Photo by John Todd/ISIphotos.com
There are still some starting jobs up for grabs with the U.S. national team as it prepares to kick off World Cup play, and few competitions are more wide open than the contest to start in central midfield alongside Michael Bradley.
Ricardo Clark once held that role with a firm grip, but his struggle for playing time at Eintracht Frankfurt opened the door for Maurice Edu to challenge for the job. Edu ovecame a lengthy injury spell to force his way back into the mix following a strong run with Rangers.
The newest member of this competition is Jose Francisco Torres, who has followed up a good season with Pachuca with a strong pre-World Cup camp and impressive showings in both of the U.S. team's recent friendlies. His performance in the win vs. Turkey was especially convincing and has pushed him into the heart of the debate.
So who has the edge?
Clark looked to have it before the Turkey friendly, but a subpar performance in that friendly has swung the door open. Torres will be a popular pick considering how well he did, but Edu also impressed against the Czech Republic so he can't be discounted.
Who Bob Bradley starts vs. Australia on Saturday should give us a clear idea of who he is preferring, but right now it's too close to call. I would probably give the edge to Edu right now, with Torres a player I wouldn't be surprised to see earn the nod. There was a time when Torres might not have been considered a legitimate candidate to start vs. England, but his showing vs. Turkey erased any doubts about his ability to play on that level.
So here is our question for you. Which of these three would you start alongside Michael Bradley in central midfield against England?
Who did you select, and why?
Share your thoughts below.
Torres is the first member of the USMNT 2014. Now we need to find the players to surround him!!!
If Spain plays England, will they bench Xavi because he is too small? Torres all the way! Let the new USMNT start now!!
Torres starts all games for me. I hate the ‘England is big so we should try to out-big them with Edu’
Edu is talented but Torres is a cut above and we aren’t going to beat England at their own game. Listen, Spain can kick the hell out of England and their midfield is miniature compared to England’s.
I care more about someone with a great first touch and great vision because if Torres continues to play the way he has, he’ll be passing the ball off quickly enough that the size will be irrelevant as the ball will already be on its way to another team mate before anyone from England gets there. That kinda of attack is how you beat a big thuggish team like England.
I think Paco deserves the starting role. He has been a bright spot on are team every-time he comes in. Not just recently but in the last round of qualifying as well.
Loved Torres performance vs. Turkey. He’s due some props.
But I don’t see how you start him against such a physical England team. I def. can see him playing a key role in our 2nd two matches, but BB will go into the England game with a sensible defensive and counter approach. I think you have to go with Edu or Clark. Frankly, I’m not that worried about Clark’s poor performance against Turkey. I think he can bounce back.
For the England match Edu/Bradley
For the Slovenia match JFT/Bradley
For the Algeria match JFT/Edu
All three get two starts.
This is nonsense. Torres wasn’t ready??? How about playing him more than a half once every 5 or USMNT games.
How are you supposed to get in a flow, if you get taken out all the time.
I don’t care what your problem is, don’t bother responding to my posts any longer.
I really think B. Bradley needs to consider playing a 4-5-1 vs England. Its clear that our greatest depth is in the central midfield (Bradley, Clark, Torres, Edu, Felhalber) so why play away from that. Sure Findley had a good second half, but I think people may have been blinded by his one deft past to donovan that set up to the goal.
If I were B. Bradley I would play the 4-5-1 (really a 4-2-3-1) vs England
————Howard——————
Dolo — DeMerit — Gouch — Bocanegra
———-Edu — Torres ————-
Donovan——Bradley——-Dempsey—
————Altidore—————–
The line up gives the center of defense added protection with the size, physical presence, and experience of Edu; passing out of the back and control of the game Torres displayed against Turey; the freedom to let Dempsey and Donovan to roam forward and play with Altidore; and the ability for M. Bradley to get more involved in the attack.
The line up leaves Holden, Findley, Gomez, Felhalber, Clark amongst other to come off the bench and add a spark of more D if needed.
I think that against teams like Slovenia and Algeria a 4-5-1 is not needed.
Di you know that 11 of the last 13 World Cup finals featured either Brazil or Germany?
We understand Brazil but why Germany? My thought is they have always had good to great goalkeeping and were very tough defensively down the center, not necessarily giants, but strong, tough and uncompromising.
Watch Germany over the years and you’ll note the flair and skill comes and goes but they are always very physical and very tough.
So is Torres tough enough? I guess we’ll see.
Heres the lineup fools:
*************Howard****************
Dolo****Goodson***Demerit***Bocanegra
Holden**Edu**Bradley***Donovan
*****Altidore*****Dempsey
I don’t know where this idea that Lampard and Gerrard are hulking Giants in the middle. They are both 6′, good size for soccer, sure, but Bradley Jr. is bigger than either one of them. I don’t think size is a good argument against Torres starting.
i like Edu and Bradley against england… their size and strength will be important..
“Agreed… Although it’s too late for this, it would’ve been great to have Bob Bradley recognize much sooner that Torres is the guy to build around, who should define the way we play.”
Why? We qualified, first inthe group so he wasn’t needed. Besides,Torres wasn’t ready. He’d tell you that himself.
Do you remember the Holland game? As good as he looked against Turkey, that’s how bad he looked against Holland. Torres is coming good at just the right time. He’ll be something of a surprise to our opposition.
Exactly. Like one poster said, Torres is like Pirlo, with Bradley being Gatusso. While Pirlo and Torres are perfectly capable of making a slide-rule pass to crack a defense, they’re more like deep-lying playmakers. Their best attributes is their skill and composure on the ball, tactical understanding, and quiver of long and short range passes.
erm….Donovan is in a too defensive position. I’d switch him and Bradley and you MIGHT have something. I wouldn’t trust Beasley as a left midfielder in a Christmas Tree formation. He’d be required to come towards the center of the midfield where it’s congested and we should utilize his speed, being in tight spaces won’t utilize that.
What do you guys think if Beasley starting up top next to Altidore? I’m not really an advocate of that idea, but you can see what people are thinking. Beasley provides someone who can stretch the defense with his pace, has the ability to take players on, makes well-timed runs, and he has an excellent finish. That last one may sound stupid, but he’s scored a ton from the midfield position, and his finishes show clinicality, touch, confidence and cleverness. He has a great understanding with Landon and Clint, and continues Davies’ style of pressuring from the top.
———————-Beasley—-Altidore——————
Dempsey———————————————Donovan
———————–Torres—-Bradley——————-
Bocanegra————-DeMerit—-Onyewu———-Cherundolo
—————————-Howard————————-
It’s an interesting option. Not one that should be COMPLETELY disregarded, especially if Beasley looks as good as he did against the Czech republic.
This question is beginning to get really annoying. Look at the Spain game; Bradley sat in a double defensive midfield role with Clark most of the time. Even if Bradley does chase after the ball:
A) pressure from all directions is the style the USA plays when the opposition starts to get into the USA’s half.
B) Edu and Torres like to position themselves to back Bradley up when he does chase the ball, pluggin holes, marking open players, and getting ready in case Bradley gets beat.
Brazil wore down the defense, tru, but there was a point there during that second half when it was still 2 to 1 the US had a second breakout, except this time Charlie didn’t slot the ball over to a wide open Landon and Ceasar blocked the shot, he makes that pass, the US goes up 3 to 1 its a different game.
Possesion doesn’t always win you anything, look at arsenal, by yor account they should win the league every year, look at Italy when they won the world cup, doesn’t matter what sport you play, Offense wins games Defense wins Championships.
Well, would that be so bad? I mean, a lot of our wide midfielders just get back and provide energy without any real sort of defensive prowess. Some don’t even drop back at all (Dempsey). Bradley and Holden aren’t wide players in this formatoin either way, but they’ll certainly be all over the place trying to win back possession.
If you read Torres’s comments you would see that even he felt he had to do more on the defensive end and that he had to increase his speed of play. You shouldn’t be mad at Bob, He’s on the team, and I don’t think he has deserved to play more at any time other than now, His progression on the team was the same way Bob brought Jozy along, its good player management if you ask me, because Torres is the only one that plays his club ball at a completley different tempo, where you have lots of time on the ball and defense is soft.So he had to have a higher learning curve then everyone else, he’s made sure that he’s been brought a long at the right pace so that he can contribute when it matters.
As to Charlie, he would have played more in those first two games except that we played with ten men for both of them, secondly it wasn’t until this tournament that his confidence for International soccer grew. Your mad that a coach brings a guy on the team and plays him slowly? Let me ask you this what if Charlie would have flopped? Would you have blamed the coach or the player for not taking advantage of the situation?
I like that as well, but for some reason I’ve never seen jr. out wide…?
As far as against england I would fear bradley trying to track down lennon, and then swphilipps later. By now I believe we all want to somehow see holden, torres, donovan, bradley, and dempsey all on the field at the same time, maybe next cycle.
I think the bigger question is can we afford to start Bradley in the midfield if he continues to chase the ball around the pitch like a U8 player? His play has caused all sorts of problems for the USMNT because he is the one the forces us to lose our shape. How about Torres AND Edu and no Bradley?
if your saying that then there is just as much fault for bradley not covering to you cant just call our clark for that
No offense if Bradley played during that championship game vs Brazil the US would have won. Bradley links up well with this team, his work rate is off the charts, with a better passer next to him he can make better passes, its not about how he makes a pass its about where he recieves the pass, playing next to clark though he runs all day clark puts him in bad positions, with a ball he can do little with, go back and watch the games every time he needs an outlet clark doesn’t move, Torres gives him an outlet because he’s confident on the ball.
Torres also puts Bradley in a more advance position with the ball. Personally, I’m not sure what the guy has to do prove he deserves to be penciled in, hopefully he proves it this tournament, I seriously beleive he will mark Lampard out of the game, I love Frank he’s my second favorite player, but I see Bradley getting the better of him in this game.
tell em.
Another central midfield I could see is :
————————–Altidore————————-
—————–Dempsey————Donovan—————-
—————–Bradley—Torres—Holden—————–
Bocanegra——–DeMerit————Onyewu——-Cherundolo
—————————Howard————————–
Bradley and Holden are both excellent two-way central midfielders. They’re both well-rounded players who show bite and intensity defensively, skill and vision offensively, and an all around excellent work-rate. They focus on winning back possession in the middle and defensive thirds, helping the USA transition into the attack, and providing numbers in the attack to keep the pressure on the other team. I’m not saying we should play this against England, but in terms of two-way ability, Holden and Bradley are the best we have. I’d like to see how this would do. I’d probably put Edu in for Torres agaisnt England, but Holden is very good on defense, better than most care to think, anyways.
I see Torres starting we need to start the game flying and during the second half batten down the hatches, I hope he can handle it, if he can’t I’d rather have a half to fix it then be coming to the end of the game and the middle is falling apart.
boca gooch demerit dolo
holden torres bradley beasley
dempsey donovan
have donovan cover for beasley and beasley cover for dolo….or take out beasley, throw donovan back there, and have altidore up top
some day i’d love to see the us play a 3-2-3-2
++++++++++HOWARD++++++++++++++
‘DOLO+++++GOOCH++++++BOCANEGRA
+++++BRADLEY+++EDU++++++++++++++
DEMPSEY++++TORRES+++DONOVAN
+++GOMEZ++++++ALTIDORE+++++++++
“I’ve been driving this big rig for a long time”….”I’ve been preaching this for a long time now”. Sounds like your the jolly effing pied piper or something. We are honored that you share your infinite wisdom and experience with us. Thank you sir!
Now, if you could just make some sense with all that and stop resorting to oversimplified analysis and cliches.
The USA plays a style against teams like England and Spain where they’ll stay tight, compact and organized and move as a unit. When going forward, they’ll look to find ways to get the ball into the attack any way possible as quickly as possible and letting them work the magic. Looking at the 3-2 loss to Brazil, the USA played a central midfield pairing similar to the Bradley-Torres tandem. Feilhaber was the tidier of the two and would distribute sharply while Clark broke up attacks and won possession. Each of the two were involved in the USA’s goals, with Feilhaber finding Spector out wide on the first goal and Clark releasing Donovan on the second. Looking at the Spain game, Bradley took on the role of distributor, finding Davies on the first goal and Feilhaber on the second. The reason the USA had that 2-0 lead against Brazil so early was because they had Feilhaber in the central midfield, so they had a player who could get the ball getting into the attack quicker, more frequently, and more efficiently. The issue was Feilhaber’s defensive ability isn’t really great and Ricardo Clark couldn’t really cover for that, which resulted in the loss. Still, the element the USA found in that game was what I’m looking for with Torres in the center with Bradley. Torres’ defensive tactical understanding is great, better than Clark’s anyways, so he can work really well in a system where the defense isn’t so much about being great on the 1v1 as it is being organized and picking smart spots to make the tackle. Although, as he showed us against Turkey, he’s not afraid to get into the tackle with his bite and his actual tackle has improved. Offensively, like I said, the USA gets the ball into the attack and they do their thing. What Torres does is provide a much more efficient link between the attack and defense while still providing defensive sustainance. He’s more likely to make a pass like Bradley did on the first goal against Spain or Clark’s pass on the second goal against Brazil. Feilhaber did the exact same thing against Brazil, which led to more chances earlier in the game. As Bradley gets better, he’ll be a better passer as well and the main reason the goal were so much more spread out in the Spain game than the Brazil was because Bradley isn’t as good a passer/mover of the ball as Feilhaber, but the reason the scoreline stayed down for the opposition was because Bradley is a better defender than Feilhaber. I wouldn’t trust Torres in the middle if I didn’t feel he brought something to the defense and I think he does( of course that’s just my word). Here are two scenarios that happened a lot in both games; The USA win the ball in their own half and look to get the ball forward. Instead of typically longballing it forward and giving away possesion, they play a short, simple pass to Torres, who is always sitting deep right in front of the defense or chipping in on defensive plays and does a great job of making himself available for the pass. Torres will, on most occasions, at the least, find a player in a good position to go forward. Another situation would be if Bradley steps to a player getting deep in USA’s territory. Torres, who does a good job of noticing these situations, will move into position to close a passing lane or back Bradley up should the player get past him.
The important thing is whether there is a defense drop off. I have no doubt Torres’ offensive contribution will be huge and he obviously understands this team’s system, especially since it has officially established it’s system, but let’s see if he can maintain the USA’s style against bigger teams.
We should play with all 3 against England to start. 4-5-1 We are able to clog the middle and it puts our best 11 players on the field. Torres as attacking Midfielder behind Josey.
Best post I’ve seen in ages. Well played, sir.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see a “safe” starting central midfield with Bradley and Edu, although once it becomes apparent that we can’t get string passes through the midfield then bringing in Torres or moving Donovan into the middle will prob happen.
Starting lineup guess
Howard
Cherundolo, Spector, Oneywu, Bocanegra
Donovan, Edu, Beasley
Bradley, Dempsey
Altidore
Agreed. Maurice Edu could become the U.S.’s best player. He is already really good. He needs to play, especially versus England.
I’m amused by all the posters who say stuff like “Torres” is the offensive option and “bradley” or “edu” is the defensive mid. These labels don’t do anything for me. Torres should start because he is the best we have at transitioning from defense to offense. I cringe everytime our back four clears the ball…to the other team’s mids, or every time our back four makes the short pass to Bradley, Edu, or Clark, who often lose it to the other team’s mids.
With Torres, he receives the ball from the back, holds it long enough for his teammates to get open, and makes the simple pass. Keep hearing he’s so creative. Don’t see that. I see a guy who is calm on the ball and who makes the right (and often simple) pass, allowing us to keep possession amd make the other team chase for once. Amazing that he’s the only guy we have who does this on a regular basis.
Hes 6-5, with the afro 6-9. … Fletch, he defines grace under pressure.
He’s 5-5, with the afro 5-7… Torres, he really defines grace under pressure.
I guess you just ignore what I said about Inter. Please save the cliches, they work in baseball, but are usually to broad to provide meaningful incite into soccer.
BTW, I don’t think we had any business being on the field with that Brazil team in Confed, we’re not there yet. It took being down two goals for them to wake up, and when they did it was over. But don’t forget their first goal was a bit lucky.
What we should watch for is Rooney running all over the pitch giving them +1 in defending the midfield. Is Bradley ready for that? Our backs should move the ball to torres or bradley if there are no options revert to the backs. If a back darts forward the mids should squeeze back and cover. As soon as we start bypassing the midfield kicking the ball long up the field thats when we’ll start having trouble.
I’ve been preaching this for a long time now.
Nobody is denying that Bradley Jr. has solid football skills. He also does not match up with anyone else on the team.
Of his weaknesses, possession and passing are the worst. Your CM cannot be so poor with the ball. He makes up with his reckless defensive abilities. He has some gonads, no fear, and he definitely works very hard.
Playing next to Torres allowed Bradley to focus on his strength, defense, which in turn allowed Torres to focus on his strength, offense. The beautiful thing is that by feeding off each other, they were in better position to cover and even strengthen their weaknesses.
Bradley could make smarter passes because he was playing with someone who took the pressure of distribution off him. It was the perfect scenario actually.
We showed that we could beat anyone, but don’t kid yourself.
Tim Howard was pummeled. We won that game because a group of guys did the impossible. There is a reason that matches like that are epic in nature.
Brazil scored 3 straight goals on us, what exactly should we ask them? We struck first on counter attacks, and they wore down the defense with possession.
The US is a great team, but in order to take it to the next level I believe that they need to adapt to more possession based play. Counter attacking will get you an occasional upset, but possession is the ultimate attacking deterrent. You cannot score if you don’t have the ball.
Do’h!
I meant: “I voted for Torres and then decided I should have voted for Edu”
I voted for Torres but then immediately decided I should have voted for Torres because-
1. I think Edu will have more bite against England and disrupt their game
2. I want Torres fresh against Slovenia and Algeria since I’m hearing that both of those teams will be defending more and challenging us to break them down
Great point here. He has some nice club experience in a high-expectation environment.
I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: while Bradley may be one of the best 11 players individually, it’s clear that the US isn’t a better team with him on the field. Bradley is a classic ‘tweener’ – he’s not gifted enough on the ball to let the offense flow through him, but he’s not nasty enough to be the shut-down guy in the midfield, either. He would work extremely well with another player with his skill set – unfortunately, that’s not something the US has. Given the options, when you’ve got Torres and Feilhaber (playmakers, though Feilhaber hasn’t impressed at all lately) and Edu and Clark (destroyers), there’s nobody that matches well with Bradley. The US would be best served playing a combo of Edu and Torres, then putting Bradley on in relief depending on the needed result (if we need to hold a lead, he comes in for Torres. If we need a goal, he comes in for Edu).
God I hope we don’t get a red card in the first game.
Seriously, if we go through group play with no red cards, I’ll be way happier than I SHOULD be about that.
Your assessment is overly simplistic. Exhibit A – Bayern v. Inter. Bayern dominated possession through much of the first half until….oops…Inter scored. Soccer is about strategy, while defense is more tiring, for sure, well timed substitutions and a lethal counter attack can mitigate and overcome some of the difficulties posed by loosing the possession game. Just ask Spain and Brazil about the last time they played us.
forgot this-
“…while the rest of the guys are still in it mentally…”
I was all about Mo Edu, and I still think he has a place in this squad off the bench, but after seeing the way torres partnered with MB and his defensive play I say Torres. I was worried he was all offense but he can play D as well. Torres and MB will be a good strong central pairing.