P4TP
So I made a little mistake. I have been putting it out over the past few days that the US vs BH friendly is scheduled for 3:30 ET when it is in fact at 2:30. Rather than going in and correcting all of my time flubs, I have decided to leave them in and just call myself out for being stupid...also I said it 2 or 3 times on the podcast coming out later today, and it would be extremly time consuming to fix that...so...next time I shall get it right
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We shared this on Twitter a few weeks ago, thought we'd post it to the blog. USMNT roster for B&H was just issued, keep an eye out for my analysis in a bit. Ok US soccer fans, the roster came out today for the friendly against Bosnia & Herzegovina on Wednesday at 3:30 ET (showing on ESPN2 & UniMas). The roster featured very few surprises (that is if you have followed the news coming out of camp), Aron Johannsson & John Anthony Brooks highlight the first timers, Clint Dempsey & Landon Donovan do not find themselves on the call sheet (along with most of MLS). Full roster below:
Keepers – Cody Cropper (Southampton, England), Brad Guzan (Aston Villa, England), Tim Howard (Everton, England) Defense – John Anthony Brooks (Hertha Berlin, Germany), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City, England), Edgar Castillo (Tijuana, Mexico), Brad Evans (Seattle, United States), Michael Orozco Fiscal (Puebla, Mexico), Michael Parkhurst (Ausberg, Germany), Tim Ream (Bolton, England) Midfield –Alejandro Bedoya (Nantes, France), Michael Bradley (Roma, Italy), Joe Corona (Tijuana, Mexico), Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg, Norway), Jermaine Jones (Schalke, Germany), Fabian Johnson (Hoffenheim, Germany), Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht, Belgium), Danny Williams (Reading, England) Striker – Jozy Altidore (Sunderland, England), Terrence Boyd (Rapid Wien, Austria), Aron Johannsson (AZ, Holland), Eddie Johnson (Seattle, United States), Bobby Wood (1860 Munich, Germany). I’m not really gonna focus too much on the obvious selections (Howard, Guzan, Cameron, Altidore, Bradely, Jones, and the Johnson’s) or the lack of MLS guys (if you’ll remember, I did predict an all European squad), but I want to go into a few of these guys a bit, one slightly run-on sentence for each.
Predicted Line-up against Bosnia-Herzegovina, and 6 substitutions (based on most to least likely in my opinion): ---------------Boyd-----Altidore------------ Corona------------------------------Bedoya ---------------Jones-------Bradley---------- F. Johnson--Cameron—Brooks--Evans ---------------------Howard------------------- Subs: Diskerud => Jones E. Johnson => Boyd Kljestan => Corona Wood => Bedoya F. Johnson => Castillo Ream => Cameron Check in tomorrow for the Podcast, check out the game Wednesday at 3:30ET on ESPN and UniMas P4TP I thought with the Bundesliga kicking off this weekend, I might get a chance to watch a few more games...but unfortunately work got in the way. I missed every opportunity to watch Friday and Saturday. I did watch a little Chicago vs DC United US Open Cup midweek, but the video quality wasn't great. It really is a shame that DC didn't make most of their moves until midseason. There are out of the playoff race, yet still might have a shot at a CCL spot...that would be kinda like in the Richmond Kickers had won the whole thing, just a big disappointment for the rest of the league.
I did tune in to the LA vs FC Dallas game on Sunday night, at least until half time, then I had Breaking Bad on the TV and was streaming the game on my iPad. Set pieces continue to be the strength of FC Dallas and the achilles heel of Los Angeles. Shame really that the linesman missed the clear offside on Dallas' second goal. You could argue that the third was as well, but you could also argue that none of the players in an offside position infringed on the play. Very happy to see Landon Donovan continue his excellent run of form, I think his first goal (headed over the keeper) might be one of my favorites of all time from him, but beyond that, the FC Dallas defense and in particular Michel dropped the ball big time. They were caught ball watching on LD's 2nd and 3rd goals. This is one of MLS all leading scorers you have to close him down quicker than that. Truly is a shame LA couldn't get out of there with 3 points, but draw on the road when down is a really great effort from a team that has struggled to find consistency. Dallas needs to get its act together if it is gonna make a run for a playoff spot by the end of the season, my how the mighty have fallen. With EPL starting this weekend, I anticipate watching at least the games on NBC and NBCSN as well as a few MLS games. Keep an eye out for a few podcasts this week, should have one posted tomorrow. P4TP Last week, Don Garber announced that the MLS would expand to 24 teams by 2020 (we are currently at 19 with New York City FC joining in 2015). The guys at P4TP have decided to put forth our predictions:
Andy Miami Minneapolis Orlando San Antonio Charlie Austin Baltimore Miami New Orleans Derby Miami or Tampa New Orleans Phoenix San Juan, Puerto Rico Jack Detroit Orlando San Antonio St. Louis Sorry if anyone was looking out for a post from us yesterday. I'm not hassling Charlie very much about doing any writing while he's on vacation (though we may see something from him soon) and honestly I hadn't really watched anything since Tuesday night. I turned on the Chicago vs DC open cup match briefly, and even flipped over to the Portland vs Real Salt Lake game...but I was too enthralled with playing with my new Blu-Ray player and getting it synced up with all my digital movies.
But enough of my excuses, things did happen in World Soccer this week. Many nations have announced their rosters for the midweek International Friendlies next week. As usual the US is probably going to wait till the last minute but reports from SI.com have stated that US Captain & recent Seattle Sounders addition Clint Dempsey will not be on the team, his teamates Brad Evans and Eddie Johnson and also John Anthony Brooks of Hertha Berlin have been tentatively listed in the same report. Ligue 1 kicks off today in France with Montpellier vs PSG The Bundesliga begins today as well with Bayern Munich vs Borussia Monchengladbach. The MLS mid-season transfer window has closed, the big moves announced werre
I am concerned with the Agudelo transfer. He isn't making this move until January which means he still has about 5 months to be in New England. Now I'd like to think that he wouldn't do this, but with his dream to move to Europe all but assured, whats to stop Agudelo from phoning it in. I like the kid and in no way to I think he is going to do that, but this is a guy who has struggled with injuries for the last several years, and subconsciously he's going to have that weighing on his mind whenever he goes for a 50/50 ball. I hope he doesn't hold back and I hope he uses the rest of his season with the Revs as an audition. See you later today with some more stuff, P4TP Edin Džeko is really the highlight of this very good B&H roster. The 27-year old Manchester City Striker is the nations all-time leading scorer with 29 career international goals in 54 caps. He is also leading at scorers in UEFA World Cup Qualifying with 8 goals. Bosnia & Herzegovina currently sit at 1st place through six games in UEFA Group G. The share a group with Greece, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia & Liechtenstein. The nation is hoping to Qualify for their first ever World Cup. This is their first ever match-up against the United States, in previous appearences against CONCACAF they have 2 losses. The game will be played in Sarajevo at 3:30 ET on Wednesday August 14. The US Roster will likely be announced within the coming days, it is expected to be mostly consis
KEEPERS- Asmir Avdukić (FK Borac Banja Luka), Asmir Begović (Stoke City), Jasmin Fejzić (VfR Aalen) DEFENSE- Ermin Bičakčić (Eintracht Braunschweig), Mensur Mujdža (Freiburg), Emir Spahić (Bayer Leverkusen), Toni Šunjić (Zorya Lugansk), Ervin Zukanović (KAA Gent) MIDFIELD- Senad Lulić (Lazio), Haris Medunjanin (Gaziantepspor), Zvjezdan Misimović (Guizhou Renhe), Miralem Pjanić (AS Roma), Elvir Rahimić (CSKA Moscow), Sejad Salihović (TSG Hoffenheim), Miroslav Stevanović (Elche), Avdija Vršajević (Hajduk Split), Adnan Zahirović (VfL Bocum), STRIKER- Edin Džeko (Manchester City), Vedad Ibišević (VfB Stuttgart), Edin Višća (Istanbul BB FK) The biggest and best 4 soccer leagues in the World are arguably; Germany's Bundesliga, England's Premier League, Spain's La Liga, and Italy's Serie A. I wanted to breakdown the best 10 teams in International Soccer (as of the FIFA World Rankings on August 6), so that we can see how many of their players come from "The Big 4" and how many are represented in the nations domestic leagues.
These are from the most recent squads (23 players), be they Confederations Cup, International Friendlies or World Cup Qualifiers
15. England - 23 from England; 23 from Big 4 22. United States# - 8 from United States; 8 from Big 4 Bold indicates Big 4 #- US roster pulled from June Qualifiers, instead of Gold Cup (clubs as of July 1) ^- Indicates 26-man roster *- Indicates 21-man roster %- Indicates 25-man roster Quite impressive that teams like Croatia and Columbia find themselves in the Top 10 with so little representation from the Big 4. Many of these teams also feature players at top class clubs that don't belong to the Big 4 like PSG, Benfica & Ajax, they may not compete against the class of Europe every week but they do play many of these squads in European play. Very impressed with England going 100%, though we haven't seen many big English players in continental Europe, the only one I can think of over the past several years has been David Beckham. Even looking through their call-ups going through last September, the only non-English club represented is Celtic of Scotland. How does the US look now that Landon Donovan is back in the fold and Clint Dempsey 7 Clarence Goodson have made their returns to the MLS? Looking pretty good for the Stars & Stripes moving forward. New FIFA rankings come out on August 8th. P4TP For those of you who don't know, Andy's sister Kathlean will be teaching abroad this coming year. For safety reason she has asked that we not publicize the name of the town or country, but it is a small town in a very rural country and as luck would have it, they have a second division team based there. That being said, she knows how important soccer is to world culture and with some encouragement (and a group of friends) she may be convinced to go watch a match. Stay tuned for updates
P4TP Charlie is in Galax, VA at a fiddlers convention...yeah, we have other interests. We plan to do two next week for the US game vs Bosnia & Herzegovina and also previewing the EPL season
Cheers P4TP |
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