USA men in the CONCACAF are holding their own in third place and holding each other on the field.

Keeping in time on the way to the World Cup.

BTW, check out the doo .

[ March 08, 2002: Message edited by: sportinlife ]

Historic win for USA team.

4-0-4 in previous matches against Ecuador, they pull off their first ever win on a beauty of a play: high kick by Kobi Bryant half the length of the field to Clint Mathis on the left side of the goal who sets up Eddie Lewis for a left foot crossing goal.

They held on through the second half with only 10 players after Mathis was ejected for a foul (supposedly avenging a flagrant foul on Brian McBride earlier.)

Ecuadorian player Edward Tenorio pushed the referee in the first half but was not ejected.

Heck of a win for the USA team

I saw the end of this game and was glad I caught it. I can't wait till the World Cup comes around. The U.S.A. has some talented players this time around. I'm glad to see Kobi Jones is back; what about Eddie Pope? I hadn't seen their goalie Tim Howard before, but he was sharp (and hot).

That was a pretty goal, wasn't it! An important win for our boys; Bruce was right when he said they are going to need more games like that in prep for the World Cup.

Bring on the Germans!

[quote]Originally posted by fantomas:
what about Eddie Pope?

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Good question. National Team coach
Bruce Arena would be the best person to answer that. I don't think Pope at 27 is that old. Probably not there for some other reason.

Too bad, he's gorgeous eye candy and would definitely improve my viewing pleasure.

[quote]Originally posted by sportinlife:
high kick by Kobi Bryant

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My God, it's worse than I (and Reggie Miller) thought. His "issues" have driven him to soccer!!!!

What about Eddie Pope? He's injured....
And don't ask Bruce. Not if you don't want a long explanation....

The USA men's team lost to Germany 4-2 in a full international today in Germany. It was pretty obvious that this was just a friendly and not a tournament game with all of the liberal substitutions, but that's why we have these games.

What was very serious was the play of Kasey Keller. He made several spectacular plays; don't let the 4 goals fool you. He had no chance at any of them, simply because he was playing great ball and the Germans looked phenomenal.

Granted, we were without Claud, and I do think he would have made a big difference, especially if you throw in Johnny O'Brien and Brian McBride. But Bruce got a chance to see a bunch of other guys play, and simply retool some things for later this spring.

GO USA!!

Well, the US played well--for 45 minutes. Sadly, it's a 90 minute + game.

When Clint Mathis missed that sitter by shooting about 100 feet over the net with the game still showing the US leading 1-nil, I went "Uh oh, that's gonna be crucial". When the Germans scored with about a minute to go in the 1st half, I knew the US was cooked. But they played hard and showed some skill with ball. They just need to defend better. Bierhof's goal was a disgraceful bit of defending by the US.

France humiliated Scotland 5-nil at the Stade de France. They look really, really tough and I think they still have to be considered the favorites to win it all. England lost 2-1 on a penalty kick. *Sigh* England's gonna have a tough time of it without Michael Owen. I hate Liverpool FC with all the fire of all the suns in all the universe (Go Everton!) but I hope the little cutie is better by WC time. England needs him in the worst way.

Neither club brought it's A-team to this "friendly" match so that shouldn't be a factor, or excuse for the outcome.

A couple of US players (see NY Times article) seem felt the Germans had the advantage in size. Maybe they were just more aggressive. The Germans (both players and public) are known to be upset about the previous two losses to the US, and they came prepared for to win.

Interesting that the Americans never beat the old East German team.