EPL Betting Challenge: Week 3

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  Beaumont Livingston said,

  Where is the US report card?

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  Bill said,

  I’m not much into bettings, but hey I’ll give the some ratings!

  I didn’t think much about it until I saw Eric Wynalda on FFF Monday night. He was such a clown that it inspired me to comment. He kept going on about how difficult it was to qualify, and everyone should just relax about the quality of the USA’s play. It seems to me that his comment served two purposes: to justify his own career, when during the 90’s the USA did have a hard time qualifying, and justifying the rather mediocre standard that US Soccer seems to accept. The mediocrity should be a thing of the past and shouldn’t be acceptable anymore. Wynalda is busy looking at the past instead of looking ahead to a future where the USA can regularly compete with the best at the international level. He seems to be happy for the USA to continue to labor through qualifying just he can view his own career in a better light. I’d be a lot happier if Wynalda viewed his career as the foundation for the USA to achieve greater things, but that’s not his schtick.

  It is well past time for the USMNT to completely dominate this region, excepting Mexico perhaps. This was El Salvador, and we’re at home! It was a generally unconvincing and gave all of us concerned about our prospects in South Africa more to worry about. Overall, the USA gets a C-. The USA needs to start crushing these teams; we shouldn’t be preserving three points with a great save in the 88th minute!

  Howard gets a C, acceptable, not great like he is capable of.

  Bornstein gets an F, just not good enough by a long shot.

  Marshall gets a C, adequate, but not eye-catching.

  Bocanegra gets a C; this guy is fading, and shouldn’t wear the armband anymore.

  Spector gets a C, looks to be as good a fullback as we have. Damning with faint praise indeed.

  Overall the defense should have been up to shutting El Salvador (El Salvador!) out. It wasn’t, and the problems at fullback are still evident. The USA doesn’t have anyone good in this position; we are merely looking for adequate. I would question our ability to be a decent international side with

  Bradley gets a C-, his judgment and decision-making is increasingly questionable, and his playing time appears to be more and more based on some nepotism. His place on his club team certainly ought to provide a lot to worry about.

  Feilhaber gets a B-. He plays wonderfully in patches, then not so much, but needs to be fit enough for full 90.

  Dempsey gets a C-. Without the goal it would be a D-. Clint is phenomenally talented, but his effort and judgment are questionable. He can be World-class or he can be ordinary, show-boating and lazy. The fate of the USA’s chances may rest on getting him to show up for every game!

  Donovan – He played the way he is supposed to as the USA’s best player, he gets a B+.

  Altidore – He is the present and future of the USA up front, should have had two goals, but Dempsey’s stupidity (and questionable refereeing) cost him the brace, he gets a B.

  Davies – Looks dangerous and compliments Altidore well, he gets a B-.

  Subs

  Holden – gets a B-, comes on and gives the team some energy. Those two crosses near the end at least gave me something to cheer about, and helped erase Beckerman’s horrid play for a few moments.

  Beckerman – gets an F, and should never play in a meaningful game again.

  Torres – He got to play, had a tremendous header, which failed due to a great save, but not enough for a grade, Incomplete.

  Coach Bradley continues to phone it in, if that is an excuse, with lousy subs, lousy tactics, and generally questionable decision-making. The USA is not playing confidently, and our whole approach to playing the game is stale and antiquated. He gets a D simply for two things: not playing Ching, and allowing Torres to get playing time.

  US Soccer gets an F, can we start to schedule the meaningful games for places where the USA will get some home atmosphere? Someplace where a good pro-USA crowd can be found? I vote for games in Columbus, and let’s try Seattle for heaven’s sake (in fact let’s put the game against Costa Rica in Seattle), we might actually get a home field advantage for once!

  ESPN gets a zero, goose egg; at least my Comcast account gives me ESPN 360, but not ESPN Classic.

  Overall, the performance was good enough for three crucial points against inferior competition at home, but not good enough for the good of the game. The USA looks completely mediocre and we are wasting the best talent we’ve ever had. The real crime is the waste of valuable talent by US Soccer by their acceptance of this sort of performance. By the way, Mexico demolished Costa Rico at Saprissa! After a chippy first half, they took them apart. If we continue to play this way, we may end up meeting Argentina for a place in South Africa. ESPN is also blowing it. We need to showcase good soccer in the US by the National team and MLS, not just the EPL and La Liga. The only good thing to say is that this game would not have brought good soccer to the American viewers, so ESPN might have actually done us a favor.

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  Bill said,

  By the way, I came across an interview with Bob Bradley by Grant Wahl on the Sports Illustrated website. I need to read it again, but its quite a bit different than I’d expect. It might make a very good thing to discuss!

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  Beaumont Livingston said,

  Wow – who would have thought it would have been Ricardo Clark to the rescue?

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