Tuesday at 6...thoughts?

I just want to see John O'Brien get a reasonable amount of playing time.

Hopefully everyone avoids injuries.

I'd love to see good showings from EJ and JOB. I honestly believe that those two players, if they are in good form by the start of the tournament, may be our ticket out of the group stage. And, of course, no injuries. Please.

i want to see ching do something against their defense. If he shows up fr the next three friendlies i might start believing he is more than an MLS player.

I'm going to the game. I hope it is a good one.

Morocco will easily be the toughest of the three World Cup "Send Off" matches.

I don't know much about Morocco. After looking around on internet, I still don't. FWIW, they're ranked 33rd in the world, so they aren't too bad.

Don't take those world rankings too seriously.

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Don't take those world rankings too seriously.

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I usually it's just an estimate with a margin of error of +/- 10 spots. So you can still get something of an idea of the relative strength of a team.

Morocco is an african world cup caliber team...here is the blurb from tunisia's 32 teams in 32 days feature from foxsoccer.com

"Tunisia edged Morocco by a point to finish atop Group 5 with a draw 2-2 at home against them on the final day of qualification. Moroccan defender Talal El Karkouri scored a critical own goal in the 68th minute to gift Tunisia with their World Cup berth."

Morocco was also the first african team to win a group in the world cup in 1986 (wikipedia). I think this team will be a similar comparison in talent to ghana but obviously far worse than the other two opponents we will face in our group

I really want to see EJ get rolling during these next three games. I was never more excited about US soccer than when EJ was on his massive goal scoring streak. If we can get him back to the top of his game we will be in great shape and maybe it will restore a little bit of my lost confidence after the germany/jamaica meltdowns.

Two more hours. I can't wait

18 minutes in and its still 0-0. Reyna went out with a little hamstring tweak. "Strained right hamstring" is what they just announced.

Scoreless after 15 minutes. Both teams are just kinda kicking it around. US has looked better I guess. Morocco has some nimble forwards who like to dribble too much.

Reyna strained his hamstring and left game. Mastro is in now. Might have done it on a tackle from behind, which I think got a yellow card. JOB and Reyna had a couple of nice plays early. Reyna doesn't look too injured, but can't take a chance with his history.

Sloppy so far, marocco is a little quicker and might be out hustling us

US is looking better just before half and has had a few good scoring chances

2nd half underway. Switched into a 3-5-2. Convey now in the game.

I can already tell that we're gonna be better than in years past. Convey took a shot and it didn't fly over the top of the goal.

Wow. Johnson really should have scored on that header.

does anyone know how good morocco is? just trying to judge how good this u.s. team is.

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Morocco is an african world cup caliber team...here is the blurb from tunisia's 32 teams in 32 days feature from foxsoccer.com

"Tunisia edged Morocco by a point to finish atop Group 5 with a draw 2-2 at home against them on the final day of qualification. Moroccan defender Talal El Karkouri scored a critical own goal in the 68th minute to gift Tunisia with their World Cup berth."

Morocco was also the first african team to win a group in the world cup in 1986 (wikipedia). I think this team will be a similar comparison in talent to ghana but obviously far worse than the other two opponents we will face in our group

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Still 0-0? I am taping the game and will watch when I get off work

80 minutes in, still scoreless.

US has dominated (mostly) since about 20 minutes into game. They've had some terrific buildups. Just can't punch it in or make the final pass. The usual suspects are missing great opportunites.

Convey is man of match at this point. And nobody else is close.

To me it seems like we're not anticipating what's gonna happen next. It looks like everyone is sitting back and waiting for something to happen and then reacting to balls.

ouch...gave up the tie on a counter attack

Damnit. Morocco scored in the 90th minute.

Morocco scores in the 90th minute. US will make an early exit in Germany if they play like this. Very uninspired effort by this team. Really pathetic.

Pretty bad mistake by Cherundolo, in my book. He has possession and he needs to just clear it when he's pressured and that far behind the next defender.

[This message has been edited by tool (edited 5/23/2006 7:59p).]

way too many non calls late in the game

Dang, that was a lousy giveup goal. Cheruldulo had played fairly well upto that point. Somebody hit it on the head. Get rid of the ball. Your back is to the oppposing player, inside the box...You clear the ball everytime, you gain nothing by juking him.

Credit to Morocco. That was a helluva finish.

Masteroeni gets the man of the match

Pretty disappointing.

On the bandwagon since birth. Raised in the bleachers of Kyle, Olsen, and G. Rollie White

We were the better team, but we need to play much much quicker on offense. We should have blown this team away, but instead we lose because our buildup too slow and the finishing/service was lousy.

Mastro was my second choice. He and Convey were head and shoulders better than rest of team. Convey just played better in my mind. His freekick as time expired was a beauty. If I'm making decisions, he starts in WC play.

You're right Patag, our decision-making was too slow. Seemed like guys were trying to make the perfect pass at the perfect time, etc. Almost like they were not familiar with each other's game. I'd think they ought to know by now. Too much reaction, not enough action.

The finishing was lousy. Landon had his usual couple of misses. Didn't even make the keeper sweat. EJ should have put away a header for goal. Wolff had a few wild shots. Some of poor shots were due to crappy passes. We had some good crisp crosses later in game, but other entry passes were subpar.

I was hoping for more this close to WC. But I saw enough positives to not hit the panic button yet.

Just reconfirmed what I already knew. Without O'Brien or Reyna in the midfield, we are screwed.

I agree with PatAg. Second half was played too slowly. Passes from the midfield were either mistimed or predictable. Not nearly as much creativity as their could be.

On the plus side, I loved that JogoBonito commercial that featured the US team.

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"The rest of the world will be rooting for the U.S. to fall flat on its face. Tell your soccer-hating friends that if they couldn't care less about how the U.S. does in these games, they are right in line with the French."

Page 2 writer Michael Davies