The Great Slap in the Face
May 29th, 2008 . 6:47 am . By: Peter WelptonMan, was watching the US Men’s National Team flounder against England ever depressing or what? There was an obvious gap, hell for that matter, a canyon of different between the two sides. England was littered with world class players that showed their style and speed of play. The United States? Not so much. I don’t know why, but I was expecting something so different. Somehow I’d talked myself into thinking that a US side could ’stick with’ England. Hell, we got Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey, The “Beezeer” and uh…. Oh hell, surely I am just forgetting guys – right? Now, while no one should have any delusions that a USMNT would contain players that could equal the superstars of a team like England, it was almost shocking – like having cold water poured upon one’s head – to watch the US struggle to do anything positive. It was very much Men versus Boys and it was a slap back to reality that the current US Starting Eleven just is very much a “2nd or 3rd tier” side on the world stage. It was not long into the match that I began to try and convince myself that the lineup on the field was a US “B” side, or maybe, “B+”. As the match went on it dawned on me that minus Donovan what we were getting was, in fact, one of Bradley’s frighteningly “stronger” lineups. The two most glaring differences was in the center of midfield and in the striker spots. Eddie Johnson and Josh Wolff might make for an interesting MLS or USL attack force, but that combo could not put the fear in the defense of most any national side. Obviously the effectiveness of those two is directly related to the two playing in the middle of the pitch and on Wednesday Michael Bradley and Ricardo Clarke were certainly not demonstrating anything that was close to attacking creativity, control of possession or the ability to effectively cover players the caliber of Gerrard, Lampard and Co. Yes, maybe things get better with Altidore on field, but if we’re being truthful here, has he proved anything at the senior level? But, for the sake of argument let’s say Jose lives up to some promise – who is an effective partner? Clearly it is not Eddie Johnson who continues to be an epic disappointment. Wolff? Jaqua? Or Lord, please no. Where is the American finisher? The same disappointing conversation can be had about the center mid spots. The US just doesn’t have a creative, two-way midfielder to lean on. Do they? Am I forgetting someone? Please tell me I am. I guess my point is that the enthusiasm I once had for the US team was squelched as I began to realize the list from which Bradley has to choose from. It might be more than enough to clobber Panama, T&T or hell, Mexico, but when it comes to the “next level” it is more apparently than ever that the current US side is playing “wanna-be”. And if you really want to be depressed, England isn’t even a top 10 side anymore and failed to qualify for the 2008 Euros. I guess we’ll get a better idea when Spain flashes their credentials on Sunday. And for the record – I know that for many of you, I am only stating the obvious, the glaring sad truth that you’ve already known for a while. 15 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
welll said.
I felt the same way before, during, and after the game. As much as I hate to admit it, Landycakes brings a lot to the US game, and he was missed. Expect a better showing if we get him back for one of these last 2 tough ones. Also, I have never been a huge Beasley fan, and he didn’t win me over with this performance.
Its true, we’re in trouble. We’ll still qualify for 2010 but I think we’ll need Adu and Altidore to come of age by then.
Bradley and Clark are both better than what I saw from them. Ricardo got more practice whining than he did anything else.
And I haven’t been convinced by an American full-back in years. Maybe a 4-4-2 isn’t the right system for us? I think our relative strengths lie in central defense (and goal) and midfield (with Donovan, Dempsey, DMB, Bradley, and co.).
I had convinced myself that of the three big friendly games, this was the one we’d stand the best chance. Now I’m just hoping Argentina doesn’t bring their A game to Giants Stadium.
1st
Ricardo Clark isn’t a world class player and will be good for qualifying but not 2010. Bradley needs a different partner than Clark.
2nd
That was automatically a B+ side if you put Wolff on the field. He can’t even make a 2nd division team in Europe. Bradley isn’t a bad coach, but pairing Wolff and EJ wasn’t bright. Cooper>EJ>>>>>Wolf
3rd Don’t be too depressed England is a better team period than the US and they were playing at Wembley. I know England isn’t ranked in the stupid FIFA top 10, but name 10 teams in the world that you would bet on that would beat England. Obvious ones are Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, France, Portugal possibly (went to PK’s in 2006), Spain?, Sweden?, Holland?, Norway?, Ukraine?,
Beasley was atrocious.. every time he touched it he turned it over. I’d have Bobby Convey over him any day.
Prefer Spector over Cherundolo also.
Up top my first choices would be Twellman or Altidore. While neither of them are outstanding, I rate them higher than Eddie Johnson right now.. Fulham quickly realized what a waste of space he was.
What a disappointment. England made the US team look like amateurs.. and that really hurt to write that.
beasley is still coming off a bad injury. it is going to take him time to get back
Agree with that, but I hope someone else gets the start in Spain.
Take a deep breath. Relax. England didn’t make the Euros, but they now have a real coach, who they were trying to impress, and they played their best game in about two years, and they still only scored two.
The gap is big, but not as big as it looked. Lightning would have to strike for us to win the World Cup, but that shouldn’t be our goal. Our goal should be to get out of our group.
At our level, a pounding like this will happen sometimes. Look again at the three results before this. We’re still getting better.
The empty bucket formation didn’t do our boys any favors and when you add the ineffectiveness of Johnson and Wolff it was a recipe for disaster. How different do you think we would have played in a 4-2-3-1 with Adu as our starting AM and Johnson starting alone up top and all other personnel being the same? Now, I am not impressed by Johnson but I think it would have helped stifle England’s midfield and allowed us to play a little stronger with better offensive ideas. I think we would have looked better, but with Johnson up top it probably would have been about the same result, maybe a 1-0 or 2-1 scoreline. Without Donovan and a decent striker(Altidore? hopefully) we just can’t compete with soccer’s upper echilon but with a better formation we could be more competitive.
Lots of great comments. I’m consistently impressed by the level of soccer knowledge on this site.
I’ll add only that Bradley cannot keep starting players that are not in good form. I don’t care who they are. Beasley (injured) and Johnson (so low on confidence that his desire not to touch the ball in a pressure situation oozes from his pores) should not have played. I know this was only a warm-up for later qualifiers, but playing against England in Wembley is not the time or place to let a player “find” his form.
Well written, Peter. I just found it shocking that Bradley would put 5 players (FIVE!) on the roster who don’t even have club teams. Further, 3 of those started. I didn’t necessarily expect alot from this group, but like you said, who else is there? The difference isn’t athleticism. It’s the techincal ability and mental speed that is the canyon. First touches, short passes, finding space, making the right runs…all of these were displayed as serious shortcomings yesterday.
I really want to see altidore, donovan, zizzo, szetela, Adu, Dax MaCarty out there. I really liked how the u20s did last summer. I think alot of those guys are the future of US soccer. We need a very strong center midfielder with vision and speed and a world class forward. I never liked Beasley or Eddie Johnson. They just dont cut it.
Bradley needs to get that team fired up and at least playing with some heart.
I have never seen the results from Cherundolo to justify his spot on the team let alone actually playing.
Beasley hasn’t been the same in years, since his first knee injury. He’s good depth but not a quality starter.
If Altidore can make it he & Dempsey should be the forwards. But they need to bring him along at the proper speed; so far I think they are.
Meanwhile Cooper is developing into the best finisher MLS has ever seen except for maybe Twellman. But Twellman can’t make it anywhere but MLS. Perhaps with his size & athletic ability Cooper can develop into something special for the National team. A little wishful thinking here perhaps.
Let’s face it, we did miss Donovan, but even with him the rest of our Midifeild needs to be upgraded. Bradley might be good in time, still young. But we don’t have wing Midfielders that scare anybody.
The striker you are talking about is right here in your own back yard.