2014 FIFA World Cup™ Round of 16: United States v. Belgium | Tues, Jul 1

so, since this has become in many ways a USMNT WC2014 post-mortem thread (and I couldn't find a dedicated on in the USA section), I'm going to post what I wrote over at theshinguardian as a farewell to the tactics, decisions, and plays of the last four matches:

"There were mistakes. Of course there were, because if we go mistake-free, this team had the potential and the ability to reach the semis. I had plenty of Brazilians tell me two weeks ago, non-jokingly, that they'd see us at the final.

I still think the biggest roster issue was no Boyd/Johnson. Donovan would have contributed for sure, but he doesn't solve the problems. And who really expected Zusi to play as down as he did?

Great point about how this year feels very different at the end - because the future looks very bright. Yedlin, Green, Brooks, Zelalem, and the others who will fill in as we lose our current 30+year-old players. We as a soccer nation have a serious historical self-consciousness and a bit of a nervous inferiority complex. American fans are often caught fretting because our team is imperfect, and has flaws. Well so do the other teams. If you look at the press, the systems, and the organizations in other "big" nations, they have their warts and their issues too. We have no reason to think of ourselves outside of the top 12 sides in the world, and the next couple of cups should vindicate that.

One great yet undiscussed point about the Copa America in '16 as well - it gives us full competitive matches against top sides form a high-ranked confederation. That's a prime opportunity for the USA to pump up their FIFA ranking and become the next surprise seeded team at Russia 2018, a la Switzerland or maybe Belgium this time around. What a cup that will be if we go in as the *favorite* to win our group!

There is reason to feel badly about our missed opportunities. But there is also reason to feel great at what we achieved and the potential to make excellent progress in the next cycle. Go team."

 

...and this is the attitude that will keep you NT from progress. Fight will only get you so far in a tournament, where you play 7 games...with the talent level rising with every match.

You didn't fight for that 2-1 scoreline loss......you were gifted it.

 

Lectures the Englishman whose team is watching the knockout stage from their couches back in England:

 

Haha...this is the only retort any of you ever have. Difference is, I'm realistic where England are in world football..you lot are delusional.

 

How so? I'm amazed we made it out of our group play and proud we took one of the best teams in the world to the brink.

 

You're a moron. Portugal was gifted their draw from a stupid fluke. We worked hard to hold Belgium to two goals. and the goal we scored was brilliant. Why haven't I done this before . . . blocking your troll a**.

 

Not to mention we hold a *BRILLIANT* German team to one goal, same as France, where Portugal and Brazil give up a combined 12 goals to the same team.

I'd say we're perfectly rational in believing our side just off of the true elite. We're definitely a better side than England.

 

This guy.

 

I am embarrassed that at this stage in our development were still just on par with England.

 

I think the US overachieved at this World Cup (frankly, so did Greece, Costa Rica, and Algeria) and much of the team's success is owed to Howard's excellence, Klinsmann's sensible approach, and the excellent preparation. The other part of that equation was the poor play of other sides who disappointed. Portugal, Russia, Ivory Coast, Italy, England, and Uruguay should have performed better. The American players are undoubtedly average. Even Clint Dempsey, who I think is a very good player, is in actuality an impact player, not someone a side should depend upon for 90 minutes. Howard is certainly an exceptional keeper, but I can't see him playing at this level by 2018. I don't think the current crop of players have the quality to truly excel, although much remains to be seen of a number of youngsters.

I think a lot of Americans place too much emphasis on Michael Bradley. For me he is just another Scott Parker type player, the kind of player who is the malaise of English soccer. Obsess with these types at your own risk. Greece has it's version and his name is Maniatis. Four years from now, I certainly think it would be best for the US to move away from players like Bradley and move more towards players like Green and Howard. It's very important that Americans get out of the MLS. The EPL is a step up, but it may not be enough. The US needs more players competing in the UCL or at top clubs in Europe if they are serious about doing consistently well at World Cups.

 

I think England was unlucky this time.............a team in transition that got a bad group of matchups.

USA on the other hand is gonna have a tough time in 4-8 years, unless they find another crop of foreign players to snipe.

 

Where is England in world football, in your opinion? Because in many observers' minds, their place is now beneath the United States.

 

England have the worst set of defensive options, probably in it's history. I cannot think of a time when we had worse. We are short of box to box\defensive minded options in the middle of the park...the inclusion of Lampard and Gerrard stilll after all this time, is testimont to lack of decent 2 way mids, and leadership in the current generation. The lack of top quality in this area, only serves to make the already weak defence even more exposed against decent teams. We also lack any depth in strikers (much like the US). We have Sturridge (who is a little up and dow), but probably our best option as a 9, and then Rooney (who is also incosistent and overrated)...and Lambert who is average (not international quality). In those terms, the US has a much better organised defence and defensive mid than England, but England has a bit of an advantage with strikers.

Where England has much better options than the US is in the attacking mid\wing\wing forward\SS roles. There is youth with pace and ability, and experience. Though all (if any) of them may not become world class, they are just on that tier below, and will not be out of their depth at international level. England will need more quality coming through on the defensive side, and maybe a couple of class strikers to get back to that group who can reach quarters and have an outside chance of a semi. To compete at the very top there will need to be real change and coaching talent at the grass roots level, much like what happened to France in the early\mid 90's and Spain\Germany at the begining of the 00's.

How does England compare to the US currently? The US are better organised, have a stronger unit at the back...England are better offensively (though more international experience and a top class striker is needed) and currently have more potential in attack. I'd say we're currently on par....bottom of the second tier. Strong areas, but much needed improvement (player ability wise) in key parts of the pitch.

 

on a NT where the average age is as ancient as England's, it's not to be expected that there will be much leadership among the younger members, especially in the midfield, the position that is arguably the most challenging.

at the next WC, assuming that England can qualify, Johnson, Baines, Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Jagielka, Milner, and probably Lallana will be gone.

i have no idea where a quality striker may come from. Connor Wickham? Danny Ings? Jordan Rhodes? Jay Rodriguez. None of these names inspire confidence.

 

Even many English themselves have been heard saying this in the past few weeks. I heard the comment more than once in Brazil. And there's the podcast excerpt that's been making the rounds:

"Great rant on a English soccer podcast.

One of the panelists was joking about the "I Believe That We Will Win"
chant, doing it in a stereotypical American accent, and one of the others
others stopped him:

'No, I'm not having that. We love to make fun of the Americans and their
soccerball, and how they don't know anything about the sport, and
everyone gets a good laugh at them. But they beat us in the group four
years ago, and now they've gotten through a group with Germany,
Portugal and Ghana. We got one point in our group. One. The US is still
playing, and right now, the English need to shut up and maybe try to figure
out why they are better at this sport than we are.

'And not only that, everyone mocks the Americans for being stupid about
"soccer", but if you talk to anyone in Brazil, they will tell you that no one
has more fans there than the States, and no one chants louder than the
American Outlaws. They've got Teddy Roosevelt down there, leading
cheers.

'So I don't want to hear this crap about the US any more. They are part of
the World Cup furniture now, and we all better accept it.'"

 

Found this article today too, and I wholly agree. Terrible time for Klinsmann to make some of the worst coaching decisions of his tenure at USMNT:

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/07/jur...rld-cup-united-states-soccer-weakness-belgium

We had the ability to beat Belgium last week, and a number of small issues piled up to make an ultimate failure.

 

ARrrrrrrghhHHHHH! I just watched the replay of the free kick vs Belgium at the end of the match in detai lfor the first time. How does Dempsey not shoot that on the first touch??!? open goal to the far post?!?!?!!

UGHGHHHHH!!! We had soooooo many near miss poor finishing moments at this cup. Reminds me of an earlier period in US soccer history where we could NOT find a decent striker and had massive problems scoring goals.

We really had the class to make this final eight and probably put a scare into a team like Argentina. *sighhhh* at least we have no less than one competitive tournament per year through the next cycle. : p

 

One of the things I like about Big Soccer is that there are a few older folks like myself (i'm 47) who have a little perspective on the growth of the game and such. That is not the case on Twitter, for example, or some other sites.

I think that perspective leads me to say the following: The U.S. in 2014 did OK, but not great. I don't believe we have come very far from 2002, for example.
Yes, we have some young players with a bright future: Yedlin, Green, Brooks, Mix, etc. But we had that in 2002 as well with Donovan and Beasley.
In terms of performance in this cup I'd say that the coach made a couple of poor errors in roster construction - the much-mentioned decision not to bring a second hold-up striker being the worst. I also think that there is no way Landon Donovan misses the shot that Chris Wondolowski missed. No chance. So that decision was also costly. That bad coaching decision.

What I hope many Americans have learned from this cup is there is an American way to play soccer. It's the way that Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley got crucified for - strong defense and counter-attack. Too many people want the USA to play like Spain of 2010 or Brazil up until the past five years or so. The Netherlands has come out and played that way and today may make the final. You can win playing counter-attacking soccer. It is our path.
Even Jurgen Klinsmann had to finally admit, through his lineups full of defensive midfielders, that is American soccer's road to success.

I hope we don't spend another four years chasing our tails trying to experiment.

 

I was so pleased and surprised to see my petYA play and so well too

 

A bunch of teams were "sooooooo close" brah

 

Many have posted about this, myself included, when it happened. It comes down to international experience. He wasn´t confident enough and tried to "secure" the goal imo.

 

Wow, a fan of the USMNT that gets it. Fantastic post IMO.

I'm 44, and have watched every WC since '78. That 2002 team led by Reyna, Donovam, Beasley, and McBride was better than this unit. Arena had them playing as a team, which was a surprisingly strong counter-attacking side anchored by strong D play. They outplayed Germany, and should have had a PK called against Frings.

What i saw this year was no way better. Klinsmann got it wrong against Belgium, starting with Cameron over Beckerman. Nobody was holding in the midfield, and Belgium created chance after chance because of all the space left open. It was one Belgium counter after another, and the scoreline was the only thing close at the end of the day. There was a total disconnect between D, mid, and strikers. The battering of shots Howard took showed that something was not right. It was not a positive way to end the tourney.

Excellent point, and a dangerous trap they could fall into. They should build from the back, with quick counters. Arena had it correct tactically, but the USMNT has failed to build upon that 2002 effort.

 

What y'all miss is that you can't just expect progress. The 2002 US players were simply better than the 2014 players relatively speaking. There's nothing a coach can do about it.

I mean look, Spain won in 2010 and went home early in 2014. Lack of progress? Sure. Would a better coach have built on the 2010 performance and produced an even better side? Very, very unlikely.

 

One could begin with cultivating talent within. Your Germany has been building this powerful midfield press team for years now. Countries like Italy and Brazil have fallen away from building what has worked for them before. Coaching plays a big part of that progress.

 

It's a mixture of luck (you need the talents to begin with) and organization. And from what I can tell, Klinsmann is doing his part in setting up that organization beyond his job as head coach. But that is a long term process.