Most of the so-called fouls weren't fouls, just Dempsey playing his game, there was a moment where the ref just had enough and told him he wasn't going to call those "I'll initiate the contact and get a foul" that Dempsey just loves to do throughout a game.
You put Castillo or (lol) Besler back there and James and Cuadrado would have eaten him for lunch. We trued, lost and kept the margin respectable. They score no goals from the run of play and only really got one or two good looks. The defense mainly did it's job. I think 1-0 or even 1-1 would have been a more appropriate representation of the quality of our discipline, activity going forward, especially late and a reflection that a team with much higher quality than us were a little off that day. 2-0 definitely flatters COL. If they don't take CR seriously it could be a 1-1 draw or CR could beat them straight up.
1. We played narrow against a team that specialized in getting the ball into the wide zones. Colombia's center circle passing boxes in the two matches were markedly fewer than the opposition's. 2. Our 8s, Bedoya and Jones, weren't creative players. At wing-forward, we used two strikers, one whom could not hold or trap the ball. All of this meant even though Columbia weren't a high-pressing possession team, we weren't as effective with the ball as we could have been. 3. The wing-forwards were set too high. This meant too much of the burden of helping along the flanks fell on Bedoya and Jones, neither of whom are possession players. The fact one of the wing-forwards couldn't hold the ball placed even more of a burden on the 8s. 4. With Bradley playing at the 6, rather than the 8, we lacked a player who could really press the opposition backline and initiate quick transitions.
4-3-3 would only have worked v. Colombia if Zardes and Wood were coming back a lot. But giving up the early goal was always going to change the complexion of the game. Early goals can do that. I think we were a bit naive - somewhat like CR was against us in the next game. Chasing the game so early did not help our shape.
Hmm. Colombia had one of the highest foul rates in the WC - and didn't play against Dempsey once... Color me dubious.
Put the entire u.s. team in a better position to succeed across multiple platforms and no single player is going to eat us for lunch.
I don't know what you are talking about but I was referring to two specific players attacking a specific player. No one said anything about a single player and "us". Castillo has not shown me anything at the International level that would make me trust him when facing an elite winger. He is a good player but there is a reason that while so many of our players looked poor against Colombia they looked good vs. CR. Quality matters.
Bedoya doesn't have the personality to be a big game player. He is timid. He has good skills, but doesn't always express himself.
OK, now that all three games have been played has anyone rethought this one? I think Colombia would have won the group had they not rested their entire gtoup of starters (minus 1) but have seen a lot of growth from the US and believe a lot of it is Brooks and Cameron gelling together after only playing one game together before. Brooks is becoming a real beast and in a year or so may be one of the best CB's in the world. The team is more of a throwback to hard working US teams of the past. Not fancy but damn hard to beat or score on. Would I like to see Pulisic and Nagbe get more minutes? Yes, but every sub has worked and can arguably be discussed as correct at that time in that game.
I think this game might have been completely different without that early set piece goal. We might have gotten a result.
these 3 games have done nothing to convince me that this team can't be a lot better than this and than they have been under JK. i think they gave colombia too much deference and it was their timidity that did them in against colombia more than anything. even though the group stages turned out well....i still think there are a lot of combinations of us players/lineups that couldve done well...and there are a lot of players in the us pool who either didnt get into the games or have never been called up who might offer more than this group. but a few good results will make those changes less likely. i still think about half the roster should be different and some of the starters should be rotated and/or changed....no matter how far this team goes in this tourney.
To be fair to Dempsey, once he saw it was working early on, I can't blame him for continuing it with how gullible this ref seemed like he was going to be. Though, he sometimes overdoes it. But, when you have a clear aerial advantage like we do, gotta take advantage of it by getting as many set pieces as possible.
The 433 with 3 strikers left the team too narrow. There was also not enough attacking creativity, as Jones and Bedoya were fronting Bradley in central midfield. I was certainly wrong in claiming Jones was no longer being box-to-box. The man has shown incredible reserves of stamina. JK ballsed up the tactics against Colombia. CR, looking at our flaccid display in the first game, abandoned their normal style in a fit of overconfidence. Colombia, looking at the USA-CR scoreline, took the last game for granted.
And right now, that's the only way we know how to succeed. JK was supposed to change that but failed so to keep his job... he is going to the well one more time but in the process he is going to go through the same drawbacks other coaches had in the past...his starters will get tired earlier in a game until exhausting will cause them to make mistakes. We have all seen this pattern before.