Soccer By Ives

Red Bulls vs. Columbus Crew: My Running Commentary

Hello folks. I'm not in Columbus for tonight's match but I'll be watching and offering up some observations. If you want to follow along and add your own thoughts on the match then follow along on this thread.

Let's have some fun.

Under-20 WORLD CUP: USA settles for 1-1 tie vs. South Korea

Danny Szetela's first-half header gave the U.S. Under-20 national team the lead but it didn't last long as South Korea equalized before halftime. Chris Seitz bailed out a shaky U.S. defense with a handful of quality saves as the U.S. team settled for a 1-1 tie in its opening match of the Under-20 World Cup.

What did you think of the match? Who stood out? Who stunk? Share your thoughts on the match below.

Under-20 WORLD CUP: USA set to open tourney

The U.S. Under-20 national team is set to open its Under-20 World Cup today against South Korea (5pm, ESPNU).

I'm not really sure on what the lineup will be for the USA for this game but here's a guess:

-----------Altidore-------Ferrari------------

Rogers-------------Adu--------------Bradley

-------------------Szetela--------------------

Ward-------------------------------------Igwe

-------------Sturgis-----Valentin------------

---------------------Seitz---------------------

What do you think of this lineup? Share your thoughts on the squad and what you think the lineup should be for today's match below.

RBNY Acquires Santino Quaranta from LA

The Red Bulls filled one of their empty roster slots on Friday by acquiring midfielder Santino Quaranta from the LA Galaxy for a conditional fourth round draft pick.

Quaranta is expected to join the Red Bulls in Columbus for their match against the Crew. No word yet on whether he'll actually be on the bench for the match.

What role will Quaranta play for the Red Bulls? He'll be a winger/forward off the bench and it makes you wonder what future Markus Schopp has on the team. Don't be surprised to see the Austrian midfielder depart soon.

Actually, the player who should be looking into a moving company is Mike Magee, who may also be on the way out.

By signing Quaranta, the Red Bulls have one open roster spot left to sign a defender, unless they part with another player, likely Magee or Schopp. Which defender will they sign? Good question.

In other news, Dema Kovalenko did not make the trip to Columbus.

What do you think of this trade? Excited? Angry? Indifferent (yes, please)? Share your thoughts below.

European powers keep adding top talent

Having trouble keeping up with the flurry of transfer moves in the European market? Join the club.

Another wave of transfers have gone through this week as teams such as Barcelona and Liverpool load up for the 2007/2008 campaign.

here are some of the more recent transfers, and some that are in the works:

Eric Abidal joins Thierry Henry at Barcelona

Tottenham breaks the bank for Darren Bent

Newcastle closing in on Edmilson

Liverpool closing in on Fernando Torres

Barcelona closing in on Christian Chivu

These are just some of the moves that have been made or are close to being made. There are other players whose names are flooding the rumor mills, such as Carlos Tevez, Samuel Eto'o and Juan Riquelme, so stay tuned for more transfer action throughout the coming weeks and months.

Which of these moves do you like the most? Are there any moves you would love to see? Share your thoughts on the European transfer market below.

Q&A: The Lost Questions

Those of you wondering what happened to those questions I never got around to answering more than a week ago, here they are. They got lost in the Gold Cup sauce but I was able to dig them up and answer them.

Here you go:

DANNY- adu is supposed to be the difference maker for the U20's in the upcoming tournament, but personally i think bradley will shine brighter and be the real engine of our team. What do you think bradley's effect will be on the team? what will happen to adu's euro chances if he gets overshadowed? we have a scary talented team, i think we can go deep into the tournament and maybe win it all.

IVES- I agree that Bradley will be key to the U.S. team's success. His ability to control possession and thwart attacks will be key in a tournament filled with quality playmakers. Do I think Freddy Adu will have a major impact? I'm not overly confident about that but the team's strong stable of forwards will give him some good targets to work with. Adu will have no excuses if he performs poorly in this tournament and if he does I will find it hard to imagine that he'll have any good European opportunities left.

TGIF- The day after the Argentina thrashing

Good morning all. I know some of you are still bummed out after the U.S. national team's 4-1 loss to Argentina but after watching the match three more times last night (yes, I had insomnia and had to crank out an ESPN.com piece) I can say that the match wasn't as bad as it might have seemed.

Was the Eddie Gaven for Ben Olsen substitution terrible? Yes. Did Marvell Wynne look lost out there? Yes. Was the forward tandem of Eddie Johnson and Taylor Twellman largely invisible except for the penalty kick Johnson drew? Yes.

That aside, there were positives. The defense was actually solid, particularly the central defense. Jay DeMerit is staking his claim to a starting center back slot. We'll see how he does in the remaining Copa matches but he is breathing down the necks of Oguchi Onyewu and Carlos Bocanegra.

So who's next for the Americans? Paraguay, which is coming off a 5-0 destruction of Colombia. Hey, Bradley said he wanted his young guys to get some experience in tough games right? Well here it is and here comes more.

If you have any thoughts on the game that you haven't already shared, please share them below.

COPA AMERICA: Argentina 4, USA 1

A beautiful first half, then a bloodbath.

The U.S. national team played tough, solid defense and stayed right with Argentina in the first half but slowly fell apart in the second half as Argentina began finding the cracks in the American defense en route to a 4-1 victory in Copa America action on Thursday.

So what went wrong? Trouble began when Ben Olsen left the match due to fatigue and Eddie Gaven came into the match. Gaven's poor workrate helped spring Lionel Messi to set up Argentina's go-ahead goal. Marvell Wynne followed by getting lazy on a play on the wing, which gave Gabriel Heinze enough room to deliver a perfect cross to a cutting Juan Pablo Aimar to make the score 3-1.

Carlos Tevez sealed the match with a well-timed run that beat the U.S. team's offside trap followed by a beautiful finish to make the final score 4-1.

What did you think of the result? Are you angry, Was the first half promising enough for you to come away somewhat pleased? Do you want Bob Bradley fired (If you do you need to calm down)? Share your thoughts on the match below.

COPA AMERICA: U.S.A-Argentina (My running commentary)

Here is the running commentary on tonight's Copa America match between the U.S. national team and Argentina.

Here we go, follow along by clicking the link below:

COPA AMERICA: US Lineup vs. Argentina (OFFICIAL)

So much for that phantom lineup.

The US starting lineup for tonight's match against Argentina is actually the lineup I posted this morning so there are no surprises. Here it is:

-----------Twellman-------Johnson---------------

Mapp----------------------------------------Olsen

--------------Feilhaber---Clark------------------

Bornstein---------------------------------Wynne

--------------DeMerit---Conrad-----------------