Bob Bradley's a dumbshit. Only a dumbshit would put Drew Moor and Ramiro Corrales on this team. And when in God's name is he going to ask one of his forwards to drop deeper into the midfield to help create opportunities? There is no rule written in stone that says your forwards have to both play high, side by side. I would have rather seen Adu from the beginning as the LAM. Dempsey as the RAM. Donovan as a "hole" forward spaced a little behind Altidore with a more creative role. And I would have left Corrales in Scandinavia and Moor in Dallas. Or maybe I would have sent him to Scandinavia, too.
Obviously Bob has plenty of time to adjust his mistakes in choice in players like Corrales and Moor. MLS starting up will be a Godsend for his choices to build on. Hopefully when he does choose players from MLS or abroad, they'll step up and not be a bust. In this game, he could have done something to free up the blob that was around Donovan. He was outcoached tonight.
Lack of possession, defend and counter-attack....typical of our team for the past X years. I hope to one day impose our style on other teams, possess and distribute, run at defenders with the ball, and create more chances. It's fun that we don't lose to Mexico anymore. It's not fun that I like watching them play more than our team...even when we are playing against each other.
Simek, Spector, Conrad, Hejduk......someone at the USSF has to have their numbers, Bob. Overall, a very Bob Bradley game....nothing great, but not bad. I just tire of seeing the substitution need far earlier than our coach as it seems like Bob operates on a 10-minute delay in this regard. But starting two inexperienced and over-matched backs in a game is going to earn him some criticism and rightly so........
Bob Bradley is simply in over his head, and here are my three reasons: 1. No manager worth his salt would start Ramiro Corrales and Drew Moor at outside backs in an A level international match. Add to that that he left Pearce sitting on the bench and Spector in England compounds this mistake. 2. Bob, the two defensive midfield thing generates no offense on its own. Dempsey had to essentially be the fifth man in midfield just to get the ball into the attacking third. Also, it was very obvious that Clark and Bradley have no understanding, yet he waited forever to make a change. 3. Eddie Lewis being on the roster is an insult to anyone who knows anything about soccer. Not surprisingly, he brought nothing when he came on. Eddie, I thank you for your service, especially in WC 2002, but your ship has sailed. We clearly have some horses now. We need to get a coach in there who can unleash them. Bradley is an MLS manager, plan and simple. Why try to make him something more?
Definitely not a fan of Corrales/Moor starting tonight, but to be fair -- Goff said Spector not being called up was because of a deal with West Ham and the Olympic team so he could be available for qualifiers.
One other thing. As I said on my blog last month after Sweden, Bradley's tactic of "clearing the puck" disgusts me. It really, really pisses me off as I watch the US play. We have no patience when we play the ball out of the back. None. Any sign of pressure and we boot it upfield. It's hideous to watch and puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on our team. If Bradley can't coach it out of this team, I question him being our coach. It really is that bad.
Did he have any subs for the defense outside backs? I am irritated at the 4-4-2 empty bucket. It splits the destroyer position between two guys, and tonight both Clark and Bradley together couldn't adaquately fulfill the role. I say give one MF the role, and have a CAM I would like a 4-1-2-1-2 (I call it a midfield diamond). ---------Howard Dolo----Gooch---Boca---LB -----------Bradley (CDM)---------- ---Dempsey-----Beasley--- -----------Adu/Donovan---------- ---Altidore----Donovan/Forward (dang I wish we had another excellent FW)
This match, IMO, showed exactly why Bradley isn't good enough, and why the Fed won't figure it out until it's too late. Playing Altidore was smart and it worked. The Feilhaber sub was the right (if obvious) move. Bob makes enough of those decisions to keep his job. But oh! the mistakes! 1. Corrales isn't good enough. 2. Moor, I won't bitch about. Steve C. didn't get called in, either to keep good relations with Hannover or because he's hurt. BB worked out a deal with West Ham to not call in Spector for this one in return for West Ham releasing him for Olympic qualifying. 3. Gooch and Boca have the same strengths and weaknesses, which tends to negate the former and exacerbate the latter. I'm not a huge Parkhurst fan, but he should have been out there. I know he's smarter than this, but something it seems like Bob picks his lineup by thinking of the best players, rather than the best team, the best combination of talents. 4. Kinda the same story with Bradley and Clark. Both fine players, but they shouldn't start together. 5. Tactically, Bradley asked way, way too much of his fullbacks in the attack, which left the US vulnerable to counters, plus, it forced Clark and MB to stay back to protect the central defenders. The 2-2 scoreline was weird. On the one hand, the US twice let the lead slip away, and the first goal came on a very dubious foul, and the 2nd looked like it shouldn't have been a corner. On the other hand, Mexie was 3 times as dangerous as the US was.
No kidding. He really deserves to be bashed for this. I think a lot of us who have seen Moor play understood that he doesn't have the talent for this level. Marvell Wynne might. Even if Marvell had played worse than Moor tonight, you want to use a game like this on a player who has the potential to help you down the road, not on someone who clearly does not.
I think the reason the subbing was later than it needed to be was because Dave Sarachan was on the bench. Corrales should have been the first to go, and Pearce should have come on. Moor won't be in when Dolo is fit so I don't care. But LB isn't set in stone and Corrales could be number 2 behind Bornstein, which is very bad with the talent we have in Hedjuk, Spector etc. Bob had a brainfart today and was by far the one that really didn't do his job tonight.
I don't mind that he started Corrales and Moor. You have to test your players against strong opposition some time or another. However, I think the bigger issue is this: when you use untested players, you need to have subs for them available on the bench, in case it turns out they can't handle this level of play. Pearce was in Houston, but didn't make the bench. He would have been worth more than Lewis in the 18, because Lewis is a one-position player, playing a position that both Adu and Noonan (included in the 18) already could have covered. Dunivant was in camp, but didn't travel to Houston. On the right side, we had Marvell Wynne in the first camp, and if we could bring Altidore and Holden into the full NT after the U-23 camp, why not also bring Wynne back? Granted, none of these guys were really tested against top opposition either, but it's better to test someone else when you know someone clearly isn't up to par. And our outside backs only got worse as they fatigued. Sanchez yanked Carlos Salcido when it was obvious he was being abused, and if nothing else, fresher legs helped Mexico contain our right wing play. We didn't have fresh legs on the bench. All we could possibly have done was sub Parkhurst in for Corrales, and move Boca out wide (which perhaps we should have done anyway, instead of leaving Corrales out there). For me, the problems are not with the starting lineup we fielded, but with the bench selection. (For the record, the 7 players available on the bench were: Guzan, Parkhurst, Feilhaber, Lewis, Edu, Adu, and Noonan.)
I'd have taken Marvell in a NY minute. Seriously, it is incredibly rare when one defender is directly responsible for giving up two goals. God, that was awful. Awful.
Simek is hurt. Spector is unavailable due to fighting for his job at West Ham and an agreement to not call him up so he can play for the Olympic qualies in March. Conrad is a central defender. We know what Hejduk brings to the table. Look, I agree that Moor and especially Corrales were terrible and proved quite clearly that they don't belong on this level right now. However, we just did not have a lot of other options for this match. I think, to a large extent, the lack of viable fullback options necessitated the defensive tactics that so many here seem to be so upset with. It seems clear to me that common sense dictates you have to play conservatively and give up possession in order to protect your flanks. You try to play a Brazilian possession game with Corrales and Moor and you are going to give up 5 goals. Better to play it safe and try to get Landon on some breakaways and throw some balls into the box for Jozy with set pieces for Gooch and Boca. I have no problem with BB's gameplan with our personnel for this match. However, I really miss Beasley and Dolo.
I thought our tactics tonight were to put the other team to sleep. Or perhaps to suck so badly that we gained their empathy. Seriously, how great did it feel to watch Feilhaber and Adu come on and think, my sweet Lord, that's what a soccer team is supposed to look like? We need to fire Bob Bradley now, while there's still time and we're not too far into the process to do it. Because at this rate we're going 3-and-out in 2 years. And deep down, EVERYBODY here knows it.
I can understand starting Moor because he's a young player and it's good for him to get some experience. But starting Corrales is absolutely baffling. Here we have an aging player who was never that good to begin with, has been dreadful in previous national team appearances, and (God willing) won't feature for the US in World Cup qualifying. Starting Corrales is a gamble with no possible payoff. I'm not usually overly critical of Bradley, but I really think he got out-coached tonight.
Fire bob now! lol ok now that i've got that out of my system I can type. He did well by taking Bradley jrs sorry butt off the field after he gave the ball away for the umpteenth time. My problem with him is that he feels like we have to play the same freaking formation every game. If the roster isn't condusive(sp?) to a 442 don't play it ignoramus. If your only outside backs are Corrales and Moor (who actually is a centerback) play a freaking 3 back system. With the talent the U.S. has we're tailor made for it, or atleast tonight we were. play a freaking 352 bob. Corrales was dog doo tonight, and Moor wasn't much better, he couldn't take them off because we had no other outside backs. Ok I understand that, so change the freaking formation! He could've played boca, onyewu, and parkhurst and with our glut of centremids we could play with the 2 def mids that we play now, and actually have an attacking mid to help keep the possession that we can't keep...I mean damn where do they find these people...I actually hope we lose a few games so this lame can be fired and we can get an actual coach that knows the game (it's shame, but its true)
I absolutely agree, Nutmeg, but we actually started doing it a bit when Benny and Adu came on. So it makes me wonder if it's less a shortcoming of the players than a shortcoming of the tactics and player selection.
No worries. He will not be coaching this team in South Africa. The best we can hope for is that he continues to develop the expanded pool he created so that our next coach can take it to the next level tactically and mentally. That would be an acceptable legacy for Papa Bradley.
why does Bradley limit his son? does he not believe in him? that trobled me more than anything tonight he got it all wrong... Mexico were by far the better team tonight...
I'm tired of seeing the bucket formation. At least Mexico changed tactics this time around. With Bob, it's the same old thing. I would love to see a diamond with Adu or Dempsey as an attacking midfielder.
ive been slightly leaning in favor of BB, but my patience has worn to its last straw. He NEEDS to learn after this game. There was some real black and white stuff out there today that needs attention. 1) Altidore is officially our starting forward, enough said. When healthy i dont want to see Twellman anywhere near this team. Ching win healthy, EJ as a substitute. Altidore is our man right now. 2) Feilhaber is obviously an important number in the equation that is the USMNT, he was the best central midfielder we had today. And showed that when you have a compotent destroyer behind you, he can be effective. 3) No more empty bucket! my god...please....no....more....empty....bucket. Two destroyers does....not....work. Any tandem of Bradley-Edu-Clark in the middle is destined for failure. Im on the fence about Edu, he MIGHT be able to pull it off be he has alot more destroyer in him than holding mid. Those are the really, really big ones for me after seeing today game.
I'm not sure what the situation with Pearce is, so I won't comment on the left side. But we do have alternatives to Moor. Wynne could have been called in from the U23 camp. Even among the players on the roster, we could have gone with Edu or Clark on the right side. Any of those experiments would have been worthwhile. To me the problem was not Moor's actual performance. The problem is more that Bradley thinks he is an option worth trying. If Wynne had turned in Moor's performance tonight I would have defended Bradley for selecting him because Wynne has the potential to compete at this level someday.
Still think that Michael Bradley is "far and away our best central midfielder?" https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=631376&page=11