3:50: Hell freezes over.
Raf: CASTILLO!!!!! AND HELL FROZE OVER. MB90 OFF THE PITCH!!!!
Neil: Omfg. Good job Bobbo.
AKA, the only thing that Bobbo did right all game. Get his boy off the field, and let Castillo on. And, even then, he screwed this up. Bad Benny had reared his ugly head when the effort level went to shit, and he was our only creative presence in the midfield. We were losing because there was a disconnect between the strikers and the midfielders. Sacha played well the other night. Why not put in Sacha? And Castillo is a left-back…so you put him in at left midfield. EHHHHH?!?!?!?!???!! I guess baby steps – this is the first game that the US has played in qualifying where Michael freakin’ Bradley started and did not play 90 minutes (unless you count his red card problem).
4:00: Bobbo brings in Goodson and Conrad.
Neil: Clarence Goodson. Terrible.com
Raf: Agreed. Last sub will be Heath Pearce I’m sure.
Neil: lol. Sacha
A few minutes go by. Goodson just kind of hangs out. Sloppy play all around. Nothing too exciting happens here. Conrad realizes that the midfield is terrible, tries to set Jozy up by himself up top. Epic fail. At least Conrad figured out what was going on.
4:10: Neil realizes what’s going on.
Neil: Our effort sucks.
Raf: Yup, bad coaching begets bad effort.
See previous comments for how I feel about that. Dax comes in….
Raf: Dax? Really?
Neil: Lol, smiley face Lady Gaga should manage this team.
Raf: Couldn’t do any worse….
Neil: Nope. Time to recall Beasley I think. Outside of 4 dudes, we have no leaders with 7 months to go.
Raf: Good call.
And that about sums it up. Smiley face Lady Gaga might do admirably when compared with Bobbo. Let’s go over this one more time: the problem with the current version of the USMNT is that there is a DISCONNECT BETWEEN STRIKERS AND MIDFIELDERS. A dual-destroyer formation does nothing to solve this. Neither does a Dax substitution. And, as much as Bobbo wants it, his boy IS NOT, and never will be, the creative presence we need. You’re down, and there’s no effort. Why not give something else a try Bobbo? Humor me and all the other USMNT fans that genuinely do care about our country, the sport, and our success in it.
With regard to the Beasley comment – Neil may have a point. He’s right – remove Timmy, Lando, Clint, and Gooch, and we got nothing. That’s a big problem. Bease would bring pace, and locker room intangibles that couldn’t hurt this team. Any team that tucks their tail between their legs with 30 minutes to go in the last international game of the year needs a shakeup. This might be the right move.
4:25: Neil sees a scoreboard.
Neil: Ivory Coast tied Germany in Berlin today.
Raf: Sweet
Neil: I’m resigning from the blog and starting cotedivoredidieriscoming.com.
Raf: hahahahaha
First off, if the US is going to suck next summer and there’s a good chance they will, Neil and I are going to jump on the Ivory Coast bandwagon. It would just be fun!
Secondly, and sadly…the level of frustration that Neil and I are feeling is about summed up there. This is not a good place to be in with 7 months and only a few friendlies to go. We’ve demonstrated an inability to control the ball through the midfield. Furthermore, if something bad happens once, it is a freak occurrence. If something happens twice, it’s a pattern. The fact that this team has given up TWICE when behind a couple of goals is awful. We have also demonstrated that we have a coach who either does not understand what is going on, or worse, does and just doesn’t care.
Either way, he has been slow to make necessary changes, and his team lacks passion. We need the Bob Bradley from the Costa Rica game – that was the only glimpse I’ve ever had of him that would warrant his continued tenure as USMNT coach. If we can’t get that…I don’t know…hire Preki.