US v Costa Rica Scouting Report

US v Costa Rica
6.3.09
Estadio Ricardo Saprissa - San Jose, Costa Rica

The United States faces a stern challenge on Wednesday night in San Jose, Costa Rica. Unlike the Earthquakes, this team holds a fantastic home record in competitive matches, and no visiting team will be assured of three points here. The US is 0-6-1 facing Costa Rica away, and will be looking to avenge their 3-0 drubbing in the corresponding fixture last time out. The monsoon rain climate in the middle of their rainy season, in combination with crappy Astroturf will create an unusual obstacle for our boys, not to mention the insane atmosphere with the fans just a few feet off each endline. Boca and company have their work cut out for them.

Costa Rica a few notable players to look out for. The always-aging Walter Centeno has been impressive in years past, but does he still have that flare? Freddy Fernandez has also put some quality performances in for the Ticos alongside Centeno. Andy Furtado has scored 2 goals thus far in qualifying. Young talents Brian Ruiz and Celso Borges shouldn't pose too much of a problem for the US, but then again neither should El Salvador.

On the other side, Bob Bradley faces some of the most difficult selection challenges he has been presented with since being named boss in 2007. Some of the US squad is nearing fitness, and with many players arriving in the camp late, it will be a difficult deed to name his team. In fact, 5 key players are carrying yellow cards into this game; Onyewu, Hejduk, Dempey, Altidore, and Bradley will all be looking to avoid another booking which will bench them for Saturday's encounter with Honduras in Chicago. Hejduk is ruled out and Altidore is coming off a toe surgery that could limit his contribution.

Team Sheet:
GK: Guzan, Howard
DEF: Bocanegra, Bornstein, Califf, DeMerit, Onyewu, Pearce, Spector, Wynne
MID: Adu, Beasley, Bradley, Clark, Feilhaber, Mastroeni, Kljestan, Torres
FOR: Altidore, Ching, Davies, Dempsey, Donovan, Johnson

American fans will surely be feeling a sense of anxiety before this fixture. Much like El Salvador and Guatemala, the stadium will contain tense surroundings. Many fans would be happy with a point from this game, considering the circumstances . Although they are ranked 41st currently in FIFA rankings(26 behind the US), they are clearly a huge test for any team at home. Hopefully the distraction of Peter Nowak leaving his post as assistant coach will not affect this game. Really Pete? Just couldn't put off that Philly job for one more week?

Whatever the result, whoever plays, we love any man who puts on that jersey. Aside from the drunken comments made by an anonymous AO podcaster (Chris Donahoo of Overland Park, KS), we love this team with everything we have. Grab your beers, smuggle your champagne into your watch parties, and prepare your taxi rides home, for this will surely be a nerve-racking evening.

COME ON YOU F'in YANKS

Scouting Report is written by Chris Donahoo, if you have any questions or feedback contact him at chris@theamericanoutlaws.com.

American Outlaws Podcast Series - Episode 1

The American Outlaws Podcast, with passionate fans, regular fans, ranting about US Soccer, and anything related to US Soccer.


theamericanoutlaws.com/AO%20Podcast%20Series/American%20Outlaws%20Podcast%20-%20May%202009.m4a

Korey Donahoo & Chris Donahoo
Hosted by: Zach Stivrins
Produced by: Brunken

American Outlaws Podcast Series will be available for download on Itunes soon. Make sure to subscribe when it gets up on Itunes.
(We will let you know)

Previously Recorded May 9th, 2009
--Bear with us on this podcast, quality of sound will improve and music will be added for future AO podcasts.

Bradley's 24 Man Roster for June Qualifiers

U.S. Men's National Team Roster vs. Costa Rica and Honduras
May 26-June 6, 2009

Players Pos. Ht. Wt. Birthdate Hometown Club Caps/Goals
Adu, Freddy M 5-8 140 06/02/89 Potomac, Md. AS Monaco (France) 12/1
Altidore, Jozy F 6-1 175 11/06/89 Boca Raton, Fla. Xerez C.D. (Spain) 9/6
Beasley, DaMarcus M 5-8 145 05/24/82 Ft. Wayne, Ind. Glasgow Rangers (Scotland) 85/17
Bocanegra, Carlos D 6-0 170 05/25/79 Alta Loma, Calif. Stade Rennais (France) 65/10
Bornstein, Jonathan D 5-9 145 11/07/84 Los Alamitos, Calif. Chivas USA 14/1
Bradley, Michael M 6-2 175 07/31/87 Manhattan Beach, Calif. Borussia Mönchengladbach (Germany) 28/5
Califf, Danny D 6-1 175 03/17/80 Orange, Calif FC Midtjylland (Denmark) 23/1
Ching, Brian F 6-1 195 05/24/78 Haleiwa, Hawaii Houston Dynamo 36/9
Davies, Charlie F 5-10 160 06/25/86 Manchester, N.H. Hammarby IF (Sweden) 5/1
DeMerit, Jay D 6-0 185 12/04/79 Green Bay, Wis. Watford FC (England) 9/1
Dempsey, Clint F 6-1 170 03/09/83 Nacogdoches, Texas Fulham FC (England) 49/13
Donovan, Landon F 5-8 150 03/04/82 Redlands, Calif. Los Angeles Galaxy 108/37
Edu, Maurice M 6-0 170 04/18/86 Fontana, Calif. Glasgow Rangers (Scotland) 11/1
Feilhaber, Benny M 5-9 150 01/19/85 Irvine, Calif. AGF Aarhus (Denmark) 16/2
Guzan, Brad GK 6-4 210 09/09/84 Homer Glen, Ill. Aston Villa FC (England) 12/1
Hejduk, Frankie D 5-8 155 08/05/74 Cardiff, Calif. Columbus Crew 84/7
Howard, Tim GK 6-3 210 03/06/79 North Brunswick, N.J. Everton FC (England) 37/0
Mastroeni, Pablo M 5-10 170 8/26/1976 Phoenix, Ariz. Colorado Rapids 63/0
Kljestan, Sacha M 6-1 150 09/09/85 Huntington Beach, Calif. Chivas USA 16/3
Onyewu, Oguchi D 6-4 210 05/13/82 Olney, Md. Standard de Liege (Belgium) 40/5
Pearce, Heath D 5-10 175 08/13/84 Modesto, Calif. Hansa Rostock (Germany) 23/0
Spector, Jonathan D 6-0 180 03/01/86 Arlington Heights, Ill. West Ham United (England) 12/1
Torres, José Francisco M 5-7 135 10/29/87 Longview, Texas C.D. Pachuca (Mexico) 4/1
Wynne, Marvell D 5-9 170 05/08/86 Poway, Calif. Toronto FC 2/1

U.S. ROSTER BY POSITION
GOALKEEPERS (2): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa: 5/3 SO), Tim Howard (Everton: 9/7 SO)
DEFENDERS (9): Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes: 19/2), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA: 1/0), Danny Califf (Midtjylland: 4/0), Jay DeMerit (Watford: 1/0), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew: 17/2), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege: 14/1), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock: 9/0), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United: 2/1), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC: 0/0)
MIDFIELDERS (8): Freddy Adu (Monaco: 5/1), DaMarcus Beasley (Rangers: 24/6), Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach: 9/4), Maurice Edu (Rangers: 4/0), Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus: 0/0), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA: 9/0), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids: 13/0), José Francisco Torres (Pachuca: 4/0)
FORWARDS (5): Jozy Altidore (Xerez: 6/5), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo: 15/6), Charlie Davies (Hammarby: 1/1), Clint Dempsey (Fulham: 15/4), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy: 28/9)
*numbers indicate all-time World Cup Qualifying caps/goals

Head Coach: Bob Bradley (Manhattan Beach, Calif.)
All-time Record: 24-8-4
World Cup Qualifying: 9-1-1

Interesting Article on World Cup Tickets

Interesting was the number of applications for TST for England. If they give out, say, 20,000 TSTs to England fans, that’s about a 1 in 11 shot, and England was the most heavily sought after team. I assume we weren’t in much demand, so you would think 1 in 2 people wanting USA TSTs would get them.

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Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System
Date: 04 May 2009
Title: Second phase of 2010 tickets kicks off
--------------------

Johannesburg - The second round of ticket sales for the 2010 FIFA World Cup has started, with approximately 100 000 tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis.

As of noon (Central European Time) on 4 May 2009, ticket applications can be made via www.fifa.com or at any First National Bank (FNB) branch in South Africa.

South Africans who apply at FNB branches must present a valid form of identification, while foreigners who apply at FNB branches must show their passports, reports SouthAfrica.info.

Those who apply on behalf of friends or family must provide their names, nationalities, dates of birth and identity numbers.

Each applicant can apply for up to four tickets per match and up to seven matches in total. Ticket prices start at US$20 (R140).

Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application within 10 working days, and tickets will be available for collection from FIFA's venue ticketing centres from April 2010 onwards.

For more information the public can go to www.fifa.com.

The second round of ticket sales runs until 16 November 2009 - or until tickets made available for the second round run out.

Two more sales phases - a random selection followed again by a first-come, first-served phase - will follow the World Cup Final Draw, in which the 32 participating teams will be drawn into eight groups for the tournament.

The first of these will run from 5 December 2009 to 22 January 2010, and the second from 9 February to 7 April 2010.

Finally, if there are still any tickets left over, these will be sold in a "last minute" round of sales running from 15 April to 11 July 2010.

In the first round of ticket sales, over 1.8-million ticket applications from 205 countries were received. Of these, a total of 555 871 tickets were successfully drawn.

South Africans accounted for 245 948 or 44 percent of these ticket sales, followed by the United States (69 208 tickets), United Kingdom (39 421 tickets) and Germany (29 330 tickets).

From the applications received, the most popular team was England, with 228 822 team-specific tickets requested and 8 895 successfully awarded.

Not surprisingly, the World Cup final was the most heavily oversubscribed match, by a factor of 3 000 percent. - BuaNews

Gold Cup Announced & AO Interview

Thanks to everyone that went to nashville game and our events and enjoyed the 3-0 domination of T&T by The US and the Hat Trick Hero Altidore. Let us know what you thought: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/60206/american-outlaws-game-day-experience

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Gold Cup Games Announced:

July 4
US vs. Grenada
Qwest Field, Seattle, WA

July 8
US vs. Honduras
RFK Stadium, Washington DC

July 11
US vs. Haiti
Gillette Stadium; Foxborough, Mass.

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Also check out Korey and our Houston Chapter head Whisky Sam talk about The American Outlaws on The Game Radio show in Houston: http://thegame.podbean.com/2009/03/30/soccer-show-3-30-2009-2nd-seg/

Thanks,
Justin Brunken

American Outlaws T-Shirt Gets Published

American Outlaws T-Shirt Design by Jeremie Memming, gets published: http://www.zeixs.com/books_logo2.php, look at bottom right square.
Thanks Jeremie,
Granted it is in a German Publication, but that's ok. That just means we are taking over the world, not just the US.

This also reminds me to thank all of our talented friends who have helped us through out the last 2 years, we wouldn't be where we are with out you guys.


If you would like to wear this piece of history, visit: http://www.theamericanoutlaws.com/content/view/50/45/

US Game Venues for Gold Cup Predictions

Hey American Outlaws, 

Gold Cup Venues for this summer were announced, with a record number 13 cities going to be involved.  Check all of them out here: 

http://www.concacaf.com/competitions/goldcup/2009/venues.aspx

The teams have already qualified, but what teams are in what groups, and who is playing in what cities hasn't been announced, but that doesn't mean there aren't any predictions going around.  

I seems to look like US will be in Group B, which will be playing Seattle on July 4th, DC on July 8th, and in Boston on July 11th.  Winner of Group B, likely to play in Philadelphia, and then semis in Chicago, and final in New York.

This isn't a guarantee, but it looks very possible.  Not sure what type of team we will be bringing to the Gold Cup, since we are playing for nothing, but it will be a good chance for more people to see our boys play.  We might be playing some young players for Bob Bradley to get a feel for some players on the bubble of being on the World Cup Team.

We will let you know when it gets announced. 

Look forward to another US v Mexico match, which might be the only really important game, which would be important only for pride sack.

Here continues an amazing year of US Soccer.

Brunken