The long ball, and general discussion of US tactics.

Backs tend to long ball when there are insufficient passing options, which can be the result of defensive pressure or poor offensive movement. People assume its nescessarily a tactic when I think its more often a response to the conditions on the field.

Sometimes longball is a deliberate tactic, but not as often as people claim it is.

 

I agree, it drives me nuts too but we simply dont have the Xavi's or Iniesta's who know when to hold the ball and when to build the attack. Nor do we have the 1st touch they exhibit.

As much as they coaching lacks at times, we're clearly still quite far behind in terms of player development, even Sunil agrees.

 

Rte 1 seems to be a common theme for this World Cup. We are far from the only team that tried it on a regular basis.

 

Too bad we weren't trying it against our own defense. Long ball looked pretty effective on Ghana's second goal...

 

I wish Clark played a long ball out of the back early against Ghana. And I'm sure that Mexican fans would've liked a long ball out of the back from Osorio yesterday.

Maybe there are times that we should play a more refined build up. In fact there are definitely times when that's the case. Unfortunately, most of our defenders are far from technically gifted and knocking the ball out of the defensive are is a low risk play.

A lot of our offense comes from long balls and quick counters anyway, so it's not like this is completely unproductive.

Long-term, we'd like more skillful defenders and a midfield that's capable of a build-up that results in quality opportunities. That's just not where we are right now with the players that we have.

 

I don't think longball is a go-to tactic for us, as someone above said, it's also a result of a static formation up front. Honestly though, in the first half against Ghana, when we were rolling the ball around a lot in the back and with Bradley and Edu I've never been more frustrated in my life at the lack of pace and movement off the ball. It's nice to pass the ball around, but I don't think that's where we create much success, at least not with the team as it was currently organized.

 

What about Japan, South Korea and Chile?

 

Ring. Ring. Ring. We have a winner!

If you have no options to pass, you can either pass back to the goalie or send it forward.

Did you notice the lack of movement in the midfield during the Ghana game?

Bradley is doing better at showing for the ball, and Dempsey is OK. However, it's not really Donovan's game.

 

I was very troubled by the long ball tactics in the overtime period. We were most effective when we had a buildup against Ghana but everything was a long ball in the overtime period against a very athletic Ghana team. Maybe we were just too tired but I knew there was not a chance we were going to win the OT period the way we were playing. I wish Bob Bradley would have told these guys to build it up. We need a lot more skill in 2014.

 

Pass completion percentage, among all those teams that advanced from the group stage (this is during the Brazil-Chile game):

Brazil - 84%
Spain - 80%
Argentina - 77%
Mexico - 76%
Germany - 76%
Portugal - 75%
Chile - 74%
Netherlands - 74%
England - 73%
Ghana - 71%
Paraguay - 69%
South Korea - 69%
Slovakia - 68%
USA - 67%
Uruguay - 65%
Japan - 62%

There's your overtime performance against Ghana. For many reasons, we don't control the ball well, so long-ball it is when we run out of ideas.

 

You bring up a good point. Long ball is used when a team is tired, particularly when they have spent a lot of energy on defensive pressure. This is because long ball only takes coordinated movement from a couple of forwards. It is also conservative in the sense that you haven't exerted a lot of energy to advance the ball into a dangerous area.

Overall, I was pretty happy with our willingness to pass the ball during this WC. I think it was a good balance.

 

I think its generally overstated how intrinsic poor off the ball movement is. To a certain extent the players matter, but also to a certain extent, the coach can make a difference.

I don't think encouraging good off the ball movement was a Bradley strength, and I'm pretty sure its not a trait that Bradley really selects for. As a result I felt that while we wont ever be Spain, we did perform well below our potential in this aspect.

 

The US spent four years de valuing possession in favor a quick strike transition game.

In the process, the US built a world-class transition team. The upside is this team could score against any opponent given a 5 second lapse in transition defense.

The ugly downside is not only an ugly team from an aesthetic perspective, but a team that had a hard time keeping balls out of its own net, whether it be from minute one or trying to preserve a lead.

In the past 15 years, no other US team has been more capable to come back from a deficit. No other US team has been more incapable to preserve a lead. Both are direct consequences of the inability to play possession soccer and the focus on a transition game.

 

Well stated.

In addition, MLS is very reflective of this style...thanks to the success of Arena and Yallop early in the MLS. It values high pressure and team defense. Possession is not valued.

This style doesn't work well in tournaments where multiple games over a short period of time are to be played.

Look at the last three winners. Italy. Brazil. France. No transition teams. No England (who player the same style as US, but usually better).

 

The team was told to do this by the manager. In one of the early games I remember the camera on Donovan during a dead ball while he was gesturing to the backs to send the ball long over the top. It looked like he was reminding them of what they'd been asked to do.

When you have Altidore and Findley up there it's not the worst thing to try. Jozy is pretty good with his back to goal, and Findley can beat defenders to the ball in the channel somtimes. And if it doesn't work, they get possession deep in their end instead of winning it in your end by cutting out a short pass or winning a tackle.

I'm not really saying whether or not this is the best way to play, just that it wasn't happening because our defenders are only capable of clumsily horking the ball forward, which a few cycles ago was sometimes the case.

As others have observed, there are also times when defenders go long because it's the only safe play, which is often based not just on their limitations, but also the defenders assessment of the reliability of the person they are considering as a shorter alternative and how much pressure is around.

 

Good post -- being where we are we need to find a better balance between the Latin flair for the game and the European structure.

 

Our movement and technical ability does not allow us to build up through the back when defenses aren't defending on the counter. When they are set up and find their shape, we lack ideas on how to break through and we dont have enough players who can beat defenders 1v1.

 

Just to clarify,we're not as skilled as you think we are.

 

But building from the back doesn't have to be slow, just as the long ball forward isn't all that fast. (Count the number of seconds the ball is in the air.)Quick, on the ground passes from a back to a midfielder and then to a forward can be more effective. Consider: while that long ball is in the air it is a ballistic missile. The defenders know where it is going to come down, and those that aren't in the immediate vicinity of the "landing area" have time to assume the proper defensive shape. Quick balls on the ground give the defense more problems, because the receiver of the first ball usually has several options of where to send it next. The strength of our team was in the midfield, so to me the better option is almost always to get them involved directly from the back rather than sky the ball over them to a forward.

 

Sad but true -- players play the game -- Sunil himself said we need to improve player development.

Steve Sampson said the same on the radio yesterday, the problems are in player development and we must improve there.

Come 2018 and 2022 I hope we will see a bunch of star players and look back on 2010 and realize this was a trail blazing era for US Soccer.

 

They're playing tougher opposition here,for the most part.

Most coaches would have preferred a safe backpass by Rico early Saturday.