Garrick
Awesome, lid.
USA! USA! USA!
Alright Evertonians, take a deep breath. We’ve had a week, that’s for sure. A derby result I’m sure we’re all actively working on pushing from our memory, a transfer deadline day that can be described as a soft thud, and finally a come from behind win in England’s most played top flight fixture to top it all off. Breathe. BREATHE. For now, it is time to whisk your football watching eyes Liverpool to Los Angeles, from Goodison Park to the Stubhub Center. From boss footie, gash weather, and brown-shoed managers to awesome soccer, sunshine, and helicopter-flying coaches. That’s right, it’s freedom-dispensing time ladies and gents. United States vs South Korea. USMNT vs Korea Republic. MLS vs K-League.
It’s been almost 12 years since these two sides have faced each other. Two of the players in that 1-all, 2002 World Cup group stage match are still active internationals, and one of them, Sir Landon of Donovan, will likely get a start in this pre-Brazil tune-up. The other, DaMarcus Beasley, is busy with his club work down in Mexico with Puebla.
Which leads us to the next point, wasn’t there club football earlier today? This isn’t a scheduled FIFA international break! No, astute observer, it is not. But due to the scheduling oddities of the 4 leagues represented, MLS, K-League, J-League, and Tippeligaen (Hi Mix!), there are plenty of players available. We’ll get a matchup featuring some less-regular national team members who will no doubt be very motivated to make a case for the spot on the 23-man World Cup rosters. This won’t be a particularly beautiful rendition of the beautiful game, but a passionate international friendly it should be.
This means the USMNT will be without on-loan Clint Dempsey, the recently-returned Michael Bradley, and, of course, the mighty Tim Howard among others, but increasingly one has to wonder how much missing our shrinking pool of European-based players matters. When your most successful player left in a European top-flight is Geoff Cameron, these are the questions that arise. MLS is definitely on the path to ascendency, but it’ll take a good performance by the what will be mostly MLS squad in Brazil to write the narrative.
Likewise, many of South Korea’s players are based domestically, but they still have some key members missing off in Europe, such as Cardiff City’s Kim Bo-Kyung, Bayer Leverkusen’s Son Heung-Min, and everybody’s least favorite diving Ki Sung-Yueng of Sunderland.
The Taeguek Warriors are, arguably, are one of the weakest sides qualified for the World Cup. They are a decent-quality team that plays in a mostly subpar confederation. AFC has a joke of a qualifying process. Picture CONCACAF qualifying, except that the minnows actually have real home stadiums that have real pitches and don’t give absolutely ridiculous home field advantages (COUGH Honduras COUGH Jamaica). This doesn’t mean we Yanks are above them, because we should’ve been above Scotland and Austria too and we all saw how that turned out. But let us be honest, the only reason they aren’t all living under a crazed Juche-driven dictatorship is because of American military might. We could’ve got them the whole peninsula, too, but SOME people involved weren’t too keen on nuking China into oblivion. Their loss, I suppose. We SHOULD rout them like that sad saps that were defending the coast of Inchon in September of 1950, and much like Mexico put the hurt on earlier this week in a 4-0 smashing, but there are many, many wild cards.
Predicting the lineups of an international friendly in which both teams are missing many of their regular XI is what we call in the business a “fool’s errand.” I’ll be honest, I know next to nothing about the K-League. Really, the desire to watch mediocre soccer at 3AM just doesn’t grip me that often. They do have a new manager who is looking to turn around the mostly-stagnant program in Hong Myung-Bo, previously the SK U-23 coach and an assistant for Anzhi Makhachkala in Russia. I’m not even going to TRY and predict what Mr. Hong will put out on the field. Sorry mates.
Likewise for our dearly beloved Jürgen Klinsmann, he has a lot of new friends to play with, and I’m sure much scribbling has been done on the super-secret USMNT depth chart over the course of this January camp. A few things we can most likely suspect: Nick Rimando proving that you don’t have to be tall to be a great keeper, Landon Donovan making his final case for his 4th World Cup, Graham (Saint) Zusi bossing the right side of the field like he owns the place (he does), and MLS MVP “Magic” Mike Magee making his first senior team appearance. Some other questions may be answered tonight, such as if Portland’s Michael Harrington can help patch over a weak back line, and how Parkhurst can contribute now that he too has left Europe for the MLS.
By this point, I’ve now burned through 800 words about a mostly meaningless friendly. Ah well, the players aren’t the only ones that need a pre-World Cup tuneup. Here we go Stars and Stripes, 130 days until Brazil, and we only have 23 tickets. Make it count!
Alright Evertonians, take a deep breath. We’ve had a week, that’s for sure. A derby result I’m sure we’re all actively working on pushing from our memory, a transfer deadline day that can be described as a soft thud, and finally a come from behind win in England’s most played top flight fixture to top it all off. Breathe. BREATHE. For now, it is time to whisk your football watching eyes Liverpool to Los Angeles, from Goodison Park to the Stubhub Center. From boss footie, gash weather, and brown-shoed managers to awesome soccer, sunshine, and helicopter-flying coaches. That’s right, it’s freedom-dispensing time ladies and gents. United States vs South Korea. USMNT vs Korea Republic. MLS vs K-League.
It’s been almost 12 years since these two sides have faced each other. Two of the players in that 1-all, 2002 World Cup group stage match are still active internationals, and one of them, Sir Landon of Donovan, will likely get a start in this pre-Brazil tune-up. The other, DaMarcus Beasley, is busy with his club work down in Mexico with Puebla.
Which leads us to the next point, wasn’t there club football earlier today? This isn’t a scheduled FIFA international break! No, astute observer, it is not. But due to the scheduling oddities of the 4 leagues represented, MLS, K-League, J-League, and Tippeligaen (Hi Mix!), there are plenty of players available. We’ll get a matchup featuring some less-regular national team members who will no doubt be very motivated to make a case for the spot on the 23-man World Cup rosters. This won’t be a particularly beautiful rendition of the beautiful game, but a passionate international friendly it should be.
This means the USMNT will be without on-loan Clint Dempsey, the recently-returned Michael Bradley, and, of course, the mighty Tim Howard among others, but increasingly one has to wonder how much missing our shrinking pool of European-based players matters. When your most successful player left in a European top-flight is Geoff Cameron, these are the questions that arise. MLS is definitely on the path to ascendency, but it’ll take a good performance by the what will be mostly MLS squad in Brazil to write the narrative.
Likewise, many of South Korea’s players are based domestically, but they still have some key members missing off in Europe, such as Cardiff City’s Kim Bo-Kyung, Bayer Leverkusen’s Son Heung-Min, and everybody’s least favorite diving Ki Sung-Yueng of Sunderland.
The Taeguek Warriors are, arguably, are one of the weakest sides qualified for the World Cup. They are a decent-quality team that plays in a mostly subpar confederation. AFC has a joke of a qualifying process. Picture CONCACAF qualifying, except that the minnows actually have real home stadiums that have real pitches and don’t give absolutely ridiculous home field advantages (COUGH Honduras COUGH Jamaica). This doesn’t mean we Yanks are above them, because we should’ve been above Scotland and Austria too and we all saw how that turned out. But let us be honest, the only reason they aren’t all living under a crazed Juche-driven dictatorship is because of American military might. We could’ve got them the whole peninsula, too, but SOME people involved weren’t too keen on nuking China into oblivion. Their loss, I suppose. We SHOULD rout them like that sad saps that were defending the coast of Inchon in September of 1950, and much like Mexico put the hurt on earlier this week in a 4-0 smashing, but there are many, many wild cards.
Predicting the lineups of an international friendly in which both teams are missing many of their regular XI is what we call in the business a “fool’s errand.” I’ll be honest, I know next to nothing about the K-League. Really, the desire to watch mediocre soccer at 3AM just doesn’t grip me that often. They do have a new manager who is looking to turn around the mostly-stagnant program in Hong Myung-Bo, previously the SK U-23 coach and an assistant for Anzhi Makhachkala in Russia. I’m not even going to TRY and predict what Mr. Hong will put out on the field. Sorry mates.
Likewise for our dearly beloved Jürgen Klinsmann, he has a lot of new friends to play with, and I’m sure much scribbling has been done on the super-secret USMNT depth chart over the course of this January camp. A few things we can most likely suspect: Nick Rimando proving that you don’t have to be tall to be a great keeper, Landon Donovan making his final case for his 4th World Cup, Graham (Saint) Zusi bossing the right side of the field like he owns the place (he does), and MLS MVP “Magic” Mike Magee making his first senior team appearance. Some other questions may be answered tonight, such as if Portland’s Michael Harrington can help patch over a weak back line, and how Parkhurst can contribute now that he too has left Europe for the MLS.
By this point, I’ve now burned through 800 words about a mostly meaningless friendly. Ah well, the players aren’t the only ones that need a pre-World Cup tuneup. Here we go Stars and Stripes, 130 days until Brazil, and we only have 23 tickets. Make it count!
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