USA vs Mexico: The Defense

Just the back four? Or does the midfield count in this? Also the back connecting to the middies to beat the high pressure? The inability contributes to the pressure on the defense.

 

I can't watch the whole 2nd half, but did re-watch the goals:

The 1st one:

• Zusi completely unnecessary give away of a corner. Darke points out it was poor, but Twellman tries to convince us it was a great defensive play by Zusi. It was terrible.
• The rest is 90% on Gonzo. He says he told Beckerman to switch, but it sure don't look like it. It's a tough play getting picked like that, and he is right to worry about giving a PK if he tries to bully though it, but you can't just give up and let a guy free. Beckerman maybe-coulda-shoulda switched there, but I doubt he stops it unless he makes that decision very early.

The 2nd one:

• Absolutley dreadful header by Green. He puts it in the one spot he can't. I won't blame Beckerman for not being there, because there is no way the ball should be put anywhere near there.
• Lot of space for Mex. Beckerman closes down, but not at 100% speed. Kyle is hoping Green can slow the attack, but the 18 year old is out of his depth.
  
• Parkhurst plays it well. He shades inside forcing the play wide. Parkhurst recovers quickly as well, getting out on the cross, but he can't stop the cut-back.
• Green at this point is in no man's land, guarding a patch of grass.
• Beckerman has recovered, but too much so. Over-pursuing, as he's anticipating a standard near post cross. He's not in a bad position, but as it turns out it's the wrong one.
• Goodson is fine anticipating cross and marking the eventual goal scorer.
  
• Beltran does an excellent job, and stays with his runner
  
• Gonzo is ok. He recognizes Goodson has the guy to his left and Beltran has the guy to his right.
• Bradley just getting in picture. He's way up field, for no particular reason as plenty of time to get back. Not sure it would have mattered, but food for thought about Bradley=Amid.
  
• Shot comes in. Beckerman rushes out but too late. Goodson does a good job stepping out on the shooter. He anticipates well. He's slightly timid as the shot is hit however. Goodson coming out leaves free man that Gonzo has to account for.
  
• Ball off post. Gonzo is slightly slow to react, but in honesty, I doubt any defender would be able to stop the forward from getting by there. Might he have been tighter to the man? Maybe, but it all happens very quickly. I don't think he could have done much on the play. Don't raise arm for off-side. Makes you look bad.

This was a very nice goal from Mexico. The D played it pretty well actually. Biggest problem is Green with a terrible give away putting us in a very bad spot that Mexico took full advantage of.

 

Short answer analysis:
IMO Mexico made key player subs and scored early giving them a ton of confidence and shaking up our defense mentally, especially Becks and OG who both screwed the pooch on the Marquez header. Two worst times to be scored on is right before and right after halftime. Mexico carried that momentum for the next 25-30 minutes. Backline was nervous on the ball and failed to effectively feed the midfield from the back. The backline also dropped back and stopped pressing high up the field. This probably resulted from Mexico being able to get the ball out wide on Beltran/Davis side often and effectively.
Mexico changed tactics and the boys did not adapt in time resulting in momentum shift.

 

Gonzo is marking Pulido up until the first shot. He then stands still and watches the ball while Pulido peels off his back. Am I incorrect for thinking OG should have been marking Pulido instead of standing there watching the shot, rebound, and goal. His head tracks the ball the whole time and never looks to see where his man is.

 

Goodson is marking Pulido in my view up until the 1st shot. But he leaves him (correctly) to defense the shot. Gonzo was an extra guy at first, but with Goodson leaving Pulido, he needs to account for him, yes. I think he knows where he is. It's a bang bang play. Like I said, maybe he could've been tighter or reacted a bit quicker, but I don't think many (if any) defenders stop that from being a goal.

 

I think it was abandoning the high line. We should not have done that. I agree Mexico was getting outside on it some, but our outside backs should have stayed closer to home. We had a 2 goal lead- we needed to be more selective in picking opportunities to bomb down the field.

 

Gonzo caught ball watching. He should have stayed tight with his man. You can actually see Goodson point to Pulido early in the play to show Gonzo that that's his man.

Gonzo has always been frustrating to me with his ball watching, but I've lightly penciled him in next to Besler in pretty much all of my starting XIs. That's going to change now, Cameron should be given the position as far as I'm concerned.

 

This is 100% on Gonzalez. Offensive players attempting to use teammates as picks happens on virtually every corner kick. Gonzalez has to be aware of potential picks and avoid them, while maintaining his mark.

Cannot disagree more with you on this one. That was three bad defensive plays - first, the header by Green, which is a mistake, but need not be a fatal one. Second, the decision by Beckerman to mark space instead of Aguilar. Spaces don't score goals, players do. Third, the complete failure of Gonzalez to mark Pulido. The lame arm raise at the end was proof positive that Gonzalez had no clue where Pulido was until the ball hit the net. No excuse for that.

Gonzalez's error is the worst, because if he had marked Pulido he would have been in position to clear the rebound, followed by Beckerman's, because he potentially could have cut out the cross or blocked Aguilar's shot had he been marking him, and finally Green's, since he could potentially have been bailed out by either Beckerman or Gonzalez, had they been doing their jobs.

 

herculez gomez ‏@herculezg 15h
Every single Liga MX team I ever been on works on that “pick” play. Very fitting that Rafa puts it away. Game on.

 

Yours is certainly a reasonable take.

Obviously in hindsight, Beckerman took the wrong choice. I don't think it was a bad position however. My guess is if Kyle tries to mark tight, Aguilar beats him with a near post run. Pick your poison.

Gonzo might have marked tighter. I said that. I really think Pulido scores anyway. Offensive player has a significant advantage in anticipating there, plus the angle the ball comes off don't think he would get there.

It's s good goal by mexico taking advantage of Green's mistake. Don't make that mistake and it don't happen.

 

C'mon, man, might have marked tighter????????? He stood at the penalty mark like a statue and watched the play develop, and never even looked behind him to see there was a Mexican player there until the ball hit the post, after which he raised his arm instead of attempting to move his feet.

That can be said for all mistakes. The point, though, is given that a mistake has occurred, what is the probability it will result in a goal? Aguilar with 35 yards and 4 US defenders and a GK between him and the goal is much less likely to score than Pulido 6 yards out in front of an open goal: that's why Gonzalez's error is worse.

 

Just look at Wondos goal, Marquez had good D on Wondo, but Wondo just beat him to the ball.

 

85% of goals are the result of a defensive error. On the first goal, there are two, Zusi needlessly giving up a corner and Gonzo and Beckerman failing to resolve how to cover the pick. Second starts with terrible give away by Green who blindly knocks a weak header toward the middle of the field and then Gonzo gets caught ball watching on the rebound.

As for going forward, I think the center back pairing is muddled at best. I think Brooks is the most talented, but that's a rough place to have an inexperienced player. Either Besler/Goodson or Besler/Cameron. I think I would have to go with Beasly on one side and Yedlin on the other. I absolutely love his speed. Since the two central midfielders are integral to our defense, my pairing with Bradley would be Mix instead of Jones, Edu or Beckerman.

 

When the cross is received, Gonzo is positioned pretty well, IMO. The first attacker has three options: (1) One touch pass to the second attacker (2) Drag the ball left and strike himself (3) First time strike.

Gonzalez is well positioned to deal with the attacker's first and second options. For my money, it looks like Beckerman and Goodson have option 3 covered. That shot should have been blocked. Well done on the strike to get it through a tight space. If Gonzalez would have stayed tight to the second attacker, we would have conceded a touch inside and a clean strike at goal. And had he stayed goal side he would have killed any hope of an offside and possibly interfered with his own keeper. I think he did well to force the first time shot through a wall of two defenders. I do think he could have been more aware that Beltran had already killed the line and began an earlier retreat.

From the point that shot comes in, Gonzalez would have to have made a world class play to recover from his initial decision.

For me the telling moment on the play is when we failed to get a toe on the first shot despite having two good defenders in good positions to do so.

 

I think the telling moment was when Green gives the ball away.

 

True. That was a terrible header.

But the sequence concerning Gonzalez begins at that moment. I don't think he covered himself in glory, but it wasn't as terrible as I thought watching the first time. I see what he was trying to do. I think he could have hedged his bets a bit by dropping off a bit and been more aware that there was no chance to use an offside line.

 

I agree wrt to Brooks, but Green's header was well outside the box...~35 yards out..was it a mistake? Sure..but if he were to lose possession like that within 22-23ish yards I think one could come down on him a whole lot harder.

 

The problem is you gift the opponent possession when the whole team is headed the other direction, unexpectedly. So you have in essence gifted them possession in a dangerous area. Now, they played it verywell, and we played it ok and the result was a goal. By far the most important and glaring mistake was the header by Green. Having said that, I love what the kid did later and his move just outside the box is something a lot of players in the US pool couldn't have done.

 

I'm a little philosophical about this one for that reason. Two subs at the half is not a "real world scenario." Still less was the 7 combined subs that had been made by their second goal.

No, it's close to 100% on Beckerman. Hopefully we've watched enough basketball, because this is essentially a basketball goal. The entire reason the pick and roll exists in basketball is because if it is run well, the guy receiving the pick has no chance. The guy guarding the picker must rotate onto the roller, he shouldn't have to be instructed to do so, because even the time it takes to absorb that instruction gives the attacker half a step. Or for that matter, the time it would have taken Gonzalez to go either around or through the pick. That would have only made him look a little closer to it when Marquez slammed it home, not actually allowed him to get on it.

I think you're right about all three of these, but I did want to say that by the time Gonzalez raises his hand, the ball's in the net. The 'excuse' is that your only hope at that point is that the ref will somehow bail you out.

The fourth element was the flukery of it--Aguilar put the shot the only place he could have and reasonably hoped for a goal. Eight inches to the left or right and it's probably blocked (and if not, eight inches left it's a goal kick, eight inches right Rimando might get a hand on it). Two inches to the left or right and the carom is probably harmless.

Depends on what one means by 'worst.' That is the correct order in terms of how consequential the mistakes were. In order of inexplicability, though, it's the other way around. Green is under no pressure at all, heads to the guy standing right in front of him when even just letting it go right by him would result in a harmless throw-in, leaving him in position to get beat on the dribble, where he tries to foul but can't even do it. Then comes Beckerman, who can see what's in front of him and knows damn well it holds no danger. Gonzalez, at least, might be thinking (he shouldn't of course, explanation's not quite the same thing as excuse, but there are degrees here) about leaving the area just past the six open if he goes full-out to follow Pulido. He may conceivably have to make a recovery run as Goodson had two seconds before to try and block a shot.

 

That one wasn't on Gonzalez. Beckerman has to see the pick and switch men. By the time Gonzalez says switch and Beckerman processes it the ball is already in the net.

 

OK, I take it you have never actually played soccer yourself. Soccer is not basketball. In soccer you can run around behind the picker and his defender, without having to worry about your mark shooting over them, in most instances.

 

That's not exactly true. The better defensive perimeter players in the NBA don't get caught up on screens nearly as much as their worse defensive counterparts nor are they forced to switch on screens as much.

It's the positioning beforehand. You can cut off the angle, cut off the path and not get rubbed off or even send the guy back the opposite way. A guy like Rondo does that all the time. Same as CP3. They almost never need a switch.

In basketball, the guy in Beckerman's position is actually yelling "screen left" or "screen right" beforehand. It's so the guy in Omar's position can quickly react and not get picked off so easily and, it works all the time. There's no reason Omar shouldn't have seen that coming and adjusted beforehand, nor should a guy his size be so easily picked off.