Tag Archives: Confederations Cup

Confederations Cup: USA 2-3 Brazil

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Though it was a huge game with a crazy result, this is going to be a pretty short post.  I honestly think the game can be summed up in pretty short terms and my “analysis” is pretty straightforward.

In our matches against Egypt and Spain we showed that we could come out with energy and force the game to our strengths.  We did it in a team riding high against Egypt and we did it against the best team in the world against Spain to reach the finals against one of the most storied national teams in soccer history.

For the first 45 minutes of the final we did the same thing.  We came out with energy, pressured and absorbed pressure defensively, and pounced on Brazil when they made mistakes finding ourselves up 2-o at the half.  So what happened?

It comes down to two things for me.  We ran out of gas and we didn’t compensate for Kaka.

First, I’ll say that them scoring less than a minute into the second half of the game was a huge blow to our psyche.  The first and last five minutes of each half of any game are critical.  The first five minutes of a game can set the tone.  The last five minutes of a half can determine a huge shift in momentum and team confidence.  The first five of the second half; another chance to set tone.  The final five minutes are often about who wants it more.  My only comment on the goal itself is that Demerit got extremely unlucky.  He was in Fabiano’s face and nine time out of ten he blocks that shot.  This one squeezed through his legs and past Howard.

That first goal took quite a bit of wind out of our sails and I could see the energy level drop.  Its hard enough to maintain the emotional and energetic high we were riding coming off the Spain match.  Instead of continuing to take the game to Brazil we started just trying to hang on.  There’s only so long we could hold on against a team like Brazil.  We got fatigued, started losing our shape, and didn’t maintain the defensive positioning that carried us through the previous two matches.

Our failure to deal with Kaka was likely due in part to fatigue, but we needed to make a strategic adjustment that we didn’t make.  Kaka generally takes up a position in the center of the field, but started wandering to the wings in order to get the ball in space.  This lead to significant overloads on one side of the field, or an open player on the backside to receive crosses.  As a result our center backs started getting stretched and contributed to our lack of shape on defense.

When it comes down to it, they were better in the 45 minutes they won than we were in the 45 minutes we won.  Make no mistake, we handily won the first 45 minutes of that match.    I come away from this game with equally deep feelings of pride for our performance and bitter disappointment in the result.  As they say, experience is one of the best teachers, and this past two weeks has given us some great experiences that we must learn from if we have any dreams of advancing into the deeper stages of the World Cup next summer.

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Confederations Cup: USA 2-0 Spain

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I know I’m a game late on this, but wanted to throw my thoughts out there anyway.  (plus my brother asked why I was slacking off)

Count me as one of those that thought a win against Spain was impossible for the US.  Oh how I enjoyed being proven wrong.

In thinking back over the game, three basic factors lead to the result, as I see it.  One could easily see this wasn’t the sharpest performance from the Spanish,  we figured out a way to force the game to our strengths, and the US players had the right approach to the game.

The Spanish

Bottom line, Spain didn’t play all that well.  I would say, though, that there is considerable room for argument on how much that’s due to them playing pourly and us forcing them to play poorly.  There are a lot of reports that they didn’t take their preparation for the game seriously.  I’m sure they didn’t take us seriously as an opponent despite their lip service prior to the match, but I think the energy and chip-on-the-shoulder attitude we brought to the match had a noticeable impact on the Spanish play.  I thought the pressure by Charlie Davies up front had a significant impact on Spanish trying to start their buildup to attack.

The Gameplan

For all the grief that Bob Bradley got following the first Brazil match for tactical difficienies (some from me) he was a Rembrandt on this game.  Our center backs are tall, strong, and had been playing well.  One of the Spanish strengths is creative play through the middle.  We really clogged the middle, forced the ball out wide and depended on Onyewu and Demerit to win a lot of headers and crosses into the box to help defend.  Between their exceptional play, Howard being on top of his game, and the overall team shape on defense throughout the game, it was going to be extremely difficult for Spain to score.

The Effort

All the effort that finally showed itself in the Egypt game was there in spades against Spain.  We flourish in the underdog role and you don’t get any more underdog than playing the number team in the world as a surprise participant in a major FIFA semi-final.  It doesn’t appear to me that we do well with pressure as the favored team, and a great deal of relaxation comes for us as underdogs allowing us to play our best.

While there will be skeptics and detractors that will say the US was lucky, I think this was a very solid win by the US.  We had a gameplan that we executed exceptionally well and stuck to, and we capitalized on the mistakes that Spain made.  Without question, this is going to go down as one of my favorite USMNT memories.  It gets filed right alongside waking up at three in the morning to watch the 2002 World Cup knockout stage win against Mexico.

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Confederations Cup: Italy 3-1 US

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Okay, so I’m several days late on this one so I’m going to make it really quick.

First match of the Confederations Cup against Italy was sort of painful to watch.  We started out better than I expected us to play.  My hopes were sort of dashed when Ricardo Clark got a red card.  My hopes were given back when we got a PK and I thought we might be able to steal a point.  Then they were dashed again when we sort of fell apart in the second half, at least partly from exhaustion.

Here’s my quick thoughts:

  • Clark’s red card was harsh.  It was a dumb tackle, but it was his first foul of the game.  It completely changed the tone and dynamic of the game.  Not saying we would have won, but the game would have gone differently.
  • Jonathan Spector is one of my outside back picks until he screws up bad or someone really good comes along and displaces him.  He may not be the biggest offensive threat, but he positions himself really well on defense and is much stronger there than some of our other options.
  • The most disappointing thing about the game is that the first two goals would have been very easy to at least make more difficult.  No one knows for sure if they could have been prevented, but if someone had stepped forward to pressure the goal scorer in both instances, they don’t get a clean look at goal and we have a better chance of shutting them down.
  • We still aren’t finishing from the run of play.  Donovan set up two perfect opportunities for goals for us and Bradley and Altidore choked it, pure and simple.  I’m a big fan of both of those players, but we can’t afford for get those chances and not put them away.

We play Brazil tomorrow in our second game of the Confederations Cup.  They had much more trouble with Egypt than anyone expected, but I’m not sure if that means Egypt is better than anyone thought or if Brazil is playing worse than they usually do.

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