Straight from Klinsmann: http://soccer.si.com/2013/10/10/jur...-extension-2014-world-cup-england-friendly/3/ RB - Evans Contending - Parkhurst, Cherundolo, Chandler Cameron seen as someone who could fill-in, but is a natural center back. LB - Beasley Contending - Castillo Johnson called out as a left wing.
Let me preface this by saying that I'm not the biggest fan of Evans at right back but let's chronologically look at his starts there in the past year for the NT: 4-3 win vs. Germany - He shackled Andres Schurrle and had an excellent performance all around. 2-1 win vs. Jamaica - He struggled against the Jamaican's pace and looked shaky defensively but he scored the game winning goal in stoppage time 2-0 win vs. Panama - Had a poor game and really got caught out defensively against the speedy Panama attack 1-0 win vs. Honduras - Rock solid defensively and tidy in possession 4-3 win vs. Bosnia - He was one our better players in the first half and did an outstanding job cutting off crosses and containing the right side of the field For all the crap he gets, we don't lose when he starts at RB and he hasn't made any catastrophic errors that a lot of fans almost seem to be hoping for. Look at who's played RB in our losses: Timmy Chandler - got abused by Carlo Costly; quite possibly one of the ugliest performances I've seen in that position for the NT. Since then he's struggled to stay healthy, suffered a loss of form, and now he's back in the lineup but Nuremberg is close to the bottom of the BL table. Geoff Cameron - thoroughly outplayed by Kevin Miralles and Belgium sent a lot of their attacks down his side Michael Orozco - looked horrendous and left us exposed multiple times against Costa Rica
Its ridiculous that Brad Evans doesn't even start at RB for his club team yet he is the undisputed starter at RB and the guy that starts at RB for Seattle isn't even on the radar.
Germany's players were playing at 50%. Frankly, I can't take much from that game. Nice performance, but he was playing as hard as he could, while the German players treated the game as a scrimmage. He was badly exposed by Jamaica and Panama, two teams that most likely won't be playing at the World Cup. These were two bad performances in two important WCQ's. I wouldn't say that he was rock solid against Honduras. He only made one notable error where he gave the ball away right in front of goal, but was luckily bailed out. Otherwise, he didn't have much to do because Honduras parked the bus and didn't attack at all. The Bosnia game is similar to the Germany game in my mind. Most of the European based players were just starting their club seasons, and weren't too excited about a midweek friendly and then a game for their club on the weekend. Most of the players treated the game as a scrimmage. You could see this by the way that many players avoided tackles and challenges.
He did mention Dolo has resumed training. I don't think he would mention him if he had already counted him out.
Geoff Cameron is an entirely different fullback this year then from even the Belgium match and last year at Stoke...he's much much improved. Also how about noting Chandler's positives. The guy is in the freakin Bundesliga and has been playing extremely well the past 4 weeks especially vs. Dortmund...he can't do everything for the entire team. It's good that his manager was sacked a few days ago. Also how about bringing to light Chandler's performance vs. Valencia? I take that Honduras match with a grain of salt because our entire backline looked awful that day - Omar, Fabian and Cameron...all them looked awful. Hell even Bradley didn't look good and was gassed by the 35th min. Going from freezing cold March in Germany to furnace 100 degrees Honduras is insanely hard and even many of the best players in the world would struggle as well.
The two games where we actually played someone we gave up 3 goals each game. Our defense is a problem, a huge problem.
Dude is about to be 35 and has yet to make an appearance this season. He's quality, but I'm a bit worried.
The defense will be the undoing of this team in Brazil. We have a world class midfield (IMO), very good options up top, but our defense is questionable at best in the center and just flat out bad when it comes to our outside backs. We're going to have a really tough time back there.
The thing is, is we have players doing it at very high levels abroad (at least I think) at RB but JK seems to think otherwise about them. I do like the fact that he mentioned Chandler yesterday in his interview with Wahl.
I've seen all those matches and he definitely hasn't played extremely well through that stretch. He played well versus Dortmund and last place Braunschweig. He was mediocre against Bremen and not very good against Hamburg. Yes, he wasn't directly culpable on the goals but his positioning was suspect several times throughout the game and he doesn't always make great decisions with the ball. I want him to succeed but it's hard to continue to include him in our plans when he hasn't been called in since the first camp of the year for various reasons.
Indeed that's just what he said, and it's just what he's been doing. If I'm our WC opponents, I'm licking my chops at that. We've done well this year, but... this just doesn't seem comforting at all.
From the outset, JK's inclusions (and therefor formation, and therefor tactics) have not seemed to me to be in alignment with the squad's areas of need. They remain so. "We try to build the competition that is there...." Where exactly is "there", Juergen?