What's missing in the U.S. camp, and how to find it
by Steve Davis on Sep 4, 2011 11:41 AM EDT
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I wrote for SI.com this morning about Jurgen Klinsmann and his biggest challenge ahead: identifying that final 10 percent, that little “something extra” from a talented young group that still clearly needs some seasoning.
Anecdotally, we can all see that something is surely missing, that extra sliver of quality that makes the difference at the highest level. But if you are someone who likes stacking the stats and facts, here you go. This is from the SI.com piece:
And what about those strikers, whose inability to score has become a U.S. challenge to rival the ongoing left back conundrum? Juan Agudelo, Jozy Altidore and Chris Wondolowski, who have eaten up most of the minutes for strikers this year, have three goals in 21 combined appearances in 2011. Go back through 2010 and add Edson Buddle, Robbie Findley, Herculez Gomez and Eddie Johnson to that list – all the strikers who played more than two matches in 2010 – and that two-year total becomes 10 goals in 55 appearances. That’s awful.
Indeed it is. These guys need some time at the Brian McBride Attacking Soccer Academy like nobody’s business.
Read on for something you won’t find in the SI.com piece. (At about 1,000 words, you just can’t squeeze everything in.)
Something has been missing so far in Klinsmann’s choices for this rotating audition of assistants.
Guys like Thomas Dooley and Tab Ramos certainly can add something, but Klinsmann might consider adding a proven striker among his crop of candidates. Dooley and top assistant Martin Vasquez were defensive types as players. Ramos was a creative midfielder. Again, they can all add something. Jose Torres under Ramos’ wing? Yeah, I like the sound of that. Tim Ream or Omar Gonzalez getting some wise words from Dooley or Vasquez? Same deal. I think there’s some value there.
But would somebody please ring up McBride or Eric Wynalda and see if they’re available. Because even though Klinsmann was a striker, he has to watch over the entire operation. He needs someone on staff whose sole responsibility is to work night and day with the frontrunners. Those numbers I cited above? That’s why you lose a match at home to Costa Rica. No, that doesn’t matter in the long run. But fail to score in a World Cup qualifier at home against Costa Rica or the like? Now things are getting serious.
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How much influence can Klinsmann really have on the extra 10%?
I agree completely with the assessment that the US has pretty much hit the ceiling of what can be accomplished through grinding/effort. But that means those “extra 10%” things—better runs, more incisive passing, more creativity, speedier decision-making, etc.—won’t come from extra effort. They’ll require a combination of talent, knowledge, and skill. Klinsmann can’t do anything about the talent except find it, and it seems unlikely that everyone has overlooked a ready-for-primetime Xavi or Messi who could play for the MNT. Knowledge can be increased dramatically in a short period of time, so there’s hope for that. But it takes practice (time) to develop skill.
So, I’ve got two honest questions: 1) How much of the “extra 10%” depends on knowledge vs skill? and 2) Does Klinsmann have enough access to the players to meaningfully influence their skill?
Those are reasonable questions
I would say that’s why Sunil Gulati tried so hard to go get such an influential figure as Klinsmann. No, a lot of coaches couldn’t do it. But if you accept that Klinsmann has a special, somewhat unique background and skill set, then he’s one who may be able to pull it off.
I( loved the Costa Rica game
I loved how the players attacked. I also saw that the attacks were not too coordinated. There was a lot of “let’s try this!” going on. What I saw then was a bunch of players showing what they could do creatively.
Now if I were Jurgen, I would be encouraging that without making them try to mold themselves into a team just yet. The Team part will come later; what we need to see now is which players can actually be creative and where are their limitations.
So in a sense, what Klinsmann is encouraging now is the easy part. Go out and have fun. Let’s see some street ball. Show us what you got. And at the end of this step, when we all get a good sense of which players have that extra flair, then we will see Klinsmann start to mold them into a team. As you mention, Brek Shea is already standing out. Torres too. But there’s still a lot more assessing to do. You focus on the forwards and rightly so. But what will be the next holding mid pecking order be between Edu, Bradley, Beckerman, Jones, and ….??? Central defense is similarly wide open. How will Holden integrate? Adu? What will happen at left back?
But this will take awhile because this is, after all, quite different than what Bradley had been doing for the past several years. It is gonna take awhile for some of the veterans to forget what Bradley stressed and adapt to Klinsmann. For some this adaptation will be easy as pie. Possibly some of them never will. Would it be totally shocking if Donovan (a very old 32 by the time of the next World Cup) never fully adopts and gets left off the 2014 team? At this point, yes, but a lot can change in three years with players in their 30’s.
Extra 10%?
I think there is more to the ‘extra 10%’ than finishing chances, although it might be the most important. If the US had finished just two (roughly half) of its good chances in the Costa Rica game, it would have been a ‘W’ instead of just a ‘learning experience’.
The other part of the 10%?
- staying focussed throughout the 90 minutes; we (the US team) still have too many lapses where we look disorganized, chasing the ball and the game.
- defensive cohesiveness; missed assignments, apparent confusion as to who is marking whom. Costa Rica had too many chances of their own, and if they had also finished half of their chances, they still would have won.
I think it’s a little late in the game for most of these players to start playing ‘street’ soccer in their careers; we need players NOW who have that experience if Klinsmann wants that… IMHO.
That said, I did like the energy that the squad brought to the game and look forward to more. I’m thinking there will be more loses against teams they really ought to be able to beat, at least until the Klinsi-ness becomes ingrained.
wynalda or mcbride
would bring that european focus on precision and finishing a high % of your shots. They have commented in interviews on how much more was expected of them in finishing drills when they moved to europe. It would be nice to have them apply that at the national team level.
Win or lose, we'll always be there for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Sep 6, 2011 1:40 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
article point underscored
Yesterday’s game against Belgium was more of the same, underscoring Mr. Davis’ point. Our strikers need more killer instinct, more accuracy with their shots.
Or maybe the problem isn't the striker's lack of final 10%
Given he can hit goals like this in European Competition:
Perhaps it’s the issue that we can’t get the ball to our strikers in good scoring positions?
After all, this is 6 goals in 9 matches for a guy who supposedly is ‘too lazy’ for the Nats. But good enough to score agains the side that bounced Rangers from Europe…hmm….
