Another SI guy is a little stronger: "It's a lot easier and fairer to draw conclusions about the performance of this U.S. team, so let's do that first. Words like fiasco and failure and embarrassing are entirely appropriate here. Even in comparison to recent U.S. and Mexican teams that have failed to qualify for the Olympics, this '12 U.S. team stands apart. Unlike the '08 Mexico team that failed to advance beyond the group stage, the '12 U.S. outfit failed on home soil, which had been a true gift from CONCACAF since the U.S. had hosted the '08 qualifying tournament as well. And unlike the '04 U.S. team, which missed out on Athens thanks to a loss to Mexico, this U.S. crew came up short against much less powerful CONCACAF foes Canada and El Salvador." Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...03/30/soccer-mailbag/index.html#ixzz1qfGSAoOF
Whoever he would be competing with is soft. Not a single scrappy player on the field against Canada. And yes, he never got a look. How Stephens got on a team instead of him is a pure mystery.
From everything I've seen of Cruz, he's a wide midfielder, but not really a winger. WE know Porter loved his 4-3-3 and would never play anything different, so I'm not sure there was a role for Cruz in Porter's system. He would have been competing with the deepest part of the team with Shea, Gyau and Adu.
Shea is absolutely out of form, not much to compete with. Cruz was running circles around him in today's game. How good Gyau is, nobody knows, apparently Porter rated him below Shea. But the point is that you can't put such a soft team on the field even if you are Argentina or Spain which we aren't.
(not that it any longer matters ) FIFA rule clubs must release players http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/s...ubs-must-release-players-for-olympics?cc=5901
Shea is downright exhausted. He could only go for 45 min max in the DC United game. He was done beginning in the second half and yet he stilled played a full 90. If he does not get some rest somepoint in this season, this will be a lost season for shea
Well he had no break during the offseason so if he is in fact worn out, it's not going to get any better.
Jesus. None of us would ever be let back in the press room but at least someone would ask: "just what the f#ck were u thinking?"
I don't get it. If Shea was exhausted in the first 45 what would have happened if we had made it to the semis...looks like we were doomed to be the same story. Which brings me up to a followup question...Is it me or did the USA U23 team where more exhausted than ANY CONCACAF team in the qualifiers. If in reality was because Porter didn't rotate them, then what excuse can we come up with Shea still not being able to perform for a full 90 after almost 5 days of rest.
Maybe blame MLS schedule...they are barely starting their season and just to keep up some go overseas but then it can be counterproductive in playing 12 months out of 12 months with no rest...eventually it will catch up...
I really don't see Shea as the problem. He was directly involved in the first goal and was the only occasional threat against Canada. The biggest issues to in general were.... Tactical inflexibility against Canada, the entire offense was Adu cut in, switch to Shea, rinse repeat Defensive nightmare against El Salvador and frankly Canada in the 2nd half as well. The attacking core wasn't really a problem outside of Teal Bunbury's performance against Canada and the way the team was set out in the outside against Canada. You really will struggle to win games giving up 5 goals in two games or 2.5 per game. WE knew the defense was going to be an issue, and it was everything we feared.
Simon Borg @SimonBorg Close So Honduras, Mexico thru to Olympics from CONCACAF. Worth noting: Their managers have 10+ years of pro experience. One coached a World Cup.
Well, the info on Wahl was not accurate. See his pretty negative take I linked to a few posts back....
I didn't meant to insinuate Shea was the problem, apart from all you mentioned above I believe lack of conditioning (stamina) was a key issue with this team, did Porter had them conditioned properly? specially knowing how tough it was going to be playing every other day. If I recall correctly this was BB's mantra during WC2010 to offset the teams lack of technical ability, JK also preaches a strong conditioning program. Porter turned out to be a good teacher of the technical side of the game, perhaps because conditioning was never a major factor at the college it may have been another factor to his undoing in this tournament.
Well the World Cup squad does fitness training like a month before the tournament. This team was together for how long before the tournament? Maybe a week? I don't think Porter could have influenced the fitness all that much if he wanted to.
Got damn if we qualified, some lucky sapp on the U-23's might have been able to get a night in an Olympic Village Room with Sydney Leroux.
Well, they have been training on and off for the last 4 months, you would think that should have been an ongoing "action item" in their individual training.