US v CR General Postgame Thread(R)

Discussion in 'USA Men: News & Analysis' started by Lloyd Heilbrunn, Sep 6, 2013.

  1. Bolivianfuego

    Bolivianfuego Your favorite Bolivian

    Apr 12, 2004
    Fairfax, Va
    Club:
    Bolivar La Paz
    Nat'l Team:
    Bolivia
    agreed. Hoping this was a fluke....but he could have done better on the second and third goal.

    His reflexes/decisions seemed to be not on par with his past.
     
    HouseHead78 repped this.
  2. grandinquisitor28

    Feb 11, 2002
    Nevada
    I owned up to my issue there. Never went whole hog, but always felt that it was an inherently compromised situation. I thought other guys deserved some run, and he didn't deserve it yet, plus he was an unbelievably childish punk on top of it. Just an idiot. Now he seems far more mature and absolutely committed to becoming great. I've never seen an American player grow more from what I thought he was (back in '03-'04) to what he is today as with Bradley. I thought he was merely a body, better than Kenny arena, but nothing special when he was first in MLS. The game against Uruguay in the U-20's was a classic, a harbinger of all the good things and the bad for him, and now he's just extraordinary. Im definitely willing to own being wrong about him, though to be fair, I never thought it was pure nepotism, just a case of unbalanced and perhaps unreasonable auto-starts. Not anymore by damn sight, needless to say.
     
    manq360 repped this.
  3. drgonzo

    drgonzo Member+

    Jun 1, 2011
    Club:
    San Diego Flash
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Obligatory Adu would have scored if he was called in reference following a loss.
     
    WrmBrnr and INKRO repped this.
  4. INKRO

    INKRO Member+

    Jul 28, 2011
    Obligatory shoutdown by another poster.
     
  5. ckl26

    ckl26 Member+

    Jul 21, 2012
    Club:
    FC Bayern München
    Jones looked better in the second because Costa Rica started to bunker to contain the lead and there ball pressure decreased significantly. That's why his passing looked much better. When CR applied pressure (like in the first) he had major fits.
     
  6. Suyuntuy

    Suyuntuy Member+

    Jul 16, 2007
    Vancouver, Canada
    They came out to play as if they had not slept the whole night.
     
    BalanceUT repped this.
  7. PStevenson1082

    May 28, 2012
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    tUS MOTM: Fabian Johnson
    US Billy Goat: Too many to name

    The midfield: D-: Without Bradley, the US attack was toothless. Zusi was ineffective and a liability because he could barely maintain possession AND he could track back to help a struggling Orozco. The entire right side was compromised. Very disappointed with the Champions League CM who was sloppy in passing and possession for the entire first half. I expected more out of him. He looked lost without Bradley. Cameron is a RB and should remain there. The lone bright spot was F. Johnson who provided most of the dangerous service, won a penalty and was denied a spectacular goal.

    Forwards: C-: Did what they could with the little bit of service they got. Dempsey was denied by the post with his only shot on goal. Seemed to check out of the match after going down 2 goals. Lucky bounce on the penalty that was poorly taken. Landon was locked down...... Eddie Johnson.. Good at scoring, consistently bad at build up play. Lots of backwards passing with little to no pressure. Johannsson and Altidore came on too late as most of the damage had already been down. Altidore with a silly card that will keep him out of the Mexico match.... Unf**king real!!!!

    Defense: F: Torched all night long but we don't have much of a choice. Orozco played timid. Beasley can't play LB at a high level. Not his fault. I'm going to go in on our 2 CB, moreso on Gonzalez because he has more physical potential to be a better CB than how he's playing..... If you are apart the LA Galaxy organization and you are reading this, please comprehend this...... YOU OVERPAID FOR OMAR GONZALEZ! After a first goal is allowed, defenders are supposed to mark tighter and be more alert. Not only was he not alert he almost allowed another through ball to be played in after he BLATANTLY (you can CLEARLY see it on the replay) stopped marking the man that beat Zusi and Orozco. He was looking dead at him and stopped. A better pass from CR and that man would have been through. Besler isn't as bad as Gonzalez... At least he tries to fix the mistakes he makes. The CB's should be th
     
    ckl26 repped this.
  8. Swami

    Swami Member

    Mar 5, 2005
    I thought the same. The central defense coming into this cycle was a weakness and still is. Besler is untested under difficult situations, excluding the Qualifier at Mexico. He came out poorly in this test. How are these guys going to do against World Cup level opponents? Costa Rica away is tough, but still...
     
    russ repped this.
  9. PStevenson1082

    May 28, 2012
    Club:
    FC Barcelona
    I'm sure you know where I'm going with Tim Howard...... He plays nervous now because of our bad backline and now his form has changed..... He's more comfortable at Eveton because those defenders fix their mistakes.... Guzan has been stone cold in the EPL and in the few appearances that he's made on the USMNT... I know this is harsh.... but Howard receives an F for this game.... He's capable of better.
     
  10. dlokteff

    dlokteff Member+

    Jan 22, 2002
    San Francisco, CA
    Fair scoreline.

    They came out and flashed the speed and movement. We were....blah. Not one player for us can you point to and say good things about.

    At least we aren't Mexico. BWAHAHAHA
     
  11. Swami

    Swami Member

    Mar 5, 2005
    I missed that. What the hell did he do?
     
  12. chad

    chad Member+

    Jun 24, 1999
    Manhattan Beach
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    And who didn't get a yellow card?

    Oy vey.
     
  13. TrueCrew

    TrueCrew Member+

    Dec 22, 2003
    Columbus, OH
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well, no one played well tonight, and I mean no one. Jones and FJ were OK. LD and Clint had their moments. That's about it.

    Takeaways:
    1) Michael Bradley is our best player. Without him in midfield, things break down.

    2) Our defense is still a work in progress. Both CB's MIA on the 2nd. Oroczo had issues all night. DMB with a poor job defending the post (paging Mike Burns). Maybe we should hire Kristine Lilly to show them how to do it.

    3) JK needs to rethink his stance in MF. Jones has to be considered as a DM, with a more offensive player in front of him (Zusi, Diskerud, Torres, Bedoya, Corona, LD, Clilnt, someone). Surely, down two, we wouldn't stick with a Cam/Jones CM pair, would we? We did.

    4) Orozco Fiscal is not an answer at RB.

    5) JK needs to open up the keeper spot. Howard was brilliant stopping stuff in the first half, but his positional sense and when to come and when not to is just off. Should have come on the 3rd one. Though Besler should never have let Campbell inside.

    6) Jozy is still kind of immature.

    7) JK made some bad decisions. I'd have gotten Jones off after Cameron got a yellow, and let Mixx/Beodya play as a more attacking CM. I was OK with Jozy coming on, he just has to be smarter.

    8) Zusi isn't much of a threat against top teams. Though he did have a couple lovely touches to keep balls in play.
    ===============================

    We need to call in more players for Tuesday.
    1) Another CB (Goodson/Boca).
    2) Another F (Wondo/Boyd)
    3) Another CM or two (Torres/Kljestan)

    =================

    I think Mexico is going to win this one. They just need it more than we do.
     
    matabala, Winoman and Dignan repped this.
  14. PStevenson1082

    May 28, 2012
    Club:
    FC Barcelona

    1)Brooks is about to be capped.... He's younger and faster than any other option we have. Goodson will get another look in the first XI. Gonzalez has played his way to the bench and Besler isn't far behind.

    2)Boyd is probably going to be added, as he should.....

    3)Jones is pretty close to playing himself on bench as well... Makes 0 sense for a Champions League DM to play the way he did. It's sad that we are even discussing this... I was done with Jones after the first set of friendlies when he was playing poor then but now we have confirmation...... Sacha Klestan is probably jumping for joy now and Kyle Beckerman is resting a bit easier now as both have a better chance of making to Brazil.... that's if we qualify.

    No, we need this...... Mexico needs to rebuild and re-organize
     
    ckl26 repped this.
  15. ekburn25

    ekburn25 Member

    Dec 3, 2001
    Chitown
    Jones on the bench is just silly. Point to the other CM(Cameron), because he was not a quality partner tonight. And it was not all his fault. We got out coached tonight. The reason Costa Rica's pressure worked so well was because we could not stretch them vertically or hold the ball and distribute up front. EJ and Landon should have started or EJ and Bacon. Zusi should never start over Bedoya or Landon at RM. I understand that Klinsman was trying to protect Orozco defensively with Zusi, but better protection would have been to put a superior player at RM offensively. Their LB and LM would have been more cautious with their pressure. Also, I believe Mix is a better partner with Jones than Cameron is. Especially with MB out. With our summer results and with the way Klinsman likes to play, I was surprised with the lineup. Even with that said, we still had a chance to get points out of this game.
     
    ChrisSSBB and DjTannerr repped this.
  16. Shaster

    Shaster Member+

    Apr 13, 1999
    El Cerrito, CA, USA
    Didn't go through all posts, but whatever some of my thoughs:

    1. Simpson's 3-6-1, or more 4-6-0? No forward?
    2. Our backline NEVER good enough. I mean ALL of the FOURS in the back. They are just OK. If there is a guy named Bradley in front of them.
    3. When MB is not here, put TWO GUYS to make up. One like Cameron just for clean up for OK back lines. Somethings Armas/Mastronei/whoerver always do. Otherwise, coming World Cup, see the backline being sliced like last World Cup. Other one like Beckman/whoever to link up.
    4. Dempsey is NOT match fit, so not start him. Better with EJ up top, Donovan in hole, Zuzi/Bedoya on right.
    5. Last World Cup already showed that Howard is OK goalkeeper.
     
  17. ckl26

    ckl26 Member+

    Jul 21, 2012
    Club:
    FC Bayern München
    Totally agree with all this and Jones seems to be trending downhill which is unfortunate. Poor showing tonight, poor showing vs. Bosnia, not in Schalke's latest starting lineup, red card in Champions league match most recently, currently at a little standoff with the new coach, etc. Starting to notice something here...
     
  18. Shaster

    Shaster Member+

    Apr 13, 1999
    El Cerrito, CA, USA
    Watch Beasley at left back tonight, same as 4 years ago when US lost 0:3.
     
    canchon repped this.
  19. ckl26

    ckl26 Member+

    Jul 21, 2012
    Club:
    FC Bayern München
    really good post match report from Ives here


    'But like a Blackjack player riding a hot streak only to run out of luck by making riskier and riskier plays, Klinsmann saw his moves miss the mark and end the hot streak that had him looking like he could do no wrong."

    http://www.soccerbyives.net/2013/09/things-looked-familiar.html
     
    Berks repped this.
  20. HunterX

    HunterX Red Card

    Aug 24, 2013
    Club:
    --other--
    its a bit worrying that we don't have our backups set and we are this far in to qualifying. When Bradley goes down with injury we should have a backup ready to take his place and do the job that we need CM to do. But instead, we just shift a player from another position to backup Bradley. In this case Cameron. And it shows that he is not up to it because he's playing out of position.

    Lets imagine for a minute that we have no injuries with our player pool. Who would Bradley's backup be? Probably Stuart Holden. A healthy Stu Holden is a box-to-box CM. Ok, so Holden is injured. Who takes Holden's spot as Bradley's backup? Klestjan, Mix. So why Cameron?

    It seems like with our strikers and our attacking midfielders we have a coherent depth chart. At striker it seems to be Jozy, EJ, Aron, Boyd. So then why is Dempsey the lone striker for this match? Dempsey should always be playing behind the striker.

    I look at the starting 11's we put out and there's always players playing out of position. If a player is injured i'd much rather see the next best player at that position.

    We won 12 in a row so i think this issue got swept under the rug.
     
    Swami, Winoman, jaxonmills and 1 other person repped this.
  21. KC96

    KC96 Member

    Mar 2, 2013
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Since Zusi provided the service that opened up F. Johnson to win that penalty, I think it's overly harsh to label Zusi as "ineffective", especially while praising Johnson for winning the penalty. "Ineffective" helped get the US it's only goal.

    Don't get me wrong, Zusi had an overall D+/C- game "at best" (and I was yelling at him/my TV for many dumb plays). But he deserves some credit for setting up the situation that let to our goal.
     
    FameThrowa repped this.
  22. Berks

    Berks Member+

    Dec 22, 2010
    NorCal
    Club:
    Los Angeles Galaxy
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Clint scored - yes it was a bad PK, but he scored and hit the post.
    LD was the most involved attacking player (factually according to the stats, and more than double Fabian's number), and had all 4 key passes. Also had the most successful passes of any attacking player.

    That said, I gave Clint a 5, and LD a 6.5. Neither had a stellar match. But your conclusion is diving off the deep end and not quite accurate.
     
    Editor In Chimp repped this.
  23. SlovenianBearHug

    Jun 20, 2010
    Club:
    --other--
    I get it, they're all professionals and should be expected to roll with the punches and not rely on one player so much, but Bradley not playing, and it happening in last hour before the game, changed the entire game plan they had worked on. The midfielders had no idea how to work together, who was going to be responsible for what. In the 2nd half you'll notice Jones started taking more time on the ball and trying to distribute more calmly at least some.

    The whole night just shouldn't have happened the way it did. FJ is the only player I would say who didn't have a bad night. Zusi started to look good before he got subbed.

    I don't think the Cameron/Jones midfield has a chance against Mexico and my feeling is Klinnsman will have Beckerman in there with hopefully Mix but who knows.
     
  24. Gamecock14

    Gamecock14 Member+

    May 27, 2010
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    You have to give Costa Rica credit. As soon as Bradley was gone, they focused on stopping Jermaine Jones and his long balls. Players were running and sliding in every time it seemed like he was about to send one out. He was blocked like 5-6 times in the first half. In the second half, we saw what makes him a good player.
     
    orcrist and Winoman repped this.
  25. Editor In Chimp

    Editor In Chimp Member+

    Sep 7, 2008
    Absolutely spot on. They weren't great but they weren't the dumpster fire some people are bending over backwards to overreact to.

    Its pretty simple: Losing MB 10 minutes before kick rattled them, and CRC took advantage of adrenaline and the crowd and our rattled, poor play and scored twice. From the 30th minute till Howard's screwup in the second we were a level above them. Lucky bounce on PK evened out by unlucky post, CD doesn't get enough on a header and misses LD twice with passes that would have sprung him.

    It's not some giant disaster, and we at least looked the part for a large stretch of the game.
     

Share This Page