As someone pointed out (at NBC SN, I believe), when Bedoya was subbed out, the US was only down 0:1. The problem really wasn't Bedoya but Jones, who kept making forward runs and not getting back quickly enough to protect the backline. Bedoya may have gotten abused by William on the first goal but there was enough space there for William to run around anyone. He is just a far classier player than anyone in the US defensive midfield.
Already been said but Czech Republic. I think that might have been one of the most uninspired looking performances as a group for a USMNT I have ever seen, sadly. Jones acted cold to JK after the game on the pitch or after he was pulled? Excuse me, but when was the last time Jones didn't play this way? He has been erratic with his field position for the last 18 months at least been slowing down and getting injured over that time as well.
It certainly wasn't Bedoya that was the weakest link. The entire back line as well as the mids were at fault. What was a 1:0 half time score turned into shellacking because we reverted to the old wait in the own half before pressuring and dropping further and further towards our own goal. That, coupled with lack of pursuit on any Brasil attack by our loafing forwards and attacking mid removed all pressure and allowed Brasil to play with unfettered ease. This was nothing but an exercise demonstrating the overall ineptness of the entire team. The keeper too, seemed distracted and at least two should have been saves in lieu of scores. No tactics were at fault at all....the players stunk up the place. JKs mistake was scheduling Brasil,. We certainly aren't at the same level, by a long shot.
LOL I think Quake and I failed our history exams 1990 was Czechoslovakia and 2006 was Czech Republic. Either way, the Czechs seem to have our number.
Let me add 0-2 vs Germany in 1998. It was our opening match and especially given the way the team had improved throughout the 90's, we expected to put up a fight in France. Mike Burns - watch the near post!!
2006 Czech WC match, while horrible overall, had that moment around minute 20-ish when it's 1-0 to the bad guys.... Reyna's daisy cutter off the post. If that had gone in... we have 1-1, pulling ourselves out from the early goal bad head space.... who knows? Of course, Rosicky might just have easily bombed in that amazing goal regardless. 2006 WC overall is one of my worst USA memories. Italy game was unique and memorable in its own ways, but ugly and balls-shrinking-into-body nerve wracking for the last twenty minutes. Ghana... damn. All that after the insane amount of hype, Eric Cantona commercials, etc. I need one of the Men in Black mind-eraser thingies.
The Czech Republic game sucked, but we were still alive going into the final group game. Looking back I don't consider 2006 that bad. I think I'm more bugged by the lack of overall World Cup success since 2002, with only two wins. The moment Portugal tied us in Brazil is the one that still really hurts to me. Seems like that could've been a real statement moment to qualify after two games in such a tough group. Of course we still could've very well lost the next two, but still for once it would be nice to see the U.S. with a little bit of breathing room at a World Cup.
we were in the stadium watching the US run around like wounded geese. No coherent play at all and the Czechs more or less toying with us. Talk about Tactics, player selection?????
The 3-0 drubbing by brazil in group play of the confederations cup was especially bad: It seemed like Alexi Lalas was near tears in the studio afterwards from what I remember. USA 1 Costa Rica 3 was also especially awful:
This for me, because we were supposed to be good that year and ended up stinking up the joint. Losing to Brazil, even in embarrassing fashion, that will likely never be at the top of a "worst performance" list simply because it's Brazil. That's what they do. But losing a match to a team we felt we should have beat on the world's biggest stage? That's bad.
We've had some bad ones, but I wouldn't consider a friendly against Brazil as the worst that I've seen. I remember seeing uglier games where the USMNT have actually won, when they don't deserve to. One common theme that has me losing hope in US development is that our players don't seem to read the game very well, and our D seems to be constantly stuck in sh*tmode. I don't expect track stars to lineup our team, but it seems like our team is slower than the past, and our level of skill isn't making up for it.
Despite trailing for 85 minutes - most of that time trailing by multiple goals - we didn't force Peter Cech into a single save in this game. Instead, our lone ray of hope was an attempt to squeeze a shot from 25 yards into the tiny space between him and his post - and not only that, the player taking it wasn't a good shooter from distance and didn't score at all in his last 40 caps. What a reminder of how painful that game was to watch.
A 3-1 loss to Italy was sandwiched in between those games. That stretch was probably the most down I've ever been on the USMNT. Then a week later we beat Spain Edit: Nevermind we had that ugly qualifying win in 09 over Honduras in there. Still a pretty lousy 4 game stretch though