USA - Canada 29th January 2013 in Houston Friendly(R)

[Yohan]

It's nice to see a result. Miller had to play defensively given the talent he had. However, it would have been nice to see a few players other than Dero and maybe Bekker in the 1st half be a bit more offensively minded.

With few more weeks of practice and couple more games, the offence would be better, but they really looked disjointed on attack. Can't even put simple passes together at times

[Soccerpro]

Interesting that while it was the US B team vs. the Canadian C team, we got the D team from the Officials and possibly the E team from the Camera crew. I mean, I've got a pretty big tv, yet somehow the soccer ball was almost always out of shot in this game - why the hell didn't the camera put the ball in middle of the screen? And I don't know what game these Refs were watching (for either team) but then that was apparent the moment 30 seconds in the game that the ball went out of play, the linesman flagged it and the Ref didn't notice for another minute. Wtf???

Anyway, we were aided by a rather pitiful US performance, but good on the boys for the game, the effort and the result. A much better performance defensively, even if we didn't try to do too much offensively after giving up 12 goals in the previous two games I'll take the shut-out.

Some observations:

- not sure that Morgan & Teibert were ever in sync down that left flank, they each looked like they wanted to do the same thing - be the winger that got the cross in, and neither got forward as much as I would have liked.

- would have been nice to let Stillo play at least a few minutes

- With Paul Mariner gone, I really hope that Stinson can start getting some minutes again with TFC (ditto Doneil Henry) - I've always liked how tight Stinson gets to players defensively - he's one of the best we've got at doing that

- Joshua Gatt the Pratt has become a new American player to hate. What a whiny douche bag that guy was tonight.

To be fair it's hard to call this a Canadian C team with Dero, Ricketts starting.

[jonovision]

To be fair it's hard to call this a Canadian C team with Dero, Ricketts starting.

It may not be a C team, but it's about as B as you can get. Ricketts is not in the first XI if everyone's healthy, nor is Ledgerwood. De Rosario was the only bona fide starter in the team.

[Addona]

It may not be a C team, but it's about as B as you can get. Ricketts is not in the first XI if everyone's healthy, nor is Ledgerwood. De Rosario was the only bona fide starter in the team.

Ledgerwood can be good at times ... he may be underestimated by some. Ricketts, on the other hand, should never, ever, ever, ever, start for us. I'm pretty sure that Hart had him ahead of Jackson which in retrospect was INSANE!

[Keegan]

Ledgerwood can be good at times ... he may be underestimated by some. Ricketts, on the other hand, should never, ever, ever, ever, start for us. I'm pretty sure that Hart had him ahead of Jackson which in retrospect was INSANE!

Ricketts and Ledgerwood aren't far off in terms of overall ability and value. The thing is that both are different players and fit into different roles. Ledgerwood is good in a tight battling role, which is why he showed well tonight and Ricketts wasn't pushed high enough up his wing to be a threat with his speed since he has little dribbling ability to beat a man 1 v 1 instead he was forced to defend which he wasn't comfortable with but adequate enough with his speed.

[Yohan]

[Keegan]

http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2013-01-29-usa-v-can/chalkboard

This is rare for us so check it out! Interesting

[koolvid]

Interesting that while it was the US B team vs. the Canadian C team, we got the D team from the Officials and possibly the E team from the Camera crew. I mean, I've got a pretty big tv, yet somehow the soccer ball was almost always out of shot in this game - why the hell didn't the camera put the ball in middle of the screen? And I don't know what game these Refs were watching (for either team) but then that was apparent the moment 30 seconds in the game that the ball went out of play, the linesman flagged it and the Ref didn't notice for another minute. Wtf???

Anyway, we were aided by a rather pitiful US performance, but good on the boys for the game, the effort and the result. A much better performance defensively, even if we didn't try to do too much offensively after giving up 12 goals in the previous two games I'll take the shut-out.

Some observations:

- not sure that Morgan & Teibert were ever in sync down that left flank, they each looked like they wanted to do the same thing - be the winger that got the cross in, and neither got forward as much as I would have liked.

- would have been nice to let Stillo play at least a few minutes

- With Paul Mariner gone, I really hope that Stinson can start getting some minutes again with TFC (ditto Doneil Henry) - I've always liked how tight Stinson gets to players defensively - he's one of the best we've got at doing that

- Joshua Gatt the Pratt has become a new American player to hate. What a whiny douche bag that guy was tonight.

That was the US C team at best. No one possibly starts on that roster except Beckerman.

[Yohan]

That was the US C team at best. No one possibly starts on that roster except Beckerman.

likely either Besler or Gonzalez will get a look. Zusi as well.

[nolando]

Solid Canadian effort. Well done by the lads. Happily eating my words.

[villus]

I'm happy the guys gave it their all but we shouldn't get too carried away, we bunkered and fought all game but this team will get killed in most games, which based on the age and experience isn't really unexpected or a big knock really. Bekker looks good, glad Dero still has it and glad Jackovic stepped up and was a leader. Henry and Morgan have lots of potential having Nelson a good experienced defender coaching TFC should really help them.

[Lord Bob]

Glad to see there's no danger of any of us getting away. It was a fun upset draw and it's good to see we're all taking it as only that!

Not sure about the praise for DeRo. He had the best Canadian chance of the game, of course, but other than that was his usual self playing into trouble and turning the ball over. I also thought Teibert was a bit better against Denmark, but his dead ball play against the States was excellent.

Bravo Simon Thomas and Dejan Jakovic.

[ChrisB]

That chalkboard posted earlier gives some interesting stats - Jakovic with 16 successful passes and only 4 unsuccessful passes shows good judgement and distribution. Ricketts tackled and losing possession 16 times. Yikes. But he was often isolated with the ball - if you have no options, you will be tackled.

[Addona]

likely either Besler or Gonzalez will get a look. Zusi as well.

+1. Exactly. Beckerman, Besler, Gonzalez, Zusi, Gatt, E. Johnson all have excellent shots at making the roster, maybe 1 or 2 more. And, Gonzalez and Zusi could easily start.

[Gian-Luca]

That was the US C team at best. No one possibly starts on that roster except Beckerman.

There were supposedly 6 or 8 spots on their World Cup Qualifying roster that would come from this roster (at least according to what Gerry & Craig were saying that Klinsmann was saying, unless they were mistaken about that or he was just saying it for inspirational purposes). That's why I called it B for them. Granted, they played so poorly last night that I suspect the team automatically downgraded itself into a C team by the end of the night if they weren't beforehand.

[ChrisB]

There were supposedly 6 or 8 spots on their World Cup Qualifying roster that would come from this roster (at least according to what Gerry & Craig were saying that Klinsmann was saying, unless they were mistaken about that or he was just saying it for inspirational purposes). That's why I called it B for them. Granted, they played so poorly last night that I suspect the team automatically downgraded itself into a C team by the end of the night if they weren't beforehand.

Grant Wahl also said this, so I assume it is true. He also said Klinsmann is likely going to change his mind now.

[Soju]

OK which one of you is posting as "John Kanoga" on the YouTube highlight vid?

John Kanoga

Thats because he knew diving wouldn't work against the Superior Canadians...Easily better than the Americans after this defensive masterpiece by our reserves.

John Kanoga

The Hondurans only progressed after bribing the refs. How dare you speak at such a malicious tone toward Canada the next best Greatest soccer team in North America...and soon to be the World??? Please don't compare you're average joes against Canada the 2018 WORLD CUP CHAMPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John Kanoga

Canada has shown it has what it takes to become a powerhouse.

Kyle Bekker who is already like Xavi, but only better since all Xavi does is pass sideways and backwards

And De Guzman who on form is the next Ronaldinho.

No doubt that Canada will be world champs..Mark my words.. Canada 2018 World Cup Champs!!!!

Canada 3-0 Brazil in the finals. I can see the tears rolling down Zidane, Maradona, and Pele as they kneel down to the greatest spectacle of Football dominance in the history of Football!!!

^You won my heart with the Bekker/Xavi comparison. Thank you for the football trolling masterclass, bravo.

[gator]

This match went similiar to what I thought it would, I think many of these US players are over rated and the opposite holds true for our Canadians! Add to the fact that the American players were at the same stage of the season as us and the potential was there for a relatively even match! Possession stats in the first half were dominated by the Americans but I think it evened up, did Thomas actually have to make a meaningful save all match? The Americans had more to play for and were at home which may have edged the match in their favour slightly but in the end it was a nil nil draw and DeRo may have had the best chance of the game! I liked what I saw from the TFC players, Nana showed he is more than capable at this level and Ledgerwood was able to show what he can do in different roles!

[tmcmurph]

I meant in CMNT

Oh right. I thought you were hoping they'd be together on TFC. Makes sense now.

[jonovision]

Pretty superficial summary from an American perspective. Might be worth pointing out in the comments that the Canadian team was also probably even more of an experimental squad than the USA one, as this is not mentioned anywhere.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/49262/america-the-ugly-the-usmnt-draws-with-canada-0-0

[Joe MacCarthy]

we got the D team from the Officials

Why does it seem officials want to gift Americans games. That penalty at the end, and four minutes of injury time, say what? Who was injured? This wasn't two Latin teams flip, flop and flying around! Was that ref in cohoots with that Norwegian chick ref. Yikes!

[Lord Bob]

Why does it seem officials want to gift Americans games. That penalty at the end, and four minutes of injury time, say what? Who was injured? This wasn't two Latin teams flip, flop and flying around! Was that ref in cohoots with that Norwegian chick ref. Yikes!

The refereeing was a bit crazily in Canada's favour in the middle of the second half. It was just a terribly-called game all the way.

[tmcmurph]

Why does it seem officials want to gift Americans games. That penalty at the end, and four minutes of injury time, say what? Who was injured? This wasn't two Latin teams flip, flop and flying around! Was that ref in cohoots with that Norwegian chick ref. Yikes!

Maybe he was banging her?

In both halves the injury time was high. As to the flops well Juan Agudelo was doing Juans everywhere proud with his flops. Just a diving wanker that one. Like I said earlier in the thread it seems obligatory to "give" a free kick from just outside the box late in their games. They have figured out that most refs won't give a PK so they are diving outside the box. Nice that they suck at those free kicks. I wish we could have had one closer to the box. Teibert was putting his FKs in nicely.

[loyola]

Why does it seem officials want to gift Americans games. That penalty at the end, and four minutes of injury time, say what? Who was injured? This wasn't two Latin teams flip, flop and flying around! Was that ref in cohoots with that Norwegian chick ref. Yikes!

The 4 min of injury time were justified by the high number of second half subs (something like 8-9) made by both teams. And as far as I'm concern the last foul called in the game was the right call. Our defender should've closed down the US player by staying on his feet but he decided to jump with his cleats up, easy call IMO. For the rest of the game I agree with everyone else, poor ref who had a very weak foul recognition most of the time. At time he was using his whistle way too much while at other time he was letting go obvious fouls.

I'm not sure why some are so high on DeRo performance. Apart from the early chance I thought he was pretty average. His habits of going forward against 3 US players was killing me in the second half. There was a couple of time where Bekker was offering support in the middle of the park on counterattacks and DeRo decided to go against 3 and lost the ball.

Overall I liked our shape in the midfield and defense (early on I thought the back 4 looked disorganized but they looked better as the game went on) and the fact we didn't allowed good chances . The negative is that we still have problem building up offensively but I didn't have much expectation from this game.

Simon Thomas, good for him to get the clean sheet but I don't think he has much of a future with the MNT. Probably will be there for depth purpose.

[A_Gagne]

Pretty superficial summary from an American perspective. Might be worth pointing out in the comments that the Canadian team was also probably even more of an experimental squad than the USA one, as this is not mentioned anywhere.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/49262/america-the-ugly-the-usmnt-draws-with-canada-0-0

Funniest comment in that whole article:

Also, give Canada credit for rebounding from last week's debacle, staying organized, and forcing an impotent U.S. to beat them. They can't; we've seen this play before, both in last year's 0-0 draw and when the Under-23 lost 2-0 in Olympic qualifying. The fact that the American coaching staff continues to be surprised and almost offended that Canada would play this way is perhaps the most concerning thing of the entire ordeal.