I was at the game on Saturday. Great atmosphere for the US - 55,000 fans and i'd say at least 80% of them supporting the US. Whenever Turkish fans tried to chant the US fans would drown them out. Very cool from a fan standpoint that US fans are getting more and more into the games and providing a home field advantage.
I would start the same starting 11 as Brian, except I would push Dempsey back to midfield and have Findley start up top. The US tends to do better when they have a player with pace to stretch the defence (Charlie Davies / Findley) and this allows room in between the strikers and midfield for Donovan and Dempsey to maneuver and create/score. For the England game I can see Bradley being conservative and using players from the start that play in England/Scotland which would presumably have Edu in for Torres and Holden or Beasley in for Findley (starting Dempsey up top). England looks like it will be missing Barry for that game so it'll be interesting to see who will be England's center defensive mid and if the US can exploit that position.
Loved the post and would love to see a soccer blog. I was a letterwinner on the first 4 years of Michigan's Men's Varsity team (2000-2003). During the second season of the team's existence we played Furman in the Florida International Tournament. Furman had both Clint Dempsey and Ricardo Clark on their team - needless to say they taught Michigan a lesson in the form of a 4-0 thrashing with Dempsey scoring a goal. Not sure if you were aware that Michigan played them but thought you would find it interesting.
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I was at the game on Saturday. Great atmosphere for the US - 55,000 fans and i'd say at least 80% of them supporting the US. Whenever Turkish fans tried to chant the US fans would drown them out. Very cool from a fan standpoint that US fans are getting more and more into the games and providing a home field advantage.
I would start the same starting 11 as Brian, except I would push Dempsey back to midfield and have Findley start up top. The US tends to do better when they have a player with pace to stretch the defence (Charlie Davies / Findley) and this allows room in between the strikers and midfield for Donovan and Dempsey to maneuver and create/score. For the England game I can see Bradley being conservative and using players from the start that play in England/Scotland which would presumably have Edu in for Torres and Holden or Beasley in for Findley (starting Dempsey up top). England looks like it will be missing Barry for that game so it'll be interesting to see who will be England's center defensive mid and if the US can exploit that position.