We need to give Spector a chance to play left back and see how he does. People keep saying he can play there but so far there is no real evidence that he can. With Onyewu out we can try Marshall alongside Bocanegra and give Demerit a rest. Demerit played well during the Confed Cup but he is almost all defense and no offense. Backline of Cherundolo, Marshall, Bocanegra, and Spector should do well against El Salvador.
Re: Bradley should take a look at younger players You sir are out of your mind. Marcus Tracy is a reserve on a mid-table Danish team, Cody Arnoux and Anton Peterlin have never played one match as professionals. Dillon Powers? Really? You're out of your mind on that one. Eric Lichaj by the way..........has never played one professional game for Aston Villa, just pre-season games. You want to start these people at the Azteca against Mexico? Edu and Torres I can understand, but the rest of that list is absolute nonsense. Bob Bradley starts his son because he lit up the Dutch league, and then transfered to the Bundesliga.........where he's a starter. What the hell has Dillon Powers ever done? I'm fine with "expanding the talent pool," but you apparently want us to expand to the borders of sanity. Bob has capped well over 100 players since he took over. He's looked over just about everybody there is to look over. You could make a case for Jemal Johnson, Zak Whitbread, Mike Grella, and people like that............... The truth is that Mexico beat us because they were better on the day. Sports is like that. Even if you're the undefeated Patriots.......you can still lose.
We don't need to see offense from our centerbacks. If we can't hold the midfield.....it doesn't matter. I'm fine with trying Spector......anywhere on the backline.
Re: Bradley should take a look at younger players Hilarious parody of insane Bradley-bashing combined with insane "grass is greener" thinking!!! Kudos!!!
Re: Bradley should take a look at younger players spector and torres should start the next match and jozy and charlie up front torres playing behind we gota get more creative long ball crap aint working
It doesn't change the reality that this US team has zero possession game. We have no ability to spray it around, to force a good team to chase, to draw them out so we can utilize our quick counter - which is a very good weapon. Now, possession against teams like Brazil, Italy and even Mexico at Azteca is not easy, but you need to be able to do it to hold a lead. And we are not good at it.
I agree with the posters who warn not to read too much into any single game, be it the Spain win or the loss at Azteca. I agree that the fan base is too neurotic. The longer term pattern is that BB has a 2-7-1 record against teams ranked in the Top-10, and a 6-4-0 record against teams ranked between #11 and #20. This is totally reasonable. The US cannot be expected to defeat Top-10 teams regularly, but we should expect to be very competitive with the 2nd Tier teams of which we are one. And this record is not bad at all considering the 100% rebuilding project BB faced at central midfield and striker, the attacking spine of any team. This project is as yet incomplete, because the team's two best strikers are 20 (Altidore) and 22 (Davies) years old and neither is a regular starter for a high-level club. And we have no international quality #3 striker. How many top 20 teams face that striker situation? This project is incomplete because the best US central mids are a 21 year old CM (Bradley), an injured 23 year old CM (Edu), a 24 year old CM who is coming off a disasterous 2008 in which his club career nearly ended (Feilhaber), and a 21 year old newbie with all of 180 minutes of international action (Torres). Oh, and there is Jermaine Jones, possible mannah from soccer heaven, but hurt and still working on his paperwork to switch to the US. How many Top-20 teams face that midfield situation? People get too hung up in the forest for the trees -- the results of any particular game blind folks to the process of trying to rebuild a very young, very raw, naturally inconsistent attacking spine. So, the number #1 flaw of the US team is that the offensive spine is way too young and inexperienced compared to any other Top 20 team in the world. They will have good days and bad days, maddeningly so. Too many fans don't understand the difficulties of this rebuilding process and hyperventillate over particular games. The solutions to this problem are the very same players right in front of everyone now, but real life has fits and starts, real people have ups and downs; it isn't a video game with computer-generated players. The #2 flaw of the US team is lack of skilled and composed defenders who are comfortable with the ball at their feet. Onyewu is OK and slowly improving. Cherundolo is OK, but aging now several years past his peak, and he's been struggling with injuries for a year. Spector is OK, but also was injured for most of 2008 and is only now getting back into playing form. That's it. Boca never was and never will be good with the ball at his feet. DeMerit isn't. Califf isn't. Marshall is OK in MLS and will get a chance to show he belongs after a nice Gold Cup, but he isn't a possession/skill savior by any means. Bornstein and Pearce are nothing special; very plain on a good day. Goodson -- nothing noteworthy there either. Parkurst -- probably doesn't have the physical tools to hang internationally based on his weak Gold Cup against lesser internationals. Simek -- been hurt too long recently. Wynne -- skill/composure and Marvel don't mix. Hejduk -- Castillo -- a converted attacker with dubious defending skill. This looks like the old joke about moving around deck chairs on the Titanic. Frankly, I don't see a solution for the #2 problem. Just marginal bandaids. No matter who you put on the field for the US defense, you will not be able to call them a composed, possession back line. Not by 2010. Impossible. It is what it is. Marginal tweeks for less-bad skills maybe, and surviving with tough, disciplined focus and work will define the US defense the rest of this cycle. Wishing for something else won't make skilled, international-quality backs appear out of thin air.
I can think of two major issues. 1. Individual technical ability. 2. Well formed futbol style identity. The US needs more time. The game needs to be ingrained in the culture. It will have to pick up more fans. The promise made in 2000 to win the world cup in 10 years in 2010 is ill advised.
Awesome thoughtful post. These are just some of the highlights. I've always thought that we need to embrace youth now and you've shown so clearly how we are in fact doing that. Michael Bradley, and more recently others, have already begun paying off past investment, albeit still inconsistently. It makes me think of the aggressive rebuilding that Klinsmann and Germany undertook in the run up to 2006 after a disastrous Euro Cup outing prior to that. They really struggled for results with a young team, but had the luxury of not having to qualify. One could argue that we are attempting something similar. We will hopefully have the comparable luxury of an easier path to qualification through CONCACAF (knock on wood). If we struggle through these growing pains successfully, our investment in these youthful players will pay massive dividends down the road. Ideally the payoff will happen in time for WC 2010, but if not, it will still be worth it in the longer term. Just think about a seasoned, veteran Altidore (24) and Davies (26) as options for our next trip to Azteca for WCQ in four years. That's when these still too-green options will pay off most.
The team has no width. Their play is still way too narrow. It works for Clint at Fulham because he has Konchesky and Pantsil bombing down the lines. When he is pinching in with the Nats he has Bocanegra, Bornstein or Pearce. LD's best runs take place when he moves centrally as well weaving through the defense cutting in. The team really just has no wingers. Its too bad Rogers is just too inconsistent and his game is not tight enough for the senior level.
I agree, I just don't think the word we use has shit all to do with a goddamn thing and to me it's a waste of energy to even worry about it.
Just having a squad of players with very good first touches (not just decent) would actually go a long way to help us with many of the other problems we suffer from. Great first touches afford you: a.) greater ability to maintain possession b.) more time to set up your next move rather than wasting fractions of seconds worrying about trapping the ball c.) more space between you and the defender, even in tight spaces d.) the ability to work with passes under high pressure from defenders e.) the ability to maintain possession during throw-ins (we're poor at this) f.) better opportunities in front of goal g.) and even the potential to improve passing due to being able to quickly control the ball and pass it along Overall, having a great first touch slows the game down for you. It's really the basics of the game we still struggle with at the highest level. The other major part of the game we must improve on is the mental side of things.
Which would take us from a back line with two players who are at least adequate technically and two players who are decent defenders but horror shows technically... to a back line with two players who are at least adequate technically and two players who are decent defenders but horror shows technically. I'm not really sure what we get out of that.
I truly hope that Bradley recognizes our weaknesses. I am not entirely convinced he is, given his penchant for the two central midfielders. Also with no truly outright outstanding wingers we are going to have to diversify how we attack and dare I say again maintain possession. Players like Feilhaber,Holden and Torres are key for us because if they can continue to develop, we will be harder to defend against.
It probably has been mentioned but our ability to tackle the right way. We try to toe poke and squeeze by instead of tackling through hard the same way you strike a ball. In general, I think some of things we lack can be taught on a field but should be learned in a backyard or a park where if things are not going your way, you figure a way to change.
No promise was made. A project was created in 1998 to "become a threat" to win the World Cup by 2010, and a youth program was initiated at Bradenton to help ingrain the youth with a soccer mindset rather than just going to college. An argument can be made that in a major FIFA tournament the year prior, beating the #1 team in the World and jumping ahead of Brazil 2-0 four days later qualifies as a big step in the right direction, if not a "threat to win the World Cup."
I think the idea is that if it works, Spector could take over on the left even when Gooch comes back, giving us three players who are adequate technically and only one that's horrific: Spector--Boca/DeMerit--Gooch--Dolo
This thread is funny. People always love the alternative. Go back and look at every post game thread here, and you'll find people calling for the other person to start. No matter who that is. We had a lineup that showed some signs of working, and we went with it. It didn't work. But it was WCQ. On the road. At Azteca. Not end of the world. If HC Bradley would have thrown some crazy shit out there in the central midfield and fullbacks, everyone would be here questioning why we didn't start the group that played so well together before. Just like there was an entire thread dedicated to if we would have beat Brazil had Bradley been available to play. Do adjustments need to be made? Sure. Is M. Bradley the biggest problem? Uhm, no. He was one of several players not named Charlie Davies that had a poor game. Probably time to experiment in the MF, but not time to panic. I just rewatched the Spain game, and one of the worst possession players on the field was Jozy. He's young, and still had a good game. But he made several poor decisions that ended up with Spain attacking. Maybe not the greatest example, but goes to show you that you can put everyone's favorite starting XI of the day out there, and we still won't solve all the problems.
The Costa Rica 4-3-3 with Torres in MF and Wynne and Beasley at FB is a perfect example of this. Bradley got very few props for trying that even though the majority on BigSoccer were clamoring for all three of those players and lamenting the "empty bucket" at the time. The more distance that gets between the Azteca WCQ and today, the more I realize that our loss was really about tempo. We looked awful in possession. We looked awful passing to spots where our players simply hadn't made the runs the passer expected. The defense had no options for a safe forward pass and had to resort to "clearing the puck." You know why? Because the altitude + smog required a slower tempo to conserve energy, and our guys couldn't adjust collectively to that tempo. So our biggest flaw? We aren't practiced at running the highly efficient, slow tempo, possession oriented style that Azteca requires.
No one was "clamoring" for Bocanegra, Wynne, Beasley, or Mastroeni. It was simply the poorest preparation for a WC qualifying match ever.