Horrible passing out of the defense against Argentina. Even when not under pressure. I bet less than 50% of the passes found their man. Victorine was particularly guilty in the first half. Many of our defenders can mark, tackle, and head. But what about when the ball is at their feet? I know that developing ball-playing defenders is one of the next hurdles to overcome in US Soccer development. And from what I've been reading about our current crop of youth team defenders (Spector, etc.) it sounds like they might be on their way. Let's hope so.
Bocanegra and Convey were excellent with their distribution for the most part. The major problem was the propensity for oru midfielders to track back and boom the ball forward to no one in particular.
Its hard to distribute when no one is making much of an effort off the ball to get open. The US passing wasnt sharp, but it looked worse because the effort and focus just wasnt there today.
During the first half, I'd lump Howard into the group of defenders whose distribution was awful. Cripes, what's wrong with playing the short ball every now and then? If it's unacceptable for a fullback to simply boot the ball forward as far as he can everytime he gets the ball, why is it any more acceptable for a keeper to do it? Bruce must have talked to him, because he distribution was MUCH better in the second half, as he had some nice throws that generated good counter-attacks.
Distribution out of the back has always been a Nats problem. This is something that separates the good teams from the lesser. This is something that must be worked on and I am not comfortable with Victorine at right back. He is more of a dmid. Arena has got to change that situation for solid improvement IMO.
I'm not comfortable with Victorine at left back either, but doesn't a d-mid have to have distribution that's as good, if not better, than that of a left back?
No argument. Maybe Victorine is simply a good club player and doesn't belong on the international stage. He seems okay with his d-mid role with the Gals; that's probably why Arena shows interest. However, it is obvious that Victorine isn't a right back just yet, and probably never will be.
i have no idea what BA is doing putting Victorine out there - regardless of his attacking ability and height. i understand why the entire team's ability to connect their passes was very poor - i mean NOBODY had space. did you see how quickly the argies would close down our passess. and with numbers too! no wonder our defense had such a hard time. that's why the play was so much more smooth when the team switched to a 3-5-2. no doubt, the US (and i hate saying it) were completely out classed today. which is not an entirely bad thing. now ALL the team knows at what standard they have to play to. none of these players were based outside of the americas. so it was a completely level playing field. i don't think our boys were not playing to their level - i think we were just outplayed. i mean what the hll Clint -- stay on the ball!!! that boy needs to go to Europe and learn how to play under pressure and with speed.
Ougchi Onyewu please start playing regularly in Metz and get the call up i have been asking since day 1.
Amen to that. Of course, there's more to it than simply the passes a player makes. There is also a significant factor of the availability of teammates to receive those passes. I believe that the poor positional understanding of the three players that were playing out of position today, Victorine, Convey and particularly Olsen were a significant factor in our exceedingly poor possession. Still, individual decisionmaking out of the back was poor across the board today.