Confederations Cup

[Magus978]

Bradley should have seen the Brazilian fullbacks start to push up and dominate the flow of play. He should have gone 4-5-1 to try and counteract that. We are never gonna win anything serious with this moron in charge.

FIRE BRADLEY!

If nothing else, at least Americans have the fickle side of football right.

Even you have to admit that this is a terrible loss. I've wanted Bradley fired since the embarassing defeat to Costa Rica. They were absolutely lifeless against them.

I'll admit I don't know an awful lot about Bradley, but it must surely redeem him somewhat when you consider how close America were to going out, he turned it around and lost to a good Brazil side in the final. Beating the European champions must surely count for something aswell?

And in my books, losing to Brazil is never "terrible". It just came down to it that America were beaten by the better team tonight.

Fair enough. He did turn it around against Egypt and subsequently against Spain. Beating the current world #1 is always a great accomplishment, but when you work so hard to get to the final and get out to a 2-0 lead against the legendary Brazilians, you truly do expect to be able to finish the job. From the first goal in the second half, you could see that Brazil was going to start using the fullbacks more and push the issue on the wings. That was the time to bring on a midfielder and go 4-5-1 to try and suppress the backs. Okay, maybe this isn't a terrible loss, but this is bad. This and the Spain game were the best I've seen the USA play against any top notch opposition. Just very disappointing to not win I guess.

If nothing else, this has raised expectations a bit for the US for South Africa 2010. Last thing we need off of this run is to crash out again in the group stages.

Edited June 28, 2009 by Magus978

[Turbo Yannis]

I fully appreciate that it must feel awful to feel so close to winning something and then losing so close to the end.

I'll lay off, 'cause if this was Scotland is America's position right now, I'd be in tears

[Szumi]

As long as Bradley continues to cut out the players who don't perform, I'm okay with him staying. He FINALLY stopped using Demarcus Beasley throughout the Confed Cup, which has been something that should have happened two years ago. Now, he needs to do it with his other favorite players, guys like Sacha Kljestan, Conor Casey, and Jonathan Bornstein. All 3 of these guys were horrendous in every match they played in throughout the Confed Cup.

He needs to keep giving time to the kids who are playing like they want to be out there. Jonathan Spector has been brilliant this tournament, but only played because Cherundolo and Hedjuk both have been out. Same with Demerit, because of Bocanegra. Boc may be the captain, but a lot of the time plays with no heart or hussle at all. Younger guys like Adu and Torres should be getting more time in the smaller qualifiers and such, yet Torres doesn't even get named to the Gold Cup squad.

That's my biggest problem with Bradley, his continued politicking when it comes to squad selection. It happens with all managers, but for a while, Bradley was doing a good job avoiding that. Now... not so much.

[Green Demon]

It was a great run and it is great for us to have made it as far as we did but we just broke down at the end. I didn't particularly like Bradley's subs to tell you the truth, I didn't particularly like Bornstien for Feilhaber I just feel like creatively and going forward Bornstien doesn't give us much I would rather have seen Torres or even Adu. I really don't understand Bradley's fascination with Conor Casey either he really didn't show me anything in the whole tournament, it will be good when Ching is back and healthy.

That being said some of our guys pretty much got themselves a place on the team for next year with those guys being Demeritt, Spector and Davies. I also think that unless something happens Beasley is pretty much done, it is just shocking to me how much he has fell off in form in just a couple years. I also hope that Donovan moves to somewhere in Europe this winter when his contract is up he is and showed this tournament that he is just to good for the MLS. It was frustrating to lose like we did today but as has been mentioned it will be good for this team moving forward and getting ready for next year.

[Big Red Fury]

We tried 4-5-1 once already this tournament and it was an epic fail, we need to use 4-4-2. Conor Casey is worthless, if he never pulls the shirt on again it will be too soon. This tournament taught me two things. One, based on the 225 minutes before the second half(ie. Egypt, Spain, and the first half) and depending on the draw, the US could reasonably make the quarterfinals next year. And two, Michael Bradley is the most important man on the US squad besides Howard and Donovan. No offense to Feilhaber because I thought he played well, but he would have made a world of difference had it been him coming on in the 60whateverth minute instead of Kljestan who is absolutely dire and an MLS player at best.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Much better game than I expected and the US taking that lead was much better for the game overall. As has been mentioned, even though some don't see this as a huge tournament or anything, it's still a plus for the US if you ask me.

Oh and honestly, I now love Dempsey. He's just a really good player. He's not 'great', but he's just proven how good he actually can be and how important at times, just like he was for Fulham last season. Out of everyone in the tournament, he stood out the most for me and earned a huge thumbs up from me.

[Green Demon]

Since I didnt want to start a new thread about this but it could be some more pretty good news for the USA, it looks like Edgar Castillo is looking to take advantage of the recent rule chance by FIFA and if given the opportunity by the USA he would like to make the switch from Mexico since he hasn't appeared in any cap tying matches. It remains to be seen if the US will call him up for sure but with them really lacking any depth at LB this would likely be able to help out.