Man, the bashing of TH's distribution is something else. Yeah, there were a couple of times he cleared from the box that I thought it was far from Tim's quality. However, I'm sure Tim played it very conservative given the field condition and lighting. That pitch was far from anything he plays on in the Prem. As far as distributing after getting his hands on it, Tim, and just about any US GK I've seen play is quite good at looking to the opposite side of the field for an open wing back and throwing it - if it is there. If not, pick out your forward target and punt it out to him. It is tough for the team to retain possession on a 50/50 basis from a punt because you are outnumbered. However, you do want someone like Ching battling for the punt so the defense doesn't get easy possession, or may cause a mistake, or may eventually get a flick on that is successful. At worst, you want the other team to get the ball with your team in position defensively to win the battle in the midfield as they try to advance. That is sure as heck a lot better than trying to force it through your own third of the field into the middle third when it isn't there. And, I think everyone agrees that the strength of our back four isn't in their distributing and ball handling abilities. As far as BB, did he tell Tim to hoof every one? I doubt BB is going to try and micromanage Tim's every move. Tim is the one player on this team that has nothing to fear from being replaced and is an established star in one of the highest quality leagues. BB doesn't want to mess with the head of a GK. Now, would BB give his team and GK instructions to play it conservatively given the field conditions, the lighting and the desire not to put yourself in a position to gift Guatemala anything that would just cause their home crowd to get even more behind them? Yep, I believe he would tell them that and I don't blame him. Also, players make tactical decisions on their own all of the time on the field based on similar things - the pitch, the opponent, what third the ball is in, do I have support and how are they covered, are we ahead, tied, behind, etc. etc. Tim was probably also considering that Pearce was getting worked over pretty hard on his side of the field so maybe was going to let him catch his breath a bit rather than distribute out wide to him, even if he was open. To not give Tim at least a 6 in this match is pretty darn harsh particularly considering the final result was a shutout whether the distribution was a result of his own choices or BB's. In the overall scheme of things, TH is a ton better at distributing the ball than KK ever was.
Anybody who played up front with Dempsey, Donovan, and Lewis behind them in that formation would have looked bad. Doesn't matter if their name is Van Basten, Weah, Sanchez, Ronaldo, or Wambach...
'Dolo seems to be losing a step and I really, really hope the rumor about Simek's injury being "career-ending" is false and he will be back in September like Wednesday says. He is the heir apparent. I'm still unsure about Spector. Frankie Hejduk, as a side note, is highly amusing to watch. Donovan and Dempsey should be dropped so they can think about what it really means to represent their country, and play up to their potential. Bob will never do it, but if he wants to send the right message, he would stamp his authority and say "you'll only be here if you deserve through your play". Regarding Howard's distribution, it wasn't great, but everything else he did was. This was always Kasey's problem too, especially in the 2006 WC. I never liked the strategy of hitting McBride and having him head it forward to the defense, we accomplish the same thing now but save the headaches. Pearce had his worst game until later in the 2nd half, then was decent. Ching was awful. I do think that, although a lot of people didn't rate him, Edu seemed to help settle things down a little. But the biggest change of all was Beasley's introduction. Lewis has to be all but done. I hope things get better from here. Yes, it was in Guatemala, and from TV it looked like they had lamps not lights, but we were squarely outplayed for long periods and were lucky to win (even a tie would have been fortunate). If we show the same against Cuba, Bob must be whacked.
It's probably conditional on the situation at hand -- such as "if you have the ball, punt it long; if you don't have the ball, pretend you're Brett Favre and go with the motion anyway". In other words, the coach tells both his GK and his forwards where he wants the ball. Well, I'd quibble a bit on Weah ....
I'm late to this table. Just saw the game this AM. FWIW, Howard - 6 Dolo - 4 Gooch - 6 Boca - 5.5 Pearce - 4 Bradley - 6 Mastroeni - 6 Lewis - 5 Donovan - 5 Dempsey - 5 Ching - 5.5 Beasley - 6 Hejduk - 6 Edu - 5.5