A Fish Rots At The Head

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Regular readers of this site will recall a familiar theme around these parts, which -- at its essence -- goes something like this: Bob Must Go.  I write, of course, regarding Bob Bradley and his position as Head Coach of the US Men's National Team.  Bradley's recent travails have been well documented here and on many other sites, so there's no need to rehash the arguments in favor of removing the coach.

But today I go further: I'm no longer satisfied with calling for the head of the Head Coach of the US Soccer Team.  No, our national problems with the game the rest of the world calls football go well beyond Bradley and straight to the top of the US Soccer Federation (the "USSF"), all the way to the desk of Sunil Gulati.  Having run US Soccer since 2006, and serving as the Vice President of the USSF since 2001, Gulati is where the buck stops for football in this country.  And it's where the ultimate blame resides.

The Aftermath

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As you'll no doubt notice after reading this piece by Coach Mark, there's some internal dissent here at the corporate office regarding our level of satisfaction with Coach Bob Bradley.  But before you get to that, here's Mark's final thoughts on the US National Team  after its painful loss to Mexico in Saturday night's Gold Cup final:

We'll call it a wrap at 4-2. Loss aside, it was one of the more entertaining soccer games you'll ever see. Who was it that said there's no scoring in soccer?

The game Saturday night against the best Mexican team I've ever seen provided a nice final exam for the US in the Gold Cup. Here are my final Gold Cup remarks on the first post-World-Cup version of the U.S. National team:

Starting from the rear, Steve Cherundolo showed why he should be considered an American legend. At 31 he's still going strong. The main question surrounding Cherundolo is whether he can he hang on for one more Cup.

Bob Must Go

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So, last night's loss against Panama may not lead to the US exiting the Gold Cup tournament, and I still expect them to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition -- barring an upset of catastrophic proportions by Guadaloupe -- but the fact the Americans lost to Panama on home soil has to go down as a black mark on Bob Bradley's head coaching resume. Actually, the fact that we're even forced to write an article contemplating whether or not the Americans can advance in a tourney against a bunch of CONCACAF minnows is shocking in and of itself....

Continuing where I left off last week, the combination of Sunil Gulati and Bob Bradley is not what is going to help US soccer succeed now or in the future. I include Gulati this time in my increasingly vocal criticism, because he's the man in charge, the one who re-hired Bradley after the 2010 World Cup, and he's also the one who vetoed the hiring -- that's twice now -- of a more offensive-minded head coach such as Jurgen Klinsmann.

To put it simply, US soccer has taken a step backward over the past 12-18 months. Not only does the coach not appear to know who his best 11 are, he doesn't appear capable of putting a strong 11 on the pitch, and the US appears particularly suspect on defense.  Which is a perfect jumping off point to begin our analysis of Saturday night's dismal 90 minutes:

Time To Go

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Saturday's action featured two coaches who've both managed to dramatically overstay their welcome, Fabio Capello and Bob Bradley. Herewith some thoughts on two not-so-pretty games for the English-speaking sides:

o Wembley was declared a "sell out" for the England's Euro 2012 qualifier versus the Swiss on Saturday. Amazingly, a number of fans came dressed as empty seats.....  

o You're kidding me, right? Ads on the sideline at Wembley stated that Carlsberg is the "Offical Beer" of the English national team? What's next?  Newcastle sponsoring Denmark?

o There was some shocking defending by the Three Lions in the first half. Memo to Fabio Capello: Do not use James Milner in a two-man wall. In fact, don't use Milner at all. He's terrible.

Fielding Your Best Eleven: The Bradley Dilemma

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We told you previously that  we had scouts embedded in with the US Mens National Soccer Team, and we weren't lying.  Okay, we actually were, but Super Scout Mark's acute tactical insight and analysis of the US Mens' side more than makes up for it:

For the better part of his five year tenure with the national team, Bob Bradley has taken the approach that the United States' best chance of success comes when it puts its eleven best players on the field at the same time. The problem with Bradley’s teams, though, has been that too many of his best eleven play the same position. You can get away with a couple players out of position, but what do you do when half of your team isn’t playing in their natural spot?

Clint Dempsey started his national team career as the second forward under Bruce Arena, and no matter where you put Dempsey on the field, he seems to end up playing as a second forward. He’s been an attacking mid, a right mid, and most recently a left mid, although he and Donovan trade sides frequently during games. (If you are playing out of position, what’s the hurt in switching with someone else who's out of position?). But no matter where he starts, Dempsey seems to end up on the end of passes in front of goal. His record ten goals in the English Premiere League tells you this isn’t a guy who likes to hang out on the wing and offer Beckham-like services into the center forward. When Deuce has the ball he takes it at goal, and when he doesn’t have it he heads to goal to receive it. He’s great at attacking the goal, but the problem in the US game is that when Dempsey attacks from that role there's no service coming in from the left wing. With the exception of a couple really weak Jonathan Bornstein crosses, the US got no service at all from port-side against Paraguay, and rarely gets any wing play at all when Dempsey is in the game as a wide mid.

The same can be said for Landon Donovan on the opposite side. Donovan is certainly a more natural winger than Dempsey, but Donovan is happiest and most dangerous in his full field runs at goal on the counter. It’s what he does best. While he’s one of the most accurate service providers in the entire US squad, Donovan doesn't have the finesse, patience and willingness of a natural winger to work his man into the deep corners and play balls from the end line. He’s an attacker, and probably the best counter-attacking forward the US team has ever had. Putting him at wing puts him in his second best position.