1. Frankly when I saw the lineup, I feel bad. And I had a doubt that we WILL NOT give up an early goal. The problem is with our formation 4-4-2. There is a space that is most dangerous for US--the space between central defenders and central midfielders. Basically our central defenders are not too good. Not just this team, but teams before. Only Eddie Pope on his peak is a good central defender. We haven't develop anyone on his level since then. Which requires a central midfielder sits in front of them to cover up this weak spot. So this asking to take one forward off and beef up here. England's goal, Slovenia's first goal, Mexico's first goal, etc. I can go back time and time, all caused by this problem. So Bradley/Clark pair doesn't work. We played very good second half games beside England game because there was no change on that game in the paring. When 2nd game, we had Bradley/Torres pair, even made things worse. Holding and distribution got better, but defense got even weaker. Someone said to let Benny/Bradley pair here. No I don't think so. The key player here is Edu. Put him in front of our troubled center defense, bum! problem resolved. So if Edu is there, then you can have Bradley/Benny, or Bradley/Torres, doesn't matter. What even better? You can put Benny/Jose there when Bradley needs a break due to cards, injuries, fatigues, forms, etc. Then we only have one forward, right? Yes. Since both Dempsey and Donovan can play a withdrawn, then this is perfect solution. Dempsey was not good as 2nd forward if his role is just holding. We need a free flowing style to utilize his talent. 2. I also a little bit worry about our future. Compare with Mexico, some really young talents are turning up. We only have Altidore.
Hopefully between J.McInerney,J.Braun,F.Garcia,M.Orozco, A.Koroma, and many of the other youths, someone will shine and give us a good striker.
Define "young." We brought five midfielders at 25 or younger. Bradley is 22. Also, there's Bedoya, the hope that Adu will eventually get it, and plenty more. . .
We are as good as Landon Donovan is. Still too dependent on him. Others need to step up further to prove that this won't be a Romania or Hungary thing where the team is only as good as its best player.
(Continue) first, what is young? Apparently for next Cup purpose, Jozy and Michael are prefect. But the depth is too thin. I watched Uruguay and few other teams and the worry about US is to give up goals TOO EASY. Think about if we fall behind against Algeria if woodwork is not on our side. We made come back against England by luck (of course Tim stopped few good chances), against Slovenia by talent (yes, we are more talented than them). But eventually it will catch you at sometimes. So what other team do this? They have 7 players on defense end. We used to have 9 players, then 8 players on defense end, and now we probably can get by with that number to beef up our defense, and depends on front 3 to do much of attacking with 2 or 3 pushing up to join in. When we have 7 players back to defend, that will ask either one of Landon or Clint to run a LOT. Frankly this is wasting their talents and they are not that good on defense but energy not fully used on what they do best--attack. This sacrifice is due to our insistence to have TWO forwards there. If, a BIG IF, we have a world class forward who can consistently put the balls in the net, then that is fine. But we have Findley (Gomez when Findley with suspension), why I want to force Landon or Clint to defend because Findley can chase other defenders? Bob calls this "stretch the defense". Well, good teams you cannot stretch their defense because your midfielders have no much chances to pass to. You better have someone like a better Jozy, who not just power over defender in one on one situation, but also able to find the net after that. So we better to just have Jozy (Buddle, Gomez, or Findley if Jozy is tired), Landon and Clint in front to do whatever free flow attacking or combination as they want. Then adding one midfielder in Benny, Francisco, Stuart whatever hot at the moment. This is NOT just for this World Cup run, but also for next 4 years UNLESS we come up with TWO GOOD central defenders and TWO GOOD forwards.
Next cycle, I want us to build around Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey. I think both of these guys will keep improving (I know Clint will be 31 in 2014 but his possession style I think will mean that he will be even better by then). Clint as our playmaker because he has an excellent ability to hold the ball and find good passes. He is great under pressure, and I think he can play as a withdrawn forward. I have always felt like he is our Blanco or our Riquelme but I think he has a better mentality than Riquelme if not as skilled. Bradley is now and probably will continue to be the engine of our team. He is a beast and I am really glad he has emerged the past cycle, because his presence means we will always be competitive and battle. Landon on the other hand, I think his level will start to drop, and while I think he will still be an important player for us, I think he will not be our best any more. I feel like the key positions are the other center mid spot and someone who can score up top. I want to see us play a 4-2-3-1 with Dempsey as the main focal point on offense and goals coming from Dempsey, Donovan and the forward. I do not like Altidore's mentality, always diving and looking sour, and I do not think his mentality is conducive to scoring goals. Hard to judge, but I like these guys to improve: ------------------------JackMcInerney ---Bedoya--------------Dempsey-------------Donovan --------------Bradley------------Kljestan Bornstein-----Cameron----------Gonzales--------brekshea -----------------------Guzan
Entirely disagree on the "teams before". In the leadup to the '06 World Cup, our team was ungodly good in defense. It went down at the start of the 2010 cycle as had been mentioned if one goes back through those late 2008 semifinal round qualifying threads and where we used to shut teams down in the final third, Guatemala and Carlos Ruiz all of a sudden were getting lots of shots and were more dangerous. 2006 semifinal/hex qualifying round: 9 goals allowed in 16 qualifiers (in the hex round, Keller had 6 consecutive shutouts; 3 of these 9 were post-clinching qualification where we sent a B-team to play down in Costa Rica) 2010 semifinal/hex qualifying round: 16 goals allowed in 16 qualifiers We had a great backline then (Czech game in World Cup notwithstanding). And this time around over the past two-year period, it's just not been there at least to the extent it was. The '06 cycle team it seemed teams could kill us in midfield and we would just have our back four as the last line of defense along with Keller and it always held on and cleared comfortably, and throughout this whole cycle we've been far more nervous in the back four and Howard. For the 2014 cycle, we gotta have a better back four.
Its of your opinion but I can not agree with it. This would not be an ideal line up for the US. I think US might go 4-3-3 in the future with the players that are coming up but I could always be wrong too.
Agree on our goals allowed being better last cycle, but some of that could be related to strength of schedule. We played better teams this cycle. Also, I thought our defense was pretty stingy for much of 2007 & 2008. Here were our results only with our A-team in 2007 & 2008: 2007: USA 2-0 Mexico USA 3-1 Ecuador USA 4-1 China #USA 1-0 Guatemala #USA 2-0 T&T #USA 4-0 El Salvador #USA 2-1 Panama #USA 2-1 Canada #USA 2-1 Mexico USA 2-4 Brazil USA 1-0 Switzerland USA 1-0 South Africa GF: 2.2 goals/game GA: 0.8 goals/game 2008: USA 2-2 Mexico USA 3-0 Poland USA 0-2 England USA 0-1 Spain USA 0-0 Argentina *USA 8-0 Barbados *USA 1-0 Guatemala *USA 1-0 Cuba *USA 3-0 T&T *USA 6-1 Cuba GF: 2.4 goals/game (1.8 goals/game excluding Barbados) GA: 0.6 goals/game (0.7 goals/game excluding Barbados) Compare that with 2009, when I felt like we became much better at scoring goals, but also started conceding more. 2009: *USA 2-0 Mexico *USA 2-2 El Salvador *USA 3-0 T&T *USA 1-3 Costa Rica *USA 2-1 Honduras %USA 1-3 Italy %USA 0-3 Brazil %USA 3-0 Egypt %USA 2-0 Spain %USA 2-3 Brazil *USA 1-2 Mexico *USA 2-1 El Salvador *USA 1-0 T&T *USA 3-2 Honduras *USA 2-2 Costa Rica GF: 1.8 goals/game GA: 1.5 goals/game # 2007 Gold Cup * WCQ % Confederations Cup While our Goals scored per game was higher in 2007 & 2008, you could certainly make the case that we played much higher quality opposition in 2009, and more games on the road. Our A-team didn't play a single friendly in 2009, it was all Cup games and WC Qualifiers. While the same rationale could explain our poorer goals against average in 2009, the increase is still pretty staggering. Basically twice as many goals against in 2009 compared to 2007 & 2008.
I would like to see the US go to more of an attacking, possession style of soccer. I think we are starting to produce enough players to succeed this way. In this WC we were at our best when we were attacking. It took a ton of pressure off of our back 4. It almost looked like we attacked with a 3-5-2 and defended with a 4-4-2. If we started that way, I wonder if we would have had those blunders? It was fun to watch the US knock the ball around, and create opportunities. I think the US needs to play this way ALWAYS. Bunkering in the back and by-passing the midfield to a non existent striker keeps us on our heals way to much. We give up to much possession this way. We have evolved as a soccer country as our talent has gotten better. We need to have coaches embrace a new style of play, and go with it.