100 Year Victory

Hi! We’re the Red, White and Blues Brothers and this is our color-coded U.S. Soccer blog. Chip writes in red and Danny writes in blue. We cheer for the U.S. and you better too!  
 
The U.S. split their two friendlies as they get ready for their most intense month of World Cup Qualifying. Their loss to Belgium left many of us cringing, but the victory over Germany during the Centennial celebration gave us hope and hopefully gave the Yanks the confidence they need to come away with three victories in World Cup Qualifying. Here's Chip with his U.S. vs. Germany recap...

Well USA fans.... let's not get too excited about a 4-3 win over a second-string German team using their fourth-string goalie. It is a nice win and it was nice to see Jozy (Altidore) play well and Clint (Dempsey) continue his mastery. I am also happy to see Jurgen (Klinsmann) playing Michael Bradley this game. Hopefully the Belgium game was just a game of rest for Michael, although he really doesn't need much rest the way I see it. Michael Bradley joined the team after the Belgium game. He played in Coppa Italia last Sunday and didn’t push himself to get back by Wednesday. I think if it was a qualifier he would have had a much more aggressive travel schedule. After all, Neymar played in Brazil on Sunday and was being announced as the newest member of Barcelona in Spain on Monday.  If Jozy played as fast and hard as Michael, he would be a monster. As it is, I am happy with the result and see room for improvement... which needs to happen SOON… Like this coming Friday soon! The U.S. travels to Jamaica for a World Cup Qualifier on Friday.

The qualifiers are upon us and this is where we will see which direction the USA team will go and if Jurgen is truly the right man to lead us to the Holy Land... some of you know it as Brazil. If he gets a set lineup and quits tinkering with it through the qualifiers, then I think we will have a strong qualifying round and maybe make some noise in Brazil. If he continues to shuffle the lineup like an old deck of cards, then we will never get the continuity and cohesiveness we will need to win the World Cup… or even qualify for the World Cup.

Our defense needs to grow up quickly! Without a solid defense, we are doomed. This is where Jurgen especially needs to decide on his four backs and stick with them! If he can't tell who the talent is by now, he will never be able to recognize it. I am not at practices, so it is hard for me to completely evaluate who should be there and who shouldn't. However, if it were my decision I would be playing (Geoff) Cameron, (Matt) Besler, (Omar) Gonzalez and (Clarence) Goodson. Those are my picks for now and would hope (Carlos) Bocanegra will get healthy enough to play. Or maybe even Oguchi Onyewu could dream of getting healthy? Yeah, C'mon Gooch, we KNEED you, Man! I am not holding my breath though.  I think the Beasley experiment should be put to rest. He is too risky back there. I think he is better utilized as a late midfield sub who can use his speed to attack and still get back on defense.

So, let's all hold a collective breath together and pray we come out on the other side as a color other than blue.... how about Red and White and Blue! Go USA!

Danny's comments:

Wow, this is cool. My first international game was U.S. vs. Germany in Chicago's Soldier Field 20 years ago... June 13, 1993. I was at the game with my dad. I remember discussing whether or not Germany was "letting the U.S. score a few goals." Germany won that game 4-3 and Jurgen Klinsmann scored the first goal for Germany. Twenty years later: same score- different result. Germany is ranked second in the world. I would think even their second-string team is worthy of a World Cup bid. And even their 4th-string goalkeeper is very talented. Heck, we have 6 keepers on the roster this month and I'd be confident with any of them in the net. So I say let's not dismiss this victory. Anytime we can beat Germany, it's a big deal. And I don't think we have our best XI on the field either... so there! I don't think Jurgen is going to stop tinkering with the lineup. In fact, the Gold Cup in July will probably be the mad scientist's lab. I predict the lineup we see this month will be much different than the one we see in our September and October qualifiers.    

We'll post a pre-Jamaica game blog later in the week, but if you want a sneak peek of The Reggae Boyz, check out their game tonight (Tuesday) against Mexico. Hopefully their tough opponent will wear them down for us!