LD10
It was a tale of two halves at Lincoln Financial Field yesterday.
The first half saw the USA emerge with a lone striker in the formation and a right back who left his playing boots in the boot room. Turkey simply and calmly tore Jonathon Spector apart for 45 straight minutes. Time and time again, Arda Turan sprinted down the sidelines past a helpless and hapless right back who, truth be told, did not get much help at all from the other covering defenders. The US was quite lucky to only be down a goal at half, and quite frankly, I thought Tim Howard did what he could do on the goal that Turan put in.
There was an audible and extremely sarcastic cheer when the halftime substitutions were announced and Spector was taken off. He was that bad. How did the rest of it go? I’m about to tell you.
The US attack in the first half was largely negated by the Turkish back four who really stayed organized and in their lanes right around the 18 yard box. They were rarely tested by a lame USA midfield, where Rico Clark and Benny Feilhaber were merely average and at times, poor. Clark in particular barely looked the part as his long balls and ill-fated passing attempts led to many giveaways. There was no real width to the team, and Jozy Altidore tried, but is still lacking in physical strength above the waist to help his own cause. The USA is poor in the air, and it showed again yesterday as it seemed Turkey won every header in the first half. Clarence Goodson and Jay DeMerit were decent in the central part of defense, and Carlos Bocanegra didn’t get much work as due to Spector’s complete inefficiency, there was no need for Turkey to attack on the captain’s side.
Turkey’s group, as expected, looked the part of a decent European side. They play physically, they win balls in the air, they use short sharp grounded passing and they move well despite not being overly quick, other than Turan. They bossed the first half and should have led by more given the run of play.
The second half started with a whopping four US changes at half, including bringing on Steve Cherundolo, Jose Francisco Torres and Robbie Findley, all of whom contributed in a major way. Bradley changed his formation to include Findley up front with Altidore, and along with Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, the attacking force looked much more positive. Jose Francisco Torres is absolutely the real deal in terms of his presence on the pitch. He can really play, he has good field vision and he does not get taken off the ball easily. I came away quite impressed with his game. Deuce Dempsey works so incredibly hard. He was filthy by the time the match was over, a mess from head to foot, but his second half effort (the whole team’s actually) was really a thing of beauty. I’m sure Bradley had many moments where he feared for the health of his midfielders as it got a bit chippy, but such an effort was needed to ensure the victory.
The atmosphere in the second half was truly amazing. There was a sizable Turkish contingent spread out through the stadium and they were singing and chanting almost the entire match. The Sam’s Army group was quite vocal. I was duly impressed to see that the USA finally achieved a home field advantage at a match on this soil. It seems at times like it would never happen.
Ultimately, Landon Donovan’s graft and effort really paid off, as his two assists (one to Altidore, one to Dempsey) lead to a victorious effort. He, Dempsey, Findley, Altidore and Torres really caused problems for the Turks. Quite frankly, they looked to be at the top of their collective games, and for my money, definitely looked the part.
So what does this result mean? It means that for this group of attacking players, they are fully realized. They are ready to compete at the highest level. Bob must realize now that the 4-5-1 will absolutely fail against most, if not all, of the squads they’ll face in the group. Altidore causes problems because of his size and quickness, especially with someone playing off of him. Dempsey and Donovan work incredibly hard and very efficiently. There are going to be extremely legitimate concerns about the back line, and there is not much to be done about that. The limitations of those players are apparent and real. What’s going to matter most is possession of the ball, a solid attacking effort and a superlative effort from Tim Howard.
Can they win against England? Yes. They’ve beaten better. Could they get their doors blown off? Yes. The back line is a mess. It’s going to be a test of wills, really. Can they get out of the group. Most definitely.
I don’t have a telly schedule for you today, so enjoy your holiday Sunday and Monday. I’ll have an England/Japan write up for you tomorrow.
TY…I think our great minds think alike. Search our site for any posts where I mention Ricardo Clark and you’ll see some version of your own assessment, “Clark in particular barely looked the part as his long balls and ill-fated passing attempts led to many giveaways,” especially the part about the giveaways. There will also be some mention of him picking up needless cards and fouls.
Ditto for our thoughts on Torres, “Jose Francisco Torres is absolutely the real deal in terms of his presence on the pitch. He can really play, he has good field vision and he does not get taken off the ball easily.” He should be in the starting 11 on 6/12.
It’s a little late to experiment, but I’d love to see Bradley start a 3-5-2 with this crew of players. Get Spector out of the back line, add a midfielder whose sole duty is defense and linking to the offense (Cherundolo?), and play a midfield of Torres, Dempsey, Donovan and…somebody, with Altidore and Findley up front.
Finally, England needed two own goals to beat Japan? The 12th is getting more interesting by the moment…
I didn’t mention Cherundolo but I should have. His calming presence, along with a much more settled Onyewu, was really needed in the 2nd half. Stevie C. did a nice job.
I’m not going to lie. I thought the USA was brilliant in the second half. The more I think about it, the more impressed I am. Now, that being said, there’s still awhile and another match before England. A lot could happen. The plane flight won’t be anything fun, for sure.
England was fairly dire today, particularly Theo and Rio Ferdinand. It wasn’t a match that I’m going to remember fondly, that’s for sure. I’m sure I know what’s going to happen here over the next week and a half in the buildup.
I still don’t know what’s going to happen. I can’t get a read on it yet.
I just don’t share any confidence in our 4-4-2. If we had more time maybe I’d grow in accepting Buddle, Gomez or Findley being that capable replacement for Davies. Or if, say Bob had actually played these guys instead of Casey Conner and Brian Ching the last 6-8 months so we’d have more then two friendlies to go on….
I got into an argument with a friend about Bob, who he thinks is doing a good job. I keep trying to point out that the problem is that Bob might be doing the best he can (my friends point) with the guys he has…but Bob has the choice to bring some different guys! It’s like going to a steak place and finding out they are serving cheese sandwiches cause they didn’t order any steak….
People have been shouting for Torres for months, wondering why bring Adu to matches Bob had no intention on playing him in, and so on. Half of Bob’s problems are self inflicted, and I’m not sure he has the tactical accumen to guide the team past his previous errors.