Tag Archives: USMNT

WC Qualifying: USA 1-2 Mexico

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Expected but still disappointing result.

We didn’t look like the same team that played in the last couple of games of the Confed Cup.  We weren’t terrible, but we definitely weren’t at our best.  Just a couple of quick thoughts on the game.

We lost this game in the midfield.  Our lack of ability to possess the ball in midfield, particularly when transitioning from defense to attack was our downfall.  There were way too many simple giveaways when we passed it straight to them instead of moving the ball methodically down the field.  Too often, we cleared the ball from defense, they reset their attack and came back at us.  If you chase the ball on defense that much for that long of a stretch, you’re going to tire and  defensive breakdowns will happen.  Bradley’s substitutions to bring on Holden and Feilhaber to try to maintain some possession were smart and Holden changed the composure of things in the middle of the park a little, but not enough to invigorate our attack or simply allow us to really hold on to the ball.

We were also missing performances from some players that we had to have if we were going to come away with points.  Dempsey was definitely off his game, Donovan showed flashes but wasn’t consistent throughout, Clark didn’t have a great deal of impact in the middle and Bradley was very quiet until the second half.

I guess the good that I saw was that we didn’t give up a goal early even in a ridiculously hostile environment and we didn’t give up.  We battled for the entire game.  I also have to say that I like Charlie Davies more and more every time I watch him play.  I think its sort of ironic that Freddy Adu and Jozy have gotten so much attention, but I see Charlie Davies as the young striker that’s come in and had the greatest impact on the national team.  His goal looked like a true finisher’s goal and I finally have confidence in someone that if they get through on goal he’s going to put it away a majority of the time.

Our next qualifying test comes against El Salvador in Salt Lake City on Sept. 5.  El Salvador currently sits tied for last in qualifying with five points from six games.  That being said, if yesterdays results from other qualifying matches are any indication noone should be taken lightly; all of the lower placed teams won yesterday.

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Gold Cup: Group Stage Review

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The USMNT just finished the group stages of the Gold Cup last night with a draw against Haiti.  Just coming off a busy schedule with the Confederations Cup, we brought in a batch of players that hadn’t been playing with the full senior team lately.  Given the number of players with little to no experience at the senior level, I decided I wasn’t going to do a review after each game.  I wanted to see how things panned out a little before I formed any real opinions.

Now that the first three games are over, I feel like I’ve seen enough play to form some opinions on how we looked and performances from individual players.  This is what I saw from the first three games.

Freddy Adu has a fair distance to go before I’m convinced he belongs on the field.  He’s obviously rusty from not playing, but this was supposed to be his chance to show that he deserved to be considered for regular time with the full team anyway.  Its understandable that his touch is going to be rusty and hit fitness wouldn’t be great, but he just lost possession of the ball way too easily way too many times.  I’m starting to get the feeling that he was overhyped, or he’s just not reaching his full potential.  Bottom line, right now we have too many other options that are much better than him in the midfield.

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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: USA 3-0 Egypt

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So color me shocked.  I’m not really sure what to say about this game.

Obviously, its a great result for the team, but you have to wonder where the kind of energy they showed today was for the first two games of the tournament.  I would also throw out that Egypt isn’t the same kind of team that Brazil or Italy are, but Egypt did beat Italy so we know they’re at least capable of being as good.

Moving on my from confusion, there’s a fair amount of fat to chew on after this one.  Some interesting adjustments to the line-up that I liked.  Charlie Davies got a start up top, Brad Guzan got a rare start with the full men’s team giving Tim Howard a break, and Ricardo Clark was back alongside  Michael Bradley following his one game suspension from the red card against Italy.

I liked the energy that Davies brought to the game, both offensively and defensively.  He seemed to have a good nose for getting in behind the defense with some good diagonal, and his defensive work rate looked to disrupt the Egyptian buildup before it had a chance to get started.  And let’s not forget his contribution with a scrappy goal.  Guzan did well throughout the match showing good control over his box and making the stops he needed to make, though he wasn’t tested a great deal with strong shots on target.  I don’t feel like Clark had as strong an impact on this game as he did against Italy, but he paired well with Bradley in the center of midfield, disrupting the Egyptian midfield.

I was also really impressed with Jay Demerit in this game.  He and Onyewu, who also had another strong showing, seemed to have come to a good understanding on how to work with each other and I felt very confident in our back line.  Demerit’s play in this tournament may give Bradley the confidence to try Bocanegra on the outside left, where he plays for his club side, to try to shore up one of the more unstable position for the team.

The performance I’m most torn on is Dempsey’s.  Just before Altidore came off, I was expecting and hoping the first sub would be Dempsey.  He seemed very lackadaisical and was becoming a defensive liability from lack of tracking back.  I also wasn’t impressed with what he was bringing to the table offensively.  Despite that, he came up with a really incredible goal to help push the Americans into the semi-finals.  I want to see more moments of brilliance like that before I’m going to be convinced that he’s giving the US what he should be.

So we’re on to the semi-finals and we get the cakewalk game of Spain.  I hate to be Debbie Downer, but I think our chances of making it past the Euro 2008 champions are slim to none.  Our best chance is if they underestimate who they’re playing.  They have an unbeaten streak reaching back some 40 games and they’re form earlier in this tournament has been extremely impressive.  They are one of the most talented and deepest teams I’ve seen play in a really long time.  All I ask is that we bring the same fire to that game Wednesday that we showed today against Egypt.

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Confederations Cup: Brazil 3-0 USA

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Pure and simple, this game was an embarrasment.

Brazil is traditionally one of the better teams in the world and few people expected us to win, but the way in which we lost was just sad.  We showed no heart and barely any fight throughout the whole thing.  And again, I really have to question Bradley’s line-up and substitutions decision making, again.  I’m starting to feel more and more that Bradley is not the right coach to take us where we want to go.

My early prediction is three games and out in 2010.  My quick thoughts on this debacle:

  • Beasley can’t play anymore until he gets his game and confidence back together.  He’s consistently very average, and when he shows flashes of anything but average, its bad more often than good.  He doesn’t bring near enough to the attack to play outside midfield and he just isn’t cut out to play outside back at the international level.
  • Our offense sucks.  We don’t have a clue how to build up an attack to save our lives.  We regressed in this game to just trying to knock long balls down the field to a striker that wasn’t able to hold the ball because he had two defenders on him all the time.  Set pieces and PKs are only going to take us so far and its not going to win us games against tough opponents.
  • Clint Dempsey is having serious problems translating his form from Fulham to the USMNT.  I saw him play numerous games in the EPL this past season and his impact on the game was almost always much greater there than I’ve seen in the last several national team games.  Some are questioning if he’s burnt out or he’s having trouble feeling comfortable in or knowing what his role for the national team is.  Whatever the problem, we need him to get that sorted out before next year.
  • On the positive side, Jay Demerit and Jonathan Spector have proved themselves as quality defenders for us.  They won’t necessarily be considered world class, but they did a very solid job for us and give me a little comfort in the event of injury.  The left side is still a little questionable, though.

Our last match of the Confederations Cup is this weekend and its going to be very interesting to see what Bradley does with his line-up.  Egypt barely lost to Brazil and beat Italy in their first two matches so I honestly don’t expect us to have much of a chance against them.  It would be the perfect chance to give some of the less experienced players a chance, but I honestly don’t hold out much hope of that happening.

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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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WC Qualifying: USA 2-1 Honduras

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Much better result, marginally better performance.

Getting a win in this game gets us a fair amount closer to qualifying for the Cup. The problem comes in that I, along with a few others that watch the soccer world, am starting to have doubts about how well we’re going to do if we do qualify.

We still don’t create many chances from the run of play and we don’t finish them when we do.  There are still too many instances of marking errors that end up in goals for the opposition. And I’m starting to have doubts about Bob Bradley’s ability to take this team beyond where its been.

His personnel decisions from the last two games were a bit befuddling in some instances, which I’ve already talked about. Also, we continue to struggle for results against teams that we are simply more talented than.

Against both Honduras and Costa Rica we came out very slow and paid the price for it by giving up very early goals. Its part of a coach’s job to get his team ready to play, no matter how intimidating the environment, or make sure he selects players that will have themselves ready.

All in all, I’m just not feeling real positive about how thinks are going at the moment.

Okay enough negativity, a few things I liked from the other night.

I’m not typically a knee jerk reactor, but I liked what I saw from Jonathan Spector on the night. He wasn’t perfect, but he looked much more comfortable defensively than the other outside backs that played against Costa Rica.  He’s on the roster for the confederations cup, and I’m looking forward to seeing what he can bring to the table.  Perhaps if he does well, we can move him to left back when Hejduk or Cherundalo is healthy again and really shore things up.

I’ll go ahead and admit some bias on this, but I was glad to see Feilhaber on the field again. I just like the presence that he brings to the game and some of the skill that he’s shown. He’s definitely not ready to be a starter because of the lack of time he’s had on the field due to injury and rumored attitude issues, but if he can get those things straightened out and raise his game to the international level I’d love to see what he’s capable of.  I think having him and Michael Bradley in the center of midfield would be a pretty interesting pairing.

We move on to the Confederations Cup in South Africa now, where we’ll truly understand how far we have or haven’t come.  We get the pleasure of playing Italy, Egypt, and Brazil in group play, which should, you know, make for some easy games.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope that we can have at least a respectable showing.

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WC Qualifying: Costa Rica 3-1 United States

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We didn’t lose, we got embarrased.  If we keep playing like that, we’re not qualifying for the Cup.

So many things went wrong with this game its hard to know where to start, so I’ll just jump right in.

Our defense was terrible on the night.  Their attacking players had way too much time to do whatever they wanted, particularly in the final third

Beasley is not the answer at left back.  Generally speaking, Beasley’s game has stagnated significantly and until he gets more regular playing time with a club team his position with the national team should be in doubt.

Marvell Wynne was completely out of his league.  He may be a great right back for us in the future, but he’s not there yet.

Now that I think about it, I’m going to put this dreadful performance on the shoulders of the coaching staff.  The team was obviously not prepared to play and came out looking terrified.  Its the responsibility of the coaching staff to make sure they’re ready to go, not matter how intimidating the place you’re playing in is.

Given the lack of experience at outside back, how Bradley didn’t have Jonathan Spector in the line-up is beyond me.  He’s been on a long road back from surgery, but he was getting consistent playing time for West Ham at the end of the season and would have been a significant upgrade over the two outside backs we sent out there.

Mastreoni is past his time with the USMNT and his inclusion in the starting eleven should definitely be reevaluated.

I know this sounds all negative, but there wasn’t much positive on the night.  Torres was the best player on the field in my opinion, and Bradley made another terrible decision by taking him off at the half to try to get a spark from Kjlestan, who provided nothing.

We play Honduras tomorrow night in Chicago.  If we come out against them like we did Costa Rica and we’re going to find ourselves in some serious qualifying trouble.

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WC Qualifying: USA 3-0 Trinidad and Tobago

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So this post is way way overdue, but I still have the thoughts bouncing around in my head and wanted to share them anyway.  Removed from the immediate reaction to the game, it will likely be more abreviated than it originally was going to be.

Generally speaking, a better game against a worse opponent.  Yes, we looked much better, but I also think that El Salvador was a better opponent.  That being said, we took care of business in the way we should have against a weaker opponent, which is something we haven’t consistently done in the past.

Jozy Altidore had a bit of a coming out party on the night.  He’s shown ability every time he’s been on the field for the US, but as they used to say on Sportscenter, he did with “with authority.”  The first goal, once again, displayed his instinct to be in the right place at the right time.  His second goals showed the composure and guile a striker needs to be consistent at putting the ball in the back of the net, and his third showed his ability to get lucky; another quality strikers will always appreciate on their side.  For any that didn’t see it, Altidore’s third goals was more the result of unselfish play from teammates and really poor goalkeeping than clinical finishing.

I liked having Donovan at outside midfield rather than up front.  I think he can get more involved in play and have a better impact on the game.

Beasley was servicable at left back, but his lack of playing time with Rangers has noticeably hurt his form.  Unless he’s able to prove he is not in fact stagnating in his growth, he could become more familiar with Bob Bradley’s demeanor on the bench during games than he’d like.

Here are the positions I think we need to focus on getting sorted out.  Other places on the field aren’t necessarily perfect, but they are a little better off then what I’ve listed here.

  • We still need to find a solid mainstay at left back.  Actually, we just need to find someone that can play there that isn’t going to be a defensive liability.
  • Decide which of the pretty solid options we have at right back is going to start.  Hejduk is in the twilight of his playing days and that needs to get sorted out soon.
  • We need to settle on a midfield partner to play alongside Michael Bradley.

The summer looks to be pretty busy for the USMNT starting in June with two more WC qualifiers, followed by the Confederations Cup in South Africa, and then the Gold Cup back here in the states.  With all of these games we should learn a great deal more about the first team players, and I would imagine, some of the newer players in the mix and their ability to push for a starting position or solidifying a reserve spot on the bench.

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