Wednesday, June 24, 2009

SHOCKER!!!

Wow the US defeats Espana 2-0...I wonder if my friend Jose is doing ok. Unfortunately I was not able to watch the game, being employed will do that to you. However from the game cast it would appear the US did exactly what I said they needed to - defend tight the first 20 minutes, rely on Howard to play an outstanding game, hope Spain was lackluster and look to get the opportunistic goal(s). Based on the 29 - 9 shot difference, clearly Howard played a superb match. The fact Spain had so few of those 29 shots in the first half attests to their not taking the match as serious as they should have as well as the Americans having the right defensive game plan to counter the Spaniards.

I would argue this is the second biggest win for the US, the first being their defeat of Mexico in the 2002 World Cup that propelled them into the 1/4 finals. After being trounced the first two matches, Bradley's men have gone out and shown their mettle. They are guaranteed a final of an international tournament, and that is nothing to sneeze at based on where US soccer was a decade ago.

4 comments:

Trevor Miles said...

Wow, that is definitely something to write home about. I did not see the match, but clearly I and the Spanish team did not expect this result. How many ganes had they gone without a defeat before this match?

SSJ said...

Defense played really well, all 4 defenders were incredible. Howard had a very good game, no unbelievable saves, just solid.

Villa and Torres were shut down.

US's 2nd goal was a bad error by Sergio Ramos. First goal, Jozy annihilated the Spanish defender.

Strange sensation for an Arsenal fan, cause it was a lot like watching one of their matches, only rooting for the other team.

GFC said...

I wonder if Jozy was motivated since he was discarded by Villarreal to a minnow of Spanish footie.

Solid win for the US, now will need to wear a raincoat to deal with all the spewing I will read from all the US soccer "pundits" that will start talking of the US as a favorite for the World Cup next year...

darcie said...

don't you have a DVR??? you definitely need to catch this one on replay...it was a great game... we are lucky that Torres blundered a few times right in front of the net.