Wish I could watch the Dolo-Fabian Johnson battle today. Williams also starting.

Anybody else shedding any tears during the pregame?

Come on over to the dark side, Kevin. It's great.

Good point. I agree that painting all skilled Brazilians with the same brush is a mistake.

Oh, i'm not hating on him. But I will agree with Adrian and even posted higher up in the thread that he was crowding Torres. It should be interesting to watch the kid grow.

Oh, there are plenty of worse ones. ;)

Wow, that's pretty harsh on a 21 year old? He IS out of position a fair bit but you yourself said he has only played 120 minutes for the team. I'd say he just needs more time. Thoughts?

He was training with the team at some point this week but I don't know if he's ready yet.

Oscar is getting in the way of Torres or you might say that they are trying for the same space. Chelsea is playing some dominating ball but they seem to be crowding themselves in the box.

Cameron is fighting hard back there. He has been making some good plays. Gave it away once but passing out of the back is tough against Chelsea with the speed lineup in the game.

I agree it was a great performance and Fellaini is playing ball right now. Top-3? My first thought would be no but then I got to trying to name 'all-arounders' that are better. I suppose it's how you define it but yeah, sure. Why not? He's a beast, that much is true.

Jeez, this second half has started with a storm. Both keepers have made sharp stops in the first 8 minutes of the half.

Nice stop by Howard at the end of the half.

I saw a fair fraction of the Sampson teams (I'm 48) and was very encouraged by them for a time (like everybody). But you're writing a lot of words protesting statements I didn't make. I initially said that Wynalda was the better striker for the USMNT team by a razor thin margin because he played on weaker teams over the course of his career than did McBride. I stand by that based on tournament results but I DO grant your point that during that time the US sometimes fielded a successful (counter)attacking side. They were attacking well for for a very, very brief time in Wynalda's career. And yeah, they are very different players but it's still worthwhile discussing relative merits. I think we've beaten this one to death.

You trollin or did you miss the whole story earlier this month? if the latter, then search backwards thru the Ives archives and you'll see 3 or 4 posts here about the Dempsey transfer saga.

nice

Interesting. I would unhappily take the under on that one. I just don't know if he gets enough time in the Prem. But it's a great thing to consider.

Well, I don't quite agree with your assessment of the quality of the players but EVEN if I did think the talents that Wynalda played with were the equal of that of McBride, I absolutely stand by the fact that Wynalda had far less service, had to create far more himself. Different outlook, that's all. I'm a big McBride fan but he played on seriously good US teams and benefited from that. I do think the actual soccer played by the US in 94 and 98 was pretty horrible if very occasionally effective. Cheers,

you know, as I sit here in a Chelsea t-shirt I asked myself that same question. Mine was phrased using a lot of profanity, however. Terry getting schooled made it bearable though.

yup. I never know if it is the Channel feed or the Cable Provider at fault. #NoTechKnowHow

THAT one wasn't deflected!

Sideshow Bob might be crazy but he has ridiculous skills for a big defender.

actually further ahead than I've ever heard. Have to actually mute it.

yeah, mine too. sigh.

Personally, I think Wynalda was generally better for the Nats and McBride was better for the duration of his club career. But that choice for the better USMNT player is razor thin. It was harder to be a US striker when Wynalda played because we had a pretty awful team. Our MF started to get better during McBride's later career so it was a *little* easier. Just some thoughts.