Yeah, I was surprised they didn't get a yellow or two. We had ~5-6 FK's in the final third because whenever we got the ball into someone in the middle of the field in the final third they were grabbed/pushed/tripped. I distinctly remember a turn by CD and another by Wood, at least 1 was worth a card.
We made a lot of forward runs with the ball 30+ yards back. If their defense was less compact or had a higher line we could have made more hay. Instead we had a bunch of guys stretched horizontally across the field within a 10 or so yard lane, bracketed by the defense. We needed to set up overloads in the 3 middle channels deeper, to force them to shift more numbers 40-50 yards from goal and then open up the rest of the attacking half.
A big issue is that Klinsmann instructed our FB's to stay back. I know he was afraid, of having Cb's exposed but I'm sorry our attack is predicated on FB movement. We have to come out to play or we are will just be wimps in attack. It's too much to put on the shoulders of Bradley Dempsey or whoever Klinsmann is assignning as the maestro. We need to attack as a complete team. Also, Bedoya was just extremely anonymous. It's striking that Klinsmann has problems just getting guys to play at their own personal level with so man nstances of our players havin absolute stinkers in big games.
Please post a link or anything to support that assertion? Are you confusing Bedoya with Jones? Jones was fairly anonymous while Bedoya led the US in defensive events and open field key passes (tied).
They were both ineffective for the opportunities and challenges presented them in central midfield. Bedoya improved greatly when out wide.
Colombia are by far the best of the three opponents. We lost the first match in the 2009 Confederations... I thought he was brought in for his incredible transformative vision.
They keyed in on Bradley and since the rest of our team is held together by toothpicks and rubber cement we completely fell apart. Good scouting/coaching/gameplanning/execution.
Jones was busy helping out FJ who (IMO as one of our more dangerous weapons) should not have been deployed in that position. Both their full potentials were wasted the way we lined up.
First half if I remember right, Ill have to go back and rewatch it, the did play a higher line until the pen made it 2-0. They just didn't press because I don't think they were to worried about our mids dropping an accurate pass in there and the forwards controlling it. Rest of your points totally valid.
It seems that Jurgen is allergic to the traditional winger. I know Angel Dimaria is cap tied but he doesn't seem too outdated to this observer.
Ethan Finlay struggled with the Crew during the young MLS season. But he was also playing well with the US. JK should have taken him.
He looked like the lone target forward for a lot of the match (which again is another tactical fail by JK) so that is who the defensive line of Columbia keyed in on After they shut down Bradley. Columbia focused on shutting down Bradley knowing that if they were able to do that it made Dempsey and the rest of our straw house team completely neutered. Dempsey is going to create an opportunity for himself no matter how poorly his team is playing. Tactically you can only limit his chances which is what they did by shutting down his service. Sidenote: I'm not sure that fouling him was part of their game plan. On paper we had a set piec advantage.
I know that the strategy was for JJJ to be defensive-minded and help FJ with Curdado but it took him out of having more of an offensive impact on the match. That is the compromise, there is no free lunch. If Bradley had played the way we expected and we did not have the corner kick lapse it might have turned out different. I don't care about their individual potential, how should we have lined up that would have been better for the team's success?
Given Jones, aged 34, isn't a box-to-box mid any longer, it was a bit nonsensical to task him with helping cover Cuadrado. Colombia still generated the goal-generating corner along that flank. As a deep-lying mid, there was only so much Bradley could against a fairly deep-sat defense. Klinsmann should have changed the tactics.
Given the persistent infringement I find it hard to believe it wasn't at least something COL talked about prior.
Perhaps. Maybe they read the same thing we all did: That the U.S. under JK spends very little time on set pieces. In that case it's just another example of good game planning by Columbia.
I have no problem paying for my lunch. If if if... And IMO that's a huge problem: Putting players in a position to succeed. There is so much that is fundamentally wrong with this team that a lineup change isn't going to solve everything...but it would be a good start.
Nah, that's just solid tournament play from a very well coached team. No attacking player is allowed any space in the middle of the field in the attacking half. They were tough as nails in that area.
JK or maybe the players themselves have always linked with MB, is fairly easy for the opposition to know how to break our flow. I think we have two problems here, 1) MB is the main one that links with the defense or have either Bedoya or Jones share the job. 2) If and when MB is going to be the link guy, he doesn't need to come down that far down for the pass, this creates a problem because it allows the opponent's mids to push up and cutoff the passing lanes. So, the big question is, is our defenders good enough to pass from the back to the upper middle area of the field? I know Brooks and Cameron can. So, the final followup question is, do we have the right mids and 10 to be able to handle the pass with their back to goal and not lose it everytime there is tight marking? probably not.