Post-match: USA vs El Salvador Gold Cup knock out

A lot to chew on after that game.

Not a great performance from US. But El Salvador is not terrible. Could be a decent team if their attack had any bite.

 

That backline was terrible, too many mistakes which set the tone for the rest of the team.

 

Anyone for Kellyn Acosta to left back?

 

Defense was bad all around. Goals don't really mask that for me because against better teams, we'd have allowed more than 2.

Rest of the team was fine outside of Altidore, who can't score all of a sudden. He's still one of our best 2 strikers, though.

 

We finished and they didn't. It's pretty surprising Zelaya didn't get at least one. Sometimes being tall is a big advantage.

 

Yeah their defense has more bite.

 

This entire match was a purple nurple.

 

This team is increasingly painful to watch.

 

I thought Matt Hedges wasn't great. Any other center back on the roster named Matt would probably be an upgrade.

 

It's sad to me that we play teams at this level and they seem to be faster than we are and seem to have no problem getting into the attacking third.

 

This isn't a good team. We're struggling against minnows match after match in the run of play.

What a horrible summer so far. And worse, no young talent to get excited about.

If we play as we have the last four matches, I don't see us getting past CR. Our defense is in absolute shambles against 100% mediocre competition. Our mids can't control the midfield against 100% mediocre competition.

 

Bad game. Messy win.

Hedges was so bad I am not sure you can rate him low enough. That is 2 poor performances which for me means he is just not ready. With Miazga looking good, CCV ready to come in and our current CBs....there is just no space for him.

Lichaj. Pretty polarizing performance. Bad giveaways and a great goal. He was taking the brunt of the physical assaults from MS13 tonight and I am shocked he got out of there in 1 piece.

Nagbe was the best player on the field tonight. Great control and creates space and opportunities with the dribble which the US sorely needs.

Morrow. I didn't think he was as bad as many people think. I prefer him to Villafana defensively and he looked pretty dangerous going forward at times tonight.

Gonzo. Typical. Great goal. Bad brain farts.

MB. One of the better performances of recent memory. Great free kick and did not turn the ball over in dangerous places. Defensively he wasn't really plugging the hole at all and did expose our CBs at times.

Dempsey needs to break the record and be a sub. I would have much rather seen Dwyer tonight.

Altidore was a giveaway machine all night. He should be our enforcer but instead he always seems to be pushed around. Couple nice moments tonight but pretty poor.

Zardes. Still has the 1st touch of a donkey but he does create opportunities and gets in dangerous spots.

Arriola. Love the speed and energy. He has the rust of being in the offseason with some of his touches.


Referees. Dangerously bad performance. That Lichaj tackle could have ended his career. Biting and punching without even a foul called. 2 bad offisdes calls. Just awful all the way round.

 

I think we see our "starting" lineup against CR. At least I hope, because the team as it was tonight will not get the job done.

 

CONCACAF is gonna CONCACAF.

A diving, hacking, classless team, and a clueless, gutless, incompetent ref, who had no idea how to stop it.

Game desperately needed some Jermaine Jones.

Or better yet, some Vinnie Jones...

Almost would have been worth a red for Jozy to have thrown that guy over the goal bar into the stands.

We were poor again too.

 

Dempsey is too slow now. He either will make a magic moment or he will be invisible.

Arriola never generated any danger or real contribution. Potential is there.

Nagbe was motm.

Hedges and Morrow are too scary for knock out ball.

If Acosta would make one tackle for every two nice passes he might be pretty good. But he is actually kind of a luxury player.

Arena's subs were atrocious.


Blue drew was in way over his head.

Hope concacaf deals out some punishment.

 

I think Justin Morrow could be an asset to this team if he wasn't horrible at playing soccer

 

I'm interested to see what the lineup will be against Costa Rica.

 

Yep, Deuce is now past it. If we qualify for Russia he won't be a starter.

 

All I can say is....Chandler, you moved up in the pecking order by default. Any euro want to play LB? How about RW we need a young, fast US kid that can stay on the ball even if a breeze passes by.

 

Much starts and ends with that nightmare center back pairing, just like they were against Martinique. Hedges is considerably more the problem, but Omar's brain farts, lack of quickness, and passing passiveness are big issues to. Together it exposes our last line of defense and our build-up. On offense, in neither game would they take the space ahead of them effectively. It's short ball, back pass, to.

This forces the cm's to come back to them, creating large gaps, especially because in neither game were we playing a 3rd cm. Actually, if you watched the cm's individually, they played fine in those games, outside Acosta who didn't help much on d and made a number of inexplicable passes for to's (Bruce reamed him out for it today), until in the final 3rd you saw some magic. That's why I'd like to see him converted to ss or cam. I think that's the best utilization of his abilities at this level. He hasn't exactly set the world on fire for Dallas the last couple of years in the normal duties of a cm. It's hype based on final 3rd play, and youth (team association).

The rest I'd say was really a mixed bag. In the end, a good amount of positive and negative moments for just about the rest of the lot. Chalk that up to the cb play as the table-setter, inexperience playing together for the group as a whole, and inexperience in general for a few.

Going to have to play better against Costa Rica to probably get the win. The goals and El Salvador not cashing in on chances papered over cracks.

 

I don't like our spacing and movement in possession. Nobody seems to want the ball. It's hard on our passers.

 

I've seen worse!

 

Should have been 3-0, but for the AR calling Zardes offside. ES defender should have seen red for biting Jozy. I hope Jozy's shots are up to date.

 

Boy our defense was horrendous. Bad backpasses, misjudging balls over the top, counters caused by forcing passes and dribbles. A better opponent would have punished us. Hedges and Morrow in particular were very poor. Gonzalez at least won everything in the air and scored, easily the best of a bad bunch in the back for me.

I didn't like our formation. I've never been a big fan of the diamond. Seems like when the wingers push into the attack, it leaves huge spaces to counter attack in. I hope we play the 4-2-3-1 against Costa Rica and that we rotate in a whole new defense (Villafana-Besler-Miazga-Zusi) with Dax partnering with Bradley to shore up center midfield.