Who I'm Taking To Brazil (August 2013)

Brazil 2014 is now less than a year away and Jürgen Klinsmann has the United States Men's National Team in prime position to grab one of the three guaranteed spots the CONCACAF region offers. With four games remaining in the hexagonal, the USMNT sits in first and should be able to punch its ticket during the next few games, barring an all-time epic collapse that would have me reconsidering the meaning of life. Starting with this post, I will be updating my roster for the World Cup at the beginning of every month until the tournament. From what I've seen so far in these qualifiers and the Gold Cup and assuming good health, here is the 23-man roster of who I'm taking to the World Cup next year:

GOALKEEPERS (3): Tim Howard, Brad Guzan, Nick Rimando

DEFENDERS (7): Timmy Chandler, Brad Evans, Omar Gonzalez, Matt Besler, Clarence Goodson, Michael Orozco, Damarcus Beasley

MIDFIELDERS (8): Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones, Graham Zusi, Geoff Cameron, Fabian Johnson, Mix Diskerud, Joe Corona, Brek Shea

FORWARDS (5): Jozy Altidore, Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Eddie Johnson, Herculez Gomez

The goalkeers are pretty much set in stone as far as I'm concerned, not including any injuries of course. This is by far the most solid group of any in our player pool and I would honestly be completely fine with any one of them starting, though I like Guzan the best of the three. 

Omar Gonzalez and Matt Besler are my starting center backs, no question. They complement each other very well and are both very good in the air. As the saying goes, "Don't fix what ain't broke" and we have been getting results with these two manning the back. Goodson and Orozco seem to be the next two best center backs in our pool and they make it for insurance purposes. I have to mention that with Geoff Cameron's versatility I could see Klinsmann only taking three of the four to allow for another spot somewhere else. The right back position really up in the air and I have no idea who will be the one to seize the starting job. Chandler is good going forward but Evans has been relatively solid when called upon. Maybe even Cherundolo will take it back if he's healthy? Maybe Parkhurst has a solid year and forces his way in? Who knows. Evans is my starter right now because he's the most recent one to play there. And because he's an American hero. The left back position is also a bit tricky, I'm not sure who I want there either. I think I want Beasley there, but only if it means Fabian is also on the pitch farther up. Fabian is a good left back but he's so lethal at left mid. Putting him in defense like giving a Ferrari a V4 engine. (Maybe not THAT extreme but you get the point.)

Any midfield discussion has to begin with Michael Bradley. He is the single most important piece of this team. When he plays, everything works. Everyone knows their role when he's around and the midfield is organized. For now I still have Jermaine Jones as his partner in the 4-2-3-1 system that Klinsmann seems to favor. He has a great work rate and allows Bradley to get forward and join the attack. I included Cameron among the midfield players in my roster because for me that's where he's at his best. Diskerud and Corona were solid in the Gold Cup and have jumped Kljestan and Danny Williams in my own rankings. Zusi has been extremely solid and is a lock in my opinion. Brek Shea is one of the toughest inclusions I have in the roster right now. He might not be as good as some that are not included at the moment but he offers something not many players in our pool do - pace and the ability to change the game in an instant. That's the type of player you always have to have up your sleeve at a World Cup. Jose Francisco Torres is probably the next player in line for me.

Altidore, Dempsey, and Donovan are locks and will form the cornerstone of the World Cup team along with Bradley and Howard/Guzan/Rimando. I love EJ and what he brings to the side, whether it be at striker or on the wing. Right now I have Gomez because our striker pool after Jozy is extremely depressing. I don't really like Gomez that much but I still have him over Boyd and Wondo at the moment. I actually like Wondo and believe he would do really well with Donovan, Dempsey, Zusi, Fabian, and Bradley feeding him. I just need to see him score goals against real teams, unlike Belize/Cuba/Guatemala.

So there you have it, that is what my Brazil 2014 roster looks like as of August 1, 2013. It will be really interesting to see how much it changes over time. Below is my preferred starting XI as of August 1, 2013.

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: Alejandro Bedoya, Jose Francisco Torres, Chris Wondolowski, Michael Parkhurst, Sacha Kljestan, Steve Cherundolo, Terrence Boyd, Stu Holden (Well not anymore. Best of luck on your recovery Stu!), Danny Williams, Edgar Castillo, Kyle Beckerman, Maurice Edu, Freddy Adu

(Just kidding about Freddy Adu.)

(But not really.)

(He just needs playing time! He's my favorite player and I feel it's my duty to remind the American public of his ability.)

WILD CARDS: John Anthony Brooks (CAP HIM NOW), DeAndre Yedlin, a healthy Juan Agudelo, Jack McInerney

Valencia CF Top 10 Goals of 2012-2013

I made a video of the top ten goals of Valencia's past season, check it out below. I'm not a professional editor or anything, I just wanted to do this for fun. Hope you enjoy!

USA 5-1 El Salvador

Let's face it, there's only one thing really worth mentioning about this game. I present to you the greatest GIF of all time:

Wait, keep watching it for a bit to let it sink in....

A little longer...

Ok good.

That's all, folks. Try not to have a terrible Monday tomorrow.

USA 4-1 Cuba

The United States Men's National Team defeated Cuba 4-1 at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday afternoon in their second group game of the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup and have already locked up a spot in the quarterfinals with one group game remaining. Here are my thoughts on the game in no particular order:

• Brek Shea was totally out of it today. He's looked pretty lively so far in the Guatemala friendly and Belize match so hopefully this was just one of those duds every player in the world has every once in a while. It's also important to keep the big picture in mind - he's coming back from a broken foot and hasn't played very much in several months so he hasn't worked all the rust off just yet. We all know what he can do when he's healthy.
• Rimando hasn't had a clean sheet yet in the Gold Cup but it's hardly his fault, he has been fantastic when called upon. (Side note - I honestly think Rimando is the most underrated American keeper of all time and I would be completely fine if he ever started in place of Howard or Guzan. Boom.) He has great reflexes, reads crosses well, and is great with his feet.
• Onyewu's ball watching on Cuba's goal was really, really bad. The striker literally only had one run he could possibly make and Gooch just let him do it. Poor. Also had an extremely risky play in the second that could have resulted in a penalty where he tried to body a striker off the ball and keep possession rather than just clear it. Other than that he was decent, I don't remember him giving away silly balls out of the back and he won some aerial duels. I don't see him taking the spot of either Gonzalez or Besler anytime soon.
• Is it just me or does Orozco have a weird knack for winning headers in the box? Weird in that he's relatively short for a center back. He had a decent game, didn't really stand out in a good or bad way.
• It must have felt nice for Beltran to play in front of his home crowd. He was ok, not much to say. I don't see him having a realistic shot at a spot on the World Cup roster with Chandler, Parkhurst, Brad Evans, and even Cherundolo ahead of him on the pecking order.
• What a curler from Joe Corona. Good game from him, his best one so far in a USA shirt. Now let's see it versus a real team.
• Castillo was great... in the second half when he was pushed higher up the pitch while not defending. He has never impressed me as a left back, he's such a huge liability in defense. I prefer Beasley and Fabian at that spot.
• Holden had was a bit off today but he gets a pass in my book, he has been outstanding in the last two games and is still shaking off the last bit of rust from his injury.
• Good things happen when Mix Diskerud is on the field. He has great technique and is always looking for that penetrative forward pass. His hair alone deserves its own bullet point, I mean just look at it. It's freaking gorgeous.

• Kyle Beckerman was good, he tracked back well and had a beautiful assist to Wondowlowski. Beckerman gets a lot of flack from USMNT supporters (including myself) but honestly he's very good at what he does and I need to stop bashing him because it's unwarranted. I think we do this to him because we always want our midfielders to play a forward pass every time, which is not what he does. He's also not as "flashy" or "cool" as we want our midfielders to be. Now do I think he should have a place on the World Cup team? No, absolutely not. But he is much better than people give him credit for. After all, he did provide the winning assist against the recently crowned European champions last year...
• Wondo makes outstanding runs in the box (John Terry complimented this aspect of his game in the MLS All-Star game last year) and always has, that's what he makes his living off of. He's finally getting the right service to take advantage of them and what do you know, he has been scoring goals left and right. This is probably an unpopular opinion but I honestly like him a bit more than Herculez Gomez as a striker. Gomez for some reason has never really impressed me as a scorer. Will Wondo keep this up throughout the Gold Cup or is it just the result of playing sucky teams? We shall see. If he does keep it up, it might be enough to solidify a place in the upcoming qualifiers later this year.
• Jose Francisco Torres was solid yet again, much better than Shea today. Had a beautiful outside-of-the-boot pass to Castillo in the buildup to the final goal. I like him.
• Below is my updated, current preferred Gold Cup starting XI. I don't really like any of our center backs so I went with a pairing we haven't seen yet:

• My last point is this: Landon Donovan is still the best American soccer player. He and Michael Bradley are the two biggest keys to this current national team and will be the two keys in Brazil next year. Start him in the upcoming qualifiers, Klinsmann.

USA 6-1 Belize

There really isn't any point in making a full post dissecting this game because Belize is terrible and we shouldn't draw any conclusions over what we saw, we had an insane amount of possession and Belize just plain sucks. Above are the full game highlights from U.S. Soccer which were finally posted just a couple of hours ago (Yes, this game was on Tuesday night and it's currently Friday morning.).

USA 6-0 Guatemala

The United States Men's National Team ended up routing Guatemala in Friday night's friendly after a deluge of goals in an extremely open second half. This was the perfect tune-up ahead of Tuesday's opening Gold Cup match against Belize where we will be looking to replicate our high tempo from the second half. Here are my thoughts from the game, in no particular order:

• The first 40 minutes of this game were extremely sluggish and dull. In short, it looked like our team was playing its first game in a while, which is exactly what it was. Players were rusty and trying to establish chemistry with others and that's to be expected. We played at a really slow pace with not much penetration going forward from the midfield. Things started getting better at the end of the first half, including Jose Francisco Torres's nice ball that eventually found an open Herculez Gomez at the far post for the first goal.
• In case you didn't know, I have to say/type "Jose Francisco Torres" every time I am referring to Jose Francisco Torres. It's just a thing a friend and I do so now you know for future reference.
• The tempo of the game really picked up in the second half with the halftime introductions of Stu Holden and Mix Diskerud  in the midfield. They were able to assert themselves and play positive forward passes to the forwards and wingers, something that was lacking in the first half with Beckerman and Jose Francisco Torres. Brek Shea was also very lively when he was introduced in the  second half.
• Joe Corona was pretty meh for me, don't really have much to say on him.
• Damarcus Beasley and Edgar Castillo combined pretty well on the left a couple of times in the first half. I personally don't really rate Castillo from what I've seen of him wearing the Stars and Stripes. Maybe he would've done better in the second half while playing with Stu and Mix.
• Gooch and Clarence were solid when they had to be, which wasn't that often as we dominated possession for most of the game. I enjoyed seeing Clarence get some top net action on his goal. Not much to say for them, there will be bigger tests coming. Same goes for Rimando - solid when called upon, which wasn't too often.
• Parkhurst wasn't spectacular but he wasn't terrible either. Not much to say from me on him tonight.
• Big congrats to Alejandro Bedoya and Wondo for scoring their first goals with the USMNT.
• Ladies and gentlemen, Stuart Holden is back. He looked absolutely fantastic tonight and made an immediate impact when coming on at halftime. His assist to Donovan and pass to Brek that eventually led to Bedoya's goal were two of the sexiest passes I've seen in a while. He also had a pretty ball to Will Bruin that should've been a goal if not for the striker's bad first touch. He'll be starting soon enough in the Gold Cup with that form. Stu is back for the USMNT and it feels good, man.

Photo credit: soccerbyives.net

• Mix better be cap-tied on Tuesday. Enough of this Norway nonsense.
• I'll go ahead and say it: Herculez Gomez is one of my favorite humans on the planet, just not one of my favorite footballers. I know he got a goal but I just don't think he's THAT good. He's a hard worker and will finish a wide open chance but to me he doesn't have any special, game-changing qualities. But then again, we don't really have anyone else after Jozy. What do you think?
• Landon Donovan is still one of, if not the best player in the USMNT pool. His IQ, movement, passing, and finishing are still at an extremely high level and he makes everyone around him better. He should and will be starting in Brazil next year.

All in all this was a fun game (half) to watch but we need to remember this was a home friendly against Guatemala. But we were looking to play attacking, creative football, which is exactly what we did in the second half. Hopefully that form carries over to Tuesday and the rest of the Gold Cup.