I always say we could be in a worse situation. We could be in the situation our old pals Ghana are in. Or the position South Korea is in.
It's impressive that we have raised our expectations so much in less than 20 years.We now have to qualify with style points to satisfy people.
FJ is a winger and Nagbe clearly is a box to box mid. He's the definition of a guy that can be a LM but not a winger. He's not fast, he's shifty and by shift I mean good at keeping the ball and moving it around the pitch. That's what he's for. He's not a winger like Pulisic, FJ or Arriola Gooch or even Zusi is a winger. All of them present some type of threat going forward alone or delivering a cross. Nagbe is not that guy. I would sit him for FJ or Arriola if we are going to actually use wing play. Nabe can play LM but he's an inside player not a finisher or a crosser and he's not particularly fast to my eye. Maybe I am missing something. Pulisic would destroy him over 20, 50 and probably 100 meters
Because at home we are technically suppose to be better or at least even with them. That is what our 'talent' apparently dictates. I suppose we aren't. The US has fallen bellow the standard of football being played by an 'island' the size of half of west-texas.
Different kind of wing players. For example, Dempsey played most of his minutes in the EPL as a LM, never actually sending in a cross in 5 years. Nagbe needs space. He needs space to run. Whatever he does at the end is kind of what we have him in there for. I would play him as a tucked in LM, but give him defined defensive responsibilities. I would also make him take at least 4 or 5 shots per game. Forces him to push the ball up.
I don't really understand this post. We are the united states of America and should not be struggling in this confederation. Too many people play this game here, too much money is spent on infrastructure, tutelage and league play gate as well as salaries. Too much time and money has been invested for us to be struggling in CONCACAF when CONCACAF is not a top 3 region in this sport. We should demand more. I know I don't want ot spend 150-200 on good seats to a WCQ only to see us losing to Costa Rica at home and yeah, even if it was time to axe Klinsmann that doesn't mean anything is better or that going backward to go forward is the right way. To dismiss complaints so blithely when we should have high standards is distasteful. I don't think he needs space when his best trait is keeping the ball. We should use him to keep the ball in tight quarters and advance it since most of our other midfielders seem incapable of this basic necessity. He's not good for anything on the wing. Nagbe is the epitome of a middle third only player who on a rare, rare basis produces a nice final ball. His finishing for the national team isn't even worth discussion. He doesn't have the vision to be a 10 fine we can use him as an 8. He will win fouls, get the ball to the playmakers and keep Bradley from wasting the teams time with backpasses and turnovers which is the underlying idea. By making Nagbe and Pulisic the main carriers of the ball in constructing plays, Bradley and his goons in the back can't circulate the ball among themselves and put us at further risk. I know it's hard for Bruce but we have the players to keep the ball further up the pitch and sustain possession if we commit to doing it and not letting BRadley dictate play. As long as Captain Backpass is dictating the tempo, Pulisic, Nagbe and FJ will not be as effective as they could be. He is the real weak link in this midfield and Acosta is just a patch that solves one problem but creates others. We need a heir to MB in the midfield.
That 4-0 was close enough. They were missing Keylor Navas and...? They had Joel Campbell, Urena, Bryan Ruiz, Borges, Bolanos, Calvo, Acosta. Oviedo and Venegas on the bench. They didn't have Waston, but then again, Campbell is out injured and missed Friday's game.
problem is...the us in the 90's and 2000's was always the defense, scrappy team...who relied on fouls and was usually punished for it big time by refs.....especially in big games it was smart for the us to move away from that....yedlin's red in copa was the first sending off in big game in a minute..... i'm not advocating the us play dirty...especially in concacaf b/c the rerfs are usually looking for any reason to screw the usmnt.....its a fine line....but its frustrating when you know the ref pretty much is gonna let the other team hack you to win. i think thats what dempseys reaction was all about....he knows what cr was doing and was not having it...i liked his reaction even though it was a lil stupid.
one player leading the offense is a dumb strategy, imo. pulisic needs players who he can combine with a la benny and nguyen. they would be replacements for fj and bradley, imo. at least try it in a friendly......
fair enough....you might well be right. i'm not advocating for nguyen and benny because i KNOW 100% that they are THE ANSWER....im just saying that the current approach isnt the answer and these other players havent been tried so lets see plan B. face it, we know whats gonna happen if the current core gets chance after chance after chance.....has there been even marginal improvement over the past 5-6 years of the same spine players playing together every game??? shouldnt bradley and altidore playing on the same club team translate to the USMNT? to me there's a big difference between choosing players who arent cutting it again and again and trying players out who havent really gotten a shot....i mean, look at benny ...he got one start in the USMNT this year and had the game winning assist on a slick play in bad field conditions....what more was he supposed to do?? nguyen has played zero full 90's under JK and Arena....and when he did play vs chile....he was surrounded by wil trapp zardes and shea etc.....never the full team.....you might be right about lee...but i dont get how you can be so certain about a player who hasnt proven himself inadequate.
Which proves that money not only doesn't buy happiness, it can't create savvy footballers just because some marketing moron, TV exec, investment banker or ex college president wishes it so. But we're still the feckin United States of America shish koom bah!
Any way you slice it, if you break it down, they have less talent than we do. Urena - mediocre MLS starter Bolanos - average MLS starter Calvo - average MLS starter Guzman - good MLS starter Waston - good MLS starter Venegas - bench player for maybe least talented team in MLS Acosta - 35 and doesn't play in Costa Rica Umana - 35 and plays in Persia Salvatierra - 8th year in Costa Rica Gamboa - part-timer for Celtic Oviedo - good starter in C'Ship Ruiz - part-timer for Sporting Borges - regular for Deportivo Navas - Real Madrid starter That was indeed more a (somewhat predictable) screw-up in terms of lineup, tactics, officiating, and logistics. We just aren't good enough to afford most if not all those factors going against us against the upper echelon in CONCACAF. That goes for whoever is the manager, be it Arena or Klinsmann. I don't know if that's ever not been the case though.
No disrespect but this is a dupes rational. Any way you slice it, they have more COLLECTIVE talent than we do. The question to ask is why, given their supposed mediocre individual talent, their combined talents are superior to ours?
Wood and Johnson were both lousy. Johnson was one of the poorest performers on a very poorly-performing team, and consistently has been for months. As far as I'm concerned, he needs to either make a home for himself playing quality minutes at fullback for us, or he need not be called in, because he's been little more than a black hole in the midfield, and consistently one at that.
Apart from the notable exceptions of Ruiz and Navas, the bulk of the best performances on the field the other night from both sides were courtesy of MLSers.
Gamboa was great. I thought Oviedo was his usual good self. Borges seemed very good to me. Was it not Gamboa who beat two of ours on the header to Ruiz that went for the first goal? As for Oviedo and Borges, I believe they were on Pulisic's case?
what i dont get is how he plays when he's in midfield vs his insistence on playing there..... if he wants to play midfield he cannot be passive and must take the opponents on aggressively....he plays left mid like a left back...which is ironic all things considered.
Most 4-4-2s morph into a 4-2-2-2, 4-2-3-1, diamond or even a 4-3-3 if it needs to; Arena's is no different. Flexibility, winning the midfield and creating chances wasn't the problem that I saw; we outplayed CR and played very well at times; we just got exposed in transition. CR basically did to us what we did to Mexico; except where in our case a mistake from a young defender let Mexico back in to the match, CR's world class keeper kept the US from getting back into this match. This meant the US had to push forward more, exposing itself to more counters. Arena played with hubris, but that's sort of the burden that falls on the home team and you dare the other team to disrupt the plan. Arena also made some gaffes (the CB pairing, starting FJ in questionable fitness / form) but some players also under-performed individually. The play on the 1st goal just seems like a collective switch-off, not unlike the goal we gave up in Mexico: losing the first and second balls after a goal kick, and then Howard's poor positioning on the goal. Ream and Cameron looked shaky, but this wasn't a cause of consistent defensive leaks. Most forwards will win an individual battle with a defender, but Urena isn't Luis Suarez for godsakes. Howard has to do better and you'd expect him to most of the time (look how bad that angle is from the aerial view). For example, I think the goal we scored against Mexico in Mexico took a lot more quality. The US created decent chances;. Pulisic needed to be more clinical in the final 3rd. In the first half before CR went up, our #10 received the ball thrice inside the box: once shooting into a defender, once firing over the bar, once "passing" the ball over the touchline. A lot to ask for a 19 y/o, but has to be better IMO. I'm skeptical he does better in the middle, as everyone suggests, where he's going to get even less space and has no winger overlapping to prevent a double-team, which is largely what negated / rattled him here. For all the gripes about Nagbe, Zusi and Bradley, I thought they played well. Playing with a finesse 6 rather than a true destroyer wasn't as big a problem as everyone makes out. How do you plan for your CBs giving the ball away in your own final 3rd? FJ was underwhelming on both sides of the ball. I thought Wood played well but was probably miscast for how this game played out. Said it before, but Arena has trouble getting back into matches after going down; he throws the kitchen sink forward which can be trouble against a quality countering team.
904033277887082497 is not a valid tweet id Interesting. The first goal we gave up was in part a result of Bradley either not seeing Zusi wide open and forcing it central or not trusting Zusi wide and forcing in central. You'll also see what was a common occurrence, Pulisic making a run and pointing where he wants the ball and Bradley looking him off to play a lateral pass to Nagbe instead. It also showed another problem which is Pulisic's run was a good one but then Wood turned and ran right into that space. Wood's run should have been diagonal to the center. Just one little clip but shows serious tactical and IQ problems in our squad.
If that's Delgado getting the pass from Bradley, Zusi gets the ball and it's all systems go. Howard's stroke on the ball seems tentative.
The Bradley play was even before Howard kicked it out into the field, a different sequence. The goal was 90% Ream, who had gone wide leaving his man alone, and 10% Howard.
Wow! Not sure why I just rewatched that game but similar feeling as I had in the stadium the other night. Of course I missed some positives and negatives the other night, but that was a very frustrating effort. The last time I felt that way at US game was in Nuremberg in 2006. There was no urgency. Other words that come to mind are complacency, apathy, overconfidence, etc. I can't remember the last time we got "ole'd" in our own stadium. Apparently, Keller, Hislop, and Moreno had a similar take. Take a listen to 12 minute clip. Keller is understandably upset, but a little surprised at Hislop feeling so strongly. http://www.espnfc.com/team/united-s...-that-poor-a-bit-unlucky-in-costa-rica-defeat Howard - not a good game, should have saved both Cameron/Ream - poor giveaways, bad positioning Villafana - just isn't good enough for this level Zusi - better than expected, but still got beat badly a couple of times Bradley/Nagbe - on a Sunday stroll. Way too passive. Way too slow with the ball. Johnson - needs his old spot back and gets Villafana off the field. Pulisic - worst game in US shirt. Not helped by being played out wide and having limited options to combine Altidore/Wood - needed to finish better, but best efforts out of the whole group. Why is Dempsey not starting against the second best team in the region? Why not brought on until so late? Why aren't we making second a third sub after the 80th minute?