Yup. That was pretty effin' dumb and that shows. as I said in the main coaching thread, the lack of JK's and MV's general ability to analyze and respond to unfolding developments that no level of soccer knowledge can cover up. Or Maradona and Pele would have been good coaches.
All that talk about the humidity in SPS: #5 Víctor Bernárdez, SJ Maynor Figueroa, Wigan Juan Carlos García, Olimpia Arnold Peralta, Vida Roger Espinoza, Wigan Oscar Boniek García, Houston Luis Garrido, Red Star Belgrade Mario Martínez, Seattle Jerry Bengtson, NE Revs Carlo Costly, Veria
Luis Garrido joined Red Star about 2 weeks ago from Olimpia. And the MLS guys, regardless of their home city, get a pretty stiff dose of heat through the course of a summer MLS season. Not that I agree with your premise anyway. These guys all grew up and became footballers in that climate (except Espinoza).
There used to be some files available somewhere. Edit. Th word "torrent" was blanked out? Why is that?
Hmm. Too be more precise, heat acclimatization needs 1 to 2 weeks. All Honduran players not based in Europe have been together since early January. European based players arrived Feb 1. To my eye, the European based players in the USMNT were not playing to their usual standard. I believe they were affected by the heat but I can't be sure that was the only problem. So will we see this problem in the rest of the cycle? Probably not. The current temperature difference between Germany and Honduras is 40 degrees which is pretty extreme. Mexico City in a March night is not hot because of the high altitude. Jamaica and Panama in summer is only 15 degrees warmer than Germany. Costa Rica in September is also only 15 degrees warmer than Germany.
On double checking, our only summer game on the road is Jamaica. So far all games not involving Honduras have been scheduled for the evening. I don't think it'll be too bad.
The highlight clip in the earlier post reveals another disturbing trend. The US midfield applied little pressure to the ball, allowing ball possession without serious challenge way too far into our defensive zone. Where/who is the Buddy Ryan of soccer? The US needs to find him quickly.
I've made around 80 stills last weekend, many showing the lack of pressure to the ball. I might turn 'em into another slideshow. It's just a lot of work.
So far only Honduras has done that. This is conscious gamesmanship on their part since all qualifiers will be on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Maybe Klinsmann didn't realize that he can't expect the same intensity and movement from his midfielders when playing in humid 90 deg weather especially just after significant travel. He was probably shocked that his positive spirit and encouraging words didn't energize his players tired legs.
I don't know if I would call it gamesmanship but it was well done on their part to help tilt things in their favor just as the US tried to find home venues that favor them. I'm sure there was concern in Honduras soccer circles at first on whether they would get enough fans for a mid-week 3PM game. No problem, a national holiday was called for match day. Now that is a soccer culture!
Well, Honduras scheduled their Mexico game for the same time (3pm) and there were reports that Mexican federation filed protest with FIFA and/or CONCACAF.
In fact, thinking back to games I've seen where the stronger team was defeated by a weaker team, lack of midfield intensity by the "stronger" reputed team was almost always a contributing factor. A team I joined last year was a bunch of gringos playing against a team of Argentinians and we were down 4 or 5 to 1 at halftime with us only starting to pressure them when they brought the ball out close to midfield. After halftime I swapped my right back position with the guy who was playing right wing mid and started pressuring up on their left back every time the ball swung to him. We proceeded to tie up the game on balls stolen somewhere between the edge of their box and the center circle, eventually losing 8-7 after we tired a bit and got beat on a couple of counters. But we'd have had no chance if we'd have continued to let them bring the ball out to midfield without pressure.
If it makes it any better, my state championship was like World Cup qualifying, except the fields weren't as shitty as they are here.
To me, as well: it looked like an attempt to bait them into longer passes and prevent their midfielders from finding a rhythm.