1. England. Damn.
2. Argentina. Damn.
3. In light of the wild reversals of fortune seemingly or I would actually think obviously brought about at their respective teams by Capello and Maradona it’s a mystery to me how someone like Simon Kuper could argue with a straight face that a manager is a figure of little real importance who could be replaced by a Polish Lowland Sheepdog with no ill effects, since even Steve McClaren seemed to bring with him a whole parcel of ill effects, and regardless of your opinion of Steve McClaren he is presumably a few notches higher on the grand scale of being than even a very well-trained Polish Lowland Sheepdog, although for the sake of argument we have to consider the possibility that England would have been exactly where they are now under Steve McClaren, that all the team were waiting on was some mysterious gelling process and an improvement in Aaron Lennon’s ball control, the end result of which would have seen them playing those little plinky through balls to devastating effect regardless of who was on the sideline, whether Steve McClaren or a Polish Lowland Sheepdog, or even Alan Shearer, but to me the whole point is that under Steve McClaren they never actually tried those little plinky through balls, but then what do I know, never having sat in on a single pitch meeting about how Freakonomics could be applied to soccer.
4. That last bit wasn’t terse. I apologize.
5. USA: Three points, but a lot of running around for a 1-0 win over Trinidad. I mean, Spain managed to beat Estonia 3-0, and they aren’t as good as we are.
6. Costa Rica lost. So that’s something.
Read More: England, Fabio Capello, USA, World Cup
by Brian Phillips · September 10, 2009
(Admittedly in Maradona’s case the change is less a “wild reversal of fortune” than a rapid acceleration of a misfortune already in progress, but the acceleration has still been rapid enough to qualify, and in any case the bare fact that a team like Argentina are capable of being mismanaged suggests that the manager matters. I would have said all this in the original sentence but I was trying to be terse.)
And of course under Steve McClaren Aaron Lennon might well have been crossing a street somewhere last night.
Item 3 wasn’t terse, but it certainly felt Hemingwayan.
The problem with the USA is that it seems to play to the level of its competition. The results were good this week, but two straight wins shouldn’t have so many fans feeling this uneasy. A win in Honduras erases all that, of course, but still…
And what exactly did Jose Torres do to piss off Bob Bradley? Are he and Castillo suddenly too Mexican to play for us?
Dave et al: I feel the same way about Torres.
It was painful watching Rico Clark out there, unable to pick out simple possession passes. I know he covers a crazy amount of ground and occasionally hammers one from deep, but good lord could we please have some guys on the field who can keep the ball? Aren’t we well past the point of diminishing returns for ‘guys who work hard and cover a lot of ground’?
I always hear that Torres doesn’t quite fit into the current setup. However, Feilhaber plays regularly and from what I’ve seen Torres is a superior version of Feilhaber. That being said i recommend everyone take the time to read Wahl’s SI.com Q and A with papa Bradley. I’ll admit the man is no fool, I just wonder if he is too in love with focusing on defending as a team when not in possession rather than developing a lineup that can keep some possession for themselves.
In light of Brian´s brilliant concept and the focus on Ricardo Clark, I present.
Ricardo ran hard and tackled hard, scraping the dirt from his studs when not covered in sweat. He looked over at the old man, the old man who had guided him in the heat and swelter of the Carribean. The old man did not smile. The old man did not blink. Ricardo wondered what the old man thought, but could he ever know? Was the old man happy? Was the old man sad? Was the old man angry? Ricardo ran hard and tackled hard, scraping the dirt from his studs when not covered in sweat.