Just a reminder for those of you sick of curling and figure skating, the US take on El Salvador tonight at 7 p.m. ET in Tampa, Florida. Tune in to ESPN Classic to support your national team. (Side note: It appears our U-17 men are also playing today. They’re going up against Mexico at 4:15, also in Tampa, Florida.) Hopefully our team will show a little better this time than they did against Honduras. And hopefully we’ll see at least a few players step up and solidify their World Cup roster spots. Expect a Bradley’s Babes later shorty after this game.
Just in case you have a little time to burn before tonight’s friendly, here’s a little light reading from Soccer By Ives. It’s an interesting piece full of Bob Bradley quotes. Here are a couple highlights:
I think [Jonathan Bornstein has] matured a lot and he has shown that he gets in difficult games and he competes well…Athletically he’s quick, for his size he’s good in the air, so you always know when Jonny’s on the field he’s going to give you everything he has.
If this quote only contained more discussion of “heart”, it would be the exact same argument people used to make for Frankie Hejduk. Perhaps Jonny has improved, but he is at best our third-best left back–and quite possibly lower. It’s statements like these that make me worry Bornstein’s going to be starting for us in South Africa.
…[Jonathan Spector] has played some very good balls in [from the right], (like) the ball that Clint scored, both against Egypt and Brazil…That’s a little bit different [on the left] side of the field. I think that’s not as much a factor, but the comfort level is there.
And this one makes me worry that he’ll be reluctant to start Spector–probably our best left back. He mostly had good things to say, but seemed is a little concerned with the drop-off in service. Bornstein may be better at swinging them in with his left, but he’s completely one-footed. Spector can provide some service from the left and cut inside. (Not to mention, he’s miles ahead defensively.)
On the pre-World Cup friendlies:
It gives us an opportunity to have two games in the U.S., and then when we get to South Africa we’ll see if there’s another possibility for us. Whether it’s closed door, whether its open, how we do that is not clear, but I think the hope for sure is that we’ll be able to get there, have a few days to get acclimatized and then get a good dry run in there before we play England.
Grant Wahl is reporting that Australia might be an option for this third friendly. I’m all for it. And I have to say, I’m pretty happy with the quality of opponents we’re facing in the lead-up to the World Cup. On the subject of playing good teams, Bradley said:
I think the improvement in our team and our growth, our readiness for Confederations Cup and the final round of (World Cup) qualifying had a lot to do with the type of schedule that we’ve played over the last few years.
I’m sure it’s clear to any regular reader that I’m not one of Bradley’s biggest fans, but this is one thing I have to give him credit for. Yes, we’ve had a few too many matches against Scandinavian B-teams, but we’ve gotten a lot of quality matches against quality opponents in under Bradley’s reign. I really hope this tradition continues into the next World Cup cycle.
That’s all for now. Might throw out a 5 Predictions later today. Until then…
