The captain celebrates the game-winner
To start with, it’s clear that several lessons were learned about the United States Men’s National Team last night.
One, they truly enjoy playing here in the United States. This is not a new lesson, by any means. It needs to be re-enforced from time to time, though. The crowd at Soldier Field, largely pro-Honduran, saw the minority of American fans finally break through and become louder and louder as the match went on. The team needs a true home-field advantage though.
Two, the back four look much more organized when the wide left and right backs are players who actually play those positions for a living. I do not claim to always understand Bob Bradley, and I also do not understand his need to try to make DaMarcus Beasley into a left back, but it became clear that he is not comfortable there and does not understand the ground he is expected to cover.
Three, Oguchi Onyewu needs to start watching tapes of Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, because again last night, his tendency to drift out of position cost his team a goal. His eyes take him towards the ball instead of being instinctually aware of the play and where the ball might go. This has cost the US before, including Wednesday night, and again last night, he moved to try to play the ball to his left, and when it came back to his right, he had opened up the lane that the ball was placed in on it’s way to the back of the net.
Four, Benny Feilhaber plays angles that other midfielders on this team do not. He understands how to attack the defense at it’s weak points and find open men on the other side of the field. He needs to be back in this team with regularity if he’s healthy.
Fifth and finally, when Landon Donovan is motivated, he makes life much more difficult for his opposite number. Bradley needs to find a way to get him to play with that intensity against other opponents when his teammates may need him to pick them up.
Let’s get to today’s telly information, because it will not take long.
All times EDT.
12:00 PM – Northern Masters Indoor Soccer – Setanta
3:00 PM – Avai v. Sao Paulo – Brazil – GolTV
3:00 PM – FC Dallas v. San Jose Earthquakes – MLS – Telefutura
6:00 PM – Washington Freedom v. Los Angeles Sol – WPS – FSC
Er, yeah. There are other matches on, mostly from yesterday’s World Cup Qualifiers, so if that’s your thing, go for it. In the meantime, enjoy this collection of amusing footy moments. Then, go outside and enjoy the day.
I agree 100% about Feilhaber. To me, if you’re playing a 4-4-2, one of the central guys should be a withdrawn midfielder who can do what Feilhaber did last night: find open spaces. I was really impressed with his play.
At some point we’re going to have to discuss the Jozy Altidore situation, because he’s been lackluster over two matches now.
It looked like he was trying to do too much with the ball on the ground – why he was put in that position, I have no idea. Whenever he would get the ball, it seemed like he had his back to goal, and watching him try and turn with it was painful – like watching a tank make a 180 on the fly.
I know that Jozy needs to learn to control the ball, but why weren’t they using him in the one place he seems to excel – getting his head on the ball? He’s got height to spare, and even on a bad foot, he has speed…just loft the ball into the box and get out of the way.
Also, I think we forget that Brian Ching didn’t see a minute of action in the past two games due to injury – if he was fit to play, I don’t think we see Altidore playing in the starter’s role, but instead he comes on as a late striker and maybe that changes how he performs. Maybe not, who knows.
I wonder if our poor performance and the absence of Ching aren’t coincidental; soccer’s a weird sport, and sometimes a player that doesn’t seem to provide anything tangible to a team in fact is crucial to it’s makeup.
Altidore definitely seemed to have touch “problems”; every ball that came near him seemed to ricochet five feet off of him. That could be a function of not playing, though (like Fuse pointed out).
In Jozy defense, he has not played regular matches in almost six months, it’s to be expected that he’s rusty and not match fit. That does, however, beg the question of why Bradley continues to give him national team call-ups anyway. There must be a few more guys out there who deserve a shot.
Good points on Feilhaber, Donovan and DMB. A pretty decent overall showing from the team yesterday, much better than their previous outing.
(By the way, there’s also a Vancouver Whitecaps – Montreal Impact clash tonight at 10 p.m. ET on USL Live for anyone looking for a footy fix. There will be live bloggage of it as well.)