4-1 lost to ireland's b team is absolutely unacceptable. here are some changes that need to be addressed. #1 Bench Altidore - he has contributed nothing and quite frankly is holding us back. he isnt that much of an arial threat and his hold up play does nothing for the team but you guessed it HOLD up the play. AJ or dempsey is needed. #2 Never call up wondo again. clearly isnt good or international caliber just like altidore lacks any creativity what so ever and cant dribble. #3. Bench Fabian - i believe he is still one of our best players but he needs to be held accountable for these two friendlies start yedlin at rb. #4. Play bradley at dm with mix at cm. no more beckerman or morales their isnt enough creativity there. #5 Dont call up booby - he isnt there yet , he cant finish and quite frankly isnt that good. Feel free to add more
Altidore has been poor, but we lack better options. Really only Zardes is a viable replacement, but I don't think he is ready to lead the nation as a lone striker. Wondo is crap and shouldn't be in the national team despite his one assist today. Fabian just came back from an injury and has been playing as a winger for his club, not RB. Blame Jurgen for playing Chandler, a RB, at LB, while having Garza at LM and Johnson at RB. Bradley is not a DM. Bradley was forced to play DM at the world cup and looked poor because of it. Jones is a DM while Bradley is a box to box mid. Mix-Jones-Bradley could work. Bobby did fine. He is young and nearly scored if it weren't for an amazing save. Cut him some slack. Edit: Yea sorry meant to say bradley was a CAM, not a DM.
Their is a false notion that we need a Striker who holds up play. Yes fabian did just come back but the give aways have nothing to do with injury. Jones isnt goin to be with us for long so there is no need to play him half the cycle only to have to fix another guy into the lineup. And bobby has shown anything. he isnt a stiker cause he cant finish, and he hasnt shown he can create for people
wait what? Bradley was playing as an attacking mid. Well since we bunkered so much he looked like a CDM.
Start Lee Nguyen! Our midfield really struggles to hold onto the ball at time. Hopefully a healthy Michael Bradley and Nguyen will add a lot more quality to our mid-field.
I don't know what the deal was today, but our defense was deplorable and we didn't have a single difference-maker in the attack. We had some stretches of possession, but didn't look particularly dangerous. Our counter-attacking was pathetic. We didn't have any real quality when it came to quick combination play. The most shocking of all of these things, for me, was the unorganized defense. That is ridiculous when you look at the back line, which could very easily have been a WC starting four. I don't know what's going on with this team, but they aren't much fun to watch, and they aren't very effective.
Its really not about the fact that he's a hold-up striker. Its about the fact that he's the best we have and I'm kind of tired of people acting like thats a bad thing. Jozy could be playing better, yes, but if our game plan is to depend on Jozy to make chances for himself then our game plan pretty much sucks. I mean honestly, can anyone really tell me the fact that Alejandro Bedoya was our best offensive player the past two matches is a GOOD thing? We had ZERO ideas almost, and its been very plainly revealed that Mix, despite being technically gifted, isn't dangerous enough to inspire an attack on his own. Furthermore, he doesnt handle the pace and physicality of the game as well as Bradley, and let there be no doubt any longer that Michael Bradley is easily the most important member of this team going forward. Without Bradley, this squad simply doesnt seem to be able to play out of the back. In the end, we have to take the lessons we learned -Bradley is essential for playing from deep and defending the middle of the park -Mix is creative and skilled but not The Creator -Bedoya deserves to start -Nguyen's creativity is badly needed -Matt Besler needs a break -Fabian Johnson needs a break -Clint Dempsey is badly needed up top near Jozy -Wondolowski should definitely be done with this team -Greg Garza is smart, but he's really lacking athletically for a wing back
4 years to the world cup. We played our B team if that. Terrible performance but this time is for testing players. Incredible overreaction. At the same time the team should never play that bad ever again. It does no good for the team as a whole so if it means keeping Jones and Dempsey around than so be it.
As I said above... the most worrying thing for me was our defense. That back four with Beckerman in front of them is very close to our A defense. Hamid was fine, so you throw him, Bedoya, and Altidore into the mix and that's 7/10 field players that would (arguably) have been starters this year. That's an A- team. There's no excuse for a performance that bad. I'm worried about our mental and physical preparedness across the board.
I agree that Nguyen can be part of the solution. I think we could, potentially play some pretty soccer with him, Bradley, Jones, and Deuce all on the field together... but that's not going to help us if we consistently give up goals on the counter late in games.
Not even close to our A defense. Right now JJ, Brooks, Yedlin and Garza have been our best defenders. Really curious to see how they do with MB above them next spring.
It will be interesting to see how gold cup 2015 goes! Good choices on players too. none present for this game.
I think we likely would have looked even worse with JJ back there. He is a mess on the back line. Good analysis by Matt Doyle: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...ame-jurgen-klinsmans-usmnt-collapse-late-thre
Gonzalez and Brooks should be our back duo at this time. Besler can jump in there if he gets back to form once he gets a break.
Matt Doyle hates Jermaine Jones and he is an MLS shill. Dont care for him really. A player who takes an 8-12-3 team to an 11-1-1 record with ONLY him added and he says.... well I guess Jermaine is ok but STILL SLOPPY and MAKES MISTAKES. JJ is easily one of the best players and actually did really well against colombias formidable attacking players. I dont care for anything he says about JJ. Most people recognized he covered up for some big mistakes the other day in our midfield. Again Doyle has it out for JJ and JK. All day long. If he was any good he would be a coach himself. I will wait for real games and honestly we dont have the talent.
It's not about Doyle. JJ is not positionally sound as a CB, and takes way too many risks. He is definitely one of our best players as a midfielder, but he's a liability in the back. He's overly reliant on his athleticism and physicality, which is great in the midfield where there is more room for error.
He put out a lot of fires that he created by being out of position and not reading the game well. That's my point. He relies on his athleticism to bail himself out. You don't want to see your center back involved in emergency defending as much as he has been in both the Honduras and the Colombia matches (especially against Honduras).