USA vs. Guatemala Tonight!

[Celticrugby]

Tonight at 10pm for our East Coast viewers.....

Looks like an all MLS/Championship squad. Should be interesting.

ON THE GROUND IN GUATEMALA: The U.S. Men's National Team headed South yesterday afternoon, traveling by charter from Columbus to Guatemala City and arriving at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Met by a large contingent of reporters and photographers at the team hotel, the team settled into its temporary home in the heart of Guatemala City. The 18-man contingent will hold its only training session in country later this afternoon at the Estadio Mateo Flores, just over 24 hours in advance of their World Cup qualifying matchup with Guatemala. Kickoff for MatchDay 8 of final round qualifying is set for 10 p.m. ET, and the match will be broadcast live on ESPN2. As always, fans can also follow along on ussoccer.com's MatchTracker, presented by Philips Electronics. The U.S. starting lineup against Guatemala will be posted at ussoccer.com approximately one hour before kickoff.

PRESSURE IS ON THE NEW CREW: After the 2-0 victory against Mexico guaranteed a spot in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, U.S. Manager Bruce Arena set about adjusting the travel roster for the upcoming qualifier against Guatemala to give players the chance to show themselves under challenging circumstances, to say the least. "This is a fantastic opportunity for this group to demonstrate they can perform in this type of environment," said Arena. "Can they win a game where the home team is desperate, the crowd is against them, and the conditions are difficult? Players that can do that are the kind of players that can possibly help your team in a World Cup. It's a great chance for them to prove that."

USA roster v. Guatemala
Goalkeepers (2) – Marcus Hahnemann (Reading FC), Matt Reis (New England Revolution)
Defenders (6) – Chris Albright (Los Angeles Galaxy), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Nick Garcia (Kansas City Wizards), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Greg Vanney (FC Dallas)
Midfielders (6) – Chris Armas (Chicago Fire), Bobby Convey (Reading FC), Clint Dempsey (New England Revolution), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids), Santino Quaranta (D.C. United), Steve Ralston (New England Revolution)
Forwards (4) – Jeff Cunningham (Colorado Rapids), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Eddie Johnson (FC Dallas), Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution)

[Big Yank]

I'd like to see Twellman and Johson up front myself.

[Celticrugby]

I'd like to see Twellman and Johson up front myself.

Cunningham could start too, given his form has been excellent. I'm sad to see Noonan not be in this, I hope he's not done for the national team.

[Big Yank]

Never been to impressed by Noonan's international appearances. Hopefully he'll get another opportunity to prove himself.

It'll be strange to watch someone besides Keller in goal. Hahnemann played in the Gold Cup, but like a lot of people, that felt more like a friendly to me than a real game.

I don't believe I'm going to miss the kickoff because of the ******* Mets and Braves are in the 10th inning!! :censored
I hate baseball with the fire of a thousand suns!!! What a stupid ******* sport!!!

[mejulian]

I hate baseball with the fire of a thousand suns!!! What a stupid ******* sport!!!
:bowing :clap :holy247 :USA_Blue :drinkbeer

[Big Yank]

JESUS ******* CHRIST!!!!
WHEN WILL THIS STUPID PIECE OF **** GAME END!!!!!!

Seriously, how is this sport entertaining in the least? I can see playing it, if you were already drunk and bored out of your skull and happen to be in a park and don't have a frisbee and also you're kind of retarded to begin with - but why the **** would you spend any time watching other people play it!!!!???

[Big Yank]

FINALLY!!!

Looks like Twellman and Cunningham up front.

[Big Yank]

We are not looking good at all. The shallowness of the team is really showing..

[Fins Prompte]

Does Arena really talk this way to encourage the team?

[Big Yank]

:laugh Would'nt really call him aweinspiring, would you?

Also, I just realized how much Ralston looks like Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off

[Fins Prompte]

man this game was boring. more fouls than scoring chances it seemed..

[Big Yank]

That was pretty friggin crappy. I thought Albright was the only worth his salt tonight. Noones knocking on the starting team's door with this one.

[mejulian]

Ha, you guys are not so strong when you are out of your own grounds, aren't you?.......or whatever way you phrased it last Saturday. :D :salute

[Berean Todd]

Ha, you guys are not so strong when you are out of your own grounds, aren't you?.......or whatever way you phrased it last Saturday. :D :salute

Well you weren't exactly playing your B team on Saturday the way we did tonight.

[Celticrugby]

Never been to impressed by Noonan's international appearances. Hopefully he'll get another opportunity to prove himself.

It'll be strange to watch someone besides Keller in goal. Hahnemann played in the Gold Cup, but like a lot of people, that felt more like a friendly to me than a real game.

I don't believe I'm going to miss the kickoff because of the ******* Mets and Braves are in the 10th inning!! :censored
I hate baseball with the fire of a thousand suns!!! What a stupid ******* sport!!!

I was ******* LIVID. I can't believe they didn't at least delay the broadcast so we could see the whole thing.

Anyways, Noonan's best game we didn't get to see since it wasn't on TV. :handbags

But to this game......

Pretty boring, but its my team so I really could care less about "flashy football".

Some decent performances, Convey looked good as did Hahnemann who could now be our #2 since I don't remember Tim Howard playing in...FOREVER.

[Big Yank]

Ha, you guys are not so strong when you are out of your own grounds, aren't you?.......or whatever way you phrased it last Saturday. :D :salute
We didn't play with any of our usual starters (cue calls of "you're just making excuses")But that's because, as you know, we already qualified last week :P . Cunningham started for christ's sake.
Like I said earlier, this game showed the lack of depth in the US. If it had been a decent team we would have lost.

Last weekend, I probably said something along the lines of: playing away from home doesn't affect us as much as other teams since we rarely actually play with a home field advantage.
I also remember saying I like to see Mexico do well. No need for the finger :(

[Celticrugby]

Like I said earlier, this game showed the lack of depth in the US. If it had been a decent team we would have lost.


I don't know really. I think it shows that we have MORE depth than we have in previous years, surely a good sign for the national team's future.

We could have lost, but played decently enough to earn a draw away from home.

We have to have some games like this so we can get the rest of the 23 man squad together. :USA_Blue

[mejulian]

We didn't play with any of our usual starters (cue calls of "you're just making excuses")But that's because, as you know, we already qualified last week :p. Cunningham started for christ's sake.
Like I said earlier, this game showed the lack of depth in the US. If it had been a decent team we would have lost.

Last weekend, I probably said something along the lines of: playing away from home doesn't affect us as much as other teams since we rarely actually play with a home field advantage.
I also remember saying I like to see Mexico do well. No need for the finger :(
Damn, I was going to say that "you're just making excuses". :P

I know that you were already qualified and didn't have the need to risk the top players, especially in Central America, where things sometimes can get really nasty. It was just a good moment to pop up and annoy a little, that's it.

Ah, and the finger (:salute) is usually in good spirit, typical footy banter. :USA_Blue

I also like to see the US doing well. Don't say it too loud, but I even have a jersey......and I wear it........at home. :ninja

[Big Yank]

I don't know really. I think it shows that we have MORE depth than we have in previous years, surely a good sign for the national team's future.

Good point - Compared to previous US teams we definitely have more depth, but compared to other ranking FIFA teams we're pretty shallow.


We have to have some games like this so we can get the rest of the 23 man squad together.

I think I'd like to see more of a mix of proven/experimental next time. For instance, I think either Cunningham or Twellman would have showed more of what they could do if they had a more effective midfield.

[Big Yank]

Damn, I was going to say that "you're just making excuses". :P

I know that you were already qualified and didn't have the need to risk the top players, especially in Central America, where things sometimes can get really nasty. It was just a good moment to pop up and annoy a little, that's it.

Ah, and the finger (:salute) is usually in good spirit, typical footy banter. :USA_Blue

I also like to see the US doing well. Don't say it too loud, but I even have a jersey......and I wear it........at home. :ninja

I know, I'd probably be tempted to the same thing if the reverse were true. I guess the :salute symbol just has a different meaning to me. :D

[Celticrugby]

I think I'd like to see more of a mix of proven/experimental next time. For instance, I think either Cunningham or Twellman would have showed more of what they could do if they had a more effective midfield.

Yep I agree with that. I guess Arena's counter would be he wants to have these other players get international experience so they can become a quality midfield.

[el mero mero]

Hey, I also like to see the US do well. I'm a US citizen, if I were born here I would be 100% for team America. Just when it's Mexico vs US, uhh.. Mexico.

[C]

cant believe nick garcia was in the national team. arena has makes some of the worst call ups ever

[Celticrugby]

cant believe nick garcia was in the national team. arena has makes some of the worst call ups ever

Shhhhh. That's an IU grad. :laugh

[manutdgatorev]

A boring game with not very many chances...but oh well. The US was clearly the better team on the day and could've won it. The lack of chemistry was pretty obvious for most of our players, but there were some individuals who I thought played well. Our entire backline was effective in containing Guatemala for most of the game, but had a lapse toward the end with two quality chances for Guatemala that we were lucky didn't go in. Losing concentration in the final minutes is not something we should have in our defense. Though none of them did bad, the only one that had any presence or impact in the game was Chad Marshall. Our MF was decent...the lack of chemistry hampered our play and probably was the reason we didn't win. Santiago Q played well enough to show he deserves more chances in the NT and certainly didn't hurt himself. I thought Dempsey had a pretty good game too: linked up well with Twellman at times, made some good tackles, and had some good passing. His spell on the RW at the end of the game showed his versatility and I think he'll be one of the guys heading to the WC next year. He's good pretty much everywhere he plays, works real hard, and is pretty talented...all in all, not bad from him. Pablo Mastroeni did ok: made some good tackles and performed well as the more DM in the center. Didn't impress as well as Reyna, but still played better and was more effective IMO than Chris Armas. Convey did ok...was a bit disapointed in him: a player with his experience should have more of an impact; he was largely absent for most of the game and gave the ball away too many times through rash passes and dumb touches on the dribble. Our forwards lacked familiarity, though both played alright individually. Cunningham looked uneasy out there: made some ok touches but never threatened and sorely dissapointed me, as I expected him to burn Guatemala with his pace. Didn't hurt his chances, but didn't do anything to impress. Twellman did marginally better: showed his value by running and hustling throughout the game and was unfortunate not to score at least once in the game. I think that was more of nerves than anything else. When Johnson got in the game, his form immediately picked up and I think the two of them played pretty good together. Twellman was winning damn near every ball in the air and thats a valuable weapon to have. EJ had a good run-out for us: didn't score, but looked dangerous on the header and definately looked like he's well on his way to becoming the potent weapon we need him to be. His touches were all pretty good and he used his speed more so than Cunningham. Donovan did alright, but didn't really factor in the game. Been very dissapointed with him of late: hasn't played particularly well at all in the past few games. Needs to get his confidence back up. Anyway, overall: a good performance by the US and about what I expected. Dempsey, Mastroeni, Twellman, Santiago, Marshall, and Hahnemann all showed they have the stuff for next year's WC. The others did ok...but not well enough for me to rule them in for certain.

[Celticrugby]

In my opinion Dempsey has probably been the best MLS player for the National team this year, other than Donovan. He's clearly getting on the roster and I think he deserves it.