Howard

[Hellerad]

England would beat Costa Rica.

I think it would be a good contest.

On topic: Howard had a howler pulled from the fire by Barry. He's a quality keeper, but it was a mistake that shouldn't be made at this level. He's been criticized for that kind of lapse since he was at Man U.

As always, the truth is in the middle. He's a fine keeper who is prone to flap and is below par against shots from distance. He generally makes up for it with his shot stopping and beard excellence.

 

[Bigloco]

England would beat Costa Rica.

In April on a neutral pitch in, say, France? Undoubtedly.

In San Jose in the summer with high humidity on a rain soaked pitch after sleeping in a hotel that had a band playing all night?...the results may vary.

Costa Rica has a really good team, imo. But what makes CONCACAF difficult is playing in tropical climates at locations that are inhospitable for a variety of reasons.

 

[EFC NY]

We had this "how good is concacaf" debate somewhere else on this site many moons ago. Qualifying out of UEFA is much much harder than out of concacaf. USA is pretty much an auto qualifier in concacaf, and we would be 50/50 i bet in UEFA. Unless we got a crap draw I would like our chances to finish second in a UEFA group, but that would just get us a home and home against a peer team, which would be a toss up.

 

[Cena]

Can we just agree that in qualifying groups all the players try very hard to help their team win and qualify?

 

[steken1]

In April on a neutral pitch in, say, France? Undoubtedly.

In San Jose in the summer with high humidity on a rain soaked pitch after sleeping in a hotel that had a band playing all night?...the results may vary.

Costa Rica has a really good team, imo. But what makes CONCACAF difficult is playing in tropical climates at locations that are inhospitable for a variety of reasons.

Or like going to the middle of nowhere in the Ukraine or Russia when it's unbelievably cold and it's taken days to get there. Or Turkey where it's roasting hot and the fans beep horns outside your hotel all night long and ring your room directly time after time after time.

Thats nothing new. This stuff happens everywhere, not just to the USMNTNTMT.

 

[carolinablue232]

England would beat Costa Rica.

They should, but you'd say that England would beat Montenegro, Poland, and Ireland as well...The US has qualifying pretty much assured being in CONCACAF, but it's not a walk in the park as some say. Teams like England would struggle mightily to play away to Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, and Panama. Heck, Spain struggled to beat Haiti right before the Confederations Cup, and Haiti is nowhere near the top of the region.

On topic: Howard does make the odd mistake, but he makes some saves that most keepers wouldn't. I think it balances. He's given up 2 goals (both not his fault) and kept 3 clean sheets. Let's find something else to complain about.

 

[Neiler]

Id like to offer a balanced opinion here.

Howard remains gash, albeit just coming out of a period of good form which made him look passable as a Pl keeper.

I dont think Howard will be our no 1 for long, purely because Roberto's mum raised no fools. He dropped Al habsi last year for Robles who is a far better keeper the Howard.

 

[Allezfan]

They should, but you'd say that England would beat Montenegro, Poland, and Ireland as well...The US has qualifying pretty much assured being in CONCACAF, but it's not a walk in the park as some say. Teams like England would struggle mightily to play away to Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, and Panama. Heck, Spain struggled to beat Haiti right before the Confederations Cup, and Haiti is nowhere near the top of the region.

But you're acting like you need to win those away games to qualify, you don't.

The set up is the top four out of a group of six, go through. You can lose every single away game and still have margin for error.

On topic: Howard does make the odd mistake, but he makes some saves that most keepers wouldn't. I think it balances. He's given up 2 goals (both not his fault) and kept 3 clean sheets. Let's find something else to complain about.

I thought he played well on saturday, tbh. But I doubt I'd be saying the same if Barry hadn't been on the pitch.

In any case our problems are blatantly not defensive in nature.

 

[carolinablue232]

But you're acting like you need to win those away games to qualify, you don't.

The set up is the top four out of a group of six, go through. You can lose every single away game and still have margin for error.



I thought he played well on saturday, tbh. But I doubt I'd be saying the same if Barry hadn't been on the pitch.

In any case our problems are blatantly not defensive in nature.

You're correct. Pretty much all that has to happen in CONCACAF qualifying is win your home games and pick up a random road point or two and you're through. I was only commenting as a direct response to Ijjy saying England would beat Costa Rica. UEFA qualifying is far more difficult.

Very fair and honest post by you. Had Barry not saved Howard's skin and we'd have dropped points, it would have been on Howard 100%. As it stands, we're allowing .5 goals against/game, and Howard hasn't been at fault for any.

As for his mistake, even great goalkeepers make mistakes similar. Heck just watch Schmeiche's cockups from just 2 seasons, and some on here talk about the man like he was infallable.

[video=youtube;Fk-TRewbCZg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk-TRewbCZg[/video]

Some posters here don't seem to have much perspective, and once they decide something, their opinion will never change. Saw it with Coleman for a long while.

 

[Elong]

One thing on WC Qualifiers: The 4th place in CONCAF plays off against us, New Zealand, which apparently is an easier game for New Zealand and an easier way to get to the World Cup than playing off against a Middle East team. If the 4th place team in the American area is the underdog to New Zealand and we fancy our chances, well, that doesn't say a hell of a lot about the 4th placed team, because we are pants at footy.

 

[deipnosophist]

..this...

One thing on WC Qualifiers: The 4th place in CONCAF plays off against us, New Zealand, which apparently is an easier game for New Zealand and an easier way to get to the World Cup than playing off against a Middle East team. If the 4th place team in the American area is the underdog to New Zealand and we fancy our chances, well, that doesn't say a hell of a lot about the 4th placed team, because we are pants at footy.

...is right...bloody fabulous at rugby union though

 

[tonka1878]

They should, but you'd say that England would beat Montenegro, Poland, and Ireland as well...The US has qualifying pretty much assured being in CONCACAF, but it's not a walk in the park as some say. Teams like England would struggle mightily to play away to Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, and Panama. Heck, Spain struggled to beat Haiti right before the Confederations Cup, and Haiti is nowhere near the top of the region.

On topic: Howard does make the odd mistake, but he makes some saves that most keepers wouldn't. I think it balances. He's given up 2 goals (both not his fault) and kept 3 clean sheets. Let's find something else to complain about.

I have a feeling we may struggle to find things to complain about this year.

If all of our good players (we have a core group of 14/15 very good players, including Howard) all perform to the best of their abilities, and Tim Howard has on his day been exceptional for us, we may be in danger of a positivity overload, and we wouldn't want that!

 

[carolinablue232]

One thing on WC Qualifiers: The 4th place in CONCAF plays off against us, New Zealand, which apparently is an easier game for New Zealand and an easier way to get to the World Cup than playing off against a Middle East team. If the 4th place team in the American area is the underdog to New Zealand and we fancy our chances, well, that doesn't say a hell of a lot about the 4th placed team, because we are pants at footy.

Will probably be Mexico. You really find yourselves favorites against Mexico? Bold prediction and completely wrong, but I like it.

 

[TX Bill]

Mine are based on sitting behind him at the game for 6 years. Just to his right Row EE 80. Perfect view. I see every single thing he does and doesn't do. As informed as you're likely to get.

About CONCACAF

What CONCACAF sides have gone on to do well at a major championship like the WC? Tells you it's standard.

Here's the powerhouse top ten of CONCACAF.

United States
Costa Rica
Mexico
Honduras
Panama
Jamaica
Guatemala
El Salvador
Canada
Trinidad and Tobago

More than a few of those nations have had several players plying their trades in league 1/2 over here. Costa Rica's best player is our reserve LB. Cost 1.6m.

You seem to be implying I've got a anti-american bias. Not true. I think both Guzan and Friedel are great keepers. I do think on average american fans over estimate the quality of their own players, BUT, read any paper in England and you'll see that every day here.

My opinions are based on what I see.

Again mate, the point I made in the other thread was that World Cup Qualifying away at any of those places is just as hard as many European away matches. For some reason, many European based football fans just don't understand that. I'm not going to put that down to any sort of European bias. I'm going to put it down to that they just don't watch those matches and so they don't have an appreciation for how hard it is to play there, regardless of the quality of the team.

 

[Thorny]

One thing on WC Qualifiers: The 4th place in CONCAF plays off against us, New Zealand, which apparently is an easier game for New Zealand and an easier way to get to the World Cup than playing off against a Middle East team. If the 4th place team in the American area is the underdog to New Zealand and we fancy our chances, well, that doesn't say a hell of a lot about the 4th placed team, because we are pants at footy.

Well that's because OFC is one of the hardest groups to qualify in. People don't realise but playing away at Fiji, Samoa etc is quite difficult not matter who you are due to the overwhelming lure of going swimming, surfing or fishing in the crystal clear waters...your mind is not going to be on the game.