Big Game Deserves LiveBlog: USA U-23s vs. Panama U-23s

Share your thoughts below!!! Who was your man of the match? Keep this Starting XI for Honduras??? Let me know…hope you enjoyed the game. 

It’s all over!! – Nowak and crew get the win, but in truth, it wasn’t all that convincing – hopefully it’s a stepping stone into Saturday’s match-up vs. Honduras who sits on top of the group with 6 points.
90′ + 4′ – game’s not over and Christian Miles is ALREADY CALLING THE WIN, tell him to shut it
90′ + 3′ – Findley and Davies coming on as time-wasting subs, Panama’s whole team tries to physically push Altidore off the pitch, the Panama captain almost escorts Freddy Adu off
90′ + 2′ – ball hits referee, everyone laughs; Panama is trying to pour people forward
90′ – Altidore receives a nice counter ball from Kljestan from the back, taps around the defender and off to the races – he tries to cut at the last second in the box but he gets tripped up and his attempt interrupted
88′ – Zizzo almost outruns the whole Panamanian right side, intercepted at the last second
***Sidenote – it was Jimenez who took the shot at Freddy Adu that went unnoticed by the ref
86′ – Freddy Adu turns over a midfield square pass and Panama put together a nice counter, finding Aguilar with enough space to rocket a shot that misses just wide of Seitz’s right side
84′ – Last Sub for Panama
82′ – Altidore shows he has a little gas left in his tank, he weaves through a couple defenders – loses the ball – wins it back, but gets tripped up in the box after holding on to it for a little too long
81′ – Holden with a give and go on the left side of the field, almost cuts between two defenders but the ball ricochets off Torres calf
79′ – Altidore almost poke-tackles Sal Zizzo on a breakaway but is called for a foul
78′ – waiting for that second sub!? McCarty, Kljestan are starting to look a bit tired.
74′ – Holden rips a shot from 25 yards out that is parried away by Jose Calderon
72′ – is it me or does Altidore play a little better with fatigue? – a nice turn draws a foul and it was all Altidore
71′ – Roman Torres has done a nice job stopping Altidore and Adu at times; there’s a reason why this guy starts at central defense for Panama’s senior national team
69′ – nice Adu, Kljestan touches in the middle almost leads to a Zizzo breakaway
68′ – Second Sub for Panama
67′ – through ball from Adu to Holden almost sticks, Holden is a bit offside though
64′ – YEP, that’s what it is – Zizzo for a tired Gaven…not a terrible outing, just lost in a crowd for Eddie
63′ – ABOUT TIME!!!! Sal Zizzo looks to be coming on, possibly for Gaven.
61′ – Barahona (#10) has worked hard today, this time weaving through Sturgis and Edu and getting hacked down 20 yards out – nothing comes of the restart
60′ – Gaven gets open with a nice Kruyff, but botches a cross which Adu makes the most of, deflecting a shot off a Panamanian defender
59′ – good one v. one stop on Gabriel Torres by Maurice Edu
58′ – Quintero tries to work his way through a slalom of American defenders, dives, gets a card
***Sidenote – Is it me or does Bob Bradley NEVER look happy?
56′ – damnit, exactly what I don’t want to see – Freddy Adu gets hit hard in the chest by a Panama midfielder; up and walking after a minute or so on the ground
54′ – Holden takes the restart and misses wide left, good attempt though but Calderon sees it out
53′ – good!!! Altidore gets the ball in the corner and, normally, he would take the two men on – instead Jozy chooses to lay a ball back to a streaking Freddy Adu who gets leveled 20 yards out, setting the US for a good set piece – good to see Altidore recognize that he’s not exactly on point today…
51′ – apparently, Kljestan and Sturgis don’t like 50/50 balls, midfield is giving up too many stupid balls
50′ – Holden comes charging through to clear up a Freddy Adu mess; cuts beautifully by a Panama defender and lays it square to Gaven who forgets to shoot one time, immediately closed off
47′ – an errant deflection off the ensuing free kick almost skips by Jose Calderon, Calderon saves it though
46′ – Gaven tries to split two Panama defenders; gets leveled but also the free kick in the process
**Looks like no changes.
**Ready to go again here. Checking on the changes…
**I think it’s safe to say that Gabriel Torres and #10 are the only real threats for this team. They’ll only strike however if we allow them the build-up, which hasn’t really happened so far…
HALFTIME – This game is only going to get more physical and heated. I’m just hoping no one gets injured.
44′ – Panama comes back at the US, but Seitz manages the situation but gets a little bit of kick out from Gabriel Torres; the 6’4″ Seitz gets in Torres’ face, Torres swipes at him – tempers flare
42′ – GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!!!!!!!!!!! Freddy converts to Calderon’s left, mid-to-upper 90 – you gotta like the fact that even though Altidore is having a pretty bad game he still makes the most of his chances
42′ – Freddy Adu up for the penalty, Calderon with the booking
41′ – Eddie Gaven plays a sublime over-the-defense through ball in to ALTIDORE, one on one – Jozy almost screws it up with too big of a touch, but he flicks around Calderon and gets taken down!
40′ – this is like a field hockey game! a damn whistle EVERY TWO SECONDS…haha, imagine Marvell Wynne playing field hockey.
37′ – Gaven breaks the cardinal soccer rule – don’t clear the ball into the middle!
36′ – McCarty has most of the fouls and he’s all of what? 5’1″?
34′ – Altidore peeks his head through the clouds, only to be called for a handball – what’s goin’ on with him?
33′ – a possible penalty could have been called for the US, but Adu was taken down after he put his right stud up and almost into the Panama defender’s shin
30′ – two botched shots by McCarty and Adu, Gaven was open on the wing and sent a nice square pass in – getting closer!
30′ – verdict is still out on Orozco, but Sturgis seems to be passing the test on the wing
27′ – “I’d start calling him Little Braveheart”
26′ – Wynne…….ew……sad attempt at a cross
25′ – once again Holden wins a challenge that looked lost; Freddy Adu follows it up by getting stripped
23′ – no sign of Altidore and real urgency of getting it to him; I don’t think this lone striker tactic is going to last
22′ – a terrible pass by McCarty almost leads to a Panama long attempt
20′ – Adu shows up, dances a little, gets the restart – his cuts are ridiculous
18′ – Wynne with another clumsy challenge, getting a booking on this one
17′ – Holden is EVERYWHERE. Left, right, middle.
14′ – Wynne looks a little odd out there, but Holden is making for Wynne’s fumblings – chasing the loose balls, not giving up
12′ – I like what I’ve seen from Kljestan so far, a couple decent through balls
9′ – some dancing by Stuart Holden, only to get muscled off the ball – nice though
8′ – Roman Torres beats Maurice Edu to a corner and powers just over the cross bar…
7′ – the back four already look a little unsure, although it was nice to Nathan Sturgis break
down the wing
2′ – watch that Number 9 – Gabriel Torres is pretty damn good.
1′ – if only Dax McCarty was 6 inches taller. Adu sent in a real nice dangerous cross.

GAME ON.

*Not a soul on one side of the stadium. At least on Tuesday there were a couple.

*Honduras-Cuba ends 2-0

*Still pretty pissed we’re not seeing Sal Zizzo, but Holden and Gaven will have to do.

*Gretna of Scotland (former club of RSL’s Kenny Deuchar and Houston’s Tony Caig) is in deep deep trouble – a ten point deduction (which doesn’t really change the already inevitable relegation expected). They have said players can now legally leave the team as they are playing for nothing. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they’re stadium was broken into recently.

*Apparently Honduras is up 2-0 right now. Hendry Thomas, who scored the only goal in their win against Panama, has scored the 2nd goal.

PLEASE share your thoughts in the comments section…

United States Starting XI:

———————Seitz——————-

Wynne——Orozco—–Edu (c)——Sturgis

————McCarty—-Kljestan———–

Holden————–Adu————-Gaven

——————-Altidore——————

– Those are some significant changes. Almost a line change actually. Ianni gets no second chance and Nowak shared the consensus sentiment – Kamani Hill, Hunter Freeman, Robbie Findley, AND Charlie Davies didn’t cut it. This line-up looks odd, but it will work. Hopefully, Maurice Edu shows well in the back, but I’m pretty sure Kljestan can do the same job Edu was doing on Tuesday. Adu will most likely still play withdrawn, but there will be much more support for Altidore. Orozco gets his chance and for most of us, this will be our first time seeing him.

Red Bulls – Revs Live Blog

FINAL TIME – It’s gonna be a tough one at Gillette Stadium next Saturday. Thoughts?

90′ – Riley in for Wells Thompson who was pretty much non-existent out there

88′ – Adam Cristman in for Pat Noonan, first Revs sub; Mathis also came in for Claudio Reynawho had a decent day; three minutes of added time

82′ – Leitch is already beaten to the ball by Twellman who fires a close-range shot on Conway; Conway parries it away

78′ – Chris Leitch is coming on for Dave van den Bergh who looks like he picked up a knock, limping on the left leg

73′ – blatant push on Jozy Altidore earns Parkhurst a yellow but effectively stopped the flow of the counter attack

72′ – Seth Stammler tries to clear a dangerous cross and almost powers it past Jon Conway into his own net

68′ – Ubiparipovic in for Doe as Doe was woeful; maybe Sinisa can put on a technical clinic on how to cross a ball as that department is clearly suffering after the half

60′ – cross by van den Bergh started a scrum in the middle in which it looked like Angel was pushed and pulled every which way, but he still almost got a shot off – the game is definitely more back and forth now

58′ – Noonan was sprung on a breakaway but opted for a square pass instead of a shot on Conway; the ball was cleared awkwardly by Jeff Parke; less than a minute later Shalrie Joseph ripped a close shot from about 30 yards out – missed wide right

54′ – Angel and Noonan scuffle when Noonan elbows the Colombian right in the noggin going up for a headball; New England still not working well together but it doesn’t really matter as New York can’t score

50′ – Dane Richards has forgotten how to effectively cross again.

Davy Arnaud goal in 33′ for Kansas City. 1-0 KCW.

46′ – No changes. Not even Francis Doe out despite his suspect play. Clarence Goodson has put Dallas ahead in Frisco against the defending champs.

Halftime – the Red Bulls dominated offensively but without a goal so far and New England potent on the counter, a collective breath is held every time the ball does find New England’s front men – it should be an interesting second half, there are shades of early season New York here as Reyna is firing on all cylinders and van den Bergh is fitting in nicely at left back

Daily Sweeper, 09.04: Ticking Clocks; Lotsa Open Cup (+ Blasphemy); Yallop’s Lifeline(?); St. Louis Update…Gasp!

– I’ll lead with a doozy of a concept. A Houston Chronicle article on the local team’s recent staggers pointed out that said local team has only SIX regular season games remaining. Nah, I said. Then I checked the standings. Holy crap. The same applies to Kansas City. It’s crunch-time, people. Good stuff.

– The semifinals for the Lamar Hunt Head-On/Activ-On U.S. Open Cup (LHH-OA-OUSOC) go down tonight – but all y’all knew that, of course, and planned accordingly. I know what I’m doing tonight (unless the wife says otherwise…yes, dear) and will duly prime myself with previews from both games:

FC Dallas v. Seattle Sounders
MLSnet.com
US Open Cup unofficial site
Nice bit from FC Dallas Updates – especially the crack about Seattle humidity

New England Revolution v. Carolina RailHawks
MLSnet.com
US Open Cup unofficial site

By time of posting, the New England/Carolina game should be close to underway – so I’ll be missing that one – but the Seattle/Dallas Super-Epic-o will air online tonight. Huzzah! I would live blog the game, but…well, I’m not sure how it’s done – on a practical level, I mean. That’s to say, I have an approach in mind – e.g. watch the game and write comments, posting them as they come to me – but that seems like such a pain in the ass. Is that how people do live-blogging when they do it?

Anyway, I’ll probably do my usual thing, wife and kids allowing – e.g. “Brain-Dead Blogging,” where I write down a bunch of crap in a whiskey-juiced haze and foist it on all y’all later.

Live Blog RBNY/Los Angeles: Beckham is starting, Xavier out

Time-wasting drills are employed and the game seems to be over. It will be interesting to see how the Galaxy react to this as they are now 3-8-5 and losing steam. I’ll give you some tidbits once the press conference is over. Good stuff – see y’all later.

4 minutes of injury time announced

89′ Trusty Carlos Mendes is taking Clint Mathis out – so he can receive treatment on an unknown knock. Magee on for Altidore a minute later.

88′ WHAT THE FUCK! A huge drive from Mathis is saved wonderfully by Cannon only to trickle out for Angel to follow up. Angel – at NO angle – gets a shot on net and Cannon tries to parry it away but instead he hits it off his own body and into the net. Angel is credited for the goal and Bulls are now up 5-4!

Any comments people? David Beckham just got credited for his third assist of the game on Buddle’s gametying goal.

86′ – An Angel freekick sails just wide. Just letting people know that he’s still here.

84′ – John Wolyniec on for Dave VDBergh. Arena has opted for scrappiness to get this win does. And Wolyniec is the definition of that.

82′ – Tom Arnold is here! GOAL!!!!!!!!!!! Edson Buddle gets his revenge after a corner from David Beckham is put on frame. The first shot hit the cross bar though and bounced back to Buddle, who tucked it away. Happened too fast for Waterreus to even react. All tied up at 4. Geez. (Remember the Superliga LAG 6-5 win over Dallas? Could we be in for a crazy last 5 minutes?)

80 minutes and counting for Mr. Beckham

78′ – Another restart for Beckham and LA as Dane Richards fouls Martino 25 yards out.

76′ – The first sub Gavin Glinton is subbed off in favor of Edson Buddle – a little bit of a desire for revenge, Edson?

74′ – Yellow card for Vide as it sets up Beckham for a restart 25 yards out……queue the flashes. BLOCKED!!!!!!!!!! AGAIN!

73′ – A David Beckham cross finds a Pavon foot but sails too high – but too close for comfort for Waterreus.

72′ – GOAL!!!!!!!!! The REd Bulls are still celebrating when Kevin Stott allows the Galaxy to restart the game. Landon Donovan gets the ball 20 yards and speeds by Jeff Parke, then slots it home cooly to pull the Galaxy back within one. RBNY 4, LAG 3.

71′ – GOAL!!!!!!!!!!! Jozy Altidore has just sealed the deal for Man of the Match. The 17 year old recieved the ball at the corner of the penalty box and threw a couple stepovers, dancing around the LA defense. Wow. RBNY 4, LAG 2