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USA 1, Brazil 4: Match Highlights

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlWni6cZAHA]

Comments

  1. no worries about the long post, it’s a good convo.

    as for your point on goal 1, i agree 100%. idk why he had his arms up like that. makes no sense.

    for goal 2, i agree, gooch’s botched clearance led to the corner in the first place. and i do agree with what you said. i think i was just very surprised at the lack of marking by jones more than the others. seemed like he was tracking him and then just stopped.

    the third goal, you make good points. but i still have to say boca was the only one not doing ANYTHING. like you said, gooch and bradley were rushing over to help dolo, but boca was literally not marking a single person. he was just standing in front of howard. to me, he should have recognized that gooch was helping dolo, bradley was (unusually) wall watching, the man behind him was covered by johnson, and that marcelo was not marked. i guess that is my issue with boca on that one.

    as for Cameron, the way some people talk about him, you would think he was Michael Johnson. does anyone have any numbers showing sprint speeds? i still don’t feel like he is THAT much faster. i’d rather try out Williams to be honest.

    lastly, i agree about bradley. i’ve come to like him moving up as opposed to staying back.

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  2. great assessment bryan, but i have a few points to add. sorry in advance for the long post.

    goal 1 pk – gooch should not be moving his arms like that. i’ve taken direct shots at my body without moving my arms to cover. as a pro, he should know better. in fact, i’ve even seen pros put their arms behind their back (maybe that’s too much though).

    goal 2 – you’re right that it’s mostly jone’s fault – but gooch gave up the corner too easily. Also, who is gooch covering? and why is he (the RCB) not in position on the right? Why is boca (the LCB) not on the left where bradley is. also, edu almost gets a head on that, but he should be a few steps back, perpendicular to the near post, covering the danger zone.

    goal 3 – boca is not at fault b/c he’s the closest man to the goal scorer – this is a common mistake many people make when watching soccer (no offense). you have to watch the build-up which starts with jones getting taken out in mid. first of all, that should have been a foul. then bradley jogs and doesn’t cover marcelo, which means gooch isn’t sure whether to come out or help dolo who’s being double teamed. ball gets to neymar and dolo’s chasing – causing both gooch and bradley to rush over, leaving marcelo wide open for the goal. That was a combo of losing the ball in mid (which is dangerous and happened alot), bradley jogging, gooch + bradley ball watching, and BOTH rushing over.

    goal 4 – you’re right on the money – gooch’s fault – but i’d add that marcelo blindly lobs it to pato who is luckily onside – i’ve seen milan games where pato is called offsides way too often

    conclusion – the midfield gave up the ball too often in dangerous places OR they passed it back to the CB’s who also lost the ball too often. gooch was out of form but playing 2 slow CB’s against a fast attack was not a good idea – i understand that gooch and boca are the senior vets, but i wanted to see cameron get a shot to see the difference (not saying he’s ready yet but how do you know unless you try).

    also playing bradley by himself in the DM holder role did not work against brazil who likes to “swarm” the ball. edu should have played along side of him for D coverage in a 4-2-3-1 instead of a 4-1-4-1. the back 4 had an easy game vs scotland and i believe klinsmann wanted to test our defense. i say this b/c you could see edu and jones pushed up high but seemed to be holding themselves back to play D as if there was an imaginary wall, same for donovan. I think this was done deliberately to test the 4-1-4-1 system against a top team.

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  3. i have to disagree with you on the finishing part. we certainly need to work on shooting on target though (5/15 shots were on goal). but for finishing, 3 out of 5 of those were the result of fantastic GKing and defending. the other, Gooch’s post hit, technically is not on target, so i exluced it from the 5.

    Dempsey’s shot – I think we can all agree he knows how to finish. But he was rusty and the defender made a fantastic lunge to clear the ball before Dempsey got on it.

    Boyd’s shot – Again, that was going in and ripping a hole in the net. But the keeper made one of the best saves I have ever seen.

    Bradley’s shot – Again, on target, exactly where it should be. But another incredible save.

    Gooch’s shot – I think we can all agree Gooch knows how to finish with his head. He got unlucky, it happens.

    Having said that, we have always had finishing problems. So I certainly think they need to continue doing drills.

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  4. i think that is a fair statement. the issue is when people over react with “he is terrible” comments. he is not terrible. he had a bad game tonight and should still be a part of the team. whether or not that is a starting spot, i do not know. but Goodson, Cameron, Ream, and Orozco don’t exactly give me much hope at the moment.

    as for the goals, i’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt on the PK, but he should have his hands down. the second, people shank clearances, that isn’t normal for him, it happens. i blame Jones for not marking Silva when Silva started making his run. so to me, that second goal is on Jones. for the third, i blame Boca on that one. Boca, Bradley and Gooch were all right there, but no one marked him. Gooch appears to be heading over to help Dolo cut off the cross. johnson had the far guy covered, so that left Boca and/or Bradley to mark Marcelo, and neither of them did. for the forth, all on Gooch. he did not step up with the defense. Castillo stepped up, leaving Pato unmarked, and since Gooch kept him onside, Pato just had to finish (which was not easy).

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  5. i think it was a fair PK and JK is wrong, Gooch was in the box for sure. Gooch was unlucky but he should have kept his arm down.

    the second goal…wow. i mean, i remember being upset by bad defending when i saw it live, but on TV, it is even worse. Jones literally just lets him run and Edu misses the header (it was too high to be fair). at first i thought this was on Gooch, but no way. Jones is to blame for that one.

    the third goal. again, absolutely crap defending. Boca, Gooch and Bradley all caught ball watching. from the highlights on USsoccer, at 5:08, you can see the lack of any bodies on Marcelo. 4 Brazil players in the box, but Hulk wasn’t really involved, and 5 USA players, all involved. Johnson is marking the far guy and Dolo is marking neymar. but Bradley, Boca and Gooch are not doing anything. But i think Boca is responsible for that one, he was the closest. Gooch seemed to be attempting to help Dolo close down the cross? and i’ll give Bradley the benefit of the doubt.

    leading up to Pato’s post hit, what kind of pass was that from Boca?!?! i mean, TERRIBLE. god awful. THEN he stops tracking Pato who is wide open in the middle. basically exactly what happened in the marcelo goal.

    their last goal. two things compounded on this one which led to Pato being wide open. 1. Castillo steps forward with Boca which leaves Pato unmarked. 2. Gooch doesn’t step forward with them and keeps Pato onside, and thus, wide open. Gooch 100% blame on that one.

    as for us, i cannot believe Bradley, Dempsey, Boyd, and Gooch didn’t get one of those to fall in. definition of unlucky. i thought we played bad in the first 20 minutes, then did ok for the rest of that first half. the start of the second half was bad too, but then we started getting forward and creating and we actually played well. sadly, we couldn’t finish and the defense (aside from Johnson) just couldn’t get it done.

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  6. Defending was the problem more so than the defense. The US was overrun in the midfield defensively. Landon was completely MIA on defense (and not much better with the ball) on the right against Brazil’s best player last
    night, Marcelo. Bradley was constantly jogging slowly to cover space as men slipped past him, like on the third goal. The defenders weren’t great, but the midfield needs to close down space faster, stay with runners, and not turn the ball over leading to counters. If the midfielders all work as hard to get the ball back as Gomez, the US would be a much better team.

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  7. You think Gomez has a better upside then Jozy ?? C’mon now ? I am not saying Gomez did not play a good game, Maybe him and Jozy on top would have been more opportunities, Jozy is a nightmare for any defense.

    Have you watch him lately ??

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  8. The full game stats are so even that I’d love to see a breakdown pre and post Dempsey…

    Stats Summary: USA / BRA
    Shots: 15 / 12
    Shots on Goal: 5 / 7
    Saves: 3 / 4
    Corner Kicks: 8 / 5
    Fouls: 9 / 12
    Offside: 2 / 1

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  9. Real goals: 4-1

    “Shoulda been goals”: 1 (Pato) to 4 (Gomez/Dempsey, Gomez/Boyd, Bradley, Onyewu)

    Those were all decent attempts, I think it’s silly to look at it as “we couldn’t finish our chances and they could”… that’s a combination of bad luck and their goalkeeper having an excellent game. Hats off to the Brazilians, there’s nothing that can be done about that, but it would be unfair to blame our guys for their GK playing out of his mind.

    If you look at the game from Dempsey’s substitution on (56′), the US were the more dangerous team.

    That said, 3/4 of our defense is just not up to this level. Klinsmann needs to work his magic to get Chandler back in the mix, at least then we would only have the CB position to worry about.

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  10. From what I saw in the highlights, defense let us down, and not effective enough finishing. This was a very close game than what the scoreline reflects.

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  11. First time I’ve seen the highlights, but the penalty didn’t look questionable to me. Didn’t the ball hit his hand where otherwise it would have gone by Onyewu if his hands were by his side? Also, Brazil’s goalkeeper looked pretty sweet, does he play in Brazil? And maybe the fourth goal was marginally offsides, but two yards? Not even close…

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  12. There’s nothing wrong in stating the obvious.

    People will respond with “he’s been a great player in the past” statements but soccer moves fast.

    The present becomes the past in the blink of an eye. Loved Gooch during his tenure but his time has passed. He doesn’t fit in this system.

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  13. Gomez nearly scoring three times wasn’t enough? His constant attacking runs weren’t enough either?

    What would Jozy have done that Gomez didn’t do? Score three times instead of once?

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  14. I hate to say it but Onyewu was the weakest link, and unfortunately was responsible for:

    – The penalty (1st Goal)

    – The corner (2nd Goal) He just cleared the ball horribly, his intention was to kick the ball away but instead end up going the opposite direction giving away the corner kick which resulted in a goal.

    – Unfortunately he was responsible for keeping onside Pato in the 4 Goal.

    _ In the 3 rd Goal, who was responsible to mark Marcelo? I would harsh to have Onyewu responsible but seeing the replay I guess he is somewhat responsible.

    He just didn’t have a good night, I am not saying that he shouldn’t be considered for the starting 11, but I think is fairly obvious that he is not the Oguchi Onyewu he used to be before his injury.

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  15. Admire Klinsi’s approach, but playing an open game with Brazil is not a recipe for a result. Enjoyable, great to see in a friendly, but not the way to go in a game that really matters. At least not with a team at anything less than full strength. That said, valuable lessons were learned last night, and you can’t put a pricetag on that.

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  16. Brazil could field 20 teams that would do the same thing. There were moments of midfield and offensive brilliance from the US as well but Brazil attacks too well. The US must find a decent CB. That is not a problem we should be facing at the start of qualifying.

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  17. Jozy would have been the difference if he was on last night, I love gooch but his game play does not suit what Klinsi is trying to bring to the USMNT and Edu is a good defender but he has” NO “confidence, and people , our best player Clint did not start , and if we ever get chandler at right back , watch ut , Jermaine jons should replace Edu and we can use tores or any other mid field player to make the attack more potent , fabian is a BOSS. we have options at CB , so we are fine.
    so excited about this team, people better watch out !!! Great game !!

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