A friend of mine has been gracious enough, as a non-soccer fan, to watch the US qualifiers, citing his patriotism. He told me last night he was hooked on US soccer, and he said that the possession they kept literally made him eat his words on the jokes of the title: "The beautiful game". I agree. The US played great footy out there, and the possession we held, in my opinion, was tremendous. It wasn't meaningless, knock it around the back 4 then launch it down field possession either. We moved up the field, with short, meaningful passes. I was very impressed by the last five minutes where we were in the Honduran third, and held such great composure and possession on the ball. Overall, I want to see more of that sort of play.
They are able to do this because Honduras has the same trouble keeping possession as the US usually has. Honduras is a team that we match up against very well. You can't take this game and say that the possession problem is 'cured'. It comes because they are playing a similarly skilled team.
I agree. I also think some of the Hondo players were gassed towards the end of the game making it easier for US to hold onto the ball. Quality of opponent will always say a lot on how well the US is able to play possession.
Our ability to possess stemmed largely from having a forward in there who was able to win and control the ball more often then not, then play into a run rather then at feet. There are precious few of us who've been calling for Casey to be a starter, but that right there is the reason why. I love Jozy and Davies, but neither can do what Casey did last night. And, I might add, in the second half of US v. Brazil in the Confed Cup group stage when Casey was excellent. He's our Emile Heskey. He creates space for our danger guys to attack, and serves as an outlet for our midfield to advance. Hopefully Jozy gets there some day. EDIT: Special credit to Bornstein as well. He didn't put a foot wrong, and is why the left side was able to keep its shape when Landon went roaming. Now if Gooch and Calamity Carlos could just pull their heads out of their asses...
in the first half our possession was terrible. it was not until about 20 min in when we strung together some passes to make a decent shot. then it fell apart for a bit, then improved. i think a lot of the trouble was due to the long ball. some of balls launched went immediately to the hondurans. some poor passing could also be blamed. second half, especially after we went up by 1 and then 2 goals, usa looked very smooth. sure honduras was tired, but our guys had been running around as well. the confidence helped quite a bit when "the ball was in our court" this makes me think about other matches over the years. our possession comes in fits and starts. it is streaky, but can be impressive. for us to advance in wc 2010 it will have to improve. so, maybe a few less long balls?
Do not agree. We do a very poor job of winning the ball. If we're in such good shape, then we should try harder to win the ball. We have a ways to go before you can call what the USMNT has possession.
A couple of random thoughts here: 1) Very early on in this MLS Season, I said Casey would get looks this cycle. For the record, I don't like the Target Forward strategy. In fact, I hate it. It's compensation for having at least some midfielders and defenders who aren't great soccer players. But if you're going to play one, play your best one. Ching isn't our best TF. He tries, but he's actually more of a finisher than a target and doesn't spend nearly as much time in Houston receiving long balls from defenders. 2) We didn't truly possess until we had a lead, and until Feilhaber was on the field. Now, that's a HUGE step forward from how we've previously played. It was good to see the team make the adjustment and have the players who could execute it. But the first half saw a lot of long balls and a lot of cheap possession giveaway. I advocated a bunker and counter strategy in this game, but I don't advocate launching balls to an isolated forward. We did that too much in the first half. Our spacing was much better in the second half, meaning that when we did play long, there were supporting players to help keep possession. The other factor was how well Donovan played as a supporting forward in a free role. He was everywhere, and helped direct our possession. Nice adjustment by Bob there.
I agree that we were rocky in the early going, but it's later in the game where it got real easy on the eyes. What are the chances we see more of that?
The timing of game events does not fit your impression. Feilhaber didn't get in until the 84th min. Arguably, he was in during the worst minutes of the second half for the US. The lead was taken at min 66. Regardless, there was a lot of possession ball played before he arrived on the scene. I chalk it up to HON failure to apply any real pressure. It's hard even for the US team to collapse into its defensive third if the opposition doesn't apply much pressure all over the field. HON looked gassed for much of the second half.
I hate commenting too much on a game that I haven't watched twice (I spent too much time being worried about the outcome (and looking for working links) than clinicly observing our play). However, I don't think this game deviated too much for our standard story, which is: 1. We possess the ball a lot more than most give us credit for. Take a look at the 1st half of the USA/Spain match. We played them even in possession. We had good stretches at time. 2. We give the ball away WAY too easily. Even though the problem isn't as bad as most make it out to be, we still give the ball away WAY too much. Our route 1 balls just aren't productive most of the time. We rarely score or even create dangerous chances that way. 3. When the chips are really down, we have trouble getting and keeping the ball. The best defense is to possess the ball. I can understand our bunker and counter (or transition) football strategy. I can understand ceeding possession to draw up the other team and create space for our speed in Landon and Davies. I do not understand playing that strategy in the last 15 - 20 minutes of a game where we have the lead. Yet we keep doing that, time and time again. I'll save my critique of the coaching for another thread, but I think it's glarringly obvious that once we took a 3-1 lead, we needed to change tactics and insert ball control players. We didn't do that, and continued to play bunker and counter (with speed) at a time when we needed to focus more on possession.
We've gotten better, but still not always consistent enough to let me relax. Our attempts to hold possession in added time last night were nerve-wracking (I think they were killing me more than they were actually killing the clock). You just always have that sense there's gonna be that one guy, that one crappy pass or poor decision, that louses the whole thing up for us. But we've definitely improved. Twenty years ago, it could be downright amazing when we looked like a real soccer team out there. These days we largely take that for granted, and it's the stuff at the margins that occupies more and more of our focus. That's growth.
Palacios, Alvarez, and Nunez are much better at posession soccer, so I don't where this "similarly skilled" assessment comes from. The US just passed much much better than they usually do, especially in the second half. It was beautiful to watch Donovan, Holden, and even Bradley knock the ball around quite a few times and look for attacking opportunities.
Damn right. The same Nunez who has now latched on to one of the best teams in Mexico who is a favorite to win the Champions League.
Lets give some credit to Bob and the US team's fitness on that. I think it was a clear strategy to weather the storm in the first half and then catch them on the counter and catch them being tired in the second half. The fact that we got the lead only made that so much easier toward the end of the game because Honduras had to chase the game.
Honduras played better @ Chicago then they did saturday, they were way better with possession that game, our possession was way really good i thought especially that second half
ok this guys just neg repped for this post: tambo WTF dude us threads are the only threads people neg rep each other for no stupid reason! all i have to say is karma is a b&^%$