Uhhhh, you can't be serious, Beckerman wasn't even looking at Mierelles, he was trying to get Mierelles OFF of him and back on his feet. The ref didn't even call anything, Beckerman was trying to get back into position. He never intentionally hit him, stop trying to see things that aren't there.
Exactly. Zusi in is Brazil because he normally provides quality service and crosses. I guess in the end it's hard to really bash the guy because we've gotten 2 goals off his service. But, in the grand scheme of things, he gets a low rating because other than those 2 crosses his service has been lousy and passing has left A LOT to be desired. Case in point (I know this stat is more than just Zusi), the US was 0-14 on completed crosses tonight. Many of those were flat out unreachable balls being slammed way over someones head (at least 2 of which were corners). It's too bad that Ronaldo decided to be utterly worthless for only 94.5 minutes instead of 95 and managed to complete his one, inch perfect cross. Bedoya was a damn ghost, I literally don't think I noticed him save for a couple meaningless moments. Total waste of space, hell, even Beasley was wwwaaayyyy more effective than Bedoya using space on the left side and getting into the attack.
One of the problems with Bradley is that he was often jogging waiting for an opening, without marking anyone! You're not supposed to be just looking around, waiting for a ball to start the counter. You're expected to help in the pressing, to keep close to one of their men. But time and again, he was just jogging between the CM and AM position. It's as if he had received mixed instructions, as if he doesn't really know what he's supposed to be, a CM supporting Jones and Kyle, or the AM playmaker. And that is on Klinsmann too. Why play the guy as a playmaker? If he doesn't fit because Beckerman and Jones form a rock solid pair as CMs, then sit him and use a real playmaker!
I agree completely. Go back and watch the 2nd goal. Watch the defender marking Zusi. He clearly thinks Zusi is taking the shot and tries to cut off the angle by sliding through. Zusi calmly chips it over him to Clint. Great stuff.
Looking at the chalkboard stats for the game paints an interesting picture http://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2014-06-22-usa-vs-portugal/boxscore If someone were to look at the chalkboard for the midfield, most would not rate Jones as the MOTM (and I believe he clearly was, again). From the midfielders it's pretty obvious how little Bedoya and Zusi were involved, they had 29 and 26 successful passes, respectively, with 4 and 7 incomplete passes. Zusi was a freaking turnover machine, with 5 lost dribbles/possessions. Jones actually had a relatively poor night in the passing department, 36 complete and 11 incomplete, but was more involved defensively with 7 defensive plays (clearances, interceptions and recoveries). Bradley was a mess, only 1 defensive play, but completed a higher percentage of his passes with 56 complete and 9 incomplete. Just going purely off the stats, though, Beckerman was the best in the midfield by a mile. 52 completed passes to 6 incomplete, 10 defensive plays, and only 1 lost possession. He is the single definition of underrated.
Those stats are interesting...but I'd like to know how far and in which direction Kyle's successful passes were.
He stood out in my second viewing of the Ghana game, more from his defensive work and positioning. Wondering if that will hold true this time around. Beckerman may have been Klinsmann's single most-controversial move at the beginning of Klinsmann's tenure, but I think that noise died down a while ago. He has proven how valuable he is through his play.
Bradley is lost as a 10. He needs to be playing alongside Jones. Late runs into box is his thing, not playmaking.
i would say 75% are lateral, looking at the chalkboard, and a roughly equal number of forward and backward passes. almost all his forward passes are up the left wing, probably either to Jones or Beasley. from what i remember from watching the first two games it appears that beckerman has been instructed to exclusively look for Bradley and then Jones when he gets possession of the ball. when you see him with the ball he is almost always checking for those two immediately, preferring to get the ball to bradley most of the time. as a result most of beckerman's passes are short, 10-15 yards or so, and lateral. he had a few bad turnovers/incomplete passes in the attacking third against Ghana, i can't recall any today. he didn't stray into the attack much today, though.
We played with dual 8s with a 6 behind and two attacking mids either side. Similar to the Scotland system except there the AMs were much more fluid drifting high centrally. We don't have much creativity outside of Clint and Fabian. Bradley had a good game except in the two big moments he came up short. He had a 4x8 hole to finish in and instead hit it at the defender on the line. He had a fairly easy long ball falling at his feet with no pressure, botched the touch, and the rest is history.
Mix should start over Bradley. Bradley's legs are dead. Bedoya is basically a wide dmid. Don't expect anything offensively. But he has to play. Brad David for Zusi who was dispossessed repeatedly and over cooked all dead balls. ........ Btw expect Bacon to play the Dempsey role and Dempsey stays up high
I'd love to see a chart of the ground covered by Bradley. It was insane, he was patrolling a huge area, which also tired him.
That's the second half though. For the first, Bradley was clearly ahead of Beckerman and Jones, who were more a pulley system (DM/CM) like what JK had used before. Jones has instructions to mark Meireles though, so when he went back, Jones moved forward along with him, chasing him, what at times put Jones in a position even more advanced than Bradley. But in general their formation in the first half was: -------------Kyle----JJ-------------- ---Bedoya-----MB-------Zusi--- Note that Bedoya and Zusi switched positions around the 11' mark, but Bradley kept ahead of KB and JJ until the second half, when JJ was moved forward and to the right, MB a bit to the left.
Jones was Man of the Match. Outstanding all-around performance. Beckerman plays his role extremely well. Continually shaded left to provide additional support (Beasley-Beckerman was our most frequent passing combo). Posted this on the Bradley thread, but I thought he had a decent game, though under his normal standards / our expectations. Giveaway and the blocked shot obviously hurt. Need to talk about the next guys in concert, because I think it's by design: Bedoya/Zusi are also playing their roles well, considering we look to Johnson/Beasley to become more advanced in attack. Thought Bedoya was more conservative, but slightly better, in possession. Zusi popped up with the assist. Hope to see better crossing/dead ball service from Zusi against Germany. Both put in the work on offense and defense...we essentially have 5 guys who are running central midfield miles. Yedlin made an impact with his sub appearance...not too much more to add there.
At 51:37 the U.S. has a 4v1 up the middle, as Portugal is caught napping. Johnson, Dempsey, Zusi, and Beasley are perfectly positioned on the dead run, a single defender is tracking back, one more defender is stationary and about to be taken out of the play, and two defenders are trailing the ball. A simple pass into space for Johnson on the far right, the sole defender must slide that way, and Dempsey can slot a pass to Zusi unmarked at the far post for a tap in. It was possible to botch the finish, of course, but it was as sure a thing as exists on a counterattack. A much, much easier play on which to score than Portugal's 2nd goal, for example. Bradley botches the pass horribly, not only choosing the wrong recipient (Dempsey, who trailed Johnson by 2 yards, and who was also closer to the defender), but misfiring from 10 yards, so that the ball is behind Dempsey rather than in front of him. Really surprised nobody is talking about that play. (Maybe because the announcers did not?) Particularly as the team was down 1-0 at the time. It was *the* chance to equalize, and Bradley bottled it, as the Brits would say. He did so many little things right, but sure did screw up the big ones.
He did not miss from 6. He did exactly what you are supposed to do in that situation. He sidefooted a shot directly at the net and a defender happened to get a leg on it. You will score 8 times out of 10 in that situation. The defender got lucky.
Bradley is showing what we've known. He's a 6. He's a pretty damn good 6. But he's not an advanced playmaker. You'd be better off giving that role to Jones, and I don't want him to have it either. We do have a few players that can play there. We have Benny who plays there regularly for KC AND has world cup experience. I think Donovan can play there. I think as a wild card Lee Nguyen can play there for us. An incomplete roster is biting us as so many predicted it would.
I didn't get the sense that Bedoya was even on the field last night. Fabian just owned that side of the pitch. Did Portugal even have a left back? I would have loved to see how Fabian would have matched up versus Coentrao. He is sooooo good. I wonder if we move him to RM and put in Chandler at RB. Maximize Fabian's pressure on the left side of the German attack, forcing them out of shape and keeping Khedira and Kroos deeper in midfield.
He must have been, and doing pretty well at that, otherwise Johnson would have been punished defensively for those runs. Bedoya is a very quiet player. But I can see why a coach would like him.
I think it was by design so that FJ could go forward with impunity. If AB gets involved in al that mess you have your right side way too far upfield. Our guys are capable of making even the best of situations go tits up so it was important to have some cover. Where in the hell are people getting that Omar was playing DM? Just because he subbed on for a mid does not make him playing that spot. The top ranked player in the world made one play in that game and because of our mistakes, Portugal lives to fight another day and we have to push on for one mnore point or hoe we get lucky in the other game. Regardless of how our expectations have changed on result, frankly I did not give us much of a shot at all of getting out of group and I would have taken a play Germany to a draw for advancement or lose by only one and hope Portugal can rescues some pride by getting a result against Ghana or by losing 1-0.
Am I the only one wondering if Bradley is the player Donovan talked about in pre-game that has a nagging injury that no one is talking about? It wouldn't surprise me as he is just completely gassed even before the end of the game and that is not like Bradley. Yes I know those are some bad conditions but I always feel like he would run through a wall if he was able to for the US but he just doesn't seem to be able to keep up. Anyways, on to my analysis: JJ was a big time work horse. In my opinion, he is our player of the tournament. Really makes you think about 2010 if he wasn't injured. MB was decent but looked tired later in the match. He had some huge giveaways that cost us the 3 points. Hoping he is either recooperated or performs better on Thursday. Zusi struggled at times but did decent defensive work. I really think those corner kicks were intending to find Dempsey at the far side for some reason. I don't get it personally but to me it looked like they were trying to set up Dempsey to get the ball towards the top of the box on the far side. No clue why though. Bedoya worked really hard but I'm not sure if he did anything offensively. I'll have to watch again. Beckerman was Beckerman. He clogged up space and was physical. I personally liked that he body checked CR7 quite a bit and elbowed the guy when the guy was holding his arm. Before I was never a huge Beckerman fan but he guy has been solid and done the task that was asked of him. Yedlin did decent and ran fast but showed a bit of naivety at the end. I think he's got a ton of potential but I have to wonder where he goes in the future not as in this world cup but next cycle, does he play right back and we move Fabian to the midfield or left back?
This seems to be the consensus of opinion here. My question is (and I am totally serious) is why can't JK see this. Also, if MB is not playing well...why not sub him out during the second half? I think if he had taken MB out and put in Mix...forget about Gonzo...we would have been better off.