Defending Tim Howard - The Guatemala Case

If you are an aspiring physics teacher you now have the answer to "Why do we have to learn this stuff?" It's so you can write a blog post, that maybe 50 people will see, defending one of the greatest goalies that has ever played for the United States of America.

I was a little put out at the negative response towards Howard after the Guatemala capitalized their free kick that ended up tying the game 1-1. The response wasn't overwhelming, to be honest, and I suppose there's always going to be harsh opinions floating around on the web but I was still annoyed with it nonetheless. People are always quick to blame a goalkeeper but strikers are continually let off the hook for not finishing chances. This fueled my inner lawyer and plus who doesn't like to do recreational math during the summer?

Before I go all Sports Science on you guys, let me say that while I do believe that Tim Howard is the obvious number one goalkeeper for us I do believe he is able to make mistakes. I talked about it in the Brazil game and, while I haven't written a review, he basically fell out of the way of the Antigua and Barbuda goal. I thought he looked sharp for the Canada game and even against Guatemala he was looking good. I'm having trouble finding a decent enough highlight reel but he had a point blank save just prior to the goal that kept the game 1-0.

There will be a time where another goalie will fill his void but for now he's our number one.

Moving on, let's examine the play. In about one fourth speed it looks like Tim Howard lazily watches a free kick enter the goalmouth only two steps away from him. You can see it here.

Howard sets up his wall pretty well. Front and back post are covered. To score, Guatemala's Marco Pappa can only hit about a fifth of the goal. Still dangerous but not a PK. The only negative here is that Howard can't see the ball when the shot is taken. There's some movement prior to the kick and he ends up leaning to his right to get a better view. (You can see his head lean in the third picture.) This slight movement, I believe, stops him from making the save.

The shot covers 19.56 yards in about .8 seconds. This puts it around 50 mph. Not the fastest shot ever but still a decent blast. Howard can't react until he sees the ball and the ball doesn't become visible until it rises right over the wall, about 10.67 yards from goal.

This cuts Howard's reaction time to .436 seconds. Now some dimensions...
 

A squared plus B squared equals saving a shot squared. Howard's hands are a little low in the picture but they should be around 3'3" from the ground. (Luckily I am Howard's height so this was easy to figure out.) I assumed two inches from the bar was adequate to save the shot and with some more math I figured out he has to move his hands 68.6 inches to save the ball, or 5 feet 8.6 inches. To cover the distance in the allotted time (.436 seconds) he has to move at 8.94 mph, which should mean nothing to anyone because who knows how fast hands move on average. I don't.

I measured a spot 5' 8.6" from my own roof and timed myself on moving my hands the distance. On average I did it in .3 seconds (my poor iPhone doesn't do hundredths). Some times I did it in .2 but I felt like I jumped the gun those times. And it was about 8 out of 10 times I got .3 so that felt accurate. We can trust my reaction speed because of my stellar goalkeeping record (check out "most losses").

So Howard had .436 seconds to make a reaction save that would take around .3 seconds. But this doesn't take into account a couple of other things. It's pretty easy to move your hands 6 feet when you know the exact destination ahead of time and you have all the time to prepare yourself. Howard is being forced into a reflex save and doesn't know when it's coming or where it's going. The ball is also bending away from Howard so maybe getting a couple of fingers on it isn't enough. Also he'd be going up with his left hand, his weak hand. Taking all of these things into account, Howard could have saved it but can we expect a save at least 50% of the time there (aka a save he should make)? I don't think so. I would have loved to see Howard make any step except backwards into his goal but demanding perfection every time is unreasonable. Maybe he set too many people in the wall that ended up blocking his vision which delayed his reflex. I saw this tweet...

Just saw Pappa's goal from last nite. Howard yelled at Altidore 4 times to tell him he couldn't see an Jozy didn't move. #stupidplayer
— David Aneser (@The_Real_DA) June 13, 2012

Tough to say. The funny thing is that most people who are expecting a save could only respond to "What could he have done better?" with "Well just save it. It's right there." There's hardly any legitimate critique of the play.

Had Howard saved the shot everyone would have gone bonkers, anyway.

USMNT Hopefuls - June 2012

New here? Here's a brief introduction to USMNT Hopefuls. Comments welcomed!


The future of the US isn't looking too bad, guys.

Yet another tweak. I combined the "Old Guys" and young guns into one sheet. The column on the far left is the expected remaining cap tally for the players. If those numbers seem high then just know Donovan has a pretty decent shot at 200 caps. I've got him projected at 191 but I could imagine the push for 200...

I orange'd players who hold dual nationality. Since there were more than I originally thought, I put the country they hold duality with and the likelihood of them going south (solely my guess). Several youngsters have gone through our youth programs and switching this late is rare, but not unheard of. I still think Chandler will go US but he will largely be reminded for his hesitancy despite he continual plea that he wants to play for the US.

The only player I expect to not play for the US is Raul Mendiola. He's been leaning Mexico despite being called into US camps a couple times. Ryan Meara is a bit of a shot in the dark for me. I don't think New York's denial for him to go play with Ireland's youth team means anything. But I do think if he has a legitimate shot at being the number one goalie for the US it'd be hard for him to not come our way.

Just to be clear, a player isn't tied to a specific country until they play in a meaningful tournament. So for the US that would be World Cup Qualifying, Gold Cup, or Confederations Cup. They can apply for a switch after they are cap-tied but FIFA rarely grants a switch. And if a player is playing in a meaningful tournament they likely have thought out the repercussions of their actions.

Some notes

• Josh Gatt always busy doing things...
• Several players are currently with the senior US team. I put their names in dark blue. Altidore is getting some competition from Gomez, which is a good thing.
• Some U20 players traveled to play Chile and Uruguay. The only standout name I've seen was Victor Pineda's. (They lost to a strong Uruguay side twice and to Chile once.)
• Some U18 players traveled to Portugal for the Lisbon tournament. I say that name as if the tournament has some prestige but it's incredibly hard to find out anything on the tournament. In three games the US went 0-2-1 allowing just two goals but only scoring one. The young men has gotten favorable reviews but from their own website, no less. (Marc Pelosi was out with an injury.)
• Luis Gil is injured but not for long. A stretched ligament should keep him out for the rest of the month.
• Joe Corona and Terrence Boyd were recently cap tied. Congratulations are in order.
• Hamid, Johnson, and Meara are continually on MLS's Save of the Week.
• Williams' picked up an injury that kept him from WC Qualifying. He'll be back for Mexico, I imagine.
• A couple of moves. Boyd found a new club in Austria. Playing time wasn't coming his way from Dortmund's senior squad so he found one that would give it to him. Here's Rapid's FIFA 12 squad. Don't expect Boyd to stay here for too long.
• Juan Agudelo is really enjoying California.

• Bobby Wood was released by the 1860 Munich. (If you can't read German just believe me.) It seems his injury was too much of a risk for Munich to gamble on.
• Guzan was released from Aston Villa (imagine a mutual break up) and is currently a free agent. Guzan is also seeking first team minutes and believes he can play in a top league's team. Interesting write up here.
• While a couple of players moved around, don't expect others to. Alitdore is in a good position at AZ for another season and any move would only be lateral as he still has some room to grow. Holden will likely stay with Bolton as I'm fairly sure he isn't a large cap hit on the recently relegated team. And Lichaj is expected to stay at Aston Villa with his strong finish on the season.
• Bijev tore up the Houston Dynamo Academy. See if you can find him. (hint: he scores all the goals):
• Dilly Duka has yet to play 90 minutes this MLS season...
• Rowe and Benny Feilhaber (33 remaining caps, total of 72) both picked up a goal and assist against Chicago
• College soccer starts up this fall. A lot of youngsters playing across the great American coasts.
• Else, it's been quite in this lull between seasons.

World Football Rankings - June 2012

It all started with continuing frustration with solely result-based rankings systems. I'm not against computers calculating ratings for us in theory. In fact I subscribed to Ken Pomeroy's website last year in attempt to make my March Madness bracket not awful. (Had I stuck to his ratings I would have won my pool, actually.) And while I do appreciate the transparent of FIFA's current rating system, it isn't adequate enough. We can not rank teams, that routinely send their second string players, only based off how many goals did they score/allow.

So this project is an attempt to rank every international team. The idea is similar to calculating one's GPA. Every team's players get rated 1-100 (hopefully by someone who knows what they're talking about) and then they're given an expected minutes played number.

So the scenario is, if the World Cup was in one month and every team had a month to prepare it's squad to play, who would be chosen, what would their ratings be, and how many minutes would they play on average? You have to factor in long term injuries but current fitness issues you could likely ignore. For example, Stuart Holden will likely make the actual World Cup squad but for now I have to keep him off as he is recovering from a massive knee injury. This is who we would expect to see, not who we think should be on the pitch. For example, this is what I'd expect to see for USA's squad:

Rating - Player (Position) mins

81 - Howard (GK) 90 mins
73 - Cherundolo (RB) 70 mins
71.5 - Bocanegra (CB) 85 mins
69.5 - Goodson (CB) 70 mins
72.5 - Johnson (LB) 80 mins
74.5 - Bradley (CDM) 90 mins
76.5 - Jones (CDM) 80 mins
70 - Torres (CM) 60 mins
82 - Dempsey (LW) 90 mins
80.5 - Donovan (RW) 90 mins
74 - Altidore (ST) 75 mins

71.5 - Chandler (RB) 15 mins
70.5 - Lichaj (RB) 5 mins
69 - Parkhurst (CB/RB) 5 mins
68 - Onyewu (CB) 13 mins
69 - Cameron (CB) 7 mins
69.5 - Castillo (LB) 10 mins
69.5 - Edu (CM) 15 mins
70.5 - Beckerman (CM) 10 mins
68 - Boyd (ST) 3 mins
70 - Gomez (ST) 25 mins
68 - Wondolowski (ST) 2 mins

(For the reader, I gave Howard a 81 rating and expect him to play 90 minutes.)

What This Is Not

• This is not a World Cup roster prediction. Nor is this a logical roster prediction. Yes there are 23 players listed above but there is only one goalie and ten defenders. Eight defenders would be considered above average for WC play. Also the limited time doesn't indicate a substitution. It simply means that on average, we could expect Goodson to play 70 minutes. Maybe he sits out one game completely and plays another three full games.
• This is not a perfect rating system. There never will be one. But at the very least we could not have bad ones. There are several things we could never predict and taking outlying factors into consideration would be incredibly tough. I think France in South Africa 2010 is a great example.

Rankings

Special thanks to BigSoccer.com as most of the forums were incredibly polite and helpful in painting the national picture for me. Typically I just wander around the USA forums but for this project I dipped into each available country and got a ton of positive feedback, which was really cool.

If you want to fix/edit another country let me know. (You can navigate through the tabs atop the page). I'm sure the CONCACAF is pretty inaccurate and some people aren't thrilled Senegal is 23rd. The cool thing about this is that you can say "Oh X team shouldn't be that high because X player is overrated and should X number instead." instead of "That's wrong boo that sucks." Although it's always been funny to me that people look at rankings only to find mistakes though. You never hear "Oh they got such and such teams right..." It's always about what the biggest mistake is. So please, objectively tell me what I can do to be more correct. I realize this is a big overtaking and should be taken with a grain of salt but I thought it'd still be interesting to compile. If you have any questions/corrections let me know.

(And I still haven't done the most recent USMNT Hopefuls... Ah...)

USA vs Canada: Recap and Player Ratings

New here and all the jargon a bit overwhelming? Been coming back for some time and the jargon is still overwhelming? Then check out the stat definitions to (hopefully) get a better grasp on things. 

I've read a superior review of the Canada-USA that I could ever write and it is here. However I'll hit on a few things before I end this modest review just so I don't mail it in.

Canada came out with a very athletic team. They wisely packed the box (sending all 11 players back on a corner kick) and countered fast. While technically they weren't the best they were well coached and saw the game with decent vision.

America controlled possession and looked to string passes through the thick Canadian defense with mild success. Most of the top six players held no strict boundaries as to where you could expect them on the field. For a weak defense this would tear them apart but Canada's organization overcame a jumbled midfield attack, which ultimately turned into just a crowded section of the field instead of expanding it not only width-wise but also vertically. (MLS did an interesting comparison here on the Brazil game and the Canada game. My counter argument would be that the chart doesn't take into account off the ball movement and that multiple players can't possess the ball at one time. Gomez, specifically, makes several off the ball runs to the corners that the MLS does not track on its heat maps. Along this note, if overall passing percentages are down it may be because of the clouded midfield, which would be because players are "out of position" or intentionally not in their position. Just a theory.)

America offered no variety to Canada's strong defense, which is very interesting because historically (although it's been at least a year since) we've hit too many balls over the top instead of being patient. Sunday saw a polar opposite performance with a CM-led offense that was more than content to pass back. If you're having trouble solving a defense, which America was, you have to feed them variety to start getting results. Yes, maybe an over the top ball that one time would be a waste, but the next possession the defense will be expecting something over the top and they will start inching back, giving you space in the middle. It's a give and take and America did neither this game.

Wynalda had a really interesting quote in this fantastic review of his surging Cal FC, "We find talent and we start coaching them, and that’s when we start ruining them." I can see where he's coming from and, while I won't name any names, it's hard to disagree when your home team is full of athletes that can do nothing with the ball except kick it forward. There is a middle ground to reach of not complete chaos but also not over-coaching the players. I think Wynalda would be proud of the team Klinsmann is trying to run. I remember Klinsmann saying something along the lines of how he's not really trying to motivate the players because if they're not motivated by now then he can't help them. (I think this sounds a little extreme and it's not like Klinsmann doesn't offer praise.) He went on to add how he lets the play through most things in practice, not stopping every second to correct something. Sunday looked like a product of several things. Klinsmann letting the players play, Canada performing very well, and some slight tiredness from the players. Most of the game Klinsmann sat on the bench, which is very unlike him from what I have seen in the past. Most of the time he is standing, yelling/encouraging his players.

Here are my tweets from @soccer_subj. Not a ton as the game was very repetitive:

• I think I'm sitting behind Canada's warm up goal. Don't recognize the coaches.
  
• USA fan has "BACK TO BACK WORLD WAR CHAMPS". I wonder if he knows no one has ever defeated Canada in Canada.
• Or about wars we fought after WWII...
• Man with "MICHIGAN 26" USA jersey... 26th state? I don't think that's right. Maybe favorite number. [[Turns out 26th state was correct. Odd thing to put on a jersey.]]
  
• We love Timmy Howard chant even though he's across the field.
• In AO section so I don't know about tweeting... We'll see.
• Teams on the field.
  
• Canada does not know how to handle American Outlaws.
• Canada looks really lame and it's just warm ups. I'll be disappointed if we score less than 4.
• Blanking on name but Boston College standout Kyle Becker (?) should start every game for Canada. He's amazing. [[Kyle Bekker* - vids for you]]
• Very modest Canada fan section #CANvUSA
• Rimando back up in this and Brazil game. I prefer Guzan but maybe Klins is trying to get him PT.
• Now a "Back to back World War champs" chant breaks out. Ugh.
• Lay off drill atop the 18 and either it's a placed shot on target or wide. Pretty miserable.
• Pretty amazing how the top Canadian goalkeepers have such bad form.
• Should have stuck with hockey and "safety country" chants.
• Canada walks out some old guys and the women's team? If they wanted to really stick it to us they'd bring out the U23s
  
  
• Pretty loud USA chant. National Anthem to follow. Should be good.
• Canada has some really sweet kits. Probably the best thing about them.
  
• Personally I would be completely okay with a USA chant during Canada's national anthem but I was in the minority.
• Scrappy 20 year old brunette kid is doing a great job of leading everything. Very impressed.
• Wow Canada's blue kits are awesome. So fresh.
• You could be state 51 chant. Awesome.
• Dempsey and others not excited about how physical Canada's top forward is playing. [[He grabbed some player's leg after a tackle. No call either way.]]
• Torres and Castillo are going to tear Canada's right side all day. [[Castillo somewhat did. Torres not so much.]]
• Canada's CB's main defense against a counter is fouling. Unbelievable.
• Torres runs to Donovan on the corner. Two defenders follow, one from the post. Take the corner! Two defender down?? Yes please!
• Guys behind me really upset that you can't buy beer on their gas stations. [[Literally mentioned this close to six times throughout the game.]]
• An occasional over the top ball wouldn't hurt. Gotta push the defense back.
• Bradley is not a true CDM and Castillo if not a true LB.
• Your bacon's just ham "Suburb of Buffalo" and "America's hat" chants. Ha.
• Canada playing super lame soccer but USA playing annoyingly conservative.
• Ref really "letting them play" (aka not calling any shoving fouls).
• US not looking any nastier.
• Canada putting all 11 in the box on defending a corner.
• It should not take us 30 minutes to figure out this team. Good attacks but too much time wasted.
• Pretty weak half. Just yawned to prove it.
• Boca and Goodson with excellent tracking back.
• Goodson having a really good game. Although this is his environment to excel in.
• Probably one of the few not excited about Onyewu coming in...
• Could really go for a Graham Zusi right now.
• I think this play-whatever-position-you-like offense isn't in our best interest. I see some pros but largely unproductive for us. [[My first ever RT?]]
• Defense always looking for lateral pass. Nothing forward.
• Wondo! This will be exciting!
• Oh wait Wondo is gonna get destroyed by those massive CBs... Maybe. TBD. [[Not a factor]]
• Why did we have more scoring chances against Brazil than Canada? Well clearly Canada is more focused on their D than Brazil
• Canada should have best us. [[beat*]]
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Booking it to Chipotle for comfort food. [[Was delicious]]

Alexi Lalas had an interesting tweet that if this were group play, America would have 4 points with a +1 goal differential. Not too shabby but I think we were all looking for 6 if not 7 points.

The time for figuring out things is coming to and end for America and the first games that the results matter more than player performances is near.

Player Ratings

+7.6 - Goodson - 88% (10…8.8/1.2…90') - Really excels in a physical game. Not so much in a technical game. But nevertheless he dominated Canada's forwards and almost got a goal. Great game.


+4.6 - Gomez - 79% (8…6.3/1.7…80') - I love his runs to the corner flag to drag the central defenders. A more aggressive offense would have exploited the space that Gomez created.

+3.9 - Howard - 80% (6.5…4.6/1.9…90') - Handled everything and might have pulled off the save that Canada missed from just yards away with his positioning and shape. Who knows.


+3.5 - Bocanegra - 79% (6…4.7/1.3…62') - Same as Goodson, honestly. Minus the almost-goal-part.


+2.5 - Castillo - 63% (9.5…6/3.5…90') - Most player reviews from other people will say something like, "Was great in the attack but was exposed on the defense." I can't deal with that. If one of our weaker players is nearest our goal… No sir. I think he teamed well with Torres alright but I don't really see him as a big step above Bornstein, to be blunt. I would rather Castillo play LW than Torres though. He has a killer touch with good speed. And our wing depth pool is pretty low.


+1.9 - Onyewu - 82% (3…2.5/0.5…28') - The fans celebrated their typical "Goooooch!" cry but I was thrilled with his appearance. Against Canada, similar to Goodson and Bocanegra, he will be fine. Against a quick, smart team, he will not.


+1.7 - Bradley - 59% (9.5…5.6/3.9…90') - Hardly advanced the offense and practically played a fifth defender. Really boring to watch.


+1.4 - Dempsey - 58% (9…5.2/3.8…90') - Clearly exhausted and walked even more than usual. Never took anyone on and saw him fight for space/the ball only a few times.


+1.2 - Cherundolo - 58% (7.5…4.4/3.2…80') - Also hardly pushed forward. Was content on defending a sparse attack.


+1.1 - Donovan - 57% (8…4.6/3.4…73') - I don't think Marcello was the main reason for Donovan's not awful/not great game against Brazil. It didn't help that Cherundolo sat back but he never really challenged the defense and way too many of his crosses/set pieces hit a defender before reaching its desired target. He has to gauge the height of his balls better, to put it bluntly. (This is such an odd thing for me to say because we know he can do it so well.)


+1 - Altidore - 66% (3…2/1…28') - I was excited to see him take on the big Canadian CBs but he played toward the wing or as a reserved striker. Played a couple of nice balls, which was interesting to see from Altidore.

+1 - Jones - 55% (10…5.5/4.5…90') - Touch was off all night and turned the ball over a ton. Out of fairness he had little options to play to and he did create some chances on goal.


+0.2 - Wondolowski - 61% (1…0.6/0.4…10') - Didn't really get to do anything. = { /


+0.2 - Edu - 58% (1.5…0.9/0.6…17') - Ran around.


-0.1 - Parkhurst - 45% (1…0.5/0.6…10') - Got beat on the right side a couple of times in only ten minutes. Not good. A Goodson/Parkhurst pairing would be interesting in the middle.


-0.9 - Torres - 43% (6.5…2.8/3.7…62') - I'm having trouble understanding why Torres isn't translating to the wing better. He has the speed, the ability to play a crossing ball, the vision to make an off the ball run… I don't know, something isn't clicking. It's like he's thinking too much on the ball and his hesitation results in a turnover or a conservative pass. I like him a lot (one of my favorite players to watch) but the CM is a crowded field and we could really use a strong winger.

USA vs Brazil: Recap, Player Ratings, and Stats

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Okay let's get one thing straight, Brazil is definitely better than us. Should we have beaten them? No. Could we have? I'll source Little Giants for that answer.

 

Well maybe we've already used our one time with Kasey Keller.

Let's get to it: Why is it hard to play Brazil? It's incredibly easy to say that a team is great but why? And how do you beat them? Can you beat them? Everyone sees different things on a pitch but here are the five things that stood out to me about Brazil's play against America.

1. Intimidation - Easily the biggest problem for USA when playing America. The only players who looked poised were Jones, Johnson, and interestingly enough, Torres. I'll talk a little more on those players on their respective player ratings but the other starting eight looked shaky at the very least. Eh. Cherundolo looked himself. I'll throw him in the mix too.

2. High line of defense - Howard ended up taking three or four clearances with his left foot because he was pressed on simple pass backs. USA's midfield had trouble on their first touch because Brazil swarmed them so quickly. And if you're turning the ball over in the midfield you're giving your opposition a great field possession to start a counter.

3. Quick - They have some speed but more importantly they can go from standing still to a full sprint in a couple of steps. Their one-two passing is based off of this as well as through balls. But their quickness this translates to their passing as well. On Pato's fourth goal, Marcelo doesn't waste time picking his head up a second time to see if Pato is there. He just plays it off his foot as fast as he can. Check out the fourth goal and just watch Marcelo's eyes. (Starts around 7:05.)


4. Great garbage men - (Didn't really know what else to call this.) Brazil is great at picking up loose balls in the gap between the midfield and center backs. To be clear, this is the area I'm talking about:

Pretty crude rendition but it's that's gap between the defense and midfield. They send a forward as high as they can go and try to play him. If they complete the pass, great, they're in the 18 with the ball. If not, the ball gets cleared into this garbage gap. USA didn't have a solid CDM to clear the ball onward so Brazil would pick the ball up only 30 yards from the goal against a slightly disorganized defense.



5. They're pretty good at everything else. Not one dimensional. Even their goalie played great.


So how do you beat them?

1. USA exposed their back line by using similar tactics, lots of over the top balls to the corner and used their American muscle to hold the ball.

2. Because Brazil is so counter-attack based, their stay-at-home men usually aren''t the back four every time, someone drops off to keep the shape. Countering after their counter attack can open some holes.

3. More important than penetrating tactics is that every player has to be on their A game, specifically the defense. Klinsmann made a comment prior to the game about how important the CBs were this game and boy was he spot-on. America sported a solid attack but the back four + goalie definitely had room for improvement.

Player Ratings

+2.5 - Johnson - (8.5…5.5/3…80') - The converted LM-to-LB shined again, although most of the attack did go on down Cherundolo/Neymar's side. A couple of bad passes but his assist was suh-weet. Tracked back and shut down the left side.


+2.5 - Gomez - (9.5…6/3.5…90') - With Klinsmann starting him due to Altidore's unfitness he basically said he's our number two striker. The goal was fun and he was all over the place creating chances. I think him not playing an entire 90 really showed as he got a little sloppy but you could tell he still was giving it his all. Klinsmann is really drawn to that hunger to be the best, which is probably why Gomez got the nod.


+1.5 - Cherundolo - (7.5…4.5/3…73') - Did well against Neymar all things considered. He had little effective help from the CDMs and CBs. Still can't help but wonder where he'll be in two years. Hasn't shown too much of a drop off at his age, which is great to see.


+1 - Edu - (8…4.5/3.5…73') - Ended up playing a CAM/withdrawn striker role with Gomez. I don't know if that was intentional or if there was just the space for him to take (because there was) but I liked it. Most of my complaints with Edu is that he doesn't insert himself in the offense enough but today he was all offense. Ultimately I wish he and Bradley would have traded positions and let Edu man up on counters while Bradley gets into Brazil's 18.


+1 - Torres - (6…3.5/2.5…56') - Oddly played more composed with the added pressure. He had time to play against Scotland and turned over more passes, by the looks of it. I think Brazil was a good test for him but some consistency would be nice. If he could start getting more comfortable on the wing that'd help our attack immensely.


+1 - Dempsey - (3…2/1…34') - The offense didn't really miss Dempsey that much but the players' nerves definitely did. Jones helped but a lot of the players could have used another veteran who didn't get wobbly knees every time a Brazilian breathed near them. Looked strong and we can expect more against Canada and Antigua.


+1 - Beckerman - (1…1/0…10') - Came in late but did his part. I'm not sure if he's a better defender than Bradley but I think so...


+0.9 - Jones - (8.5…4.7/3.8…80') - Jones gets secret bonus points for knowing how to play against these guys. Yes he turns the ball over in the midfield but commanding the offense and fighting to get the ball (back, in some occasions) is such a rare trait on the team.


+0.5 - Howard - (7.5…4/3.5…90') - Not exactly thrilled on the last three goals. On the second goal, not only could he have come and get the ball but he reacts way too late. The third goal he gets caught guessing and follows his body's weight. He has to get set again there. The fourth goal he's looking to save it with his feet, which he did early in the game. Watch Howard's hands and right foot on the shot. His hands are wide, which is good, but the shot comes and he pulls them in, kicks up his foot to save it.  The ball sneaks in between his arm and leg, just like the second goal. Howard has this knack of getting his feet planted extremely wide on big time could-be-saves, which usually results in a kick save. Here are some examples:

All of these critiques aren't fixed by just a simple ten minute drill. We're talking about mental reflexes in a split second. All of the shots on him were rocketed in smart locations. In the end, should those goals have gone in? Yeah probably. Could they have been saved? Yes.


+0.5 - Boyd - (1.5…1/0.5…17') - I'd bet he finds the back of the next in the next two games. He's gotten so close in these last two games.


+0.5 - Parkhurst - (1.5…1/0.5…17') - Not the RB for our attack but I like him as a defensive option, which is why he went in.

+0 - Donovan - (10…5/5…90') - Touch was off all night. Kept getting in good positions to slice and dice but his footing failed him against Marcelo. He'll rebound, I'm not worried.


+0 - Castillo - (1…0.5/0.5…10') - Pato was offside to Castillo but Castillo was really far ahead of the offside line. Plus that's not really a place for the offside trap. Not like that.

-1 - Bradley - (9…4/5…90') - Let me preface this review with two things first. 1. Bradley should be in our starting 11. No doubt. 2. I hate to single out another writer. I hate blatant attacks on people. So I'll find some middle ground on both of those points.

Bradley is not the true CDM everyone thinks he is. He plays more of a deep CM who integrates himself in the attack. Here are some still shots on Brazil attacks. Notice how far off he is from where he should be.

He doesn't played the third defender very well, which is the CDM's role. (First defender = man covering ball; second defender = second man covering ball; third defender = man covering man off the ball/likely target) Our CBs, whoever they are, need a lot of help and Bradley is currently not the answer for that help. Edu definitely can be, which is why I would want the switch. So when people write that "Bradley [is] really, really good" they are referring to his command on the ball in a counter attack not his defensive skills. (I would like to add I completely agree with the rest of the article.) Hopefully he will press higher up next time, in his most effective spot, instead of sitting back, where he is questionable.


-1.5 - Bocanegra - (8.5…3.5/5…90') - Got involved on headers but we can't have him out there only for headers. Better than Onyewu but when our two CBs are unreliable all night winning comes at a high price.


-3.5 - Onyewu - (8.5…2.5/6…90') - Does not need to start. Too slow to react and played scared the entire time. But this was awesome:

SSTAS - Day 4

After a rough Day 3 I was looking to relax. And I did. It was like my soccer sabbath.

Day 4 was relatively slow but maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much. The night before I asked about a shuttle transportation to the man at the desk. He warned me against walking because of the "really bad" neighborhoods in between. But it was daylight, the shuttle wouldn't take me there, and less than three miles so I just made the walk.

I got there almost an hour and a half early. Here are more tweets with [[post-tweet commentary in brackets]].

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• An hour before the @RochesterRhinos vs @PhilaUnion game and I've seen maybe 500 people. It's early but still... [[Eventual 4175 in attendance]]
• This guy is the Rochester Rhinos fitness coach, I think.
  
• Bored? Feel free to stare at me on http://www.philadelphiaunion.com/live. I'm literally sitting right behind the goal.
  
  
• Multiple announcements asking people to not use bad language. Do they know this is Philadelphia - The land of the ****?? [[Didn't really have a specific word in mind for the asterisks. That's kind of the point.]]
• Yellowcard and Breathe Carolina to play concerts during the College Rugby Championship at PPL. All of that is too much to handle.
• If I see a large Rochester section I might go move over there at halftime. Just so I can boo Philly a lot.
• Goalie warmup. #censorpool
  
• Rochester's German goalie, Nicht, yells "Ba!" on warm up crosses. German for "Mine!"?
  
  [[Looked up goalie, keeper, mine, ball in German. No dice. Not sure what he was trying to say. Maybe just "Ball" but soft L's.]]
  
• He looks pretty solid. Good fundamentals except his ready position is hands wide...
  
• This is bad because he's adding time and distance on his dives/low collapse saves. To make a save, hands will start wide, come in to the body, then go out to make the save. Very lengthy. The position is close range stops where you just want to cover space, like a wall.
• Attendance not looking great. I've counted around 300 in seats alone. Probably another 100 in box seats.
  
• McManus looked sharp in warm ups. Rochester's roster has quite the variety.
  
• Fans may have doubled in size. I'll try to count again around half time.
  [[Did not do this but I would have guessed 3000-4000.]]
• Philly has this super cool tradition where they yell "...sucks!" when the visiting line up is announced.
• I don't see any Rochester section or apparel. Pretty bummed. @RochesterAO [[RochesterAO tweeted back at me that they are small and just starting up. Hopefully they will continue to grow.]]
• Oh man just saw a Dunkin Donuts sign. So hungry now. [[Definitely planning on grabbing some double D's at some point.]]
• Behind Philly goal to start. MacMath sill hurt but glad to watch Adu and Carroll.
• Rochester jerseys are stupid by the way. White sleeves, shorts, socks, lemon yellow middle of shirt. [[Couldn't find a pic but trust me, they were not good.]]
• Fans appreciate Konopka, goalie. [[Might have been yelling just to yell...]]
• Rochester definitely coming out strong. Looks promising.
• Konopka also Catholic, apparently. [[Knopy would dig his foot into the ground on the six yard box in three places, one in front of each post and one in the middle of the two. Kind of odd. Not sure why he does that.]]
• Oh you dumb Rhinos. [[1-0]]
• Oh no...
  
• For a team with a great defense they sure look really bad on defense and creative up top.
• No team has any other answer besides "hope they mess up" for crosses and switching play. [[I still stand by this. Philadelphia just muscled Rochester on 50-50 balls but the midfield couldn't stop the counter attack.]]
• Knoppy makes sloppy turnover but a big save to get back to even. [[Earls jumped on a poor pass and almost hit McManus for an equalizer. Also this is where I started calling Konopka "Knoppy" as he obviously needed a solid nickname. Can't have a name "Konopka" and not have a nickname.]]
• Also I was twenty feet from Adu. That was cool. [[On a corner kick. Adu was calling out for someone to get backpost. Good to see that leadership. But boy is he short. 5'10" at most.]]
• Danny Earls need to get picked up by an MLS team. Think Dax McCarthy. But more fun to watch. [[Not quite sure why he got dropped by Colorado (twice) and Seattle. I saw that they played him at LB when he winger's mentality. Plus he's short so he doesn't really need to be in the back. No taller than Adu.]]
• Weather getting worse... Effin' Independence Day.
  
• Philly will score another one from out of the air but I wouldn't be shocked by a Rochester equalizer. [[Called it.]]
• Knopy about six inches from an own goal. [[I can't double italicize something but imagine it on the word "extremely" here: Knopy got extremely lucky on not giving up an awful goal. Ball was passed back to him and took way too long to get it out. McManus challenge him and when he dove out to block the pass his foot went over the ball. Two bad mistakes that could have made it 2-1 Rochester.]]
• Game delay for bad weather. On the restart I'm going to ask the five Rochester fans if they want I sit front row. [[Did not do this.]]
• Light-Medium rain but no lightning. Don't think the bad part will last too long but idk if refs will wait until its all gone or not. [[Never any lightning that I saw. Would have been fun to watch in the rain, which we ultimately did anyway.]]
• Thought about going to Harrisburg. Eff. [[New England goes a man down early and ends up losing. Would have been a great game to see.]]
• You are in control of music thousands will hear and you play recycled 90s post-grunge? How disappointing. Any college kid could do better. [[Pet peeve.]]
• Players coming back. Maybe Rochester will be less worse than Philadelphia after the restart. [[Nope.]]
• Rochester players actually enjoying the heckling, usually turning around and smiling.
• Asking a fan if this was Will Smith rapping on the speakers and he said "Of course. It's Philly."
• Game restart. Adu's shot only close because his original shot bounced off a players' chest. About a 30 degree change.
• Rochester having trouble holding possession. Can't win in the air against a mid-sized MLS team.
• Feel free to correct but drop from MLS to NASL Pro isn't so much skill as it is size and fitness. [[USL Pro Division, not NASL. Rochester might be upset about that.]]
• Philly CBs playing over the top balls really well, which is Rochester's main source of attack.
• Called it. Adu off a header. 2-0. Would like to see one Rochester goal :{ /
• I realize how dumb this sounds and that he has a goal and assist but I thought Adu had been relatively quite. Mostly wing play. [[He inserted himself over time but it really was the service that killed Rochester.]]
• Rochester is a lot of fun to watch. Everyone doing something to help the offense. Unfortunately the defense is full of vegetables. [[I googled "vegetables playing soccer." Nada. Pretty disappointed in the internet.]]
• Philly AO starts "We all laugh at the yellow submarine." Creative. [[Sons of Ben, not Philly AO. My mistake.]]
• **** you. now being chanted. #totalphillymove
• Earls gets a yellow for studs up. No replay but Earls was pretty adamant about no foul. Adu grabs his arm and scolds him. [[Asked a fan later if the yellow was really that bad. He smirked, rolled his eyes and said no. Philly player definitely sold it.]]
• Knopy lucky deflection goal was offside (which was questionable). Looks super nervous and is even more lucky Rochester attack is stalling. [[The player yelled at the linesman but the linesman looked confident and pointed at the line which he crossed. Looked on to me but I was watching at a 90 degree angle.]]
• US youngsters Okugo and Williams doing well in the back. [[I thought Okugo was more of a CDM but I suppose against a smaller team they could afford to put him at CB. Williams was honestly a brick wall the entire game. Rochester could not beat him.]]
• Philly fan after Rochester "hand ball", "Are we getting every call?"
• Undercover Rhino in the PhillyAO section. Honestly just wanted a reason to yell.
• Well the drums have split sides and are trying to match the beat. "THERE'S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SPEED OF LIGHT AND THE SPEED OF SOUND!"
• Stopped tweeting because of the weather, low battery, and I ended up in the Sons of Ben section. I'll blog it duh.

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The last three tweets need some context. At halftime, which Philadelphia had completely control of the game, I walked to the other side of the stadium to watch Rochester attack. I found their attack more creative than Philly. Certainty not better, but more creative and fun to watch. There was the speedy Bank on the RW; Earls (Rochester's best player) on the left; McManus, who had taken out by Knoppy earlier and was looking about 80% (Knoppy's cleats in his calf?); And a few other players that knew enough about soccer to expose a relatively weak back line. Philly's attack was mainly centered around out jumping Rochester on solid services, which, again, is a very effective form of scoring, just not entertaining to watch in my opinion.

(Just a smige on the USLPD, like I tweeted above, the biggest difference between the USLPD/NASL seems to be size and fitness. A lot of the Rochester players had the skill and/or the mind to play in the MLS. Several players chastised each other for making poor plays when they were in the right position to receive a pass. Mainly McManus and #8. Rochester couldn't win anything in the air and they really weren't that much smaller than Philadelphia. Philly knew how to use their size and could explode not only up for a header but also laterally with sprints. Rochester looked pretty ragged as the game wore on but Philadelphia kept pressing. And, like the Daily said on their video, a lot of the USLPD/NASL teams have former MLS players on their teams. Although I think the USLPD is just a "third" tier in formality. I can't imagine there is a big enough gap to slot another division between the USLPD and the MLS. Not that big of a drop off.)


The Sons of Ben, Union's largest supporter group, were sitting behind Rochester's goal in the first half but about 80% wished to continue to sit behind the German keeper. So as I walked to where the Sons of Ben were, most of them walked to where I was. About thirty SOBs stayed in their original section and called everyone in the five sections to sit close. I thought it'd be rude to not sit with them plus it was a perfect opportunity to yell and make snide remarks.

The decision to sit with the few SOBs was probably my best decision of the trip. (Also got a delicious Domino's pizza that day.) The rain picked up for ten minutes but learning the chants definitely took my mind off being cold and wet. Half the chants were made up on the spot while the other half were returning ones, all of which were easy enough to pick up on the second or third time through. My favorite one was probably, "Oh Philly yooou, you got what I neee-eeeed. We'll love you to the end *clap clap* Defend the river and Oh Philly yooo-ooo-oou..." Not that you know the tune but it was awesome.

Top highlight from sitting in the section was everyone cheering Knoppy for drying his gloves. 30 people yelling "Yeah! Dry your gloves! Wooo!" He proceeded to "wash" his chest with the towel and everyone with crazy. At the end of the game, the ref blew his whistle and Knoppy turned around, fist clenched and let out a roar. The fans, and I, loved the real passion. A MLS player interested in the Open Cup? Huh.

I stayed around to 1.) Watch the players and 2.) Try to get a ride. I got even closer to Adu than before, three feet, who was joking with the fans and signing autographs. McLaughlin signed a lot too. And by a lot I mean all 12 of the people asking for them. I was getting my Mc's mixed up and thought he was Jack McInerney, who has gone through the US youth teams. McLaughlin is a homegrown player but hasn't been called in to any camps, I don't think. I honestly can't find too much on the youngster. A winger with speed and willingness to use it. Chandler Hoffman also came in the 90th minute, who got some buzz at the combine. I don't think he touched the ball.

Oh, a rather large man (XXL?) asked Adu, "Hey Adu! How about your jersey! I think it would look great on me!" Adu laughed as everyone did.

Such a great experience. You know a team has an awesome fan base when they subtly convince you to root for their team.

I got a ride back to the hotel from a very nice man. We listened to some modern punk rock, NOFX and Five Iron Frenzy. It really took me back. Music was meant to be fun.

USA v. Brazil on Wednesday then somehow getting up to Toronto. Will probably need to buy a hoodie to compliment my t-shirt luggage. High of mid-60s.