Outside of #3 who was glaringly lacking, I can't really judge them because I thought the team was just too disorganized. The goal actually made it worse.
Don't know a lot about Johnson but have read that while many people WANT to put him at LB because he's played some there, that would be akin to trying to fit Shea back there. That's just not what he is and we do a disservice to force it.
But, that's just what I've read... who knows. Daniel Williams is the more natural German-American LB I've read about (and I believe he recently just became teammates with Fabian Johnson at the club level).
Yeah either way these younger guys are probably more a 2018 thing anyway.
sure we lost, but look at the highlight of JA making some dude laydown at 4:56
Good example of the growth Juan has to do on his sweet move into the box, had two guys wide open if he would have made the pass, instead shoots and the keeper makes an easy save. He's 18, he'll learn though.
Some thoughts about this game.
-I can't think of anyone more valuable for this team right now than Fabian Johnson. I wouldn't have a problem with him playing LB. He's highly capable there. Castillo's defending, to be fair, was very good in some patches but between those patches was horror ala Bornstein. I think Jurgen will clearly be able to phase him out. If Johnson position is in the midfield then there are still many options that can fit the bill. Lichaj, Chandler, Cherundolo, Spector and even Orozco can all be servicable for the wing back positions.
I'd prefer the following combos
Right side: Dolo/D. Williams@RB and Chandler/Holden@RW OR Chandler/Dolo@RB and [email protected]n on the wing wouldn't be bad either.
Left side: Johnson@LB and Shea@RW
I just can't see another left side option is my mind because Johnson is a natural defender. He's played defensive midfield before along with LB and LW. Being a technical left footer gives him the advantage to whip in beautiful crosses from the wing. His technical ability is well suited for over-lapping runs and breaking up possession. Imagine attacking opposing defenses with Chandler, Shea, Holden and Johnson from the wings. They can CROSS! Shea needs to do more of that instead of cutting the ball instead all time in towards traffic
2. The marriage happened and the honeymoon is over for Klinsi. I was disappointed in the game but I also realize that it will take time for a new style of play to be implemented. At the same time, this USA team shouldn't lose to Costa Rica. I'll give credit to Jorge Ramos for pointing out that they deserve some praise but they have no business beating the USA.
I hope Klinsi was still in the process of trying out new players. I've always hated Robbie Rogers and my thoughts were justified yesterday. He gives the ball away too easily and he can't play defense. He basically played with no fight (I'll get to that later). Sasha Kljestan provided a serious spark in the late stages of the game and brought in some extra creativity in the game. It's clear the Rogers just isn't an international player. The same can be said for Findley, Castillo, Ching, Buddle, Wondolowski. PERIOD. The US just has to expect better. This is where Klinsi has the advantage over Bradley IMO. He can sort out the talent and make adjustments accordingly. Klinsi used Germany's early friendlies to sort out Deutschland's player pool with bad results. Time will tell.
Again, I'll give Klinsi the benefit of the doubt on evaluating the roster because I would've liked to see different tactics. There were already danger signs at the end of the first half. Rogers should've been taken off a lot earlier to help with possession. Altidore should've teamed up with Agudelo up front instead of sticking to the lone striker. Jozy had to hustle with absolutely no service in the box. Shea was eventually put up front but it was too late and he was placed at an unnatural position. Klinsi's subs were on point with Agudelo and Kljestan but the tactics were off IMO...still very positive about Jurgen. He'll have all the best players at his disposal soon enough. My expectations are growing.
3. WTF happened to fighting spirit. The majority of the US team looked gassed. Donovan of all people was run ragged and was virtually invisible in the second half. US is mediocre at best when Landon doesn't make those dashing runs toward the 18. Shea was gassed after the 60th minute. His passes became subpar later on and he didn't track back to help out Castillo. If anybody needed help out there, it was Castillo. A part of me was expected the US to turn it around like they always do but I knew it wasn't coming. It was a very strange feeling to see a typical US strength in fitness just turn into false hope. Klinsi is big on fitness but it certainly didn't show here. A reason for that could be Klinsi high pressure game. It worked in the first half where we controlled possession but fatigue might have caught up to the players. Again time will tell....I'll love for us to keep that fitness advantage unless we're up 3-0
4. Best 3 players in order: Torres, Edu, Chandler. Worst 3: Castillo, Rogers, Orozco/Donovan. I'm beginning to see why Bradley decided to sit Donovan. I disagreed with him but when Donovan is not active, the team suffers.
5. Overall ratings
Tim Howard - 5, almost saved the goal after a brilliant save on the first attempt by CR. Solid
Tim Chandler - 6, composed in the back and break up traffic on his wing...didn't get forward as much as I would've liked but was steady.
Michael Orozco - 3.5, was technically sound but his distribution was often wayward. He lost his mark.
Carlos Bocanegra - 4, Big presence but distribution also left much to be desired. He and Orozco share blame for allowing Sabario to break the offside trap and cross in the eventual goal for CR
Edgar Castillo - 2.5, good in spurts and was frequently without help from Shea tbh....but he was lost on many occasions. He cut inside too much instead of making more crosses for Jozy. USA fans should look forward to seeing him @ LB until Johnson gets his USA papers together and Lichaj returns from injury. His play did improve from the Mexico game.
Maurice Edu - 6, excellent at breaking up attacks in the midfield. Advancing the ball past Edu meant trouble for the US.
Jose Torres - 6.5 MOTM, he's making a case for a permanent position on the team. CAM looks more likely to me. Donovan is not as suited to play CAM like Torres because he requires more space. Torres is more creative and Klinsi will most likely give his the controls. Klinsi post game: “He’s a player that we will build for the months and years to go”
Robbie Rogers - 2.5, lost the ball too frequently...awful crosses...bad link up play...frequently passed the ball too late to allow Jozy to get offside.
Landon Donovan - 3, missed an easy goal and it seemed to affect his entire game. His usual breathtaking runs weren't there. His activity picked up late in the game but it was just that too late. I expected more.
Brek Shea - 5, tired out a little after half time...worked hard but needs to be more of a natural winger by spraying crosses with that beauty of a left foot. I just like the fact that he likes to take players on. US needs more of that attacking mentality...gone are the days of Ching and Conor Casey.
Jozy Altidore - 5.5, lone striker without much help….had a decent left foot chance early on after a beautiful lob pass from Shea.
Juan Agudelo - 5, the tandem of Agudelo and Jozy would’ve been great to see. His energy was electric…he still needs to be groomed on how to approach the game
Sacha Kljestan – 5.5, instant impact with a beautiful turn on his first touch. You could see what the US was missing on the right side….the darting runs were good but the little time he had wasn’t enough to change the outcome.
Juergen Klinsmann – 5 not much depth to work with. I agreed with the subs but tactics to win the game weren’t there. The high tempo style was beautiful to watch for the first 30 minutes. The US just isn't used to that style. It's very difficult to go from a counter-attacking style of play to possession-oriented scheme. He will test the patience of US fans if he hasn’t already.
ON TO BELGIUM!
Manny to call you crazy in 3... 2...
Donovan was absent in the second half. There is no questioning that.
He didn't say what you did.
Brek does have the ability to have some beautiful crosses as he showed recently in fc Dallas comeback win last week but he's usually asked to be the man.
I heard that Bradley might coach Santos Laguna.
He might be the first American to coach a Mexican team.
You're right, he said "Landon has sucked on the NT for awhile"
And I said "Landon has sucked on the NT for awhile and if it continues for another 2.5 years he wouldn't be a lock for the WC squad."
While you said "gurrrrrrgle guuuuuuurgle I can't even think about that because I can't think with Landon's so far down my throat guuuuuuurrrrrgle"
no you said London isn't a lock for Brazil which is crazy. No need for you to try to change what you posters 2pages ago or what anyone else said above.
And lol @ you thinking anyone is a lock for a tournament 3 years from now. Somewhere there is a Brazilian MannyIsGod regretting arguing back in 2007 Ronaldinho was a lock for South Africa.
I did read it first and I think you're crazy. Landon had results in the final two games of the gold cup and I don't think you can somehow remove club play from the equation. I'm just not buying that there are any meaningful judgments to be made on the games you want to look at and making any judgements off of them is just dumb.
Landon is a lock for 2014.
Yeah as if the two situations are anywhere near the same. Let me know when US Soccer produces another Landon Donovan much less enough of them to keep the original off the roster at the RIPE OLD AGE of 32.
Not sure what to go with as far as a lineup today. I think he's got to trop out some new players (and he has access to some) because the team looked beyond tired on Friday. I don't think you can play Brek Shea today unfortunetly. Dude has just played way too many games in the past few weeks and I think that showed as he dropped off in the 2nd half.
Here's my guess but so hard to figure based on how he fixes the LB issue
---------------Howard--------------
Cherundolo-Boca-Ream-Spector
----------Beckerman--Edu---------
----------------Torres---------------
Dempsy-------------------Kletsjan-
-------------Altidore-----------------
You probably have to try Heath Pearce at that spot at some point but I'm really lukewarm. Outside of that I just hope to see Jurgen toss everything into the fire and just try everything.
Damn i could go for some fresh brew beer and homemade pizza for this game...to bad im out in ing middle of no where....
---------Howard--------------
Cherundolo-Boca-Ream-Spector
Dempsy-Torres-Kletsjan-Shea
------Altidore----Agudula---
Hey if your going to experiment....experiment
at Manny demonstrating a level of reading comprehension that makes Wild Cobra look like a Rhodes Scholar.
And geez, you sure do have a bleek outlook on American soccer if you think we can't produce someone capable of unseating 32-year old Landon Donovan who has been average at best for the national team since South Africa (and everyone who doesn't have their bedroom covered in LA Galaxy Fatheads can see that).
Today's lineup (4-1-4-1):
---Dolo---Goodson---Boca---Chandler
------------Beckerman---------------
--------Torres--------Sasha----------
-Dempsey-------------------Shea----
--------------Altidore----------------
This kid Diskerud, flicked the ball to JA is pretty savvy...maybe Klinsi can give him a go in oct?
Jesus Christ, Scott. I got your point. I don't agree with it. It has nothing to do with reading comprehension. Its not about one or even two or tree players supplanting Donovan but an entire midfield. He's at worst 1b in this current midfield behind Dempsey and I haven't heard you say about Dempsey somehow being replaced.
Yeah, Holden is probably going to be better but he's still not going to be the same type of player and lets actually see Holden stay healthy and get some more caps before handing him the crown. Behind him, I like Bedoya and Kletsjan but neither is going to be as good as Donovan barring a big time increase. Adu needs to show more, and while a player like Torres has had good games under Jurgen he still has a long way to go.
So for Landon to be off of that next Roster you basically have to expect all of those to be better than him and as far as I'm concerned there's no chance of that happening.
Th
Here's the starting XI. G: Howard, D: Chandler, Boca, Goodson, Dolo, DM: Edu, M: Torres, Dempsey, FW: Rogers, Shea, STR: Altidore
For some reason I thought Jurgen had sent Robbie home after the last match, but in any case...
ROBBIE RODGERS: 3
EDSON BUDDLE: 1
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