Official Team USA Soccer Thread

[BUCKnation]

New kits. Love them.





http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/soccer-dirty-tackle/centennial-kit-us-national-teams-might-nicest-ever-173412472--sow.html

[and1GS]

Very cool, I like them.

[jerrod]

do they replace the red stripes or are they just an alternate?

[BUCKnation]

do they replace the red stripes or are they just an alternate?

Not sure, but Id assume so.

Also, in US news. Altidore just broke Dempsey's record (23 goals, last year) for most goals in a club season.

If only that could translate to the USMNT.

[jerrod]

i don't blame him at all. the service that he gets in holland needs to be translated

[edfmx86]

do they replace the red stripes or are they just an alternate?

Not sure, but Id assume so.

Also, in US news. Altidore just broke Dempsey's record (23 goals, last year) for most goals in a club season.

If only that could translate to the USMNT.

Klinnsman gotta find a way to play his team around Jozy. The service Jozy gets in AZ is phenomenal compared to what he gets in the USMNT.

[BUCKnation]

do they replace the red stripes or are they just an alternate?

Not sure, but Id assume so.

Also, in US news. Altidore just broke Dempsey's record (23 goals, last year) for most goals in a club season.

If only that could translate to the USMNT.

Klinnsman gotta find a way to play his team around Jozy. The service Jozy gets in AZ is phenomenal compared to what he gets in the USMNT.

Thats true. The team he plays on isnt very good either.

[and1GS]

Exactly. Every Jozy match I have seen for the USMNT during the Klinnsman era have been thought out poorly; Klinnsman basically tries to use him as a plug and play striker. That's what Gomez is, low return but versatile, Jozy needs a gameplan around him and he can be very effective. If we don't gameplan around/with him in mind then he just seems like a slow big guy that's too lethargic to make anything happen.

[PANDEMONEUM]

we dont have an Attacking/Creative Midfielder
nobody is scared of our Mids in the attacking 3rd
theres nobody on our roster than fits that role
this is why we have gone with 3 Center(defensive) Mids in most of our lineups
it also explains the recent formation we have been using
4-1-2-3
the 1 is a Defensive Mid
the 2 are Center Mids
and the 3 are forward types

Adu and Mixx have been talked about.
Adu is having a bad year or 2. i think hes been kicked off his team (with pay)
he hasnt produced for any club team, but has looked great with team USA
even if he was ready to go, i dont see him as a 90min player
Mixx plays in a lower level, and has barely seen time with USA

no matter what Jurgen wants to do, we just dont have the players to help Jozy out
even if we want to use dempsey - altidore - donovan up top, we dont have the mids to get them the ball
those 3 have to do alot of work to create chances
we also loose width with dempsey always wanting to cut in
but, im not against it
would b nice if they could all b in form and healthy at the same time

[jerrod]

i want to try some actual wingers. pick 2 of beasley, gatt and shea.

[and1GS]

Gatt has a lot of maturing to do. He doesn't realize he has teammates and tries to go 1 on 11. He also needs to realize his role right now, to whip in crosses, which he rarely does.

[PANDEMONEUM]

HELL NO to beasley
id rather continue what wer doing
i cant stand him
add castillo to that

Shea and Donovan solve alot of the issues
theyr actual wingers, that stay wide, and can score, attack and get back on D

or, just stop being worried about trying to score goals
and defend more, possess more, try and control the game, then the goals will come when they can

ive been wanting to see Jones as our DM and Bradley, Kljestan as our CMs
then whoever as the 3 on top dempsey, altidore, donovan, gomez, shea, ej, gatt

[BUCKnation]

HELL NO to beasley
id rather continue what wer doing
i cant stand him
add castillo to that

Shea and Donovan solve alot of the issues
theyr actual wingers, that stay wide, and can score, attack and get back on D

or, just stop being worried about trying to score goals
and defend more, possess more, try and control the game, then the goals will come when they can

ive been wanting to see Jones as our DM and Bradley, Kljestan as our CMs
then whoever as the 3 on top dempsey, altidore, donovan, gomez, shea, ej, gatt

Agreed. Put Altidore or Johnson up top with Dempsey and Shea on the wings along with Donovan playing a CF/CAM role.

Have Jones and Bradley in the back as CMs/CDMs and then have the 4 in the back. I think that is a very solid lineup.

[jerrod]

if you put dempsey on the wing, he's just going to cut in all the time and you lose the width

[BUCKnation]

if you put dempsey on the wing, he's just going to cut in all the time and you lose the width

A 4-1-2-1-2 could work then, with Demp and EJ or Altidore up top. Donovan as CAM, Shea and Jones on the outside and Bradley as the CDM(or flip Jones and Bradley).

[and1GS]

Yah, at this point in his career Dempsey isn't a winger. He's a CAM, CF or ST. I think EJ has forced himself into a starting wing role, him and Donovan give us good width. I like what Brek can become and have enjoyed what I've seen from him on USMNT, but not sure if he starts over EJ or Landon.

I second the thoughts on Castillo and Beas Nutz.

Gatt is still the future, and I think Jurgen might be one of the few people that realizes he needs so much work before he's even passable in a major match situation. I'm happy he's bringing him along slowly because while he has a ton of talent, hes just a couple steps behind in a ton of areas. Namely vision, decision making and composure.

[and1GS]

if you put dempsey on the wing, he's just going to cut in all the time and you lose the width

A 4-1-2-1-2 could work then, with Demp and EJ or Altidore up top. Donovan as CAM, Shea and Jones on the outside and Bradley as the CDM(or flip Jones and Bradley).

Jones on the outside = barf.

Landon should be on the wing, Dempsey in as a CF and Jones/Bradley in the midfield somehow. They aren't matched well to play together, but they're both too talented to bench. 4-2-2-2 might work if we're sure we can get width from our wingers.

[BUCKnation]

if you put dempsey on the wing, he's just going to cut in all the time and you lose the width

A 4-1-2-1-2 could work then, with Demp and EJ or Altidore up top. Donovan as CAM, Shea and Jones on the outside and Bradley as the CDM(or flip Jones and Bradley).

Jones on the outside = barf.

Landon should be on the wing, Dempsey in as a CF and Jones/Bradley in the midfield somehow. They aren't matched well to play together, but they're both too talented to bench. 4-2-2-2 might work if we're sure we can get width from our wingers.

I was thinking about that as well.

[PANDEMONEUM]

no CAM for Dempsey
no CAM for anyone on our team
nobody can do it

i dont mind Dempsey as the left W/F
change his responsibilities a little, and make him play D and connect with the Mids
that way, he wont b charging forward every time
but, he'll still make that late run when he sees it

CF with the 3 up top works for him, but, then Altidore cant start
im ok with that
or Dempsey on the left, and Altidore/Gomez in the center
or Shea on the left, with Dempsey in center

as long as theres no injuries, id use my 3 subs on the 3 up top and/or 1 of the CMs, depending on the situation
lets say demp, alt, ej start
then u bring in shea and donovan and move demp to the middle
our offense and attack gets a huge boost
then late u can bring in gomez or zusi
(the order doesnt really matter, but substituting at the right times and the right players does)

[fatlever]

lots of good talk in the past few days...

i was trying to explain these same problems to a friend of my the other day when he asked why jozy doesnt seem to play as well for country.
- no natural wingers
- no creative mids
- dempsey forced into wide role which makes us narrow or dempsey dropping to deep to pick up ball from midfield that consists of 3 central mids.

thinking out of the box to solve our formation issues (assuming no donovan), would it make sense to go with a 3-5-2 formation on attack and 5-3-2 on defense? i realize thats not gonna happen, especially not for the 1st time in a big game, but that formation would seem like the best fit for our current personnel.

------------------------------howard--------------------------
---------pick your three central defenders--------
------------------------------edu-----------------------------
chandler------bradley-----------jones------f.johnson
----------------------------dempsey--------------------------
-----------------------------jozy-----------------------------

this would allow us to get width from chandler and f.johnson w/out comprimising the defense too much. lets face it, chandler and f.johnson are probably the two best wingers we have at the moment. this also allows dempsey to play in the hole and be the creative player as well as the freedom to stay forward and not have to worry about tracking back as much. gives jozy more guys to feed him the ball.

williams/edu interchangeable
torres/jones interchangeable

formation also makes better use of castillo as johnson's backup

then the main problem would be picking the three central defenders - presumably would be cameron, omar and boca.