There is no other word to describe the U.S. Under-23 national team’s performance against Cuba on Tuesday night than disappointing. A 1-1 tie isn’t the worst result in the world but the Americans missed a golden opportunity to bag three points and make things easier for themselves in the rest of the Olympic Qualifying tournament.
Peter Nowak deserves the blame for a flat first half by his squad, a performance that was a product of lineup and formation that was just not going to work with the personnel he used. Yes, the first 15 minutes of the match were promising for the Americans, but that was down entirely to the creativity and trickiness of Freddy Adu.
The concept of using Charlie Davies and Robbie Findley as wingers was a nice attempt at flooding the U.S. attack with speed, but neither player looked comfortable on the flank and they wound up leaving Jozy Altidore all alone up top. Altidore looked lost at times as he waited for service that never came. Nowak’s decision to leave behind Robbie Rogers and Arturo Alvarez was only made more puzzling by the awful showings of Davies and Findley (though it should be noted that Rogers is believed to have been carrying an injury)
The second half was better for the Americans, particularly the play of Dax McCarty, Maurice Edu and Sacha Kljestan, but the forward trio of Davies, Findley and Barrett looked just plain awful. I know Altidore didn’t have a great first half but he is head and shoulders above those three forwards and it is scary to think what the U.S. team would do without Altidore for an entire tournament.
The defense also looked extremely vulnerable. The fullbacks looked decent in the first half but I saw them beaten too many times in the second half. Luckily for the Americans, Cuba just couldn’t deliver the final pass to create quality chances. Aside from the equalizer of course.
So what now for the Americans? Scrapping the 4-2-3-1 formation is a start (not just scrapping it but burning it in a fire. The 4-4-2 the U.S. team used in the second half was effective and Nowak has the players to make it work.
What did you think of Tuesday night’s performance? Share your thoughts below:
brett- i agree
groovester- thanks for the link…. interesting to say the least, but until i see it on a reputable soccer site i cant quite take it to heart.
rocky- for once ive found a post i can agree with 😀
i think Nowak was trying to use Davies and Findley as draw back forwards (almost 3 forwards) as neither one of them ever went back to play defense. but yes i agree they both seemed lost there. He’ll have to change his lineup, and play people where they need to be. if he keeps playing findley and davies out of position, ill start to agree that he isnt fit for the job (nowak)
undrafted, you’ve gone mad…..barrett is a role player at best…..he had the first touch of someone that was wearing concrete shows….he had about 2 or 3 good touches the whole half & the rest went straight to a Cuba player…he was PAINFUL to watch.
i’m not saying give up on the guy, he’s young…but, he wasn’t a guy that should be at this tournament…he’s got potential, but needs work…more so than say an alvarez.
as for the next BMB….no way do i see that happening, but we can hope.
Biased Fire fan here, but also of note was that the Cubans were in full on bunker mode by the time Barrett got in. I’m not saying he’s great or anything, I hope he’s not even starting for the Fire this year. I am saying he was no worse than Findlay, Davies or Altidore. Barrett didn’t get a chance in a more open 1st half for a 1v1 with the keeper like Jozy & Findley did, but he was useful laying balls off even in a tighter field. I’m not going to say what these guys are like as players from 1 game but I will say that you can’t credibly give a disinterested Jozy a pass while you rip the other guys. I admitted my bias, admit that bias is the only reason you can make excuses for Jozy, they all sucked.
Now I see why Adu had a problem with Nowak at DC United, it look like he try to influence player to play in position that are not the full strenght, plus how can u live out Feilhaber and Alvarez which I think they could of change and give a different look of what this TEAM USA look. they look so awful and so amature, Failhaber could have bring move pause, experience and had help adu and altidore with good passes, plus how can u missed a GOL with just only the goal keeper in front of you, Findley got so scare didn’t know how to put it on the net, all you had to do is kick it a little above the keeper head and he call himself a professional.. MAN NOWAK WHAT THE HECK U THINKING!!!!
I PISSED OFF.
brett – http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23577657/
groovester- not that this has anything to do with the topic, but where are you seeing this??
god what a pathetic performance. what is nowak doing, why would he put altidore upfront by himself? and to make it even worse takes him off for the second half, one word, puzzeling? Jozy in my opinion is the best player we have in any level, and we have to play to his advantage. Next, why wasnt sacha starting, he has a good eye for the way the game is supposed to play, he should have started. Davies and findley looked lost on the flanks, probably because they dont play their ever. I will say that kamani hill and dax macarty impressed me a lot, dax is a very good central midfielder and i think with better compotition for him he will improve even more. he should def. be a player for the future. Hill also looked very good, i think he should of had more freedom to rome down the right flanks, he can be dangerous in the future.
I think that the bigger question is the coaching. i still question the us choices with coaching. No offense to bob bradley or peter nowak, but they are simply not good enough to coach at this level. We have great players, but i think if a more experienced coach for instance a guy like guus hidenk, was are coach things would be different. it seems like every us game no matter what level i come away extreamly dissapointed. Are players need better coaching were they will play are players in the right spots, were they can take advantage of their talents, along with better passing and flow. Look at ruud gillet for example. watching la so far, the style of play is much better, and he took a guy like alan gordon, who i thought i was better then, changed his position and now he looks much better.
i just think the us federation needs to step it up, lets face it were never going to win a world cup with bob bradley and peter nowak in charge, we need experience like a hidenk in charge to get the best out of are players if we want a chance in 2010.
undrafted – i agree Barrett plays with the type of flair McBride had/has (just less technical atm), but i dont see him ever hitting anywhere near him. in fact i doubt he’ll be seeing any National team time. what with all the up-coming forwards abroad (ie. ferrari, Bernardo, etc…not to mention MLS’ers who are just as good if not more) he’ll really have to fine tune his performance.
he does receive alot of critisism but alot of which he brings on himself (remember im 1st to defend him, im just not biased enough to defend blind:P). he has time, he’s young, he can improve. I just see the Olympics being his only National appearance (except maybe the friendlies a couple years down the road base primarily of MLS’ers)
As a Fire fan, I can confirm the sentiment here that Chad Barrett stinks and he is definetly NOT the next Brian McBride.
On the MLS front I see that there are reports that Beckham is hoping someone buys out his MLS contract and has already moved his family back to England. I guess he got tired of touring with a semi-pro team.
Zerk- ill agree that Nowak was to blame for the formation, but the roster is fine. the system is fine. We controlled the ball for 60% of the game. We outshot the opponent. We limited them to 3 chances, 1 going in. We really need to start looking at the players for this game’s outcome. Hardly any played well, ive already mentioned the few i thought, so i wont repeat.
Why was Hill so bad?? i thought he did excellent for his first time at RB. Hell, he only had 1 foul outside the box, besides the the Right side was pretty non-existant for the Cuban’s (except their last chance where noone covered for Hill’s attempt to jump-start the offense).
I used to make fun of Dax “Chuckie” McCarty. After last night I’m thinking he’s a mainstay in MF by 2014.
Davies shoulda put on some Speedos he was diving so much.
Hill might be the heir apparent to Cherundolo at right back, but he needs LOTS of time there.
Findley has blinding fast speed but just blind shooting.
Do I think Barrett will be as good as McBride? Probably not. Right now he’s a lot closer to being on that path than anyone else over 18 (of course Altidore will be better, but not in the McBride style of play).
But despite some bumps in his progress, Barrett is a smart player who works hard and still has the tools. He is still a year younger than McBride was during his first year in MLS. I’m not writing him off yet and think much of the criticism he gets is ridiculous. With experience I’m betting he’ll get more confidence and become more consistent in his finishing.
My main point here is I don’t see how anyone watching that game yesterday could just sum up his game as “awful”. Especially compare to the other strikers out there (counting Adu as a midfielder).
stencom1- b/c jozy had to run in a 60X60+ box alone, im sure he became tired and his runs werent flashy.
i blame it on the formation and the players. Findley and Davies shouldve been able to help seeing that they didnt get back to play defense on the wings (which is why they dominated play on the left), they shouldve been well rested for when the attack occured. Jozy was forced to run too much in a short amount of time and was constantly getting hacked.
that being said, i still think his touch was off and his passes werent crisp (like all our forwards)
Ben Dax was basically an automatic starter last year. He started 18 games and played in 29, missing 5 games for the U-20 world cup.
I know I know, it is sort of nitpicking but he basically was in the first XI for Dallas last year.
You know what looking back at this, it isn’t too terrible that this happened. Nowak can use this a motivational tool. Seeems like our younger players maybe thinking that they can just breeze through these tournaments, etc and if anything this game showed yesterday that US needs to go out and play its game and win. Unfortunately, yesterday game was a bad one for the US and there were at least 30 -40 mins of bad play from the US. Bad passes, bad attacks, stupid plays, etc. Hopefully the US team can use to bounce back and win the next games which they should. In ESPN 360 did they mention something interesting they compare this US team to Landon’s and Beasley young teams. Those teams were not necessarily expected to qualify or maybe have a hard time. But now the US is expected to win, but with that expectation comes a bit of uneasy and less flow from the US. Those previous teams played like they had nothing to lose. So we are getting the respect, but at the same time we need to live up to that respect which we can only earn on the field.
I was hoping to avoid a second look on this one, the first look was bad enough.
“undrafted” must have gone undrafted for a reason. Chad Barrett is an awful soccer player, and you’re delusional if you say otherwise. And when you took it to the next level and called him the next McBride I vomited all over myself.
There were two “worst” aspects of the game for me. The first was the inability of anyone but Adu to feed the ball to Jozy. The wide players were too busy sucking to be bothered.
Then there were Davies’ blatant dives. I can’t remember the last time I thought of a U.S. player as a scumbag, but that’s what I was thinking yesterday. There are few things on this planet I hate more than pathetic divers.
Nowak is ALL to blame. From selection, to formation and tactics, to playing personnel at awkward positions, to pitting/turning the team against each other, to having no cohesiveness. I thought Davies and Hill were truly awful. Findley was only slightly less so. If we don’t make Olympics — which I think we will make it just fine — then out with Nowak immediately. His selections were stupefying.
Unless Jozy was hurt…. Why in the world do you not just change it up formation wise utilizing Altidore in a more comfortable position….There has got to be more to the story about this squad selection….I dont care what kind of chemistry they think they have, when you struggle stringing 3 passes together your in trouble….Outside of Adu….that was really bad!!!!!
Very impressed by Dax McCarty. Very impressed. Can’t wait to watch him get his first season as a automatic starter this year.
Just like in the U20’s this summer. Dax McCarthy showed that he is a very useful player at the youth level. The question still remains on whether or not it will ever fully translate to the pro game, but the kid deserves to be on the pitch at this age group.
Funny how the game works. We put one other goal away and this effort gets shrugged off. Or we put up 4 vs Panama and all is forgotten.
Agreed that Davies and Findley, plus the back four have to be better. Davies decided winning fouls was better than scoring goals. Just round the keeper and put the ball in the net. His touch wasnt that bad. Take a page from Carlos Ruiz, there is a time to dive, and there is a time to do whatever it takes to put the ball in the net.
Also, it worries me that Jozy always seems knicked up in these matches. Sure he took some shots, but he also has to learn when to be physical and when to lay the ball off quickly to avoid getting kicked. Thought there were some plays around midfield on the touchline where he put himself in bad positions. In spots like that, where people will be happy to whack him, he has to avoid some contact. Being 6’1” 185 does not help when guys are kicking your calves and ankles. Get used to it.
Also this argument about Barret being like McBride is insane. McBride was successful immediately in MLS. Not only is he physical enough to fight for balls in the air, but he manages to lay them off to our own guys. Barret just has the ball bounce off him randomly. He has a lot of work to do if he even wants to be the next Brian Ching.
Will be interesting to see what Nowak throws out there next time. Tempted to go to a more traditional lineup, but Freddy makes it difficult. He is at his best when teams cant put bodies around him. In a 442, he gets too much attention at either the second forward slot or the attacking midfield slot. He shoulda put the game away on the volley in the second half. When you are his size, and supposed to be the best player on the squad, you have to finish open chances. Its the only way he makes up for the 15 minute stretches when he disappears.
i feel like we took steps backwards with this team. our youth national teams have been showing creativity and imagination, but this team was flat and bland. even with good players on the field the team looked like they didn’t have many ideas. only Adu provided a spark, but he can’t do it alone. I won’t pass judgment on Nowak just yet, we’ll see how the next game goes.
Awful awful awful
and Nowak should take all the blame.
Wasn’t it around a year ago when our u-20’s beat their full team?
RK- ive always said that. I’d like them to go abroad in the off season and take up some training and witness first hand how to coach… if not go asst. coach some there
undrafted- while im the first to defend Barrett against the biased opinions here, i will completely disagree with the fact he will be the next McBride. he has the tools to be there, but unless he fine-tunes his issues he’ll never get to that point. his touch was off last night, but i ask, outside of Dax, Adu and Kljestan, whose touch was on last night??
anyhow, everyone seems willing to flat out call Barrett trash. i ask, what did Altidore do that was so amazing that made barrett’s flaws stand out?? what did Findley and Davies do?? as i said above, outside of Dax, Adu and Kljestan, noone had a standout game. Hill impressed me at Right Back. he had one foul outside the box, but besides that he did well. He caused openings when he made his runs, however, it left the right side wide open. But someone should be covering that.
stop bringing up Feilhaber. apparently the kid had some kind of ego problem and performed terrible in camp. He needs to ground himself and get back to the basics. And get some 1st team time before expecting a red carpet onto the nats (and im saying this as a Feilhaber fan).
the Formation led to all our problems. Altidore got trashed by the defense everytime he got the ball. not to mention all the running he was Dead by the half. and having 3 forwards in (2 of which played outside) hurt us by the end of the game.
ill defend barrett’s play and id love to see him get time in a right formation, but truth be told, he’s 4th in line with our current forwards. set the formation back to 2 forwards and play our game. and it wont bother me if Barrett doesnt see much if any time as long as we qualify. But Barrett did have some positives last night. he made several quality passes that progressed play including a couple of crosses that were conceived as dangerous. But his overall play needed improvement
Our coaches could use some European seasoning, just like our players are doing…
TK,
I think your right, growing up in NJ and playing on various select teams and in college, there are too many guys who think they know, but don’t really know.
Go overseas to get some real coaches, especially Italy. They see beyond the big fast, strong.
Which are not bad qualities, but when combined with a rock touch (Barrett) or no clue about off the ball runs, movement into space, and attacking the wings & baseline forget it.
These players are mostly professional and using one striker is a sign of fear and also a sign that we don’t trust ourselves. Fielding a lone striker against CONCACAF opposition is an embarassment. We should attack with a 4-4-2 and have a positive mentality.
I’m disgusted.
I think Altidore had a minor injury and was saved for later games. He didn’t look game fit and was unlikely to get that energy in the 2nd half.
The biggest problem was arrogance and laziness. The players on the wing couldn’t beat their man and couldn’t cross. The team played with little urgency after having an easy first 5-10 minutes. Ianni is a vulnerability until Spector gets put in. Hill has potential but is new to his position.
Nowak had a decent idea in putting all that speed out there that could overwhelm Cuba. But after 20 minutes or so, Cuba had held in there and figured out that the US would be dangerous on a counterattack. Adu came close to creating a couple more goals, but the team didn’t adjust to regain the dominance their talent should allow. With too much diving (Davies), a style that bypassed a strong midfield (long balls up to forwards who had no room to use their pace), and a lazy moment on defense, Cuba got their chance to hold the US to a tie. The US players have flaws, but the talent level is too high to let that happen on US soil.
Let’s hope we don’t end up with a semfinal against Mexico.
I’m still not convninced that Altidore is a “great” player – YET. He is a very good player with occasional flashes of greatness. Felt this way the day after the USMNT vs. South Africa game when a certain NY/NJ blogger proclaimed Altidore’s coming-of-age is upon us.
At this point in his career, Altidore may be at that juncture where Adu was in his last couple seasons of MLS. Talented and gifted with potential to be a great player… but not yet great. To place so much hope on the kid is dangerous at this point… Just as it was for Adu.
It’s simple.
We need to import coaches at all levels. All.
We don’t have the brains or experience.
Yet, we are to arrogant to get the brains. We know better. Yeah, right.
All other maturing soccer countries get it. Just watch how much better Japanese players are than ours technically and tactically. They imported the brains form SA, taught their own coaches, and are increasing their knowledge.
We are naive, young and immature as a soccer nation.
The raw materials are there. The teaching and coaching isn’t. As long as the politcs and arrogance of the USSF keeps the status quo expect little improvement over the next 10-15 years.
You have ot be insane to think there will be improvement.
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insanity. Welocme to the USSF.
Dave Sacharan and John Ellinger head our youth development porgram here in the states now. Two more unqualified guys you couldn’t find. Welcome to insanity.
There is a reason I don’t get as caught up as I used to. We will stay where we are until we get people with brains teaching. Not political appointments.
What is Nowak thinking…. A 4-5-1 at HOME against mighty power CUBA.
Findley and Davis were horrible. How on earth did they make this team?
Benny can’t make this team but Findley and Davis are starters – give me a break.
I was not sorry to see Nowak leave DC and this game was a swift kick in the pants reminder of why.
Question why was Altidore taking out at half time? ….. it was a dumb idea. I did not like the coaching job done last night. Alvarez was missed……
Good point by Big Will on the preparations for the tourney. Short of the games in China months ago (which was a significantly differnt squad than this one and also played porly) this team has never played competively together before last night.
But is that Nowak’s fault or did the Federation cheap on us? If they can only draw in the hundreds for the qualifier itself then friendlies obviously would have been an expense for the Federation. And games with MLS teams would be no more than scrimmages so they would have actually needed to play the teams from the other qualifying group or even a Cuba. Why didn’t they make that happen?
I don’t get why we brought Nowak back to coach. This guys is a clown and has no freaking clue. Barrett is horrible and so is Paul Macarty’s son Macarty (ok maybe not his son ) but is this the best we have in our player pool !?!??! Oh my, thank God for Adu, Edu and Altidore because the rest is garbage.
I thought they had the feeling they deserved the automatic W just for showing up. I’m going to the game on Thursday. I’m a little disappointed that we are missing some of the players I expected to see. This seems like the B+ U23’s which doesn’t have quite the same appeal as a team that would have 1/2 of the very near future MNT.
undrafted are you kidding? Yes, Barret had a few decent touches. Unfortunately, at least as often his first touch would send the ball 10 yards away. Many times he was able to track down the ball as you stated but this does not correct the bad first touch. A good first touch is not just needed to keep possession, it also allows you to get your head up quicker and spot open teammates. If you have to track down the ball that is time when a potentially golden opportunity passes by. So Barrett did not correct his poor first touches because once you have a bad touch it can not be corrected. Does he have the body to become a McBride type player yes, but as of now his touch is far too inconsistent.
I like Hill @ right back, surprisingly, since I thought he was a forward.
He is big, fast and more importantly technically skilled. Looks like he needs more experience there, I saw him do a couple of dive in tackles and was way out of position a couple times
His ability to get foward and his calmness on the ball wins out over his inexperience in my opinion.
Sweet! We’re England Jr.
We think our players are better than they are. Our players think they’re entitled to win by showing up. The fans blame the coach for the shortcomings of the players. Our player development system NEVER produces anyone with the goods to dominate at the top level. And we’re about to not qualify for a ‘major’ tournament.
Let’s just start cracking eachother over the head with pipes at MLS matches, and boo the Canadian Anthem when TFC comes to town and we’ll be there (we can already get liqoured up with the best of them).
I posted this on the other thread this morning.
Also, some crazy person above thinks Barret is good. Are you kidding me!!! Everytime he got near the ball he lost it or fouled someone. Hustle & desire doesn’t make a good soccer player..
There is so much more I can rip Nowak on but I don’t have the time or energy right now.
Nowak was awful,
Come out in 4-5-1. Play Altdore up top all by himself then let him get tired.
Sub our best player and goal scorer at half, then switch to 2 fowards.
Again, we have no left mid on the team without Rogers and Alaverez..
Left our 2 best outside mids on the bench the whole game, Holden & Zizzo.
No clue on what to do in the attacking half… everything was down the middle or crosses from 20-25 yards out. Take the ball to the baseline boys. All I saw was that puzzled look on Nowaks face instead of giving instructions.
The only thing a national team coach has to do is select the right players & put the right players on the pitch in the proper formation.
Nowak screwed up both of these… If the US fails to qualify, I’ve said it before, fire this idiot.
Nowak is an idiot. I have not watched the game, but am going to do so tonight. The result did not surprise me as I don’t think this team has been prepared to play. This team should have been having all kinds of friendlies the past few weeks instead of going the training camp route. Look at Mexico. Their U23 team has been struggling to score, but they got matches in and will be ready for their group. Nowak should have scheduled games against all these pre-season MLS teams especially if Nowak was intending on using his all-forward lineup.
I’m not ready to start calling Nowak a failure, but the result is disappointing. I wonder if it speaks more to the fact that US players just aren’t that good, yet are way cocky about their skills. That is a tougher mentality to squash.
I love how Nowak’s lineup in the beginning was criticized when they scored the goal, but the second half didn’t produce any. Let’s remind ourselves that the overall level of play is more even at the Youth level. Having said that, the US should have won. And, everyone should share the blame.
The next McBride? Sorry man…there are several American forwards in the MLS and abroad that could conceivably aspire to that position, but I really don’t think Barrett is one.
What did people think of the Kamani Hill experiment? I didn’t think he looked that terrible at right back.
Nowak must take the blame for the first half (why play Jozy up top alone and start with Sasha on the bench?), and for adjusting too late (why wait until the second half to change formations).
Iani must take the blame for the equalizer (clear the freakin’ ball out of the dangerous places, son)
Seitz must accept some of the blame for the equalizer (I know it was a slow night for you, but you don’t commit so early on a shot/cross just to get into the game)
Davies must stop diving (stay on your freakin feet, you try to con the ref one to many times and you won’t get the real calls).
Findely must become prolific (the best strikers in the world get one maybe two chances in a game sometimes but they make those chances stick).
Other than that I think the rest of the group had anywhere from decent to awsome games. High marks to Freddy, Sasha, Edu and Dax. We need to close this group out with wins and we’ll be looking pretty.
Really, really depressing result. We should’ve sent Rongen to coach them.
Ives, you must have a limited view of the possibilities in football. Because Barrett was effective several times in moving play forward and creating chances. For all the crap he gets, he’s still the next McBride IMO.
Findley and Davies were useless out wide. They are fast and talented, but against an organized/near bunkering team, they proved useless. Barrett was one of the better players out there, regardless if he made a few poor touches (mostly corrected himself with his workrate/second touch).
As the English have yet to learn, there’s more than 1 way to play the game. A lot of people don’t seem to get that a player with a couple of flaws can still be pretty good.
Peter Nowak is exhibit A….
A great player doesnt always turn into a great coach.
Agree. Barrett is the U-23 equivalent of TT (except he isn’t as good in MLS too)