MSU Red Cedar Message Board

"Carlos Tevez, he drives when he wants!"

It's not, but in reality, Guzan is a very capable back-up and that shouldn't be the difference in the result of the upcoming qualifiers as he's done well with his chances at Aston Villa. Or we can pull in a Nick Rimando from MLS, who is also a quality keeper. Now defensive organization and some form of sustained creativity in the attack will continue to be issues, so we'll see if Klinsmann continues the thinking that starts a forward in the midfield (Johnson), fails to start the most dominant, healthy and available midfielder we have (Zusi), or gives a first cap to a central defender on the road in Honduras (Gonzalez). Klinsmann failed to understand CONCACAF road qualifying, and failed to respect a World Cup qualifying team from 2010 that has even improved. We'll get a chance on March 22 with a challenging home match against Costa Rica before hitting the road again at the Azteca 4 days later.

Whether Klinsmann becomes another 2009 Goran-Eriksson depends on the US getting past the June qualifiers (road vs. Jamaica, home vs. Panama) in reasonable shape. That home match against Costa Rica is stunningly important, both for the team and for Jurgen's future. No Howard and no Donovan...so neither of the two who seem to get a result against the run of play. Should be interesting. As always, go Yanks!

Interestingly, Brad Friedel has offered to serve as the third keeper in our pool behind Howard and Guzan. Add in an experienced MLS keeper in Rimando and younger NT prospects like Johnson and Hamid, and we're fine at GK. Push comes to shove, in a qualifier, having a Friedel in net is a good fall-back option.....

Why does Gus keep shouting?

I'm going with ManU. We half expected scUM to lose. I DVR'd the match, turned it on and see the Blues go down 2-nil after 11 minutes, and started fast forwarding. Figured there was no way they were coming back, let alone score at OT. Huge moral victory for the Blues.

A few more pics
1) Chapel on the ramp where the players enter the pitch.
2) Poorly lit stadium view from the technical area.

I actually was in town for their match against Deportivo and likely could have scored tickets, but decided against watching the Barca second team (resting everyone prior to the AC Milan Champs League match) against the La Liga cellar dwellers given that I would have to catch a flight about 3 hours later.

Turned out to be a bad decision as Messi and Iniesta did play a half hour in the second half and Messi scored yet again.

NEWSFLASH

Messi is a decent player

I heard we actually play soccer for a change this weekend.

Schalke in big trouble against Galatasaray having given up a couple of away goals in the first half.

unfreaking believable. That's the Barca team I love watching

Shame. I was enjoying the break from the Barca slurpfest. Hopefully their shocking defending will see them gone in the next round.

The moral victory cabinet is filling up fast!

Spurs doing their best JLS impression right now.