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WC Qualifying: US 2-1 El Salvador

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It was essential for the US to get a win tonight in Salt Lake City, and we came through with a pretty solid performance. Generally speaking, I would say we played well. Our attack was able to create several very good chances, even beyond the goals we scored, and we were able to possess the ball much better than we have in past matches.

Usually, our most dependable aspect of our game, our defense, wasn’t up to the quality of our more recent performances. Part of that is obviously due to the absence of Oguchi Onyewu, who will be back Wednesday after serving a one match suspension for yellow card accumulation during qualifying. Chad Marshall was a serviceable stand in for Onyewu and the injured Demerit, but his lack of experience at the international level showed from time to time.

The most problematic aspect of our defensive game tonight was our ability to clear the ball out of the box. Jonathon Bornstein’s failure to solidly clear the ball led directly to El Salvador’s goal, and the clearance problems continued for others through the rest of the match.

On the subject of Bornstein, I think he’ll be one of the first sent to the bench once other defenders are well enough to play again. One of the most worrying problems with Bornstein is his defensive positioning. Too often there is a significant amount of space for long balls played over the top that outside attackers are able to run on to and cross the ball into the box. Additionally, his offensive abilities are also clearly lacking. Though his lack of crossing ability is concerning, the bigger issue is his penchant for giving the ball away in our own half. He doesn’t appear to have the poise or confidence on the ball to calmly bring it down and find the feet of one of our central midfielders when we’re trying to transition from defense to offense.

In a bit of a departure from the norm, our attack tonight was solid and lively. The combination of Michael Bradley and Benny Feilhaber was a little more attack minded than Bob Bradley usually ops for, but it fit this match and worked well. Dempsey played well and Donovan has clearly found his best position at outside midfield instead of striker.

Donovan has been able to settle into a position at midfield because we have finally found a pair of strikers that are able to both help create and finish goals. Altidore got on to the end of an excellent cross that he put away and simply put, Charlie Davies is the real deal. Its hard for me to single out what I like about Davies right now, because it’s pretty much everything. His physically abilities are obvious, but his intangibles are the source of his success right now. He has exceptional anticipation of where the ball is going to go and he creates chances from that. He also uses every bit of his strength to play bigger than his size and he never gives up on a play. If he continues to improve like he has over the last year, he will fully establish himself as our top offensive threat.

Qualifying continues for the US Wednesday in Trinidad and Tobago. T&T sits in last place in qualifying, but this cycle has already shown that there are no easy road games in CONCACAF, and with the top four teams all within a point of each other every game is a must win.

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WC Qualifying: USA 2-2 El Salvador

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To put it simply, this was an incredibly disappointing performance and result for the USMNT.  Going into the match the US was #17 in the FIFA rankings and El Salvador was #106, and while road WC qualifiers anywhere in Central America are going to prove a little more difficult due to the hostile environment, the US was heavily favored to come away with a win and three points.  I think they heard that message a few too many times, and then someone forgot to tell them they were actually playing in a game before the second El Salvador goal and 75 minutes into the match.

There was a lot wrong with how the US approached and played this game.  I’m not usually all that critical of the decisions that Bob Bradley makes, but I think much of the blame for the poor showing has to fall on his shoulders.  US soccer has grown to a point where we should recognize when we’re technically superior to teams and take the game to the opposition.  We had no sense of urgency, no sharpness, and we played a generally conservative formation that hasn’t exactly lit up the scoreboard for us in past games.  Its Bradley’s responsibility to get the team ready and set them up in a formation that is going to lead to wins and he simply failed to do that in this outing.

I usually go through the squad and point out some of the bad performances and then some of the better performances.  I think that’s going to be a little more difficult here since so many of the performances were subpar at best.  The most disappointing games from my perspective came from Heath Pearce, Landon Donovan, and Sacha Kjlestan.

Pearce has played some very forgettable games recently and he isn’t looking like he’s the answer at left back, which has been a long standing problem for the USMNT.  Many have called for Beasley to be tried at left back, but seeing how easily he was beaten on El Salvador’s second goal and his generally rusty form, likely a result of his lack of playing time at Rangers, I’m not sure he’s the solution right now either.

Sacha Kjlestan has shown some promise as he’s come up through the national team youth squads, with the Olympic team and a few games with the full men’s team, but his last two showings have been lacking the quality that is needed for him to hold a starting place in the team.

I think Donovan’s game was the most disappointing.  Its no secret that I’m not the biggest fan of Donovan’s and games like this are the perfect example of why.  He’s always noted as the US’s best player and the key to our offense, but he once again showed his tendency to disappear during a game.  In a game when he should have been one of the most dominating players on the field, it was hard to remember that he was even playing.  Donovan’s place in the team is far from in danger, but playing like that is completely unacceptable if you’re going to be a leader on the team.

Good performances from the game; this won’t take long.

Altidore obviously had a big impact on the game and that goes beyond the goal he scored.  He brought a litte bit more energy to the attack and he put a game winning opportunity on a silver platter for Brian Ching in the waning moments.  I don’t think he’s ready for a starting role simply because I don’t think he can go 90 minutes yet with the lack of minutes he’s getting for his club side, but I think he should be getting heavy minutes in the second half of any USMNT game.  As his time with his club increases, so should his role with with the national team.

This is the part where I’m cautiously optimistic about Jose Francisco Torres.  His presence in the midfield changed the tempo, tone, and the impact of our attack.  He was confident on the ball and more dynamic than anything else we had during the night.  I’m cautious largely because he hasn’t played much at the national level yet, but he should definitely be given serious consideration to take Sacha’s place in Wednesday night’s game.

So we play Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday in Nashville.  This is another game that we should win, particularly with us playing at home and having Tim Howard back in goal and Onyewu back in the lineup from his slight knee strain.  Conversely, T&T has some proven players that can definitely hurt us if aren’t on top of our game.  We dropped two points against El Salvador that we should have walked away with and we can’t afford to let that happen again Wednesday.

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WC Qualifying: US 2-0 Mexico

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Huge win last night for the US Men’s National Team over Mexico in Columbus.  It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, mind you, but ill take an ugly win over a pretty draw or loss any day.  I just thought that I’d share a few thoughts on the game and the performance of some of the players last night.

Generally speaking the team played okay.  It wasn’t flashy and it was a little scrappy at times but we did what we needed to do to win.

The defense looked pretty solid as we’re coming to expect from the pairing of Bocanegra and Onyewu in the center.  I continue to be surprised by Frankie Hejduk and his ability to play solidly for the US as a near senior citizen in soccer terms.  You’re never going to get a ton of exciting offense from him, but his defensive ability is something you can continue to rely on.  As has been the case for a long time, left back is still the position of greatest concern for the US.  Heath Pearce is alright in that position but I think its pretty clear that he’s not a renowned crosser of the ball and his defenses work could be improved.

Our midfield played a respectable game with Michael Bradley being a bright spot.  Kjlestan didn’t have the impact on the game people were hoping for following his hat trick against Sweden.  Beasley was pretty active throughout and worked to get into the mix, but I fealt his impact on the game was spotty. Dempsey had a pretty solid game and looked very comfortable on the ball.

Including Donovan with Ching in discussing the attack, we didn’t get enough from them. Donovan was pretty active getting and giving the ball, but we need him to have a greater positive impact on the attack than what we got last night.  Ching didn’t have his typical blue collar performance of holding up the ball and laying it off to the midfielders to then go forward.   He just wasn’t as involved as we’re used to seeing.

For me, Bradley was the man of the match.  In addition to his two goals, he played very solid defensively from box to box and he did it without getting a card.  He has had a tendency to be a little wreckless in his challenges in the past but last night he displayed a great deal of composure in the timing of his tackles and choosing when to go to ground for a slide tackle.  Another thing I really liked to see from him was a willingness to strike the ball from range. Too often as a team we try to find the perfect shot from inside the box and we’ve needed somoeone to take a chance and hit one from distance.  If his confidence and willingness continues to increase along with his ability to hit those shots on frame it could definitely pay dividends in the future.

We came away with a win, but there are a few things that we will need to do better to keep winning games.  When Mexico went down to ten men we should have pressed forward a little more and gone for the jugular.  They just lost their best defender and captain and we didn’t seem to put anymore pressure on them then we were before his dismissal.

Also, we didn’t manage the end of the game well enough.  We were up a man with about ten minutes to play and we started bunkering back just trying to hold onto the lead.  We arguably controlled the midfield through most of the game and should have continued to do so.  Instead we started dropping deeper into our own end and didn’t put enough pressure on their back four or midfield.  That’s something that our strikers, particularly Altidore, who had fresh legs should have been doing.

All in all, a result we should be happy with.  Our record against the Mexicans at home raises to 9-0-2 with this win, and possibly ends Sven Gorin Eriksson’s run as the Mexican national team head coach.  This also puts us in the driver seat for qualification for the WC next summer, which many feel is a foregone conclusions.  Our next qualifier comes next month away to El Salvador.

Oh, and in case anyone hadn’t figured it out before last night, Rafa Marquez is a dirty hack.

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WC Qualifying: USA 6-1 Cuba

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Another great game for the US that I believes locks up advancement to the next stage of qualifying for us.  I’m really glad that I had the chance to get my national team fix in person.  The atmosphere for the game was great and the team put on a pretty good display for us, overall.  A couple of specific thoughts.

I thought the first half of the game was a bit frustrating and that we didn’t play as well as we could have.  We definitely could have been better and we gave up kind of a crappy goal.  The shot was as actually a really quality shot, but our defeding leading up to the shot was suspect.

From my perspective from this game, one of our biggest short comings in our offense is that we’re overly patient.  I know that sounds really strange, but there were so many times that one of our midfielders got the ball and played it straight back to who played it to them when they had time and space to turn with the ball push the attack forward.  I’m not one to promote a lot of dribble on the ball, but without a balance of both passing and dribbling the offense gets predictable making it easier to defend.  We need for some of our players to be willing and able to push the ball forward on the dribble instead of passing 100% of the time.

Our defense was completely solid except for the series where they scored.  We had a pretty decent shutout streak going and I’m sure Tim Howard was probably pretty pissed about giving up a goal.  The thing we have to remember is that we can’t afford to have mental breakdowns like that against better teams.  A Spain or Argentina will make us pay for mistakes like that and we won’t always have the ability to score six goals and get the win anyway.

I was glad to see some of the younger guys get in and see some time.  Hopefully, having advancement locked we’ll see even more play from them.  I’m glad that Kjlestan started to add a more attacking element to the midfield, and Adu and Altidore obviously got in with Altidore putting a goal away for us.  I was also glad to see Torres get some time and I thought he handled himself well.  He did appear to have a little big of first game jitters, but I also thought he showed some pretty nice promise.

I really hope that Bradely takes the chance to play a lot of the younger guys on Wednesday to see what they can do.  One that I hope to see the most is Torres, just to get more of an idea of what he’s capable of.  I’d also like to see Adu and Altidore in the game from the start.  It would also probably be smart to give more playing time to guys who don’t play as much to further their experience in case they’re need due to injury of a normal starter.He’s one I’m probably most interested in seeing against Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday.

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WC Qualifying: Call-ups for Cuba Match

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Bob Bradley announced the group of players being called into pre-match camp for the upcoing qualifier against Cuba in Washington, D.C. (a game I’m happy to say I’m going to)  I’m doubly interested in seeing this game due some some of the guys that have been called into camp.

The US has already accumulated enough points to where it will be difficult for us to not move on to the next stage of qualifying.  Cuba has yet to win a point in qualifying and this game shouldn’t serve as the biggest test for us.  It appears as though Bradley has taken the comfortable position we’re in to try out some of the younger guys in the national team pool; some guys I’ve wanted to see a little more with the full team.  This is who has been called in to camp:

GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa, Tim Howard (Everton FC), Troy Perkins (Valerenga IF).

DEFENDERS (8): Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Danny Califf (FC Midtjylland), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock).

MIDFIELDERS (7): Freddy Adu (AS Monaco), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers), Michael Bradley (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Maurice Edu (Glasgow Rangers), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Danny Szetela (Brescia Calcio), José Francisco Torres (Pachuca).

FORWARDS (5): Jozy Altidore (Villarreal C.F.), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy).

I’ve highlighted some of the guys that haven’t played a big part in qualifying to this point.  One thing I’ll clarify is that there are 23 guys that have been called into camp, but, if I understand correctly, only 18 will be named to the game day roster.  Its quite possible that some of these guys were called in to get a little bit of experience with the national team and see how well they do against other first team competition, not necessarily to play in the game.

I’m doubtful that Troy Perkins is going to get any playing time.  Howard is almost certain to start, and if they want to give another keeper some more experience, Guzan is the most likely one b/c he’s been the backup longer and he doesn’t have a great deal of game time with the national team himself.  Another in that situation may be Orozco, given all of the experience in the other defenders that were brought in.

The midfield call-ups are a little more interesting.  Adu has played before, but most fans and a good bit of the press have wanted to see more of him to see if he can add more potency to our attack.  I have to admit that I don’t know anything about Torres, as this is the first time that I’ve heard of him.  I initially thought he would be a camp only guy, but we haven’t found anyone reliable to play at left midfield, where Torres plays, when Beasley is hurt or unavailable so he very well could get a run out if he does well in camp.

The two that I hope to see the most would be Charlie Davies and Altidore.  As I’ve noted over and over, our defense has been really worrisome and I’m really interested to see what some new blood can do.  Altidore hasn’t gotten much playing time for Villareal yet, but I still want to see more of what he’s capable of.  From what I’ve heard, Charlie Davies has had a very successful year in Sweden.  That being said, I’m doubtful that Davies will get to play in the game just b/c he’s still a little too low on the totum pole to make it to match day.

As I noted before, I’ll be going to this match and I’ll be putting up a post game report next weekend.

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