Yesterday in Los Angeles, faithful soccer heads were brewing coffee at 4:15 in the morning to see midday matches in Europe and didn’t unplug until around 9:30 pm, when the final whistle blew at the Home Depot Center.
We’ll begin with the Premiership…
Theo Walcott remedied our heavy eyelids with a stunning display of speed, followed by a masterful finish. That was around 5am on the west coast. Blackburn fought hard, equalized, and ultimately lost to a game-winner by a much improved Andrei Arshavin. It’s too early to tell, but we see Blackburn finishing mid-table. The Gunners are looking like a top-4 squad.
Wayne Rooney made his debut against West Ham and scored a classy penalty, nearly faking the boots off of Matthew Greene. The scrappy #10 did enough to show us that he will be on point this season, but our EPL goals of the day came from Nani and Berbatov, respectively.
Wigan, a last place team from a town famous for its rugby, fought hard for a 1-0 victory over Spurs. As far as psychological boosts go, Wigan takes the cake. It was less than a year ago that the club agreed to refund fans after a 9-1 thrashing by Redknapp’s boys. As for Tottenham, we believe there is still hope for a top 4 or 5 finish. If Redknapp is able to work Gallas into his defensive and achieves some balance between Champions League duties and the team’s EPL pursuits, there is hope. We’ve also got a North London derby ahead of us in the Carling Cup race, as Tottenham face Arsenal in the 3rd round.
Chelsea ran through Stoke City with goals from Malouda and Drogba. Cynics are waiting to see Ancelotti’s crew face a ‘real’ opponent, but we have to be realistic. This is most dangerous team in the Premiership.
Andy Carroll racked up another goal for Newcastle in a draw with Wolverhampton, which will fuel debate over his future with the English national squad.
Today we saw Aston Villa’s Luke Young score with a slow arcing FIFA style chip against Everton. Despite dominating possession in the 2nd half, Everton could not finish for the life of them. Seamus Coleman, a late sub for the Toffees, is our player of note. He has the sort of speed and creativity that Everton lacked in the opening 60 minutes of play.
Darren Bent gave Sunderland a 1-0 win over Manchester City in stoppage time. This is not a big surprise if you consider Sunderland’s early season record at home in years past.
Lastly, Fernando Torres scored his 50th goal at Anfield, which resulted in another L for newly promoted West Brom.
We’ve got a couple weeks before the EPL picks up again, thanks to international friendlies. Who do you support in England and how are you feeling about the the first three weeks?
by Philip Cramer (contributing writer & South Africa correspondent)
It’s almost upon us. The dream that was so cruelly shattered by one abstention that gave Germany the cup in 2006 is now a reality. Despite the naysayers in Europe and sadly particularly among some soccer reporters in America who said the stadiums wouldn’t be ready, that the infrastructure was totally inadequate to host the cup, that there wasn’t enough accommodation and that there was too much crime.
They were wrong. Five new world class stadiums were built and another five were upgraded. The new stadiums in Durban and Cape Town are both quite spectacular as you will see once the games start.
Bafana, Bafana (boys, boys) the South African team were also written off as almost certain to be the first host team not to make it out of the first round with good reason. The team suffered a spell where they could barely beat even the weakest teams. In Africa, the World Cup and the African Nations Cup were combined into one competition. While South Africa were guaranteed qualification for the World Cup as hosts they couldn’t even qualify as one of the 16 teams for the Nations Cup.
The team was dispirited and it showed in their performances until they fired the previous coach Joel Santana and replaced him with another Brazilian, Carlos Alberto Parreira who coached Brazil (twice, with a win in ‘94), Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in previous world cups. He has assembled a South African team that is unbeaten in 11 games and should contend for a place in the second round.
Home advantage in a World Cup is enormous. Consider South Korea had a dismal record of ten losses, four draws and no wins in the finals before playing host when they made it to the semi final albeit aided by some awful refereeing. Another built in advantage will be the altitude. Johannesburg is at 5,700 feet where they face Mexico in the opening game while there other 2 games are at venues of over 4,000 feet. It’s now winter in South Africa so temperatures will be cool dropping into the 30’s at night. There will also be little or no rain except in Cape Town which is cool, rainy and windy in winter. This should help the European teams that are used to playing in cool conditions rather than the energy sapping hear often experienced at finals played in midsummer.
The passionate South African fans will be a huge ally especially with the ubiquitous vuvuzelas which Bafana love but drive foreign players insane. Some have complained they can’t hear each other on the pitch. I have no problem with that.
Parreira’s biggest achievement has been changing the way the team plays from too many individualists into a cohesive team that moves the ball in the midfield with quick sure passing. Their biggest weakness is up front where they will be without all time leading goal scorer Benni McCarthy who has had a love/hate relationship with Bafana. He arrived completely out of condition despite having just finished a Premier League season where he admittedly was injured for much of the time but he had obviously eaten one too many pies and was overweight.
Here is a breakdown of the key players:
In Goal:
Itumeleng Khune – a great young talent, acrobatic with a keen sense of finding the open man when he has the ball.
Defense:
Matthew Booth – the only white player on the team. Tall and bald, he reminds me of Peter Garrett, the lead singer from Midnight Oil. Imposing in the air and tough as nails is much loved by Bafana fans. You will hear what sounds like boos every time he touches the ball but it’s the crowd going Booooooooooooth.
Aaron Mokoena – Experienced captain who got his 100th cap recently. Tough with lots of Premier League experience but sometimes tends to give away unnecessary free kicks in vulnerable areas.
Tsepo Masilela – Solid reliable on defense and always willing to take the ball upfield down the side.
Sibosiso Gaza and Licas Thwala should also feature prominently.
Midfield:
Steven Pienaar – Everton player of the year and the engine of the team. Great distributor of the ball and a great sense of where everyone is. Creates a lot of goals but scores very few.
Siphiwe Tshabalala – Together with Pienaar, he drives the team. Hard worker, takes most of the corners and free kicks.
Teko Modise – One of the best locally based players coming off a mediocre season but has come on strong in training camp and in friendlies. Great ball skills and scores quite often except for the recent season.
Kagisho Dikgaco – plays for Fulham and is a strong defensive midfielder. Few get by him.
Macbeth Sibaya who plays for Russian champions Kazan and Surprise Moriri will also feature prominently. Thandyise Khuboni was virtually unheard of six months ago but played brilliantly in warm up games should also see some action off the bench.
Forwards:
Katlego Mphela – a rising talent who scored on a stunning free kick to tie Spain in the last minute at the Confederations Cup.
Bernard Parker – Plays for FC Twente, Dutch champions has a great nose for the goal but is sometimes erratic.
Siyabonga Nomvete.- a solid veteran who will need to be at his best. He will probably start most games on the bench.
Great Expectations:
To prepare for the World Cup, South Africa condensed their league season by two months so the locally based players have had three camps in Durban, Brazil and Germany to gel. Parreira has emphasized physical fitness and it shows in their recent performances in friendly games. Their spirits are sky high and the country has become besotted over the team. Local support should be worth at least a goal a game as long as their Achilles Heel up front doesn’t let them down. They have a tendency to take too many speculative long shots which can sometimes pay off in the thinner air at high altitude.
They have no easy games in their group and all three opponents are more than capable. They open against Mexico who does not always travel well and the problems with the Dos Santos brothers could be a distraction.
Uruguay is a useful team. The key is Diego Forlan. Close him down and Uruguay will struggle. Bafana’s last game is against France and with a bit of luck it and a couple of wins Bafana can have already secured a spot in the second round. France is a schizophrenic team that can be brilliant and can equally be awful. They needed luck and a horrible referee call to make it to the finals. They failed miserably in Korea and looked like they were going nowhere in Germany until they put it all together against Spain and then Brazil.
All in all it will be both an interesting and exciting group with the added flavor of Bafana being the home team. You will appreciate how boisterous and passionate their fans are.
Philip Cramer is a South Africa native who currently resides in California. He is the creator and voice of a must-read blog: ‘irritable liberal syndrome’.
The US National Team needed a good performance from their last game on home soil before flying out to South Africa for World Cup 2010.
It’s important from a confidence perspective to gain some belief in yourself as a player and just as importantly, your teammates. Today’s game against Turkey was never going to be easy, but a tough competitor is just what times like these demand to really prove where you are as a team.
Things didn’t look good at the beginning. Turkey took control of the game and made the US look very sloppy in the opening minutes. This was somewhat understandable because this starting XI has not played together in months.
Questions can be raised about Bob Bradley’s continual inclusion of Benny Feilhaber in his best XI. Benny never seems tough enough to handle central midfield duties but today he started out on the left side of midfield. Would Stuart Holden have been a better choice?
The answers came soon enough as Feilhaber consistently gave the ball away without much pressure and never provided the width needed from the position. He was a big part of why it took the US 22 minutes just to find their footing in this game after repelling wave after wave of Turkish attacks.
Turkey seemingly could do no wrong, playing a short passing game through and around US players like they were standing still. Quite frankly, the US looked simply overmatched. This had the appearances of being a very long afternoon for the Stars and Stripes.
But around the 22nd minute the Americans began to gel and the team was getting more possession of the ball. Early on, the defenders were just whacking it downfield when playing through the midfield would have been a better option.
Turkey would just collect the ball and build another attack, time and time again. But as time wore on you could see the US starting to gain some belief a get a foothold in the game. Jonathan Spector won a ball in defense and instead of just booting it, he made nice run, dribbling about 40 yards upfield before the ball was tackled away by Turkey.
After Turkey won the ball, you could see if they could find Arda Turan wide open on the left, the US would be in trouble. After Spector made his run he showed little urgency in getting back to defend his position and with no one covering for him, Turan had nothing but green grass in front of him.
A good ball out of defense did find Turan, and away he went towards the US goal with Spector trudging up from behind trying to catch him. Jay DeMerit also tried to close down the run from his position in the middle of the field. Neither US player could get there in time and as US goalkeeper Tim Howard came out, Turan slotted it home calmly underneath him. 1-0 Turkey.
Both sides created chances before the end of the first half but it was obvious the Americans needed to make player changes in order to get a look at new players before the World Cup and to try to turn this game around.
Coach Bob Bradley responded, ringing in four substitutes after the halftime break. Oguchi Onyewu, Steve Cherundolo, Jose’ Torres and Robbie Findley replaced Clarence Goodson, Spector, Ricardo Clark and Feilhaber respectively.
We’ve been hard on Robbie Findley here in the Supporters Group, but this time he would be playing out wide on the left side of midfield as opposed to his customary position as forward. The US took control of the second half early and you could see the additions of Torres and Findley in particular were paying off.
Whereas the team had been mostly dominated in midfield in the first half, Torres’ skill and confidence were paying dividends by winning possession, getting into open spaces and playing a controlled passing game.
Pace is Findley’s game (with not much else, some might say) and he immediately started to trouble the Turks down the left flank, opening up things in the middle of the pitch. The width that seemed so foreign to the team in first half was now there in abundance.
In the 59th minute, Findley worked his way over to the middle of the field and played a good first touch as he saw Landon Donovan make a run just to his left. Robbie’s deft pass chipped the Turkish defender for Donovan to run onto, where Landon’s excellent first touch took him around the onrushing goalkeeper.
Landon then squared the ball across for a wide-open Jozy Altidore to finish. With nothing but net gaping in front of him, Jozy calmly side-footed the ball in for a 1-1 score. The US’s dominance in the first 15 minutes of the second half had paid off with a well earned goal.
The game continued to go the US’s way and they continually put pressure on Turkey, with Torres and Findley playing the roles of shining stars.
In the 75th minute, that pressure would pay off once again. After a US throw in, Donovan would once again turn provider. He found Clint Dempsey, who had been quiet for much of the game, to his left and clipped a ball over which Clint controlled with his right hip, bringing it down and through the first Turkish defender.
As the Turk’s ‘keeper came out to close down the angle, Dempsey deflected the shot off of him before following through and sending it underneath the ‘keeper and into the back of the night. It was a true fighter’s goal, with Dempsey battling his way through to make sure he would score, no matter what.
Clint set off the celebrations and the already raucous Philadelphia crowd of over 55,000 exploded. Dempsey even added a cool little dance move at the end, seemingly a tribute to injured teammate Charlie Davies.
Dempsey and Torres, the team’s Texas two-steppers, came close to adding a third goal, which would have put an exclamation point on this well earned American victory.
The USA got what they came in looking for out of this game: the appearances and evaluations of several players, the building of a cohesive unit as the team heads towards its June 12 opening game against England, and a victory.
A standing ovation should go to the crowd in Philadelphia. Time after time you could hear great songs and chants coming through the TV speakers, something not often experienced at American soccer games with such volume.
The team will fly out to South Africa tomorrow and play it’s last warm up game against Australia next Saturday morning in Roodepoort at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
About the Author: Craig Hutcheson is a lifelong player who lives and coaches out of Sparta, NJ. He also runs a growing community for USMNT supporters – click here to become a fan!
What a performance from the Toffees! Arteta was on fire and Donovan came on late in the game to give a near-perfect 15 minutes of play. 5-1 was the end result.
If the MLS labor disputes are resolved in the next week, Donovan will have to return to the LA Galaxy to begin the 2010 season. Do you think LD should stay in England or return home? Which would be better for the USA’s chances in South Africa this summer?
Everton managed a convincing 3-1 victory over Manchester United on Saturday, thanks to some brilliant work from second-half subs. All favoritism aside, Donovan has stepped up in Fellaini’s (and Cahill’s) absence. You have to wonder if they can fight back into the top 5. It’s possible. And if UEFA comes calling, be it Europa or Champions, the Merseysiders will surely seek an extension on Donovan’s contract.
Saha Celebrates w/ teammates/photo credit: Reuters
Everton created a blip on the radar a couple months ago when Louis Saha started scoring goals. Things got complicated, injuries came, and Everton sunk. And then…they bounced back. We can’t credit Donovan with the turn-around (Cahill and Saha are playing like champions), but his arrival couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.
Yesterday’s 2-1 victory over Chelsea can be credited to a strong Everton midfield and a show of striking brilliance from an in-form Saha.
As for the Chelsea defender that we all love to hate (hate is a strong word, but he is a spoiled brat), it’s been confirmed that Ashley Cole’s ankle is fractured. The defender will miss the majority of this season and may be pushed down the roster for South Africa. Without Cole on defense, John Terry will have his hands full.
There is only one direction that Chelsea can go at this point. Drogba may be able to keep the team’s title hopes alive, but it’s looking doubtful after the Everton loss.
It was a weekend full of surprises. Everton’s loss to a 10-man Liverpool squad saw the Reds through to 4th place, thanks to the toughness of Dirk Kuyt. Torres has been out and Gerrard might as well have taken the season off. It’s Kuyt who has carried the torch through these uncomfortable months.
Liverpool Manager Rafa Benitez has already made plans to take over at Juventus next season. Few thought that he’d leave Liverpool in top-4 standing, but it’s looking like he may actually get there.
For anyone unfamiliar with Champions League qualification, England’s top 4 clubs are included each year and Liverpool has long since been a favorite. If the Reds fail to qualify, they are almost sure to lose their star players. If the star players go, they’ll most likely be downgraded to a mid-table performer and face more serious troubles – a la Leeds of 10 years ago.
Great goalkeepers are like fine wines in that they only improve with age. No goalkeeper fits that bill better than the U.S.’s own Tim Howard. The 30-year-old keeper from New Jersey got his start in the game when former U-17 assistant coach Tim Mulqueen began to mentor him in his early teens. After successful highs school campaigns, Howard transitioned into the now defunct United Soccer Leagues playing for the New Jersey Imperials. Howard’s relationship with Mulqueen then came into play and his mentor brought the young keeper to the MLS MetroStars in 1998.
By 2001, Howard had won the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award and attracted the attention of the Senior U.S. International Team. After playing for the youth team in 1999, Howard earned his first official cap in 2002 in a friendly against Ecuador. However, it was a transfer in 2003 that made Howard a household name around the world.
English football giants Manchester United signed Howard and promptly placed him in the starting position. He had an impressive first season, but later struggled to meet the demands of the highly competitive English Premiership. After 45 appearances with Manchester United, Howard transferred to Everton in 2006. Since his debut he become Everton’s starting keeper and has even captained for the English club.
Howard has had a successful career abroad, but his recent performances with the U.S. National Team have made him the respected athlete he is today. In 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup, Howard helped lift hits team to a 2-1 victory over region rivals, Mexico. Under the leadership of coach Bob Bradley, Howard and the U.S. squad toppled number one-ranked Spain at the 2009 Confederations Cup. Eight saves led to a shutout against Spanish favorites, marking the first time Spain has been shutout since 2007. Howard’s talents were recognized by FIFA, who awarded him the Golden Glove Award for best goalkeeper.
The U.S. will have a tough first match in South Africa this year as the team gears up to face England. After a disappointing campaign in 2006, the U.S. is sure to want to leave a strong impression upon the international scene more in line with last year’s Confederations Cup. Will the U.S. make it into the knockout stages? Can they perhaps reach the final? Whatever the outcome, Howard is sure to play an integral part in it.
With a goal and an assist to his name, Donovan has earned the ‘USA’ chants that bellow from Everton’s faithful during the team’s EPL resurgence.
Here’s Everton vs Sunderland. LD bags his first of many goals in English football, pushing the envelope for American’s abroad and making us all damn proud.
The real question is, will he honor the 10 week loan or extend it? I say it get’s pushed into next season. Thoughts?
Sunderland’s City of Light stadium was filled with almost 50,000 spectators for today’s meeting with Everton. Both teams have had moments of brilliance this season, though both have struggled in the past few weeks.
Darren Bent’s first half goal for Sunderland could only be matched by Marouane Fellaini’s equalizer in the second half. Everton’s star forward Louis Saha was completely silenced by Ghanaian international Mensah for almost every minute of the match. It was Fellaini’s through passing at midfield and physical dominance inside the 18 that saved Everton from a bad loss. Both teams should be happy with a point.
It will be so much fun to see Landon Donovan work with Fellaini, Cahill, and Saha on the Everton offense in February.
Seamus Coleman vs Aston Villa (Getty Images)
