Re: 7/5 USA vs Columbia: Coaching/Tactics [R] Did we come to play effective soccer? No. Did we use our youth effectively? No. Did we learn anything? Not really. So why did we accept the bid again? What was the point?
Re: 7/5 USA vs Columbia: Coaching/Tactics [R] BTW: Colombia. The box midfield is not effective unless the fulbacks push up into the attack. The entire first half both Pearce and Moor stayed back and backpassed. No wonder the attack was ineffective. In the second half they came forward and we looked better. No coaching or tactics, however, can fix the poor skills of our forwards.
Re: 7/5 USA vs Columbia: Coaching/Tactics [R] I think we have learned a fair amount about who's capable. And if this leads to EJ not getting any more callups, it'll all have been worth it.
Re: 7/5 USA vs Columbia: Coaching/Tactics [R] in every defeat there is a hard lesson, lets hope they taking notes The point was to get a look at more players at the highest level, friendlies just don't cut it. We learned that we are miles away from playing the beautiful game of soccer, and we don't realy have a great depth out there. Then we learned again that Bob Bradley is clueless when it comes to tactics.
Re: 7/5 USA vs Columbia: Coaching/Tactics [R] PLEASE CORRECT THE THREAD TITLE, ITS COLOMBIA, not COLUMBIA... show at least SOME respect to the team that beat the mighty mighty USA. (crys)
Re: 7/5 USA vs Columbia: Coaching/Tactics [R] Again Bradley uses some ridiculous lineup- I'm Surprised he didn't find away to put his love child Bornstein in... I can't understand his sub patterns or why he didn't just start Ngyuen and Davies we know what Johnson and Mapp are capable of... SOme thoughts: Eddie Gaven- SHould never ever ever be seen in a US jersey ever again, the guy is brutal. WTF, does Sigi Schmidt do to these guys??? Szetela and Rodgers also ride the bench for that team... Davies and Ngyuen both had their moments, both good and bad... Pearce was good for the most part but really let me down in the second half I really thought he would perform better. Guzan- looks like he will turn out to be at the very least a capable backup...
Re: 7/5 USA vs Columbia: Coaching/Tactics [R] ...wow. Can't believe I screwed that up. I fixed it, though.
You don't learn things overnight. It takes time. This includes Bradley and the players. We all knew this was going to be a make shift roster. But what we still don't know is how this tournament will aide or harm us. Give it time. When the fall friendlies in Europe and qualifiers start we will have an idea. I can't fault Bradley, his hands were tied behind his back since most of the top players were absent. The clubs ultimately had the say as to who was in the squad and who wasn't. I appreciate the opportunity we had in this tournament. It's been a tough pill to swallow but I'm willing to sacrafice if it helps us in the long un.
This was the most absolutely ridiculous job by Bob Bradley so far. To date, I have not been too critical of his perfromance, but today's game "plan" was ASSININE. It is so incredibly silly to field an ENTIRE team of FRINGE players--they make each other look bad and there is no clear picture on a given player's performance. The appropriate thing to do is to SELECTIVELY look at fringe players WHILE surrounding them with a CORE of better players. So, what can we possibly learn when we fail to include MOST of the better players on our roster and field an ENTIRE roster of FRINGE players? NOTHING. Good job Bob. WHAT A ********ING WASTE OF TIME. I call Bob an his BS on "giving younger guys experience"--there was nothing learned here, by anyone, that wasn't known before the tournament.
I agree with you Li mu bei. As a huge soccer fan who wants to see soccer grow to bigger things in this great country we call USA, this performance hurts us in a way. Its more fuel for those soccer haters in this country. Ive seen Americans go to games routing for other teams in the GC and dont give one cent about the USMT. Hopefully one day things will change, but this doesnt help the cause at all. Its sad. I still like Bradley as coach. But I think opportunities like this, in which games mean something, you dont go into it with a "we got nothing to lose" mentality (keller said that in an interview).
It should be called the empty barf bucket. About today - I know BB was playing for a 0-0 tie. He had to be. Because no sane man expects to score against reasonably decent team with two deep lying defensive center mids. Especially when one of your forwards is incapable of going at people. There isn't a player in the squad that can hit a proper cross. Where is the goal going to come from? Is the barf bucket now the "official" U.S. style of play? Rongen is using it with the U-20's too. Unfortunately for the senior side, not many of our future matches will feature Freddy going against Poland's U-20's. I'm siiiiiick of the barf bucket. In all of the GC and all of the CA, how many goals did our forwards score from the run of play in all of those games? Any? It is impossible to judge our forwards right now, as they get zeeeeero service from this stupid tactic/formation. Even today, when BB brought in one of the few guys on the team that can take people on - Nguyen - he stuck him waaaay out wide, so that he'd have to go through 4 or 5 Colombians to do anything. Just ridiculous. What does Bob have agaisnt CAM's? As long as Bob is the coach, our forwards will be nothing more that advance defenders.
That's what I was thinking, too. Bradley went a little too far on the C roster, and the result was garbage where little was gained.
Re: 7/5 USA vs Columbia: Coaching/Tactics [R] It's hard to be critical of this game without being critical of this tournament. It was nice of Bob to get everyone so much experience playing top quality international competition. Let me say this...I'm not against us going to Copa America. I'm not even against taking most of the guys we took. It's better to find out who sucks & who can play now rather than in a qualifier. But if giving experience was the purpose for going to CA, why did a few more guys not play against Paraguay? I feel bad for the guys who played tonight who hadn't played previously. It's kind of like when your team's down 10 with 10 seconds to play in basketball when the coach empties the bench. What good does it do? On a side note, why on earth was Simek wasted in the Gold Cup and not brought to CA?
i'm agreeing with the thought that it was ridiculous to field an entire team of untested newbies. and this was, in fact, the most animated that i've ever seen bob bradley on the sidelines. i think he was actually upset that we were playing that poorly. he was acting like he really wanted to win. hell, i took one look at the roster and thought "well, he sure as hell isn't playing to win". it's like the last game of the season when you throw out everyone who didn't play at all the rest of the year.
This may be a reflection on the players or Bob or both. As much as people think these guys should just grab the opportunity, Bob didn't do anyone any favors. They can try to be optimistic about it, but they all know that Bob doesn't play half of them if there was a chance to advance. They were given crap minutes and they responded with indifference.
Me3. And I said so a few months ago when the rosters were pontificated. One should have been able to juggle both rosters to have newbies and vets playing together ... and by vets, I mean good vets, not Hejduk, Keller and Olsen. So The Hardworking Bob failed in that also. And we have learned basically nothing in the last three months. Let's see how the fall internationals play out.
Heres what bothers me more than anything. We played well for 60 minutes vs. Argentina, then collapsed. Dissappointing. Then against Paraguay, we play well, but mistakes cost us the game. So here we are, entering game 3 against a team thats had an even rougher cup than us. Now, I think, heres a chance to get a result, and have something to hang your hat on. A positive note to end the tournament on... and he just empties the bench. WTF? You take a young team in, and have a chance to get them out of there with some positive feelings, and you just mail it in. Good job leaving it a completely negative experience. I am so angry about that. If your going to blood a young team, you have to do everything to get them a win. Hell, just a point. Give them something to build off of. Jesus that pisses me off.
Gavin for Gomez - horrible sub. Gomez was the only player that looked like he could make something happen in the 1st half. U.S. needed a goal, soooooo.......you take out a forward/linking player to put in a wide mid, so that you can play with not one, not two, but three! defensive midfielders. And one forward. Who likes to backpass a lot. When you're down a goal.