Greg, you need a bit more, like who does start. Dempsey clearly needs to be in midfield, so one of Findley/Buddle/ or Gomez needs to be in there. I would like to see what Gomez can do right out of the gate. Also, we need to see a pairing of Edu and Bradley or Holden and Bradley. I agree about Tores off the bench.
i dunno. i'm hoping duece and donovan can come up with some kind of winger/striker timeshare. edu and holden alongside bradley and duece/donovan with jozy up top sounds pretty. but torres is the new hotness. one day he will rule all.
I really disagree with Lalas. For one, Findley CAN come off the bench, and yes his speed will stretch defenses, but in reality the off the bench option is Gomez. Findley's pacy legs will tire a defense, but Gomez is the proven off the bench option. That's because Gomez uses speed and sublime ball skills to really work on tired legs. I like Findley to start- Tire out the defenders, making defending Gomez very difficult. As for Torres, I want to wait after the Australia game before I say he is a sure starter. I would want Torres to be a starter, but really, our CM's depend on the tactical situation.
I haven't seen much of Gomez other than during the Czech game, but I don't know why everyone is saying he has speed. He looked slow to me. He may be a better goal scorer, but he does not have Findley's speed.
People are ignoring this, because its Findley........... but again. Confederations cup w/o Davies..........0 goals form the run of play Confederations cup w/Davies............7 goals from the Run of play. Yesterday, our team getting overun w/o findley's style.....0 goals with Findley....................................2 goals. Does it really need any explanation why somebody like Findley needs to start? Our team will collapse with no Davies/Findley in the lineup. We saw @ Costa Rica, we saw in the confederations cup,yesterday,etc..
Like most people here, I was impressed by Torres against the Turks. However, this does not erase completely the reasons why he may have been on some lists as not a lock for the 23. In my opinion those reasons were defense, speed of play, and losing the ball in dangerous areas. This last game says to me that he can defend - will defending against Turkish players (small & fast & skillful) be different from defending agains the English players for example? He was able to pull of some great moves to keep possesion of the ball somewhere about 35 yards from our goal. They worked - if they hadn't, we would have been looking at some scary moments. Its a fine line between safety and keeping possesion. Players who can keep possession in this situation are very valuable - however, they better not lose that ball more than once or so a game if ever in those areas. The last is speed of play. I think he is adapting well with speed of play and will only get better. All in all, the last game tells me that Torres has the tools to overcome all these issues and therefore be the special player for the US that many hope he will be. What it doesn't tell me is if he is there and consistently there for us. We really do not have much time to find out - but a repeat performance against the Aussies will certainly help to answer many of these questions better.
Good post rollo. These are my thoughts as well. I can see the huge upside when Torres plays like he did yesterday but he hasn't done it consistently yet with the Nats.
Gomez isn't all that fast, IMO. Gomez moves well off the ball, and doesn't need a lot of time or space to finish; he's got that poacher's killer instinct. And unlike a lot of players, he takes very little time to find the pace of the match and make his impact, which is one reason why I think he's been successful off the bench.
Gomez was very fast before his injury. I've seen some glimpses recently but nothing like in his breakout year.
If you all recall the last England friendly, we looked terrible for much of the game. We simply could not keep possession. It started poorly, and we never gained confidence holding onto the ball. Torres in the middle is our best remedy to alleviate the situation, as well as putting Dempsey and Donovan on the flanks. The difficult call for me is if you go 4-5-1 (and including Holden or Edu in the midfield) or 4-4-2 and include Findley up top: 1) Altidore Dempsey-Torres-Holden(Edu)- Bradley-Donovan Boca-Demerit-Gooch-Cherundolo Howard or (2) Altidore-Findley Dempsey-Torres-Bradley-Donovan Boca-Demerit-Gooch-Cherundolo Howard ...don't know which is better vs. England, but JT from the beginnning is hugely important for confidence/possession on the ball.
' Exactly. England is too dangerous a team, in finishing and variety of attacking power, to cede control of the tempo and the middle to them. To succeed against them we'd better try to do what Mexico did succeed in doing, which is possess well and keep the English in constant awareness of the need to defend. And then do what Mexico was not able to do--finish the bloody shot. We need someone like Torres to have this as a possibility [the need to have players who can control the ball well in the middle was precisely why the name of Adu kept cropping up, even as his career spiralled into a trek through footballing Siberia]. Bennie isn't going to do it, and a tandem of Mike and Maurice, or Mike and Rico, sure ain't gonna do it. But Bradley and Torres just might.
Plus, Torres is so small and pesky, maybe he'd draw a red card or two on a few English players who are a bit over excuberant from time to time.
WHO HAS? Only Howard, Donovan, Bradley and maybe Bocanegra & Cherundolo have been consitently good players for the USMNT. Onyewu has been a consistent player with physical skills but technically deficient & tactically naive, currently, his stature is questionable. Altidore & Dempsey are both inconsistent players with moments of greatness. Holden, Edu, DeMerit & Goodson have been consistently active, aggressive and generally useful in the few games they have played. None of this quartet have enough Nats time to define their "consistent" qualities. To whom are you comparing with Torres? Clearly, he is not as consistently good as Howard or Donovan. How do you think he compare to Feilhaber, Clark, Beasley, Spector, Bornstein or any of the new to the side forwards?
Lol, look man it isn't that I disagree with your opinion, but how you got there...wow. Are you watching the matches? I agree that players with speed can stretch defenses but let's not be results oriented when debating this type of thing. Those statistics are weak back-up.
plus, there is the evidence- as noted- from Mexico's game against England last week in which Mexico dominated much of the game and should have come out with a tie or better. Mexico's confidence on the ball put England on their heels and in a relative funk. Mexico's gameplan worked. England was lethal with the few chances they had, but Mexico impressed and we would gladly take their performance (albeit with better finished) in a fortnight. Torres is our best shot to have that skillful, Mexican ballhandling confidence. Combined with Dempsey and Donovan, it has chance to push Bradley to be 'good Bradley' and not 'bad Bradley',etc
I still think Edu is the best man for the England match. He has the athleticism to match any of the midfielders or forwards and his possession play is good enough to avoid turnovers in dangerous areas. If people think JT in the lineup will make us close to England in terms of possession, then they are just kidding themselves. Bradley is primarily not a possession player, most of our defenders are not good possession players, until the team makeup changes we are not going to outpossess top sides. That said, I like JT for Slovenia and Algeria in the middle where we might be able to hold on to the ball more. After this past year and especially yesterday seeing him with the a-team against a quality side, I'm sold that JT will be a big part of the next two cycles for us in CM.
Mexico lost 3-1. Why should we copy their strategy? Looking good while getting dominated is still getting dominated.
So does this mean that possession and touches are not needed in the 1st half? Lalas is not thinking. This not a league game. It could be just three games if you plan for your best soccer in the 2nd half.
we can't copy their strategy in one game. You need a generation of technically gifted players all at the level of torres and donovan. Keeping posession is not a luxury, it's a necessity at the international level
yeah, The revelation of the Confederations Cup and our turn-around in it....are weak statistics?. I think you need to watch the Turkey game again, and not think It was Torres who was Ronaldinho who was the Main difference. Without Findley out there are midfeild would have continued to get over-run. No turkish player was weary enough of a Demspey-Altidore Pairing to stay back like they were for a Altidore-Findley pairing.