http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/administration/ps_792_en-annex_ii_74.pdf Keep in mind the Honduras game was played during a FIFA sanctioned FRIENDLY date, not an international qualifier date.
Probably worth noting that this thread title was incorrectly updated: US vs Costa Rica @ Denver Friday 3/22 6 PM EDT (8 MDT) 8PM MDT is 10PM EDT.
I'm with you, but give me Edu or Williams (or even Beckerman) over Jones to start. I could also live with EJ over Shea -- I guess I rate his contributions in the Honduras match higher than most here.
Apologies if this has already been covered earlier in the thread, but an 8pm local kickoff is going to put gametime temps in the 35-40 degree range by my estimates. A little "guerra fria" para Los Ticos. For those of you interested in historical weather data, fun site here: http://www.wunderground.com/history...tml?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA
I got my tickets today on the presale through Ticket Horse right on time 9amPT. Anyword on how well the presale went ?
I keep forgetting that the world does not start spinning in the opposite direction when we switch to daylight savings time.
To me, the players themselves aren't important - With Jurgen Klinsmann, its the roles he's asking of the players. I think he's fine at identifying talent, I just don't think he puts together a good strategy. Against Honduras, this seems to be what he put out: ----------------------------GK------------------------------- --------------CD--------------------CD--------------------- ----FB----------------------------------------FB------------ ------------------------DEST--------------------------------- ---------CM-----------CM------------------------------------ ----------------------------AM-------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------WING--------- -------------------------ST----------------------------------- Forget the players, this is what he had out there. Neither FB was a WB, and because of that they didn't provide much width in the attack. Centrally, we created an utter traffic jam as both CMs and the AMs drifted centrally, and we completely starved the Wing and Striker. Neither of the CMs looked particularly interested in getting into the box very often - they were happy delivering the ball forward and staying outside the box and letting the AM, ST, and WING attack the box - which in Klinsmann's defense brought us a brilliant goal and a couple of chances here and there. But nontheless, it added to our spacing issues. For the most part, the AM, WING, and ST were left to their own devices basically. Right off the bat, that's not a strategy that's going to get us a lot of points - it's basically dependent on the individuals to be magnificent to over come the lack of balance and poor spacing. This is was really my suggestion: ----------------------------GK----------------------------------- -------------CD------------------------CD--------------------- ----WB--------------------------------------------WB----------- ----------------------DEST-------------------------------------- ------------------------------CM-------------------------------- ---------------DLPM------------------------------------------- -----WING---------------------------------------AM---------- -------------------------ST-------------------------------------- IMO, this solves our balance issues and puts our best players in positions they are most used to. The Wingbacks are staying wide and providing width, the CM is at true box-to-box player who will attack the goal when he wants. The DLPM is going to hang back, play balls to the attackers in front of him and provide a bit of protection to the Destroyer and Backline. The Wing and AMs can flip flop back and forth, but one of them needs to provide constant width, opposite whatever WB is attacking. As I alluded to before, these players fit our players the best IMO. Johnson and Chandler are attacking players, and are better off attacking more than defending. Asking them to stay at home isn't playing to their strengths - and plus they provide talented width. Both Williams and Jones have a Destroyer mindset. Jones can deliver a great ball, but he loves to get physical and dirty. Bradley is the consummate Box-to-Box midfielder, and I'd suggest at some point in his career we're going to call him one of the best in the world at that. The kid is top notch with his passing, finishing, and defending and can sprint a marathon. Let him use all of that. The Deep-Lying Playmaker? Think of Pirlo. Obviously Sacha isn't in the same universe as him, but his strength as a soccer player means that's where his best position is. Just ask Anderlecht. He's not going to beat people off the dribble, but he can deliver a wonderful pass, and he's not bad in clogging passing lanes and defending 1v1. He's not the fastest player and that's why this is a good position for him. The same is true of Jose Torres. They are very similar players. The AM needs to roam, while the Wing needs to stay wide. The only legit international caliber AMs we have in this program right now are Dempsey and Donovan...though 2 summers ago we had some kid named Freddy Adu who looked good doing it as well, but he's basically played himself out of the sport. On the Wing, I loved JK's move of Johnson to that position, and I think EJ, Shea, or the kid from Molde can fulfill that role. But that player absolutely needs to stay wide to provide width, and keep the bees from buzzing the striker - and he needs to be on the opposite flank of the AM. That allows the AM to cut in and feed off the winger along with the striker, and then that Wing has up-to 4 options to deliver a cross to - The WB, CM, ST, and AM. Or he can play a ball down his own flank to the WB on his own side. I've rambled on this subject for a bit, and I think it's almost patronizing a lot of people here because it's basic strategy - but I honestly don't think Klinsmann understands it.
Basically, I think Klinsmann is outstanding at identifying talent, and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of individual players, but strategically he doesn't seem to know what do with the talent he's found. If you paired him with a strongly tactical assistant manager, I think we'd have a very strong side. One that I'd put money on to beat Mexico and be the best side in CONCACAF - and not have it down to luck.
Anyone know status of Chris Pontius? Is he still injured or in preseason training with DC United yet?
Shea scored in a closed doors friendly today and got great reviews and looks like he will debut at Fulham. If he does and is making appearances leading up to the CR match I don't see how he isn't on the roster at the least.
Bravo! Great post! I have been saying this for a long time. Klinsmann is better than previous US coaches at player selections, but he has no clue about the tactical side of the game. You can't just tell your best 11 players to go onto the field and play. At this level, having better players isn't going to matter if you can't put together a good team tactically.
What I don't get is this: Klinsmann has Vasquez to assist him with tactics. I understand neither of those two is Mourinho, but at least Vasquez is an actual game manager, able to plan changes in-game. The man has been assistant coach for a decade, and coach with the Chivas. So he knows, for sure, the most basic rule of subs: you NEVER do ALL of your subs before the other teams does ANY. It seems JK just does not listen to him, then.
The reason for this was quite obvious; fatigue. The changes were planned substitutions to mitigate the overall team fatigue in the intense heat. We needed to maximize the effect of fresh legs, and you do that by making substitutions around minute 65.
Yea, I wasn't actually too bothered by the subs - I was more so bothered by the people he brought in. Especially Sacha for EJ. That was bonkers. You've cut off the majority of the field for one of our 2 or 3 best passers, and you've put him in a position where he's asked to beat people off the dribble. If you wanted to pull a winger off the bench, then you should have kept Josh Gatt, who would have easily been better in that situation than poor Sacha.
I can understand a sub before 60' due to fatigue. Perhaps even two by the 70' mark. But having all three used by the 67' minute due to fatigue? Either your players are totally out of condition, or you over-trained them. Heat, humidity or height are no excuses. Teams have to play in such conditions all the time, and I don't see them subbing all three players before the 70' mark due to fatigue. It's always due to injury, or to changes made by the other team.
Those teams are heat acclimatized. Your body acclimatizes to heat just like it acclimatizes to altitude. http://www.sportsci.org/encyc/heataccl/heataccl.html
What I mean is, teams like Chile (whose players are mainly in Italy, Spain and Chile, playing at sea level altitude, in warm conditions) have to travel to places like La Paz, Bolivia (high altitude, cold) with barely a few hours to "acclimatize," and even if tired, they are not so foolish to sub all three players before the Bolivians had done a single change (BTW, Chile defeated them 2-0 in La Paz; first sub = 73'). Or teams like Japan, traveling from the Japanese winter (plus the few coming from the European winter) to the heat of Oman (even in November, they played at 29C = 84F), having to play only 14 hours after landing, and still don't need all their subs before the 70' mark (in fact, their second sub came in the 84'). If they can do it, why can't JK?
Because Oman, at 84 degrees and 40% humidity has a humidex value of 90 degrees. San Pedro Sula had a humidex value of 115 degrees when we played Honduras. Thats a 25 degree difference.
Without LD ---------------------Altidore---------------------- ------------------Dempsey----------------------- --Shea/Gomez----------------------------------- -------------------------------------Johnson----- --------------------------Jones------------------- -----------------Bradley---------------Chandler- ---Cameron-------------------------------------- ----------------Boca------Gonzalez-------------- --------------------Howard---------------------- If it's Gomez he and Johnson switch sides.
I say if a problem is worth reacting to, then it's worth overreacting to. We're gonna win the goddamned wings this match: The infamous (2-2-1)^2, AKA "The Vertical 4-3-4" Have you ever seen a triple-overlap? After March 22, it will be forever burned into your retinas. You've heard of "Total Football." Well, this is "Partial Football," and it's going to take us all the way to New Zealand.
This is complete nonsense. Too much hard evidence pointing in the opposite direction. It takes Klinsmann ages before he recognizes talent.