Disclaimer: I am writing most of this on the plane home right now, tired and upset, so take this post for what you will... In the late 90’s, I worked for the world’s largest pharmaceutical company. My job involved a lot of travel, and much of my travel involved Denver, CO. I adopted the Rapids as “my” team, although their uniforms at the time made it difficult to do so. Not as difficult, though, as their style of play. Disorganized, uncreative, and seemingly frenetic would have been the terms I used at the time to describe “my” team’s style of play. The coach of “my” team used that style of play to accumulate a sub .500 winning percentage in his time in Colorado. His one claim to fame was a freakish streak to the MLS Cup final, something that to this day I struggle to understand. His defense was often terrible, his offense often anemic, his results – always mediocre. No possible way that I would have believed that one day that same coach would be tasked with leading the US Men’s Olympic Team. Despite what FIFA and much of the International Football community may think about the Olympics, like most of America, they are important to me. Very important. And the coach of the 90’s Rapids was not the candidate to lead us into a very important competition. But here he was again, leading the US in Guadalajara. I had tried to be supportive. It took everything I had to not question WTF were people thinking when Mooch was given this spot. I kept my mouth shut, my hands tied behind my back, and simply tried to watch and cheer on my team and country. When Nate Jaqua, the only available player with professional experience at the target forward position and a kid who got better and better on one of MLS’ best teams was not selected for the team, I tried to keep quiet. When Jamil Walker, who was playing the forward position better than any other U23 player besides his U23 teammate in the MLS Cup playoffs and championship game was not selected, I tried to keep quiet. When Kelly Gray, who had a ton of professional experience on one of MLS’ best teams at a variety of positions, including where the U23 team was most vulnerable, was not selected, I tried to keep my dissent down. When Kyle Martino, who has more professional experience than any other U23 at creative midfield and who looked even better than golden child Bobby Convey in his one start at creative midfield for the senior team was not selected under the pretense of injury, I bit my lip as hard as I could. When other experienced MLS players like Mapp, Trembly, Stone, Salyer, Magee, Akwari, Magee and even Regan were glossed over in camp and passed over for players like Stokes, Marshall, Wingert, Carroll, and Testo who had no MLS experience, again, I was baffled, but tried to keep quiet. Through all of these questionable decisions, I reasoned that there has to be more behind the scenes that the average fan doesn’t see or understand. These replacements must have been standouts in camp, or they perfectly filled a particular role the coach had in mind. Despite what I saw in Colorado and what this coach had done to “my” team there, he must have a plan this time… That thought was crushed after watching the US squeak by Panama in the opener, a game the US won 4-3 and that served as a foreshadow of tough times to come. Team USA never looked as good as their talent looked on paper. They struggled against Panama, looked lackluster against Canada, despite the 2-0 score line, and lacked any discipline whatsoever against Honduras in what amounted to an exhibition game. Again on paper, things probably looked great. 3 games and 3 wins for the US. On the field, however, a different story was playing out. Much like the Rapids teams of the late 90s, this version of the US Olympic team was clearly confused about what their roles were, had no understanding of their teammates on the field, was slow to read and react to the game, had very little discipline and even less creativity, and had no cohesion at all. In short, if asked to describe the 2004 US Olympic qualifying team, I would use exactly the same terms I used for the Rapids of the late-90’s – disorganized, uncreative, and seemingly frenetic. Some players will also get unfairly ripped for Guadalajara. The US defensive unit will be heavily criticized for their play, in some cases justly, in most cases not. Borchers and Marshall, for example, are already being condemned for their work in Mexico. They didn’t play great. But their situation reminded me of Carlos Bocanagra and Jim Curtin against San Jose in the MLS Cup final. They were exposed by the flank play and speed of the Earthquakes, but both are still damn good defenders. Just as Chicago’s problem was piss-poor defending on the flanks and letting in free uncontested crosses, Borchers and Marshall were completely unprotected by their defensive teammates. Mooch’s outside defenders clearly misunderstood their roles, lacked the experience and discipline to play at this level, and were exposed against every opponent with an offensive pulse. The play in the midfield was often even worse. Often it was like watching the “Who’s on First” skit acted out in a 90 minute play. There was no understanding of roles, no cohesion, no communication, and no discipline. This free-for-all in the middle of the field left the forwards to fend for themselves. Apart from Eskandarian’s performance against an opponent that laid down and died, the US forwards did nothing with no service. So the players will take some heat for 2004’s failure, but ultimately the real responsibility lies elsewhere. The questions will surely be asked, “What else could Mooch have done? Were there players who weren’t called up who could have made a difference against Mexico?” My response to those would be, as long as Mooch was the coach, it would not have made much of a difference who was called in. Do I think a team built from the same US pool and coached by Dave Sarachan or Frank Yallop, for example, could have beaten Mexico yesterday? Absolutely. It was the coach, and those responsible for selecting the coach, who let the USA down in 2004. They should be held accountable, and should have to answer for a long series of questionable decisions.
i have to agree with nutmeg. in europe, i.e. england, national team players selection are based on: #1 your ability #2 current/season form #3 the success of your team #4 competition (C.L, UEFA) Just look at the # of national team players Man U, Arsenal and Chelsea have compare to rest of EPL. When you have 5 players chosen from DC United and 3 from Dallas compare to only 2 from chicago and 1 from SJ. You wonder if Mooch watched any MLS games this season. Of course conceding 10 goals in 4 matches didn't help.
Nutmeg One of the posters on here had put down his thoughts when he read the following in the Mexican press. Lavolpe is an old sea wolf, The U.S. coach is mere lamb The poster simply replied, "This one worries me." or to that effect. Preparation is the key. John Wooden once said, "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail," and I think that the US team rode into Guadalajara with their three young stars and expected a walk in the park.....and the coach let them. Worst of all, he assembled the team that was going to buy into his philosophy. Similarly, and you might disagree with me on this, Mexico 2002 was a total fiasco because even though Javier Aguirre did a fantastic job, you just can't patch up a team with less than a year to go with the World Cup. Bruce Arena had his number, not just with superior tactics but TIME was also a huge factor. Aguirre had talent, more than the U.S. in my opinion, but he didn't have the time to fully prepare his team. And to think, I've seen threads on here calling for Da Bruce's head. I have been a huge critic of Lavolpe, but he earned his National team stripes with me yesterday. His system with players that have bought in to the system will need time and it looks like he's going to get it. Money and results talk.
out on a limb The players on the field got the team to within 90 minutes of Greece so I don't blame the players. The coach blew it by playing the last group game to win. The point of this tournament was not to teach Mexico a lesson or blood the young ones for Azteca in a year or two. The entire point of this tournament was to get into the Olympic games.It's hard enough in Foxboro or Columbus, forget about having 60,000 Mexicans chanting Osama, Osama. For me this is just another example of how hopelessly naive the American soccer establishment is. The goal is to get to Athens. The hard road was through Mexico in Mexico. The easier - note I said easier and not easy - road was through Costa Rica in Mexico. Against CR the crowd would have been against us, no doubt. But not even close to the level against Mexico. This was a no brainer and they still made the wrong decision. As a coach you want to put your team in the best position to win. You take any advantage you can grab. Mooch didn't do that. I don't care what he said about the crowd not kicking the ball. We all saw a mediocre South Korea team play way above its head in WC02 at home in front of hysterical crowds. With what was at stake how did they not see this coming? Minimizing the home field advantage was a catastrophic failure here.Basically, Mooch left the team with zero margin for error. We had to know Mexico would be pumped and come out flying. It was going to take an heroic effort by all 11 players to beat Mexico in Mexico. Mooch was hoping the US would all play the best they have ever played under god-awful circumstances.
Re: out on a limb Either Costa Rica or Hondorus would have handled us with ease last night. You can't blame the crowd for lack of talent and tactics.
Re: out on a limb What did you want him to do, tell the guys to score a bunch of own-goals? Honduras certainly was not going to take the lead intentionally.
Re: Re: out on a limb Which they almost did, mind you. We gave them 2 handballs in the box resulting in PKs and played down a man for 60 minutes and still won. It was pretty ridiculous. He had to play to win, but he had nowhere near the right team on the field. He played Davis as a right Mid for crying out loud. Everytime he got the ball he turned left, but it on his foot and dribbled to the center of the field. Turnover waiting to happen, and he sure found enough of them. And if you look at some of the players Nutmeg listed as missing (Yes, clark was legitimately injured and that hurt), we lost this game before we got to Mexico.
Re: Re: Re: out on a limb IIRC the ref of the last game was from Mexico. IN a bizarre sort of way he was doing us a favor, but we didn't get the hint. He was basically trying to make us lose. There is no other explanation. Both pks came within a few minutes of our goals. Nutmeg says we shoulda missed Buddle and should had Jaqua and Jamil Walker. How could they have won the game if they got no service? We missed Clark. But the mainstays of LD, DMB and BC were there on the field. They didn't create or link up with the fwds. None of these players he mentioned: Mapp, Trembly, Stone, Salyer, Magee, Akwari have experienced anything like what happened last night. Have any of them played before 60,000? Have any of them played before 60,000 raging lunatics? The atmosphere around a game against CR would have been totally different. The bottom line is we should have been smarter than to *choose* to play Mexico in Mexico. We should have never been in that position.
Trembly plays before 60,000+ every Fourth of July here in Denver, though the (mostly there for the fireworks) crowd is certainly not what one would call fanatical.
The more I thought about the game the more I disagreed with the tactics. Nutmeg's post has helped me focus my criticism. There were numerous times in the game where the Mexican defenders and midfielders would walk up nearly to mid-field with ball and no US player would challange. I know DMB, Convey and Donovan can play defense and harass players into turning the ball over. In fact, Donovan and DMB love to do that because if they can strip the ball then they're off to the races. I presume that Mooch told them not to do that -- why, I don't know. Mooch isn't totally to blame, however. Marshall and Borchers made some basic errors in covering those crosses by ball-watching. Yes, if Wingert had covered the left wing better or if there had been more pressure in the mid-field, the crosses never would have gotten off in the first place. But c'mon. How can a central defender older than age 12 not know how to watch players running for goal when a cross is coming over?
I was left with the impression that overconfidence in our big 3 had us feeling that we could step on the field and outscore them. I said this elsewhere, but with the benefit of hindsight, I would have started Convey on the backline. His experience and speed there might have filled the gaping hole that was Wingert and given him the room to operate which he didn't have in midfield. It also would have got Beckerman on the field, who was one of the few who had at least some success in operating in tight spaces. Isn't there some cliche about getting your best players on the field?
After watching the game, I couldn't agree more. The tactics were...well...sickening. The ommissions from the roster were ....very questionable. Point blank this was the most talented, most experienced pool of Olympic eligible athletes, I think we may have ever had. Yet we did not qualify.
The sad part about this is his job (Mooch) is not in jeopardy. Business as usual @ the ole clubby USSF.