Despite some continued issues at the back, the U.S. Men’s National Team kicked off its 2016 campaign with a 3-2 win on Sunday against Iceland, and now the USMNT will shift its attention to its northern brethren while looking to fix what went wrong last time out.
After a positive start to the new year, the U.S. will still be looking to improve upon some of its defensive woes that transpired against Iceland. It’s something that head coach Jurgen Klinsmann recognizes and wants to see improvement on when his team faces Canada on Friday night.
“As a coach you obviously want to see a defensive line that is on top of everything, that blocks every shot, that doesn’t give away the opportunity for the opponent to score, but the reality is that that isn’t going to happen,” Klinsmann said during Thursday’s press conference.
“The reality is that there is always an opponent with quality, finding ways to create their own chances, and here they put it in the back of the net. When you see those things that didn’t work out, you show it to them. You explain it. On the first goal that was deflected, there were four people standing around the guy that pulled the trigger, so next time one guy can please throw himself in front of it.”
Sporting Kansas City defender Matt Besler, who has become a consistent force for the USMNT’s back line over the past two years, also believes that there’s room for improvement against Canada.
“I feel like against Iceland we did a good job of keeping the game in front of us,” Besler said.
“That’s what we want to do, especially when we play at home. We want to have a lot of the ball. We want to make it tough for other teams to get out when they win the ball. Then obviously there are a few times when you’ll have to defend a few counters. When you’re talking that sort of thing, I think the Iceland game was good. Canada is going to pose another challenge for us, but we’re going to look to do those things.”
Friday’s clash against the U.S. will be Canada’s first taste of soccer in 2016, after having last played in November’s CONCACAF World Cup qualifying matches against Honduras and El Salvador. Benito Floro’s side is currently riding a six-match unbeaten streak.
Similar to the makeup of the current USMNT, Canada also features a large number of MLS talent, including Orlando City SC striker and reigning Rookie of the Year Cyle Larin.
While still developing as a force in the international soccer community, Klinsmann recognizes the threat that Canada poses as the team continues to build upon its solid finish to last year.
“They’ve done well the first two games in qualifiers,” Klinsmann said when speaking about Friday’s opponent. “They gathered four points. They are trying to get out of a very difficult group, Canada, so obviously we watched that, we see that.
“It won’t be easy to break them down and to create chances and hopefully score goals. They are very compact when they decide to defend and drop deep. They have a lot of numbers around the box and in the box, so it will not be that simple. We have to be patient, hopefully we can create chances. They have forwards, young forwards, that play in MLS and that can hurt you in a split second.”
I still think that one of the most talented CB’s, when it comes to challenging balls in the air and passing out the back isn’t even in camp. Matt Hedges has been a beast the past two years for FC Dallas. I would still love for him to have an opportunity playing along side Bessler or Cameron
Random question, could AuFC potentially sign perry kitchen and loan him to another mls club for a year?
When JK arrived it was Bocanegra,Cherundolo, Goodson, Gooch,Demerit… almost all at the end of their of their careers declining rapidly. Sure there was Castillo and Orozco around the margins of the squad but they were basically untested experiments. Orozco’s turned out to be serviceable at times, which I think is what anyone would have probably expected given his club career. Castillo was always going to have some big question marks around his game. I give Klinsmann credit for having the balls to drop Bocanegra and through Besler/Gonzales into the fire and that turned out pretty well in the World Cup.
interestingly, when JK eventually leaves, for whatever reason, I think the US CBs will be better than they ever have been. With young talent I dont remember ever having at the spot (JA Brooks (23), M Miazga (20), E Palmer-Brown (18), and C Carter-Vickers (18)), its a spot that USMNT should really have a pairing or couple pairings that should be able to hold it down for multiple cycels
Things will likely be even better than you imagine. Say JK leaves after the 2018 WC, the CB pool will be something along the following:
Cameron (33), Besler (31), Gonzalez (29), Brooks (25), Birnbaum (27), Alvarado (26),
Miazga (23), Parker (25), CCV (20), EPB (21)
Even if you dismiss the 3 oldest after 2018 we’d still have 7 probable CBs options to choose from for the start of the 2022 cycle. Brooks should have roughly 30 caps by this time while Alvarado & Miazga will likely have ~ 20 caps giving them about the same level of experience as Besler & Gonzalez have now. That would be significantly better starting position than when JK took over the team in 2011.
I get the impression that defenders decline the more they are exposed to Klinnsman. When JK arrived it was Castillo, Orozco and Cameron then they faded and it was Besler and Gonzo and then they faded and Orozco and Cameron was back with a bit of Alvarado and now Besler is making a comeback and so it goes.
Yeah, that’s it — as a former striker, JK can’t stop abusing defenders.
although i don’t agree with alexh, it’s not that farfetched that a team wouldn’t be as defensive-minded with a manager known for his attacking prowess. i’m sure there are (many) exceptions, but it’s conventional wisdom that a manager forms a team in his likeness.
anyway, i’d blame the defense more on high turnover–some of it klinsmann’s doing, but more so the natural process of established veterans aging (as danny kissinger said below).
I’ve been disappointed in Besler’s international play recently. After the WC, I thought he’d be a mainstay for the Nats for many years to come and that he could be solid defender in a top 4 league. So I felt let down that he didn’t make a move out of MLS, but I can’t blame him if the money wasn’t there abroad. But, I still think him and Cameron are the best pairing right now, although I’d be looking at others for future, like a Miazaga/Brooks, ect.
Jk failed to solidify a CB pairing for 2014, why would he suddenly do it now? Should be a 4-5 man rotation with guys getting use to playing with one another, not constant turnover.
Well this just isn’t true. JK settled on the Gonzalez/Besler pairing since about the spring of 2013 when we tied Mexico at the Azteca, and Besler finally looked like an international CB. This was our ideal pair (except for the odd friendly when we tinkered around with Brooks/Gooch/Goodson etc.) up until the winter before the WC when Gonzalez decided to forget how to play soccer.
But hey, one player losing form didn’t matter because we had options and a backup named Geoff Cameron. Its almost as if experimenting and tinkering actually has a purpose…
When the games are competitive matches we will essentially be looking at a CB rotation of 6 players depending on health & form: Besler, Brooks, Cameron, Miazga, Alvarado, & Gonzalez. As long as these guys are playing consistently and are in form I would not expect too much deviation from these 6.
Depending on how the Olympic play-off ends, if there are injuries, or during friendlies there could be a couple other CBs who get looked at. Call them reserve CBs or whatever you want to but they’re basically depth guys waiting in the wings. Guys like Birnbaum, Parker, CCV and Orozco These are the backups to the backups. The older 2 (Orozco & Birnbaum) will be familiar with what JK wants while the younger players (Parker & CCV) would be viewed as potential replacements if something happened.
Don’t forget that MLS is one of the few leagues that is off now, so JK was restricted to MLS players and he also wanted to concentrate on using U-23 players, too, to get ready for their March games. So, his pool is very limited for this camp.
Maybe I’m in the minority but I didn’t think our defense was that bad v Iceland. First goal was an unlucky clearance that fell to Iceland and we did ball watch a little but it wasn’t terrible defense. More of a lucky bounce and an unlucky deflection (Robles seemed in position to stop it initially). Then the second goal was off an odd confusing stop of play that they scored on a nice curler.
My essential point is that a deflection and a quick start odd goal is a lot better than just having an opponent hold 80%+ of possession and 45 shots allowed…..
true, the goals weren’t really the issue; it was that anytime iceland sent up an attack (which wasn’t often), our guys were usually either way out of position or not on the same page at all.
was kind of disappointed with how conservative iceland played–maybe if they had attacked a little more, our defense would’ve gotten into more of a groove?
First goal came from a terrible clearance and despite the odd restart guys were just standing around before the second goal. Also there were other defensive lapses that didn’t result in a goal but could when we are playing teams more talented than Iceland’s reserves.
In this sport two goals is a lot to let in.
Sure but perhaps there are better and worse ways to give up 2 goals. I know I’m splitting hairs essentially but I’ve seen worse games where we gave up 2 goals. That’s all.
Actually, for the reasons you say, it wasn’t the goals that bothered me in this game. What bothered me was how easily Iceland got space in the middle, dribbled into open spaces, and created some good chances out of very few opportunities. If we had not controlled possession so much, they might have scored a couple of “legitimate” goals in addition to their “lucky” ones. While the US kind of gave them the second by not being ready, the Icelandic scorer really made a nice shot.
The back line looked really poor in the Iceland game, but when the US plays games that count only Besler is likely to be in the lineup, so I don’t think it’s anything to worry about at this stage.
Besler was terrible, as he has been for the majority of the last year.
good thing he wasnt on the Gold Cup roster, the defensive might have been terrible!
He quietly had probably his best year as a professional at SKC last year.
“The back line looked really poor in the Iceland game”
yep, which is why i don’t really mind seeing the jones-bradley pairing for these games, although i’d love to see more of nagbe-bradley-nguyen with the full team. if your midfield is weak, it’s really hard to work on your back line. and our defense is a much more pressing concern than our midfield.