Posted by Creaven on May 11, 2010 under United States, USMNT, World Cup | 
I set a low bar for Bob Bradley and he easily cleared it today when he named his 30-man preliminary roster.
Like I wrote yesterday, all I wanted him to do was:
1. Name only three goalies.
2. Don’t name less than 30 players.
3. Leave Frankie Hejduk in Columbus.
Pass, pass and pass. Plus, he surprised me and left Conor Casey out of the squad. There’s nearly a zero percent chance I’m going to have to watch Casey rumble around a grass field in South Africa this summer and that makes me very happy.
The big news from the roster is Davies’ comeback falling short, so let’s start there…
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Tags: Aaron Lennon, Adam Johnson, Alejandro Bedoya, Ashley Young, Benny Feilhaber, Bob Bradley, Brad Guzan, Brian Ching, Carlos Bocanegra, Chad Marshall, Charlie Davies, Clarence Goodson, Clint Dempsey, DaMarcus Beasley, Eddie Johnson, Edson Buddle, England, Fabio Capello, Frankie Hejduk, Heath Pearce, Herculez Gomez, James Milner, Jay DeMerit, Joe Cole, Jonathan Bornstein, Jonathan Spector, Jose Torres, Jozy Altidore, Kyle Beckerman, Landon Donovan, Marcus Hahnemann, Maurice Edu, Michael Bradley, Oguchi Onyewu, Ricardo Clark, Robbie Findley, Robbie Rogers, Sacha Kljestan, Shuan Wright-Phillips, Steve Cherundolo, Stuart Holden, Theo Walcott, Tim Howard, United States, World Cup
Posted by Creaven on February 16, 2010 under Champions League, England, Europe, Premier League |
As and American, I know how much fun playoffs can be. The NCAA basketball tournament, Game 7′s in the Stanley Cup playoffs and even the over-hyped Superbowl are all thrilling sporting events.
I’m also an NBA fan, so I know how a playoff system can render the regular season meaningless. But this is why the English Premier League Champions League playoff idea is so brilliant — it implements a playoff system and it makes the regular season more compelling.
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Posted by Creaven on January 14, 2010 under World Cup |
This has happened to everyone. You have a fantastic idea, but it’s so obvious you assume someone else has already thought of it. So you dismiss it, thinking there must be some fatal flaw in your idea that doesn’t make it possible.
I’m 75 percent sure this idea (which I will get to, I promise) won’t work because of some rule I’m not familiar with. But, if there isn’t a rule, and you can do this, then all 32 World Cup head coaches should take advantage of it.
It’s really simple. In a couple months, teams that qualified for the World Cup will name their 23-man rosters. Of those 23 players, three have to be goalies*(read note at the bottom). So here’s the idea: For the three mandatory goalie spots, coaches should name two “real” goalies and one field player, but just call the field player a goalie.
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Posted by Creaven on December 4, 2009 under England, United States, USMNT, World Cup |
This is how lucky the United States got Friday.
After the U.S. was drawn in Group C with England, if I could have handpicked a country from Pot 3 and Pot 4 I would have selected Algeria and Slovenia (if you don’t believe me, I worte it yesterday). For the U.S. to actually draw both those teams there was a 1/64 (1.5 percent) chance. It was the exact same odds a poker player has of hitting a runner-runner straight in Texas Holdem in an internet casino. In other words, the U.S. (and England too for that matter) hit the jackpot.
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Tags: Alexi Lalas, Algeria, Bob Levy, Brazil, Efan Ekoku, England, Fabio Capello, Ivory Coast, John Harkes, Jozy Altidore, Landon Donovan, Martin Tyler, North Korea, Portugal, Slovenia, teve McManaman, United States, Wayne Rooney, World Cup