What went wrong USA
So once the game ended and I stared at my half empty bottle of bourbon I decided to look back and see what really went wrong. Being a soccer player my whole life and coached by some of the best in the MLS (Caleb Porter) I felt like I would be able to come up with some thoughts as to what happened/why.
I first decided to look at our opening line-up vs Ghana since I have a good feeling this is what the USA would have looked like if Jozy had been fit. If you really look at it it's the perfect way for us to use all of our assets properly! You have Jozy and Clint up top to play off of one another, Bradley has plenty of help in the Midfield, and we have great cover with Beckerman. Jozy is best used as a target forward so he can hold the ball up and then Clint can play a little withdrawn behind him (false 9). If you watch the goal Clint picks the ball up at the top of the box from Jones beats a player then from there its classic DUECE! After that you really saw us trying to play Jozy deep and time after time Dempsey was withdrawn there to receive a pass if needed or make the run forward. 20 minutes come up and our hearts drop and you get that downright stomach ache when you see Jozy pull up in pain and go down. Jurgen decides to bring in Aron Johannssen and play the same way but we all saw that it wasnt as effective and Dempsey had to play that target forward with Johannssen withdrawn. However John Brooks Jr. can have multiple drinks on me and they said we werent GHANA do it but the Germerican had other dreams!
Game 2 vs Portugal- After Jurgen saw the pressure/lack of possession we had in the Ghana game he decided to try a 4-5-1 with Dempsey again playing that lone Forward role. This time we got rid of the diamond midfield and played a more defensive shape with 2 Defensive Mids and 2 Wingers/Mids and Bradley was in the middle. From the get go looking at this line-up and the 1st games lineup you can see exactly how much more space Bradley is going to have to cover. Not only will he have to cover but he has to be that 2nd or 3rd guy in the attack, however Bradley is more of a DM, not an AM or withdrawn 9 like Dempsey played vs. Ghana with Jozy. We basically are playing a 5-3-1 if you really want to call it that, look how deep jones and Beckerman are that creates a ton of space in the middle and with only 1 true middle player that spells trouble. Yeah in the game it changes a little bit but we honestly couldnt connect 3 passes to break out of our defensive zone. Everything was kick it long and have Dempsey chase, again thats not Dempseys style or his strength. Yeah he should be able to play multiple roles but to compare the 2. Its like telling Logan to play TE and QB.. oh wait he did. Its like having your slot receiver run go routes all game. Hes not going to be very productive but he will do it. Back to the game, Bradleys lack of control/patience in the midfield was very visible and he seemed flustered with no help. What can you say; he basically had 1-2 options to pass the ball and really only 1 good option every time he got it. It hurt us because every time we tried to play out turnover or bad pass or a good pass but just not in the right position to receive it and play again.
Game 3- Tim Howard was an absolute beats, played his heart out for his last WC game ever but came up short. The key moment of that game was when Lukaku came on and was playing against some tired and heavy legged USA defenders. That's just not fair, Lukaku is an animal, and for Belgium to have him on the bench is just unreal. However Origi did what he needed to do, run the US defenders to Brussels and back multiple times. We had to put numbers forward so Wondo comes on in the 80th minute and has some chances 93rd minute, somehow wouldnt have counted but there was a Belgian player on the post Had that gone in and the sideline ref called offsides oh boy talk about messy. But if you look back Wondo played Jozys role, Dempsey got back to his false 9 role and Bradley was in his DM/CM role. In Extra Time Bradley is able to pick the ball up and have 3,4,5 options going forward, yes we were pushing numbers up but this is where Bradley is magical. He has time and space, when you pressure Bradley he isnt as sharp/crisp. When he has time he plays great balls (fabians goal vs Turkey) and the ball to Green was classic Bradley, a peach of a ball over the top. In the end we were able to see the brute force Lukaku has and the man can finish. Id also like to welcome Kevin De Bruyne to the scene as he was Belgiums engine in the Midfield. Absolute tank with all the right pieces to become something special like a robben( minus the diving). The ball De Bruyne played for Lukakus goal was world class. How many times do you see someone put it to far in front or to fast or just not right, That ball was pristine, magical, orgasmic (you name it, it fits) and from there on out were in big trouble.
Screw Belgian Waffles and Chocolate, I prefer Hershey chocolate and Pie! #TeamPie
Key Points-
Jozy- I think the biggest reason we failed to control the ball and keep possession was the loss of Jozy. He gave us the flexibility to attack/kick it up and he could hold possession and play Dempsey and then were off. Once that changed youre trying to change the way the US has played for months. Look at all the warmup games lineup, its this Ghana formation. To change on the fly and have it work well or even somewhat well is extremely tough. Youre asking 2-3 players to change their roles and be more attacking/ play a different way and its going to take a while. Yes we saw glimpses of magic in each game, but the biggest factor was not being able to do it consistently.
Dempsey- Dempsey is not a lone striker; he is the perfect false 9. That means he will play a little withdrawn behind Jozy, collect the ball/header/pass and then find the wingers or Bradley making his run up to help. It worked so well in the 20 minutes of the Ghana game, we pressured and had some good chances. Once you put him on an island basically with only Bradley and maybe Zusi to help as we saw its not going to be too productive.
Jurgen- The guy is an absolute genious and for anyone that was giving him ZIMA before the world cup should go back to whooville. We had a young team, but the biggest reason we did well and never gave up was because it was a perfect balance between old and new. Jurgen was not afraid to put on youth and let them go, Yedlin played extremely well and has a bright future. Green scored a fantastic goal; the run he made was first class, Van Persie, Rooney, Sturridge like. He checked away then bolted toward the middle at an angle and then it wasnt the prettiest finish but damn it worked. Give Jurgen until 2018 and we will have a very special team for sure. He has a lot of young talent to work with but we also have some major holes. Howard, Jones, Beasley.
Ok Awards time!!!
Most Consistent Player- DeMarcus Beasley the guy busted his ass 90+ minutes every game, tracking back creating chances in the attack and really shutting down his side.
Secretary of Defense- Tim Howard I have no idea what life will be without Howard and I am a little nervous. However its been an absolute pleasure to watch the man play at the highest level for years. He is a top 5 keeper in the World easily and does so much for Club (Everton) and Country- USA!!!
Youngster of Tournament- This one was tough but Im going with DeAndre Yedlin- He came on in multiple games with 20 minutes to go and made instant impact. He set up the goal vs Portugal and had many crosses that were spot on. Ohh and he defended like a veteran and hes only 20, the future is bright for this man.
It was a great run, and I am so proud of our country for coming together and showing that soccer is a big sport in the US and its only going to continue to grow. The players did great getting out of the group and just came up short when it mattered. Yes we traveled the most out of every team, yes we were young but god damn were American and proud of it.
Comments
I feel like the two biggest things that went wrong for us against Belgium was losing Altidore from the start of the tournament and losing Johnson 30 minutes in. Had Johnson not gone down, I think the subs would have been Beckerman for Gonzalez, Wondo for Zusi still, and then either Yedlin or Green for Cameron. I wasn't a huge fan of the starting lineup Jurgen put out there against Belgium, but I'm sure he saw something he wanted to use with that group that I didn't see.
I think he tried to say oh we're playing a 4-3-3 and then it was our normal 4-5-1. Belgiums Wing backs had 0 defensive responsibility and could attack all game long. Also we looked tired and gassed, If Fabian hadn't got injured I think yedlin comes in and we get a goal late on. Cameron played well to break things up but the early Yellow Card seemed to tame him a bit, which is normal
Great breakdown here, nice work. You can sit around and say what could've been if Jozy were healthy, but the fact is we'll be back here in 4 years, and I honestly can't wait.
We needed to deploy less wingers, and more biters.
I think an all-out buffet run down the left side of their defense would have gotten us a couple of easy wickets for sure.
I think Belgium was just a lot better and if it weren't for Howard it would have been a 5-0 blowout or worse.
I don't know enough about soccer to break things down like JC did so well here. But it just seemed pretty simple to me when watching it yesterday.
The biggest thing is depth.. They have a lot of depth and their players play in top leagues. Not saying MLS isn't a good league but EPL, LA LIGA ect are better top to bottom.
Imagine if We had a Jozy 2.0 or a Jones 2.0- Belgium has that.. Hazard= Mertens, Witsel, De Bruyne
Not to mention they have 3-5 Forwards and different abilites.
Anybody feel like this might be Bradley's last go at WC? Not kicking him (for lack of better) but he just never really returned to peak form and got exposed...a lot.
Him settling for the MLS is what really hurt him, yes he came back to the USA but he isn't as crisp on the ball as he was at Roma.
I am unsure how much the quality of the MLS has to do with it. Roma didn't want him anymore and he needed to play. I just think he was in the wrong role. He was a deep lying midfielder playing too far forward because of personnel deficiencies on this team. As you pointed out, he plays best with more options in front of him, which he doesn't have from the top/middle of the diamond. With a holding forward, false 9, and tight midfielders in close support, it would have been interesting if he would have had the same issues.
Great article and well led discussion.
The Roma coach seemed to legitimately want him on the team.
Problem was he was being given playing time in games where they wanted to keep a lead, or against teams where they felt they could win without an attacking force at his position.
In a situation like that you can bury your head, do the wrong thing. Accept the criticism as valid and work on the skills you need to become a forward middie. Don't know MB, but from the way he played in this tournament I don't think he accepted the criticism and worked on skills.
Kid could be a great forward middie, but he has to work very hard at it for a number of years. I don't see him as a LDonavan or a Dempsey... I think a transformation into a BFeilhaber (at his best, with MB's physical qualities) is probably as good as it gets for MB. As it was he is a world class defensive middie who showed horribly because of playing out of position.
Nah. Players have bad tournaments sometimes. Heck Messi hasn't had a good world cup until this one.
But I will think he will have a different (more ideal for him) role next time around.
If we can get a (at that point) 21 year old Gedion Zelalem in the #10 role, we're going to be a good team. Bradley sitting behind him in the B2B role would be magnificent.
He was brilliant in 2010, but that guy didn't show up in 2014. He has four years to get back into form and regain his confidence, which didn't exist this time around. You may be right, he may have peaked in South Africa, but I think he has it in him to get back.
I hope so. Aside from Donovan, Altidore & Howard he's one of my faves.
US had a great chance of defeating Belgium towards the end of regulation if Chris Wondolowski didnt miss a wide open scoring chance . Altidore or Dempsey would have scored.
Wouln't have counted as Linesman said he was offside.. But in the replay he was nowhere near offsides, if that had gone it and it gets called back what a mess it would be. If thats Lukaku, De Bruye, Mertens, Hazard= goal.
US lacks depth and major scoring options, however with Jurgen in charge those will come. We relied on Dempsey and Donovan for to long and now it bit us in the neck like Chewy Suarez did to Chiellini.
The linemen did not say it was offside. The commentators thought the linemen said that. The goal would have counted.
That's what I thought I heard, but BWW was very loud at that moment. Sounded like Ian said the linesman was only signaling the goal kick.
As the father of a keeper, I know that the best game a keeper can have is one, maybe two saves, and the rest of the game is perhaps a touch or two and boredom. You have to cringe when a keeper is that overworked. Howard has been my son's favorite player for a long time, and yesterday was a great display of why he's so highly though of in our house and our country. What a performance. If Howard retired today, it would be like a drop-the-mic-walk-off.
Can't take credit for this, but I'll just leave this here:
#thingstimhowardcouldsave
Mike Londons job?
not even tim howard can save that...
That is both fantastic and accurate.
I won't be worried one bit about the goalkeeper position. If there's one thing we do right, it's goalkeepers. Hell Guzan and Rimando both could have started on several of the other 32 teams in this tournament.
Yeah, the one thing the US is good at is producing really good goalkeepers. Apparently, one of the big factors in this that kids in the US are brought up playing sports that require a lot of hand-eye coordination (baseball, football, basketball, etc.) - so it translates well to goal.
and thus ends the only factoid of US Soccer that I know.
Goalie is the glory position for US players. Or at least that's how I remembered it when I was playing soccer in elementary school. Everybody during recess or for their soccer team wanted to play in goal because it was such a big deal that you could use your hands. Expect that glorification to multiply exponentially after Tim Howard has become a living legend. There are going to be tons of kids who want to be the next Tim Howard. The problem is we need kids who want to be the next Dempsey, Green, Donovan, etc. We'll always have good keepers, we need offensive stars.
Still a little of goalie as god happening today, but striker is where most kids gravitate today. I don't think that's a bad thing, as we desperately need skilled athletes who would play other professional sports to settle here.
Letme just go ahead and say from a completely unbiased and totally neutral opinion we all know keeper is the best position EVER EVER and its for men and studs....and occasionally meteorologists
I'm not an international soccer fan (in fact it's the one sports genre I love to hate on as a spectator), so I may be off on my assessment. But I am a sports patriot. And as a good sports patriot I watched the USMNT play Portugal, Germany, and Belgium. What seemed obvious to me was that the level of athleticism (excepting Tim Howard) greatly favored Germany and Belgium (and also Portugal when they felt like turning it on). The Germans and Belgians both seemed faster, had better ball skills, more situational/player awareness, dominated the 50/50s, and seemed to make fewer mistakes. I don't understand strategy to anywhere near the degree of some of the folks on this site, but I'm kinda' thinking that until the US starts putting better athletes on the field, strategy will get us out of the group round (which is apparently a significant achievement for the US) but won't carry us any further.
we have good athletes IE yedlin, or josh gatt that just dont have the technical ability that the europeans have. players like eden hazard dont just grow on trees, its going to take a rebuilding from the ground up and we're definitely heading in the right direction. Julian green is a prime example, we need players like him who are quick and technical to take the top off of the defence, so that slower players like michael bradley can deliver that game changing pass that splits the defence open. Spain mastered it at the last world cup. As far as athleticism goes they (Spain) probably have three guys on the entire team that could keep up with germany, but their passing and their technical ability was beyond incredible (even if it was dull as hell to watch sometimes). We've gotta get better at the technical aspect, so you can see players do clever little flicks like Dempsey did a few times last night more consistently
Fun fact, Yedlin is the first American to feature in a World Cup that was brought up through the MLS academy system. Times are in fact changing.
And yeah our young players right now are looking a lot more promising technically than the old guard. With a little more time, I think the issues that plagued us this time around (sloppy passing, bad first touches, etc.) will start to go away.
Yeah, it seemed like the US lost every one-on-one battle when they had possession, forcing them to rely on a fast break style of offense. And once they inevitably lost possession, they would revert back to a very conservative style of play that seemed like "playing not to lose." Again, I may have no idea what I'm talking about but that's what it seemed like to me.
all in good time sir. stay patient with the youth coming through it takes a few generations of players to get the technical ability to beat people one on one consistently. Julian Green (and hopefully a few of the other guys we might be able to lure to US nationality) are probably the first players we've had that can take players on in a regular basis. (dempsey was pretty damn good at it too) that being said all of that will come with time and better youth development, which is what we're getting close to now. The effort is there, the intensity is there, and the positioning and soccer knowledge is there, its just a matter of time until our technical abilities catch up
Yeah, we didn't have much of a midfield.
Every time we got the ball, we'd push it up the field quickly, including playing some long balls. Since we didn't have the ability to break down a defense when they had numbers, we'd lose the ball and they'd be able to push it right back up into or near to our defensive third of the field (because the midfield didn't exist).
This played into a few of the big problems we had, including being unable to maintain possession. We were under siege most of the game yesterday (and a good chunk of the time in the other games) because we couldn't build an attack by working our way down the field with control of the ball, and maintain control of the ball in the attacking third while picking our way through the defense.
Italy plays this counterattacking style very well, but we shouldn't be modeling ourselves after them. At least I hope we won't.
god no i hate watching italy play. I'd [refer to be modeled after the germans, high pressing and aggressive
So what are our chances of having Zelalem for 2018?
oh god i hope he goes red white and blue, hes what this team has been missing
He started applying for US Citizenship in May. So I think probably pretty good. We're competing with Germany and Ethiopia. I think we're in good shape though, his dad has been repping USA pretty hard lately.
That's good news. We need him badly.
yeah it would completely change the outlook of our team. I hate to be relient on a 21 year old at the world cup, but it would let bradley sit deeper in his role where hes certainly better, partnered up with whom I assume will be kyle beckerman.
in an unrelated note, you know who i've always felt really bad for? Stuart Holden. that guy was pretty good and its ashame he had such bad knee problems
WaPo Article on Zelalem and US eligibility from May.
could you imagine this lineup we might actually be really competitive
-----------------Green-----------Altidore-----------Yedlin
----------------------------------Zelalem
----------------------Diskerud------------Bradley
---------* (insert LB)--------Gonzales------Brooks------Chandler
---------------------------------- Guzan
Witness the most complete US team we've seen in a while
sorry my first attempt at that didnt work out to hot
Johnson and Besler should be in I think, I thought they both looked pretty good this cycle and both are young.
i thought besler was more of a CB? i definitely agree johnson should be on though i thought he was older
Besler is a CB, and I'd have him in above Gonzalez, unless something drastic changes between the two in the next 4 years (and it could). But I think those 3 could make a solid rotation. Can't remember USA ever having 3 solid CBs.
And Johnson is 26 now, so he may be starting to decline by 2018 but not by much, and I think he'll be a starter. He was one of our best players this time around.
Just wondering what is was with Dempsey that has you dropping him so quickly? If I am not mistaken, both he and Bradley were playing out of position.
Age. He'll be 35 for the next world cup. It's crazy to think that Howard is still playing at 35 right now in a position where your body probably takes more of a beating than anywhere else. Just goes to show how beastly he is.
yeah but GK's are at their best form age 33+ look at Buffon..
Keepers can and often do play into their 40's... not too unusual.
True, given that they don't have to sprint and just have to maintain their speed in reaction, they can keep playing longer. But the oldest keeper to ever start in the World Cup was 40 years old. I have no doubt that he will continue playing the game, but I think he's reaching his peak.
EDIT: Added "to ever start" in the qualification for oldest GK in the World Cup. Colombia had a 43-year old GK set the record for oldest player to ever play in a World Cup this year as a substitute.
Yeah I don't expect Howard to be the starter at 39. Which means he likely won't be in the squad. But while that's sad, we have some badass keepers waiting in the wings.
speaking of which that was a CLASS act
Absolutely. To me, that's like playing your senior backup quarterback for the last drive of the game on senior day when the game is in the bag.
especially considering he was around when the whole debacle with the columbian national team went down in the early 90s
That is what I figured but Beckerman will be 36.
Yeah I figure it'll be a different midfielder pairing in with Bradley. Maybe someone like Danny Williams.
oh snap i meant mix my bad, iunno how i got the two flipped up
I like that much better. I don't know why we didn't get to see him at all. I thought he was playing well and adding another dimension to the game when he came on in the friendlies leading up to the WC.
Hmm, I didn't think he looked too great in the warmups. I thought he looked a bit lost out there. But I do have hopes for him.
i mean the guys in his early 20s he'll develop, theres a ton of promise in him
Oh I think he's looked very good at other times before, just not leading up to this cup.
I'd have him on here no doubt if he can keep that level of play up, but 35 for a mid/forward is getting up there. You dont see to many of those that werent world class players (IE Drogba Eto) on teams where theres not as much talent. and as good as dempsey has been hes not world class by any stretch of the imagination
The only way I see Dempsey on the roster for the 2018 World Cup is in a reserve role, but I don't think that will even happen.
exactly thats what im saying
what do you mean by awhile? Ever?
I'm just gonna tell you something you told me..."thank God you're not coaching USMNT." That being said, I agree with most.
quit trolling dude
Nobody's trolling.
I think more went right than wrong in the tournament. Things are definitely moving in the right direction.
Klinsman really picked a very strange lineup. The deployment of a holding forward only works when that guy is a proven goal scorer. Dempsey would have served as a playmaker that makes the holding forward better. But when Altidore goes down, he didn't have sufficient confidence to move another forward in and allow Demps to play make. So he moves Demps up at forward, where, god bless the boy, but he gets eaten alive. He is a guy who gets to goal not on his own but in combination of other threats being covered. As a center forward, we were in big trouble with Demps up top. The german guy made me feel very badly for Demps. Owned all night.
When he then needs to find a playmaking middie because Demps has been moved out he picks Bradley and to some extent Jones. Bradley just got crushed there. For a guy who wanted to be playmaker, he didn't look like he had thought about what it takes to play there. Jones looked like a better playmaker than Bradley. Bradley is a world class defensive middie and he played like poop as an offensive middie.
If you don't understand comparative advantage you are too stupid to coach. Klinsmann may be too stupid. Should have pushed a forward in, kept dempsey as playmaker and kept Bradley as d-middie where he is extremely good.
Hate to say it but even if Landon brings his g-friends v-gina with him he makes a very big difference for us this cup.
Our guys have a lot more technical ability, but Klinsmann didn't trust it. Just wanted to shell and counter attack and hope it got us through. At the end of the game is not the time to show technical proficiency because you're tired, but we looked pretty good when it was time to pour some gas on it.
Don't know if we have a good US coach, but perhaps if a guy like Ramos is smart and proficient, maybe its a time to give him a shot.
No i don't think its hyperbole. Demps gets crushed. Bradley gets crushed. Two best guys playing out of position at maybe 50% of their capability. Flat out sh***y game plan. Johanson as forward and I believe Demps plays much better, Bradley extremely well. Think we'd still be playing, talking about the technical skills of our players instead of what a bunch of shelling counter attacking team we are.
Congrats to Yedlin... his play against Hazard will earn that boy an international contract. He might not have won the war / battles but he showed he is game with the right team wanting to develop him. Kid could play for 15 years like Lamm, Cole, etc.
I agree with very little here.
First of all the major failing might have been not having another striker who could hold up play on this roster. None of Johannsson, Wondo, and no, not even Donovan, can do this. Eddie Johnson is the major absence, but he has been bad lately too so it's hard to say. We were dealt a crap hand when Jozy went down, and I think we did one of the only things we could do to make up for it. And we escaped the group of death doing it. I think Jurgen looks damn good because of that.
Also, Bradley is not a defensive midfielder. He's a box to box midfielder. There's a big difference there. Don't buy the Alexi Lalas ramblings that tell you otherwise, trust me that guy has no idea what's going on.
THIS! As it was mentioned before, our biggest problem with our roster was depth, not talent. We didn't have anyone who could play Jozy's role other than Jozy. So losing him, we were immediately handicapped and playing on our heels.
the only field player that did not see time on the 23 man roster was mix diskerud. That's crazy to think about, however if you really think about it did we need davis? Yeah he can serve in a good ball but isn't that what zusi was used for. Not to mention davis took 0 corners or set pieces.
Seems like you quibbled quite a bit and put some definitions out there for all of us to learn from.
Comparative advantage is when you trade off one disadvantage for another disadvantage and are better off for it.
So... picking a forward... maybe Dempsey is the best forward, but by putting Johansson, Wondo or Donovan on you are better off because Demps gets to play forward when others are not looking and Demps gets to create and work from a deeper set.
As a coach it is Klinsmans job to make these trade-offs. Beyond that Jozy as a center piece to your World Cup strategy? Ummmm.... big stretch to see how, and I really like the kid, that kid in a holding or other forward role is a centerpiece to a World Cup strategy. Any coach making him a centerpiece with no viable plan B, should be fired as long as you think you have a viable upgrade.
Call Bradley what you will defensive midfielder box to box... he was valued at midfield at Roma for his defensive contributions and workrate. When they needed offense he came out. When they needed to protect a lead he came in.
Have no idea what Lalas has to say about it, but Bradley has become a much better deep lying distributor. But a deep lying distributor does not make a forward middie.
Bradley and Dempsey playing in their more natural formidable roles would have changed this cup for the US. Your best players don't go to the most impactful positions. They go to the positions where they can have the most relative impact. Klinsmann did a horrible strategic planning job with this team.
There's a big big difference between a defensive midfielder and a box to box, so I felt that distinction needed to be made.
I also didn't care for your accusation that a professional player and coach is "stupid". Anytime a mere fan throws that kinda stuff around I start to look for bias and misinformation. And I saw a lot of it honestly.
I would say that Jurgen didn't plan his whole world cup strategy around Jozy but having a big strong forward who can hold the ball up and let us get out of the defensive zone is huge in many ways. But it definitely impacted the way we were going to play and then when he goes down we have to play a completely different way because our lack of depth up top.
Look at Lukaku for example.. once they brought him on it was 100% about him and getting him the ball because he can make plays. However they started with Origi who just ran at the us defenders, he was the jet plane and Lukaku was the tank that just f'd up the bass big time and was MOTM for Belgium.
If you watch the Inside US Soccer thing that ESPN/30 for 30 did before the World Cup (like I did last night) every player and Jurgen all say throughout the episodes how important Jozy is to the team. Howard says that everything they do runs through Jozy and both he and Jurgen basically say that he's the most important player on the team. Jurgen said he planned for Jozy going down, "God forbid", but that no one else on the squad could really do what Jozy does.
except donovan was never good at holding up play either, and neither was johansson we saw that in the ghana game. Noone else on the US team could replicate what jozy gave us, and a lot of our game plan was clearly developed around that. It'd be like oh i dont know funneling your entire gameplan around logan thomas and then having him get hurt and expecting the backup to lightup the scoreboard. If youve been preparing a certain way for a LONGASS TIME you cant just change it overnight.
While I'll agree bradley didnt look good at the No. 10 role what other option did we have? We've tried jones before and that didnt quite work out ... things just didnt quite work out for us this time around and still we made it much further than most predicted. Klinssman is a great coach, and hes done some great things already with this team. Furthermore he did something very similar with germany about 6 years ago, and caught a ton of flak but the team they have now definitely has to thank him somewhat for giving them a chance. Noone knew who schwiensteiger or lahm or podolski were going into the 2006 world cup...look at them now
I agree that Klinsmann did a GREAT job getting us out of the group and easily through the qualifying rounds. He made more gutsy correct calls than wrong ones. I thought his in game substitutions worked everytime (with the exception of Wondo). I liked his attitude on the sideline, in press conferences, and his interaction with the players.
However, he must take some criticism for some choices. He put his best players in positions where they were less than optimal (Bradley and Dempsey). We played some different formations in qualifying and warm up games and they were completely ignored in Brazil. If Jurgen thought Jozy was the only holding forward capable of performing at that level, fine, but be able to change formations when he eventually tires. I just don't think the coaching staff recognized that their entire game plan revolved around Jozy. It affected more than just our scoring opportunities, we struggled to get the ball clear. Without the ability to move past the middle third quickly, we kept inviting the opposing defenders to play higher up the field. Going to a 4-4-2 with Dempsey and Johannson up top might've been an interesting way of pulling some opposing defenders towards their own goal.
At least he's not Low, playing 6 players out of position each game. If he'd get over himself, Germany could dominate this tournament.
You're not kidding. I pull for Germany as long as they're not playing the US. Their games have been frustrating to say the least.
In defense of Wondo, that was not a great opportunity and I wasn't surprised at all when he missed it. He had no angle to put it in other than top shelf and that was a tiny tiny window. The keeper was all over him. The better chance was Dempsey off the free kick that Bradley had.
It would've helped if he kept his eye on the ball, instead of looking at the oncoming goalie.
I guess nobody will confuse him for James Rodriguez, eyes/head never lose focus on the ball:
What really bothers me about this is not missing the kick, any kick like this is difficult. Rodrigruez blasting that ball is beautiful but so many times it goes in a completely different direction than what you expect. What really bothers me is #15 on Belgium locking down Jones with both arms on that header. In a fair world that's a penalty kick.
He also had the option to center the ball
This is where I stopped reading.
yeah, that's ridiculous and I agree with the main point which was mine as well. The biggest issue was the lineup and gameplan to counter. that's what killed us. I think Klinsmann made a poor choice to try to survive the game and look for the opportunistic goal rather than play more aggressive and let the younger players attack.
I am excited about where soccer will be going in the U.S. within the next 10 years. I think if we got 2022 as well as where our development should be at, I actually believe we could make it to the semis and be equal in skill.
I had reffed soccer in Virginia Beach for about 15 years. Stopped this past year due to job taking too much time. Beach FC and Virginia Rush are the prominent clubs where I live and they are developing 6-10 year olds at an academy level. The change of style in coaching is making drastic changes in developing intelligent and creative players. Heck some of these kids have better touches, skill, field awareness, etc than players that are 16 and on the higher level teams of said clubs.
I wont really give too much of my opinion on the players of this World Cup. I was severely disappointed in some individual play but can see how Jozy getting hurt really changed a great deal of how we had to go about games. We did better than expected but we could have definitely shown better.
I hope you are right in that we can fast track development of players. I once heard/read a European coach/commentator after the 1998 world cup debacle say that the US was developing very quickly and shouldn't be surprised by the stop/start nature of US soccer development and the lack of world class stars. Comparing the development to basketball, he said it took us 90 years to make Michael Jordan. It took generations of improving skill and coaching talent to make the US basketball dream team. It took 1000s of highly competitive players to build competitive leagues where the better players and coaches could improve and pass that knowledge to another generation that starts slightly ahead of the previous generation. Several generations of building to get to Michael Jordan and a team of basketball stars like the dream team.
That is why I always am excited when there is evidence that the next generation is surpassing the previous one. We are building, step by step, towards a really exciting group of players, capable of challenging the best teams around.
I played in NCSL for Reston and we played against some of those clubs from other parts of VA in a lot of tournaments and state cup.
Beach FC was always good, and Williamsburg Blast was good (I think there was another Williamsburg team, too, but can't remember their names). Those were always the big two from SEVA.
We had some NoVA teams from McLean that were ok, but nothing special, and Braddock Road had a good (read: state cup and eventual national club champion) team too (this is the team where Clarence Goodson, former center back for the USMNT came from, along with David Stokes, formerly of DC United, and Abe Thompson, formerly of...Dallas Burn?...and I think all three may have been on that National Championship Maryland team from...2002? That team was stacked. Brian Carroll was also on the Springfield club team).
Some other areas, like Stafford and western VA, tried to field good teams, but couldn't really keep up. I think my old Reston coach created a club in NoVA, I think it's called Reston FC.
Now the Williamsburg club is called Virginia Legacy. Can't remember what they used to be called.
What I noticed about the NOVA clubs is players moved around a lot between the clubs. They all mostly were pretty good, but the top ones always switched around.
SW Va has Roanoke Star, but that's pretty much it. They had a player play for one of the Junior national teams and then went on to play in Europe. Don't know what happened to him.
Central Va has 3 clubs now that are the prominent ones FC Richmond, Richmond Strikers and Richmond Kickers.
Yeah in Nova there was some trading of players around. My team lost a guy or two from that.
I forgot about the Richmond Strikers and the Roanoke Star. Strikers were always near the top back in the day, Roanoke, well, they were a little farther.
US men soccer goal keeper Tim Howard was tested for drug after his great performance against Belgium.
It was really an attempt to get some of his DNA to clone him and sell his clones to other countries for their World Cup teams of the future.
I think they test a few players randomly after every game. Near the end of the games you can see the drug testing guy standing next to the benches. Last I heard, no one had ever failed a drug test at the WC.
Latest word is that Yedlin is on a "delayed transfer" to Roma. Good news for him. The MLS is growing rapidly but he'll benefit from fighting for first team minutes over there. And I like Roma, they have a very Hokie color scheme.
Official word: he's transferred to Roma but completing the season on loan in Seattle, great news for him and US soccer in general. Hell be competing for time on a champions league team at the RB position I look forward to great things from him
Its not just AS Roma. The city colors of Rome are essentially maroon and orange. Went there for my honeymoon last year, and it was amusing to see even the city workers decked out in maroon and orange from head to toe.
This is the flag of the city of Rome:
The more you know! I just always knew I loved Roma's kits. I've considered buying their shirt many times even though I'm not really a fan of any Italian team.
hah, yeah same here. Very nearly bought one myself when I was there, but everything seemed to cheaply made, I passed.
As for the city sweepers... check out this uniform:
Well congrats gents I'm officially a recruited Roma fan!!!!
Don't really have much to say about what went wrong for the US. We pretty much played the game we had to, and when everything broke right for us, Wondo missed the net. That right there should have been the game, and we would have been the ones losing to Argentina.
Ok, with that said, the forwards SERIOUSLY need some work in the upcoming years. Once we got the ball, we were great from our end all the way through the midfield areas, but once we got into the final 20, we were plagued with errant pass after errant pass. We tried to force things into areas that didn't exist, and we played much, much faster than we needed to. Bradley was especially bad with the ball on his foot in an attacking position. That's the main reason we lost... we just couldn't get anything going. We just need more players with more experience playing against good competition. We looked very, very green out there.
Yeah. An awful lot changed for us when our first two strikers were unavailable after game 1.
Don't know if this had an effect on his play, but Bradley did have a procedure on his foot during a bye week at the end of April. Something to do with a nerve issue.
Well, we WERE very green out there. Then, we put in a guy NAMED Green, who may have been the greenest of the green, then he scored.
I thought out inability to form a cohesive attack stemmed from the fact that we always pushed the ball all the way up the field instead of settling the ball and building from the midfield. We played a counterattacking offensive strategy, so much so that the midfield never caught up.
I love michael bradley but the guy was not in his most comfortable position. Thats not jurgen's fault either, the US has just been lacking a NO. 10 for as long as I've been alive...hell maybe forever. Dempsey is the closest thing we have, and wondo and johansson proved why we needed dempsey up top. We needed some type of creativity up there and he was the only player on the roster who could provide it. Green was a huge get for it, but i think zelalem (sp?) is even more crucial, we DESPERATELY need a player at his position that can glue the front and back together, and make that creative pass, or touch to create space for altidore and the strikers
I think Johannsson might have been the next option up top, but he's now having ankle surgery and will miss the start of his club's season. That tells me he either aggravated an existing condition during the Ghana game, or picked up a brand new injury. Either way I don't think he was available after Ghana. I wish he was because I think he'd have been the closest thing to a #9 (which we needed) up front.
he didnt really wow me in the ghana game either. Whether he was hurt or whatever, jurgen seemed like he was avoiding using him, in which case we needed dempsey up top even more giving us EVEN FEWER options
Let's be honest, not many people wowed anybody in the Ghana game once Jozy went down. I'd say the positives from that game included Jones, Johnson, and Brooks.
and timmy, gotta give love to timmy always! and yedlin looked good once he was subbed in, he was one of the most plesant surprises of the world cup for me. I also give dempsey credit for being the biggest BAMF in the world too that game
I thought Howard was pretty weak on the allowed goal, but yeah he's always solid. Yedlin did better than expected this cup but he didn't play that game. And Dempsey was a tough MFer to just stay on the field but he didn't exaclty provide much after that point (which is understandable).
i really have to rewatch that game, methinks the beer was hazing my memory a little bit on the substitutes...
as for the ghana goal, at that close of range theres nothing much you can do as a keeper theres a few things you're looking at in build up.
1) defenders and contact, if youre defenders are close enough to body them of the ball you dont want to come out to far and over complicate things for the defender, that backheel probably caught him and the rest of the defence off guard.
2) long touches before shots, typically if a forward takes a quick glance at the net, or if he takes a touch to give himself lots of room to run onto the ball hes getting ready to shoot
3) the way a players hips open depending on which foot is his dominant foot. (yes i know they're professionals and they're good with both feet yadda yadda, but players typically do have a dominant foot). He probably (judging from the replay i just watched) was expecting a right foot rip. Based on the direction his hips were opening howard was in a very good position to make the save. However he took a much more clever flick, instead deciding to hit it with the outside of his left foot (which may or may not be his dominant im at work and cant really look it up). Typically thats a much more risky shot, and kudos to the forward for making it. Furthermore from that distance if youre that far away from the ball you dont really have a ton of time to react. The guy was even closer to the net than a pk taker, that being said yes howard probably should have been more on top of the ball, but he was probably expecting his defenders to not lose their marks.
edit: the left footed shot also had much less of an angle, it was the riskier and dumber shot to make, but he kinda just lucked out. Howard was expecting one across the face of the goal where he had way more angle but the guy took the stupid shot and it worked. Sometimes it just works that way, on another day the forward might have shanked it wide, and half of the country probably wouldnt know john brooks at this point
I'm not saying Howard was bad, but he can and has done better in that situation. Overall I think it wasn't his best performance, though he's almost always a positive for us so I'll concede that. But back to my original point, I'm not going to judge Johannsson based off that game at all, seeing has how he was stuck up there alone with a poor midfield supposedly providing him service that game.
oh i agree, hes a good player, but something was obviously up with him for jurgen to select wondo ahead of him. I think we can both agree that johansson is the younger and more talented of the two
Well... I kind of half agree there.
The fact we were able to push the ball upfield quickly was great, and you kind of want the team to perform like that. What you also want, though, is to then pull it back a bit and wait for your support to get established and then begin working on an attack. That is the part we never got to. We'd push it up, and then immediately try to set something up on goal, and most times, the result was a pass into the teeth of the defense, where the ball was quickly cleared away. Its like the USMNT was trying to go with what Klinsmann was asking them to do, but then eventually just reverted back to the pure counter-attack philosophy that we lived and died by under Bradley in the past. Hopefully, with more years under Jurgen going forward, these habits will be eliminated, and the team will play with far more poise and confidence.
And you're right about the team being green. For the most part, the team we played against Belgium was pretty young, and that certainly bodes well for the future. We showed we can hang with the top teams in the world, even when we're not fully clicking because we have one of the best goalies in the world (and will likely always have a great goalie... its just what we do). We're so close to being a great team, and the talent is there to be a great team, they just need more experience and more polishing of their games.
Good thing is... we didn't give up 5 goals in the first 29 mins of the game... Looking at you, Brazil
This is hilarious to watch. I mean I fear for anyone in the vicinity of that stadium tonight, but dang. I'm feeling good about our 1-0 loss.
germany are playing one of the most complete performances ive ever watched
This was one of the saddest games I've ever seen.
Brazil just flat out didn't show up today. They've always been a team that runs on the spirit of their country and the spirit of the game, but today they were running on fumes.
In one of the press conferences after the game, I believe it was Low who said something along the lines of, 'yeah, we won by a lot, and we played very well, but we shouldn't look too far into this because Brazil did not play well at all'.
Brazil hasn't played with that spirit for several years now. Now they're more concerned with diving and pleading to the ref. Gone are the Ronaldo and Romario days, I fear. Maybe this will wake them up and bring those days back but I'm not holding my breath. I used to cheer for Brazil every 4 years because of the style they played with but it's just not been there. Germany plays the prettiest game now. Some of the passing and movement they display is absolutely the gold standard.