This isn't a thread to bash Jozy. As ridiculous as it is to have a striker who can't finish, I actually thought he played well considering--he used his speed and strength to great advantage, and it was obvious that the weaker defenders in this tournament couldn't handle him. But....still. He's a 20 year old striker who can't score. And he's the best we have. That is miserable. And it's not a new phenomenon, either--remember 2006?. The US is quite good at producing excellent midfielders. We make keepers with the best of 'em. Once in a while we even produce a good defender or two. So why the hell can't we develop a striker to save our lives? It makes things so much harder on us when the entire offense is coming out of midfield.
Great. When we have a midfielder as good as Zidane, I'm sure that strategy will work great for us too. In the meantime, some strikers who can actually score might be helpful.
We've had our collective head up our ass for the past 20 years in terms of player development. We'll get there eventually IMO but we need to be patient.
Well, let's look at two maligned strikers from Group C: Wayne Rooney and Jozy Altidore. For one- there is a question of chemistry. It's dumb to think of strikers as individuals. There is a term bandied about- The strike partnership. Some guys just have great chemistry together. Altidore had it with Davies. He NEVER had it with the ineffective Findley, and there was a better chemistry with Buddle and good chemistry with Gomez. Why the poaching Altidore and the playmaking Gomez never paired is something you need to ask Bob Bradley. Furthermore, even with Gomez, a strike partnership has to be built over a few matches, like the old Shevchenko/Rebrov chemistry. When Findley was ineffective against Australia and Gomez was, why the change wasn't done then and there is beyond me. Likewise, Wayne Rooney, one of the most talented forwards on the planet, had horrible chemistry with all of his England partners. Nothing was changed even when it was clear Heskey and Crouch were not working with him. And finally, there is fitness. World Cups are tournaments, and as such, player rotation is key. At the time we kicked off against Ghana, Jozy had played 270 minutes of high intensity football. The Malian official screwed us out of a win, so we could not use game 3 to rest any players. Here, Bradley made two key errors- Not just by starting Findley as explained above, (Which he had to make a sub to remove), but he then should have realized that Jozy would tire by minute 70 (And boy howdy did he ever). Putting on Gomez at minute 65 (When the midfielders legs were still there and give him service) and not in overtime would have been a big help. After the PK, by putting on Gomez and gunning for a late win would have been the best option. By Bradley wasting two subs, Ghana was smart to play to overtime because we couldn't sub out fatigued players, while they did. And won. Likewise, with England, even after Rooney was paired with Defoe, by that time, Rooney had played 270 minutes and needed a rest. In the end, the fatigued Rooney had to leave at minute 70 and sealed a German win.
Even though Jozy did not end up scoring, I feel that he was always one of our better players.... especially in the group stage.... It's clear that he's best with the ball at his feet attacking defenders. He got off some dangerous shots and created a bunch of scoring opportunities for others (including the build up for Donovans goal against Algeria.) Back off on Jozy man.... he's only 20 and I'm pretty damn excited to see what he turns into.
Forwards do not get the midfield support in a 4-2-2-2 that they would otherwise get in a flat or diamond 4-4-2 or a 4-5-1. When running on to the ball in attack with the two outside midfielders too far behind them they not only have to contend with the first defender in a four man backline but their cover too. It often isolates the forwards 1 v 2 which in turns leaves them two choices 1) hold the ball up and wait for midfield to come into the attack or 2) try to beat the defenders which = lots of backpasses and turn-overs.
Simple answer: too many coaches....particularly at the developmental levels...either look for the ability to physically dominate in the penalty area, or speed. Problem is both are all too often at the expense of actual technical ability and tactical nous.
I wouldn't say that the American side lacked for a willingness to take shots. If anything, their weakness was getting any sort of effective ball movement in scoring situations. Well, that, an absolute inability to finish. Thats what I don't get about all the defense of Jozy's non-scoring by talking about the system. Jozy Altidore has the ability and athleticism to create his own scoring opportunities. He did so numerous times in this WC. Not, perhaps, against the truly world class defenders. But world class defenders are rare, and against the rest, Jozy causes havoc. But what he utterly lacks--what all our strikers lack--is an ability to exploit those opportunities with any sort of competence or consistency. I hate to be "that guy" who talks about soccer via analogy to American sports, but there's one here that I feel is especially apt. The New York Jets have a Wide Receiver named Braylon Edwards. Braylon is big. He is unbelievably fast, remarkably strong, and can jump like he's one of the goddamn x-men. The only thing is...Braylon sucks at catching a football. And, when you get right down to it, catching the football is what wide receivers do. So all the rest doesn't count for that much. Braylon is just good enough to make you curse his name time and again when drops the ball in key moments (this coming from a Jets fan, btw). That's the position the American striker position is in right now. The athleticism and raw ability is there. But in some fundamental way, American strikers cannot do what strikers need to do. This strikes me as a problem. And until it gets fixed, it is very hard for me to see how our team is going to make the leap from "pretty good" to "elite". I hope Jozy figures it out, I really do. He's young enough, and I think the effort and heart are there. But if he doesn't, I think we'll be stuck in a similar situation in 4 years. Quality midfield, good keeper (hopefully), adequate-to-somewhat-suspect defense...and real problems scoring when the other team plays tight defensively. Advance from group play perhaps, but not make any real noise. On the other hand..if we do find the answer, in Jozy or elsewhere, I think everything will click, and with Michael Bradley in midfield we could do some real damage.