Reading took advantage of every opportunity. I'll be honest and say i didn't see the "should be" penalty on reading early on. i though Sonoko (sp?) had gotten the ball first. of course, i had my 7 month old in my lap who was upset at the first call in favor of Reading. Is it bad i taunted her all game USA play pretty well i thought. The kids really looked like their not scared of anyone, and that's how it should be. The goalkeeper edwards i thought looked real tough. he didn't even flinch when a ball came in a he collided with a Brazilian player. frankly to me he looked like he'd be an awesome free safety, and that's probably what's wrong with getting talent into our youth soccer system. Anyone see the little Brazilian punk spit at our player? I thought he was going to get away with it but he did get the red card. it got DAMN chippy at the end. still, a result is a result, i'm very proud of the US team and feel happy for Reading. My chelsea won earlier, so a damn good day for me. probably the best way to try and kick the "college football" drug that wasn't available for the first Saturday in a while.
Well, that's what I get for shutting off the set and leaving at halftime of the (Liverpool) game. I figured after Gerrard's goal that Liverpool would likely keep momentum and win with a second goal in the second half. Sorry about that Scousers.
I watched both games - as well as Thursday's game against Russia. Bobby Convey got the assist on one of Reading's goals. The Brazilians don't like getting pwnd. They turned into a bunch of Mexicans as soon as they fell behind by two. Screw them. Their coach acted like a 12 year-old as well. I'm sure y'all knew this if you watched any of the game but, #10 for the US is only 13 years-old. His name is George Renkin. I thought he was born in S. Africa but the announcers said something about Zambia or Gambia. Anyway, he just got back from playing with the U-20 team in Argentina. He's a total badass. I hate to make unoriginal comparisons but he's like a taller, more athletic Freddy Adu.
I'm starting to think that we should ship out 4yrs old to 10yrs old Youth Program over to Africa and then bring the kids back over when they hit 10 or 11.
Napoleon: You're right. I was trying to think of a way to post this without sounding racist. I can't, so I'll just come out and say it. Our "foreign" Americans are far, FAR better than our home grown talent. I watched all three games. In the third game, against Turkey, basically everyone that played was native -- Is that the right term? Our foreign-born kids all rode that bench as they played the majority of the first two games. There is clearly a difference in talent level. They even showed a shot of the bench at one point and it looked like a reverse-basketball team. Now, I don't know how many of the players that sat the last game were actually born outside of the U.S. I'm basically going on last names, which, I know is not a solid predictor of nationality. But, we sucked *** last night. Turkey lost 7-2 to Brazil and also lost to Russia 4-3. We lost 2-0 to Turkey. That's a huge turnaround for a team we should have beaten by 5 goals -- except for the fact that our best players were inactive. I'm still excited by the future. I'm not that excited about our depth, though.
By the way, I wasn't just speaking of the African-born players. Martinez and Duran were also badass. Again, they very well could have been born in the US. Either way, I'll take them.
Concur that that penalty call was almost as bad as Doyle Jackson's reversal of the Ole Miss catch at the 4 yard line (sorry; I had to ). Nevertheless, this was a wacky weekend in the BPL with Arse and Liverpool losing, a Keanelss Tottenham upending City, and the Rams actually scoring on the road (at Old Trafford no less). Like clockwork, as soon as the craziest college football regular season in recent memory comes to a close, the BPL picks up the slack.
Definitely a weekend full of upsets. Even a 4-1 win for ManU is a bit of an upset, considering the competition. One of those days where the ball just didn't bounce right for Liverpool. Stevie hit the post on a wonder-strike, we were denied numerous penalties, and Crouchy hit the post as well. Sucks to drop points, but we're still hanging in there. Congrats to Reading. Convey played a great game and they got a huge result.
