It was a bad pass but I've seen a hell of a lot worse. The fact that Keller was on his goal line was horrible...but the fact that he didn't even try to close the guy down was inexcusable on his part. I almost fault Keller more than Bornstein.
Keller: Mundane performance. He doesn't have the ability to be a game changer anymore. At least we'll see Guzan against Columbia. Bornstein: Up and down (way down). He didn't seem to have the lungs to play as fast as he normally does. I like his potential, but I hope to see Pearce against Columbia. Conrad: Average performance. He's smart, but his lack of speed is a major concern. Demerit: Not as smart as Conrad, really suffering in the heat and humidity. Califf: A little better in this game than Demerit, but he's not a better player overall. Moor: He did well for the most part. It was a very collected performance for a first cap. One thing to keep in mind when comparing Moor and Wynne though is that Wynne was facing a much more potent wing attack and attack in general in his start.
I clearly never played keeper at the international level, but I don't know when staying rooted to your line, hesitating, shying away from contact, having crapass distribution and organization and slow reflexes become prerequisites for national team starts. We're blooding a young team and the veteran who's supposed to be providing steadying experience has been partly to blame on five of the goals. Lovely. I thought Drew Moor did pretty well for his first cap. Demerit and Conrad are fine. I don't mind Bornstein but his careless giveaways suck.
Bad analysis. Keller got across his goal in one step. You cannot ask for much more than that, otherwise you are fooling your self.
Keller's international career is over. And I'm starting to wonder what club is going to pick him up. I wouldn't play him over Matt Reis for the Revo. First time I've seen Moor play and he did ok. We look to be very deep at right back.
Bornstein can not kick the ball in a straight line from Point A to Point B. He gives the ball away numerous times per game with errant passes...
It was good enough. There wasn't much Keller could do about that one - keepers can't cover both posts at once.
Keller's crap distribution right before the second goal was a replay of one of the WC goals. Keller gorfs one to the sky, the teams gets way out of shape ball chasing and a pass gets intercepted because someone was 25 yards away from where they should be.
It looks like Moor can cross the ball. Bornstein still makes mistakes but will get better. He's young.
Don't need to. I watched the replay when it happened specifically trying to see how Keller could have been that slow getting over.
Once again, a tale of two halves, and I don't know who's at fault: - Moor looked pretty solid the whole game. He did get caught out a few times, but his workrate was good and he looked much more comfortable back there than Wynne did. That said, facing off against Paraguay is not nearly as imposing as going against Argentina, as good as Paraguay may be. - Bornstein was once again Jeckyll and Hyde. An awesome first half, yet again totally shutting down his side of the field even when Kljestan's defensive work from midfield left much to be desired. He should have buried his chance on goal as well. However, in the second half it was his bad backpass to Keller (or to whomever) that led to Paraguay's game-winning goal. - It looked to me like Kljestan was the one caught ball-watching and not covering for Bornstein on Parguay's first goal. Please correct me if I'm wrong. - Defensive breakdowns and miscommunication are becoming totally normal. It doesn't help that Keller is looking way too slow to be an international level goalkeeper. We just look way too slow right now in the center. - I like DeMerit's positioning and aerial presence but he can get turned easily because of his lack of speed, and his communication in the back seems suspect after our difficulties in the last two matches. - Conrad is solid.
Bornstein also didn't track the runner on the first goal. He and Keller had nightmares. But Bornstein was excellent against the Argies, so he gets a pass. Before this tournament, I opined that Guzan was RIGHT NOW a better keeper. Anyone want to argue with me now?
Keller - Nuff said about him already. Thanks for the great memories, K. Bornstein - Had some moments of great play. One terrible decision negates all the good he did. Demerit/Conrad - I thought both were once again average. Numerous miscues by them were covered by other players. Moor - First time I have seen him play and I was quite impressed. A very solid outing especially for a 1st Cap. Hope this is a sign of more to come. Our fullback positions could finally be a strength of the squad.
Bornstein was horrible. That makes 1 partially decent game (vs. Arg) out of what? 8? Really, he absolutelly hung both Keller and Conrad?? out to dry on the #2 goal. I have given up on him. It is a big surprise when anything positive happens (same category as EJ). I thought that goal was totally Keller's fault, but the replay shows Keller to be further from the ball than Conrad?? who failed to at least apply pressure from a fixed direction. Total screw-up brought about by one of many atrocious Bornstein passes. BB looks to be putting all his eggs in one broken basket, if you ask me. Moor was a pleasantly positive distraction from the otherwise pretty much awful display. Califf was also a positive. He got a bit screwed on the foul call leading to goal #3. Not sure there was any contact with the opposing player and the ref sure was not in a position to verify. Morevoer, everything happened in slo-mo with the Paraguay player grabbing Califf and pulling him down, the Paraguay player having lost his balance. I would have called nothing on either guy.
Kasey should have probably shaded to his left corner and have the wall take up the other side. But it's hard to do when the direct kick is right up the middle. Moor - very impressed. Moreover, the guy can also play in the middle. He's to be watched. Demerit - don't know why people are so down on him. He wasn't directly responsible for any goals, although he should have realized that Bornstein's back pass was a goal in waiting and Kasey was glued to his line. Conrad - also pretty solid. See right above. Bornstein - as abysmal as always. He does OK on the ball defensively but is a poor striker of the ball, which hinders his passing accuracy and is lost when he has to track runners. First two goals were directly on him. Califf - looked solid until being beaten by Cabanas on that fake ... but it was a great fake and cut back. And there was no one else covering up. Correction : it was Conrad whio had a chance to catch up with the ball on that backpass, not Demerit.
Against Colombia, I would start Dan Califf over Jay DeMerit. DeMerit is a little slow and a little stiff. Could he have done more on the first goal? Was he a little out of position? Califf has pretty good straight line speed -- better than you would expect by looking at him. He lumbers, and his first strides are a little slow. But once he picks up a head of steam, he seems to have decent speed. He also is very good in the air and has a strong defensive presence. He doesn’t move especially well laterally, but he might move better laterally than DeMerit does. At least they are comparable in that regard. DeMerit is pretty stiff. Califf also is pretty good on the ball for a defender. I seem to remember him playing reasonably well against Denmark in Bradley's first game as National Team coach. Tonight Califf played fine in the short time there. I don't remember him making any bad passes, and he seemed to be in good positions. Although he committed the foul that resulted in the third goal, he was on an island on the play; as the US was pushing players forward to get the equalizer. It was a good move by the Paraguayan forward, and a questionable call by the ref. Califf didn't really seem to trip the player. An advantage of playing Califf against Colombia is that we haven't seen him play a lot for the National Team. And we don't get to see him play in MLS. If he plays against Colombia, we can get a better sense of where he fits in in the center back depth chart. Bornstein’s back-pass was a decisive moment of the match. The US was in a good position to get a tie (or maybe even a win), and a tie would have put them in much better position to get out of their group than the position they are in now. It is regrettable that Bornstein attempted the pass. It was too risky given where he was on the field. Even if the completes the pass, there is not much more to be gained from completing the pass than if he had just kicked the ball out of bounds. If Bornstein had completed the pass, then maybe the US keeps possession for a little while or Keller gets a free clearance. But that is not that important. It is not as if his completing the pass would have resulted in a chance at goal for the US. He should have just gotten the ball out. But if he tries the play, it is hugely important for him to execute it. And he didn’t. It wasn’t a well struck pass; it was too soft. Other than the back pass, he played decently. He got forward pretty well. And his passing was pretty good. And he put himself in position for a good opportunity at goal, which he did okay with but not quite well enough. However, I’m vague on the first goal, and my DVR broke. It sort of happened in Bornstein’s area. He is a good athlete, and he has a lot of potential. He is smooth and pretty good on the ball. He moves well with the ball at his feet. And he is able to get forward. But it is important for him to cut down on the errors. If defenders make errors in their own third at this high a level, it tends to make it hard for the team to get a good result. Bradley should start Heath Pearce in the next game. He is a good athlete. Apparently he is fast. And apparently he plays well in Denmark. And I’ve been reasonably impressed with him every time I’ve seen him play. He has a good left foot and big legs. He seems to be a pretty good passer and trapper. And didn’t he make the pass to Kenny Cooper against Denmark that resulted in Cooper’s goal? I’d like to see Pearce play more at this level to see what he can do. We haven’t seen him play this summer. We have seen a lot of Bornstein. Overall, I’ve been impressed with Bornstein. But let’s see how Pearce does, so we can have better chance of determining the depth chart in the future Conrad played well. He was good in the air. His passing was good. I don’t remember him making any mistakes. And he was good positionally. I feel he is one of the US’s best central defenders. He is smart and very alert. The game makes sense to him. He also is a good passer, good in the air and has good endurance. He doesn't seem to get tired. He rarely makes mistakes. The last mistake I remember him making was against Germany in Dortmund right before the World Cup. Moor played well. He passing was good. His touch was good. He didn’t make any mistakes defensively. He put himself in position for a header. And he has a good defensive sense. Right now I rate him ahead of Wynne. Moor has a better defensive field sense and seems to be better at distribution. Here is the back line Bradley should consider starting against Colombia: Moor---------Califf-----------Conrad---------Pearce
Keller is definitely playing down his salary wherever he ends up next season. Bornstein still looks pretty good, but has a lot of work to do on his positioning and full game concentration. He definitely has the tools though. Conrad was solid, if not spectacular. Hard for me to tell/remember if that back pass was his fault, Bornstein's, or even Keller's. But it was bad. DeMerit was good enough again to make me think he is our answer to replacing Oguchi "Liability" Onyewu. Moor was impressive for me after a rough start. Yes, that missed header was spectacularly bad, but he had a much better game that Wynne did against Argentina. Califf looks slow. Those Scandivinavian leagues may pay more, but they apparently don't improve one's play.
Since we don't get Telemundo out here (Eastern Kansas), I had to watch the goals on YouTube. I can't really comment on his play beyond the goal sequences themselves, but I'm a bit confused by all the Keller bashing going on here. On the third Paraguayan goal, the replay clear shows the ball took a deflection off the head of one of the U.S. players in the wall, so the flight of the ball suddenly changed trajectory. From the angle of the video it's impossible to say whether he had the initial direction covered, but he seems to have launched himself into a full dive the moment the ball was deflected and just came up short. On the second goal, the poor backpass puts Keller in an unenviable position: the attacker has less distance to cover, so if Keller tries to beat him to the ball it's either going to get touched around him or he'll end up tripping the forward and possibly getting a red card. Keller cuts the angle, but Cardozo is close enough that when he hits it with authority there's virtually no time to react. Maybe Keller gave Cardozo too much of the far post to aim for, but it's impossible to tell from the clip. Finally, on the first Paraguayan goal, the replay shows that it was an absolutely perfect set-up, and a low, hard shot struck from close range. Keller goes down as fast as possible, but the shot is simply too fast. This is *not* to say that Keller played everything as well as humanly possible -- only that, based on the clips, I think it's a stretch to say any of those goals are *definitively* the keeper's fault.