By SBI SOCCER
One more test stands between the U.S. Men’s National Team and October’s decisive Confederations Cup playoff against Mexico. That test is none other than mighty Brazil, which promises to over just the kind of stiff challenge the Americans need tonight (8:30pm, ESPN2).
The U.S. is coming off a 2-1 victory against Peru on Friday, a match that boosted the stock of a handful of American players. Those players will face a tougher challenge from a Brazil side expected to feature Neymar.
SBI will be providing live commentary on tonight’s action. If you will be watching tonight’s match, please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Tonight’s commentary is after the jump):
The fault lies with JK. When building a Team, it’s important to have players gel as a Unit. This comes with familiarity. A player has to know where his Teammates are and will be when he has position of the ball. The run on and off the ball creates positioning. That allows the players to move the ball faster. These things are lacking with the USA Team. The are too many changes, too many players playing out of position. It’s impossible to build a cohesive Team when the players are not familiar with each other. JK has not given this squad the opportunity to gel as a Team. These players don’t know how to cover for each other, create space, attack and defend as s Unit.That’s basic coaching.
Yet whenever there is a new camp everyone screams why aren’t there more new players. We’ve seen these guys before. A week ago all the comments were these are the same guys that lost the gold cup. Now its if these guys just played more together.
Best thing that could have possibly happened to the USMNT tonight. JJ’s reaction to JK when subbed priceless “piss off”. Now JK will have to coach himself out of this ugly mess, cause he can no longer pat his critics on the head and dismiss them. Pressure mounting, does he have ot im him (JK)? Team looks to have been lost, and tired of the constant absence of chemistry. He’ll have some serious answering to do, as I don’t see a magical transformation possible before 10/10/15.
mexico draws a PK, Jimenez tried to call for it but Chicharito insisted like 5 times on camera. like “come on bro… i got this” lol,
tucks it away
A short time ago I read here in this forum that Brazil was a joke, did not deserve neither be seeded in the Centenary of the Copa América.
Here are things I didn’t like. About the 60th minute a lot of US players stopped playing. That’s unacceptable. In the first few minutes there was one tackle of a Brazilian. Was there another the whole game? I can’t remember any. On almost every 50/50 ball, Brazil outmuscled the US players to win possession. They played a lot tougher. Like Klinsmann said some time ago, the US needs to get more nasty. You could put Klinsmann at coach for Brazil and Dunga as coach for the US and the result would probably be pretty much the same. Brazilian players are just better. But the US did not play hard enough. I don’t know where the fault lies, but obviously Klinsmann must accept some responsibility. We can’t control over the next month how good our players are, but we can control how hard they play. Some of those players should apologize to the rest of the team. If I were the coach I would be doing a lot of yelling and screaming in the locker room.
I’m about at the end of my rope with Klinsmann – yet another CB pairing (including Alvarado!), Bedoya out of position, Yedlin out of position, Altidore still clueless and inactive. And all this after he talked about consistency and continuity going into the Mexico game. The US were utterly outclassed tonight, and the worst part of it is that Klinsmann will have nothing but trite, meaningless explanations – not because he just wants to deflect the questions, but rather because he truly doesn’t know how to fix the problems. He may be a soccer genius for all I know, but there is little evidence that any of that has been transmitted in a meaningful way to the team. As Twellman said, we are close to a tipping point with Klinsmann. A bad loss to Mexico will be the last straw.
Ha! If it were guaranteed, to lose JK with a loss in the Mexico match, I’d sacrifice the Confed. Cup bid in a heartbeat! I am at the end of my rope with all the roster chaos! JK is simply not a game plan manager or is he an in game tactician. His lineups pretty much leave me clueless and frustrated. JK is simply making it excruciating to be a mnt supporter, because he just keeps breaking my heart. Those two big friendly’s in Europe, sure they were fun to get the result, but we were outplayed in both and were pretty much just lucky in those.
The way we chased and struggled in the WC, and even worse the frustration of the recent Gold Cup were maddening. It just seems to me, that our national mens program is in helpless freefall! How about one of you armchair soccer wannabee’s please tell me that I’m wrong? Thanks…
Brooks and Besler left so our CB options were limited. Yedlin out of position? So, he should have played RB and Bedoya the wing? Bedoya is way too slow compared to Brazil and Yedlin is severely lacking in defensive technical ability. That’s the problem, whatever you do with the players we have (and remember we were missing DMB and F Johnson who could make a big difference vs. Mexico) you leave gaps in the team. It’s so easy to say this or that was a mistake in selection, but there weren’t any players available who could match up better with Brazil.
MOTM Alvarado
for this live commentary for the game, it was great!
This has very little to do with formation and everything to do with player ability. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens when you mix world class speed and world class technical ability. That was the Brazil A team on display. It was not the defense that let us down. It was being over-powered in midfield and caught on fast break. The only to stop this would have to defend with 2 banks of 4 and then 1 and 1 for an outlet.
i loathe the 4411 lol, we used to use it in games like this. id’ rather play an open style and lose than play a 4411 and draw a friendly vs brazil. i’m not upset over this loss, we had some KEY players missing (Dempsey, FJ, even Beas in this game could have helped), and also we’re just not that good. hopefully within the next decade we’ll develop better instinctual ball skills
did the usa seriously just play 90 minutes and win 0 corner kicks?
shots on goal: 1?
3 in the end, Morris forced 2 and Johannsson had the other
Edmondo, did you see the Costa Rica game vs Brazil? If you lack speed then it’s a matter of positioning. As a Coach, you prepare your Team and field the players to handle the speed of Brazil. As the Bayern Munich players said, JK was unable to prepare the Team and discuss tactics with the players before s game.
All due respect but no amount of tactics and positioning would save Ream tonight. At a certain point you either have the footspeed or not.
There was a separate problem in terms of team defense but that to me was they looked sluggish and unable to get tackles in.
One thing I’ve noticed with Guzan is he can get mentally broken. A couple go in the flood gates open fast.
That’s one reason I was not pro Guzan, he’s an up and down roller coaster. What I don’t like is how many balls were criss crossing the 6 and he never gets them. The shoss that goes off the pole and gets knocked in. A bunch of low balls into the box.
I see Marcelo? Marcelo is yedlin x20 skills and he’s faster than yedlin and that’s just one position Brazil is better at every position on the field. Even there subs Neymar n Lucas would be USA best player. Not saying it’s all talent gap but it’s a huge part, but I used to be a klinsnam fan but if they lose to Mex he needs to be fired.
No one is questioning that but has Yedlin ever really even played at right wing for his club?
how does the gap between the Brazil and ANYONE call for a head coach to be fired??
news flash: Brazil is really good. Brazil truly only lose by beating themselves.
That fact that you said “even…Neymar” completely negates any point you were trying to make. Neymar is Brazil’s best player, and one of the best in the world.
EFF YES! Danny Williams!! i hope danny williams is finally ready to be the cdm for the future. JJ DW and MB isn’t a bad midfield in a 433
Wow he hit that a ton. Least something to cheer for.
Is the goal over time to groom Morris to be the central striker, ie, to displace Jozy? Jozy give or take a flick was AWOL and not even active on defense.
I’m an eternal optimist but this.. I got nothin. Mexico game will not be pretty
does no one on usa team know how to take the ball to the endline and cross the ball into the box?
in short: no.
we don’t have players that have both the speed AND the ball skill AND the crossing ability. players either have speed (yedlin) ball skill(???…) or crossing ability (Bedoya?… Brad Davis?…) but none have all three. In about 10 years we’ll really have some youth that perhaps can play but in the mean time we’re gonna have to just win with our “US hustle”…
Klinsmann playing wingers that can barely cross at all.
he was hit or miss with his crosses, a few were just cut out well by a CB but he had more bad passes than bad crosses. same takeaway tho.
Bigben4264, the Center Back have never played together. This is not where you experiment before an important game like Mexico. The Team should be doing the final walk through for the Mexico game, not experimenting.
foul inside the box. how is that not a penalty?
Sunil Gulati, things need to change. When will you realize this is not an Economics Class?
Robbo, this is just player ability. We do not have the ability or speed. My question is why would you schedule a beat-down before Mexico.
What this guy said ^^^^
Of course that’s part of it but goes well beyond that. It’s player selection, training, tactics, etc. I wish it was just Brazil but we got outshot 75 to 25 in the Gold Cup and not even against the top CONCACAF teams. Our style of play is less coherent than it ever was.
I’m sry guys this isn’t coaching, formation, or whatever it’s just Brazil being Brazil and then showing what they can do
No. It’s Klinsmann. There was a time when we actually competed fairly well against Brazil and not just the Confederations Cup. Klinsmann style is to try every combination of ingredients assuming he’ll eventually hit upon the recipe.
Sure…
Let me ask you, how many USMNT outfield players would make the 23? Let me answer that for you…NOT ONE. No one player in the entire US pool would make the Brazilian 23. That is how far behind we are in terms of talent production. That being said, the USMNT did not play well..to many giveaways etc and no creative ideas.
We’ve won once against Brazil in our history. And pretty much if they send a full team it goes like this. You can’t just make stuff up to fit your narrative. Yes, everyone stunk tonight including the manager, but honestly Brazil torches most of the time. Here are the last 5 matches 1-4, 0-2, 2-3,0-3,2-4.
Who’s making what up? I guess you didn’t see the games in 2007 or the Confederation Cup in 2010. It’s not about winning always but about how you played. In 2007, we lost 4-2 due in no part to some terrible refereeing but we were the better team. I imagine you didn’t see those games. Also, it’s not about who is talented enough to make Brazil’s 23. I’m sure nobody on Costa Rica would make Brazil’s 23 but they acquitted themselves well against Brazil. England beat Brazil in Brazil recently and I wouldn’t pick a single English player over a Brazilian player.
Don’t worry guy so, Spector will save us. #inspectorwetrust
Does no one remember what Brazil did to him LAST TIME?