Photo by ISIPhotos.com
It was ugly.
There is really no other way to describe the U.S. team’s 2-0 loss to England. The Americans were thoroughly dominated and had few players really step up to the challenge presented by the star-studded English lineup.
Wednesday’s loss wasn’t about what Americans were missing, not about Jozy Altidore being left home or Freddy Adu being left out of the starting lineup. It was about a U.S. team exposed for what it is, a young group still in transition after the retirements of several key figures.
The U.S. team had two glaring weaknesses, the lack of a central midfield presence capable of keeping possession under pressure (ala Claudio Reyna) and no target forward capable of presenting problems to the defense (ala Brian McBride). These are issues that have been concealed for the most part in the past two years, but issues that couldn’t be ignored against a skillful and experienced England squad.
So who do I think played well? Other than Oguchi Onyewu and Heath Pearce, I think the rest of the U.S. performances were pretty forgettable. Eddie Johnson had some decent touches but after hearing some good reviews of his performance I can’t help but wonder if he has set the bar so low in his recent national team showings that any sort of decent play could be seen as better than it actually was. As for Freddy Adu, yes, he showed something, but the game was already decided by then and there was definitely a foot-off-the-pedal feel to the game at that point.
I’ll re-watch this morning to see if anyone else stands out (I know, unlikely).
Who didn’t play well? Yes, it’s a long list but I’ll point to Josh Wolff and Ricardo Clark as two who stood out. Wolff looked completely lost while Clark had a hand in both of England goal’s. The first via a clumsy foul in an area of the field that is David Beckham free kick territory, the second when he completely lost himself in midfield and left Gareth Barry all alone to deliver a pin-point pass to Steven Gerrard (to be fair, Barry had just come into the match and neither Clark or Bradley picks up Barry). I like Clark as a player but he has not done himself any favors with his recent national team performances.
I’ll get more into the carnage later today. For now I want to hear from you, the SBI readers, and find out what your biggest complaints are about the England match and what you think were the high points and low points.
Share your thoughts below.
Wow, I can’t believe some of these comments. Eddie had a decent game? He is a forward and he needs to score. He had a lackluster game at best.
Also, Heath Pierce isn’t ready for the big time yet? He was one of the few brights spots in the game yesterday if not the brightest spot.
Do some people comment without watching the game?
Pearce, bocanegra, onyewu, adu, guzan, were the bright spots for me. M. Bradley did the job he was told to do pretty well, but the general strategy of Capello put him a bit out of the picture. With Bradley and Clark/edu as the defensive midfielders we were always going to be unable to posses the ball in midfield against better oposition. No surprises there. Ej was actually pretty nice to watch, and dempsey was quality despite being totally worked out of the picture by the strategy of the game. I think the harsh critisism against the forward line should surely primarliy go to the fact that while England may lack certain qualities, there back line is mouth droolingly fantastic. We needed a ball possesing midfielder with a creative edge in the middle to do anything about that. I have always thought Wolfe is a nice completmentary player, but he needed to be world class against a back line like that.
Cappello had to win tonight. Home game with most of his best players on the field. We needed donovan and then some. Actually, home filed advantage with a great free kick in from an amazing ball expert like beckam for the first goal and what are you gonna do away at Wembley? Ugly? I guess the ugly thing was just that Cappello is just a better tactian than Bob Bradley and even when we came out up for it after half time, Cappello’s adjustments were just better than Bradley’s. I don’t feel like I wish we had a better coach cause Bradley is quite good for us, but recently we have gotten by with our “special teams” play and that was totally undone by England.
The true quality of what we have as a team will be revealed more by how we respond to the defeat in the next two upcoming games.
I’ve seen enough of Michael Bradley with Heerenveen, the U-20s and the full national team to come to one inescapable conclusion: He can’t play for his dad.
When there’s a coach/manager other than Bob Bradley on his sideline, he plays futbol. He’s aggressive, he’s skillful, he’s a leader. When he plays for dad, he always looks as if he’s looking to the sideline to see if the old man is OK with what he’s doing, like he’s not free to play his game. I don’t know if that’s in Michael’s head or if his dad messes with his head or if his dad doesn’t use him in the right role, but he just doesn’t look comfortable on the pitch for the full national team.
I hope it’s either something he’ll grow out of (he’s still only 20, as some people seem to forget, which is younger in US soccer years than it is in soccer years for European or South American players) or something that won’t be a problem if somebody else is pulling the strings for the MNT. But it concerns me.
Overall, I was apalled at most of what I saw Wednesday. I’ve often made excuses for the MNT’s poor performances before, citing the absence of key European-based players, but they were all there this time. The only notable absence to me was the obvious one, Donovan, and if the absence of Landon Donovan drops our level of play that much, we are in some deep doo-doo.
By the way, is Michael Parkhurst ever going to get a fair shake as a MNT defender? Sure, he’s not the most physical defender around, but you don’t have to be when you read the game the way he does. I’d rather see Parkhurst paired with Gooch so that he can match up with a quick forward like Dafoe than the dual lumbering central defenders combo of Gooch and Boca. I know both of those guys are dangerous on set pieces, but both are just as likely to give up a goal as they are to score one.
@rups – Everyone knows we do not have the same talent, fundamental skills, etc that the other major soccer powers do. However, we do have some great talent, and not all of that talent was put onto the field last night for that game. That is what is upsetting me the most. I wanted to give that game the best the USMNT has to offer, and Bob Bradley did not do that.
That said, Bob is the coach, and he is doing what he feels is the best OVERALL for the USMNT. I am going to try to reserve harsh judgements until World Cup Qualifying begins because THAT is when we NEED to be fielding our best XI.
This was a pretty deflating loss. But I think our reasons for not playing well were more mental than anything else. Beaz said we gave England too much respect, and I agree. I would even say we were a bit scared out there. Coach Bradley had better both give the guys a pep talk and light a fire under them. We’ve got to be mentally prepared to face Spain.
Did some you watch the match? England was poor and we were a billion times worse. Bob had no idea what he was doing. Rico Clark is not that good and uses his hand too much.
The US is regressing. Cut the nonsense about we only lost 2-0. That’s why I was hoping for a 5-0 so some of you would see how bad we have fallen behind.
Frankie Heydude needs to stay in the Nats. No one hustles like him and his play was the only strong point for the second half. I wish Eddie Johnson would once and for all figure out if he is going to hustle for a full 90 (does Bradley ever sit him down and make him watch his laziness on tape?). If not, he needs to go. Freddy Adu looked silly on a couple of his free kicks, straight give aways, unless you realized that it was Eddie Johnson standing around and not making the runs onto those actually clever passes. The US young guns, Adu, Edu, Altidore, Bradley Parkurst etc, need to start playing together regularly.
Why can’t US soccer get a game like this on a decent channel??!? I don’t know anyone who has ESPN Classic. I went to two different bars at lunchtime yesterday and neither were able to get the game. Was hoping to catch it on Galavision last night, but I couldn’t get that either. From the comments here though, it appears I didn’t miss much.
hey rups, you are right to an extent. but you have to be out of your mind if you think there would be no difference in starting altidore instead of wolfe? There are better combos which we need to find and than maybe these score will be 2-1 instead of 2-0 or what should have been 4- 0. we easily could have been more competative with another lineup.
4-2-3-1
The 4: Gooch, Orozco, Heyduk, Pearce
The 2: Bradley, Edu (we could use more here)
The 3: Adu, Donovan, Beasley (sounds good huh)
The 1: Any of the following, Dempsey, Cooper, Altidore, Jaqua
Sorry about the game guys. My team selection was really bad.
All of you guys need to stop prentending that if Twellman,Fielhaber, Jozy, or Landon were in the game we would have played better. That’s like saying, “geez, I wonder what taste better polar bear crap or grizzly bear crap?”…You know what, their both crap, and they both taste like crap. You can plug in all kinds of names that should have played, it doesn’t matter, the end result would have been the same. Our US guys are MLS players (Beasly is the only exception). MLS is the minor leagues, you can not expect these guys to compete with players who play in the epl,serie A, and la liga. MLS games are unwatchable due to their lack of speed, creativity, and just overall skill,(all 3 things lacking from yesterday’s game). The better teams have players who battle in champions league, euro and world cups. And what do we do? We go play Jamaica, or TNT, or Guatemala in Foxboro, and we beat them 5-0, and all of a sudden that means we can compete with the Top 25 countries?
I love the US, and I was there when we got out teeth kicked in against the Cechs in 2006, this story is not new. We don’t have the players who can strike fear against the opposition. Sure we can beat Mexico,China, and all these other teams who barely qualify for anything meaningful. But all that is doing is setting us up for is a huge dissapointment when we play a team superior than us. And as of right now, there might be 35-40 countries that are better than us, and I put Mexico in there as one of those teams.
If the future wants to get better, we need to take action now. The US SOCCER FED. needs to get involved, pour more money into recruiting kids who are 4-5 yrs old, and show some promise. We need more acadmeys who teach our elite young players the proper mental and physical aspects of the game.
It’s either that or send a few 1000 of our hottest women down to Brazil, and start marrying some of their futbolers, give them green cars and let them be citizens!
Cooper & Jozy needs to play with the nats more.
——–Cooper—Altidore——-
————Donovan————-
Beasley——————Dempsey
————Bradley————–
Pearce-Bocanegra-Onyewu-Cherundolo
————-Howard—————
Kudos to England, they played well. Makes you wonder how a team with that sort of talent could miss out on the Euros. Sort of the new Portugal…
England also took their foot off the gas, so lets not annoint Freddy yet. Kid can play, and hopefully he’ll get a chance for a full 90 against Spain. EJ had his best game in some time, so hopefully he’s gettig over his mental block, since he’s got all the tools be a great striker. I also thought Pearce did well. The rest, not so much with the exception of Lewis, but again, England had let down a bit but he was all over the field making plays.
US team will be fine, but it’s clear we still have a ways to go, which shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Hopefully the current crop of young players will help close the gap a little bit more and the next crop will continue to improve.
Agree with Ives although might add Eddie Lewis as doing well. Who is this new ESPN writer who rated the players and had high marks for Ricardo Clark? You must be joking? And wasn’t Beasley pretty much invisible the whole game?
This game shows that we don’t have midfielders who can play at this level. I would have been much more interested to have seen Bradley in attacking mid and Mastrioni in holding mid with Lewis starting on left to see what kind of impact that might have had on control and service.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned how terrible the service was on set pieces. That was the major difference I saw with the Poland match and it masked all these other problems. Beasley kept hitting the wall!
Until we get to a point where Harkes doesn’t have to call 5 back passes from the forwards to the keeper ‘better from the US’ in reference to possession and combination, we’re going to continue as we have.
Can’t say anyone played well. Johnson and Wolfe upfront meant we would have no attack. These guys are way down on the depth chart. Adu starting instead of Wolfe would have been better for his development..but lets face it, his touch was way off too last night and he passed more to the opposing team than his own.
Without Landon, I suppose more was expected of Beasley and Deuce but England effectively shut them down. We should not let Beasley handle free kicks and corners. He squanders the opportunity. In that regard, Lewis is probably better despite his age and his balls and passes were certainly more threatening. Pearce and Cherundholo were not very good either in their attacks up the wings. I think Cherundholo will bounce back but Hejduk was better last night. As for Pearce…I think Bob will need to keep looking for his left back. Maybe he will develop (there is time), but maybe not. In the meantime maybe looking at Lewis or Convey along the back line is not a bad idea. Or move Bocanegra out wide and give Conrad, Demerit or Califf or someone else a shot in the middle. The goalies were fine given what they were faced with. The defensive mids seemed a bit lost. Bottom line however is that without an attack, our defensive mids and middle defenders will only stand up for a while before giving in to the pressure of a top flight team. We will be better with Landon paired up with a solid Number 9 (Jozy, Cooper??…heck why not throw in Jacqua or go back to Dempsey in that role?) and some more creative wing play and interplay between our outside mids and outside defenders.
I would add that Clark is not playing well for Houston either. He has been out of position a lot and getting beat regularly. He tries to compensate by fouling. And he isn’t so great at fouling nicely either. I think he is leading MLS in yellow cards this season.
I actually thought Tim Howard did not look that special. In fact, that first goal they re-played from the goal perspective, you see the ball clearly coming over the wall, and Howard frozen for a second. And he misses on his dive getting a hand on the ball by inches…I think Keller would have saved that. Keller looked sharp towards the end of Fulham’s season, and his reaction saves were getting back to where they were pre-injury. I thought Howard should have been able to get a hand on that ball.
I think for the sake of the NATS all positions must be up for competition, and Howard’s should be no different. I would love to know how many of the goals that Howard let in were a result of his handicap.
Dump Clark.
Dump Wolff.
Dump EJ.
START EDDIE LEWIS!
Eddie Lewis I think should be the captain of this team and should play for us in the next world cup, despite his age. He can do so much, including being accurate on set pieces. Beasley should not be handling set pieces. He wasted our few good opportunities yesterday.
START FREDDY ADU!
Freddy’s ready! Build the team around him, and not Donovan.
And finally if Bob Bradley does not get a result in the next two games, I think we have our “Avram Grant” clause where we recognize he is Bruce Arena “lite” and cut our losses. Too bad Sven Goran Erickson won’t be available. By not going after a big game coach, Sunil let Mexico get significantly stronger. Qualifying is not going be be a cake walk at all. They are going to be tough, starting with Barbados.
That is all contingent that Bob Bradley does not get a result in Spain, or back in New York…He gets any type of result in those two games, a 0-0 tie, anything, he stays…
okay, the England game is over… Here is what I’d like to see next week versus Spain:
………Dempsey……….
…Adu- Donovan- Beasley..
……Bradley- Edu……..
Spector- Boca- Gooch- Dolo
………..Howard………
okay, the England game is over… Here is what I’d like to see next week versus Spain:
………Dempsey……….
…Adu- Donovan- Beasley..
……Bradley- Edu……..
Spector- Boca- Gooch- Dolo
………..Howard………
Nothing good to say about that game.
For all of you who keep saying “well if we just had Donovan…”. All I can say is what if England had Owen? Pathetic performance, 2002 was a fluke, we do not have the weapons to compete against big teams. People and the media need to stop treating this team as if they are top 10 in the world, we don’t even belong in the top 30. It will get worse before it gets better, probably staring with Spain next week!
The only bad things of that worst game is Josh Wolff, and Ricardo Clark. They both did not play well. My thing is why has Bob Bradley not used the 3-5-2 yet he has used it in Chicago and did well. A few times with Metro and Chivas we got the players for the 3-5-2. He is to be blame really on this game and players were trying. It is just that Capello had us scouted well and knowing that BB was going to use the similar formation he used against Poland come on what did we expect. Plus in an interview BB did not sound confident we could win and that I fault him very much on. He needs to stop trying to hide and say what you want to say show some more pride on your team. Come on “I guess we could win” that is what you say man up BB man up that is all you need to do. Also Jaqua and EJ up top would of been a much better choice for the England game. Should of given Adu a start in my opinion. Oh well we lost and we got to move on.
Unfortunately I couldn’t watch this game because I was at work. Is it being replayed?
A few thoughts…I was concerned when I heard Donovan wouldn’t play. There are U.S. fans who don’t like him, and I can’t really say I understand that AT ALL. He’s very talented, is the all-time leading U.S. scorer, and gives us much needed speed on the attack. It hurt us not to have him yestersay. Period, and foolish to think otherwise.
I would like to see Twellman get more calls. Like him or not, he has a knack for putting it in the net. There are some guys out there like that. They simply score, and sometimes it’s difficult to say why they do.
Someone above mentioned that the best U.S. athletes simply don’t play soccer, and that’s why we struggle against the best teams abroad. There may be some truth to that. Football and basketball are “king” in the U.S., and the most talented athletes, particularly inner city kids, often aren’t exposed to soccer. We may not always be “bringing the best cards to the table.”
Lastly, Ricardo Clark…WHY!!?? He has consistently proven to be a liability, and it sounds like yesterday was no exception. However, I’ll reserve final comment here until I can hopefully see a replay of the game.
Michael F
Great 10 points you had there. Agree whole heartedly with most of them and mostly on board with the Adu one. But then I read number 10. Damn man you are funny, Chad Barret should get a look.LOL thats funny stuff.
Clark should never never never play again(UMNT). All he can do is foul. He is a thug. He is the reason we lost this game.
About J. Lawrenowitz —- i think he definitely deserves a shot. he has a “I dont give a F*C) who you are attitude which the USA needs. Dempsey use to have it, now he respects who he plays too much and he’s not as dangerous as he once was. Did anyone see Girard tell dempsey to get up and stop crying yesterday? old dempsey would not have shown gerard the respect.
(felihaber sort of has this attitude now and a reason along with his creativity is why he needs to be on the field)
Bradleys got to go. Agree with others, we lost with the pool he brought in. Nowvak doing a horrible job with the under 23s.
EJ is done./horrible. let him develop with fulham and than give him another try. Not on our watch aymore.
We suppose to be progrssing each year and i have not seen one performance (besides italy) since ther germany quarter final.
WE all know this much. Games are won and lost in Midfield. And we ain’t got one. Game over.
England’s middies: Lampart, Hargraves, Becks and Gerrard vs. Jr, Clark, Dempsey and DMB. (it’s already 1-0).
The Benny Fielhaber we saw when he first came on the scene needs to reappear. Bradley’s in trouble without him.
Dempsey needs LD.
WE need some kind of attacking flair in the center mid. If that means throwing Adu to the fire, let’s get it over with and put him in the fire. If it means moving Demps to the middle, do that. I don’t think he’s a wing mid either.
No Donovan = No Hope
The game: thoroughly depressing. Also, is everyone on our team afraid of that thug, Rooney?
…Meanwhile back in the states, Cooper with yet another clinical finish.
Seriously people can use the phrase “very good” in the same breath with discussion of any american’s performance? The midfield didn’t move well off the ball, the touch was sloppy and we couldn’t maintain any sort of possession…No one came close to putting a body on John Terry on the goal. (that could be attributed to the general set piece defense on that play but it was horrible all around)
And Gooch who people were saying had a good game lost his man on several occasions around the box, made one terrible two footed challenge after losing his man and getting turned around, and didn’t cut down the shooting angle on Gerrard when he was going in one on one to the goal. There is a slight possibility this could have been excusable if there was an unmarked player trailing the play who could have tapped in a cross, but there wasn’t and better yet Gooch didn’t even check to see if there was a trailer. Instead he ball watched. At least Heath did the right thing on a similar play in the first half thereby making it easier for Tim Howard to defend the play.
Is Ricardo Clark a hot head? He seems to lose his composure quickly. Witness the 9 game MLS suspension – countless reds – and constant complaining.
Used to like the dude – now I think he’s got a critical flaw that can’t be covered at the USMNT level.
I hope Edu can push him for more playing time – he seems like a better battler who won’t cost you silly fouls/free kicks.
I don’t understand how anybody can say EJ was one of the worst players on the field last night. He was quick, found triangles, and actually showed a willingness to go at players, the latter two being things he never does. I don’t like him and was very disappointed to see him in the starting lineup, but he impressed me yestarday. It’s not exactly like he plays a back four with that much quality every weekend.
Maybe people should make their own opinions instead of instantly running to bigsoccer after the game to see what toxic ideas are made to be the consensus.
About Adu and how his performance should be put in perspective- England wasn’t playing that much pressure the entire game, its not like they were going at a breakneck speed or anything when Wolff was on there. Wolff was struggling just as bad right before Adu came on the field as he was at the beginning of the game.
And I liked Heath Pearce, except for the very big blunder of letting Defoe turn inside the box.
Here’s an idea for a line-up. I think right now this could be the best we can do.
Howard
Dolo/Gooch/Boca/Spector
Beasley/Dempsey/Bradley/Lewis(rogers)
Donovan/Altidore
– Yes, Lewis is old, but he’s great on FKs and looked pretty good in his 20 minutes yesterday.
– Dempsey should play in CM. He only played up top at Fulham when there was a rash of striker injuries.
– Donovan should play up top as a second striker as long as his goal-scoring form keeps up.
– Adu, right now, is best suited to the supersub role.
Thoughts?
We must be the only national team on the planet with players out of contract starting in a major friendly. Can’t understand what the point is giving Wolff, Frankie, Lewis, etc. a run when they should be testing new talent. There’s something to giving them a testimonial appearance at Wembley – they’ve made their contributions over the years – but giving experience to Adu, Mapp and(insert other attacking-minded players that exist here) would be far more valuable.
In the end, the physical difference between our boys and the English and other countries in general at this point is obvious: they have the top echelon of athletes funneled into soccer from the start. While we do have talented players, they are slighter and far less ‘battle-hardened’ coming up through our youth system/college.
Finally, having the entire country behind you, no matter how small the nation, can only help give you the most complete passion for winning. It’s hard to find a player on our side with a stern brow of determination.
How tall is Dolo?
Johnson was still terrible. It really is time to put him away. I would honestly rather see Chad Barrett start than him. I really don’t think Barrett has the mental game for international soccer, but he’s got the physical tools to miss at least one sitter, as opposed to never getting the chance.
Wolff should never suit up again, except for low-level qualifiers.
Adu needs to start soon. I think a 4-4-2 Diamond set-up would be decent, with Jozy/Landon up top, Adu @ CAM, DMB on the left, Dempsey on the right and Bradley at D/Holding Mid.
This said, I think our upcoming generations of talent are really getting better. I know that they’re all still young, but look at Stefan Jerome, Charlie Renken, et al…these guys should be monsters at the U-20 level (Renken is only 14 or something).
Unless we get a sick, sick group, we should advance out of group stage at the WC…and this is assuming that we only have our current pool to work with. Not a bad team at all if you look at it that way.
I think the defense was OK and overall kept their shape quite well, but there is a glaring lack of speed. You cannot run the offside trap like the US did repeatedly yesterday without a fast CB to recover when you mistime it (as they did a number of times). The crossing from Pearce and Dolo also left a lot to be desired. It’s too bad, because the back four generally did well defensively, but this group certainly still has liabilities.
The midfield was entirely toothless and the only one who played well was Eddie Lewis, and that was obviously brief. Dempsey and Beasley did nothing on the wings (though Beasley did have some comfortingly competent touches), Bradley didn’t do enough in any respect, and Clark was just putrid. I mean, having Clark out there was like playing 10 on 11. I like him as a player but I can’t see how he plays any kind of significant role going forward.
Ives, I think you’re right about Johnson setting the bar so low that a mediocre performance looks good just because he didn’t completely embarrass himself. Wolff didn’t offer anything either. The team really does need Landon and Jozy up top.
I think the midfield seriously needs a ball winner (Edu?) and it needs Bradley to step up and play like he did at Heerenveen. I’m not asking for goals galore, but he needs to be able to at least complete simple passes and use passing combinations to get forward. Adu also needs to be on the field. I don’t think it matters where you put him because he’ll play where he wants to play – and I think that’s fine.
Hopefully the team can learn from its mistakes and make some progress in the Spain game. I am worried however that their attack will punish us far worse than England’s did.
“It was about a U.S. team exposed for what it is, a young group still in transition after the retirements of several key figures.”
——-
I see this a little bit differently. I saw a group of players who are largely supposed to be in their prime! 24-28 years old with European “experience.”
——–
I too was puzzled by Ives comments. The lineup we fielded was not a “young” team — Bradley was the only player out there from the Under 23 pool, and he already has 4 years of professional experience under his belt. We’re hardly a team in “transition” either. The retirements of McBride and Reyna happened two years ago, so there has been plenty of time to adjust.
Let’s not make excuses for what happened out there. England is simply a better team, no matter how we tweak our lineup.
I think its time for the US to move away from the 4-4-2 or the 4-5-1. We simply don’t have the wing backs or the strikers to be effective in that formation. What we do have are three or four good attacking midfielders and some depth at CB with Spector and Demerit.
I would like to see us go with a 3-5-2 of 3-6-1.
The back line would be:
Spector – Gooch – Boca
the midfield would have:
Cherundulo – Clark (or Edu)- Beasley
Bradley-
And – Donovan, Dempsey, and Altidore/Adu would play a solely attacking role with Beasley and Cherundulo providing width and helping out on d. With three Central mids and with Clark/Edu behind him Bradley could also move more freely into the attack.
Wow i have missed alot this thread.
Ives – just to get back to my last post – I realize England was “chillin” by then, but Adu inspires play, where there was no inspiration from our mids at all.
And EJ is EJ. lol
On to Spain.
A team that defeated Switzerland and Poland in their own backyards is now done? Come on guys. Yes, the USA played terrible; it was reminiscent of the game that they lost to Sweden in Sweden, but they bounced back. The U.S. at the moment is playing hot and cold due to this stage of transition, but there is plenty of time to fix things. By the time ” Copa Federaciones” rolls around, the USA will have an idea were it stands.
Bradley hasnt lived up to the hype hes played brillantly on club level but doesnt seem like he wants to attack on national level
Emergency call up or not, Frankie deserves real consideration. IMO, he was the only player moving well off the ball and making intelligent plays. Late in the game he was the only player to displayed a real passion to try and pull out the win. Sure, he is getting on in years, but he should be considered for the squad as a locker room leader and play as a sub to spark the team when things are going poorly. I’m not a big fan of his, but the guy deserves some credit for the effort he put in.
Leo – def agree with a world class coach, new ideas are needed over the whole pitch. Pearce was the bright spot on teh back line the others I thought did fine. I thought the US needs to look at film, seemed like everyone else know when Ashley Cole was going to make a run besides our guys on the right.
I could complain about specific players, but i thought pressure from the whole team was lacking when compared to England.
And finally agreeing with the 85 people before me, the link between midfield and forwards in non existent. I can’t blame EJ or wolf when the only time they get passes when 1 or 2 people is directly on them, and the pass is directly to them.
US needs to keep video of this game and teach themselves to move without the ball, until then we deserve to be 20-30th in the world
Kpugs, thanks for the disparaging comments. I have played and have taken plenty of individual defensive training sessions throughout my life. When you are attempting a defensive header you are most certainly accountable for the location of that header, regardless of the intent of the initial pass. I understand sometimes conditions are not ideal but as I mentioned this has happened numerous times and I only pointed out one example, it’s something that can be corrected.
And I do watch plenty of England games/Chels/ManUtd games and admit that Ferdinand and Terry make their share of mistakes, but would go as far as saying they would prove good examples for Bocanegra and Gooch to learn from.
People should stop complaining about BB not giving Adu enough playing time. BB sees the same things in Adu that we all do, but he isn’t worried about results in a single friendly, he is worried about developing the players in the USMNT pool so that we are peaking at the right times. Getting Adu minutes against such quality oppostition in one of, if not the, most famous stadiums in the world was very important. However, more important than that is that BB keeps putting him in situations where he can succeed and grow in confidence- which he did. Putting him in with 20 minutes left, in a game whose tone had already relaxed b/c of the second goal, is the perfect way to get him big-game experience whilst giving him every chance to be successful. What if he had started and been physically abused by the Three Lions? Would his confidence have been shattered? The kid is 18 and needs to be brought along slowly. You can’t give him too big of a role too quickly. So far, I think BB is doing it perfectly, b/c every time Adu goes in he succeeds. Hopefully overtime, his minutes will creep up and by the time we get to South Africa he will be a starter (but if you are a USMNT fan, there is no reason to push for him to be a starter RIGHT NOW). The same all goes for Altidore (who is even less ready than Adu is). Likewise, I think that Michael Bradley’s role on the USMNT is different now than it will be in South Africa. He is only 20! Asking him to be strong in the tackle and break up the other team’s moves is enough for now. Yes, he’s a box to box holding midfielder in the Eredivisie- but guess what? The Eredivisie isn’t the same level as international play! I think that by South Africa he will be an excellent holding midfielder, but for now, let’s continue to give him a role we know he can be successful at and let him grow from there. Be patient guys. We are continuing to improve.
Plus I’d like to see Edu. He’s more athletic and stronger than Rico. He’s a good presence, but he needs to play his position. He forces Michael to make up for his poor position and being drawn out. He tries to do too much, he just needs to sit back and let Michael play in front of him.
THIS IS WHY WE LOST
I blame this game on Bob Bradley. I am the biggest Bradley fan in the world, but yesterday was Coach Bradley’s fault. Our strategy was to play the ball every time into EJ and expect him to hold the ball on JT, Rio Ferdinand, and the rest of the Champions League back line. It made us predictable and ineffective. England always attacked moving forward and we were most effective with Eddie lewis runs and give and gos with EJ etc. The US must learn to play facing the opponents goal. It was a weak strategy that lost us the game. The players did not have their best performances, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that we did not change our tactics. Aside from players with solid performances were Pearce, Ogneywu, Lewis, EJ, and Dempsey. Bradley played mediocre, he gave the ball away to much. He started great with hard tackles, but he never touched the ball until the 8th minute. He has the capability to control the middle, but he is not being used by Bob Bradley. Let’s see how the US will change their tactics by next Wednesday. I hope they try to play more down the wings, play behind players, and push Michael into the center of midfield and use him as a distributor. Go on USA!
I’m embarrassed by two threads of unsophisticated thoughts on this message board, but that’s what happens when you combine the Internet with the expectations and understanding of the typical U.S. soccer fan.
First, questioning Bradley Sr.’s status as a coach is absurd. He did just win us three games in a row, in Europe, against teams that are actually playing for the European championship. Yes, his tactics and selections seem strange in certain games, but his job is not to win friendlies. It’s to win continental competitions and be respectable at the next World Cup. We have to give him, and the administration of U.S. soccer, credit for scheduling this series of three games in the first place.
2. It’s equally absurd, given the status of the U.S. striker corps, to say EJ doesn’t deserve to play, especially when Landon is hurt. EJ is not a great player. But he has enough raw talent, talent that’s been proven on the international stage, to get lucky against teams like England, and that’s more than you can say about the other U.S. striker options for this game (re: Josh Wolff). Of course guys like Cooper, Altidore, and Rogers deserve a chance, but they’re U.S. based and with three high pressure games in a row you have to value the game experience of EJ. He’s not worthless, he’s just inconsistent, and no one else has proven (emphasis on proven) they have the combination of talent and consistency to displace him in the pecking order.
As for the game:
1) Pearce has done enough to be first choice left back.
2) Clark is only useful as Bradley Jr.’s back-up.
3) Everyone’s right, possessing the ball down the middle of the field is our biggest weakness, whether it’s the central midfielders or the forwards. We can’t play two mids with the touch of pin ball machine flippers AND two forwards who are either mentally incapable of hold-up play (EJ) or physically incapable of high-quality soccer (Wolff). Feilhaber’s not a serious option until he proves himself on a club team. Personally I think a Dempsey-Bradley central pairing is worth a shot, while blooding Sacha Klejstan to see if he can possess and pass out of midfield. Adu, in addition to being small, works best as an attacking-only player, so I don’t think he’s an option at central mid. Hopefully Cooper and Altidore will have a chance to show some quality as target/hold-up guys in the next two games. Maybe, just maybe, Donovan and Adu can find someone to run off of.
I have to say that perhaps the MLS tied Bradley’s hands a little bit regarding team selection? Or Bradley is waiting to put the MLS pieces in place on our home soil? Eh, I don’t know…but I have to say that our team selection did slay us from the very beginning. And I also echo the questions of why you schedule a huge friendly against the best competition but do not bring your A-side? Please please please I hope things change for Spain.
I am sooooo glad i missed the game and messed up the tivo recording!!!!!!! It sounded miserable.
This team reminds me more and more of the WC Germany sqaud. Only the players are younger and inexperienced – not older and slow. Truth be told, we are probably looking at another 4 years before we can compete again…..dammit
Ct