He's a superstar and sure to be a fan favorite because his work rate is OUTRAGEOUS. Barca's attacking talent is really embarrasingly rich. Bojan and Jeffren should be sold and Pedro, Affelay and Sanchez rotated depending on the competition. For my money, I think Sanchez is a better player than Pedro because he's more complete, but what a problem for Pep to have. Villa and Messi are the only 2 whose spots I would say are guaranteed amongst the front 3, and I can see Pep experimenting with different variations amongst the 5. Barca need to sign a couple of defensive reinforcements, and that's it. Barring injury, this could be another record breaking year for the blaugrana.

this is my problem w/ the women's game...I get that they are athletically inferior to men...whatever, it is what it is. But you can't blame bad pass after bad pass, bad touch after bad touch on athleticism...how many errant passes have these 2 teams made. In a top level men's int'l game a bad pass is RARE, but here at the highest level for women, it's commonplace.

not impressed with the US women...at all

you have got to be kidding me espn

Barca play in a lot of competitions and have some fragile players, Iniesta in particular so he'll play, if not relegate pedro and affelay to the lesser competitions. This just adds to their absolute EMBARASSMENT of riches. Best player in the world, 2 best center mids in the world, and now arguably 3 of the top 10 wingers in the world. Need a couple of reinforcements in Defense, but this team is going to be scary for a while to come.

agreed

First of all bro, READ. Buddle and Gomez for that matter are MUCH better than Wondolowski, faster, stronger and at least as good of a finisher-there's really not even a debate there-Wondo IS NOT INT'L QUALITY AND NEVER WILL BE. EDU over Sasha, NOT ADU. READ. JOSE and SAF making us THAT much better? What kind of an argument is that? When did I say we would all of a sudden overnight be like Barca? Bottom line is these guys are great coaches with great footballing philosophies, they would make us better, PERIOD. Do you want to take your comments back after the game last night? You call me retarded, good lord bro.

Honestly we just lost to Panama...I don't think that's at all out of the realm of possibility.

Clearly you don't get it. It is very important to me, of course, winning the gold cup is essential/critical/a huge inestimably important tournament to our success in 3 years in Brazil. Which is why I wonder why we only brought 3 forwards, one of which will NEVER be int'l quality and leave off Gomez and Buddle. Why I wonder why we brought Gooch when it's clear he isn't fit, and Omar Gonzalez is playing with his nuts in LA. Why we bring in players like Robbie Rogers over passers like Torres and choose to play sacha freakin klejstan over Edu. Why we bring Freddy Adu to sit on the bench. Why we couldn't "get" Timmy Chandler to play this summer. BECAUSE BOB BRADLEY ISNT GOOD ENOUGH AND IF WE WANT TO DO BETTER HE HAS TO GO. Is that clear enough for you?

Could not agree more with your post. Barca have an embarrassment of riches and it's very difficult to assess how Guardiola would do elsewhere. As a diehard Barca fan, I have at times been furious with some of his decisions and tactics, see Inter-Barca champs league semi last year, so I question whether he's as good a coach as his team is simply comprised of astronomically-talented ballers. But at the same time, his passion and commitment to the beautiful game could really only have a good effect on our set up. Maybe 2018 or 2022.

Completely agree...Trekker wrote a good article about CONCACAF a couple of days ago that has, I think, a pretty direct, less corrupt for sure thank god, corrolary with the US system-it's the good old boys network. All these guys who brought the WC to the US in 94 and kickstarted MLS and who just can't stop blowing themselves for their amazing accomplishment of bringing the beautiful game to the masses in this soccer-retarded country. Congratulations on your success guys, we the fans appreciate it, but now it's time to let the professionals in to bring our team (and the sport generally) in this country to the next level. It's all about power and Sunil and his homeboys just don't want to let it go, although I'm sure deep down they know better and can see what's happening. Bottom line-we've got 300 million people-and they aren't all cornbread whities from Kansas. There's no reason why we should not compete with the world's elite-just takes a philosophy from the top and a coach who can take us there. Dempsey, Donovan,Dolo, Howard, Michael B, and the host of incoming stars DESERVE better and WE deserve better. End Rant.

Anything of substance to add mindless? or just trolling?

Nolo, the top 3 of your outsider list would be my first 3 choices-and Hiddink is about to be available-it would be a DREAM to get him for the next WC, Mourinho has said he wants to coach here one day, Bielsa I think is less desirable because he doesn't speak english but he's a cracking coach. Also, Guardiola, SAF, Rijjkaard, Pelegrini...

MC you don't get it bro. We want to see our manager fired SO THAT we can succeed, not in spite of it, you've got it backwards. We have seen what BB can do for the last 5 years and it's not good enough. It's not shameful or disgraceful, in fact it's the most patriotic position one can have, sacrificing in the short term for the much bigger long term goal of actually competing at a world cup. We all want to win and that's the point-w/ BOB we ARE NOT WINNING and we're not moving towards winning. If you can't see that, it's on you pal.

In the grand scheme of things, anything to get Bradley out before the next WC should be priority for ANY fan of this team. I'd say we have about a 5-10% chance of winning this tournament. Given that we're most likely not going to win it anyways, and the equation that going out now vs. getting smoked by Mexico in the final would more likely lead to Bradley's ouster, I wouldn't mind seeing the US go down tonight at all. Of course I'll be cheering for them, as I always do, but as a true fan of this team, who wants them to succeed on the biggest stage, anything that gets Bradley out can't be anything but good.

Seemed to me that the pitch was pretty crappy. Really slowed the ball down and it was obvious that several players on both teams were struggling with their footing. It's so difficult to assess the US performance in this game because for large stretches Canada looked awful, but in other respects, they defended decently as a team, particularly when the US came forward with numbers, and they possessed the ball for some lengthy stretches and Gerba and simpson in particular created some dangerous moments. The disparity of quality in this tourney is astronomical, impossible to say how the US would do against Mexico or CR based on this game, just impossible. That said, bright spots-Tim Ream, aside from the 2 awful 1-1 plays, did very well, in addition to his usual calm on the ball, made several important tackles and headers to clear several potential dangerous situations. I still think Edu is a better option than Jones-was not sold on Jones in this game at all, maybe he's just a better fit with MB, god we miss Stu. Dempsey is our best player-we just have to acknowledge that-the finish on his goal was world class-I'd like to see altidore, agudelo and donovan run off of him more up front, too much ball-watching when #8 has it at his feet. On that point, we need to work on attacking with speed, as some other posters have noted, we came forward at speed several times, and just about every time it fizzled out because our players were running into the same spaces, or just not running-I'd like to see agudelo and altidore in particular making diagonal runs away from defenders creating space for demps and donovan to run into and lay the ball off or get better 1-1 opportunities rather than 1-2 or 3. Wondo and Sacha suck, give me a break Bob. Would like to see Freddy on the bench at least.

That's the purpose of a disclaimer Hobo, to let everyone know where I'm coming from. I'm not purporting to be a neutral like yourself. That said, despite my bias, I try to be as objective as possible and use my experience and knowledge of the game to voice my opinions. When you make a comment that 60-70% of Barca's passes were backwards in their own half, that shows that you are not looking at the game objectively, because it's just silly. But you've acknowledged that it's pushing it so let's just let it go. The biggest shame is that we aren't even talking about the little genius Lionel.

Must disagree with you on this one. 60-70% of their passes backwards in their own half? That just wreaks of bias my friend. It's about POSSESSING the ball (and the stat doesn't reflect number of passes, it reflects TIME w/ the rock), and making the other team chase you to get it back. And, conversely, pressuring the other team to choke it up when you don't have it. Barcelona (and Spain) suffocate other teams to death because they control the ball so much, and when they lose it, pressure so intensely to get it back. Sure Barca played plenty of balls in their own half, but that's because Madrid sat in their own half the WHOLE match. Frustrating for a Madrid fan to watch I suppose but DEFINITELY not a meaningless stat. Come on guy.

That's right Jack. First off, I'm a diehard Barca fan, so take this with a grain of salt. But I think Jack and Dancy have it about right. The real question is which is the lesser of 2 evils? A team who comes onto the pitch (their home pitch) and puts 10 men behind the ball, concedes 70% of possession, and kicks, pushes, elbows, fouls, and generally plays dirty as it's modus operandi, or a team who comes to play attacking football and in response to said tactics from the other team, responds by diving, play-acting, and trying to con the referee into making calls on its behalf? It's pretty obvious. If Madrid didn't come out to thuggishly beat on Barca, you wouldn't see the Barca players flopping around on the pitch. Because for every foul called, there are 3-4 that aren't called. It's cause and effect. Those who watch Barca week in week out know that while certain players, (Alves, Busquets) are well-known actors, that as a team, Barca are not play-actors, that they play fairly. The red should have been a yellow, but honestly, I don't think it made a difference. Madrid reaped what their tactics and approach to the game sowed, bottom line.

and I quote: "I think a lot of people think he is amazing only because of the way he runs. His legs are short and he takes a lot of steps to move, so it looks like he is extremely nimble." People think he's amazing because he has scored a bazillion goals, won like 10 trophies with Barca and been World Player of the year twice. Come on guy. He's not on a level w/ Maradona and Zidane yet because he's 23.

His defending leaves so much to be desired...He doesn't track back well at all. 1-1 he's very good, and obviously we know about his attacking. But when he gets caught out, the other team usually scores. DiMaria dominated him in the second half.

Credibility lost.

Huddlestone is having a stinker and a half...bale brilliant

Redknapp has sent them out to get any advantage possible, never seen an English team dive like this...

Not really, just a troll. No one is debating that Chich is a great player, but there's simply no value to your conclusory and ignorant comment, other than to incite people...which is exactly what a troll does. Congrats on your numerous stats.