USA vs. Costa Rica 9/3 Post-Match [R]

Re: USA vs. Costa Rica 9/3 Post-Mortem [R]

I love how we're supposed to beat Mexico by two goals in every Gold Cup final, but Costa Rica's B-team is all of sudden an understandable loss.

 

Re: USA vs. Costa Rica 9/3 Post-Mortem [R]

There were two basic problems with Edu all night:

1) Too much pressure. In the role he was asked to do, charging up field to pressure the ball is a no-no. You've got to hold your position and slow down Costa Rica enough for Rogers and Torres to win the ball back. Rogers wasn't doing that but Torres was. On several occasions (possibly even on the goal, I don't remember) Edu went in for a challenge and didn't win it cleanly and the ball would bounce to a Costa Rican player who now had nothing but daylight between him and the back line. The general rule is that he should be able to see just about everything from his vantage point, and when he charges in to pressure the ball, he loses that vantage point. With twin d-mids he can, but with just him back there in the Busquets spot he needs to be more disciplined. To be fair this is a problem with Michael as well.

2) His passing was slow and telegraphed. Just because he's the ballwinner doesn't mean he also isn't tasked with starting up the attack from the back.

 

Re: USA vs. Costa Rica 9/3 Post-Mortem [R]

I did to and historically I have not been a fan of his game. Edu was even pretty clean on the ball for once.

 

I think that's a good point especially when playing some type of the 4-3-3. Look at someone like Mikel for Chelsea who plays that role in the same formation. I know a different class of player, but he wins the ball then plays a good, smart pass to start the attack from a deep position. Edu seemed to struggle with that.

 

What did I learn from this match?

1) The winning goal came from a player that could of played for the US but chose to play for Honduras (??? thanks Ian and Harksey X2)

2) Castillo is Bornstein 2.0

3) LD is capable of becoming Casper the Friendly Ghost

 

And if you watch the second, you wouldn't so that's the other side of the coin.

 

Re: USA vs. Costa Rica 9/3 Post-Mortem [R]

really good: torres, altidore
good: edu, shea
meh: the defense
bad: donovan

 

Someone please explain why Shea and Rogers switched sides after an effective opening stretch? For the rest of the game, they proceded to botch crosses with less favored foot or cut in ineffectively.

 

The team dominated until they ran out of gas. There were many decent chances the first half that should have finished.

 

The bigsoccer USA forums are adjusting to the pain of losing when your team was better. The result sucks and then it leads to a lot of silly overthinking. Let's just bring on Belgium. Insert Dempsey for Donovan and play the same formation.

 

Sorry, I'm not trying to be all "doom & gloom". I'm just don't feel like sugar-coating a (very) poor result. I'll leave that to the rest of y'all. For me, it's "shame shit, new day", and I'm frustrated. Shoulda waxed the floor with those suckas.

 

His touch was awful and he really didn't produce anything. He might have had one good run, but again it didn't lead to anything.

 

Actually, this drove me INSANE and I commented about it to my girlfriend when it happened. Good catch, I had forgotten about it somehow.

Really poor tactical adjustment.

 

Re: USA vs. Costa Rica 9/3 Post-Mortem [R]

And again, we TIED with them at home. And we were down 2-0 until we tied with them. The final goal game in the 94th minute.

We are missing several players from that tie as well. Stop acting like this was our full "A" team against their JV.

 

You might think too highly of our team. It's there B team, was that our A team? Hell, do we even have an A team right now? It's a new coach with new players, with a new system that's foreign to a lot of the players..calm down, we're trying to develop into something and it's not going to happen over night.

Klejstan didn't show me anything, he was useless out there..don't get what some people see..

 

at this point its not the main objective

 

Is this evidence that the match was positive?

 

We were playing against Honduras out there?

 

One. There was one decent chance (Donovan muff) plus maybe a half chance by Altidore. They needed some punch in the box, i.e. Dempsey.

 

^^^ You saw the same game that I did. I don't think anyone on the team was horribly bad, but everyone on the team played "lightweight." No-one on the US covered himself in glory, tonight.

 

Donovan had a terrible game and looked awful. Cut him.

Or is he actually good?

There's black and white and statistics, then there is soccer. Donovan will find his place in the new team. He will figure out how to work with Torres. Who BTW, 75% of BS members criticized over and over and over again.

I hope our team learned a lot from this game. TO ME, we seemed to lose the confidence and willpower when CR played up. Unacceptable.

And people, get used to seeing freer play. However, this style of play absolutely requires playing together and getting used to every player's movement. Also, remember, we have literally playing styles from ALL over the globe. This team will be a challenge, but consider our huge improvement from Mexico/USA already.

Finally, I'm a big MB critic, but I see a big role for him in this very team, folks. He has grit. He would have worked harder than those lazy bums I saw 2nd half.

 

Yet, we managed no shots on goal in the first half.

Inexcusable man.

Why are people being apologists for losing to the B-team of Costa Rica at home?

I just don't understand where this mentality was when Bob was around. This place is crazy.

 

you're certainly entitled to see what you want to see