Welcome to the spotlight, Brek Shea.
By Jeff Morton
The brother of the owner of this blog, Jeff is making his introduction to the blogosphere. He will soon be featured on a brand new college football blog, Fall Means Football, which will be found at fallmeansfootball.com.
His initial post was a running diary of last night's USA/Mexico friendly in Philadelphia. Enjoy and please leave comments below.
7:30 - Pre-game festivities starting early on ESPNEWS. It's a big night for Alexi Lalas as new US coach Jurgen Klinsmann begins a fresh era of American soccer in the bright, shiny city of freedom: Philadelphia.
7:32 - Ian Darke is greatness. I was really hoping to hear from the sardonic brilliance of the old British Master tonight. I got my wish.
7:33 - Your US Men's National Soccer Team starting lineup
The 4-5-1 formation, run to perfection by the defending Champions League kings FC Barcelona.
Edson Buddle
Torres Bradley Donovan
Beckerman Jones
Castillo Bocanegra Orozco-Fiscal Cherundulo
Tim Howard
7:35 - Michael Bradley getting some love. Very underrated player, especially by the types that are always screaming nepotism. He deserves to be a featured player. Hopefully this leads to Bundesliga Bradley leading the Americans to a win.
7:42 - Jurgen doing a great job of selling soccer to America. Soccer should be such an easy game for anyone to play, regardless of background. With an increased infrastructure at the youth levels, USA easily has the athletes to dominate at the top levels of international soccer.
7:45 - Kinda depressed about Brek Shea sitting out. I hope he makes an appearance later in the game. Former LA Galaxy striker and Bundesliga second-leaguer Edson Buddle gets the start at striker in place of the EPL-preparing Clint Dempsey.
7:52 - Mexico's 4-4-2 lineup:
Peralta Naelson
Barrera Torrado Castro Guardado
Salcido Marquez Moreno Juarez
Ochoa
7:53 - El Tri missing their top four strikers and don't sound too excited about his replacement, Peralta. No Chicharito, no Fabian or DeNegris means the USA better shut them out.
7:54 - This Taylor Twellman guy has an annoying voice. Alexi is a quality analyst though, positioned to become the John Madden of American soccer if things really take off. I suppose Taylor would settle for being the Collinsworth though.
8:03 - Some kid just knocked on my door wanting money for the local high school football team. I ALREADY WORK AROUND THE CLOCK.
8:05 - A whole lot of Mexican support in Philadelphia? Who knew?
8:09 - Still on ESPNEWS because the 12-year-olds won't hurry up over on the Deuce. I love the LLWS though. I never feel bad for the kids that fail and cry because I always failed and never really cried about it. I remember the kids that did though and they were usually pretty douchey.
8:13 - Huxley references FTW
8:15 - Michael Orozco-Fiscal already drawing fouls in the attacking zone. Not a great start. Also I'm not sure a guy who doesn't speak English should be doing the English broadcast (NOTE: Jorge Ramos)
8:20 - Only seven minutes into the match before Philly salutes the USMNT by raining down boos. Dumbest sports city ever behind Honey Badger Miami. (Miami doesn't give a shit).
8:23 - Not a good performance by this back line so far, even against Mexico's B-team forwards. The Mexicans are deep and talented. Pablo Barrera is a stud.
8:26 - The USMNT botches a scoring opportunity there. Kyle Beckerman simply wasn't athletic enough to do what Bradley wanted him to. Freddy Adu's ghost would have scored there.
8:29 - Goal Mexico. Spot of luck there by Oribe Peralta on a cross by Andrés Guardado. Way toro much room for him to do that. Another embarrassing and avoidable goal conceded by the USA defense. Carlos Bocanegra the only one who has a clue.
Mexico 1, USA 0
8:33 - NEEDS MOAR VUVEZELAS!!!
8:38 - This USA team could really use Brek Shea in the center midfield. The US has talented wingers but an equally uninspiring midfield.
8:42 - Steve Cherundulo does the emo kid routine of cheap-shotting someone and then acting whiny when they retaliate. This came after he was beaten down the side of the field by Guardado, who has outclassed the Americans so far tonight.
8:44 - Ramos totally calling out the US side for being out of shape. We're 30 minutes in boys. We're losing because we're not training hard enough it seems.
8:45 - Announcers are pretty glib about the total Mexican domination so far. Not much exciting for me to talk about either. The US has only had the ball about five times. Mexico is fun to watch though. They might be contenders in 2014 at full strength.
8:47 - Klinsmann and the announcers realizing that the 4-5-1 works for Barca because they have an unbelievable collection of midfielders who control the ball all game and then their “1” is either Lionel Messi or David Villa. Doesn't really work against a quicker, more skilled squad using this motley crew of second-division castoff attackers.
8:50 - Hey! A little offense their from the US. Good show from Bradley and Emo Cherundulo. Lalas rips Jermaine Jones, which makes me wonder if Jones slept with his wife or something.
8:53 - Starting to control the ball a little bit there I think Mexico just trying to take this thing to the half.
8:57 - Our first wounded warrior of the night: Guardado at 45 minutes. Congratulations to whoever had that in the pool. Also brings a healthy round of boos from the injury-intolerant Philly faithful.
One thing I don't really understand is why Americans and redneck Americans hate the diving/drama aspect of soccer so much.
9:00 - Halftime. No shots on goal for the US. Pretty lackluster half, not gonna lie.
9:16 - Second half time. Jurgen's not worried, he's excited about the second half.
9:17 - Beckerman responds to praise by the announcers by giving the ball away. Tough for the US to put more than 2 passes together.
PS: I love how Reyes gives the straight truth about Dos Santos right before the hot Latina sideline chick gives the “All is Well” version.
9:24 - Almost a goal for Mexico there. This is pretty much what we saw against Spain a couple of months ago.
9:26 - Free kick for the Mexicans and they also bring in Giovanni De Santos, perhaps the most dangerous attacker on their roster.
9:27 - BREK!!! And Juan Aguedelo! Almost a goal. It's going good now. Great cross by Landon.
9:29 - BREK SHEA. The ink that spells your name. BREK SHEA. The blood that fills your veins. BREK SHEA.
9:32 - Brek and Aguedelo making shit happen already. After a shaky start, Orozco-Fiscal has been impressive as well on all the challenges.
9:36 - Aguedelo for Buddle and Shea for Jones already looks like a pair of huge upgrades. Landon continues to be top notch.
9:38 - Two consecutive questionable calls against the US as Brek Shea is denied a corner kick and Dos Santos goes offsides without a call.
9:41 - God, I adore sarcasm from my sports announcers.
9:45 - GOALLLL!!!!! Brek Shea sets it up. Awesome. He has changed the game for the Americans.
USA 1, Mexico 1
9:49 - These referees do not seem likely to give the Americans any kind of gifts at all. Or any deserved penalties either.
9:54 - Brek Shea is the future of American soccer. This second half lineup with Donovan and Torres on the inside and Shea out on the left wing looks really good to me. Stuart Holden will certainly make an impact on this group as well.
9:56 - Stupid Castillo. Don't you know that putting your hands up like that guarantees you get called for a foul every time? Did you learn nothing from the NBA finals?
9:57 - Man these stupid refs screw the US every time. Should have been a damn red card. Why can't we threaten these bullshit CONCACAF refs when they brazenly screw the USA like that? We're Americans, dammit. Brek is our American Dirk.
10:03 - Maybe Major League Soccer is closer to becoming a competitive soccer league than anyone wants to admit. Its goal should be to become the top league in this hemisphere.
10:04 - And the match ends in a 1-1 tie. Much, much more exciting second half than the first. Against a weakened Mexican side, it was still impressive of the Americans to fight and get back into it. The US pretty much dominated the second half the way Mexico dominated the first.
Well that completes my first running diary. Its attention-consuming and a lot of work, but I had fun once the second half began. My night is also complete now that my boy Brek saved the night.
Follow me on Twitter at @jeffmorton02
