Post-match: USA vs. Antigua & Barbuda: the attack

I agree that Donovan was lively and better than the Canada match. I like that he switched sides at times. He created a lot of opportunities. Just would like him to shoot a bit more. Remember the 1st Slovenia goal at the WC? Ripped that one, even from a poor angle.

USMNT offensive insights!
Biggest problem with the offense is dempsey/donovan/bradley/gomez are not gelling as a unit, not being selfish enough to dribble, shoot, and score! Or maybe it’s four selfish players all wanting the ball instead of teamwork & creativity, or maybe it’s not understanding there rolls per JK’s instructions to them, they’ve surely had enough time together dating back to wc2010. So im thinking it must be pyschological for them, three of which are the man at their club teams when it comes to scoring, and enjoy the service from the club teammates there not receiving with the USMNT. This problem is often on display with the likes of Holland (robben, van persie, sneijder) or England when there on the pitch together (lampard,gerrard, rooney) .
In anycase we now have the best attacking USMNT, from a personnel standpoint ever! but how long will they be on the field together is anyones guess as donovan, gomez, dempsey, are 30+ and this will absolutely be there LAST WORLD CUP QUALIFYING CYCLE! get it together guys, it’s your last go around, show us what you can do! SCORE GOALS!

http://soccerknowitall.wordpress.com/2012/06/09/the-biggest-pro-6-2/

Sorry, guys. My rant was a little uncalled for. And I should know better. I need to stay away from BigSoccer immediately after a game.

I will add, though - those finding fault with LD for yelling at Herc about shooting: IF it's the play I'm thinking of, where Herc shot into the side netting, LD didn't yell at Herc for shooting, he yelled at him for shooting near post. Better play would have been far post, because LD was wide open in the middle and Clint was open on the far post; if it doesn't go in, those two are there to pounce.

Oh, and Clint yelled at Herc about the very same thing on that play, telling him "far post, far post."

I honestly didn't see a ton wrong with the attack. They played an athletic, organized team that put 10 behind the ball and usually had 3 guys surrounding the guy with the ball around the 18 (this is when we had to try and dribble "cute"-there wasn't room enough to do anything else. If you watch again you'll see it over and over) and yet still generated a bunch of opportunities.

They'll be fine in attack. Worry about the backline that still hasn't been fixed since 2010

I had to catch this on a comparatively small bar TV with no sound, so TIFWIW

*Herc had a great game in every respect. He's my MOTM.
*We tried to pass a lot, but we weren't able to complete those super-accurate short balls that unlock a packed defense. That's Torres' specialty, and (while he didn't play poorly), he was too far out to do a lot.
*That said, we kept trying, which was bad. The biggest problem with the US attack as I saw it was that we consistently tried to make one or two extra passes instead of taking shots from dangerous areas. The keeper was giving up rebounds, and we got corners left and right. Take shots, good things will happen. The extra pass never worked. I don't think it worked once all night.
*Probably the best stretch of the game was the first 10-15 minutes of the second half, even though nothing game from it, and things fell off a cliff after that (even though we got a goal). Legs?
*Part of the problem was Antigua & Barbuda being fairly organized and doing some great emergency defending and goalkeeping. I was kinda expecting them to be like Barbados from last cycle, where we could score at will. It goes without saying that we could not score at will, and that's a credit to A&B

Dempsey often disappears in games - only to pop up with the winning goal in the 89th minute.

As does (at times) every good goals scorer on earth when his midfield was as poor as Bradley/Edu/Jones was last night. But that was not the reason I thought Clint was poor last night. His connection to Donovan and Herc was lacking.

Herc was the only one that had a very good game, his work rate was great, he defended, he attacked and linked. The two D's did combined better than in the previous game. LD needs to shoot, I guess he wants the assist record for the WCQ. Boyd and Jozy did have much playing time but I thought Boyd should have done better with the few chances he got, his touch was way off for the type of player he is known to be. In my opinion the attack was to slow, it allowed A&B to orgonize on defense, we need to do better 1 touch like the Scotts game but it seems to me that we were too worry about the counter and rightly so when I didn't she much of our outside mids helping out on defense.

You're out of your mind. He and Landon linked up a few times, especially in the first half. Clint and Landon and Hercules all played fine on balance.

Everyone's going to look less than stellar when you play an organized side with 10 behind the ball. Rewatch the game, especially the 1st half-when A&B set their shape, they would have 3 guys surrounding the guy with the ball, choking off the avenues to pass and/or shoot, requiring our guys to take multiple touches under pressure. There were times where we made the extra pass, but there were plenty of those times when it was the right decision given the moment on the field

So we didn't hang 8 on them, in a monsoon, with half our core overworked and our 1st/1a player playing his way back to 100%. That isn't cause for concern. There's still lots to be encouraged about. Gomez looks sharp and has earned his PT. Clint and Landon are starting to connect more and more. We completely dominated possession and, if not for our zombie backup CB, would have won at least 3-0.

Thought our attack was above average. been watching MNT for 20 years and expected 1-0 with the bunkering opposition.

4-3-2-1 = two supporting strikers. Check out their heat maps. This is the type of fluidity that will pay dividends down the road. Also 3 goals on 27 shots is pretty much average finishing.

I would expect the greatest American player ever and a record goal scorer in one of the top leagues in Europe to link up MORE THAN as you put it "a few times".

Who said anything about hanging 8 on them? If you have to assign unnecessary expectations to those who you disagree with to help make your point, there's a problem.

"Everyone is going to look less than stellar" against an organized side that bunkers? Oh my.... Do you understand the level that their players play at? How many notches BELOW MLS do you have their team
pegged at? 1/2/3... more?

So they "set their shape" and had numerous men around the ball.


Are we allowed to vary our attack? Do we have to call and get permission first or something? Bottom line is a similar attacking effort gets clean sheeted in Guatemala, with EASE imo.

You know, at this point, with this group of players, the Christmas tree is probably my favored default formation for this team. But I wouldn't be dogmatic about it. Gotta change the shape and player mix for the opponent and situation, of course.

But for Klinsmann's team I believe the formation is actually called the "Tannenbaum"...

I think that teams that really try to attack us are going to suffer heavy defeats in qualification. early qualification will be tougher when teams bunker in against us.

everyone should go watch the brazil and canada games to see what is wrong with the attack!!! they missed many chances in both games, and brazil has a crappy uncommitted defence, there just an extention of there offensive. Now the Canadians, they were committed to defending, and we did horrible against them!!! these qualifying games against minnows means nothing, you need to take the whole body of work and look for trends- strengths and weaknesses in offense, defense, transition between the two, and coaching. We now have supposedly the best coach with the best personnel ever for USMNT, and I still see problems with chemistry, cohesion, effectiveness and execution at the offensive end for all the talent we have. If your happy being the English national team, bunch of independent, selfish underachievers for country while getting fame and glory for club in the EPL, then goodluck to you, but that's where I feel the USMNT is heading.

Ugh. I see where this is headed. I thought this meme died sometime during July 2009.

I don't how you can even really evaluate the team when they are playing such a poor opponent. They won easily, but most would agree that it wasn't a very good performance. I don't think you learn anything from a match like this. Definitely needs to be much better down in Guatemala City.

Once Altidore is judged ready, I'd move away from the Christmas tree. Go with Altidore and Gomez at forward, and drop one of the holding mids.

There are plenty of times when I'd agree (and sometimes I wouldn't). But Klinsi I think will be the tougher sell. He really, really, really seems to love those CMs.

What I'm not 100% sure of yet, though, is if it's because he feels our back line needs to be protected by no less than 3 (and if possible, make it 4), or if it's because he believes that the bulk of our best players are CMs and it's a "best 11 guys" thing. My guess is a mix of both, but in what proportion?

Aside: Can you imagine a future scenario, maybe late this year or next where all of Holden, Jones, Bradley, Torres, Edu, Williams, and Morales are all healthy and in form at the same time? Am I the only one who doesn't think that Klinsi tries some way to shoehorn at least 5 of those guys on the pitch at the same time?

After "der tannenbaum" comes "der spritzer": the 2-7-1

-----------boyd----------
torres-brad-demp-dono-
--williams--edu--jones--
------boca--goodson---
----------- howard ----------

Typically, these are character guys who ordinarily accept a lot of responsibility and do a lot of dirty work for the team. Hard not to like this crowd.

It's a bit easier not to like creative types, grin (Adu, Feilhaber and to a lesser extent, Kljestan spring to mind). Narcissism goes with this crowd. At some point, it will be interesting to see if and how, these creative ones are incorporated. Right now, it is a lot of the same mentality in the selections.

Of our attack going into the Guatemala game:
Gomez: Works hard and is a decent finisher, although he was out of position a good few times. I'm fine with him starting solo up top again.
Altidore: Hasn't been at his best for the Nats in quite some time, but he is still Altidore
Dempsey: We need him to produce some goals against Guatemala, as Landy looks a bit off the pace and FJ may be out again.
Boyd: Doesn't belong on the team yet, unfortunately. Does that mean Klinsmann will stop playing him until he matures and develops into a professional player? Probably not.
Wondo: Has earned at least a chance. Can't really judge a striker based solely on bench performances with a few minutes left

Clearly he has not impressed as much in training.