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blue_mentos

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What is everyone here's prediction? For those that keep up with the US, what type of team do you think we will field. I think the starting 11 would look best as follows

Guzan
Ianni Orozco Parkhurst Sturgis
Holden Adu Bradley Klejstan
Altidore
McBride

Thats what i would field at this point. I personally really like Robbie Roger's ability on the ball and would consider him in a fight for the position of Adu or Holden. Benny could also fall into that position center-mid position alongside of Bradley. Not the best XI, but seems like a team that could make the medal round if they play their best.

Anybody else shocked that Nowak didn't take Donovan or Howard as part of their over-age players?

The olympics always seem to be full of surprises, but I'm picking Argentina to win.

other thoughts?
 
Yeah why isn't Landon Donovan playing. There is an age rule for soccer? That seems pretty stupid to me, the best players should play regardless. Landon Donovan is a beast and lightning quick as hell! And Landon is lucky as God, he dated Bianca Kajlich who is hot as hell from pictures I saw of her in Maxim. I'm not sure if they still date though.
 
Here are some pics of her. Landon is a lucky guy!

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blue_mentos said:
What is everyone here's prediction? For those that keep up with the US, what type of team do you think we will field. I think the starting 11 would look best as follows                              GuzanIanni&n bsp;Orozco          Parkhurst      SturgisHolden      Adu               Bradley         Klejstan                     Altidore                              McBrideThats what i would field at this point. I personally really like Robbie Roger's ability on the ball and would consider him in a fight for the position of Adu or Holden. Benny could also fall into that position center-mid position alongside of Bradley. Not the best XI, but seems like a team that could make the medal round if they play their best.Anybody else shocked that Nowak didn't take Donovan or Howard as part of  their over-age players?The olympics always seem to be full of surprises, but I'm picking Argentina to win.other thoughts?
Click to expand...

I don't think Donovan is playing because of all the World Cup qualifying that is going on and the LA Galaxy are in the midst of a very good season in the MLS. I am happy that 36 year old striker Brian McBride made the team and hope he, Klejstan, Bradley, and Rodgers are the stars of the team. They would be fortunate to medal though and the women's team took a hit with the injury to their best player Abby Wambach yesterday. She's one of the world's best strikers and she will be missed alot. The United States womens team traditionally has alot of depth and that will be put to the test now.

Hey Riggins..that's a serious babe that Landon has. I had no idea that he was that fortunate.
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Tough J. Riggins, the main reason the olympics are a U-23 tournament is that they don't want to make the world cup seem less important, as that has been THE tournament for a long long time. the olympics are seen more as the jr. cup and is a great showcase for up and coming talent. each team, however, gets to select 3 'overage' players to help boost the level of play for the tournament.

usually it would seem like a good idea to get an experienced keeper in the nets not only for the skill, but to also up the confidence of the back line. even though guzan has only seen limited play with the senior team, i have a world of faith in him to do well.

i still would have liked to see donovan on the team. ive read a few interviews where is has blatantly stated that he wants a medal for the country as well as himself after getting so close his last time in the tournament. i really think that our B squad would be able to qualify for the world cup, and we would still have players like dempsey, ching, lewis, pretty much the whole starting back-line to work with. to me that seems like a good enough squad to advance past the groups stages in wc qualifying. national duties usually also take priority over club teams, so i don't know how much of the decision was nowak's but if he had the majority of the say in it (which i think he did) i feel like he made a mistake. this is not to take away from mcbride's playing, and he definately brings a different type of threat than jozy does with his aerial presence.

all in all though, 9 of 11 starters should be white (orozco looks to have latin american in there somewhere). of the two blacks, i only have a problem with adu. adu has always been too much of a cry-baby and whiner to me, but i really have no problem with jozy altidore. he has always been very classy and proper with a good attitude especially for his age.

and yes, good for landon for landing that. is he still with her? i notices he plays with a wedding band, but i dont really keep up with the personal lives of the players.
 
Yeah I think they are married. Bianca is an actress that used to be on the canceled show Boston Public (I don't know what acting gigs she's on now). She played a 17 year old H.S student on the show. I only watched the show a couple times, but in one episode I saw, a teacher inappropriately had made out with her and was pleading her to not tell anyone about it not even her friends b/c it could destroy his reputation. The show wasn't that good, but she certainly was!
 
But I don't get why the U.S team wouldn't have selected Donovan as one of the 3 over age players. He is an absolute beast of a mid fielder. Did they take a black like Beasley instead. I know you said they took McBride, but Donovan would have been better!
 
I've said it before on here, Freddy Adu is one of the most overhyped and overated players I have ever come across! I've seen him a few times on TV and saw him live when I was in Seattle and went to see Real Madrid v DC United. He did nothing in that game apart from give the ball away!!!

ToughJ.Riggins, Beasley has impressed me from what I've seen, to be brutally honest!
 
no beasley did not get chosen either. it was michael parkhurst, a defender, brad guzan as the keeper, and mcbride as a forward. all three are white, and very good. and yes adu, has always been overrated. he can play fine at the youth level, but i dont think he will ever be a star at the senior level.
 
I am glad to know that Parkhurst is white, wasn't sure about that.
 
Brian McBride got selected? I thought he'd retired from international duty? He is one of my all time faveourite overseas players to grace the Premiership, he reminded me so much of the great Alan Shearer.
 
well, very very heartbreaking performance by the USA. they really should have won the match against the netherlands, and it was an unlucky break for orozco to pick up the red card in the 10th minute against nigeria, and yet they still played strong to the end of the match. nowak got the team working together, and honestly i feel they were one of the best two teams in their group.

So now we are down to the final four. as far as this forum is concerned, its a mediocre group of teams, but could end in a very white friendly match between belgium and argentina. south america is not something im too familiar with, but it seems strange that although brazil's athletes are always a mixed bag from pitch black players to european looking whites and everything in between, around 90% of argentina's athletes have a white look to them. does anyone have any info on this? belgium started whites in 9 out of 11 positions in their last match, and has a fair shot of beating the nigerian squad that alwasy seems to perform well in youth tourneys.

an argentina v. belgium final coupled with a white dominated spain team winning the last euros will do well in despelling this ever growing popular belief in the superior 'physical attributes' in black soccer players, and hopefully, slow down this avalanche of players from africa being imported over into the top leagues in europe.
 
Argentina defeats Nigeria in the finals 1-0.
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. I was watching the game on CNBC, and the supporting announcer was absolutely horrid. He seemed to criticize every mishap for Argentina and was talking the whole game about how Nigeria was outplaying them. Even on the half-time highlights, when they discussed Messi's play, they only showed the few clips of him loosing the ball. They conveniently didn't show the plays where he juked three defenders out of their shoes before laying a perfect through ball to his teammate. Not the best of games, but there was plenty of excitement, and I believe the better overall team won. Congratulations on the gold to Argentina.
 
I watched that game as well.Argentina completely outplayed Nigeria and was in charge of the run of play for most of the match. I love watching Messi on the ball, his pace with the ball at his feet and dribbling ability few can match in this world.
 
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