Official Team USA Soccer Thread

[and1GS]

I thought we looked like ****, and were lucky to win. That awful showing is 100% on Klins btw, starts with our lineup and ends with the subs.

Beasley starting and Cameron on the bench? Really? Might as well play Castillo, he's basically the fullback version of DaMarcus anyway. Fabian at outside mid showed us what we expected - he's a defender who can attack not an attacker who can defend.

No Eddie on the wing had me puzzled, he's been fantastic and deserves a bigger role than 'the guy who replaces Jozy around minute 80.' I am absolutely fuming at Beasley's selection though. He obviously can't defend like a fullback and he doesn't have blazing speed anymore, so what exactly does he do? He's atrocious in the attack so I know that's not where he's contributing.

This team needs CREATIVITY. Why cant Jurgen see that? Bradley **** the bed all game with passing it in the final third and other than his last pass he was useless in attack. Zusi is too **** slow to play as a winger, yet we insist on running him into the ground for 90 minutes? I guess we're kinda damned if we do damned if we don't since we have a ton of above average to good CMs and no wingers, but come on there are better options than Graham out wide late in a match.

[BUCKnation]

Zusi obviously has great crossing ability and has showed it the last two games. The one thing that frustrated me about his play was late when we would kick it out wide to him on a run and he was wide open, but instead of continuing his run and then crossing it in, he would just stop and pull the ball back looking for someone in the middle.

Idk if he was too tired, or he thought he was too slow, or it was JK's decision in an effort to keep better possession, but it was frustrating to watch, especially considering we got the first goal off a similar type of situation, only he continued his run. Id say it happened probably 3 times.

No Eddie again was frustrating as well.

Beasley has looked better the last two games but his offense is lacking. We might as well bump Fabian back to LB or just put Cameron there and put EJ up top on the wing.

I thought the back line played better and smarter this game for the most part. Not really sure what happened on that last FK but I just had a bad feeling about it. Too much FIFA and 90th minute goals perhaps?

Brad Evans played great again. Good to see there.

[Da Schwab]

Cosign on Bradley being an idiot all night. He made some terrible passes and let up on a couple chances to just put the ball on goal. Dempsey was quiet pretty much all night.

Zusi and Jozy seem to have something going.

Hopefully they don't lay an egg back home on Tuesday night.

[GS Warriors 1]

I didn't think Beasley and Evans at FB were all that effective. Thanks for the goal though, Evans! Gonzalez bounced back after poor play in the friendlies and Besler is solid.

I'm liking what I see from Altidore these last couple games, it's good that he's playing well at the moment when there are 2 games left to go in June.

Cameron playing in midfield next to Bradley was interesting, JK has yet to use him at that position but I think he's played there before when he was with Houston? If Jones has a mild concussion and they want to be cautious, then I wouldn't mind seeing this pairing against Panama. Bradley didn't have a good game, at all.

The goal scored by Jamaica should've been disallowed, Beckford was offside and there was a foul in the box, too.

[and1GS]

Bradley's performance was embarrassing, he looked tentative all match. On his one shot it took him about 5 seconds of dribbling in a straight line to figure out what he wanted to do, not sure what's going on with him but he seemed a step slow mentally. He wasn't seeing the quick pass, he didn't really know where his teammates were and he didn't understand his role in the offense.

re: Zusi - there are 3 reasons why a player holds up play like that on the wing. As you mentioned they are either a) he's tired b) not fast enough or c) gameplan. It obviously wasn't C because he would have a couple steps and acres of open space in front of him, but he'd pull it back and pray someone opened up in the middle (which they didn't). He's a slow player that was gassed early on but still ran his heart out.

I don't really blame Zusi, I think he's impressed in his time with us. We just can't expect so much from him, he's a creative passing CM with a penchant for spot kicks not a high flying winger who can create and link up with forwards from the sideline. That's a big area where I noticed a lapse - we didn't understand how to link up passes from defense to midfield to attack. It was either defense to attack or midfield to the defense. Puzzling for me that we'd play him and Fabian out wide, it crushed our width and you can't play Jurgen's beloved possession game without width.

Some player notes on the match for me:

Besler - Awesome, our best defender by far
Fabian - Why is he playing wing? keep him at fullback and enjoy what he does so well
Beasley - Go home. Made a couple good plays late but he was slow and consistently out of position, because he's not a FB and he's old.
Gonzalez - He was good defensively but awful in distribution.
Evans - Great effort all game and a great goal, but he's just not that talented.
Cameron - Love this guy. How a starter for Stoke doesn't crack our 11 when we have two subpar outside backs is beyond me.
Eddie - He should be starting.
Dempsey - a bit invisible because we just couldn't get him the ball. He'll be fine.
Bradley - Yuck, I expect better from him at this point. No confidence.
Jones - I thought he looked great before he went down. Him and Jozy were our best players early.
Castillo - I understand the sub, we just wanted someone fast to sprint around for 10 minutes, but is he really our best option?
Zusi - He was gassed at minute 40. Jurgen should have seen this and altered our strategy to support him or get him pinched in more.

My MVP:
Jozy - Awesome, awesome, AWESOME game by him. Strong, confident and composed he literally did everything right. I wish he could take players on 1v1 around the touch line, but his hold up play more than makes up for that. US team has never had a player who could truly hold up play up top, it was a joy to see.

This team will go as far as Clint and Jozy are willing to take them and once Jurgen realizes what he has there he should start building a strategy to get them playing a 1-2 game up top with extremely basic entrance passes from Bradley and Jones. All it takes is a pass to Dempseys feet 10 yards outside of the 18 and I bet we can see something special happen...if we get a better winger out there.

[BUCKnation]

Pretty much agree with everything you said. Not sure what JK is thinking with the left side of the field. The solution seems so obvious.

Anyways, I was watching some highlights of the US games in the last confed cup and it was just so impressive. It really makes me miss Donovan and Charlie Davies. It also reminded me of how dominant Altidore was. The goal he had against Spain was just amazing. The way he shielded off/boxed out Sergio Ramos like prime Rodman then turned and took the quick shot was awesome.

With some better luck with the youth system, i.e. injuries like with Davies or having prospects not pan out to their max potential like with Altidore, Agudelo and so on, the US could be very formidable today.

Im thankful for the recent career revivals with guys like Altidore and EJ, otherwise we would have an awful attack with Dempsey as the only threat.

[PANDEMONEUM]

i dont like Beasly or Castillo
i dont want either on the 23 man roster
both are too weak

Evans doesnt get caught in a bad position
maybe he doesnt have the talent others do
but he battles and has good positioning
i havent noticed him get beat badly, or cost us a goal
so, im ok with using him and his performance

Omar has had poor games lately.
hes great in 1v1 or moving forward to break up the play
his set piece D and his off the ball defending, is where he looses focus
people have been calling for Cameron to start at CB

Besler has been very solid
plays a nice ball out of D, is always in good position

Cameron, now that Jones is injured, can b put in at DM
i was surprised he was subbed in for Jones, but he did a Great job
i believe it really helped Bradley, cause he was poor until then

Bradley was poor until Jones went out
either he noticed he had to pick things up
and/or Cameron and others looked for Bradley more
i felt like our passing and possession improved
also, dont forget he had a shot that hit the post. if that went in, again, goal makes ur performance look better

Dempsey was invisible
maybe he was being cautious cause of the Yellow Card situation. who knows

Altidore is good, when he can score
imo, he was just ok, but when u score ur overall performance looks better

Zusi, i loved
he covered alot of ground
came back on D alot and broke things up
and had that nice cross for an assist

Fabian is injured
why not sit him?
i wouldnt mind him as our L.OM, IF we had a good L.FB but we dont, we have Beasley

Guzan > Howard
its time to make the change
Howard got stuck on that goal, i would have preferred that he came out to punch that ball
i dont blame him 100%, but he turned into a statue on that play

[PANDEMONEUM]

no Zusi and no Jones in tomorrows match vs Panama

maybe we switch our entire formation ?
from 4-2-3-1 to a 4-1-2-3 (my personal preference)

dempsey --------altidore--------ej
--------------bradley - sacha
------------------cameron
beasley - besler - omar - evans

now that would b a big change, but when u have 2 starters out, i dont think u can expect the same play from their replacements in the same role

been reading, Corona has been looking good
maybe he gets used in Zusi's spot

[Da Schwab]

EJ and Cameron are both in the starting lineup tonight!

[BUCKnation]

Fabian is just not a winger. Can we please end this experiment.

Also, that turn just now be Jozy was exactly the same thing he did against Spain. Just love it.

Altidore!

[ItsDaBrush]

Pretty sure Fabian recently was turned into a winger for his club

[J-Mezzy]

Was the goal nice?

[KF10]

Please finish Panama USA!

Panama is going to be Mexico's main opponent for that 3rd/4th position! hahahaha

[BUCKnation]

Was the goal nice?

Great ground cross from EJ, I believe, to Altidore for the finish. EDIT: Actually was the other Johnson.

Also just stepped out of the room for a minute and missed the 2nd goal.

[Da Schwab]

I don't like the fans chanting "We are going to Brazil." This is definitely a step in the right direction, but the Hex is far from over.

[BUCKnation]

EJ starts and scores. Not surprised.

[jerrod]

that pass from jozy to beasley was awesome

[Da Schwab]

This was by far the best game in the Klinsmann era from start to finish. They dominated a game that should have been easily won. Jozy, EJ, Dempsey and Cameron were all fantastic. Beasley had a much better game than what he's shown the last couple weeks, too.

The CBs still had a few hiccups and Bradley made some extra unnecessary touches, but overall this was a great showing. Bring on the Hondurans.

[PANDEMONEUM]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PxT82BQOZkc[/YouTube]

http://www.businessinsider.com/video-us ... z2W1QXN81G

[YouTube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCh7Ogjt_2A[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAlMmqKayag[/youtube]

fans and goals

[PANDEMONEUM]

everyone played very well

reading lots of fans posts, and they b saying
Evans is mediocre, and he keeps getting into trouble with speedy players
IMO, he hasnt cost us anything, so i have no issues with him.

Omar is still suspect a few times a game.
when he can see the play in front of him, hes good
when he can step through and break up a pass, hes good
when he has to anticipate, or when theres combination passing near him, hes slow to react

i dont want Beasley to b a starter
i Hope, EJ stays at his current form
then we can move Fabian back to L.FB with EJ in front of him
then
Cherundolo and Zusi on the other side

(or Donovan on a wing, if/when he returns to the A squad)