***Official United States vs Ghana Thread***

[Aces McGee]

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Wynalda for USA NATIONAL TEAM COACH.

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If second-guessing were the mark of great coach, you could nominate just about everyone in this thred to coach the US.

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The coach was part of the problem, but he's not the full problem. The most BASIC problem is that the USA does not have now, has never had, and will not have until maybe Adu reaches adulthood, a truly world-class talent. Name any team that won the World Cup without a player, or multiple players, who fit that description. MAYBE the 1950 Uruguayans or the 1954 West Germans, and they had players who were world-class for their time. We can populate US national teams with MLS "stars" and Premiership and Bundesliga fringe players and preach teamwork and coaching all we want, but until we develop a few players of indisputably world-class quality, our quarterfinal finish in 2002 is gonna be about the ceiling of the US's World Cup potential.

--Scott

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This is a good post that I missed on first go around.

In particular, "USA does not have now...a truly world-class talent" was driven home to me in the first half of the match against the Czech Republic, when Rosicky scored his cracker of a goal. I couldn't name a single current U.S. player capable of making that strike, but I could think of 2 or 3 (at least) on most of the true Cup contenders.

-McGee

[KDawg]

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Is it truthful to say that if Arena had pulled the trigger more quickly on subs, this game plays out differently?

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maybe if arena wasn't so [censored] obsessed with that stupid 4-5-1 we would've had a chance. He needs to go and the USSF needs to make a serious play at bringing in Guus Hiddink. Granted, I didn't expect the US to make it through this group in the first place, but to play as awful as they did the entire time is inexcusable. There needs to be some radical changes at all levels of US soccer, and it has to start with BA getting the axe

[KDawg]

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Anyone who has be involved with the ODU system in America would agree with me, in the brief time I spent in it I saw some amazing players who never even got a sniff at a national level role.

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this is true, but the ODU system is part of the problem IMO. the US gets players in there so young and ground them into x positions that we fail at letting players develop a natural flair. Kids gets over coached way too young here and players that may develop into big time players get dumped early. We need to stop with this and encourage a system that allows for attacking flair to happen. RIght now the US focuses on the industrious parts of teh game too much and we continue to see this defensive style crap. Look at the MLS, its a gritty league with little excitement, this needs to change too. IMO we just need to overhaul the entire system and start putting more money into the grass roots levels and into the MLS so that we can get better players and develop better players. There should be no reason that a player like Rossi wants to play for italy. I would never blame him for making that choice, but we really need to improve things so that a player like him has to have a harder choice

[KDawg]

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SO, who is around for 2010? Adu? Dempsey? Gooch? Who else?

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Convey, Beasley, Twellman, maybe Cherundolo, Cobi Jones.

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Jonathon Spector too, and if a miracle happens and we can convince Rossi to play for us, him too. Hopefully a player like Eddie Gaven will finally develop into his promise and Tim Howard should be able to get a game again when Van Der Saar leaves ManU.

[UATrewqaz]

I missed the game due to sleep/work, I caught the scorew hen it was 2-1 with 70:00 on the clock and heard the recap at that point and knew we were cooked (knew we wouldn't score twice in 20 minutes).

Will the game be replayed at any point? If so what time/channel?