United States vs Argentina, Copa SF: General PostGame Thread

This is what frustrates:
Jurgen's press conference was all about that 'We gave them too much respect", "We needed to step on their toes."

Followed by Geoff Cameron's interview where he used the same f#cking lines. Now I've never thought of him as the most cerebral player out there, but damn, if you are a coaching echo chamber, that bothers me.

What happened to watching the match with Bedoya and noticing things that can be done to beat Argentina? I get it you may not win, but zero shots on goal? And how many touches did we have in the final third? There was no plan and more importantly no adjustment to the plan going forward. Bolivia gets shots. Venezuela gets shots. Paraguay gets shots. I guess, 'players need to express themselves' doesn't work.

And we get "we needed to step on their toes more."

No, next time try placing your feet where their toes aren't.

 

Bear in mind Aron Johansson has never scored a goal that mattered either. Scoring against an openly crying Panama doesn't count.

 

If I'm not mistaken, we had I think 2 touches inside their penalty area altogether. That is insane.

One was Pulisic's mishit shot/intercepted pass, the other was Yedlin's failed cutback attempt.

 

Yes they do. They have evolved in the way they play. They have incorporated the short and sharp passes as part of the their gane. Those long balls and crosses are now behind in the past.

 

I didn't see him do anything noteworthy in that one.

 

I don't recall a moment where they had a defender in distress. Heck I don't remember a moment where a defender was facing their own goal.

 

Juan Carlos Osorio took responsibility for Mexico's poor performance against Chile.

 

The Yedlin run was the only one really. If he had faked the cutback (which Argentina were smart enough to all expect) and had zipped it across the face of goal, I think we get a nice opportunity to score there. But, it was a nice run by him and I don't blame him for trying to do what he's been taught.

 

Please provide the money.

 

I gotta look at Yedlin's play in the box again, but it seems from where he was you have to send the ball across the goalmouth. Argentina defenders are running towards their own goal, he is close, it is a great situation to put something in for a US player to score or even an OG.

 

Our score is very deceiving I'd say.
Years from now many will look and say at least we didn't lose 7-0.
But what they will forget are going to be the stats.
How unbelievably we were outplayed.
From time of possession, to passes completed, and shots on goal.
I mean really, our game was so one-sided it isn't even funny.

 

What did Yedlin say last night? Heard some chatter about it but not specifically what he said. Thanks.

 

When you go back and look you'll notice the defenders realize that when he gets far enough towards the endline, he's cut off his angle as far as going across the goal mouth and the only play he can make it to cut it back. So, they adjust, start drifting back towards the penalty spot, and make an easy interception. Yedlin also looked towards that area before playing the ball.

It was the standard play, but not the right play. Still, at that speed, I can forgive him for making it because it was a smart defensive play by the couple Arg players who decided to drift back away from their goal before the ball was delivered.

 

I think this should be put out there to the stans.

No one to my knowledge has said the US lost the game due to Klinsmann or would have won with a different coach. They have said that we have played poorly.

This "well you lose to Argentina anyway" is why England sucks in tournaments.

 

FWIW, Wondo was wide open on that play... so that's...something.

 

The image of Messi standing there with his foot on the ball, like he's posing for a Sports Illustrated cover, staring Beckerman down - did I say staring? Looking at Beckerman pityingly - will be forever etched on my mind.

There should be a speech bubble above Becks' head "Please sir can we have the ball again so my friends and I can play?"

 

Yep, he was the one that realized that the backpost run was the right one to make. Wondo is certainly good at understanding where to be.

 

Who else wants to crowdfund a hostile takeover of USSF? I'm sure there's enough money between us and reddit to put a board of directors/hivemind together to get some change rolling.

 

My purple rage moment was when the sideline reporter said that Klinsmann was angry and complaining to the refs at the half about the one quick restart. Wow. That one restart is what got under his skin?

(Let's set aside for a moment that preparing for quick restarts is like U-12 or U-14 coaching and that after a momentary lapse the defense recovered.)

You're down 2-0. You're getting played off the field. One of the players you chose had three touches (THREE!) in the half. Your midfield can't string three passes together. Your team has 0 shots and 0 shots on goal. And you decide you need to have a go at the refs over a quick restart?

To me, it's a microcosm of the whole Klinsmann era. He's in over his head. He says one thing and does another. He thinks he's smarter than everyone in the room. But he's not a soccer genius. He's not going to revolutionize the sport in the U.S. He's a highly paid but very average coach.

 

The closest thing I can think of is the one quick cross that Zardes had.

 

One more tactical/intelligence thing I noticed about us vs. them:

The Arg players regularly had the understanding whether they needed to head the ball aimlessly clear when defending, or whether they had time to bring it down on their chest by taking a step back when the pressure wasn't on. This is done using a combination of peripheral vision, speed of thought, and coordination.

There were multiple times where a ball would be floated towards one of our defending players, the Arg player would drop off of him like 10 yards knowing that our guy was fixated on heading it clear, and the Arg player would simply collect the headed clearance. This happened countless times last night and it's a small, but in a way big difference between our players and theirs.

We lack the understanding of how to change our decisions quickly based on the opposing player adjusting to us. Being reactionary against a team as good as Argentina is fine, but it has to be done quickly.

Also, telegraphing exactly what we're going to do is a big problem for some of these guys. Cameron is a prime example whether the ball is about to be headed, or whether it is at his feet. He regularly looks right where he's going to put the ball, takes a couple extra steps or touches, and sends a ball in to that space, only to be picked off by decent players.

Gotta be better at disguising our intentions and changing them in the moment. These are the things that cause gaps between the ok teams, and the good teams.

 

That WAS the case, it is no longer the case. They are now down to U-12. Moving in the right direction. But there is an issue of where that product is when it tops out at 17-18. DI ready or pro ready? Big difference.

 

After sleeping on it, I feel no different. Still angered that we weren't given a chance. Not only the staring XI was bad, but the roster was too. We were never going to have more than a 30% chance to beat Argentina to begin with. Even less without Wood, Jones, Bedoya. But, the guys Klinsmann threw out there were embarrassing. It's time to move on from Bradley, Beckerman, Wondo, and Zusi. The people saying Dempsey and Jones too are going overboard. It's not about age, Its about whether or not you can bring something to the team. Dempsey and Jones absolutely still belong, for better or worse. They were our best players this tournament outside of JAB. The other 4 only hurt our chances, and we saw just how horribly outclassed they really are against the top competition.... And Argentina were simply just toying with them. Realistically, I still expect all of the above to continue getting call ups given who our manager is.

 

It is called soccer IQ. We do not have much of it. Also our players lack the experience needed to compete at this level.