This team asked way too much from their midfield in this tourney. It was up to Dempsey, Donovan and Bradley to win every game...Edu and Feilhaber to turn the tide of every game. I think the bigger problem for the US than the back line is the lack of quality international strikers. Jozy will probably develop into one, but right now he has zero finishing ability and goes down far too easily for a player of his strength. Jozy struck me as the biggest disappointment today. Great teams have strikers that can bury the ball. Findley, Altidore, Gomez etc. have not shown that they can do that. The pressure is always on the mids to be the firepower, the goalscorers, and that's unacceptable for a team with any realistic World Cup aspirations. If the US wants to be a serious contender in the next cycle, they need to obviously work on their defensive backline, but they really need to develop some sort of striker that can actually bury a ball...whether that's Jozy or someone else. It's tiring of seeing the US rely on the same three or four mids to do everything on offense every game. The Nats ride those guys too long, and then you get a 120' game and they're dead at the end.
no we did not ask too much. Edu did great in the starting spot, clark looked like crap. Still clark starts hmmm BB <3
^And how many strikers do you here of that are lauded for their distribution? (Answer: all those who can't score goals.) Jozy had at least 3 balls at his feet inside the 18 yard box. Is turning and shooting on goal something that is taught in the Advanced Striker Class? Cause all he could do every time was send a slow roller out to the non-striker behind him.
Yep, yep. This is where we really missed Davies. Jozy will pick up the odd goal here and there but he will never be a lethal striker especially against quality defenders. His value add is in winning headers and drawing fouls near the box. Still, without Jozy we looked ten times worse. Do we have any other up-and-coming strikers looking for caps?
All of our good players were playing in the midfield I think that hurt a bit. Playing a guy like Holden on the right to free up Donovan or Dempsey would have allowed for a more balanced team that isn't stretched.