A week after the most depressing possible performance this side of Frankie Hedjuk coming onto the field with his uniform backwards, the United States senior national team returns to the international friendly stage to play against Euro-bound Spain in Santandar.
Not to set an even more negative tone, but here goes anyway. First off, Landon Donovan and Jon Spector are both ruled out, while Rico Clark and Michael Orozco were returned to their respective club teams.
Looking at the remaining roster, four of our American internationals are without a current club -- Carlos Bocanegra, Nate Jacqua, Josh Wolff and Dominic Cervi. Now, naturally, this time of year a lot of players are moving and shaking before the transfer window opens. Still, you'd think that a national team of a country that has ambitions to win the World Cup some day could do a little better. And yes, the fact that MLS is in the midst of its season probably does factor in here.
Sadly, the remaining roster doesn't leave much room for optimism.
It does lend itself room for coach Bob Bradley to tinker and try something other than the standard 4-4-2 formation.
A couple things I'd like to see is a guy like Dan Califf getting a full 90 minutes against a quality opponent. Yes, he plays in Denmark, and chances are there aren't players in the caliber of Fro Torres in the Jutland Peninsula. Why not give him the run out? We've seen what Oguchi Oneywu can do, and it isn't pretty.
On that note, there's not sense playing it safe with an aged midfield that features either Pablo Mastroeni or Eddie Lewis. There is absolutely no downside for Freddy Adu and Maurice Edu to get the full 90 as well, aside from maybe contracting lice from Carlos Puyol.
Continuing this trend, with the available "forwards" being Clint Dempsey, Eddie Johnson, Wolff and Jacqua, if Bradley doesn't play a 4-5-1 or a modified 4-3-3 it would be a joke. Let Adu and Dempsey operate behind a lone striker in Johnson, or better yet Jacqua, who might be able to use his frame to hold up the ball.
Brad Guzan ought to start, too. Why not experiment and see what he's got against a top side. He'll certainly see a lot of shots from a lot of different angles. No knock on Tim Howard at all, but we know what he can do at this point.
What makes this game scary, from a results standpoint, is that Spain comes into the friendly off a 2-1 win over Peru, where it netted the winner in injury time. You'd think Luis Aragones men want to lift the national spirit before they kickoff Group D play next week.
Furthering the fear factor, is that Spain are much better at possessing the ball and playing tiki-taka passing, than England and the U.S. didn't even make the Three Lions sweat.
That said, the U.S. shouldn't go into this game fearful. It would just be nice if they made some kind of effort.
Either way, they could get blown out 5-0 and it really wouldn't matter since there's next to no accountability from the top of the USSF on down.
Not to set an even more negative tone, but here goes anyway. First off, Landon Donovan and Jon Spector are both ruled out, while Rico Clark and Michael Orozco were returned to their respective club teams.
Looking at the remaining roster, four of our American internationals are without a current club -- Carlos Bocanegra, Nate Jacqua, Josh Wolff and Dominic Cervi. Now, naturally, this time of year a lot of players are moving and shaking before the transfer window opens. Still, you'd think that a national team of a country that has ambitions to win the World Cup some day could do a little better. And yes, the fact that MLS is in the midst of its season probably does factor in here.
Sadly, the remaining roster doesn't leave much room for optimism.
It does lend itself room for coach Bob Bradley to tinker and try something other than the standard 4-4-2 formation.
A couple things I'd like to see is a guy like Dan Califf getting a full 90 minutes against a quality opponent. Yes, he plays in Denmark, and chances are there aren't players in the caliber of Fro Torres in the Jutland Peninsula. Why not give him the run out? We've seen what Oguchi Oneywu can do, and it isn't pretty.
On that note, there's not sense playing it safe with an aged midfield that features either Pablo Mastroeni or Eddie Lewis. There is absolutely no downside for Freddy Adu and Maurice Edu to get the full 90 as well, aside from maybe contracting lice from Carlos Puyol.
Continuing this trend, with the available "forwards" being Clint Dempsey, Eddie Johnson, Wolff and Jacqua, if Bradley doesn't play a 4-5-1 or a modified 4-3-3 it would be a joke. Let Adu and Dempsey operate behind a lone striker in Johnson, or better yet Jacqua, who might be able to use his frame to hold up the ball.
Brad Guzan ought to start, too. Why not experiment and see what he's got against a top side. He'll certainly see a lot of shots from a lot of different angles. No knock on Tim Howard at all, but we know what he can do at this point.
What makes this game scary, from a results standpoint, is that Spain comes into the friendly off a 2-1 win over Peru, where it netted the winner in injury time. You'd think Luis Aragones men want to lift the national spirit before they kickoff Group D play next week.
Furthering the fear factor, is that Spain are much better at possessing the ball and playing tiki-taka passing, than England and the U.S. didn't even make the Three Lions sweat.
That said, the U.S. shouldn't go into this game fearful. It would just be nice if they made some kind of effort.
Either way, they could get blown out 5-0 and it really wouldn't matter since there's next to no accountability from the top of the USSF on down.
Labels: bob bradley, Soccer, USMNT
Where is the optimism that used to come from watching our national team? I don't know how anyone could look forward to this match if you're a fan. Even if God hated Spain for a day and we pull off an impossible miracle victory, I would still be awkwardly wincing because I don't want to support whatever line-up BB comes up with.
There is no good solutions with the cards we want to play with. Most of these guys give me stomach aches.
Okay, I am still going to watch it. I just hate going into something wondering how pissed off I will be for two hours.
In the end, while a good showing would be nice, I dont see it happening with the players at Bradley's disposal. He just wants to keep the game close at this point. Hard to blame him. While its great that we have this 3 game run against top teams, seems like we are playing more to survive then to win.
The scary thing is, we are probably going to go into the WC qualifying game without having scored a goal in the three previous games. Chances of scoring against Spain, zero. Chances against Argentina in a few weeks, not much better.
Dude, the USMNT is gonna get taken behind the woodshed in this one. I'm scared to watch almost.
I won't say I've been a hater of Bradley from the beginning but I definitely thought he shouldn't have been more than interim.
The team we sent to South America, the rosters we're putting out against the top teams in the world, the overall lack of excitement... how much longer can we have Gulati running the show?
And how is he even held accountable? A board of directors or what, I'm not even sure.
Adam--
Bradley got the job permanently because the better qualified candidates wouldn't accept interference from Gulati or US Soccer.
My emotional attachment to the national team took a hiatus when the federation chose to enter but not compete in Copa America. Whether it's driven by incompetence or fear of failure, I don't know but it's a top-down attitude of not wanting to challenge the men's national team.
Perhaps if Eriksson gets Mexico sorted out and we can't even mount an arguement that we're maybe the best team in CONCACAF things will change but I'm skeptical.
Where is the optimism, you ask?
I think it's because fans got smarter and don't lap up the spin anymore.
Wait a minute... a 4-3-3? where do you put the two holding midfielders?
Like you said, here's the perfect opporunity to put Adu out of the field for a full 90 but I would bet my entire life savings that we'll see Bradly and Mastroeni in the middle flanked by DMB on the left and Deuce on the right. 90 minutes of poor posession and DMB sending in crosses to no one, but we'll probably only loose by 2 so BB will consider it a sucess.
Remember when?....'98 World Cup, US played with something like a 4-5-1. The lone forward was Eric Wynalda. We didn't score a single goal the entire WC. I've hated US soccer since the '98 WC. But I do like watching how bad they are from time to time.