Five Things We Learned From USA 5, Scotland 1
Posted on May 29, 2012 3:57 am
It’s been a couple of days since the USA handed Scotland their tartan-clad arses on Saturday night, so the Total Soccer Show podcast is here to offer a little perspective.
Click play below to listen to our in-depth review of the game:
And, as promised, here are five things we learned from watching the game:
1. High pressing and fast passing works. See the US’s first goal for evidence. We win possession deep in Scotland’s half because Torres and Boyd are doubleteaming a fullback, then a few quick passes later and Donovan has the ball in the net. We’re acting not reacting; the Klinsmann style has arrived.
2. Maurice Edu is key. The three man midfield of Edu, Bradley and Jones looks pretty much perfect. Edu does the Makelele/Obi Mikel holding role, allowing Bradley and Jones to charge forward. And, as Daryl says on the podcast, if you advocate trying to “improve” the US midfield by replacing Edu then you deserve a punch in the face for your ignorance.
3. Fabian Johnson is our starting left-back. Timothy Chandler doesn’t seem that keen, and Edgar Castillo doesn’t seem all that good. Fabian Johnson looks like he’s both. Plus he offers genuine width going forward from left back, allowing Torres to step inside and make clever passes.
4. The talk about Landon Donovan losing his passion was bullsh*t. And if you read that Grant Wahl interview, Donovan basically just suggests that he’s getting older and the end of his career is visible in the distance. Every footballer has to retire eventually, and Donovan is no different. But until that day comes, he’ll keep banging hat-tricks past USMNT opposition goalkeepers.
5. Clint Dempsey is not the Alpha and Omega of this US team. Yes, he’s our best player on current form. But the US midfield looked so perfectly balanced versus Scotland that it would be a crime to displace anyone to accommodate him. Including Mo Edu (see above.) If we were to shoehorn Dempsey into the XI that thrashed Scotland, it would probably be up front in place of Terence Boyd. Not because Boyd did anything wrong, but because he was only–in Albert’s words–”adequate,” whereas everyone else was outstanding.
BONUS LESSON: “The Star Spangled Banner” is an extremely difficult song to sing.
AND A HISTORICAL RETHINK: All that talk of Klinsmann being just a grinning figurehead for the 2006 Germany team while Jogi Loew took care of the tactics now looks silly. In less than 12 months, Klinsmann has transformed the USMNT by establishing a high-tempo, high-pressure style of play. You don’t do that without knowing your onions.
What did you learn from this game?
To hear us go into a little more detail about the ideas/opinion above, listen to the show. If you like what you hear then do your ears and your brain a favor and subscribe to the show via iTunes.
Something I learned: Silver numbers on a white background = not readable on TV.
Agreed. Those numbers would’ve looked nice in blue.
Looks like they learned from their mistake. The numbers were much darker tonight.
I learned for the podcast that you guys dont seem to know Cobi jones has 164 caps and the record not Agoos
I thought the same thing when I heard them say it on TV, but it’s 125 starts, not caps, so it’s a little different.
“All that talk of Klinsmann being just a grinning figurehead for the 2006 Germany team while Jogi Loew took care of the tactics now looks silly.”
Dude, I hate to break it to you, but the USA were playing Scotland. Scotland are a) not,say, Brazil and b) played the entire game without a defensive midfielder.
It was a good game from the US team, but let’s keep the champagne on ice until the Brazil game is over. We’ll know more then.
Agreed, to some extent. But worth remembering that it was less than 12 months ago that we were seeing just spluttering glimpses of this style while losing to Costa Rica and Ecuador. It’s not so much about this big scoreline (or even the win over Italy in February ) as it is about implementing a new style of play for pretty much a whole game. Even if we lose to Brazil, we’ll lose playing “the Klinsmann way,” because we now have clear evidence that such a thing exists.
But what if we win “the Bob Bradley way” like we did against Italy? Let hope that you’re right about playing one style throughout a game cause I still have my doubts.
The style of play was very reminiscent of how the game is played in the Bundesliga. Also Jermaine Jones was a beast….he is usually not that effective. JK has them playing a very good pressing and supportive game. If they can continue to build on this development they should do well..
The one thing that has been absent for the last year…Landon Donovan. No disrespect to the other guys, but I think his absence has been a huge problem. He just makes everyone else around him better.
Seriously? Yes he was par tof it but it is not like he was the cog that was missing.
we also learned that our new kit is AWESOME!
Nice try, Dallas.
I loved watching that performance, but I would caution against wild optimism, and not just because we play The Mythical Canary Team From Somewhere Down South.
The high-pressing style will work against lesser Caribbean and Central American sides just fine, I think, but I think it could get us in a heap of trouble against creative sides (Costa Rica and our usual stumbling block Honduras in particular) and Mexico, who are all-around pretty scary on current and foreseeable form. It’s not guaranteed to be a problem, and it’s worth trying out, but I wouldn’t be shocked if those teams can play themselves out of high pressure and stick us on the counter, where our rather poor marking in central defense might be exposed.
I think what we’ve found in this style of play is a great way to finally get over the hump of beating decent-to-good Western, Northern, and Central European sides consistently…I hope. We will have to play as we did against Italy to have consistent results against the top Southern European sides (and maybe Germany).
People will forever question Donovan’s testicular fortitude and with good reason. Despite having the skills, he never had the balls to make it in a stage bigger than MLS.
He seemed to make it in the EPL and in the World Cup… both stages a tad bit bigger than the MLS. Or do you mean he is a puss for honoring his contract in LA?
Actually Donovan has shown that he can hang in the EPL during his two loan spells with Everton. The problem is like this. Have you heard the expression, ‘He’s worth more to us than he is to you” ? Because that’s where Donovan is right now. He’d be a quality addition to Everton’s midfield, but in the United States, he’s a box office draw in his own right due to USMNT heroics, and as a sign that the MLS can support quality players. He is literally worth more in an LA Galaxy shirt than he would be in European club shirt, and that’s why he hasn’t moved.
The US certainly looked great . . . but before we hail the dawn of a new Klinsy era, I’d like to see us against someone’s “A” team – we clocked Argentina’s reserve squad pretty handily back in the day and while it was a great milestone, it didn’t mean we were ready to dominate at this level. Scotland without Charlie Adam et al may not be a great measuring stick . . . WCQ’s will be.
What did I learn?
1. Those kits were awful, but so awful they were awesome.
2. Torres is excellent when he’s not a 10 shirt. I think the days of whether or not Torres and Bradley are an either/or is over.
3. Jurgen Klinsmann knows what the heck he’s doing, and it looks like Joachim Löw is struggling a bit with Germany. The two games (Both tune-up friendlies on the road to important fixtures) on that same day seemed like strange bookends, and I think we can put the whole “Jogi Löw was the real genius behind Germany” mythology to rest.
4. The US Team actually has depth. Holden and Gonzalez are still injured, Dempsey and Parkhurst didn’t play, Chandler quit, and the US is still very strong. Bear in mind that Klinsi also left a lot of talented players off this roster as well.
5. And here is my BIG TAKE: The US has beaten three European sides in a row. Sure, some of us aren’t going to be satisfied unless we beat Brazil, but Klinsi has shown consistency, including that stirring 1-0 road win over Italy. I am hopeful that if we can continue to exhibit consistency in qualification, maybe the last 1-3 games in the Hex can be effective friendlies.
kits are beautiful.
For all the Loew loving Jurgen haters, friendly results from last week:
USA 5: Scotland 1
Switzerland 5: Germany 3.
Clearly, JK is an idiot and JL is awesome? Right?
Did you miss that Loew was using new players in new positions and NOT his usual team? That will explain the 3-5 loss. Add to that it is a friendly AND no one wants to get injured before a big event. Make sense now?
Ha! comparing Switzerland to Scotland oh man some of you guys believe the hype to easily. I still remember that blog about Porter…
One thing that kind of worried me was the fact they gave up an early goal again. I know they scored five and only let in one. But, would have felt better if Scotland had scored in the second half. Nit- picking I know.
Not really nit-picking at all, in my opinion. We have a very recent history of becoming lax in defense early in the game. Bob couldn’t change that and we have every right to question why it is happening in the Klinnsman era. I was satisfied with the game and I haven’t seen us play a full game like that in a very long time. But, we shouldn’t be giving up soft early goals, especially like we did against Scotland. Hopefully this is just a one-time thing, soft goals happen and they can happen any time in the game. But it is not something we should continue to do.
An idjit [sic] would be someone that makes definitive conclusions (e.g. Klinsmann v Loew) based on the result of a pair of international friendlies.
I have a feeling that if Switzerland hung 5 on us and Germany beat Scotland 5-1 (With thier only score being a fluke own goal), you probably would not have posted what you just posted.
That’s because Germany has had a track record of success (alas no titles) in recent years, whereas the US has only a handful or marquee victories to show for itself. It’s going to take more than one game to change that. For either team.
I think you guys did a great job of tactically dissecting what went right. Which is why I’m a little disappointed that you don’t foresee the very different sort of challenge that Brazil brings. We can’t really bring the same team lined up the same with Dempsey somehow shoe-horned in, it will get killed. Not simply because Brazil’s better, but because Brazil brings real width in the attack. Our defense was very narrow, because we felt that our pressure would negate Scotland’s ability to attack, and it did. But owing that Brazil has a lot of speed and ability on the flanks, and that they’re quite a lot stronger than that Scotland side, it would be very foolish to play the same way and ignore Brazil’s width.
In short, I think we’re going to see a 4411-ish set-up similar to what we saw against Italy.
You are overplaying Klinsmann. He has brought a bit more polish.
He is emphasizing speed in the final third as the big challenge. So is Sigi Schmid. Does that mean Seattle will suddenly get the better of Jason Kreis and other good coaches in the playoffs?
Should I hyperventilate so as Sounders fan if Seattle scores a big victory against the Atlanta Silverbacks tomorrow?
This was a good win. We may, in fact, be a millimeter or two further along the path to being a decent soccer power than we were before.
Or it just may be that Klinsmann recognizes Michael Bradley is as good as his dad thinks he is and that Klinmann recognizes that about Maurice Edu and and five or six other people are better than Rico Clark.
Let’s see how those assessments play out against Brazil.
so what happened to the blog 5 things we learned from losing 4-1 to brasil?
We haven’t recorded a podcast yet. But we definitely learned a lot from this game. Things like: Keep the ball away from Marcelo—he’s very very good. Special USA vs Brazil show should be available around 10 p.m. eastern this evening.
New show is here:
http://www.bigsoccer.com/soccer/totalsoccershow/2012/06/01/five-things-we-learned-from-usa-1-brazil-4/
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