In the Slovenia game, we launched the ball up top a whopping 32 times! Of those balls, we retained 8 of them. By constantly giving the ball back to our opponents, we are asking them to attack us while limiting our chances on goal because ... simply ... we don't retain possession to create scoring chances in the run of play. Launching the ball up top ignores our strength - midfield (Donovan, Dempsey, Holden, Torres) - and takes those players out of the game. When we finally start getting them involved again, they are out of the rhythm of the game. Why does Bob insist on such a futile strategy? Against Holland in the recent friendly, we launched it up top over 20 times. Against Turkey and England we possessed the ball more and launched it far fewer times -- and had more success. Please Bob ... retain possession and play through midfield in the Algeria game. That is the ONLY way that we are going to get the result that we need to advance.
Didn't our second goal come from a pass headed down by Jozy? Come to think of it, Landon's goal came from a pass over the top too...
My thoughts exactly. Add to that the idea that we had "more success" in a 1-1-1 game where we scored off a keeper error, vs. a 3 goal game where we had even more chances. I would suggest "please continue to launch the ball up top - as long as it is a good ball." There is a difference between a good long pass and kick and hope. We need to recognize that.
While there is a lot to be said for using long passes to keep defenders worried about our pace, I do think Timmy goes to the punt and the long goal kick much more than he needs to. There are a lot of times when our defenders have plenty of space to take a throw or mid length pass and start an attack, but Howard kicks the ball seemingly as far as he can. To the OP's point, most of those efforts result in a turnover. I would think the long punt should be the exception rather than the rule unless you've got better stats on successfully retaining possession than we do.
He has an agenda for "Captain 10's players." Anyone else is not good enough and will be criticized. Notice no mention of Bradley (who did a better job at Torres' job than Torres did) or Feilhaber.
Torres did a better job at possessing the ball -- when it wasn't launched up the field by someone else. Feilhaber provided little in this game IMO. I think he's much better in the center of the field.
I consider a "launch" a hopeful ball sent from the back to a single player up top, not a calculated, weighted ball to space. In my numbers, I didn't include the ball on Donovan's goal because it was a weighted ball to space. For our second goal is was a launch, but the main difference between that an others is that Jozy actually redirected it to a player to run on to instead of just trying to get a head on it ... to no one. Aimless balls sent to a single player up top to give away make no sense at all. In the dying moments of a game where we need a result, I don't mind sending a lot of people forward and launching the ball, but it shouldn't be our 'style of play' because it just isn't effective enough.
Did you actually watch Torres? His passing, while accurate, was piddly. Wahoo, he dribbled out of trouble twice. So did Mikey. Holden hasn't really been in a position this World Cup to be affected by a long ball gameplan. So for you to add him to that list is disingenuous.
One man's launched ball is another's weighted pass into space. Let me guess. If we lose the ball it's a launch and if we get retain possession it's a weighted ball to space?
oh just dont kick it up the field!! Man, if we our team knew that before. We dont have ability to play possession soccer as well as some of the top teams in the world (Spain). This forces us to "launch" the ball up field. Give us better players and I bet you see that less.
Tends to happen when you're down 2 goals with one half to go in your WC lives. Before that it was a mix and it is by design. Bradley wants a mix of long and short passing early in the game to feel out the opponent - he said as much in a press conference.
If by 'possessing', you mean trotting back to the space where a left back would normally be, receiving a square pass, and then rebounding it to the center back who passed it to him, you're absolutely right.
In the second half, it definitely seemed like Howard punted the ball deep the vast majority of the time. It also seemed like we were losing the aerial battle for those balls by a substantial margin. I think we were at a height deficit against Slovenia. Maybe Howard's distribution was off. Why didn't he mix it up? It all seemed very English compared to the way other teams are playing. Was it the English influence on Howard's game? Is it that he doesn't trust the back line? Am I only just noticing this now because the deep punt method didn't work out as well as it usually does?
You know what I was thinking during the second half? I was thinking "wow, I can't believe we're scoring on Slovenia with Route One football". When simple and stupid does the trick, stick with simple and stupid.
both of those passes came from the midfield (or closer) to the attacking third. the frustrating thing is watching our defense or defensive midfielders launch up bombs to the forwards hoping for some miracle. we arent brazil or argentina, we dont have the skillful attacking players who can control with deft touches. we have to play the ball through our creative midfielders.
This! A lot of Torres possession ended this way, the defenders launch the ball under no pressure at all. Also, I'd be curious about the success of these launched balls first half vs second half. A Jozy/Findley vs just Jozy comparison.
You don't see the difference between Howard launching the ball 70 yards downfield and Donovan placing the ball into the top of the box from midfield?
Its very frustrating to watch, and it was just as bad in 2006, but I think someone in another thread mentioned, since our back line has such horrible ball skills, we play it extremely safe and boot it up field. Maybe this will change if we ever get defenders who can also handle the ball and pass.
Everyone's focusing on the obvious (our backline launching balls) and ignoring the fact that players up front have to get open via runs for our defenders to pass to them. At least NFL fans are sophisticated enough to recognize that when a QB throws the ball away, it's likely because the secondary did a good job on the coverage.
But the quarterback has virtualy no other choice in that situation. If a player has possession of the ball, he isn't forced to give it away if his striker isn't in space. There's almost always going to be another option, another outlet, if your primary pass is denied. That said, we don't have the players to ping the ball around in the midfield and slowly carve a team open on the ground. We're much better at exploiting space up top, playing the ball quickly to that space, and making a goal out of what seemed to be nothing. The way to do that is to play the ball up for knockdowns and to play balls over the top and into the channels that our strikers and outside mids can run onto.
Let's see Torress in one half had 8 short passes, 15 medium, and 7 long passed. Bradley in the entire match had 16 short passes, 54 medium passes and 18 long ones. The numbers belie the fact that percentage wise, Torress wnet short backpasses or longball more than Bradley.