Soccer, footie, football, futbol

[Lavabe]

GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!
US 1 - Panama 0 (77th)
Donovan (substituted in at the beginning of the half) with a picture-perfect pass through a Panamanian to Dempsey who slides, puts a foot on it, maybe a meter in front of the goal. No offside. GOOOOOOOD goal, but an even better pass.

Adu is in the game for the US at 60 minutes.

Fairly even play in the second half.
7 minutes to go in regulation.

[Lavabe]

US wins 1-0.

[lawgrad91]

USA! USA! USA! USA!

I hope the turf in the Rose Bowl is better than this.

Honduras-Mexico still scoreless in the 28th minute.

[Lavabe]

USA! USA! USA! USA!

I hope the turf in the Rose Bowl is better than this.

Honduras-Mexico still scoreless in the 28th minute.

Mexico gets 2 goals in extra periods.
USA vs. Mexico

I loathe Chicharito.
The Rose Bowl has natural grass all year round. There won't be any stitched sod stuff.

By the way, although Donovan set up Dempsey, Donovan was set up by a beautiful pass from Adu.

[Lavabe]

Gold Cup action tomorrow night...

... and THEN we get the Women's World Cup!!

[Lavabe]

GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

Bradley hits a header in at the 9 minute mark.
USA 1, Mexico 0
This is the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup
YAY!!

[Lavabe]

By the way, Adu, Dempsey, and Donovan all started as strikers!!
Meanwhile, at the 12th minute, Bornstein comes in for Cherundolo (injury).

[Lavabe]

GOALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!
LANDON DONOVAN at the 23 minute mark.
USA 2, Mexico 0

Gee! Who'd have thought that Donovan starting would make sense?
Give credit to having those three strikers up there.

goalllllllll!!
Mexico scores 1 at the 29th minute.
USA 2, Mexico 1
Barrera scores off a pass from Chicharito.

This is a tough game. Torres (Mexico) comes in for Salcido. That's a couple of early substitutes for both teams.

[Lavabe]

It's all tied up at 2!!

Guardado (Mexico) ties it in the 36th minute.

Lots of scoring in this game.
Donovan gets a yellow at 34th.
Bornstein is just not doing well at all. He is getting beat too much. Hopefully he'll turn things around.

[Lavabe]

Dempsey has played a good while more in the midfield. He's generally an offensive-minded midfielder in English Premier League side Fulham. Adu and Donovan doing well up front, but the defense and midfield are feeling Mexico's strong attack.

Mexico's Reynoso is now in for Marquez, who left at the 44th minute due to injury.

HALFTIME.

[Lavabe]

2nd half goal for Mexico.
USA 2, Mexico 3
52nd minute.
Barrera blasts one home for Mexico.
The Mexicans have really turned this game around. The US defense still hasn't figured out what to do.

[lawgrad91]

Off the crossbar for Donovan. Ugh.

[Lavabe]

73rd minute.
Mexico is getting much the better action, but the US is starting to move it up a little more, especially with Freddy Adu pushing things up.

The US defense is hurting. No answer for Barrera and Chicharito. In this case, the US is going to have to hope that the best defense is a good offense.

Turns out the only answer for Barrera is removing him from the game. 75th minute, Barerra gets substituted. Maybe the US has a chance now?

BUT NO....

In what was the SLOPPIEST, MOST PATHETIC USA defense, the US gives up a ball in their defense, drawing Howard out of the goal, letting dos Santos (78th minute) chip it high into the net.
USA 2, Mexico 4

[lawgrad91]

Maybe the US has a chance now?

BUT NO....

In what was the SLOPPIEST, MOST PATHETIC USA defense, the US gives up a ball in their defense, drawing Howard out of the goal, letting dos Santos (78th minute) chip it high into the net.
USA 2, Mexico 4

Boy, did you ever call that. Horrible defense. Mom with her walker and the rest of her over-80 women's Sunday School class would have been in better position.

[Lavabe]

For any non-soccer folks out there seeing this thread, the first team mentioned in a score is the home team. This is being played in Pasadena, which means it's a US home game. HOWEVER, clearly WAY more people there are supporting Mexico.

Bradley has had two good shots at goal, but one went wide, and one was blocked.
At 84th minute, US missed a tap in.
At 86th minute, Freddy Adu was substituted. Adu was probably much the best all around US player tonight.

[Lavabe]

Mexico wins.

The story of the game is that Mexico exploited a horrible US defense. In all honesty, the early US injury hurt, but Mexico had WAY too much firepower.

[lawgrad91]

Mexico wins.

The story of the game is that Mexico exploited a horrible US defense. In all honesty, the early US injury hurt, but Mexico had WAY too much firepower.

Mexico was way too fast offensively for our defense to keep up.

[Lavabe]

The first matches of all teams in the Women's World Cup have now all been complete.
1) The US looked really good in the second half of its game with North Korea. The North Koreans are actually ranked pretty high, and had some offense in the first half. The US, however, had one good defender, that being the goalkeep, Hope Solo. The first half defense otherwise sucked. The second half was dominated by the US. The best defense is a good offense. Wambaugh set up the first goal, on a fantastic cross, that was headed in. The second goal was clean up from all the trouble tyhe US was creating. All in all, the US was the only team to win by two goals in the first matches. THAT'S shocking. FWIW, they had a 3rd goal disallowed.
2) Brazil played tough against the Matildas (Australia) and Germany played tough against Canada, but neither Brazil nor Germany had an easy time of it.
3) Equatorial Guinea SHOULD have tied Norway today.
4) Looks like Canada has injury woes, but Sinclair (their leading scorer) will probably play tomorrow with a broken nose.

The games have largely been sporadic. I.e., some really nice moments, but a lot of inaccurate passing, and some sloppy execution of shots.

[CameronBornAndBred]

The first matches of all teams in the Women's World Cup have now all been complete.
1) The US looked really good in the second half of its game with North Korea. The North Koreans are actually ranked pretty high, and had some offense in the first half....All in all, the US was the only team to win by two goals in the first matches. THAT'S shocking.

Well of course the North Koreans were recovering from being communally electrocuted by lightning. Otherwise they would have won.

[Lavabe]

The first matches of all teams in the Women's World Cup have now all been complete.
1) The US looked really good in the second half of its game with North Korea. The North Koreans are actually ranked pretty high, and had some offense in the first half....All in all, the US was the only team to win by two goals in the first matches. THAT'S shocking.

Well of course the North Koreans were recovering from being communally electrocuted by lightning. Otherwise they would have won.

Literally, that was the excuse the North Koreans gave for their performance. From npr:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/201 ... oss-to-u-s