By FRANCO PANIZO
The outcome of friendlies might be meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but don’t tell Jurgen Klinsmann and the U.S. Men’s National Team that. Not after their recent few games.
After failing to win any of its last five exhibition matches dating back to October, the U.S. is in sore need of a victory in order to ease off some pressure from concerned fans and restore confidence that the team is headed in the right direction. The Americans will get their chance to right the ship on Sunday, as they close out their month-long winter camp by hosting CONCACAF foe Panama at StubHub Center.
For the U.S., the friendly will serve as more than just an opportunity to taste victory for the first time since September. Klinsmann is sure to continue to look at a number of the younger and lesser experienced players in his current squad, with Gyasi Zardes, Steve Birnbaum and Wil Trapp all likely to see the field after making their international debuts in last week’s 3-2 road loss vs. Chile.
How all the Americans, old and new, look from a fitness standpoint in this game has become a main talking point, however. Klinsmann has been critical of how some of his players are not in tip-top game-shape in recent days, and pointed to that as a big reason for why they were bested by the Chileans.
In that game in Rancagua, a familiar issue resurfaced. The U.S. was unable to maintain the same kind of tempo that it showed at the start of the match, and was pinned deep in its own half for much of the closing 45 minutes before surrendering its 2-1 halftime lead to the hosts.
Panama will not provide the same type of challenge as the dynamic Chileans, but Klinsmann and the Americans know that anything short of a complete performance from them could lead to another disappointment.
“The most important is if we put in the effort we’re good enough to get a result, but the effort has to be there for 90 minutes,” said forward Jozy Altidore. “We’ve played the last few games 75 minutes, 70, but at this level, you saw at the World Cup, you have to play the full game.”
While the conversation over the past week has been steered towards the fitness aspect of the game, another main subplot in this friendly vs. the Panamanians will be whether Klinsmann sticks with the new-look formation he trotted out in Chile or tries something else.
Klinsmann went with a 3-5-2 down in South America, and though there were some promising moments in the attack in the first half, the U.S. struggled heavily on defense before switching to its more conventional 4-4-2 setup.
It’s unclear which way Klinsmann will line his players up on Sunday, but the 3-5-2 has not been ruled out yet.
“We just want to have this card in our pocket when we need it so the defenders have to deal with it,” said Klinsmann. “It’s a different setup and a different approach, as well as if you play a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3 or a different 4-4-2 with a diamond. For us, it’s important that they learn how to play different systems without changing our general approach that we want to take the game to our opponent.
“We want to play from the back, keep the tempo high, which I think we did very, very well for 60 minutes in Chile. They were very impressed by the way we played that game. We switched to a 4-4-2 for the second half because they were one man up in midfield, we didn’t control that anymore, and too many balls were coming in by process. That’s why we made that decision, which still was the right decision to do, but obviously the result at the end of the day didn’t give you the argument.”
No matter the formation the U.S. goes with, Panama should provide a good test in Carson, California. With MLS-based veterans like Blas Perez, Jaime Penedo and Gabriel Torres all available for selection, the Panamanians have enough talent to extend the Americans’ winless streak.
Like Klinsmann, Panama head coach Hernan Dario Gomez could also give time to some of his top up-and-coming players. Several promising youngsters have been included in the roster, and may earn minutes as Gomez attempts to identify which of them might be ready to contribute at this summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup.
“I think over the last couple of years what they’ve done is impressive,” said Klinsmann. “You saw it on a younger note with the Under-20 team, they’re bringing players through the pipeline that are hungry, that are physical, that are able to go high tempo, but also that are inspirational. They’re very gifted, their young players, and some of them are here out of that U-20 group actually.
“We will fight with them in the Gold Cup and so, for us, it’s a great opportunity to kind of see where they are, where we are, in the early stage of the season. They’re similar to Chile; they are in the middle of their season. We are just starting the season now, but I think it’s a good benchmark to have and we have respect for them.”
The Americans might know how dangerous Panama can be, but anything short of victory at home will prove discouraging and add more fuel to the fire of disgruntled U.S. fans. Klinsmann’s side is long overdue for a win, but will need to put forth its first complete performance in a while in order to knock off a familiar foe.
“I think it’s become a tough game,” said Altidore. “They’re very athletic, and if we’re not careful maybe we won’t get a result in this game as well. We need to understand that it’s a team that’s going to come in with a lot of emotion and play to win the game, so we have to be on our toes.”
The conventional wisdom in years past was that the US had some of the most fit ayers out there – that has been publicly stated many times. HOWEVER, the tempo at which the team is being asked to play is VERY different than years past. I’m not surprised to see such conflicting views about the subject, because the fitness levels of the past were based on the previous style of play.
The rash of injuries during the WC were unfortunate, and I do wish someone would take the time to do a quick analysis of past WC and other squads injury histories. At the risk of sounding insensitive, to me the real lessons were how we still have frightening little depth at every position and role. Oh, and Terrence Boyd should have been in Brazil.
I think that in the WC, especially when it comes to the knock-out stages teams at least start out very defensively. For most coaches that means in a 4-4-2, or a slight variation of that with a 3-5-1. The dangers of giving up an easy goal and then exposing the back a bit in order to even the score is just too risky for most teams to envision.
That defensive mentality is one of the reasons the WC games can often be pretty boring affairs which neither team committing much to the attack. In Brazil, at least there were some obvious deviations from this trend but still in 7 of the 15 knockout stage games were either 1-0, 0-0, or 1-1, and no team that allowed 2 goals advanced. It might be fear that dictates such a defensive mindset.
Until ar least a couple US players develop the creative skills to breakdown excellent defensive-minded teams, it will never go far in the WC where it will most likely meet opponents who will steadfastly refuse to commit many players to the attack. If the US simply tries a more attacking formation, those teams in the final 16 are likely to have players who can capitalize on a defense that is short of numbers.
So all this talk of formations is simply covering up the shortcomings of the players. When the players are better, the starting 4-4-2 or whatever will change to look more like a 5-3-2 or 6-3-1 when they are under pressure and more like a 3-4-3, 3-3-4 or even 2-3-5 when they are on the attack. If the players do not have the talent to interchange and play fluid soccer there will not be much tweaking formations can do to save it. That said, there must be some clear responsibilities thrust on the players and they must know what to expect from teammates, but that kind of information is only hinted at by the formantion.
whoops 3-5-2 not 3-5-1
Wow, another injury. As the previous USA trainer said, there seems to be a problem with soft tissue injuries. As I stated previously, there is a problem with either JK’S training or nutritional regiment. This may be why the players during the Chile games and previous games look so unfit. Hey JK, wanna borrow my mirror?
If USNT scores most their chances…no problem victory. USNT vs Ireland and Chile had control most of games but misses their chances and big defensive bloopers by mental and physical fatigue.
I read the Wahl article on SI, where he interviewed the fitness coach from the previous 10 years before JK. Interesting read. If guys aren’t fit in off season, then they’re possibly ignoring their coach. If he isn’t supplying off season workouts, then it’s his fault. Those 3 soft tissue injuries at the WC were significant to me too. I was a US athlete in another sport. Coaches supply workout regimes for every day of the year, so you have no excuse if your club team is off
Joe,
Are you saying the US is responsible for providing a player off season workout plans?
Wouldn’t a player’s club team be even more interested in their player’s fitness and provide him with off season workout plans?
More to the point, wouldn’t a serious professional seek out such plans from either his club or the USMNT?
And if he did not would that not bring into question that player’s judgement?
I am not an athlete, just someone who has always been active and who has played practically every sport possible, outside of hockey since I was raised in Southern California. Starting in my early 30’s I began jogging. I kept it up for about 30 years, ran numerous 10k’s, some half marathons and assorted other races. I was always a middle of the pack kind of runner. Unless I was injured, I was never out of shape. There is no excuse for a professional athlete to get out of shape, even during an off season. If they have an ounce of self pride, they should be doing some kind of regimen and not have to be told to do it.
Even if he was not instructed of what his conditioning plan should be, IMO a professional should be capable of developing their own or consulting with someone who can. They shouldn’t have to wait for their coaches. That being said, I think the coaching staff should be responsible for at least telling the players WHAT NOT TO DO like not allowing them to play basketball.
Coaches do provide instructions to players for both the off season conditioning as well as things/activities they’d want players to avoid (WHAT NOT TO DO). However it is ultimately up to the players themselves to execute the plan and/or avoid the activities. Coaches & Trainers cannot be monitoring the players 24-7.
Case in point is CD9 – He chose to ignore the rules and ended up derailing his career for 5 years, and may never reach the full potential he showed.
A player who is not dedicated or feels entitled may very well not follow the instructions given.
Now not to make excuses but when you look at the current roster you have a number of young kids who are looking at their first dealings at the SR international level. Hopefully they’ll learn from the experience and spread it around to those on their club teams. Then you have the old guard (Jones, Dempsey, Rimando) who may not be taking this off season as serious as they would have if next year was a WC year. They’re older and need to martial their energies in order to be effective when it counts most. Lastly you have guys like Bradley who during the off season were addressing injuries/surgeries. It will take him longer to build up his condition.
If guys aren’t fit in off season, then they’re possibly ignoring their coach.
Which often results in getting left off the roster and missing Brazil. Sound familiar?
That statement you provided says more about the professionalism (or lack thereof) about a given player than anything else.
Yep, every team U17 and above has to play the full 90 mins.
Since the World Cup if you only counted the first half the US would have a record of 5 wins and 1 draw. They’ve only allowed 2 first half goals but given up 9 in the second half.
good read. i thought these were some good quotes. maybe i’m too easily pleased, but i think it just goes to show that, at the very least, the decisions are calculated and they do, most of the time, make sense.
this whole fitness thing was an embarrassing blowup and all the questioning of the 3-5-2 is silly. i love that JK said we need to have a few formations that we can switch to and still be able to play our way. we can’t have this static formation. this gets us back to the whole outrage when he said he doesn’t like formations and that it’s a system.
i understand how annoying it is to watch the team suck, but if we can at least figure out a few different “cards” to use, i think it would be absolutely worth it. and some people may say we can’t keep trying things and expect different results, but we do have to at least try them. and who knows…maybe we will still suck at the Gold Cup, the team will fail, and all of these people can say they were right the whole time. but i highly doubt it’ll come to that. my guess is the team will be fine.
+1 Solid take. Right there with you.
The diamond (442) did well in the WC and being able to switch to our normal 4231 was really useful.
My two favorite spectator sports are soccer and college basketball. I think you can learn from watching college basketball, too. My college team plays man to man 95% of the time and the coach hates to use anything else, but he has them practice a zone and every now and again he will use the zone to cross up a team that is shredding the man to man. He has won several games that might have been lost. JK gets a lot of criticism here for playing people out of position and changing formations, but I firmly believe you need that flexibility, especially in an international tournament when there are so many games packed into a short period of time.I think in this article Jk has done a much better job in explaining his reasoning than in the past. I think if you have read all he says, he really is consistent 90% of the time and has a good grasp of what is needed. I think a lot of the commenters here don’t appreciate all the elements that go into his decisions.
Agree with your perspective.
Another point to consider is that he rarely has the same players from one period to another. A formation that may be good for some players may not work with others, so the coach has to constantly adapt. It is considerably easier for coaches like in England, Germany, and Italy where almost all their players play in their domestic league and their availability is not an issue outside of injuries. The US has gotten a lot of its players from a lot of different leagues who don’t have the same schedules, so it can be a real juggling action. In that regard, having more players in MLS can be helpful. Just not during a January camp when they are all in off season.
i’m perfectly fine with the 3-5-2(libero) experiment, because that’s how you see if things work. my issue was that klinsmann explicitly said he tried this formation because it was the best fit for the january roster, which i think is crazy.
What is crazy about playing a formation suited to your roster?
Fitting the formation to the players available isn’t crazy, but thinking a 3-5-2 is the best formation might be. It relies on wingbacks getting involved in attack and defense, might not be the best idea when you have only one wingback (and one Brek Shea, who’s…something) in camp.
BB4
“Fitting the formation to the players available isn’t crazy, but thinking a 3-5-2 is the best formation might be.”
You’ve determined that after 45 minutes? Who said it might be the best formation? It is a formation they are trying out because it might be useful in the future in certain cases.
“It relies on wingbacks getting involved in attack and defense, might not be the best idea when you have only one wingback (and one Brek Shea, who’s…something) in camp”
The US still has a number of players to look at and more than a few competitions to try them out in. Why are you against the US trying to get ready for a variety of possible situations? There is an old saying about the futility of fighting this war with the last war’s weapons.
Of course they have more players to look at. Those players aren’t in camp right now, though. If Shea or Yedlin got hurt against Chile, who would have come on?
The 3-5-2 very well could be the best formation for when guys like Johnson, Chandler, and Garza are available, and maybe we should try out some of the new guys like Rodgers. They’re not in camp now, though, so I think trying to cram this group of players into a 3-5-2 was a mistake. If Klinsmann wanted to try out a 3-5-2, he should have brought more wide players.
BB4
“Of course they have more players to look at. Those players aren’t in camp right now, though. If Shea or Yedlin got hurt against Chile, who would have come on?”
Then you just change formations to suit whoever you have left to sub. Which is another learning experience for these guys. Much like many teams practice playing with ten men in the event of red cards.
Chile was a practice game , not the World Cup finals
“The 3-5-2 very well could be the best formation for when guys like Johnson, Chandler, and Garza are available, and maybe we should try out some of the new guys like Rodgers. They’re not in camp now, though, so I think trying to cram this group of players into a 3-5-2 was a mistake. If Klinsmann wanted to try out a 3-5-2, he should have brought more wide players.”
What makes you think he did not try to? National team managers, unlike club managers, are often severely handicapped in terms of who they can get in to a camp like this
JK may have to wait a real long time until he has the perfect, in your view, personnel group in to try a three man backline. Van Gaal has been at Man U. for 27 or so games, wants to have a three man backline and still hasn’t gotten right. But you expect to make a decision on it after 45 minutes?
i understand how annoying it is to watch the team suck, but if we can at least figure out a few different “cards” to use, i think it would be absolutely worth it.
I agree 100%.
When a manager has the most wins in national team history, he has earned the right to experiment. Even if that means dropping some matches against notable opponents along the way.
It’s easy as fan to proclaim we know what’s best for a team sitting in our upper deck seat, but we’re kidding ourselves when we actually start believing we know better than a this manager or any before/after him.
He’s GOT to develop a bunch of new faces, and he’s got to throw them in and get their feet wet now. And that’s what he’s doing.
Yeah, we had some core guys against Chile. But even with the likes of Bobby Wood, Steve Birnbaum, and Brek Shea (who is always a wild card) in the starting 11, they were doing what they were supposed to – they were winning.
Then he switched up, stuck in a bunch of new faces, and the team dropped off a bunch. But that’s exactly the time for them to get worked in – in a friendly.
People can squawk about results, but blame Nguyen, Zardes, etc…they had their chances and didn’t get it done. We could give up on them, I suppose…or we can keep running them out and see how they develop.