Michael Bradley was the player behind our entire goal. If there weren't so many veteran captain types like there is, then he would be our captain. Also I thought jones was better than most thought. And klinsmann did poor on the formation. And gooch was involved in all 4 goals. Yikes and once again fabian johnson I feel is being limited as a left back. That turn, oh my the brazilian defender had no clue.
Yeah. The palms out with dead ball at your feet with the "who wants it " look on his face is so.....um..high school. At one point the Brzlian just took the ball away from him. The Italians, e.g. would teach him to turn. His shot on goal was immature because he had chances to develop the ball in the box with better play. It you want to hear curse words on BS just criticize the color of his socks and you are on your way. I think some soccer columnists have been refering to his position as "central winger". Actually you could put Dempsey there in that formation and get goals.
Because JK felt he needed Edu for his defensive presence. I don't think we need that at that point. Bradley and Jones are good enough to win the ball back. Also how unfit was Dempsey today? He needs a run of games.
Dempsey plays best with 90 minutes. He is one of the few players I've seen who is better at 90 minutes than at 10. Notice how he missed the sitter just after coming in. No way he misses that tap in if he had started.
I wondered if he was also a little shy about his injury going in for that ball. Then I remembered it was Clint Dempsey. Dude shies away from nothing. Like your rationale better. Plus, it was good defending.
Triage is probably all we can hope for this cycle. There really isn't much talent at CB, otherwise Boca, Onyewu and Goodson wouldn't be trotted out repeatedly. JK has tried a few new faces and nothing has clicked. Either it will be trial by fire with younger MLS CBs or limping through with past their prime Euro CBs. The cupboard is bare when it comes to 25-29 year old CBs who have started to establish themselves in Europe. Boca is really the case study in US CBs. A good professional player, but never really of top caliber. If paired with the right teammate or in a compatible system he's fine, but now time and the new system are not on his side.
If Clint had gone in for that body first, it was a tap in. He lifted his foot to try and side foot it in, and got muscled off it by the Brazilian defender. Great defending, but Clint was a little behind the play there. Liked the explanation provided above. He just got inserted, little unsharp. Clint against Canada puts that in, no problem. He lives for those.
He got his foot on a ball just in front of goal and it skyed. I don't know if the keeper got a hand on it but he could have pushed it in to the goal with the bottom of his foot it was so close. I think he was just cold from having just come in.
If I had to guess what Klinsi was thinking, it may have been that he didn't trust Edu to be the guy that could handle Brazil's high pressure especially since the center backs would need an easy outlet. Of course, if that is the case, he probably shouldn't have started Edu at all.
We needed to know this now. Not a year from now. I predicted this would be a test for Gooch. He failed Lichaj Cameron, Ream and hopefully Gonzalez And John will be manning central D in 2014
I will go with JK on this and say that we didn't play that poorly and that we should have learned some valuable things from this match. Torres has unique skills, but the role he was put in isn't really a role. I was completely befuddled by the role Edu played and still think that the Jones/Edu/Bradley center mid combo tactic can't be the only one we use. Player ratings: Howard (5.5)): Didn't really have any chance on the goals and was solid otherwise. Cherundolo (4.5): Competed well and was up against a dazzling Brazil left side. Good offensively but struggled defensively. Gooch (2.5): I won't say that he is done, but this was a bad performance, even condsidering he almost scored on a massive attack on a corner. In my view, he stuck his arms out and deserved a penalty and was too slow to move forward on the last goal. His passing out of the back was also sub-standard Bocanegra (4.5): I thought he was fairly solid and distributed OK at times. Johnson (6): Pushed a little bit on defense and had some struggles but held his own and was brilliant coming out of the back. Jones (4.5): Flashes of good play but some loose control and a little bit of rashness at the end. Bradley (5.5): Not as good against a team that actually competed in the midfield, but his distribution out of the center was superior and he worked hard and won a fair number of balls. I actually think it was a good experiment to try him deeper and I think he did well - jsut the guy who played farther forward was poor. Edu (3.5): Not all his fault that he is being asked to play a role he isn't suited for (though I saw the same thing when BB was the coach with Edu playing as the furthst forward of the center mids). Poor touches throughout and slow to recognize the pass to make. Donovan (4.5): Didn't create enough and failed to put his chance on target. Torres (4): Some flashes of brilliant skill, but little productive to actually creating chances and some bad giveaways. Gomez (6): Really showed he can play that position, though at times his lack of hold-up play was a problem. Good runs all night. Castillo (4.5): Didn't contribute on offense Parkhurst (4): Like Dolo had to face a rampant Brazil left side. Didn't look good going forward Beckerman (4.5): Smart player but physical limitations were a factor. Dempsey (4): Rusty. Boyd (3): Has to finish that rebound. I agree with giving him time as we need to build for the furture, but he isn't ready at this time.
Johnson did much better on Hulk then I thought he was going to do. Actually you can see Hulk getting frustrated and actually switched flanks to the left to play alongside Neymar leaving the right side without an winger. Good defending by Johnson.
Ream is a bit early on after half a season to gauge at this point, but he does fall under the starting to get established title I suppose. Still, that means pinning all hope on Ream in this cycle to replace three CBs. Not a good situation.