By IVES GALARCEP
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica– The game was over before the U.S. Men’s National Team could even pose a threat, with the first Costa Rica goal in a 3-1 victory coming in a matter of seconds. The early onslaught by the ‘Ticos’ left the Americans overwhelmed and even established veterans who could normally be counted on to step up in the face of adversity were nowhere to be found during that ugly start.
What Jurgen Klinsmann and some players chose to focus on after Friday’s loss was the stretch from about the 30th minute to just before Costa Rica’s third goal, a period of time the U.S. team actually made a game of it. That stretch of game was certainly more flattering to the Americans, but the reality is you couldn’t ignore just how thoroughly outplayed they were by the Ticos early on.
The U.S. team sleepwalked at the start and paid the high price, and while you could put some of the blame on that early funk on Michael Bradley’s pre-game injury, there was still no excuse for how badly some players played, particularly players Klinsmann chose to start over other more reasonable options.
So who actually impressed for the U.S. team on Friday? There weren’t many players you could really praise for being true difference makers. There were far more players who came up short, and simply didn’t do enough.
Here are the SBI USMNT Player grades for Friday’s 3-1 loss to Costa Rica:
SBI USMNT PLAYER GRADES vs. Costa Rica
TIM HOWARD (5)– Critics will point to his decision to stay on his line on third goal but decision wasn’t a bad one. Uncertainty did creep in on other occasions, but he also made some important plays even if the overall performance wasn’t one of his best.
MICHAEL OROZCO (3)– The decision to start Orozco at right back as a puzzling one, and Orozco didn’t do much to make Klinsmann look good for making it. He was overwhelmed in the first 30 minutes, and while he wasn’t abused as much defensively in the remainder of the match, he never looked that comfortable and provided little getting forward.
MATT BESLER (4)– His worst start since becoming a national team regular, Besler was torched on the clinching goal and struggled for much of the night to deal with Joel Campbell’s power and pace. The yellow card was a terrible call, meaning that barring a successful appeal, Besler won’t have his chance for redemption on Tuesday vs. Mexico.
OMAR GONZALEZ (5.5)– Was the best defender on a forgettable night for the back four. Gonzalez made some very important defensive plays, though he could have been more of a presence in the early part of the match.
DAMARCUS BEASLEY (3)– The worst game of Beasley’s recent run at left back, he was beaten repeatedly and provided very little in the attack.
JERMAINE JONES (4.5)– A look at the final stats of Jones performance will suggest he actually had a pretty decent game, but his awful form in the match’s early going was one of the key reasons Costa Rica was able to jump out to such a strong start. Absolutely must be better against Mexico or U.S. could be in real trouble.
GEOFF CAMERON (4.5)– Much like Jones, Cameron improved as the match went on, but that shaky start can’t be ignored and his struggle with Costa Rica’s fast pace was evident, though Jones did him no favors by committing several turnovers.
GRAHAM ZUSI (4.5) – Gets a grade boost for the quickly-taken free kick that led to drawing the penalty for the lone U.S. goal, but Zusi did little else and really struggled to deal with Costa Rica’s pace on the wing.
FABIAN JOHNSON (6) – The U.S. team’s best threat on a day with not much of an attack to speak of. Johnson freelanced a bit more than usual and put himself in some dangerous spots. Drew the penalty with a well-timed run, and was denied a goal by a beautiful save by Keylor Navas.
CLINT DEMPSEY (5) – Struggled to make his mark on the match, and didn’t look completely comfortable in the target forward role. He did convert the penalty kick, but it wasn’t exactly a well-taken penalty.
LANDON DONOVAN (5) – Tried to find the game, and had a few moments, but never could break through Costa Rica’s tough defense.
EDDIE JOHNSON (4) – Failed to make much of an impact off the bench.
JOZY ALTIDORE (3) – The only thing he did during his cameo was manage to draw a dumb yellow card that will rule him out of Tuesday’s crucial World Cup qualifier vs. Mexico.
ARON JOHANNSSON (NR) – Made his qualifying debut, but didn’t have enough time to make an impact.
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What do you think of our grades? Who were we too generous with? Who deserved a better grade?
Share your thoughts below.
I think it’s funny that NO ONE is commenting on the fact that the USMNT didn’t get the chance to play with the game balls until gametime. All of the bad passes and poor first touches could be attributed to this, IMO. I really think that it was poor form on CR’s part to play the “neener neener” card when we came down. None of the customary pleasantries were exchanged, and I think it shows that the CR leadership is lacking in fair play. Sure, they can be pissed about the Snowclassico, but that wasn’t the US keeping that game going, it was the refs.
But, all-in-all, a terrible performance by the Yanks. Makes me terrified for Tuesday. I’m not totally convinced that we’re going to Brazil.
Perhaps no one is commenting on it is the fact that it has so little impact that it’s laughable to even mention it. Having little or no experiance with a game baul has no impact on poor defensive marking or not being able to run fast enough. To bring up the ball is to just make excusses.
If you go back to one game before the fools-gold winning streak, we’ve played three WC-quality teams playing mostly starters (Belgium, BIH (first half), Costa Rica), and were wood-shedded and dismissed from school well before halftime in each. In retrospect, when Bradley went down the vibe was shock, and we should have loaded up defenders and played for a result rather than a win.
Anyone who watched the CR game objectively should question whether we even belong in Brazil. It surely gave hope to the rest of CONCACAF (I know, except Jamaica, whom, unfortunately, we don’t play again)
Really? Any time a team goes on a 12 game winning streak in international soccer, it’s nothing to scoff at.
Donovan deserves higher; Fabian deserves lower.
I really like Beasley. But, he is an attacking player and not a natural defender. Credit to him for stepping up and doing what the coach calls for. But he is small and will lose most of the physical battles. On that second goal, he was surrounded by 3 bigger players and was being pushed in the back, I am not sure any fullback would have fared much better, but I would rather take my chances with a guy with enough size to bump the attackers hard enough to make their job harder.
I agree. I think it’s great that he’s stepped into this role. But I feel like it should be a temporary fix – a veteran doing what is needed to get the team qualified. But I really hope that a more viable left back option develops before Brazil.
Jones was horrible. Stats do not reflect that when he gave the ball away that it was in the defensive half of the field when the US was transitioning to offense. That timing meant no one was in a good position to defend from the bad give-aways, so they were very damaging. When Jones did not lose the ball, he tried to make long services, of which he seemed incapable, so they mostly turned into CR goal kicks or an easy clean-up by a CR defender.
Um the stats most certainly show you where the ball was lost…
MLS Chalkboard, check it out. You can see every individual pass by player and the direction of the passes. Same with losing possession
OK, did not see that, but he did give the ball away more often in the defensive half and the impact of those give aways was huge.
And OK, he did hit one long pass that was not a giveaway, but overall the performance was as pitiful as I described it/
He lost the ball 22 times.
17 times in the first 20 minutes, which means he got better as the game went along, as Ives said.
IMO Landy-Cakes was the best player on a field in Costa Rica making the best he could of miserable performances from most of his teammates. And, sorry, Fabian Johnson despite one shot on goal directly at the goalkeeper and being tripped on the box did not have a good performance. If people want to judge Fabian’s whole game, it should be noted he completed only 15 passes and despite limited touches because his lack of movement lost the ball 8 times and had an unusually (for highly technically Fabian) bad touch and a heat map that shows mostly minimal movement. Landon was in the thick of it and Dempsey-cakes was hustling, creating magic all by himself with a great shot that rattled the post. I am a fan of Fabian but no way did he have a good game. He actually looked out of it to me, much more tentative and much less energetic than usual.
It was obvious to me that the excellent chemistry that we saw during the Gold Cup was totally absent in Costa Rica. Even the announcers mentioned once something to the effect that the US players were occasionally yelling at each other, implying the blame game was going on. Wonder what could have caused that, what was different in Costa Rica compared to the Gold Cup.
link to these stats and heat map please.
stats/heatmaps are found on mlssoccer.com under the “Chalkboard” section:
http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2013-09-06-CRC-v-USA/chalkboard
be prepared to waste so much time playing with this thing!
By the way, I just noticed today for the first time MLS has really cool new stats page, with a passing matrix at the bottom of the page, showing exactly who players passed to. But for some reason, the chalkboard has not yet been incorporated in the new page and you have to go to the “old matchcenter” for the chalkboard.
https://golazo.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2013-09-06-costa-rica-vs-usa/stats
Hmmm that is interesting.
Thanks, this is too cool. Have just been reading The Numbers Game: Everything You Know About Soccer Is Wrong – all about analytics. Sorta like “Moneyball” for soccer.
I can’t argue with that, but he was not very good. If nothing else, when he fouls someone, he should kick hard enough that the opponent isn’t smiling.
What was different? This was a real game. The Gold Cup? Please, we played Panama in the final.
Mariano Rivera almost got called up for that game.
Vote for sending an SBI petition to Klinsy that if Donovan is available he should be taking the penalties.
I imagine that issue will be dealt with internally and it will be Clint’s last penalty. Clint is a great player but penalty kicks have never been his strong point.
Why is nobody asking if Beckerman would have been better at slowing the counter? He would have.
3 is a bit harsh for Beasley. Besler was marking Campbell for the game and was repeatedly beaten for pace. He was out sprinted from within his own half on the 3rd goal and got caught ball watching ( both he and Jones lost their men, leaving Beasley 1 on 3) on the 2nd. How was Besler better than Beasley? Most of the CR attacks were down the left flank, not Beasley’s, and after the two goals, Beasley was not beaten 1v1 for any dangerous opportunities…We should also remember that after the first two goals, the US pretty much dominated posession, so these low grades are heavily influenced by the first 15 minutes of the game.
Funny, I thought a 3 was generous. Is there a score lower than zero? I’m not sure any of the defenders deserved more than that. Our defense was absolutely shredded to pieces repeatedly. There was so much space on both wings and through ball after through ball left them scrambling.
We can argue about how much of the game was horrible versus slightly better, but does it matter? Say a team lets in 10 goals in the first minute, and is great the remaining 89 minutes – are we going to say they had a great game?
If you give him a bad grade for this game I get it however, he was bad pretty much because he is small. His shortness was an issue this game. I don’t know what can be done outside of not play him.
I think Howard had a terrible showing. The 3rd goal went between his legs. The second goal he was caught leaning left and the ball went past him to his right. Yes, he saved Besler’s a%% a couple times, but to be honest, Howard didn’t look like an EPL starter out there. Hindsight is 20/20, but Guzan or Rimando would have done better.
Guzan? yes. Rimando????
they would have done better after being left high and dry by their defense? the 2nd goal was well taken and to blame that on Howard is insane. he was moving to the left?! whoa, probably not related to the fact the cross was made from his right side , then hit to his left side forcing him to move left, and then headed into goal back in the original direction.
1st goal is all around terrible set-piece defending. and the 3rd goal, while he probably could have done better with it, it was 1v1. keeper can only do so much in that situation.
Howard should have taken the cross on the second goal out of the air. shoujld have been a non-issue. I’ll take big Brad. Much better command of the area…..like we saw from the CR keeper.
seriously? the cross was about 12 yards out from his line. what are you talking about? i’m not even sure it is physically possible for him to get to that ball.
i love Guzan and i wouldn’t argue against starting Guzan. i just think there is a ton of hyperbole being thrown around regarding Howard’s performance. people are making him out to be the scapegoat and that is BS.
Agreed Howard was awful. He was a 4 at best. Without better rb/lb play and positional depth, the US will not make it to the knock out round at next summer’s World Cup. The gold cup was an illusion
Dempsey needs to be much lower. Your captain should never put a performance like that on the field regardless of circumstance.
Totally agree. I have a big problem with Deuce being the captain and an automatic starter right now. I’d like to see him take a seat…he’s bogging things down.
I agree. Dempsey moving to Seattle right way, really hurted Dempsey fitness and focus, Dempsey needs to be bench right now. Klinsmann brought to attention Donovan and Altidore lack good performance, in Qualifiers, and now, Klinsmann needs to do samething to Eddie Johnson and Dempsey.
Dempsey was much lower than a 5…
Dempsey and Cameron deserve lower grades. The problem was defense and central midfield with Zusi and F. Johnson sub out made things worse.
Zusi was getting torched down the left flank along with Orozco…
agreed. Zusi did not have a good game at all. nice heads up play on his pass when no one was defending, but that’s about all he did.
Can someone please explain to me why, for the love of God, was Brooks not cap tied last night? There’s absolutely no need for Johannsson to come on late in that game. Klinsmann should have thrown Brooks on the pitch and locked him down. At least we would have gotten something out of that CR trip.
Goff mentioned he was carrying a knock and unlikely to play. Probably going back to Germany.
Hmmm. I found the comment you are referring to and this is not an example of high-quality journalism. He cites no sources for this information, but states it as fact and he appears to be the only one claiming that Brooks has a knock. This is what he writes: “Meantime, Brooks was released from U.S. duty in order to rejoin Hertha Berlin. He has an undisclosed minor ailment…”
Does anyone who follows soccer, like we experts who post on SBI 🙂 , really believe that Brooks is going back to Germany because of a “minor ailment.” This guy writes for a big newspaper and he is breaking elementary rules of journalism and I just can’t take him seriously anymore.
Against Mexico:
—————Guzan
Johnson-Gonzalez-Goodson-Beasley
———-Beckerman-Jones
—–Bedoya-Dempsey-Donovan
—————Johannsson
That’s a line-up that could do some damage.
You still have EJ to put in later, he can provide a goal scoring spark as a super sub.
Or, some decent possession oriented midfielders to bring on fresh legs lock down the game late – Corona, Torres, or Diskerud.
Hmmmmmmmmm…………let’s go USA! Spirit, energy, fire!
Tough game for Besler. I thought both CBs were culpable on the third goal though, even though Besler was technically closer to Campbell and made a great effort to get back in the play. They were both caught flat by the quick clearance. Omar should have been deeper bracketing Campbell with Besler already pushed up. Great learning experience for both.
I might have given LD a bit higher rating and JJ and Deuce a little lower. Overall spot on.
There was no reason for Besler to be on the wrong side of Campbell on the clearance.
This was also after his yellow card, it would have been smart to trip the attacker and take the red card. Down 2-1 with 10 men is not great, but it is better than down 3-1 with 11 men. I think Bocanegra, Bradley, Jones andor Cherundolo would have taken the red card in the same situation.
I agree if he is 1 v 1, but we had two back on one attacker. I just think with two defenders in the vicinity, they should have positioned themselves so the central most defender had an angle on the attacker furthest up the field. The clearance was hit with a lot of pace straight from the box…caught them both out of position. They don’t suck, they’re both good young CBs learning the speed and awareness level required for international ball.
Let the calls for Lichaj reverberate off the roof of the Welshly Arms.
When will we have some news on Bradley or who is being brought in for Mexico?
Bradley not playing
JAB going back to Berlin
Goodson, Corona, Torres, Davis in
Before everyone shouts that brooks has decided to play for Germany, Goff said that Brooks had a minor knock and that is the reason he is returning to his club.
Just reporting the facts…
I wasn’t aware that cards could actually be appealed in qualifiers. No one saw what Besler did, if anything but it sure reeked of play acting. Hopefully it’s reversed and the Tico gets the card!
What about coaching grades? Dempsey up top despite the bench we have of strikers, Orozco at RB, not yanking Beasley after half, moving FJ back and letting Bedoya or other attacking mids on the field, not bringing a real right back to camp, not playing Jones as a 6 so Cameron could play RB and bringing in Klestan or other center mid w passing skills. So many risks, this time 0 reward. JK should get a 3.
JK had to juggle lineup at last minute, and has been awesome all summer, so gets some benefit of the doubt in my book. Having said that, I totally agree that starting Dempsey up top — especially alone — was a bad call (and was planned this way even before MB fell out of lineup).
And Orozco was a head scratcher from the get-go as well. Sometimes these weird calls make a manager look like a genius after the fact. This was not one of those times…
Totally agree about Beasley — shoulda been subbed at half.
Where was Mix? Why not cap-tie Brooks, especially when game was out of hand? No point bringing Bacon on at that point.
It’s a match greade. No one gets a benefit of the doubt on anything. Ives is being generous with Howard and Jones. JK has had many other poor lineups take the field (remeber the JJ at outside mid experiment?) but this was the first time it has realllllly bitten him. He gets an F.
It’s my understanding that he can call in replacements for the suspended players. If that’s true, Lichaj and Goodson better be on a plane.
Respect.
I agree with you HS, the coach deserved a good portion of the credit for trotting out a lot of mismatched pairs last night.
1 – LD & Dempsey up top just didn’t work. Dempsey looked completely awful (tired?) in the target forward role. Why put an out-of-form player in that role when we have other forwards that can accomplish it? Landon was hacked to pieces while waiting for service that would never come. Dempsey should have started in his usual withdrawn forward role, and Landon should have started out wide.
2 – Zusi & Orozco could not get on the same page. Zusi was not tracking back to help out, hanging Orozco out to dry on multiple occasions when CR overlapped on their side. Conversely, I don’t think Orozco overlapped Zusi once, hanging Zusi out to dry on offense. Why would you put an untested defender and a wide attacking player together when they can only hurt each other’s performance?
3 – Jones & Cameron should never play together. This was the biggest shock to me after I heard MB was done. You have to realized what each player is, and put them in a position to succeed. JJ is the great wild card. One moment, he is storming the offensive half, the next, tracking back to break up on defense. He is athletic and unpredictable. That is his strength. Conversely, Geoff Cameron is the stolid destroyer, a converted center-back. He stays home, breaks up the oncoming rush, and then looks to outlet pass. These are his strengths. When you pair the two, you lose all of your creative, controlling midfield, and end up with JJ turning the ball over and Cam passing backwards because he has no outlet. After MB went down, I think you had to look at a player like Mix to combine with Cameron or JJ.
Hindsight is 20/20, but when I saw the JJ-Cam pairing in central midfield, my heart fell, and I knew the boys were in for a long night. Here’s hoping JK learns from his mistakes and looks to augment the skills of those present, and not wishing they could perform roles they never have.
JK get a 2 for coaching this turd.
jones’ 4.5 is way too high
His poor passing is a liability and shouldn’t be in the 11
Turnover machine…Jones had an awful game. Fabian Johnson was the only one that had a decent game. Gonzo wasn’t too bad. The rest of the back line didn’t look like they belonged out there.
I’d probably bump Donovan up to a 6 (I thought he played with vision, but no one to hook up with), but otherwise grades are appropriate.
Overall, a strong wake up call. We’re not as good as this summer led us to believe, but we’re not as bad as we played last night. Off night, bad injuries, rough road environment.
Time to get swagger and confidence back in a tough game on Tuesday!
No grade for Klinsman?
This cycle of qualifying I have been impressed with the refs, or atleast the refs that we have gotten, sure some calls are missed but we have not been screwed by the guy in the middle. Although the yellow on Jozy was a bit weak. But Jozy should have known better.
I believe Jones had 17 turnovers in the first 30 minutes of the match. Sure he performed better in the second half once Costa Rica bunkered in to protect there lead. However I think you should take into account the level we expect players to be at. Klinsmann always list Jones as a leader on the team playing in important Champions League matches. However he was out preformed in every statistic by someone who plays right back for his club and thrown into the match.
Jones had an absolutely awful first touch that got him in trouble most of the night. He also was too eager to invite contact, which he didn’t get the call on. Funny how we were loving him after his performance in the snow match, he needs to step up big on Tuesday.
Ives, you’re doing an SBI show sometime this weekend, right?
Grades are fair. Jarring to see 3s, but that’s the awful truth of last night’s game.
those sound about right….the stats don’t incorporate how wildly off the mark those Jones’ passes were…
I think an in-depth look at the stats suggests the truth. I looked through all of his attempted passes, and he was, by my count, 17/34 on forward passes. No through balls, successful flick ons, key passes, or crosses. Was tackled and lost possession 22 times, 13 of which were in our own half. Not good enough for a guy we really needed to step up.
huh? how could the stats not incorporate incomplete passes?!?! that is one of the main stats…
now, having said that, if you look deeper at the passing stats, not many of his passes were forward and complete.
The same could be said for michael bradley, in fact the vast majority of his passes are either back or to the side. Seriously people have complete and total blinders on when it comes to some players and will nitpick another one to death. in the second half jones was the best player on the field. Fabian Johnson was not the best player, not buy a long shot. Demps grade is way way too high, he was knocked off the ball and fell down only to complain 70% of the time he even touched the ball
I think you misunderstood my comment or are just trying to argue. I like Jones. Was simply telling the other guy his comment doesn’t really make sense.
Also, FJ absolutely was. He got the PK, had a fantastic shot saved amazingly, and held up defensively. Not a great game but effective considering the circumstances.
bryan, as usual, we agree. FabJo played well on a team that had no center. And that made him look bad. Not every errant pass is the passer’s fault. He was like a quarterback on a team playing with their hands in their pockets!
I hope that one day we can dispel the myth that forward passes are the cat’s meow. Passes that maintain possession and force the defense to run and reassemble are key—and a lot of times those are sideways and back passes!
I agree and he kept roaming to get the ball because team was lost… unlike “captain” deuce whom used to go deeper to get the ball if he wasnt getting service.