... because the second goal meant less and put the focus on the missed opportunities (which were spread around) instead of on Bornstein's monumental error. It was obvious Bornstein was rattled after he gift wrapped the ball for Paraguay. It took him more than 5 minutes and some very rough touches for him to regain his composure. The important thing is that he did. What Johnny needs to remember is that he did a lot of good things this tournament including shut down one of the world's great offensive threats. He grew up ... as did Clark after his goal. What Bornstein needs to brush aside is that he made a basic error that he should NEVER make again. Now he needs to forget about it ... and move on. What is much more significant a factor for the USMNT is the lack of quality finishing skills of our entire team. In the international game, you might get one opportunity to score, and you can't waste the chance. In this game we wasted far too many looks at the goal that you can't afford not to take. Our sharpshooting skills and the decisions by our players in and around the box were pathetic tonight. First Kljestan misses a sitter with no pressure and 5 yards from the goal. Johnson misses a wonderful diving header (great that he beat his defender and got in great position) by missing the target all together. Twellman misses a bouncing ball effort 8 yards from the goal with a weak shot, and Moor misses an open header 8 yards from the goal with no pressure. Mapp chooses to shoot/cross the ball instead of leading EJ on the ground for a tap in. If these players had made better decisions and finished those plays like true lethal attackers, we wouldn't have had to worry about the gift -- we would have had 5 goals. These are opportunities that we cannot afford to miss. Just about any other team in this tournament would have pounced on half of those chances and changed their fortunes. We failed miserably in that task. And that, to me, needs to be the most important focus of ALL our players in the National Team -- to finish the rare opportunities that we get at the National Team level with cold blooded precision and confidence ... think Dempsey vs Ghana in the World Cup ... Once again, the defense collectively played good enough to get a result from this game. Unfortunately, the one-offs will happen from time to time ... that's part of the game. But I guarantee that Bornstein will NEVER make that mistake again in his whole soccer career. What we need to concentrate on now is taking our chances so that those mistakes do not factor in to the result ... and we can win games going away ...
How are we going to win away games let alone home games? We have NO ONE who can score!!!!!!! Maybe we should petition FIFA to lengthen and raise the goal posts?? Thats sarcasm by the way...
If you watch the practice of a "competitive" soccer team at any level in the US, it is not surprising that you will see very little games/drills/emphasis on putting the ball into the net. It always seems to be an afterthought. There must be some way the USSF can force some emphasis on this crucial phase of the game.
Get us the film of all the "competitive" teams not practicing finishing drills and we'll listen to you. I'm not saying we couldn't spend more time on finishing, because as brutally horrific as we are at it we definitely should. Making a blanket statement that it's not taught is just silly to me though, or am I wrong?
Funny, I thought that's what we concentrated on. I thought we needed to concentrate on dribbling skills. Look, we don't have a lot of goal scorers in that lineup. This is really a D team not a C team.
Whether we practice finishing enough or not (probably not) is only a small part of the equation. Clearly, we have players that have the technical skills to finish. Another, maybe more important component is the mental aspect. The expectation of the player and team on finishing needs to change. There needs to be more seriousness, concentration, and focus for taking our chances. We have to treat finishing each and every opportunity as a duty for rewarding the team for their good work. And we need a killer instinct. Maybe we don't value goals enough and figure we'll get another chance. Perhaps the culture of our great country of "second chances" makes us believe that there will always be another opportunity to score. In soccer, and sports in general though, that is a naiive notion and not true at all. Games can turn on a dime and each opportunity may be our last, so we had better make it count. We need more internal pressure by each player to demand more from himself ... for the good of the team. And that attitude needs to be present at ALL levels of the game. Only when we have that mindset will we truly reach the next level ...
If the entire field was a goal, Eddie Johnson would find a way to keep the ball out of bounds the whole time.
Other than Donovan, Beasley, and Dempsey, name 17 other better players that are not called to make this a C team. It's really a B+ team. Injured or retired players don't count. Face it folks. We don't have the depth of a Brasil or a Argentina!
17 others? Geez I don't know if you need 17 'better' to make it a downgraded team. But would I rather field the three above plus a healthy Howard with Hanheman backing him up, Dolo, Convey, Gooch, Boca, Mastro, Spector, Simek, , throw in Hejduk for the locker room rah rah and the tough motor, then bring in the U20 gang led by Bradley in the Mid, Adu for his creativity, Altidore, Ferrari, J. Smith for some finishers...theres 18 for you. Now add back in Benny, Bornstein, Conrad, Demerrit, EJ and Rico, even Mapp and you've got a pretty good group to choose from The future is looking better and better.
fair point except 3 of the players you mentioned are Injured or just coming back from injuries. The U-20 crew is at the U-20's and the rest either couldn't be released from thier club or did not want to play so this is what's left. The future does look good however and you can throw in Guzan or Seitz as a #3 keeper
I like this. Shooting is not so much a privilege or a treat but a responsibility. When you are in position to shoot, you must do so and make the most of it for the good of the team.