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Not Howard's greatest game. His positioning on that first goal was ??? puzzling. Altidore's a frustrating player. I haven't seen much of him, but he's gotta finish some chances.

Give Ghana credit. They played exactly as advertised and came out on top.

Tomorrow's matches should be a blast. Go Germany. Go Argentina.

Tambourine Man wrote:Altidore's a frustrating player. I haven't seen much of him, but he's gotta finish some chances.

You could conceivably see him in the next three World Cups. He was the youngest player in the tournament. He needs to get better on his first and final touch, but what he does in between that, which is what is hardest to teach/learn, is something we've never seen in an American player.

[expletive] Clark is done in the kit. I hope we get some personnel moves happening quickly because I'm ready to move on and start thinking about the Gold Cup next year. Klinssmann? Schmid? Kinnear? I'd rather keep Bob Bradley, but I understand if he's ready to move on to a club job in Europe. I want to see where Mikey goes, Landon, Clint, Jozy, Benny and good god I can't wait to see what Chuck Deezy looks like in a game. Bring on Brazil in Jersey next month!

We've got some really bright stars coming up on the back line. Omar Gonzalez for LA looks like he could be an absolute rock as a center back. Spector and Bornstein need to get more consistent. We need to start bringing in the youth there, but other than that, we're looking good for 2014 in Brazil. Dempsey and Donovan will be on the end of their primes. We'll have a ton of key players in their primes. Howard will be 4 years wiser. Hopefully we have a coach who can get the best out of our players.

thrill's still alive. I flipped on CNN to see if there was a hostage crisis in the Phoenix area with rumors of a Dempsey jersey involved.

Nice showing overall and landing some of these guys in top-tier leagues is a huge benefit. Regarding Altidore, touch is hard to teach but he's so young (and big) that he might not have needed it to dominate growing up. Where's he gonna land, thrill?

Tambourine Man wrote:thrill's still alive. I flipped on CNN to see if there was a hostage crisis in the Phoenix area with rumors of a Dempsey jersey involved.

Nice showing overall and landing some of these guys in top-tier leagues is a huge benefit. Regarding Altidore, touch is hard to teach but he's so young (and big) that he might not have needed it to dominate growing up. Where's he gonna land, thrill?

Jozy apparently has interest from Celtic, Ajax Amsterdam, Espanyol (the Mets to Barcelona's Yankees in that city) and Villarreal wants to keep him. It's pretty much down to whether he wants to go somewhere and get guaranteed playing time (Celtic, Ajax, Espanyol) or whether he wants to put in some work to make it at Villarreal and partner up with Judas Rossi as a strike force. Personally I'd like him to either stay or go to Ajax who develop strikers like no one's business.

I'm always super bummed out after World Cups, not because it's four years away, but because it's the end of the road for a lot of guys you root for. I love rooting for dudes like Carlos Bocanegra and Jay DeMerit, but realistically they're done for the US. Saying good bye to Brad Friedel, Kasey Keller and Brian McBride was crappy in '06.

I love the development and change that happens in the cycle. Probably a new coach. Players you expect to get better do. Some come out of nowhere and surprise you. We're in really good shape going forward. We'll never have a less talented squad than we have now just by the nature of player development that's happening in our country. We might not have the same heart and togetherness, but we'll be more talented.

Time to build around Michael Bradley and start the process. Win the Gold Cup next summer, start qualifying the next summer, win the Confederation's Cup the next summer, finish qualifying and on to Brazil!

I'm saving my money now.

Well, that was a tough game. Ghana played really, really tough. The US played like they were exhausted. I never really thought that fitness would be a problem for the US, but it certainly looked that way. They were awful in the first half. Played inspired ball in the second. Then looked like they were on their last leg for most of extra time.

I think that the biggest problem today (outside of starting Clark, wtf? and a silly breakdown on our center defense) might have been Altidore. He looked tired; he played tired. He made just a couple good runs, and in some ways, it's his movement up top that allows Dempsey and Donovan to have some room to attack. When he was standing around, those guys just didn't have any room. Feilhaber made a huge difference in that, helping to control the midfield and making some great touches to allow Dempsey and Donovan to run up top.

Back to Findley again... the guy just can't finish. That's been the biggest problem for the US team. We just don't finish well. Altidore, Findley, Dempsey this time around, the other midfielders... When we're clicking, we can create amazing numbers of scoring opportunities. We easily find space in the midfield. We can get Dempsey's *ss kicked all game long on runs him into the box... other teams fear him and mark him tough. We just struggle to stick the ball in the back of the net.

Oh well. It was a good tournament for the US. Lots of great action. Can't believe that the next WC is 4 years away. They need to do this thing every 2 years...

I swear Altidore looked gimpy early in the game. I didn't hear the announcers mention it, but he was hobbled for a few minutes.

Brazil at Geen's pad!

Fat Strat wrote:I think that the biggest problem today (outside of starting Clark, wtf? and a silly breakdown on our center defense) might have been Altidore. He looked tired; he played tired. He made just a couple good runs

A few thoughts. In the first half it looked like he was limping. His burst of speed just wasn't there. I also don't think he's used to playing a back line that can match his combination of speed and strength. They wore him down, but he didn't get much relief from his strike partner. But no question, he struggled.

I guess that's where missing Charlie Davies hurt, huh? Because in all likelihood Charlie would have been starting next to Altidore and I think would have certainly showed more than Findley did.

This loss was extremely disappointing. No excuses for letting in such early goals so often this tournament. We have the players that are able to score when we need to, but we need to develop some defense so we're not always coming from behind.

The U.S. used up their energy having to come from behind every damn game this tournament.

I'm rooting for Germany now.

There will be no crying in Argentina.