As the United States prepares for what can be called a must-win game on Tuesday night against Guadeloupe, there are some serious questions about just what lineup Bob Bradley will turn to in a match the Americans can't afford to lose, and really can't afford to even tie.
After sticking with the same lineup against Panama that beat Canada, only having shockingly worse results, Bradley will have no choice but to make some lineup changes to A) get some fresh legs into the lineup and B) find a combination that performs better than the squad has performed over the course of the tournament.
Will we see wholesale changes? Not likely, but you figure Bradley will have to insert three or four new starters to infuse some energy, some offense, and also to rest some players with the quarterfinals in mind.
So what lineup will Bradley turn to against Guadeloupe? Here's one possibility:
PROJECTED USA LINEUP vs. GUADELOUPE
Some thoughts:
As much as Bob Bradley rates Tim Ream, it's tough to see Ream starting after his outing against Panama. Oguchi Onyewu seems to be a bit of a mystery man because you figure if he was in a good place form wise he'd be starting. He also been the only reserve not even warming up at halftime of Gold Cup matches, which makes you wonder just how far down on the depth chart he is.
The central defense needs some stabilizing and Carlos Bocanegra can do that. Eric Lichaj is ahead of Jonathan Bornstein on the left back depth chart so he gets the nod.
Central midfield is an area of serious uncertainty. Jermaine Jones started off well against Panama, but began to fade in the second half and then threw a pretty unfortunate tantrum as he left the field when he was subbed off, yanking his jersey off and throwing it. Not exactly the thing to do when the team has a ready-made replacement in Maurice Edu.
Bradley could also go with Sacha Kljestan in central midfield for more offensive punch, but we'll go with Edu to start and Kljestan to get the call out wide, though Bradley could definitely go with Alejandro Bedoya on the right wing.
It should also be noted that just because a player doesn't start vs. Guadeloupe doesn't mean their tournament is over. With the quarterfinals looming this weekend, Bradley could choose to rest some starters in order to get them ready for the quarters (as well as to get fresh legs in the lineup)
These moves mean Clint Dempsey plays up top with Jozy Altidore. This tandem has worked well together in the past and there's no reason to think they can't create some magic together.
Now, if you're wondering what lineup I would use against Guadeloupe, here is the squad I'd trot out to win the match:
SBI'S PREFERRED LINEUP vs. GUADELOUPE
This is a very offensive-minded group and one capable of getting the job done (and also a lineup I could see Bob Bradley using). Guadeloupe can be broken down defensively, and this group can move the ball and pass well enough to crack Guadeloupe's defense. I know, Canada managed just one penalty kick against a 10-man Guadeloupe, but Canada's lineup had zero offensive punch. Bedoya and Kljestan provided instant energy and sharp passing. Bedoya is clearly playing at a high level and is good enough to find success against Guadeloupe.
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What do you think of the projected lineup? Do you prefer the squad I would start? Which players would you like to see get the start against Guadeloupe? Which players DON'T you want to see start?
Share your thoughts below.
no
I hope we can crank out like 5 goals. That, and Canada’s beating Panama could save us from a semifinal matchup with Mexico.
That said, Bradley is more of an offensive threat than Jones, and the U.S. desperately needed the second goal that never came.
Can’t blame Bradley for lack of effort, but his missed shot near the end after the layoff from Wondo was almost as bad as the missed shot from Wondo.
As I found out for the Canada game, the Spanish version will stream on the Univision web site, they’re streaming a lot (all?) of the Gold Cup online. And it’s a quality feed too, if you don’t mind the Spanish announcing, which I don’t. It adds just as much as the FSC guys do in English.
Other than dragging a team of scrubs all the way to the 2009 Gold Cup Final, almost singlehandedly. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but not much.
He would have been starting at the 2010 World Cup if not thanks to Nigel De Jong and his typical dirty play. He would also be starting in this tourney too if not for an unfortunate challenge from Jonny Evans.
Yes there has to be some fresh legs for the next game and I felt Bradley really tapered off at the end of the Panama match. His lack of club playing time really showed even though I think Michael is the best of Jones/Edu/Bradley. For the ACM spot means giving the keys to the offense and giving to Sacha is a mistake. He is to inexperienced with this team for that role. Also it wouldn’t be fair to him. It would be throwing him into the deep end of the pool. So instead move Dempsey to ACM. He likes to play centrally and he commands the respect of his teammates and has the soccer IQ to keep the ball moving. You can choose to keep Donovan out wide but I would rather have him up top with Josie (yes I spelled his name in the effeminate until he starts playing like a man. He needs to make runs off the ball).
So my lineup would be Howard Lichaj, Bocanegra, Goodson, Cherundolo, Spector, Jones, Dempsey, Bedoya, Donovan, Altidore. Bring Bradley or Edu on for Jones, Sacha on for Bedoya or Spector.
agreed my man
Ed, I agree with you and do concede that Holden was just coming back off of injury at the World Cup. Despite that, Holden was having a great year at Bolton prior to injury and should have been a lock on the right side @ the World Cup with Dempsey pushed up top or to the center. At the very least Holden should have been starting along side of Bradley in the mid where I think he should play in the future for the Nats.
I also don’t think he is the magic missing piece, we need alot more than one player, but his technical ability and his ability to settle the midfield should help the US from needing to constantly play the long ball. We do not have another mid that can effectively link with the backline and move the ball forward in the attack. (I know most here argue that Torres can do just that as well but he has not been able to show that consistently in his few callups.)
One last side note, it is cool to hear Holden is a great guy. My wife started calling him my mancrush because she was so tired of hearing me sing his praises dating back to his Dynamo days.
anyone have a link for the game?
No argument here. I do think people have overly praised Guadeloupe. They couldn’t string 2 passes together at the end of the Canada game. If we play hard from the whistle, we should be fine. And all of the players you mention should be in the mix.
Yes hopefully all of these parameters are met (least important being Edu seeing the field, normally I would agree but this is Guadeloupe so we should go more offensive with one of Kljestan/Bedoya/Spector.
For me the salient point is that we’re always reliant on a good performance from Donovan.
I don’t care if he’s sick or not.
If he disappears from a game an alternative needs to be put in sooner rather than later.
Or have Donovan play forward if he’s not up for playing offense and defense on the wing.
But in the empty bucket system we need those wingers to be play makers as well as track back on occasion.
Believe it or not, I think even Brek Shea would have been more effective than Donovan.
Even when Holden returns we need to start grooming a winger in the event that Donovan or Dempsey can’t play.
I guess that role can be given to Chandler or Lichaj,but I’d prefer a true midfielder.
Shoot. When’s the last time we saw a winger really get past someone on the dribble?
I don’t know about you all, but for me it seems like it’s been ages.
And no, I don’t want Robbie “I’m two footed, but neither are really reliable in clutch situations” Rogers.
Your perfect world has Adu starting and Spector at CB….
That is one of the worst things I have ever seen but this is the internet so everyone is a genius and has to give their brilliant opinions of course…
“Goodson isnt that great. And Ream has been a better CB.”
Are you high right now?
In all seriousness– watching this Grenada-Guatemala game, I’m pretty sure Grenada loses to our women’s team. Badly. Calling their defense “shocking” is really underselling the case. How in God’s name did this team even qualify for the Gold Cup?
By the end of this game, even the ADHD-addled Spanish announcer is going to be mailing it in.
Cherundolo at LB = “ignore this”
Sing for all of us Kansas City. Hope to see a loud crowd.
Any Canada defeat of Panama (save one by a ridiculous margin) sets the USA up to win the group with any win. The only way Panama could possibly win a tiebreaker with the USA is via the two-team, head to head tiebreaker.
Players who should see the field Tuesday:
Lichaj
Edu
Players who should not:
Ream
Jones
Players who should be on the bench and ready to come in:
Onyewu – as badly as he has faded, I don’t think he would be worse than what we saw Saturday.
Adu – seriously and why not?
Guadeloupe’s no worse than the 9th best team in the field, which is saying something given that it’s a tiny rock in the Caribbean.
Disclaimer: Obviously a loss would still be a massive upset.
Here is my wish of starters.
Wambach & Adu behind her.
Alex Morgan as an attacking midfielder, our Xavi!
Dempsey, Jones, Donovan in the middle
Lichaj boca Rampone Dolo.
Subs: Cox, Rodriguez, Agudelo, Boxx, maybe a Mitts, even with an injury, she is still better than Borns.
This lineup should get us some goals. A man could only wish!
Oh yeah, fire Bob and call in Phil Jackson!!!!
There’s almost no possible way that first place comes down to goals for and against.
The only way it could matter is in a three-way tie, and the US will know before the game starts if that’s a scenario. It’s unlikely that Canada beats Honduras by three or more goals, and that is the ONLY way that the number of goals scored and allowed by the USA (as distinct from the result, anyway) makes the slightest bit of difference.
No idea what “we sit at 0” means, either, since the USA’s goal differential is +1…
Still don’t understand how “continually giving up early goals” is a “coaching issue.” You seriously think Bob Bradley tells people in the locker room “okay, we’ll mail it in for 30 minutes and then go from there”?
Giving up early goals is a playing issue. The notion that the coach can say “hey, don’t give up early goals anymore” and have the team suddenly stop doing it is literally laughable.
The US gives up early goals because the team relies on fitness and athleticism over soccer skill and those attributes don’t start dominating until later in a contest. That is a feature of the player pool, and not anything a coach has any say over.
Well I don’t think I ever got such a response on a post before! Thanks to everyone above for their comments.
Just to clarify a couple of things. I only said arguably because I don’t think Jones would need to have been playing a great deal better than MB to be upset, just as in the neighborhood, which most people seem to think he was.
Also I don’t personally buy the nepotism argument (or certainly not to any great extent), but I was trying to think from Jones’ perspective about the various reasons HE might be frustrated. (Not sure what he thinks about it.)
Mostly though I think he’s just a competitor and didn’t like the way the game was going for him with the ref and the card or for the team in general, any more than we are happy about that. It’s refreshing to see some anger at that amidst too much complacency out there, if you ask me.
It’s hard for Bob to find minutes for him when he’s been injured so frequently during the last cycle. I like Holden a lot but there’s no guarantee that he is the magic missing piece for us either. Side note- I actually met Holden a couple weeks ago at a bar in Houston, crutches and all. It was awesome, he was polite and humble etc. NOBODY at the place knew who he was though which was kind of funny
I thought I’d add my 2 cents in.
I cannot think of a single successful team that uses a 4 man back line and 2 defensive midfielders with no attacking midfielders.
But let’s look at some of the “high points” of Bradley’s managerial career.
Facts about the US in the World Cup…
They only won a single game against a squad that has qualified for the World Cup thrice in history.
They tied a team that has only qualified for the World Cup twice ever.
They tied England thanks to the worst goalkeeping error in recent memory.
Facts about the Confederations Cup…
They lost to Italy and Brazil by a combined score of 6-1. They beat Egypt and only advanced thanks to a miracle of Italy losing 3-0.
They beat Spain thanks to one of the all-time great goalkeeping performances in major tournament history. Spain dominated the United States amassing 29 shots to 9, 8 shots on goal to 2 (which were the 2 goals). In all senses of the game, the United States was destroyed. Tim Howard was God.
They lost to Brazil (again) and were dominated even further with 31 shots to 9.
Since the start of the World Cup, the United States has done this…
3-6-5 (14 games played)
12 goals scored
19 goals allowed
The past two years have been a house of cards built more by extreme luck than skill.
Actually I’m surprise Guadaloupe is doing so poor. Where do you think the French national team gets a lot of its players? Guadaloupe and it’s neighbor Martinque. Theirry Henry roots are from Guadaloupe and Lillian Thuram was born there.
Diskerud, I’d give you. However, Spector shouldn’t be anywhere near the defense. Midfield or nothing.
I don’t think Kljestan is garbage, but I don’t think he has what it takes to be a starter or regular contributor on the national team. Outside of the one fluke friendly with Sweden, I don’t think he’s had one game on the national team that could be considered above average.
I rate him like I rate the Kyle Beckerman’s and Jason Kreis’ of the world. They perform great and put in a workman like effort on the club level, but they cannot translate that success on the international level.
I like to think of MLS as being more or less on par with the Championship in England, and I’d be surprised if the Turkish 2nd division (again I haven’t seen any games) is on par with either League.
whoa I want to hear some reasons as to why you think the turkish second division is “on par with MLS.” All I’ve seen is highlights, and they might look pretty at times, but it’s hard for me to believe that MLS, especially nowadays, isn’t better than the Turkish second division. Watching the FCD Kansas City game last night I was pretty impressed by what looked like a decent level of play to be honest, very few aimless long balls and clearances, and thats considering that was one of Dallas’ worst games of the season (they did have some bad defensive blunders).
I say we use Jones as a CB
In a perfect world:
Agudelo – Dempsey
Adu – Jones – Holden – Diskerud
Donovan – Ream – Spector – Chandler
Guzan
Goodson
Lichaj
Cherundolo
Bradley
Feilhaber
Davies
Bunbury
Howard
A 21 year old losing his pace? lol. Also i guess scoring a goal and an assist in the first game count as doing nothing not to mention he set up Wondo for what should have been the equalizer against Panama if wondo didn’t exercise considerable skill in missing the net.
Kljestan has no business being on the roster, being on the bench, or the first sub, let alone a starter. Seriously what does Bob bradley see in him except a slow midfielder with average touch and poor vision. I’d like to see ADU up top with altidore and dempsey to stay in the Midfield with EDU paired with bradley. I like the back 4 as Ives has them.
At Foward ADU would not be the deensive liability that I think has kept him out of games in the past plus he has the touch and skill to work in tight spaces that the USE is likely to face as lesser teams bunker in.
blah blah blah
If he’s truly in form and one of the top performers in the pool I totally agree, but we’re just not in a position to say what’s in that regard.
can I please just remind everybody that Guadaloupe has a population of 400,000 PEOPLE! LOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!
And i don’t want a whole bunch of people going on telling me about how they got to the 2007 gold cup semi-finals and only lost to mexico 1-0 blah blah blah.
I fully expect the United States national team to thoroughly destroy Guadaloupe no matter who on that roster takes the field, and to expect anything less than a DOMINATING performance by the US team seriously underestimates the potential of our squad.
Dont care. Lets lose now so we dont get embarrassed by mexico in the final
Some recent results:
2-2 El Salvadore on 3/28/09!
1-3 Costa Rica on 6/3/09!
1-3 Italy on 6/15/09
0-3 Brazil on 6/18/09
Luckily advance in Confed Cup
2-3 Brazil on 6/28/09 (0-3 in 2nd Half)
2-2 Haiti at home on 7/11/09!!!
0-5 Mexico at home on 7/26/09!!!
1-2 Mexico on 8/12/09
2-2 Costa Rica at home on 10/14/09!
0-1 Slovakia on 11/14/09
1-3 Denmark on 11/18/09
1-3 Honduras at home on 1/23/10!
2-4 Czech at home on 5/25/10
1-1 England on goal through hands on 6/12/10
2-2 Slovenia!
1-0 Algeria in extra time on 6/23/10
Luckily advance in WC
0-2 Brazil on 8/10/10
2-2 Poland at home on 10/9/10
0-0 Colombia at home on 10/12/10!
1-1 Chile at home on 1/22/11
0-1 Paraguay at home on 3/29/11
0-4 Spain at home on 6/4/11
1-2 Panama at home on 6/11/11!!!
My concern is that:
– these are some ugly results in recent history
– results that seem be get disguised and ignored because we’ve luckily had some decent results (beating Spain, tying England, advancing in Confed Cup and WC)
– we aren’t improving with the current core players
– Poor performance from Donovan, Michael Bradley and Howard is quickly forgotten
Well, you are right, Ned, we have some skilled players, just not enough. And the ones with the best ball skills are rarely all on the field at the same time anyway (think Torres, Feilhaber, Holden, etc.) The result is one missed trap and possession is gone. That’s all I saw the other night against Panama: passes off by enough to put recipient in bad spot, sloppy first touch, little movement (as you mentioned), etc. But, I agree, what we’re doing isn’t working. There should be something between a possession system we can’t execute and Highway 1.
http://static.foxsports.com/content/fsc//binary/2011/06/06/FSC_GoldCup2011_Bracket1307385084187.pdf
Why is Altidore still starting?!?! He hasnt done nothing to warrant a start. Bench Altidore, bring him as a super sub, put in Aguadelo to start. Altidore has lost his pace, he is not quick and can not take on defenders like he used to. He looks fat and slow.
Give us some reasons as to why you think ADU is Garbage…
Give us some reasons as to why you think Sasha is Garbage….
I thought the exact same thing until i saw “Rogers” Then I stopped reading…Damn you Bert!
Ives – Why not have Donovan as an attacking central mid behind Dempsey and Agudelo up top? When Donovan and Dempsey get in the middle and take control of games that is when the US is at its best. Putting them wide I feel wastes their talent for too much of the game.
Here what BB’s preferred lineup wold be:
Howard
Bradley – Bradley – Bradley – Bradley
Bradley – Bradley – Bradley – Bradley
Bradley – Bradley
better beat guadeloupe
Hopefully they bench Bradley. Bob Bradley that is, He needs a rest and should sit this next game out. give some other coaches a shot. Just to mix things up you know.