I dont even care to talk about this match anymore tbh. Did anything truly change anyones opinion on anything? That match was truly so lackluster that Jurgen will almost have to go completely on who played well in camp rather than the match itself.
Beltran did well? He never tried to go forward at all. The few chances he had to serve a ball he hit a crap ball. It was hard to say about the backs since Canada never attacked. I thought Agudelo looked good when Canada was not kicking him. I also felt Feilhaber was okay. I am still not a fan of Beckerman at the international level.
So can we get clarification on Mix? Injured? Deemed not good enough/coaches decision? Fell asleep during the nutritional seminar?
Oh, the team always looks like crap in the first game after the January camp. I really wonder why .....? This whining is almost as old and pointless as the MLS won't sell players crap.
But this is partly a result of what is stressed in MLS, where most of these guys tonight play. Hopefully more MLS coaches start stressing tactics and improve their teaching of them. Some do, but it's pretty apparent it needs to be stressed much more when we see mostly MLSers out there, the best in the league, and their runs are non existent and the ideas just not there. But it's not something we didn't already know, that tactics in MLS might be the real weak point at this point in time. What was a little surprising was how poorly the movement/ideas/even simple link ups/1-2's were from the best in MLS. Of course part is JK and that always enters into it, but this was the Canadian c team, and to not naturally be able to impose your will more at this level is a bit ridiculous. We really shouldn't need much, if any coaching to look better than we did against this team. The best MLS has to offer should look better and be expected to look better. It's not even the score line. It's more the ideas, the movement, how players read the game and how they took advantage of runs/openings. It was spectacularly poor aside from 2-3 attacking players, mainly Gatt and Agudelo, and a little Benny. And after spending 3 weeks together, day in day out, I really wonder what these guys are taught daily in season.
He needs a passing game. I'm not ready to write him off by any sense of the imagination because to his credit, he showed up and tried to push tonight. And he was better than a lot of the team. But I still don't see the drooling that some do.
We didn't see one guy tonight who will get meaningful (or maybe any) minutes in eight days. These are just the guys who won't get out of their group at the Gold Cup. No worries.
I should have watched Vegas, at least there is some action at the casino. Truly dreadful, not an ounce of creativity by anyone not named Feilhaber, who actually put a few guys through, and had some good set plays. But even he was poor on the 2 FKs from shooting distance. Beckerman did his job and Zusi had a few good crosses, but rest of the midfield and forward play was just blah. I love how ESPN gets a theme to feature Davis, Wondo, and Gonzo and ignores how they are actually playing. Davis and Wondo showed little. Gonzo was fine but it should have been pointed out that he was pretty much untested. At least we learned both one Davis has one of the best left foots in MLS, and that the other Davis can't speak English properly.
I don't disagree. He was pretty greedy tonight....but truthfully... why not, in this game? From what I remember during the RUssia game, he has good combination play, but once you give it to him, it's pretty much 'get out of his way' because he's going to take it all the way in from deep. Just give him a hole kind of like a running back.
You would think our country might approach a style of play after 20 years of growth, but we haven't. That is completely frustrating.
The good: 1. We kept a shutout. 2. Omar and Bessler continue on 3. Other than that, I thought Feilhaber looked decent. 4. A lot of effort and hustle (and not like it made a difference) 5. It seemed like we might be dangerous on the set pieces Not so good: 1. Holy Smokes. where were the fans? 2. What were we working on in training the past two weeks? 3. We were missing an edge and a sharpness that said "We came to play, dominate and protect our turf" 4. Too much scrambling, not enough of an orchestrated or designed plan. Anyone see a clear idea of the strategy or tactics? 5. Seemed like a lot of passes ended up out of bounds. 6. Where was the creative spark? (Mix?) 7. I had no idea who the starting lineup might be. It would not have surprised me to see EJ and Zusi not start to afford the younger players time. That so, I would have expected those two and Wondo to dominate, yes, dominate (in the direction of DeRo) offensively. They did not 8. Very surprised to see the two defensive minded center midfielders to start, Beckerman and Evans in a 4-4-2. And I had no trouble with Beckerman starting. We will know more after the Honduras match.
If I watch the same game in 8 days, I'll be OK with it. If I watch the same game in 56 days I'll be ecstatic.
This is my guess on what Jurgen takes from here... Zusi, Johnson, & Gonzalez are definites for Honduras. Besler, Davis, & Gatt are probably's. Morrow may be there depending on Fabian Johnson's status. Beckerman = I have no idea. He played fine but it really depends on what Jurgen is thinking. With Williams not doing too hot at Hoffenheim & Jones questionable he might be a "probably" but Jurgen might have just always planned on this being the last of Kyle. We'll have to see about him.
As to Gatt - love his energy, but he's got like zero soccer IQ. Tries to dribble past too many people, waits too long to hit the ball into the box when driving on the flank, etc. I don't want to say he's a poor man's Robbie Rogers, but he's not exactly a rich man's Robbie Rogers either. Let's face it, the Norwegian/Swedish leagues are really not that great. Mix didn't make the bench for this one, Bedoya showed average, Gatt was the same. Feilhaber only one of offensive players who impressed me - he knows how to dribble and distribute, a true WC veteran. I really don't know why he didn't start this game (and why Evans was put in his place). Sheer idiocy.
They do. With their clubs. This was such a weirdly disjointed display I don't get it. You and I talk about this a lot jond, I give the coaching more credit than you do, and we are not going to agree on this one, so I'm just going to post my thoughts once here knowing that we don't see eye to eye. But these guys look so much more creative on their clubs I was surprised by the careful play tonight. They were so CAREFUL. Timid... That's not what I'm used to seeing. Hell, Brad Davis attacked more during the MLS Cup. It didn't help that we tried to play through the fullbacks in the first half and they kinda sucked. Morrow didn't seize his opportunity.