AJ was pretty invisible but to his credit there were several times (besiiiiiiides “the Zardes bad pass”…) where one more pass to the open man (AJ) could have resulted in an easy goal opportunity. the 15′ and 19′ examples are in the above video but there was more. AZ’s style of play is to really look for those ‘one more pass’ opportunities. I’ve seen in most NT games in which AJ plays you can see his frustration. he gets into great positions and he’s not always rewarded. just my observation. it’d be nice to see the team really try to get him involved when he plays; in terms of truly knowing your teammates’ tendencies, etc.
I agree. If Zardes had leftthe ball alone on his first attempt which he hit the goalkeeper, Johannson would have run on to the ball with an open look from 7 yards out. Same thing when Fabian blasted off the bar after MB hit the post. A square passto AJ would have been a tap in. But to be honest no complaints here. The game moves pretty fast in those situations. Maybe as we grow used to going toe to toe with these better teams we will be a little more composed. All in all, way to go USMNT!!
yea for sure, i wasn’t saying those shots were bad shots persay, just that i noticed options present. also i just enjoy watching players body signals and such which present a deeper storyline sometimes. so I’ve notice in many games where AJ is in an open simple position and a player just takes a shot or doesn’t pass to him etc. additionally i worry about his confidence from these situations. when a striker isn’t scoring and feels he’s been wide open several times over a few games he can lose confidence in his teammates noticing his runs properly and can sometimes not make those runs etc.
didn’t mean for either post to be so long-winded… sorry haha
This game was good fun. The game legitimately could have been 6-6…
These were my 2 biggest take aways:
1. Bradley is class and mls does not appear to be hurting his game at all.
2. Although entertaining, playing wide open against the worlds best teams is not a long term viable strategy…
still a better strategy than parking the bus every minute of every non-concacaf game.
AJ was pretty invisible but to his credit there were several times (besiiiiiiides “the Zardes bad pass”…) where one more pass to the open man (AJ) could have resulted in an easy goal opportunity. the 15′ and 19′ examples are in the above video but there was more. AZ’s style of play is to really look for those ‘one more pass’ opportunities. I’ve seen in most NT games in which AJ plays you can see his frustration. he gets into great positions and he’s not always rewarded. just my observation. it’d be nice to see the team really try to get him involved when he plays; in terms of truly knowing your teammates’ tendencies, etc.
I agree. If Zardes had leftthe ball alone on his first attempt which he hit the goalkeeper, Johannson would have run on to the ball with an open look from 7 yards out. Same thing when Fabian blasted off the bar after MB hit the post. A square passto AJ would have been a tap in. But to be honest no complaints here. The game moves pretty fast in those situations. Maybe as we grow used to going toe to toe with these better teams we will be a little more composed. All in all, way to go USMNT!!
yea for sure, i wasn’t saying those shots were bad shots persay, just that i noticed options present. also i just enjoy watching players body signals and such which present a deeper storyline sometimes. so I’ve notice in many games where AJ is in an open simple position and a player just takes a shot or doesn’t pass to him etc. additionally i worry about his confidence from these situations. when a striker isn’t scoring and feels he’s been wide open several times over a few games he can lose confidence in his teammates noticing his runs properly and can sometimes not make those runs etc.
didn’t mean for either post to be so long-winded… sorry haha