On the Future of US Football....errr, Soccer

Correspomdents Ed and Scott weigh in on the fortunes of the USMNT after last night's crucial victory over regional "powerhouse" Guatemala :-/

Ed:  I watched the game last evening.  I liked our lineup better, though I still don’t understand a few things.  First of all, Guatemala is terrible; how we lost to them last week is beyond belief.  I would think a good U.S. college team could beat them.  Second, at least last night Jurgen Klinsman had people at their appropriate positions – except for Bradley, whom he insists on playing in a number 10 though Bradley can’t help himself and often fell back into the number 6 position in spite of Beckerman being there.  I still think we are a better team with Bradley at 6, Nagbe  at 8 and Nguyen (or your boy Benny Feilhaber, Scott, but for whatever reason he’s an enemy of the state) at 10, and Beckerman on the bench unless and until we need him.  I was glad to see Zusi again, though I’m not sure of Castillo – he’s like a taller, younger imitation brand of Beasley.

 

My conclusions were:  we still aren’t very good at the simple tasks of passing and receiving.  I don’t watch much US National Team but clearly these guys aren’t at BPL level as they miss a lot of passes and have some poor first touches.  While we dominated the game and score line, there were no style points for us like there are when an overmatched team in the BPL plays a lower level team, e.g., Spurs playing Sunderland.  Sunderland will have their shots but Spurs will dominate possession and the game and there will usually be chance after chance. 

Dempsey played well but he’s definitely not going to be there next world cup as the 30 thing is upon him.

Bobby Wood is okay.  Like Castillo, I find it surprising that we don’t have any better USA players at those positions considering the talent we sometimes see just in South Florida.

 

Whatever.  They won.  They were better.  Onward.

 

I should note that US Youth Soccer has dramatically increased the number of US Soccer Academies.  I don’t know if this is a Klinsman thing, but suspect it is.  In Germany he is credited in small part to the cleaning up of their malfunctioning and fractured system.  German soccer put a ton of money into training coaches to get a high number of highly qualified coaches throughout, and JK forced money into facilities for the same purpose. I  believe to be an academy you need both a highly licensed coach and a certain quantity of facilities.  I imagine this will be good for USA youth soccer in general and the development of better players than we currently have on our USA national team.  If JK’s legacy is this, then he may have earned his money as it’s probably the most important thing for USA to get better at the international game (that said, I don’t know much about all the new academies springing up).  The current players are better than he’s made them look, but they still just aren’t that good compared to their top European counterparts. 

Scott:  I agree with pretty much everything Ed said except we dominated the game so much (granted, I only watched the first half and then skimmed the second) that I’m not sure what more could have been expected.  Maybe another 2 goals but 4 is plenty.  I think we lacked style points because we simply lack the requisite number of players with deft touch.  So maybe I am agreeing with Ed on everything.  I certainly saw a lot of errant first touches – it was like watching a “highlight” reel of Fort Lauderdale over 45s.

 

Interesting point he made about more academies here and that perhaps that was Jurgen’s influence in Germany.  Maybe he’s really more a director of football than a coach.

Two Points Dropped, or a Point Gained?: USMNT 2 - Portugal 2

24 hours after the Cristiano Ronaldo cross that rocked the USMNT, the crack analytical team from farlieonfootie breaks down the game and looks forward to Thursday's action.

Mark:  To revisit our pre-cup theme, did we really take Alejandra Bedoya over Landon Donovan? Bedoya apparently did not complete a single pass yesterday.

The one thing we have lacked so far is precision in front of the goal, and the most precise player in American history is making funny commercials while we are missing the goal by a foot to the left and a foot to the right.

Who thinks that Donovan misses that tap in that Bradley missed yesterday. I don't think Donovan has ever missed on of those. That would have been Donovan's spot yesterday.

It's a real shame because we seem to have a real team here, except that we need a second forward or wing player. And we left the best one in the history of the country at home.

Scott:  I’m still in denial. It can be a cruel game. But then you can make it even worse by not hanging onto the ball for another 30 seconds. At least twice in the last couple of minutes I saw times we could have easily bled off 15 seconds or so, but instead we gave it right back to them so CR7 could have his one moment. A botched clearance, a missed open net, and inability to waste 30 seconds… I wish I could go back to bed.

Mark:  I think this is hard to let go of because we know this is going to come back to haunt us. In American soccer it always does. There are never happy endings. It's like what happens to the Central American teams. Some how even when they should win, they lose, usually by some call where the ref gives the game to Argentina or Germany because they are the teams that are supposed to advance. I am hoping Portugal wins. I don't have a lot of confidence that we can take Germany. I think we are capable of a devastatingly close loss to them, but not a win.

The one thing I am happy about is that US soccer is clearly better than Portugal and that's no small feat, and Costa Rica is better than a lot of people so our group now has some respect.

Here Come the Americans! USMNT 4 - Bosnia-Herzegovina 3

photo by *Micky	via PhotoRee

Remember the bad old days?  Apparently, neither does Correspondent Scott:

Now let's not jump to conclusions here, but that was a quality performance against a quality team. Getting the errors out of the way early, the US then settled down in the second half, maintained possession more and created chance after chance for an on-fire Jozy Altidore. Credit must also be given to Jurgen Klinsmann's tactical change and apparent pep talk at half time. And all without Clint Dempsey or Landon Donovan.

A demerit must be given to ESPN who mistakenly listed Bosnia-Herzegivina's Asmir Begovic in goal for the Americans on the pregame graphic. Come on, guys!  Everybody on staff should have been able to realize that the Bosnian-sounding name had erroneously usurped the perennial American 'keeper with the American name, Tim Howard.

If I was excited to see Altidore ply his trade in the BPL again before, I'll now be losing sleep until Sunderland's first kickoff.

Eddie Johnson's lackadaisical care for the ball just outside his own 18 was to blame for the home side's first goal, despite Howard's first-shot heroics. Although both central defenders are also to blame for beseeching for offside rather than hustling to cover their goal line.

The next error that led to the 2-0 halftime score line is one that DRIVES ME NUT!  On set pieces, you have to mark closely until the ball is COMPLETELY CLEARED. Second chance crosses that find now-open opponents will kill you every time!

But boy does 20 minutes getting spoken to harshly with a German accent make a difference (just ask every team our friend Olaf has coached)!  Although possession was starting to swing to the US toward the end of the first half, clear scoring opportunities were lacking. But that all changed with a revamped formation and a little more hunger. Although the US Haters have been flooding the internet with how BH "called off the dogs" when they made three subs to start the second half, I don't believe that for a second. Only one of the three subs was critical - one was inconsequential and the last involved trading out a defender so flummoxed by Altidore that he had to pick up a yellow. And when two more subs were made after the Americans pulled within one goal, I can guarantee you that their coach was more concerned about maintaining his home unbeaten streak than about reining in canines. And it's not like Edin Dzeko called it an early night.

We Agree on Some Things: USA 1 - Honduras 0

 

 

After a further review of his beer count, Scott remembered some additional thoughts he had on the American's 2-1 victory over Honduras Tuesday night:

 

The Farlieonfootie game-watching party at Coach Mark’s house was much as it should have been: mounds of chicken wings, oversized bottles of craft beer and soccer opinions flying around like mosquitoes after a fresh summer rain in South Florida.  Clearly the higher alcohol content favored by smaller production breweries contributed to the conviviality that saw United, Liverpool and Tottenham fans all putting aside their differences to agree on just about everything as it related to Team USA:

o Michael Bradley’s head should be in every wall formed by the US from now on.  If we get the rest of his body that is a plus.  But we at least need his head, which single-foreheadedly blocked one of the more ominous Honduran attempts on goal. 

 

o As a quick Google Images search revealed, Clint Dempsey’s perpetual look of disdain is clearly an effort to compensate for his default permanent grin, courtesy of his photogenic and paintily clad wife, Bethany.

 

o Jozy Altidore, recently interviewed by our host, Mark, as the pictures of his daughter and the Forward proved, is on a tear with four consecutive international games with a goal.  As his confidence grows, he is beginning to look like the strong scorer we’ve been expecting.  May his streak continue!

 

o After the photos of his daughter, next up from Mark were classic audio clips of commentary by the inimitable Ray Hudson.  Heads were nodding all around when it was proposed that Mr. Hudson is maybe the best at his trade.  If only Fox Soccer were of the same mind rather than enlisting the services of the enthusiastic yet hapless Gus Johnson.

 

o After the aforementioned nodding of heads, there was a communal scratching of those heads as we tried to piece together the mystery that is Cobi Jones having over 100 caps for the national team.  This was followed by a general, slow, side-to-side shaking of heads (accompanied by two forceful exhales and at least one eye roll) as we then reminisced about the thankfully brief Tim Ream experiment.

 

o Has Michael Bradley officially broken the American player in Serie A curse that began with Alexi Lalas?  Maybe.

Getting a Big Head: USMNT 1 - Honduras 0

Continuing our theme of not enough soccer and never enough beer, the farlieonfootie corporate staff gathered on Tuesday night to watch the US Men in action against Honduras at Coach Mark's bachelor pad.  The swanky soiree was catered with the best food that money could buy and a fairly decent selection of craft beers, as well: The Bruery (Mischief), Dogfish Head (75 Minute), and Lagunitas (Sumpin' Sumpin') were all represented. As was Goose Island (312 Urban Wheat), a beer which Correspondent Ed gets cranky about when we refer to it as a "craft," but as no one pays him any mind in the first place, his sulking in the corner brought no further disruption to the evening's festivities.

 

Despite the beer flowing liberally, we did manage to retain enough of our wits about us to keep at least some small impressions from last night's crucial 1-0 victory for the Nats, viz:

 

o Although we've always fancied the Great Gazoo to play the role of Michael Bradley when they make the movie about how the USA won the World Cup, Correspondent Ed made a decent case last night for Megamind.  We'll leave it up to you, our faithful readers, to make the final call:

 



Who Will Play the Role of Michael Bradley?  You Decide.



 

o Regardless of who plays the role, there's no denying the former coach's son has become an integral part of the US setup, and is probably our second most important player at this point -- trailing only the Deuce, Clint Dempsey.  He's definitely turned around our former thinking on the subject from a year and a half ago -- there's no denying that some time in Roma has helped our boy significantly "up" his game.

 

o Jozy Altidore has turned into a pretty decent center forward.  Scoring 24 golazzos in a single season in Europe will do that to you, we guess....  During the past month Altidore has displayed a depth and maturity to his game that we hadn't seen before, and his confidence has got to be sky high after his latest exploits.  His touch looked great, his runs were brilliant, and his hold up play was much better than average -- and that says nothing about his finishing, which is on a par right now with the best the US has ever seen. 

 

o Could it be be coincidence that the US offense has started to click under the tutelage of noted former goalscorer Jurgen Klinsmann, or could it just possibly be that the Nats' bossman might know a thing or two about putting the ball in the back of the net...?  Although we were early and ardent admirers of der Klinsi, many fans in the US camp needed some convincing -- and some still do.  To hell with his "inability to switch tactics in the middle of a game."  We're more interested in watching a team that looks as if it's beginning to understand how to truly play the game in the first place.  Did we ever see any sustained wide play under Bob Bradley? 

Well, That Was Better: USMNT 2 - Panama 0

photo by meddygarnet	via PhotoRee

 

 

It's all Ed all the time around corporate HQ these days: 

My US national team assignment continues, this time from Seattle, Washington, where our heroes put in a dramatically better performance to defeat Panama 2 to 0 and move to first place in their World Cup qualifying group.  (By the way, thanks for putting me up in that slick Residence Inn, boss, really loved the gratuitous continental breakfast buffet.)  Of course, this was a home game against weak opposition, but even so the USA moved and handled the ball with much more confidence and tactical awareness.  In particular....

Michael Bradley.  Bradley played one of his better games, controlling the middle, handling the ball well, and working forward into space on breaks expertly.  He was the man of the match for the US, and was only stopped from scoring by an unfortunately positioned Clint Dempsey.  I recall much criticism of Bradley as only starting because he's the coach's son.  Well, that's not true.  Bradley is the best midfielder we have right now.  He lacks speed and isn't dazzling, but he's one of the few American's whose capable on the ball and has the vision of a coach's son.  He's also clearly a leader of that team.  At 26, he's coming into the prime of his career and in the next World Cup the USA will need him.

Jozy Altidore.  Altidore had a terrific game, but remains to me simply an old style number 9.   He uses his strength well, can finish, and is a threat in the air, but don't look for him to scare anyone when he has the ball at his feet in the way top strikers like Aguero or Van Persie do.  That said, he is also older now and is gaining confidence.

Geoff Cameron.  The press had the loss of Jermaine Jones due to a concussion as being a huge problem for the USA.  I see the value of Jones and think he's a solid player, but I've also felt that his touch is suspect in addition to his all to frequent lapses of judgment with hard fouls.  Geoff Cameron, it turns out, filled in admirably and seemed to be little different than Jones in this one, perhaps even better.

Damarcus Beasley.  Well, I've been harsh on Damarcus for some time, but he had one of his best games against Panama.  He was solid and defense and handled himself well on offense.  I'm sorry to say, though, that the lack of competition on that side seemed a huge part of his success, and I still can't believe we don't have someone better. 

Makin' it Rain in the EPL

photo by goldenrail	via PhotoRee

Random thoughts on transfer activity and more, from the blog's muse, Ed.  He's always interesting, if not too accurate in his assessments:

• What to make of Spurs four-nil loss to the Cottagers in the FA Cup?  Nothing.  It’s the FA cup and Spurs needed out.

• Would have liked to see Dempsey get out of Fulham if for no other reason than a change might be fun for him and for fans.

• Spurs £35MM for Guiseppe Rossi wasn’t accepted.  Wish they could’ve gotten in the mix for Carroll.  They could have unloaded Crouch and Pav for something – maybe enough to make up for the cost.

• Charlie Adam would have been good for Liverpool.  He might have been better for Spurs.  Where, you ask?   How about where Wilson Palacios plays?  Those cross field passes to Bale and Lennon would make Spurs tough to stop.  And to hear it was missed by minutes.  What could have been . . . . .