Three thoughts on United States-Australia tuneup result
by Steve Davis on Jun 5, 2010 12:25 PM EDT
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There was some good, some bad and some uncertain to take from Saturday’s 3-1 win over
The Onyewu matter: I suppose everyone will just have to trust Bob Bradley on the Oguchi Onyewu issue. On the one hand, it seems nearly inconceivable to me that a player who hasn’t gone 90 in nine months can line up and try to deal with Wayne Rooney while carrying the weight of a World Cup. But I guess that’s exactly what will happen.
Jay DeMerit struggled Saturday, so at this point he may not even be a better option. How much of DeMerit’s bad day at the office the produce of a flaky ball and the beleaguered turf? Good question. But I know this: all those fouls in prickly spots can’t be blamed on balls and grass. Meanwhile, the communication and linking just doesn’t look great between DeMerit and Clarence Goodson. If a fellow named Josh Kennedy (Yes, that Josh Kennedy!) can ghost into scoring positions relatively unhindered, what in the name of Sir Bobby Charlton will Wayne Rooney do in there? If the marking isn’t better, he’ll launch a massive assault on the Golden Boot right there in Rustenburg in a week’s time.
Better fullback play: On the other hand, Steve Cherundolo and Carlos Bocanegra are making the flanks a relatively safe place. Now, granted, this was
(Truly, last summer as
The rising forwards: This precocious trio of national team newbies Edson Buddle, Robbie Findley and Herculez Gomez, may be the story of the World Cup run-up in the
Something good can be said about all three on Saturday. Buddle’s two goals speak for themselves. Findley has to finish his chances, but his hold-up play was OK, his work off the ball is improving and he’s getting into scoring positions. Gomez made the most of his short shift, again showing a striker’s instinct that you can’t teach.
Perhaps most importantly, the cupboard doesn’t seem as bare now in Jozy Altidore’s absence, does it? The
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So is it fair to assume...
That we should expect Buddle and Altidore to be starting up top on Saturday?
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by Jon Woods on Jun 5, 2010 12:59 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
Cherundolo
Was probably the best player on the field today, and we had a pretty good day. I was surprised- I kind of expected Bocanegra to get forward more. He’s going to have to get forward against England to tie up their midfield, so I was pleased. Australia is a very fit, tactical team, and I was impressed by the speed and touch of our counter.
"Voetbal is pas totaal als je wint"- quote that my youth coach used to throw around, it's been co-opted by Nike, translated roughly it means "Football cannot be total without the win"
Dolo is underrated
He’s been my favorite USMNT player since his heroic performance against Italy in 2006. Solid defender, great instinct going forward,and solid skills for a right back.
Not mediocre. Right about average
This will be the first of many comments to this effect...
… but I hate the vuvuzelas. It completely ruins the broadcast. You can’t even hear the ref’s whistle over the roar of those annoying noisemakers. I know we ran into this issue with the Confed Cup, too… but I guess I’d forgotten just how intolerable those little plastic devils are.
As for the squad, our finishing is definitely looking much better, but our defense is getting so porous… we might need all of those goals to have a real chance. And we can’t legitimately say that Gooch is anywhere above 75%, which is bad news. Clarence Goodson has been very promising, but he’s not going to hold up for a whole match against Rooney. It’s not a knock on Goodson… Rooney is just too far out of his league. Our set piece defense has been poor, too, and that’s England’s forte, so that’s a point of concern, too.
As long as we can just avoid getting too far in the hole on goal differential against the Three Lions, I think we stand a decent chance in this form against Slovenia and Algeria.
Vuvuzuelas hide the mostly empty stadiums, so FIFA might actually like them.
And that stadium today was smaller than the stadium I played at in high school- it looked like they were designed by the same guy. It was neat, but the field was in horrible shape.
"Voetbal is pas totaal als je wint"- quote that my youth coach used to throw around, it's been co-opted by Nike, translated roughly it means "Football cannot be total without the win"
i was thinking the same thing as I was watching.....
we muted the TV at one point and my brain said “Sigh – no noise!”
"Are those new tarps? Or did they paint 'em?" Mark Ellis
Set pieces and fouls
Having seen the highlights of Slovenia – New Zealand, I’m suddenly not quite as ready to mark us through to the second round. We give Slovenia opportunities for free kicks, especially in the sweet spot in front of goal, and we could be in deep trouble.
in a 4-4-2
One of the backs almost always goes up the field to ensure numerical parity or advantages in the opponent’s zone. In particular, if you are playing a man-marking team, this can confuse and dilute their ability to play defense. Beckenbauer basically invented the roving defender who attacks late and at odd angles to defeat classic man marking (and he was pretty good against the zone, though my zone history is a little shabby). The key is numbers, and in a 4-4-2 you don’t usually have them. My team played in either a 3-4-3 (against good teams) or a 3-2-5 (against teams we were going to have to break down), so we had the back line in a more stationary position, high up the pitch (and we played a zone trap with a lot of positional switching- basically trying to create favorable matchups in individual positions).
In closing, the English game has a lot more roaming backs because of the prevalence of the 4-4-2 or 4-3-3, especially left and right backs, who can serve as relief or offense on the wings (it’s really rare to get a defender who attacks from the middle). The US uses a nice 4-4-2 with great offensive spacing for the left and right backs to go up the field. Defensively we’re a little shaky in the midfield, but offensively we’ve done just about all you can ask for.
"Voetbal is pas totaal als je wint"- quote that my youth coach used to throw around, it's been co-opted by Nike, translated roughly it means "Football cannot be total without the win"
I'm just glad no one got hurt
seems like every other big team had someone get hurt in one of these “friendlies”
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