- Where the big problem on the U.S. back line lies now
Remember when we all sat around straining our brains to fix the gaping hole along the back line, the one at left back? Timmy Chandler came along … and then dumped us like a cheating girlfriend. No matter, though, because Fabian Johnson rode in to the timely rescue. The Hoffenheim man has little wrong over two matches, strong in one-on-one defending, reasonably well positioned, troublesome on the attack, etc.
But there’s still a bugger of a problem back there; the trouble spot just shifted into the middle.
I’ve already written the early, brutal details about Oguchi Onyewu’s night to forget. He was a little better in the second half … until the moment when he was late stepping forward, leaving Tim Howard stranded to stop an unchallenged shot that turned into No. 4.
Carlos Bocanegra still has something to offer, but his speed will become an increasingly liability unless Jurgen Klinsmann can find a quality partner to situate alongside him, one with a little more speed. Maybe it’s Clarence Goodson. Or maybe it can be Cameron with a little more top-level experience.
Either way, the case is being built that it just isn’t Onyewu.
- The imperfect midfield fix
The United States still has spots that are weak and vulnerable. Center back is not the only one.
The midfield mix was good enough against Scotland, but suffered severely Wednesday. Much of the trouble can be traced to Jermaine Jones, who lost too many balls, took way too long to catch the pace of the game (much faster than Saturdays) and wasn’t in the right spots, providing the requisite cover at the moments his team needed it most.
Meanwhile, Michael Bradley had another strong match. Mostly, at any rate.
More from U.S.-Brazil:
Match report: United States 1-4 Brazil
Bradley gets PST’s USMNT Man of the Match
There are times when Bradley didn’t move out of the center channel to pressure (or better yet, forcefully eliminate) a Brazilian advance. It underscores a point I think we’re all learning: he’s not a defensive midfielder. Not that he can’t be serviceable there, but it’s not Bradley’s ideal positioning.
Bradley has evolved into a two-way man, and a darn good one. I know the Jose Torres backers may take issue, but Bradley is the best passer on the U.S. team. His ball into Fabian Johnson to start the U.S. goal was pinpoint perfect. Looking back over his body of work in the U.S. shirt, who can deny what he offers going forward, in arranging goals and scoring them?
The three-man arrangement looked better Saturday when Edu was the holding screener and Bradley’s starting positions were higher up the field. (Wednesday, Edu and Jones played ahead of Bradley in the triangle.)
- Too much whining, not enough “getting on with it.”
The United States looked a little undone by the early penalty kick decision. Good call or bad, they have to get past it.
Landon Donovan was complaining too much, throwing his arms around when he needed total focus on that bunch of yellow wizards. He must have thought he was back in the L.A. Galaxy uniform; they do a lot of that stuff.
Donovan struggled to get anything going against Marcelo, among the globe’s top left backs, so some frustration may be understandable. Then again, as the most experienced U.S. man, he’s got to provide a better example.
Jones kicked into his bad old habit of lashing out temperamentally, crunching Neymar along the sideline.
Bradley has trimmed that petulant element from his game, and thankfully so. Jones, 30, may be what he is, unable to turn that stuff off at this point. It’s another reason Klinsmann would do well to keep looking for a third central midfielder.
Bottom line: this is big boy soccer, and the stakes will rise dramatically in just over a week. Things won’t always go the U.S. way, and they just have to get on with it.
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- greej1938l - May 30, 2012 at 10:47 PM
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Yeah..I agree. They were definitely still in it at half.
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- sir1389 - May 30, 2012 at 11:16 PM
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I agree with a comment I heard the announcers say when it was 3-1: “The US actually don’t deserve this scoreline.” This game could have easily been radically different, which is a huge step for the USMNT.
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- jucam1 - May 30, 2012 at 11:39 PM
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The US is the MOST overrated team in the world, I knew the Scotland win was a mirage…. You play in a super weak qualifying region and have way overrated players (except for Clinto) and when you play the real footie regions of the world and true powers, this is what happens…
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- term3186 - May 31, 2012 at 12:52 AM
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Overrated? Nah. Most people who follow soccer knows where the US stands. A pretty good team, but not consistently dangerous enough to be considered top tier. The US is certainly capable of winning against anyone (see the Confed Cup), but don’t do it with enough regularity. But we’re getting better.
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- docstraw - May 30, 2012 at 11:45 PM
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Donovan looked tired or out of sorts or something from the get-go. Marcelo had a hand in that but it seemed like Landon wasn’t quite up for this one. I was really impressed with Gomez, who is not a traditional target man but held down the lone forward spot well, mainly because he was constantly on the move, trying to find the openings. It became obvious rather quickly that having Edu play higher up the field than Bradley was a mistake. Not sure if that was an experiment or if Klinsmann felt the match-up on the field warranted that switch. What does anyone see in Edu, really? I can’t name one thing he does particularly well. he is terrible in tight spaces, has a fairly poor first touch, doesn’t pass the ball all that well and isn’t the best defender either.
Bradley’s passing was terrific, not just on the sequence that lead to the goal but he also played some nifty lofted passes throughout the game. His transformation has been incredible. He is really something. JFT seemed a little slow of thought in this one. middle of defense was useless. That is not a CB combo I would ever like to see again. I love Cherundolo but is he really going to be manning the RB spot a year from now? It seems unlikely. Against all odds, the only spot on the backline I feel good about is LB. The move Johnson put on the Brazilian defender to create space for himself was retahded-good.
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- sir1389 - May 31, 2012 at 12:27 AM
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Most important stat from the game: 76k fans show up to watch a friendly game that means nothing.
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- arjanroghanchi - May 31, 2012 at 8:12 AM
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What an utter embarrassment. Don’t tell me we were facing one of the best sides in the world. This is a joke. US Soccer fans need to start getting disgusted with this kind of display if we want our team to be taken seriously.
Every outing we have, it becomes more and more clear that the brains behind Herr Klinsmann’s operation in Germany belonged to Jogi Lowe. His tactics and selections have been absolutely terrible.
Bunbury, Agudelo, Shea, Altidore. All have been ahead of Herculez Gomez on Klinsi’s team sheet. Why?
Folks, Jozy Altidore has scored just 13 goals in 46 caps, and only 7 in competitive matches. The kid is not the striker we need.
Our soccer writers love to slurp Clint Dempsey, especially in light of his recent 17 goal campaign. His first involvement last night was to fall down in the box instead of trying to win a header. He then sat there with his hands up in the air and nasty look on his face. THAT is his signature move, not putting the ball in the net. Soon after that display, he had a pretty vicious elbow against a brazillian defender who admirably didnt go to the ground (had he fallen, I’m sure Dempsey would have been been carded). He walked away from the encounter chirping the defender he had just elbowed. No one seems to have a problem with his petulance???
Which brings us to Landycakes. Marcelo OWNED him up and down the pitch, and he spent most of his free time lobbying for calls (he is the only player to wear a USMNT shirt that does this more than Dempsey). Donovan has had a couple great moments wearing the shirt. But he never has asserted himself over any kind of extended period, much less against top competition. He has deftly played his hand in terms of playing in Europe, using short spells at a mid table club to boost his bona findes without taking the risk of having to perform for a whole campaign.
Guys like Cherundolo, Bocanegra. They are just not good enough (I almost vomited in my mouth when the insufferable Taylor Twellman started complaining about Marcelo’s “antics” after Cherundolo bear hugged him to the ground because he was caught in no man’s land).
I wish the Ives Galarceps and Grant Wahls of the world would step up and call these guys out. Stop making excuses.
The USA should be a consistent competitive threat against the Brazils of the world, who cares about Scotland.
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- term3186 - May 31, 2012 at 11:07 AM
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Errrrrrr. What? You have some valid points, but other portions of your rant are just way off. Dolo has been one of the best defenders wearing a USMNT jersey for years. Who would you replace him with? In the gold cup he was the only one keeping the Mexican attack at bay, as soon as he went off with an injury, we got lit up. As for Jozy, I’m not really his biggest fan, but he hasn’t gotten a heck of a lot of support in the past. He’s usually stuck up top as the lone attacking option with a five man midfield that would bomb the ball up to him and leave him with very few options if he managed to win it. While LD and CD might not be as good as the media wants us to think, who would you replace them with? How many other viable options do we have? It’s easy to blast a team without offering decent alternatives. And if you almost vomited you need a better gag reflex. Dolo fouled Marcelo. It was called. There’s no reason to try to nail him in the face with your cleats.
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- arjanroghanchi - May 31, 2012 at 8:48 AM
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By the way, the conquering hero known as Deuce scored 9 of his 17 goals against the bottom half of the table. 0 of his goals were against the top 4.
5 of his goals came against sides that were relegated.
Bring on the Champions League.
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- jucam1 - May 31, 2012 at 8:59 PM
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I repeat my statement… The MOST overrated team on the planet… The FIFA Rankings are a joke and meant to get idiot US fans to buy Jersey’s… This team couldn’t make the top 8 in COMEMBOL or the top 15 in Europe…. It’s fine to be a young nation that will utilize it’s wealth, size, and allure for Latino immigrants that will some day make it competitive, but it’s a joke when this country rolls out Altadore, Edu, and Donovan out there against real footie powers… The US side and their fans need to realize this takes decades and this team is at least 40-50 years away (unless you naturalize some real players) from being a real contender…
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- footballer4ever - Jun 2, 2012 at 1:17 PM
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@ jucam1- from the sound of your opinion, not only you are not a USMNT fan/ supporter, but you come out not as a “Eurosnob”, but more like a “Soccer Snob”. Opinions are respected and accepted when it’s backed with objective facts, not emotionally charged statements. Also, repeating statements twice or more don’t make It any more true as you might believe it does. (sarcastic wink)
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- soccerknowitall - Jun 2, 2012 at 10:08 PM
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review of strategies and tactics: USA vs Brazil
I believe JK’s pregame strategy and in game tactical adjustments are his biggest weakness; a blindspot that was at least partly negated by Joachim Loew along with higher qualilty and seasoned players when JK was coach of Germany. Brazil came out in a 4-2-4 formation with all forwards high pressing the US backline, this aggressive pressing defensive tactic deployed by the brazilians was extremely effective and exposed the US teams lack of skill on the ball, and thought process when challenged. Understand that Barcalona does the samething to opponents in la liga/champions league, and the best counter strategy is to employ in game defensive tactics the likes of Jose Mourinho’s inter milan 2010 team and Chelsea’s strategy this yr in CL. No team can apply this much defensive pressure for a whole 45 minutes, not even young energetic brazilians, it’s to exhausting; but there strategy from the start of both halfs was to use this tactic to throw the US team off its game and score goals, which is exactly what they did. Once the brazilian pressure subsided we witnessed a US side that was able to apply there new found offensive abilities: teamwork, tactics and goalscoring chances effectively, which is JK’s biggest accomplishment with the US team so far along with his infectious energy and enthusiasm . The brazil game can be viewed as a great learning tool for future world class opponents who will enter the game with superior players; skilled, and tactically aware of US teams weaknesses, and how to develop a counter strategy for US team to imploy when facing such opponents.
http://soccerknowitall.wordpress.com/2012/06/02/strategies-and-tactics-usa-vs-brazil/
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