Post 'em here. USA team: 5.0 Comment: Bleh. Hopefully they get some rest this week, because they looked like zombies out there for much of the game. The possession game is coming hard for us against teams even applying modest pressure in the midfield. Much work yet to do.
Howard-6.5 Castillo-5 Bocanegra-5 Goodson-7 Cherundolo-5.5 Bradley-4.5 Jones-4.5 Torres-4 Donovan-4 Dempsey-5 Gomez-4.5 Altidore-4.5 Wondo-4 Edu-4.5 Onyewu-5 Parkhurst-5 The team looked tired, and the substitutions weren't tactically effective. It was post-modern, abstract bullshit.
This. Everyone on that team looked pooped - well, minus Howard, who gets a pass. Dolo, Boca = pooped. Goodson - meh, like usual Castillo - only one that didn't look pooped. Not quite sure what to do with him, as he had some decent forward movement, but he also sent a pass directly for what should have been a Canadian goal. Needs to make the easy pass rather than dancing all over the ball. With that said, he had some decent attacking forays. Bradley, Jones, Torres, LD = pooped. Bradley looked like his legs had gone in the 2nd half, some bad misplaced passes. LD just looked gassed. Jones looked like he was operating on sheer will at the end of the game. Torres faded badly. Dempsey = not match fit. Will be ready though for A&B. Gomez - again worked his butt off, but with the rest of the team pooped, meh. Bradley is not a dmid, stop trying to force him there is my only comment. He's wasted in that role. Course, that means you drop JFT if you play a 4-3-3.
I echo most of the comments here. No one really stood out. Goodson had some good moments, enough that I guess he'd be my choice next to Bocanegra for these qualifiers. Bradley should be the 8. Use Jones as the 6. The only poor mark I give to is Klinsmann. I figured he'd go with a first choice lineup, and it's clear we were exhausted. Very little off the ball movement. Lots of hopeful long balls. Seriously, I would have rather our B team been given a run out and lost than seen what we saw. I'm glad Wondo was given some time at the end. It would have been sad for him to be the only field player not to see any game time during this 5 game stretch.
Team average is a 5. Above average : Goodson, Jones, Torres, Howard.. Average: Everyone else... Slightly Below Average: Donovan. Gooch gave me an uncomfortable feeling anytime he was near the ball, but that shouldnt deserve a below average rating. I thought it was just worth mentioning.) Undecided: Castillo.. Offensively he looked like one of our more dynamic players... But he made 2 bad mistakes that went unpunished.. And since defense is his primary responsibility, meh..
Really tempted to mail it in like the team did, 5's all around, but, I "take pride in the shirt", and haven't been doing 2 a days plus playing 90 minutes everyday, so... Howard - 6 Made several saves of the unspectacular variety Castillo - 4.5 Weird game. Maybe just a weird player? Chicken with his head cut off. Certainly made some good things happen, couple of nice runs, balls, and one crazy looking shot. But he really puts us in danger at LB. Poor decisions and timing for little dribbles and touches. Scary proposition if he has to play next week. Bocanegra - 5 The defense was fairly sound, and he looked fine in his work there. Couple of terrible passes that put us under pressure. Goodson - 5.5 I thought he was pretty bad in the 1st half. Got beaten by smaller men in the air, slow and out of position at times. Had an excellent 2nd half though. Cherundolo - 5 Nothing really to say Bradley - 4 One or two bad plays. Other than that just, drifted. Jones - 5 One thing is that when he has the ball in the middle of the field galloping forward, it's a thing of beauty. Had a few nice passes, but added little. Torres - 5 A bit uneven. O.k. Dempsey - 5 Touch was ragged early on, but settled in. Tried. Donovan - 4 MIA Gomez - 4.5 Wasn't able to get involved at all. ??? Altidore - 5 Onyewu - 5 The rest - NR
I feel the same way. He showed a willingess to run and make runs into dangerous areas. But he's got to be more tidy with the ball in his own half. Overall I was more impressed than I thought I would be. Which isn't saying much.
WTF was Howard doing on that disallowed "goal" ? Trying to anticipate a cross? Gets near-posted instead. Brutal. IMO he's a decent shot stopper but his decision making is woefully poor. Would everyone still be giving him a 6 if that goal was allowed?
Can anyone remember a more boring game WITH the US first team? We had only 2 real threats on goal the entire game - Dempsey in the box and Goodsen's header. That's it. I'd give the entire team a 3 - it was pathetic when you take into account we faced a team that has not qualified in over two decades. Tired or not, it was Canada with great weather. After the Scotland game my only thought was we were playing Scotland in Florida in May after they missed the Euros. Right now, that's ringing truer than ever and that 5-1 score seems meaningless. Regarding Bradley, I actually think he is a great DM. The only issue is that we don't really have a fantastic AM, so Bradley needs to play the the AM role. The problem when you include Torres is that this forces Bradley deeper since Torres is a defensive liability. I know there are a lot of knowledgable people who see great things with Torres, but I just don't. I think with this talent I'd play a 4-1-4-1 with Edu just ahead of the back 4, Bradley and Jones in the middle, Donovan and Dempsey on the wings, and Jozy. With our back four looking to be a bit fragile right now, I don't think we can afford to not have Edu, Bradley, and Jones in there. I'd actually give Jones a 2 for the yellow. We can't rely on him for tournaments if he keeps on picking up yellows.
Pretty sure there were some us players quitting on that play with the flag being waved and the whistle sounding. I hope there were anyway. Howard had 2-3 great saves in that game. He's good for 1 soft goal every 2-3 games or so. I don't think he can be replaced by anyone in our pool right now. Would like to see Kennedy get a look and let Guzan spend some time club shopping.
There was a totally different game plan for this one and it was something Canada has seen plenty of times before. I'm not sure tactically Canada was prepared for anything other that what is typical US style soccer. A very predictable and constant outside attack from the US. Thought Klinsmann turned the corner on this. His team looked no different from years passed. Be that as it may I'll give everyone a mulligan except Dempsey. He should have been a lot more trouble as fresh as he was. But it's hard to take on entire team yourself.
He tends to do that. Often. At bad times. In knockout games. I really wish Guzan played consistently at the club level so we could have some competition for Howard's spot. It would be best for everyone, including Howard.
Aggregated ratings, 13 media sources: Goodson - 6.5 Howard - 6.3 Dempsey - 5.6 Bocanegra - 5.6 Onyewu - 5.6 Bradley - 5.5 Cherundolo - 5.5 Edu - 5.3 Castillo - 5.3 Jones - 5.2 Donovan - 5.1 Gomez - 5.0 Torres - 4.9 Altidore - 4.8 Parkhurst - 4.3 Wondolowski - 4.0 Subtract 0.5 from everybody, and I don't mind it.