Avoiding the Drop

Nigel de Jong admires his handiwork

So in case you didn’t know, the U.S. played a pretty important friendly yesterday. For one, it was one of the last chances for about half the team to prove to Bob Bradley that they deserve to be in the final World Cup squad; for another, it was a match against a team that, at least in terms of overall player quality, resembles England (Holland plays a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 formation, while England almost always plays with two strikers in a 4-4-2, but you generally get the idea). Needless to say, then, this was a really important contest for the team…one that they lost 2-1.

I’m still a little surprised that ESPN couldn’t find time to show the Dutch lineup ahead of the match. That’s a huge oversight, and their excuse (that there wasn’t time) was pathetic. The Dutch team, for me, was just as interesting, and that’s crucial information for the match anyways; ESPN needs to do better there. I’ve never seen that happen before, but the way they cover the U.S. men and the way they cover all other soccer are hugely different, and it shouldn’t be that way.

Anyways, though…back to the game. Scorelines don’t always tell the entire story; let’s talk about the actual performance after the jump.

First things first: the goals. It’s gotta be said, because the first thing you notice from the game is the scoreline, and the first thing you see is that Holland scored twice. What you don’t see from that scoreline is the absolutely awful game that Jonathan Bornstein played at left back. The first goal – a perhaps harsh penalty for a nudge on Wesley Sneijder – wasn’t even his biggest mistake; that would come only a few minutes later, when Bornstein blatantly handled in the box and should’ve gifted the Dutch a second penalty kick. That the second Dutch goal came when Huntelaar bounced a shot off of Bornstein seemed fitting; it was never his night. Meanwhile, our goal came well past the departure of the best players on the field, in the 86th minute. Take what you will from that.

It wasn’t really Landon Donovan’s night, either; perhaps aware that he might be kind of good now that he’s playing “for real” in England, the Dutch made it a point to mark him out of the game. For long stretches, in fact, Donovan didn’t even get a touch on the ball; this is something he’ll need to personally work better at, as pretty much every team understands that he’s the main U.S. threat and isn’t going to concede him space. The best players in the world rise up to those occasions (you know Wayne Rooney’s a threat, but he still manages to get himself open to score); Donovan’s going to need to do that.

Part of his problem yesterday, however, was that nobody on the team was familiar to him. He was essentially stranded out left, supporting Robbie Findley and playing next to Jose Francisco Torres. In the second half, when Torres came off for Maurice Edu, it was more of the same; if we put our most creative player out on the left wing, we need to surround him with some options. Sometimes, options are simply other creative players; Torres can fit that bill. The problem is that there’s no continuity between this team and other teams; the back line is different, the striker pairing is different, and the central midfield is different. Donovan’s now forced to vacate his position (which inevitably leaves a gaping hole in Bob Bradley’s insanely rigid 4-4-2) to track down play…and when that happens, he starts to chase the game.

Yesterday’s game, from a tactical standpoint, was confusing. First of all, the Dutch realized that our main weapon was our counterattack; in the past, we’ve relied on speed to execute that, but those players are all either hurt or not selected. The easiest way to avoid a counterattack is to just sink your defensive line back; that concedes some space to the opposition, but if they never make any effort to occupy that space then you’d be stupid not to. Yesterday – by playing two holding midfielders, rarely attacking with the fullbacks, and stranding Jozy Altidore without a strike partner – the U.S. opted to run counterattacks from the halfway line against a defense that was already waiting for them. That’s not typically a recipe for a successful counterattack.

And while we’re on the subject of central midfielders, someone needs to explain to me what the fascination is with Michael Bradley. Bradley, to me, had a shocking game; he was late to challenges, poor on the ball, and generally allowed play to go around him. Much more effective was Jose Francisco Torres, who at least made the effort to go forward (and had one of the only attempts that went anywhere near goal in the first half); Bradley could often be seen sitting back in front of the defense, but rarely did he seem to actually contest play or act as the proverbial “shield” for the back four we hear so much about.

One area that Bradley excelled at – and he wasn’t alone in this – was whining about free kicks. Twice in the first half, the U.S. was called for a foul and then spent the next ten seconds whining to the ref; rather then set up a set piece, though, the Dutch opted for quick restarts both times (once for Altidore, once more threatening from Bradley), and in both cases we were left looking like idiots while play continued around our whining. We’ve talked about how Oguchi Onyewu has a tendency to pick up the ball and whine with it in the past, and how that’s vaguely irritating…but that’s the way to whine, guys. Only when Torres decided to stand in front of the ball and force the Dutch to request their ten yards did we figure out that quick restarts are bad for us.

If the midfield was guilty of holding too much, the striker pairing of Jozy Altidore and Robbie Findley was guilty of not holding enough. Both strikers are fairly athletic; Findley, in particular, is known for his pace. But because the Dutch line was set so far back, neither of them really got a chance to showcase their athelticism and were forced to instead use their technique and ability with the ball. This is an arena that the Dutch will always beat us in, and – with the exception of one very nice turn by Altidore – they did. Findley, in particular, looked lost.

Can you blame him, though? I’ve watched the U.S. team play a lot, and I can’t really tell you how they attack. Every goal seems to be a bit of a fluke (last night’s included); typically speaking, the Americans do a terrible job of building a goal up. Altidore is actually particularly guilty of this; for all of his strength and speed, when Jozy gets the ball he doesn’t always seem to know where to go with it. He had a couple of moments yesterday, but he’s still very raw…and he’s getting to the age where, if he doesn’t get polished soon, it might not ever really happen.

Because of injuries, Bob Bradley has been forced to think outside of his comfort zone a little bit; the problem is, he’s becoming the North American version of Diego Maradona. Maradona’s famously called up over 100 players to his Argentine squad since he became the manager last year; I’m not sure how many Bradley’s brought in, but the end result – a team that sometimes lacks unity – is the same. We’re still searching for new talent three months before the World Cup; in reality, Bradley should’ve already seen what he’s got at striker back in the Gold Cup or in the second round of qualifying.

Case in point: Alejandro Bedoya. Bedoya might be the love child of Pele, Cruyff, and Beckenbauer and I’d still think that we should leave him at home. Yesterday was his second cap; his first one came just a couple of weeks ago. I can’t think of anything at all that can be gained by bringing him on right now; he’s never played with this team, is a serious long shot to make the final roster, and ultimately is taking up playing time that you could be using to evaluate someone who may end up getting a spot. If, say, Sacha Kljestan is on the bubble, shouldn’t you bring him and see how he plays against Holland with the full team? What about trying to play Maurice Edu and Jose Francisco Torres together? I can even see bringing in Brian Ching or (gulp) Conor Casey to give them the match experience and the familiarity with a new system. Bedoya, however, is a prospect for the NEXT cycle, and should be left out of this one; he’s only muddying the waters.

Really, the same thing goes for Robbie Findley. As an international player, he’s very much on the edges; Altidore could’ve probably used some practice with whoever his strike partner will be, not with someone who’s unlikely to be there.

Finally, on who that partner should be: it’s fairly obvious that it should be Landon Donovan next to Jozy Altidore if Charlie Davies isn’t healthy. We’ve got much more depth on the wings (Beasley on the left, Dempsey/Holden on the right), and defenses would worry about Landon more; that could potentially open some space up for Altidore. Donovan is the perfect foil to Altidore; where one is small and quick, the other is stronger and more direct. It’d be like Michael Owen – Emile Heskey if Owen did the “holding up” part while Heskey was doing the poaching part.

Anyways, those are just my thoughts (and it’s thrown together a little quick, based mostly on notes I wrote down yesterday). Let me know what you liked, didn’t like, and never want to see again in the comments.