Gonzalez is terrible at passing out of the back, he gave it away so many times it was pathetic. Both goals he had an indirect fault in. The first one he should've pressured the ball out wide and not run away from it, but the guys in the middle allowed the man to CHEST the ball, which is sad in the box. Then on the second goal, Gonzalez didn't track the man who put it in, but Cameron is at direct fault on that goal, Gonzalez with the secondary fault.
Gonzalez will get better, and I believe he's one of our top two centerbacks. He either needs to be developed now, or to sit in favor of Boca, but not Besler. Dominating in the air, on offense and defense, is a useful skill and will help us a ton. If we had anyone in that game capable of taking a set piece, it could have even come in handy in Honduras. Cameron is not striking me as very quick/fast either. Is Besler faster? If so, maybe they can just start their rookie partnership on the backline, and push Cameron to the right back. It's risky, but if we qualify, this experience will really help come WC time. Omar's not a speedster, but I don't think his quickness of feet will hold him back once his quickness of thought catches up to the international game. It was his nerves and lack of anticipation that caught him out in his first competitive US game. I don't know what to think of Chandler. He just looked completely lost, and almost like something was really wrong. Is he heavier than the last time I saw him? He looked it.
This! USA vs. Antigua & Barbuda Bocanegra Goodson win USA vs. Guatemala Clarence Goodson (Geoff Cameron, 46), Carlos Bocanegra (capt.), tie USA vs. Jamaica Clarence Goodson, Geoff Cameron loss USA vs. Jamaica Geoff Cameron, Carlos Bocanegra (capt.) win [COLOR=#000000][SIZE=14px][COLOR=#544d4d][FONT=Arial]U.S. Antigua & Barbuda [/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/COLOR]Clarence Goodson, Geoff Cameron, Carlos Bocanegra (capt.)(LB) [B]win[/B] [COLOR=#000000][SIZE=14px][COLOR=#544d4d][FONT=Arial][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=14px][COLOR=#544d4d][FONT=Arial] U.S. vs. Guatemala [/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/COLOR]Geoff Cameron, Carlos Bocanegra (capt.) [B]win[/B][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][SIZE=14px][COLOR=#544d4d][FONT=Arial][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=14px][COLOR=#544d4d][FONT=Arial] USA vs. Honduras [/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/COLOR]Omar Gonzalez, Geoff Cameron,[B] loss[/B][/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/COLOR] [FONT=Arial][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=14px][COLOR=#544d4d][FONT=Arial] Bocanegra 4-1-0 , 0-2 without him[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT] [COLOR=#000000][SIZE=14px][COLOR=#544d4d][FONT=Arial] Cameron 3-1-2[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][SIZE=14px][COLOR=#544d4d][FONT=Arial]Goodson, 2-1-1[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/COLOR] [COLOR=#000000][SIZE=14px][COLOR=#544d4d][FONT=Arial]Gonzalez 0-0-1[/FONT][/COLOR][/SIZE][/COLOR]
If he was coached to leave a man with the ball to go back and cover the center, he had a really shitty U12 rec coach when he was a kid.
Even though it was theirs, it was really a great goal all the way around. Superb service by Victor Bernardez into Maynor Figueroa who chested the ball to Juan Carlos Garcia. Bernardez also used his body well to keep Omar from controlling the header.
Could Besler be better than Omar? Possibly. Should we try to find out next WCQ game? Barring certain circumstances absolutely not, pick something and settle on it first for crucial games before trying other shit. This is really unfair to Matt, since he'll be sidelined in the short term thanks to Klinsmann being a moron with his backline setups, but it is what it is.
While I am not necessarily partial to Gonzales over Besler, this point (made by more than one poster thus far) is just too obvious to ignore. Of course, there were numerous opportunities to switch first-cap CBs from game to game during the JK era; this is not one of them.
False. You cannot be an elite defender in MLS if all you do is clear balls out of the back well with your head. I can give you one of those - his name is David Junior Lopez. Or I could also remind you of Clarence Goodson. The fact that Nurnberg was pretty much going to take him should be a clue that he is better than just a dude who can head out some crosses. His positioning is good. He can body a defender off a ball. He has good judgment as to how a play is developing to be able to get himself back and behind the ball. He has some pace with those long legs of his to recover. He also a strong tackler - he knows when to go to ground - which we did see during the game this past week. His weaknesses are well known: he can get turned by pacy players, and his distribution is average at best (his passing percentage is usually higher than what he demonstrated this week, but then again, in LA his midfielders help him). He's basically like Gooch. If you can play him with a solid distributor, he's a good add to the team. Besler and Gonzo were both in the same camp. One started against Honduras. That says a lot. Course, Jurgen could be clueless, so there's that. We need Gonzo to come good - I believe he is more additive to Cameron than Besler by bringing a different skill set. If Besler comes good, Cameron has competition - which is a good thing since he is playing FB or DM for Stoke. Wish we had more competition for Omar. MOF and Goodson aren't it. EDIT: Regardless, due to injuries that may happen, Besler and Omar need to be at every single camp from here on out.
Can someone who watches SKC tell me what Besler's weaknesses are? I want to compare them to Gonzo's. I realized that I'm comparing them based on what I've read, but I don't know for sure. They might be more similar than I think, except in the distribution department, so thought I'd ask.
The worst possible thing to do is throw Besler out there now. People are complaining that Omar was not ready so you wanna try putting another inexperienced CB out there? You gotta stick with Omar or go with Bocanegra at this point. Nothing against Besler, but it would be foolish to test the waters again. At least Omar got his first taste of qualifying and hopefully will steadily improve. I think Besler and Gonzalez should be the CB pairing for the gold cup. Both are very good defenders but I think Jurgen prefers Omar right now.
Excellent post. And about the first goal I'd like to add that I was surprised Gonzalez lost that duel in the first place. I looked up his and Bernardez' height and he's 4 or 5 inches taller yet still loses to him in the air. 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) vs 1.84 m (6 ft 1⁄2 in) (wikipedia) EDIT: About the chesting down in the box. In the first half alone that happened about 3 or 4 times. Very frustrating to witness such sloppy defending.
Absolutely, Bernardez played this like a boss. Omar looked the high schooler, who was unsure of himself at the next level. Yes, I noticed this also. It was hard for me to imagine elite central defenders, particularly those known for their physicality, allowing this to happen. At some point, we began noticing that Tim Ream's thought processes were not as quick as we would have liked. He has gotten better this year at Bolton. I would offer the same thing about Omar from watching him in this particular match. And I can understand he was nervous, I was a bit surprised that he started.
Look, it was a stupid idea to start Gonzo in that game. Dumb. I know JK likes to throw guys into the fire, but I just don't agree. Boca would have been the better choice, said so before the game, and still feel so.
Yeah for sure, the cross played in (the original one) was a bit over hit which is partly which I don't think Gonzalez won it (could be wrong just going off the top of my head). But still Gonzalez' air presence is his biggest "attribute" that we clamor about, and yet he lost a header than ultimately led to a goal.
Omar who was only in his second year as a pro looked better in that game than Boca or Gooch when they played Brazil last May.
Why is Cameron a lock right now? He never achieved the success as a defender that both Gonzalez and Besler have over the past few seasons. His (and Ream's) main triumph over those two was to move to the premier league, but that wasn't a fair battle since JK never gave Gonzalez and Besler the requisite USNT caps to get work permits. I know this might be unpopular, but I think OG and Besler should play together.
Sunk cost fallacy. San Francisco avoided this when they went with Kaepernick instead of the sunk cost of Alex Smith. The New York Jets fell for the fallacy by giving Mark Sanchez that giant contract despite the dwindling performances and the distractions. But really--whoever the centerbacks--with the quality available at midfield and fullback, central defense should not be getting exposed in the manner it has been. Klinsmann needs to change up the personnel and the tactics. He's got options in players the previous regimes could only have dreamed of.
Tim Chandler in particular is a bigger concern than OG. He didn't look good in Russia and sure as hell didn't in Honduras. He's in season.
I don't know that he has many, if any glaring weaknesses. I would say the closest would be physical limitations--Perhaps not as tall as you'd like an ideal CB (although he is the exact same height as Bocanegra) and perhaps not as fast as you might like. The biggest thing at this point is just lack of experience. He played with the MLS keeper of the year behind him and the #2 in voting for the MLS DOY next to him, with a guy now in the EPL pressuring the snot out of the midfield in front of him. In a way, he has proportionally more help in MLS than what he would at the international level. Only way to find out is to get him some experience. However, he's incredibly intelligent, so he'll adjust quickly.