Some Soccer News for Nov 15, 2016

It's Day 330 of 2016.


CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying:
-Tue Nov 15
Costa Rica v USA - Estadio Nacional, San Jose - 8:00pm CT on beIN Sports

dN

Tonight is not a must win for the USMNT. That only happens when you will be eliminated if you don't win. But this game his huge. And the odds are very very very long.

Head coach Jurgen Klinsmann talks to a handful of journalists down in Costa Rica late yesterday. By Grant Wahl of Sports Illusrated.

• Its interesting that Klinsmann criticizes Bradley and Jones for not defending good enough, but says their best qualities are when they go forward and attack, and that's what he wants them to do, attack. Not defend?

Set piece defending (and other things) is killing the USMNT. By Paul Kennedy of Soccer America.

• Time to bust out my Iron Skillet Training Method. Fans come to training. 23 of them are picked and handed a cast iron skillet. 1 for each player on both sides of the ball and 1 for the coach. Every time someone makes a mistake the assigned fan clobbers them over the head with the iron skillet. It does not take long to fix problems with my proven and trademarked training system.

No surprise here but Klinsmann and Michael Bradley completely disagree on what position suits Bradley's talent best. By Ives Galarcep of Goal.com

The Bobby Wood and Jozy Altidore connection. By Sam Borden of the New York Times.

• Some really interesting stuff here about Woods early days in Germany - not good.

Why is it so hard to play in places like Costa Rica around CONCACAF. The USA players give their input. By Doug McIntyre of ESPNFC.

KISS - will the USA Keep It Simple Stupid in Costa Rica? By Brian Straus of Sports Illustrated.

Pregame analytic prognostication. By Matt Doyle of MLSsoccer.

Tim Howard's abductor muscle injury is so bad that he will need surgery to repair it. Damn.

dN

USA Roster:
G
Brad Guzan - Middlesbrough
Ethan Horvath - Molde
William Yarbrough - Leon
D
Matt Besler - Sporting Kansas City
Steve Birnbaum - DC United
John Brooks - Hertha Berlin
Cameron Carter-Vickers - Tottenham
Timmy Chandler - Eintracht Frankfurt
Omar Gonzalez - Pachuca
Fabian Johnson - Monchengladbach
Michael Orozco - Tijuana
DeAndre Yedlin - Newcastle
M
Alejandro Bedoya - Philadelphia Union
Michael Bradley - Toronto
Lynden Gooch - Sunderland
Julian Green - Bayern Munich
Jermaine Jones - Colorado Rapids
Sacha Kljestan - New York Red Bulls
Christian Pulisic - Dortmund
Caleb Stanko - Vaduz
Graham Zusi - Sporting Kansas City
F
Jozy Altidore - Toronto
Alan Gordon - LA Galaxy
Aron Johannsson - Werder Bremen
Bobby Wood - Hamburger

dN

The Hex - CONCACAF World Cup qualifying schedule:
Matchday 2
-Tue Nov 15
Costa Rica v USA - 8:00pm CT on beIN Sports
Honduras v Trinidad + Tobago - 4:00pm CT
Panama v Mexico - 8:00pm CT

Standings
(1 of 10 games played)
3 Costa Rica (+2)
3 Mexico (+1)
3 Panama (+1)
---
0 USA (-1)
---
0 Honduras (-1)
0 T+T (-2)

Matchdays 3 + 4 will be held on Fri Mar 24 and Tue Mar 28.

dN

Costa Rica roster:
G:
Leonel Moreira - Herediano
Keylor Navas - Real Madrid
Patrick Pemberton - Alajuelense
D:
Johnny Acosta - Herediano
Leonardo Gonzalez - Herediano
Allan Miranda - Herediano
Ronald Matarrita - New York City
Bryan Oviedo - Everton
Jose Salvatierra - Alajuelense
Michael Umana - Alajuelense
Kendall Waston - Vancouver Whitecaps
M:
Randall Azofeifa - Herediano
Cristian Bolanos - Vancouver Whitecaps
Celso Borges - Deportivo la Coruna
David Guzman - Saprissa
Yeltsin Tejeda - Lausanne
Johan Venegas - Montreal Impact
Rodney Wallace - Sport Recife
F:
Joel Campbell - Sporting CP
Ariel Rodriguez - Bangkok Glass
Bryan Ruiz - Sporting CP
Marco Urena - Brondby

dN

We are hearing more from Bob Bradley in the past few months than we ever heard in all his previous years combined. Talking about Swansea today and USA yesterday and today. By Martin Rogers of USA Today.

dN

Steven Gerrard has left the LA Galaxy. No surprise there. He did very little for the team.

dN

CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying:
-Matchday 12
-Tue Nov 15
Ecuador v Venezuela
Bolivia v Paraguay
Chile v Uruguay
Argentina v Colombia
Peru v Brazil

Standings
(11 of 18 games played)
24 Brazil
23 Uruguay
18 Colombia
17 Ecuador
-----
17 Chile
-----
16 Argentina
15 Paraguay
14 Peru
5 Venezuela
4 Bolivia




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