ytd: 57-7-50 +9.98 (stake 159.43)
USA vs Costa Rica
- normally I'd back USA at anything -1 goal or better as they are a superior team to CR but I really don't understand this selection in defense.
Forwards: Up front all our strikers are in form. Altidore is up to 25 goals this year with AZ....Herculez has netted 9 for Santos including 4 in his last 5 appearances...Eddie Johnson just scored the series winner for Seattle to KO Tigres in the cup...Deuce has 5 in 16 starts with Spurs, and Terrence Boyd is 3rd in scoring in Austrian league. So business as usual up front.
Midfield: The big missings here are Landon Donovan, Jose Torres, and Danny Williams...all would likely start in midfield but Williams and Torres are injured and Donovan is on some zen quest to find himself. Still I'm not too concerned. Bradley is a shoo-in at attacking midfield with Jermaine Jones behind him. Kljestan is in nice form for Anderlecht, Corona's been tearing it up for Tijuana, and Zusi/Shea add some talent and speed on the wings. Will never agree to Beasley and Beckerman being on this club but they're Klinsmann favorites for whatever reason.
Defense: a giant wtf?!?! I understand that Castillo, Chandler, Fabian Johnson, Spector, and Chernundolo are injured and all had a really good shot at starting this wek but the selections are horrendous. We have a 6-man defense with 0 caps, 0 caps, 0 caps, 1 cap, 5 caps, 6 caps...that's it. Beltran and Morrow are shocks for me as I don't rate Beltran as one of the 3 best right backs in MLS and Morrow really has 1 full year of professional experience. Besler was MLS Defender of the Year but has looked terrible in first 3 games of this new season. Clarence Goodson plays regularly at Brondby at a lesser league than MLS. Gonzalez and Cameron are the only two guys that would have normally been on this team and neither would have started over the injured guys so this is a makeshift back 4 with a goalie (Brad Guzan) making his first real important start of his international career. Left out were guys like Eric Lichaj (Villa), Zak Whitbread (Leicster), captain Bocanegra (Santander), Morales (Hertha), Onyewu (Malaga), Tim Ream (Bolton), and Michael Parkhurst (Augsburg now, FC Nord earlier this year) who played in all of Nord's Champions League matches!
Our "A" defense hasn't been all that impressive so real worried what our "B" defense will do these next two games. We've allowed 2 to Honduras, 2 to Russia, were scored on by Guatemala (2x) and Antigua (2x) not to mention 2 vs Jamaica and a goal allowed vs Scotland plus 4 vs Brazil. Not a good 10 months in defense....
Really believe the only way this game doesn't see 3 goals is if Klinsmann adopts a 4-2-3-1 formation with Edu and Jones both playing holding MF and a lone striker. But because we lost in Honduras and have a match next week in Azteca we're in a must-win situation already in WC Qualifying and adopting a defensive posture isn't going to happen. With so many in-form strikers and midfielders I believe Klinsmann will play to the team strength which is clearly attack. Costa Rica can afford to hang back and hit this weak defense on counter attacks. They've not had a lot of trouble scoring on USA top defense to begin with (9 goals scored last 4 games) but have eaten a lot of goals when playing in the states. Away qualifiers and gold cup they've allowed a lot of goals and USA attack is better than it was 10 years ago. Defensively they are of very little talent with 3 local league guys, a bad MLS defender, a guy that plays on a 2nd division club in Mexico, and a pair playing in Norway. Midfield they have talent with Ruiz (Fulham), Bolanos (fcK), Borges (AIK), and some local CR guys and up front are really talented with Saborio (one of best strikers in MLS), Arrieta (also one of best strikers in MLS), and Campbell (20 matches for Betis in La Liga). Their goalies are a joke level (one from local league and a backup on Levante) and will be worked really hard on Friday night.
Klinsmann has no choice but to attack and expose this brand new defense which should be playing in Gold Cup not World Cup. Guzan is a quality keeper but he doesn't command the net and that is a bad combo with an inexperienced defense. Think USA wins this one 3-1 or 3-2
USA/Costa Rica over 2.5 risk 2.25u to win 2u
USA vs Costa Rica
- normally I'd back USA at anything -1 goal or better as they are a superior team to CR but I really don't understand this selection in defense.
Forwards: Up front all our strikers are in form. Altidore is up to 25 goals this year with AZ....Herculez has netted 9 for Santos including 4 in his last 5 appearances...Eddie Johnson just scored the series winner for Seattle to KO Tigres in the cup...Deuce has 5 in 16 starts with Spurs, and Terrence Boyd is 3rd in scoring in Austrian league. So business as usual up front.
Midfield: The big missings here are Landon Donovan, Jose Torres, and Danny Williams...all would likely start in midfield but Williams and Torres are injured and Donovan is on some zen quest to find himself. Still I'm not too concerned. Bradley is a shoo-in at attacking midfield with Jermaine Jones behind him. Kljestan is in nice form for Anderlecht, Corona's been tearing it up for Tijuana, and Zusi/Shea add some talent and speed on the wings. Will never agree to Beasley and Beckerman being on this club but they're Klinsmann favorites for whatever reason.
Defense: a giant wtf?!?! I understand that Castillo, Chandler, Fabian Johnson, Spector, and Chernundolo are injured and all had a really good shot at starting this wek but the selections are horrendous. We have a 6-man defense with 0 caps, 0 caps, 0 caps, 1 cap, 5 caps, 6 caps...that's it. Beltran and Morrow are shocks for me as I don't rate Beltran as one of the 3 best right backs in MLS and Morrow really has 1 full year of professional experience. Besler was MLS Defender of the Year but has looked terrible in first 3 games of this new season. Clarence Goodson plays regularly at Brondby at a lesser league than MLS. Gonzalez and Cameron are the only two guys that would have normally been on this team and neither would have started over the injured guys so this is a makeshift back 4 with a goalie (Brad Guzan) making his first real important start of his international career. Left out were guys like Eric Lichaj (Villa), Zak Whitbread (Leicster), captain Bocanegra (Santander), Morales (Hertha), Onyewu (Malaga), Tim Ream (Bolton), and Michael Parkhurst (Augsburg now, FC Nord earlier this year) who played in all of Nord's Champions League matches!
Our "A" defense hasn't been all that impressive so real worried what our "B" defense will do these next two games. We've allowed 2 to Honduras, 2 to Russia, were scored on by Guatemala (2x) and Antigua (2x) not to mention 2 vs Jamaica and a goal allowed vs Scotland plus 4 vs Brazil. Not a good 10 months in defense....
Really believe the only way this game doesn't see 3 goals is if Klinsmann adopts a 4-2-3-1 formation with Edu and Jones both playing holding MF and a lone striker. But because we lost in Honduras and have a match next week in Azteca we're in a must-win situation already in WC Qualifying and adopting a defensive posture isn't going to happen. With so many in-form strikers and midfielders I believe Klinsmann will play to the team strength which is clearly attack. Costa Rica can afford to hang back and hit this weak defense on counter attacks. They've not had a lot of trouble scoring on USA top defense to begin with (9 goals scored last 4 games) but have eaten a lot of goals when playing in the states. Away qualifiers and gold cup they've allowed a lot of goals and USA attack is better than it was 10 years ago. Defensively they are of very little talent with 3 local league guys, a bad MLS defender, a guy that plays on a 2nd division club in Mexico, and a pair playing in Norway. Midfield they have talent with Ruiz (Fulham), Bolanos (fcK), Borges (AIK), and some local CR guys and up front are really talented with Saborio (one of best strikers in MLS), Arrieta (also one of best strikers in MLS), and Campbell (20 matches for Betis in La Liga). Their goalies are a joke level (one from local league and a backup on Levante) and will be worked really hard on Friday night.
Klinsmann has no choice but to attack and expose this brand new defense which should be playing in Gold Cup not World Cup. Guzan is a quality keeper but he doesn't command the net and that is a bad combo with an inexperienced defense. Think USA wins this one 3-1 or 3-2
USA/Costa Rica over 2.5 risk 2.25u to win 2u
