Five Things We Learned From USA 1, Brazil 4
Posted on June 1, 2012 4:04 am
So yeah, the USA lost 4-1 to Brazil on Wednesday. But there was plenty to be positive about. The Total Soccer Show offers you five lessons learned, plus a 20 minute podcast.
Click play below to listen to our specially recorded USA vs Brazil podcast:
1. Edu should hold the fort, Bradley should go hunting. It’s pretty clear to us that Klinsmann got his midfield configuration right versus Scotland, with Edu breaking up play (which is harder than it sounds) and Bradley charging forward alongside Jermaine Jones. Switching it around restricted Bradley and asked Edu to move the ball faster than he was comfortable with. Worth experimenting, but now we know who should go where. And no, Bradley’s Pirlo-esque passes from deep are not worth the trade off.
2. Herculez Gomez might be THE option at forward. We said “might be.” But he looked like everything you’d want in a lone striker. As well as the quick snap of his neck for the goal, he had what we’re calling an assist for the goal Dempsey failed to score AND, in Albert’s words, was “a pest.” In a good way. His touch let him down maybe a couple of times, but no worse than we’ve seen from Altidore or Boyd.
3. It WAS a penalty. You can’t have your arms out there like that Oguchi Onyewu. How do we know this? We asked a referee. What we don’t know is whether giving away the PK shook Gooch up and caused him to have a nervous-looking night, or he was having a shaky night anyway and the PK was a result. Cause or effect, chicken or egg, it was a night to forget for the big man (especially the fourth goal where everyone stepped out for offside … expect Gooch.)
4. Jermaine Jones is nas-tee. This didn’t make it on to the podcast, but Daryl and Peyton watched the game with a friend named Paul who, in the 15th minute, pointed out that Jones was “stalking” Neymar like prey, running alongside him just waiting to put in a tackle to show him who’s boss. Jones didn’t scythe him down until the second half, but when he did it was brutal.
5. The US Men’s National Team can not out-press and out-pass a team like Brazil. In our last BigSoccer blog, we praised the fact that Klinsmann’s US had a recognizable style of high-pressure, high lines and high-tempo passing. But Brazil also does all of that, and does all of it better. So there’s an argument that we need a Plan B should we ever meet Brazil in a World Cup win-or-go-home game.
BUT: It wasn’t all bad! The doom-mongers will be out in force because the scoreboard said 4-1, but the USMNT were actually impressive in patches in the second half, creating multiple chances and putting Brazil under a lot of pressure. Project Klinsmann continues on Sunday night against Canada! (And we’re pretty sure they don’t have a Marcelo.)
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.
What doom mongers? Everyone has been positive about this loss, if this was Mexico…
Agree Ted Tran. We expected a lot of people to be disappointed with the scoreline, but seems most have taken the positives. Let’s hope we never have to discuss a 4-1 loss to Mexico!
Didn’t you guys discuss a 5-0 loss against Mexico back in 09′?
Just curious.
Number four is the type of thing nations with no football talent would celebrate.
If the person who wrote this shares a nationality with Rafa Marquez, then it’s a contender for Funniest Comment Ever.
I entirely agree on this one.
jermaine jones is a thug. that guy will cause you guys to lose a game like bradley did when he got a red card in the confed cup
This is what JK wants thought. For the most part the USMNT is full of pussycats(ie Onyewu), none of them have that nastiness JK wants.
Thank you.. that’s exactly right. Is Marcelo a thug? Tell me you wouldn’t want a thug like that on your side. He made Landy look like a middle schooler.
I’m thinking Dempsey has the right amount of “nasty.” He gets mad and gets even and will give an opponent that death stare if he doesn’t like something. But at the same time he has enough self control to not do anything silly, like put in a tackle that’s asking for a red card.
Jones leveled the game, and he did it the right way. Marcello quit being a punk.
Leveled the game??? Wow. And here was I thinking that the USMNT lost 1×4 to Brazil with Neymar at his best. I must have seen another game.
Believe me, Neymar is quite used to being hunted. Jones didn’t make much difference or the score wouldn’t have been 4×1 to Brazil.
I never seen a player wining a game because he “leveled” the adversary. Violent playing can only get you two things:
1- A possibly dangerous free kick against your own goal.
2- A yellow or a red card.
Am very surprised you missed:
1) Donovan pulled a vanishing act. He was a non-factor and that hurt the US.
2) Anyone who follows the BL knows Jones is a thug. Nothing new.
3) ask another referee and you will get another answer. You can say it was a clear PK and say you asked a referee, but as sure as the sun rises referees will debate if it was an intentional hand ball.
4) Just as JK’s tactics won against Scotland, they lost him this match.
5) Gooch is done. As a CB he can’t play with the big boys. PKs don’t rattle solid players in friendlies. We need someone else there or the WC won’t go past the second round for the US.
Donovan had 7 completed crosses to players in scoring positions. 7. 7. 7.
That’s not vanishing, that’s figuring out how to impact the game on an off night when your opposite player is outperforming you.
Call it what you want…the impact, for being hailed as an impact player and the best the US has to offer, was nill. Not saying he can’t have a bad game, but let’s not sugar coat it either…fact is he was absent and that hurt the US when their “best player” is a no show in an important game.
“Gooch is done” is a bit overstated, kind of like your anti-Donovan hate. The stat pointed out to you about Donovan – completed crosses – is way impressive. If the people on the other end had scored goals, we would be talking about his career assist total. He can only do what he can do against opposition of that quality.
As for Gooch, I wouldn’t stick a fork in him just yet. I prefer Cameron, though, at this point. Last game, Cameron was great and got blamed by a bunch of Eurosnobs being as culpable as pinball post.
LD hate? Someone points out he was ineffective, especially for being the “best US player”, and the Landycakes fanboys trot out the LD hate line? I have never seen “crosses to players in scoring position” as being a measure of someone of his calibre as being significant. We have other guys to do that. For LD I expect game changing play, not crosses. By all accounts that I have read many people agree LD was disappointing and ineffective. Go figure the fanboys don’t..
As for Gooch, it was painfully obvious he was 4 steps behind the entire game. Make excuses if you like but unless he gets a ton of match play he will be the anchor for the defense alright…the anchor that sinks the team.
For those of us who don’t have time to listen to entire podcasts, thank you for the synopsis!
No problem respite_cdd, though we definitely recommend spending 20 minutes with the podcast, to get the full flavor.
RE: #4… did Neymar learn who’s boss?
No. But I think that was Jones’ goal.
Yknow, I’m probably sounding annoying by now….
And I’m definately missing the point…
…But god damn, I’m seriously LOVING that USA kit. Seriously!
Any sort of Where’s Waldo laughtrack aside, I think this is an emblematic, iconic, and fitting pattern for the US, and should be the de-facto kit from now on.
You don’t see Argentina switching their cyan stripes every year. You don’t see Paraguay losing the red every other day.
So I think America has found their stuff.
…
…Yeah, sorry.
I just couldn’t find a blog entry about the kit itself.
Do you still think Klinsman has moved us down the road as much as you thought after Scotland?
Or do you think our team should become whiners and nasty thugs, and that will complete the journey? How well will that play with CONCACAF refs? I rate Antigua and Barbuda against us if we get five sent off.
Points one and two hit the mark for me.
Gooch finished a pretty good year at sporting as a starter and against decent opposition He was out for a few weeks injured. Being thrown into brazil was probably a little too much to ask. What s more
concerning is boca and dolo situation. There level of fitness and/or effectiveness in a tourney situation (2014) is questionable. Perhaps those positions could be our weakest link
” but the USMNT were actually impressive in patches in the second half, creating multiple chances and putting Brazil under a lot of pressure.”
That’s really nothing to be proud of. The usa DID NOT SCORE from this pressure and chance-creating. Also, Brasil allowed the pressure and chance-creating because they were ahead, and thus ceded possession in favor of defense.
It’s like in basketball, when the defense does not respect a player’s outside shot, they will let him take it all day. If the shooter misses all of his shots, he accomplished nothing. And it would be spastic of him to brag about all these missed shots he had, which were taken because the opposition let him.
Do you think the usa would have put on pressure or created chances if the score was 0-0? No, they wouldn’t've, but this was moot because Brasil took the lead early, and thus changed the complexion of the game.
Possession and chances mean nothing if you don’t score. They also mean nothing if the opposing team let you have it.
I can’t reply to LoewenBoy, because we have run out of skin indentions. He was effective withing the highly constricted place he was given. He is a second striker. He has improved over the years on dead balls and crosses, because his coaches keep putting him out wide, but he is a second striker. So is Clint. So let’s do them 60-30, with whoever is more productive taking the sixty, or let’s put one of them out wide, but lets not make ridiculous slights against either of our two best players.
I learned that the USMNT will not qualify for the world cup.
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