I expect to see Shea and Zusi and I'd like to see Sapong again. At the back I thought Cameron and Parkhurst looked good
De La Garza
in goal it's Rimando, then on the left Loyd Cameron and Parkhurst and on the right Delagarza. In the mid, it's Shea on the left, Jones and Clark holding, and Zusi on the right. Wondolowski and Bunbery up top.
Panama look a lot better than Venezuela. They look like they are taking this seriously.
GOAL. Ball floated in from our left, maybe from Loyd and the Panamanians allow it to hit the ground where Bunbery overruns his shot but it's half cleared only as far as Zusi who picks his spot and it's 1-0 USA in the 7th minute.
The ref is Mexican but the rest of the officials are Panamanian. Only in CONCACAF.
The GALA commentator has at least twice referred to Jones as Cobi. But not for the last 6 minutes. Looks like somebody let him know that Cobi would be about 45 now and unlikely to feature.
Loyd is beaten on the left and drapes an arm over the guy who goes down like he was hit by Russian space debris. The ref gives a yellow, of course. They shoot from the free kick and the ball is still rising. That was crap.
I'm disappointed not to see Sapong from the start. He changed it up for us and I think we'd not have scored but for the attention that the Venezuelans were giving him when Clark scored. Clark given a recall for that goal by the way.
Danger! Panama get open on the left and are not closed down. The cross from there was near perfect but didn't quite connect but all that was needed was a rising head and it would be a tie game again.
Hey, mate - I hadn't realized that there was a match going on. I just got out of class and I'm waiting for an Occupy meeting/film screening that starts at bloody 10pm, so I'm in the office. I'll look for a link.
Not feeling Delagarza. It was he that let that cross go unchallenged and for my tastes, he doesn't support the attack well enough to dismiss his defensive shortcomings.
Clark goes on a rampage and finds no one with him. Bunbery and W'ski no where to be seen. But then Shea floated one in to W'ski that the keeper nearly fumbles into his own net. That would have been a ludicrous 2nd.
Delagarza needs some help on the left. They get by him very easily and this time connect with a high cross that goes straight to Nick. Seconds afterwards, they do the same thing again, this time headed over the bar.
I've got a Spanish language link up. This looks to be a fairly experimental US side as I don't know either Bunbery or the goalscorer Zusi.
So the tone is being set too by the ref. No contact is going unpunished for either side. Everything is a restart with this muppet. I hate CONCACAF refs.
Oh more danger. Panama through on goal and only Nick's second effort keeps us ahead. Let off.
Hey Bob.
Bloody hell - the big Panamanian forward was straight in on goal there and only an excellent save from the US keeper(?) kept him out. Close call there half way through the first half.
These guys to a man are MLS players I believe. I think even Jones is back here now.
Nick Rimando in goal for us tonight. You haven't seen him at his pre-MLS season weight have you? It's pretty startling. Makes Dean Windass look like a refugee.
Indeed - Nick looks like he's been tucking in during the off-season. But haven't we all.
It's been a siege over the last 10 minutes because there's nobody stopping their guy over here on the left. Delagarza is not the answer
Oh - great strike on goal there saved acrobatically but ineffectively by the Panama keeper, allowing #7 to sneak in for a header. Just about scrambled off the line.
CHANCE. (Cobi) Jones wellied it and their keeper puts it onto the bar. It came down and he makes another great point blank save from W'ski!
And right down the left they come again. Over-elaborate cross to pick out a guy at the top of the box who tiki-taks himself into being dispossed.
This is a cracking match with loads of ridiculous goalmouth action.
Another Panamanian chance. A lot of good having two holding mids is doing us right now.
W'ski goes on a good run but there's nobody following. Bunbery....Bunbery....Bunbery???
How are we not 3-1 down by now. Another great Panamanian chance goes begging. Al hands at the pump as another Panamanian free kick is coming
That's better - I've got the ESPN3 coverage on the computer now, so I can at least pick out a few of these players.
Nothing from it but we don't clear our lines well and they come right back at us. Nothing in the midfield is sticking at all. It's the 37th minute and we've been defending all out for 30 minutes. Something has to change. Here they come again.
Heath Pearce seems to be warming up as if he's about to enter the fray.
How's the week been for you, mate?
Another cross, another just missed connection, and collected by Nick. Passed out to Delegarza who lumps it upfield to a Red shirt. Panama are in red.
That might have been a picture of Pierce stripping down on the sideline. I'd say we need a change.
Jermaine Jones picks up his requisite yellow card there for an agricultural challenge.
So, apparently Zack Lloyd has come off for Pearce.
This looks a really rubbish stadium.
Busy but complicated. Loyd retires and Pearce comes on. Jones collects a nothing card by leaving his feet in the tackle. I think I'd know by now how this ref is going to view that.
As Bunbery coughs up the ball, I've just done a bit of research. Looks to be a big chunk in his early 20s playing for SPORTING Kansas City.
How much you wanna bet that Jurgen never thought he'd be spending a Wednesday evening in January sitting pitchside in some dank, humid bowl of a stadium in Panama?
Wow - it's Michael Parkhurst in the back four back from the wilderness. Glad to see that.
This ESPN3 coverage on-line seems to be essentially some bloke commentating on the match from his mum's basement in Weehawken. Makes JP Dellacamera seem like Motty.
I didn't think the left side was the liability that the right with Delagarza is. Maybe Jurgen just doesn't have anyone to sub in on the right. It's been a problem spot for the US for a while.
Another very close thing there when they hit a long ball and Nick just about punches clear. We're not dealing with their long-ball game. Our headed clearances are falling to them and they are getting chance after change. It's unbelievable that we're ahead as the ref whistles the half dead. We are truly under the cosh. No way can we survive another 45 minutes of that.
Half-time, then. I suppose that Jurgen will be reasonably happy with a 0-1 scoreline at this point.
I hope we've got a solution to their long ball tactics. I'd have thought it was get under it, and head it away to one of our players. I think if we could do that, we could start to put something together. But every headed clearance from Parkhurst and Coleman chiefly, went straight up into the air inviting some Panamanian stilt to get on to it and put in a shot.
I don't think we've got sufficient talent to keep ball from these guys, but we must improve our possession so that they're not just raining in cross after cross after cross.
Happy? How about amazed and perhaps a little confused? Juergen couldn't possibly have counted on going into the half ahead.
Listen, I'm taping the match and any minute Eric's going to text me that he's ready to be picked up from Art Class. I'm going to pause the DVR and pick it up when I get back.
It's goodnight from me. Cheers.
Second half about to start up now.
Cheerio, mate. See you on Friday.
I'll be off in a few minutes to attend my film screening.
Oh - Bunbery goes just wide there almost from the kick-off.
My overall feeling is that Panama deserved something from the match because from the time our goal was scored until the end of the first half, we had no answer at all for their long balls into our box. The pair of Parkhurst and Cameron need to brush up on heading the ball away to one of our players, but also to simply head it away from danger. Time after time a long searching one would come in and they'd head it straight up in the air and an scramble would ensue as the Panamanian forwards challenged for the second ball.
But strangely, the half time interval took the piss right out of Panama. Without changing much, the midfield tandem of Clark and Cobi stiffened a lot and Panama tried something altogether different by playing it more on the floor. Only in the last 10 minutes did they revert to the long-ball again and again, they posed a big threat to the 10-man USA. Cameron was hard done by the play-acting Panamanian forward but he was the last man. Even though the linesman didn't make a call, and though the over-fussy ref was half a pitch away from the "foul" I thought that it was a case of two bodies coming together and the Panamanian diving for the penalty box. I'm glad he didn't make it in and that the ref gave a free-kick which was dispatched into the crowd after it hit a red shirt.
I really like Sapong and if Juergen was hidebound on trying out Bunbury, why wouldn't he play him along with his SportingKC teammate? W'ski can't be truly judged by this match either since he was left forward to snag something on the break while the rest of the first half was played in our 18-yard box. Clark was rewarded for his goal against Venezuela with a start, but that sentimental choice should really mark the end of his international career. He picked up a yellow in the first 15 minutes and was missing for the rest of the time he was on the pitch. With Big Red to choose from, Juergen got that one wrong. Jones looked a lot better in the second half, but he forfeited possession time and time again with bad passing and miserable control. Shea wasn't the force going forward, but he did a manly job of tracking back to help the hapless Lyod before he left in place of Pearce. Still Shea worked and worked and it was good to see.
Zusi continues to press a point to be included in Juergen's 2014 WC qualifying plans, but since he plays in Donovan's position, it's a big ask. I'd say that he's leapfrogged Feilhaber however. But if Stuart Holden can complete his recovery, I'd say that realistically only Jones has a claim to a spot in the squad.
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