Let me just say that after watching him for a few years here in Houston, I firmly believe he has the skill and ability to be an international class CB or even DM. Still lots of work to do though but it can be done.
Timmy Chandler was so, so bad. I'll get to this more in the coaching thread, but he was Ricardo Clark vs. Ghana bad, and should have been yanked in the first half before he could ******** up and give up a goal. On the one hand I'm pretty surprised people are arguing that Cameron wasn't as bad as Gonzo (he was worse) but then I notice that it's mostly a Houston fan doing the arguing, so it makes sense. Gonzo was poor, Cameron was really poor.
it frightens me to no end that Gonzalez and Cameron is most likely our best central defensive pairing going into the cup. We cannot keep trotting out guys like Bocanegra, Dolo, and Gooch. This is who we are, we need to change now and live and die by the sword. I still remember Boca getting skinned by Carlos Ruiz. a fat Carlos Ruiz. Thats pretty much curtains. Gooch isnt starting at his club, and Dolo has gotten the injury bug in a big way, and his speed seems to be escaping too. we need to move on, even if its with what we got. That being said.....Chandler is......not that good. Bigsoccer collectively bit on that one Eric Lichaj style just because of the league he plays in. dude was getting smoked like bad crack all game. I havent seen a right back performance like that at the nats level since Marvel Wynne. Parkhurst por favor, and maybe Beita when he gets back to full strength. Honestly Jon Spector should probably get a look back there again soon if we arent gonna use him as a midfield option. Fabian wasnt great either but he did wonderfully to clear it off the line and our left back options are pretty bleak, id hope Morrow is still an option there but i know better now.
If Gonzalez was going to get back in the box, bust your fricking ass getting there so you can do something. If you look where he was when the ball goes in the net, he's literally in no mans land with nobody on either team with 3 yards on him.
I'm not down on the player, I'm glad he's committed to us, and at some point in this cycle we're going to be very glad we have him in my opinion, but my, was that an awful game. He's played some good games for us, and a few which have been excellent. But today he flat stunk all game long. IMO his was definitely the worst performance of the day.
Fair enough. We might disagree on on his overall ability. But hey, for the good of our team I hope you are right.
Unfortunately Johnson wasn't far behind on the other side. With that absurd narrow formation we were really relying on both Chandler and Johnson to get up the field and get involved in the attack, but both of them looked either tired, uninterested, or both. No attacking presence, and no attempt to track back when they did manage to venture up field...
That second goal... I'm not sure how to categorize all the mistakes that led up to it, but I do know who made the last mistake and how bad it was. Omar Gonzalez made the last mistake, and it was absolutely unthinkably horrible. The ball is lying in front of your wide-open goal, and you're the closest player to it: what do you do? GET IT! Kick it over the touch line, kick it over the end line, dribble it out of the side of the box, SOMETHING, ANYTHING except an own goal. People complain about ball-watching, but Omar Gonzalez was doing something worse than ball-watching, something I've never seen before so I don't quite know what to call it. Completely forgetting how to play soccer?
Yes, but even if Howard called the ball Cameron should not just stop and peel off. As a CB , you keep going in a way that makes it difficult for the opponent to get to the ball and protects your keeper. Inexperienced CB.
If Howard called for the ball, then what was Cameron supposed do, go all Heskey on Howard's chest? On most soccer planets, this is pretty obvious. On BS posters think they're Bayes or someone with this breaking down of responsibility.
We have a bunch of inexperienced guys and aging vets. Boca would have melted in that weather. We aren't going to be good defensively for a while. Cameron doesn't even play CB for his club and it looks like he is forgetting how to play that position more and more as the days go by. In his last club games he was playing as an advanced midfielder. JK needs to stop trying to compensate with DM's and play a speed guy or a creative midfielder or at least keep them on the bench.
You're right in that neither was offering any real width up field, but there was also a major difference between them: Chandler was getting skinned all day. Costly could do as he pleased 1v1. The Hondurans picked up on it early and attacked his side early and often. They didn't have such a gimme on FJ's side.
Eh, in order to get skinned you at least have to approach the attacker, which is more than I can say Johnson did today. We could nitpick all night about who was worse but the bottom line is that both fullbacks were atrocious and really let the team down when the tactics relied on them having strong outings.
Easy thread to answer. Biggest issue? Gonzo for Boca. Put Boca in, we leave with a Tie... at LEAST! He may haev even stopped the goal from the corner, because it would never get to the point of a bicycle kick. Boca throws his head in there and gets kicked!
We gave up 2 goals last time, and they missed a PK and hit the post. So don't cherry pick. The problem was we didn't score 3. The D was shaky early. Honduras botched that 3 on 1. Chandler and Jones were a bit lazy closing guys out early. But after that chance, they didn't really have an open chance until Howard made a decent save and they scored on the bike. Yes, Gonzo messed up on both goals. Running back into the box rather than closing down the player with the ball on the first one, and being too damn lazy on the second. But we've got to break him in at some point. It would have happened a lot sooner had Chandler not ripped his knee up on the Nuremburg trial. Frankly, I was more disappointed in the offense.
He needs better assistants for sure. But this game was exactly why it was immensely idiotic not to be working the new CBs in earlier. We pissed away most of 2012 and by the time we got to the back half of the semi round, we had just started to integrate Cameron. Now we're seeing why that was a completely fireable offense. All 4 guys had their issues; Johnson and Chandler were the worst two players on the field. Cameron and Gonzalez had the kinds of problems you would expect from the first time those two paired up. Had we started this process sooner, either in 2011 or early 2012 when we were playing eleventy billion friendlies, those issues don't come up now. Because each guy defended fine; their mistakes were down to communication and experience working with each other and with Howard. ETA: I do honestly hope we trot out the exact same back 4 in March against Costa Rica and Mexico. They need to get this crap sorted out; those 4 are our 4 most talented defenders assuming Dolo's finally on the tail end. They need the reps and we have to face the fact that their growing pains are going to come during important games.
You're kidding right. So when you're goalkeeper leaves the net you just stand there while the man you're supposed to mark runs past you and taps in a goal? Not to mention he was totally out of position numerous times. Once where GCam totally bailed him and Chandler out. Just a terrible first performance for him and the back line as well.
Or that he is better, but not by a vast margin, and he's more capable of providing good value at a different position than they are.
I think people are overreacting in regards to our backline, although I do agree with disappointment in the backline and they deserve much blame. But I see overreaction of what players might be better than what we ran out and their international futures. Omar/Cameron do not worry me going to the WC talent wise. The larger issue, which Timmy hit on after the game, was they've had no time to learn together and JK threw them out there together in a road WCQer. Very tough situation for them. Brutal errors. But it doesn't mean either isn't going to be an international CB going forward or I'm worried down the road. One thing I am worried about though is Cameron not playing CB for Stoke. He either must move back to CB by next season, move to a team which will play him there, or you consider a Besler/Omar pairing. Has nothing to do with Cameron's talent or whether he could succeed as a CB, but has everything to do with not playing there on a weekly basis. Chandler looked terrible today, horrible. But outside of Chero he is our best RB. He proves it weekly. Parkhurst has yet to get off the bench in the same league Chandler has had good success as a RB in. We all know Chandler's talent, and while today was terrible it was one game, and a game where everyone looked off. He's our future RB unless Lichaj has something to say. Fabian also had a poor game and I've seen people in other threads questioning what he brings to the table. One poor game doesn't negate that he's been one of our better overall players since he joined us. Sweeping judgements off one poor outing are always a mistake. Look at how many games the backline of Chandler/Omar/Cameron/Fabian have played together, and you might see what the issue is. Played terribly today, but when you throw them out there for the first time together, this result is a possibility. Our mid field not completing passes and putting them under pressure by starting counters for Honduras all game didn't help. Boca would have been a great influence, but his form has not been good lately, nor has he been that healthy.