I do, and you can forgive me for making a rash statement. Buuuuuuuuut if Southgate is in Germany watching that. I dunno. That said, if he doesn't want to sign for us but is holding out to play for Fulham or Reading - then I won't step in his way. No point, if he is viewing us a second or third choice option.
I appreciate you coming on and saying this... and while you can say he didn't impress last night, he was far from teh worst player for the USA. Sadly he was possibly the BEST defender we had in the game (not saying that means much) He was definitely better than Pope. Folks --- I can't say it enough --- it was ONE GAME!
On this I agree. Sorry didn't mean to respond harshly (if I did) --- but I get so tired of the knee jerk reactions on the USA N&A boards and don't want it spilling over. You're right, if Southgate is watching that.... AND Gooch is wavering over details, then yes.... I can see Gareth sitting back and saying I'm not going to bend over backwards for Gooch. But if all else was goign fine - I assume Southgate would think it an "off game" rather than an indication of his true quality. I watched the game again last night (I know it was painful) and was specifically looking at the play of certain players, and for the most part -- Onyewu did fine. Lewis was nonexistant (hint hint --- play your best DEFENDER not a relocated midfielder against a team that can actually play but that's for other threads not on thisboard) and Dolo played subpar. Heck Pope was worse than Gooch on this day and Keller played like he was just an average keeper. I'm not saying Gooch was good (he wasn't) but he wasn't terrible.
You know something interesting? We've all been at this place with Gooch before. Qualifier #2, in Mexico City. Gooch, in his first real, MEANINGFUL match as a senior Nat, is burned (bad) by Borghetti for the first goal. Fast forward to Qualifier #7, in Ohio. I am of the opinion that history shows that Gooch does learn from his mistakes. Someone in the EPL will pay a lot of money for him just because of that.
But name me a defender that played better than him on teh day.... heck I'll take 3-4 names period. Even had Gooch looked like Stam, Ferdinand, and Heinze all rolled into one package.... the USA still would have lost.
Yesterday Gooch lost only ONE duel. He's partly guilty on the first goal since he left Koller unmarked. BUT, on the second one, how could someone blame him on the 30 yards heading from the box. Nobody is asking why nobody was on the Defensive Midfield. Also, after reviewing the game, you can clearly see that NOT a single Czech action has been stopped at the midfield level. Everything was coming to Pope/Onyewu. Yesterday, the guilty sector was the midfield: weak, scared and small.
jon welsh. sandon has talked bout him on these boards b4. he left chelsea and went to creighton. had it out with coach warming and is on trials with a few teams in la liga right now. obviously he aint mr bigshot but if he ran roughshod over huth at chelsea then i wont be surprised if others would.
Just a quick correction. He did not leave Koller unmarked on the first goal. Eddie Pope was guarding Koller on that play.
It was a bracketed defense - one defender takes the first (near) post, another the far post. Plus, as Poobah said on a USMNT thread, Gooch has to prevent both the simple ground cross/pass from Grygera and the Czech wingback's drive toward the net. If Goch played behind the Czech striker, Grygera would have just taken three more steps and then hit a simple ground pass for a tap-in. Or a sidefootsitter.
Yeh, he looked pretty raw out there. Anyone buying him now is buying him for his undoubted potential, which underlines that the transfer fees being mentioned aren't part of an anti-American "conspiracy" as has been suggested by some on this thread, but are a realistic consideration of the fact that it's no sure thing he'll end up being a top-class centreback in a top league.
So you'd never hire a defender who plays for a bad team, then? Because there's no defender in any league who can singlehandedly keep a clean sheet if his teammates keep making mistakes. Good thing for many clubs you aren't a manager.
If you could tell how good he looked out there given the amount of breakdowns in defense that came from the midfield and the wings, then maybe you should replace Balboa. I mean, he's pretty bad, you could do a better job, being all psychic n stuff. Every professional analysis I've seen that has mentioned Gooch's play called him one of the bright spots, Julie Foudy excepted.
He's played at least three, having played Mexico in qualifiers twice. The WC is obviously the pinnacle of the sport, but it isn't the first time these guys have meaningfully put on the jersey. That disrespects the work it takes them to get here, even if in the end they'd probably have qualified 2nd-4th in the group even with bad performances. But if the only result is winning or not winning, I think we can safely say that the US was not going to win the WC anyway, so even this game is meaningless in the run of things?
From a very young age defenders are coached to clear that kind of ball to the sides, not back into the middle of the pitch.
I thnik some of the criticism on the second goal is a bit OTT, but the fact remains he had a really poor game and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
But first and formost they are taught to get it out of the front of the goal. Gooch did this. Did he put it in the perfect spot? No. Could he have done better? In hindsight of course. But he DID get the ball out of immediate danger. In general... getting the ball 35 yards away is "safe enough".
The clearance is a big issue but if Reyna closes Rosicky down we have no problem. I'm not saying everyone of his teammates have to be perfect but the wing backs and defensive midfielders did nothing to help Pope and Gooch. He should've headed the ball to the side but the midfielders failed to close Rosicky down. If the team has no balance no matter how good the center backs are they look bad. The Koller goal was Lewis fault. The cross should never have been.
He reached to clear a dangerous cross out of the box. Done. Watch it again and you'll see he had no other choice but to head it where it went because he was reaching for it in that direction. It unfortunately fell to the assassin who could have been closed down quicker by Reyna.
That's the guy Chris Bergin was pimping a few years ago. When Chris was just starting out, he committed the ethical "sin" of writing about how good Welsh was without pointing out that he was Jon's agent. I think that's the guy.
The US clearly had set a strategy that relied on gooch bumping and grinding on koller all night. the yellow card negated that strategy, so judging his game is tricky after that point ( and the injury made it all rather pointless). That said, the US could have used a much better game out of Gooch.
Ok, but the yellow card was part of his performance. He committed three fouls and picked up the card in the first four minutes of the game. That's just not very smart and part of the reason I called his performance "raw". A more seasoned performer would have been unlikely to have put himself in that position.
To be fair though, if that was the USA's strategy, it wasn't totally/completely Onyewu's fault. I have to give credit to the Czech's - they respected Onyewu and targetted him immediately. The USA, from what I have heard, have long since wanted 'respect' by European teams. They got it, but I don't think this is what some peopel had in mind. The Czech's were very prepared and had specific strategies for their key players and Onyewu was one of them. Onyewu was probably told to be on Koller like a jacket, to shadow him, to not give him an inch of space. He did that as best he could, but the Czech's could easily see through that strategy, so what's the first thing they probably worked on, knowing that Baros would be out and they'd have to rely no Koller? Getting him open, which meant taking out Onyewu. IMO, Onyewu is raw and does have a ways to go. Having said that, he's got some learning to do and I think he'll benefit from better coaching at a better club. I wouldn't really rate him completley on this one match, but as a good project at the right price (dead on to those that defended a transfer that's not over the top), I think he'd be an excellent gamble. You can't teach some of his physical attributes. But with experience and being in the right competitive environment, he can get better and in four years, when he's 28(?), be a very good center back.
First they are taught to clear it high and the rest of the defense is taught to mark up if they don't have a chance at getting the clearence.