USA v PAN The Attack [R]

Other than sacrificing his scrotum for the PK, Cooper was awful. All his shots were weak. Even the PK was weak. He can join Kreis and Twellman on the "not good enough for international play" team.

 

After watching this game, can we retire all the Ching bashing? He is obviously the best MLS based forward not named Landon Donovan.

Arnaud did do well to set up the goal, and Cooper did convert the PK, but Ching was the best of the bunch by a mile.

EDIT: Best AMERICAN MLS forward, I should say.

 

That basically sums it up.

 

Ching - What more can you say. The guy gets physically abused all game long and he never let up. Won pretty much everything sent his way, and if he didn't win the ball he won a free kick. His header that pinged the post in the first half will most likely serve as fodder for the Ching bashers and his "inability" to finish. To me it's just an added bonus that he's a threat in the air.

Arnaud - Love the work rate. Works hard off the ball. When push comes to shove, he's servicable in this type of tournament, but really isn't doing anything that makes me say, "Wow, this guy should get a look with the A team."

Rogers - Had a good opening 15 minutes then pretty much dissappeared against a very physical team. Not too surprising.

Holden - I like what the kid brings to the table. Good versatility. I can't recall a single poor touch or decision. Definitely deserves a few call ups with the A team to see how he meshes.

Beckerman - The very definition of the KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid) method of soccer. He doesn't do anything flashy or exciting. Does well to keep possession. His finish was top class. He's in a dogfight at the deepest postition in our pool unfortunately. But I trust him the rest of the way in this tournament.

Cooper - Very nice penalty, and kept popping up in dangerous places. Playing for a team that sucks donkey balls (FC Dallas) has turned him into a selfesh player that tries to do everything by himself. Not a team player. There were several occasions where the pass or flick on to a teammate was the better option, but Kenny only had eyes for his own shot. Not writing him off for all eternity, but he clearly has a long way to go.

 

Wash rinse and repeat.......Ching is not starting in SA, if he even goes.... He's a clock killer at most. He is what he is for Concocaf. Everywhere else in the world he is marked out of the game and contributes zero.

BB needs a 90 minute forward in SA in case of injury/fatigue advancement. Cooper is very much in the mix. Cooper makes his own shots. Period. Today, the first header was deflected which screwed up the timing. The other header was on frame from a difficult angle.
The one where he cut in and skied the shot should have went in. Ching would have tripped over his own feet trying to make the cut. Cooper's other weak shot was off his wrong foot. But he's a real forward, who is dangerous. What BB loves in Ching, his hard work, route one crap, is not the soccer that will do anything for us in SA. Even I think BB understands this.

 

I'm going to write a longer post on these guys. But just wanted to say, this I agree with. Cooper was a better team player three years ago than he is now, and being a one-man team is setting back his development. He needs to get out of Dallas. Of course, then again, selfishness is not always a bad thing.

But when you look at it, he had one goal on a PK he set up, and he has by far, I assume, the best goals per minutes played ratio of any forward this cycle.

 

I thought he was out of form but I was wrong. I eat crow with respect to Ching. He had a good game.

He may not be a world beater but none of the other forwards in the USA are. I'd still put him after Altidore and Davies, though.

 

Ching is coming back from injury so I think we should cut him some slack. And I say that as someone who has started threads stating that if Ching is a starter in SA, we might as well not get off the plane.

 

Ching: great gritty play. He got knocked around all night. Unfortunate to push his header a little wide early in the match.

Arnaud: loved his hustle and workrate. He battled anyone and everyone for the ball which is impressive given his size. Great knock back to Beckerman for the goal. He's impressed me during this tourney.

Rogers: good first few minutes and all down hill from there. Disappeared against a team with moderate speed and strength. Gave up possession too often. Was hurt by how narrow the field was. Has the tools but needs a few more years to develop.

Holden: great composure on the ball. Good service from set pieces. Had two good chances at goal. Like Rogers, a narrow field doesn't favor wide players.

Cooper: looked average other than the PK goal. Too selfish sometimes.

 

Personally I would have taken off Pause for Cooper, moved Arnaud to the right flank, where he's played for us before, and pushed Stu into the middle. Good to see we're thinking similarly.

 

Cooper. I'm not convinced that he has a weak shot at all (as someone noted above); I think he has a hella hard shot but lacks accuracy. He kept creating chances but the only one he got on frame was the penalty, and that one was in off the post. As others noted, he doesn't seem to link up well with other players.

Arnaud. Can't fault his workrate, but he doesn't do much to create danger, doesn't have an obvious physical skill (blinding speed, intimidating size), and doesn't seem to have a great connection with the other players. Given our options, I think he makes the most sense starting alongside Ching since they're very different forwards, and I admire his grit. Kind of a moot point for the rest of the Gold Cup, unless we can call Jozy back in.

Ching. Lots of tireless effort, dangerous in the air, but doesn't do much to create danger. Somewhat like McBride, he's a bit service-dependent, and so without a midfield that's getting him great service, he's not going to be that effective. I'd have liked to see us do more work to get him aerial crosses in the box--as the early miss v Panama illustrates, this is a real advantage for us against some of these smaller Central American sides.

Bottom line, unless we bring in some new players for the semis, I don't think it makes sense to change anything up (not that we have many options). I see us getting 1-2 workmanlike goals against most of the opponents left in the field. With some decent D, that may be enough to win the tournament, but I'm not placing any bets on it.

 

Ching: I thought that, in the first half, he wasn't winning enough headers. The US was determined not to go through the midfield, so Ching winning the ball was vital. When the attack started going through the midfield in the second half, Ching looked much better. It also probably helped that Panama looked out of gas.

Arnaud: Looked fine and impressed me for someone that was definately not on my radar.

Rogers: My god. I had good seats at the link, and I easily saw Rogers lose possesion every time he touched the ball. I was surprised how poorly he played because he looked so dangerous early in the tournament. Narrow field or not, he gave up the ball way too often.

Holden: I don't think he had his best game, but I still think he deserves more time with the national team.

Cooper: The pk call that he got was on the opposite side of the field from me, so I couldn't really see if it was blatent or not. I feel like he may have benefited from Ching getting pulled down like 3 times in the box. The ref had to call one sometime. He looked ok against a tired defense and converted the penalty.

 

He got speared in the stomach. It was blatant.

 

Nope.

Ching actually had a very similar play that led to a similarly ineffective shot. He's actually way better with the ball at his feet than a lot of people give him credit for.

I'm not saying Ching's a world-beater, but neither is Kenny Cooper. They both do some stuff well and other stuff not well enough. There's no need to bash one in order to praise the other.

 

Somebody told that guy before the game, "If do right, no can defense."

Or possibly, "Sweep the leg."

But that looked more like a crane kick. A special, nut-seeking crane kick.

 

Cooper looks really bad. He gave numerous balls away, and just didn't seem there. Very stiff. Good thing he was semi-effective (lucky, in a way, he got kicked, because he got turned around and didn't have control of the ball). The PK was too close for comfort, although he scored it so he deserves the credit.

Were I a European scout, I would not have been impressed.

 

Ching was great, took a hell of a beating out there. Thought he played very well.

Cooper was uninspiring, didn't go up for many head balls, didn't really work hard off the ball. But he did have a few good chances, so I guess I can't really bash him for his play. Kinda just get a "meh" from me.

 

This was Ching's best game in a while and he was mediocre.

Arnaud was our best forward, he should start again.

I think the jury remains out on Cooper. It's unfair to judge him from the Haiti game as there was no one to feed him the ball. Tonight he looked a good bit lost, but then again he win the game, drawing and taking the pk.

Holden was excellent again.

And Rogers needs to get more aggressive and play faster.

Subbing in Evans instead of Quaranta was a mistake. We can't sit on leads and ALWAYS play the more confident player.

 

Oye Vey.

I can't understand why you approve of Arnaud's contributions but call Ching's contributions mediocre.

Yeah. That sub really bit us in the ass. I suppose we would have scored two or three goals in the last ten minutes had Quaranta came on.

 

I thought Ching had a very solid performance. He was being marked by one of the best and most physical defenders in Concacaf (doesn't sound as if you appreciate Concacaf, though) repeatedly throwing himself into the fray, winning battles, linking up and drawing fouls. I have often seen lesser forwards quit working under these circumstances. Some people don't appreciate the man who battles the toughest guy on the other team, others have no idea what it is I am speaking of. His own personal will to win and tireless efforts were inspiring to his young teammates. He has proven many times, that he will always put forth the effort necessary to achieve victory. If you think we win this match without him on this field, I am afraid you are mistaken.

Nostradamus, you ain't, stay away from the track and casinos. Watch your friends smile and wink knowingly when you are through with your pontificating (you gotta be smart enough to catch them, though). Don't forget to use your fingers and toes when counting. Wash, rinse, repeat.

 

A very rational and accurate summation, I'd say.

The major difference between Ching and Cooper which was on full display tonight: vision and speed of thought. Ching repeatedly made quick decisions while on the ball which allowed us to continue our attack, or at least maintain possession. Cooper repeatedly was too slow to react, and did not demonstrate much ability to see the field and link up with others quickly.

 

Any yet you look at the stat sheet and he has another goal.

THe PK was fine. Just b/c it made you nervous doesn't mean that he didn't play it perfectly. In fact, the fact that it made you nervous is an indication that it was in the right place. Could have gone without the giant.

One thing that people should keep in mind while assessing these guy's play tonight ..... Penedo is probably the second best starting keeper, to my mind, in the federation.

 

Cooper is just plain bad. One would think that 2 stinkers in a row would quiet those that keep calling for him to play but within a few days, the memory of the reality will be replaced by the Cooper his fans want to remember

BB needs to call in a couple of players. At a minimum, Altadore. We're too slow up top and need help. We won't win another one if we don't