Not sure if this has been posted yet... Real interesting half time talk roughly 3 minutes in http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Mi9_FROL05g
A coach doesn't control the players like it's FIFA 11, he can only do so much with the guys he has to pick from. A National team manager also doesn't get to choose how to develop these guys, he picks who he thinks is best but he doesn't choose their training regimen at the youth/club level.
Hopefully the coach can extract a basic level of competent performance commensurate to what these players do in league play. That hasn't been the case thus far.
I don't agree with this. Our best players play for mid table teams or worse and we get "mid table" results on the international level. What exactly isn't carrying over here?
Such was my whole premise for often defending Ching's inclusion last cycle. He wasn't that great on his own terms, but he was a thinking-man's center forward who regularly contributed to making his partners more effective, and for that alone he was of some value, often underestimated on this board IMO. Charlie was valuable both for combining with Jozy and for what he himself could do (and thus an overall upgrade over Ching). It looks like Agudelo's cut from the same mold, albeit in a different style, but with similar effect.
I'm still upset Ching didn't make that roster. In addition to being able to combine smartly with the midfielders (Landon in particular) he was dangerous in the air/on set pieces. Even if he wasn't 100% I thought he was exactly the kind of player we could have used late against Ghana when we were trying to grab a goal.
He had recently come back from injury. A month before the Cup I think. He played 45 min. against the Czech's in the Cup warmup and he looked good to me (setting up a few quality goal scoring opportunites). He started to fade late in that match and I think that had to do with his fitness not being 100% because of his time off from injury. Regardless, we took injured/not 100% guys to SA and if we were gonna do that I thought he should have been one of them.
Players who aren't helping put a few passes together, if that's what Bob wants: Gooch, DeMerit, Bocanegra, Bornstein, Bradley, Edu, Jozy.
Everybody notice the pre-game white board at 0:14 on the video. It answers a discussion that we've been having concerning the deployment of our midfield. Bob's diagram looks like this: ------------------Jozy-------------------- --------------------------Donovan------- ------Dempsey---Edu-------------------- ----------------------------Jones--------- -----------------Bradley------------------ Bocanegra--Onyewu--Demerit--Spector ----------------Howard------------------- For what it's worth, his intent was to line them up opposite the Argentines like this (I'll bold the Argentines, and hope the diagram is spaced in a way that's readable, sorry if it's ugly.) ----------Argentine Back Four----------- -----------------Jozy---------------------- ------------Maschereno--Donovan------- ----Dempsey----Edu--------------------- --------------------------Cambiasso----- --------Banega--------Jones------------- ----------------Bradley------------------- -----------------Messi-------------------- Di Maria--------------------------Lavezzi Bocanegra--Onyewu--Demerit--Spector As some of us pointed out, Bradley indeed was in the center, all the way in back to screen the back line and provide the CBs support specifically against Messi and to try to interrupt the Messi-Banega connection. Jones was a bit higher and on the right, matched up against Cambiasso, and Edu was central and much higher, more-or-less squaring off against Maschereno. That all squares with the way I saw us playing the first half. EDIT: I don't know that I necessarily agree with it, but I can at least see Bob's logic here, I think. He wanted to match up Argentina's two most physical midfielders with Jones and Edu, and he charged Mike with recycling and messing with what he figured would be the primary danger (Messi, and the Messi-Banega connection), a job he figured would take a bit more finesse. Personally, I would've put flip-flopped Mike and Jones. But the danger in Bob's mind, I assume, was that Cambiasso would wind up Mike, and Jones would give up too many set-pieces against Bradley/Banega. Having Edu up there in that role wasted our attack capabilities, but I do somewhat agree (at least thinking with something of a pre-game mentality, instead of what we all saw in the end) with his idea of letting Edu run and chase and try to keep Maschereno from being able to set the table and recycle at will. Obviously that didn't work so well. And in the second half, where we stopped trying to specifically counter the Argentine game (they're always a man better than us anyhow) and instead attempt to play a little bit more of our own game had us faring a lot better. And yeah, Jones was the right guy to pull. For shits and grins, it would be interesting to think of how we might've lined them up if Holden hadn't gone down.
How the HELL did you pick that up? The white board literally takes up a fraction of a second on that video! .
I live for shizz like that, dude. (When I saw the video in real time I noticed one thing: Mike was at the bottom-center of the midfield, right on Messi, which is how I saw it live, and what I and some others pointed out. So of course I went back and paused it and made up the diagram. It says a lot about how Bob planned to neutralize the Argentine attack. And make no mistake, though he was hoping his players could break out and play aggressively--a very tall order--his shape and specifically his match-ups were all about one thing: Stop Argentina. Not that I blame him all that much...) I'd love to see what that diagram would've looked like with a healthy Holden. This was the gameplan that Bob came up with without Stu available, his plan B. I'd love to know what his plan A was. Or if it was exactly the same thing with someone else (probably Edu) in for the injured Stu. If so, I bet he would've put Stu where Mike was, though, and probably put Mike up where Edu was.
In the freeze frame I'm seeing (at 0:15), it looks more like Bradley is directly in front of Onyewu and Jones is directly in front of Demerit, although slightly more advanced.
I probably should've double-checked the spacing. Still, I don't think it's meant to be taken exactly literally. The main thing was that Jones is on Cambiasso, as his primary function was to be to keep him from linking up and joining in on the attack (plus attacking functions... in that order). Mike is there to keep Messi and Banega from having a free pass at our back line and ruin our day (and I assume with the added caveat of "and don't be fouling too much." Edu is there to chase Maschereno and keep him from directing the play in the back... plus attacking functions (in that order).
What I noticed is how deep Messi was helping on D, he even took the ball away on Dempsey right outside their 6 yard box to start the counter. I don't remember seeing MB play anywhere that deep on D. It seems to be Argentina's philosophy... their whole midfield helps out on Defense as well as offense.
Why do you think that? I think it's always harder in these situations. Club teams spend so much time around each other and set things up for certain players to shine. Messi never plays as well for Argentina as he does for Barcalona, Henri never played as well for France as he did for his clubs. Also if you've ever played in an all-star team you know what a weird feeling it is trying to understand where each other is going etc. The nats does get limited training and so is more than that but honestly I don't expect most of the players to play as well individually for nats, especially not in a situation where there are a lot new players being blooded. ...maybe you wouldn't be saying this if it was T&T they just played?
So, he left two of the best US defensive midfield destroyers (Edu and Jones) up and wide while leaving the least agile and defense capable against the two Argentine attackers. Effin' brilliant. Nice catch though. Makes me think even less of Bob than I did before. And that wasn't much to begin with. Do remember how this played out. While Masch held the middle, both Zanetti (right) and Rojo (left) were playing as de facto wings, so whenever Messi shifted left, they had a local advantage in numbers too.