There's some pretty decent talent, Blade, no Freddys or anything yet, but the team in the olympics had two revs who are turning out pretty good..
The one problem is, you probably won't see any young phenoms like a Freddy again, because all the players generated by the draft are 20-22. Of course, there's the factor that some old about to retire players get put in the draft too, but hopefully that will be patched.
The 2009 Gold Cup kicks off with Mexico taking on Puerto Rico, and in a shock result, Simon Pedro Artero Gallardo's 67th minute penalty is enough to earn the Puerto Ricans a 1-1 draw with Mexico, in a game that Los Tricolores dominated (63% of possession), but they could not turn that into the expected rout.
The press remark that Pablo Mastroeni and Eddie Gaven were left out of the roster, but we are expected to have a glut of goals against the Bermudans. Bocanegra does the commenting for me, saying that we cannot take them TOO lightly, even if we are prohibitive favorites.
Gold Cup, Group B, Game 1: vs Bermuda
Odds: USA 1-33, Draw 6-1, Bermuda 50-1
Lineup:
GK: Howard
DL: Gibbs
DC: Spector
DC: Onyewu
DR: Parkhurst
DMC: Szetela
MR: Beasley
ML: Dempsey
AMC: Adu
FC: Johnson
FC: Twellman
Subs: Guzan, Bocanegra, Convey, Wolff, Cherundolo, O'Brien, Noonan
Key moments in the game:
9: Freddy Adu's header skims the top of the bar. Nice cross by Beasley
11: Adu's sliding tackle knocks the ball out to Twellman, who touches it over to Johnson, who fires a shot right from the edge of the box, however Bermudan goalie Dean Bennett turns it away.
24: Twellman, finds Adu from 12 yards out, but Bennett denies him as well.
We're playing a bit tenative, so I tell the team to up the attack
25: We think we have the opener when Twellman heads home a Dempsey cross, however it's ruled out for offsides.
29: It's bouncing around just outside the Bermudan box. They try to clear it.. but Adu traps it, finds Twellman, 20 yards out.. shoots.. GOAL! Twellman puts the US up, 1-0!
31: Adu gets in close, but just can't get his head to the cross from Beasley, and when it's volleyed back in, Eddie Johnson is off sides.
34: Beasley's cross finds Dempsey in PRIME position.. but Dempsey can only head it just wide.
37: It's a near replay, as Adu gets the ball about 30 yards out, and puts a through ball that Twellman strikes.. unfortunately this time it goes wide.
43: USA on a counter.. Parkhurst dribbling forward.. LONG ball ahead to the onrushing Adu.. touches it past the goalie.. and what would have been Freddy's 2nd international goal is ruled out for offisdes. Grr.. Great play by all involved, just Freddy took off a fraction of a second too soon.
45 (2nd Minute stoppage), Cort's shot for Bermuda is well wide, won't trouble Timmy Howard at all.
Halftime, 1-0. We've outshot them 8-1 (not counting the 2 disallowed goals)
One change at halftime.. we start rotating strikers, bringing in Josh Wolff for Eddie Johnson.
50: Szetela is booked for a foul on Anthony Thomas, the injured Thomas can't continue and comes off for Gareth John.
57: Parkhurst hits a looping ball into the box for Twellman, but Taylor's header is just wide.
60: Gibbs hits a free kick from about 40 yards out, and Wolff heads it.. but Bennett touches it JUST over the bar for a corner.
65: Beasley heads a clearance down to Dempsey, who finds Twellman, Twellman loses the ball for a moment, but fights and gets it back and has a step on the defender.. into the box.. and puts it into the net from an acute angle! GOAL USA, 2-0, and Twellman's 2nd of the day!
66: John O'Brien comes on for Danny Szetela, our 2nd substitution
72: Twellman gets the ball deep, but he's too far wide to take it in towards the net, so he knocks it back across to Michael Parkhurst, whose shot flashes wide of net.
73: USA's final substitution, Adu off for Bobby Convey.
75: They change out their strikers, who haven't done much of anything, in an attempt to find some offense somewhere.
84: Wolff gets the ball about 35 meters out and sees the Bermuda goalie off his line, and attempts to chip him, but Bennet gets back well enough to tip it over the bar.
90: (2nd minute of stoppage), Twellman again crosses for Parkhurst, but his shot is at too wide an angle and Bennett covers it.
Final, a 2-0 win for the USA. Twellman got man of the match with a 9 for his 2 goals. Jonathan Spector had a 9 as well, marshalling our defense. Everyone else had 7's and 8's.
In other action today, in Group A, El Slavador had a 2-0 win over Anguila, and Brazil thrashed the British Virgin Islands, 5-0.
The fans wanted more goals, and I don't blame them, but we did have two disallowed, and one of them really was a iffy call if you ask me
