US-Mexico, the coaching (R)

Didn't like the first XI; I thought the midfield lacked technique. Starting Edu in the middle was risky, but it worked out pretty well.

The subs and halftime adjustments were well nigh perfect.

American catenaccio. The more defensive midfielders the better against better teams. Also, good call up with Brek Shea.

agreed starting 11 had no creativity. Midfield was overrun.

Klinsmann did the expected. We caught a few breaks. He can make 6 subs. So what, it's a win.

His best move was shifting Fabian Johnson to the right side. A bold call to start Edgar Castillo, but the collapse of Barrera's career made it the right move since it allowed Klinsmann to move the better defender on Guardado.

Plus, Klinsmann deserves credit for bringing back Shea.

Now Mexico remembers why they don't schedule friendlies in Azteca.

Klinsmann made alot of the right decisions tn. He should be applauded for this 1.

Anything but an A+ is ridiculous.

On the bring back Shea decision alone,
he blew away 95% of BS posters who thought
it was a bad move. Another JK stroke a genius
was getting Castillo in...who was brilliant tonight.
Again, 95% of posters here were against that.

JK can't play the game for his players- he
can't stop the fact that we lost possession
needlessly.

But he had this team so well prepared.

And prepared for a result.

A++++++++

It's hard to give Klinsmann a lot of credit, or blame. Yet.

We got lucky on that goal; a guy who's been invisible all year megs a defender, takes a heavy touch which kills what would have been a shot, pulls back to an 18 year old who blindly backheels to a guy who's really not that great, who scuffs his shot but was close enough to score.

We had a mediocre roster, and he stacked it so we wouldn't get embarrassed and would maybe get a result. We got it.

The key will be in the lessons he draws from this. Will he take the right lessons (integrate Cameron now, Shea is a game changer when in the mood, our midfield was completely overrun and embarrassed in the first)?

Or will he draw the wrong lessons (Orozco Fiscal is a useful piece, playing 5 CMs is a good idea, Danny Williams is useful, etc)?

JK just continues the "whatever I do will make look completely retarded, but it will work out". His subs were good though.

Can't win fairly routine games(Scotland drubbing aside), makes miracle wins like these possible.

I like to keep myself level headed, and I've given JK a bit of flak in the past for sometimes daydreaming his team management, but he pulled off a masterstroke for this one, somehow. Congrats to him, and us of course!

The bunker worked, even with a poor midfield performance (well, aside from Beckerman's solid effort).

Loved the experiments at CB. Cameron shined and Edu was adequate at best. But hitting 50% on the biggest test of the night is a great outcome. One new, younger CB may have finally been identified.

The 4th and 5th subs (Shea and Orozco) set up and scored the goal. You can't count on that in a meaningful match, but it sure worked like a charm tonight.

Bravo.

I still think we have a lot of issues tactically, particularly our midfielders. Jones, Williams and Beckerman were black holes - and weren't quick enough to work out of tight spaces. Klinsmann did well to adjust by playing wider in the second half, but that only served to alleviate the issue a bit (which it did).

The distribution from the defenders was great I thought, especially in the first half. Unfortunately, the midfielders they played the ball to were too slow and got dispossessed pretty easily. They definitely did more long balls in the second half. I also think all four defenders had pretty good games defensively. Considering he was being targeted all game, Castillo was great. I thought Cameron looked good in central defense and Johnson was solid again. Edu looked a bit shaky, but that's expected for someone who wasn't playing in his natural position. And I can live with his performance.

Can't really say too much about the forwards since they weren't involved in the game much. But please Herc, PICK YOUR HEAD UP.

Although he adjusted at halftime pretty well, Klinsmann didn't win this game tactically. However, I think he showed that he's a master psychologist. Even when it looked like we were being outplayed, we actually looked pretty comfortable and by no means intimidated or shaky. It's been a while since I've seen us look that confident in Central America, let alone in Mexico.

JK, like someone said, cannot play the game for them. But he made the right adjustments and squeezed just about every drop of soccer out of the players he put on the field tonight. It was a bit of "floodlight robbery" sure but in the end I do not think that matters much.

Great result for the USA and JK. Let's keep this momentum going in our next qualifiers.

I liked the 6 Defensive midfielder formation which led to the absorb, wear down and counter.

I really liked Cameron stepping up at center back, he looks like a starter to me.
Edu did well enough to merit other opportunities.
Have to like the subs Shea and Michael Orozco-Fiscal combining on the goal.
The second half subs were momentum changers.

Historic victory at Azteca. Gotta love it . . .

This was a night of redemption for guys like Castillo, Shea, and Orozco. All three played well and looked composed. That's a big difference from Klinsy's debut versus Mexico one year ago.

Look, I don't believe Klinsmann is the second coming of Michels or Sacchi. He is bubbly and has a bit of used car salesman in him which, I get, can be annoying. But I am a bit taken aback by the lengths that some posters go to either move goal posts or alternatingly point to or dismiss results or enter unfair things into evidence to slam him. Whether the midfield in the first half was creative or whether Shea has sucked since last August and got lucky with a quasi nutmeg or whether Castillo's replacement benefited from a tactical switch, the end result is that the USA won for the first time in Azteca. If Sampson gets credit for the Brazil win, Arena for Portugal and Mexico in 2002 or Bradley for Spain/Egypt/first half v Brazil 2009, then Klinsmann gets credit for this. While I think he is far from perfect and while his decisions don't always mesh with my own ideas of what I believe Bobby Fischer to have done in Rejkavik, he tied 1-1 right after we'd lost 4-2; he beat a team in Europe that we'd tied on neutral ground;' he won in Italy and won in Azteca.

Klinsmann is undefeated against Mexico.

I hope it stays that way once the Hex comes around. The Olympics were pretty cool but this means a lot more to me than all the medals we won there. Mexico in Azteca is never just a friendly.

Hopefully the snarky hating dies down around here.

These are the important things we learned:
1. Cameron belongs.

2. Edu deserves more looks at CB.

3. Beckerman will rightfully have a role on this team.

4. Don't write off Shea. His athleticism and aggressiveness can make a difference.

5. Klinsmann's trust in bringing along that 4th division striker seems well-placed.

6. Jones struggles - big time - with quickness.

7. Torres, I wanted you to succeed. Time to look at other alternatives. Earn it at the club and force your way back into the picture.

8. Klinsmann is not as dogmatic about his approach as many have made him out to be, but the 4 DM's just isn't working. Please adjust.

I'm not saying he doesn't deserve some credit; read what I wrote more closely. He set up the meh roster and maximized it's chance to win. If we'd played more open, we lose, probably big. He set the game plan well.

The final score of this game, in the big picture, is far less important that the lessons Juergen draws from the game. This shouldn't be a revelation.

EDIT: nitpicking, but you cannot compare the results the US got against Portugal & Mexico in 2002, and against Egypt and Spain to this. All 4 of those games mattered, and both sets of teams were going all out to win.

I will address the mistakes
1. Torres is not a 10 or creator. He is a circulator. Waste of talent in this formation
2. D Williams might bring D but zero O We need another option as a wide 3rd d-mid if that's what we play
3. Johnson did a great job but is more effective on the left with his cut ins

But all in all this 4312 5 d-mid formation is smart for/ and can beat good teams
The problem is going forward, I don't trust Jones. Beckerman will only be a backup in two years.
If williams is not used as a #6, then we only have one of the three--Michael Bradley good to go. Hope for his health
Dempsey will fill the Torres role fine. We will be ok at fowards I think Cameron will only get better and JK will find a partner, edu or otherwise.

So I think we have a made a quantum leap today. Yes, we got lucky, but the fundamental strategy was good. Its now a matter of getting the best personnel to get the job done when it counts.
PS There is no place for Donovan as a regular starter on this team in 2014

Yes indeed. What complete nonsense by some posters here. As if every coach gets everything right all the time.

First win in 75 years of trying. Never done by Bora or Arena or Bradley.
Ditto win against Italy.

I know, its painful for those who just can't wrap their heads around fact that JK has done a fine job so far. We beat Mexico without Dempsey, Altidore, Bradley, etc.

Shea, Castillo, Edu to Center Back, the tactics....all panned by 95% of posters on BS. And yet
JK demonstrated to think well beyond most everyone here. The Shea move alone was a tremendous master stroke in so many ways.

More away history for Klinsi.

Almost everything he tried looked like genius even stuff way outside the box...

Please. This was a huge win.

Klinsi made a necessary tactical sub, bringing on Orozco to counter De Nigris. Right move, and timely. His decision to essentially "sacrifice" Fabian Johnson on the right side to keep Guardado out of the game was not a conventional move, and I didn't see it coming, but it absolutely worked. Good call, Klinsi. One of his better judgment calls yet, actually.

Other than that, I think he did well just keeping some faith in his cobbled-together defense on a road match in one of the toughest venues to travel to. Something obviously rubbed off.

Now, in front of the back 4 I honestly think it was all kinds of failure until the subs came on (namely Shea, and to a lesser extent Zusi). Klinsi has just got to stop thinking that Torres is going to be any kind of an attacker or consistent creative force. He's a ball circulator, and a good one in certain games that call for it, but he's not an attacker, not a creative magician, and not a guy that's going to win a lot of balls when the other team is expected to have the better of the possession.

Secondly, he can't expect Danny Williams to supply an attack in a position that really needs to. I know he has him there to assist Johnson and keep eyes on Guardado and keep things tight, but we won't be able to do much else other than keep the game in front of us if a guy like Williams is used in a spot that really needs to be played by a player who has some modicum of attacking chops at the very least. And it's just infuriating that he just keeps doing it.

Yes and no. Yes, historic since we never win there and we pulled it off, somehow.

No, because it's a complete outlier, with half-bit part players for both sides in a half-full stadium that's typically teeming with hate.

If this results in Klinsmann misusing his roster and using that kind of formation in games that matter, with some of these bit players getting called in consistently, it won't be a positive. If it results in Cameron getting more looks, Shea being used as a weapon, to go along with the intangible bit about winning where you never have before, it absolutely will be.

Remember, we won, but we also had maybe 3 guys play well, and we were dominated by a team that was in 3rd gear until we scored. We've won games where we bunkered and knicked a goal off a better team before...