Tag Archives: WC qualifying

WC Qualifying: US 2-2 Costa Rica

Posted on by

Color me completely stunned right now.  I can’t believe how this game finished up.  I can’t decide if we played well or played bad.  Maybe we played worse than we should have against a team like Costa Rica, but part of me thinks we played better than the scoreline.  One thing is for sure, there is no doubt we missed Charlie Davies tonight.

I hate to say it, but that was some of the worst finishing I’ve seen from the US team in a while.  It used to be that we couldn’t create any chances.  Tonight, we created plenty of chances and couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.  Given what we saw from him this year, I have to believe that Charlie would have put away at least two of the numerous ridiculously open chances we had throughout the game.

We absolutely must dispose of the horrific defensive brain farts we keep having.  Generally speaking, we play solidly and then completely go to sleep long enough for the opposition to score a goal.  I thought Tim Howard was going to rip someone’s head off after their second one tonight.  I don’t know what the answer is, but Bradley has about eight months to figure out how to lock up the defense.

Feilhaber and Holden didn’t have their best games tonight.  Feilhaber had a very, very quiet game.  He didn’t get involved enough and didn’t do enough with the touches that he did have.  Holden was a little better than Feilhaber, but his services weren’t of the typical quality he usually gives us.

I was glad to see Paco Torres get a run out.  I thought he had a very good showing.  He was very involved in directing the attack and he came up with some quality defensive work at the end of the game.  Hopefully, he will continue to get more time on the field between now and next summer so he has a chance to solidify his place on the roster.

I was unsure of the introduction of Robbie Rogers, but he proved to make a huge impact on the game.  He made the initial service on Bradley’s goal and had a couple of good chances shortly after.

Its sort of a relief that qualifying is over and we’re through to next summer.  Now we have a chance to try to get things sorted out in terms of roster spots and team chemistry.  I’m very concerned about Onyewu’s status.  He looked like he was in a fair amount of pain when he was taken off.  I just hope that its not too serious and he’ll be able to get back on the field soon and start getting some time for AC Milan as soon as possible.

Next up for the MNT is a friendly later this year against Denmark, who qualified top of their group in European qualifying.

Share

Why I Loathe Mexican Soccer

Posted on by

The below excerpt from this Yahoo article is why I loathe Mexican soccer.

The man with the tri-colored mohawk took a swig of beer, stuck his fingers down his throat and vomited the mixture back into his cup. In the next seat another man, who was wearing a T-shirt with a cartoon drawing of the decapitated heads of Barack Obama and Landon Donovan, poured out what remained of the Corona beer he had been chugging and urinated into his cardboard drinks container.

Then, according to a neutral bystander who witnessed these disgusting acts, the pair stood on their seats, high-fived and hurled their vile concoctions in the direction of Donovan, the United States men’s national team star who was preparing to take a corner kick 15 yards away.

I knew they’re players were dirty hacks who would rather score a goal off a free-kick awarded from a simulated foul than from the run of play, but I didn’t realize their fans were cut from the same or worse cloth.

Late addition: A quote I can’t take credit for.  ”This is why no one takes Mexico seriuosly as a country.”  That made me laugh.

Share

WC Qualifying: USA 1-2 Mexico

Posted on by

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.

Share

WC Qualifying: USA 2-1 Honduras

Posted on by

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.

Share

WC Qualifying: Costa Rica 3-1 United States

Posted on by

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.

Share

WC Qualifying: USA 3-0 Trinidad and Tobago

Posted on by

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.

Share

WC Qualifying: USA 1-2 Trinidad & Tobago

Posted on by

Disjointed and disappointing; my view of the US’s performance in a nutshell.

At the most basic level, the result of this game didn’t really matter because the US had already qualified for the next round of qualifying.  Despite this fact, you always hope to play your best, get a good result, and you want to come away encouraged by the performance no matter the final score.  Unfortunately, I’m not all that encouraged by the display last night, though I’m not as discouraged as one might think.

The greatest impression I take from this game is that we fielded a team full of players that rarely play with each other, and have no history of playing with each other.  Typically, the team we put together has a couple of days at a time with each other, but the big difference is that most of them have been playing with each other for at least a couple of years which has given them a fair level of familiarity.  The team we put out there yesterday was very green individually in addition to not having hardly any time together as a squad.

Essentially what the coaches did last night was to throw a whole bunch of guys that probably aren’t completely comfortable out there to see what would happened, and they got a result that I think they should have expected.  Realistically, if the young guys get introduced into the team, its going to be paired with a squad that is going to be more comfortable and confident with the pace and tone of an international match.  Throwing all the young guys on the field together isn’t really going to do anyone any favors.  You won’t be able to get an honest assessment of how they would fit in to your team and they really won’t have the opportunity to get a good feel for playing for the US national team.  My fear is that a player who would play well and fit in with the full squad won’t get a fair shake because of how they perform in a game where they weren’t really set up to succeed, in my opinion.

All that being said, there were a couple of places that weren’t so dependent on team mechanics that I thought were lacking.  For all of the talk about Altidore’s speed and size, I’d like to see him impose them a little more on defenders.  I didn’t think he played that strongly with his back to goal and expect to see more out of him in that regard.  Also, the PK he gave up is enough to make me pull my hair out.

Last night also showed how far ahead the pairing of Bocanegra and Onyewu are in relation to other central defenders.  This is a perfect example where it would have been nice to play one of the two of them with a less experienced center back to help keep the new guy from feeling like he’s drowning.  I also don’t think Heath Pearce did himself any favors last night.  There were several clearance attempts that were a little scary and he just seemed a little frenetic and unsettled in general.

Brad Guzan didn’t display the kind of confidence and polish that we’ve come to expect from our goalkeepers over the years.  There’s really nothing he could have done on the goals and he was very unlucky on the first one, but he didn’t do a very good job of collecting the shots he did stop and his clearance attempt in the first half that almost resulted in T&T’s first goal needs to get up and out.

Finally, as a team we should have numerous training sessions devoted only to crossing the ball into the box.  We did a fairly good job of getting ourselves into position to send the ball in from the wings and came up sorely wanting numerous times.  I am pleased that we made progress to getting in the crossing position, but it does no good if the final step in the process comes up short.

The US has several weeks off before their next match against Guatemala in Colorado on Nov. 19th.  I expect we’ll see a lot of the less experienced players again, but I hope that Bradley decides to bring in a few more of the seasoned veterans to provide some balance to the sqaud.

Share