The USA: What Went Wrong
How could a team tapped as possibly the best U.S.
side ever to go a World Cup fail so utterly against the Czech Republic? It was a
matter of tactics, player selection and nervousness - plus the fact the U.S.
played one of the best teams in the world. Click "Read more" for my
after-the-fact analysis.
The European curse for the United States
continued Monday with a thrashing at the hands of the Czech Republic. How could
the U.S., which has been acclaimed at home as the best team in a generation at
least, put on such a sad performance?
If you ask me - and admittedly no one has - it was a combination of factors.
Player choices
Coach Bruce Arena has publicly criticized players such as Landon Donovan, DeMarcus Beasley and even Kasey Keller. But in fact, the coach bears a great deal of responsibility for the failings on Monday. It is true that Beasley had a terrible game, but it was Arena who placed him on the right to make room for Bobby Convey on the left. Convey played poorly, and was arguably not ready for a start against the Czechs.
That gets at the main problem in the line-up Arena sent out. It was a good squad, that should certainly have performed better, but it was probably not the best against the sturdy Czechs. Instead of relying on players like Convey, Lewis, Pope and Beasley, Arena should have looked to stronger, larger players such as Johnson, Bocanegra and Ching.
The omission of Johnson, especially, was puzzling. He showed in the final three exhibition games that he was ready to play a full game. His strength and finesse were perfect against a team like the Czech Republic, and he just missed scoring when he finally came on in the second half.
Tactics
Besides the line-up, there were other problems, certainly. The U.S. did not mark tightly, did not use the quick passes it needed against the Czechs. The team was unarguably intimidated by the stage and the opposition, but that did not pass with time, perhaps due to the early goal. It was a dispirited performance, for which one cannot blame Arena.
The U.S. seemed to forget how to use the width of the field, with an incredible dependence on forward and backward passing instead of side to side.
The lack of a creative and distributing midfielder hurt the United States a great deal. There is no one to fill such a role. Reyna is more of a holding player, which is important as well.
He and Donovan do not play well together. It is difficult to bench one of them, since they are among the best players the United States has. But Arena has to consider the possibility that one must make way for the other, with Donovan substituting for Reyna late in games.
Players didn't show up
Individual performances left a lot to be desired. Beasley in particular played extremely poorly, again he is more comfortable on the left and should have lined up there. Convey did not live up to Arena's expectations. Cherundolo and Lewis failed to handle the difficult duty of containing the Czechs on the flanks. Arena would do better to use a central back on one of the outside positions or go to a 3-5-2 formation to give more coverage at the back.
Onyewu and Pope both gave Koller too much room on the first goal, but it is hard to fault them on Rosicky's subsequent beautiful strike from distance.
Donovan disappeared after the first 15 minutes, and Mastroeni failed to be the midfield stopper he needed to be.
The final factor in the defeat is simply the impressive nature of the opposition. The Czechs were the most impressive team at Euro 2004, although they did not win it. They appeared just as good yesterday. Their performance was great, as the world press noted.
What the world is saying:
Naturally, there was a certain delight to some accounts of the U.S. defeat. But many reports were fiarly clear on the U.S. shortcomings and all praised the Czechs.
The London Daily Mail report called the United States "hapless" and "feeble," noting it was "a nightmare afternoon for America's central defenders." They took the time to take a jab at the quality of the U.S. domestic league, Major League Soccer, saying it had not prepared Eddie Pope for the likes of Jan Koller. "Both defenders were clearly petrified by him," they said, which actually is not fair. The report concluded by noting that the United States were ranked 5th in the world by FIFA, but that rating is mostly because the USA rarely plays top-notch opposition. Certainly true, and a long-time problem in the FIFA ranking system. If the United States does not improve in this cup, FIFA will certainly be forced to re-jigger the ranking system
EFE, the Spanish news service, found fault with the U.S. despite its growing contingent of Europe-based players. "The U.S. showed nothing positive," their report said, although they gave some recognition to Reyna's play. The wire report criticized Arena's formation featuring only one striker, and noted that the substitutions were ineffective.
The Mexican news agency Notimex was full of praise for the Czech side, calling their performance the best so far at the World Cup. "Like a well-oiled machine, the Czech team did whatever it wanted to its' rival, which barely functioned against an infinitely better side," they wrote. "It was a knockout." Ouch.
If you ask me - and admittedly no one has - it was a combination of factors.
Player choices
Coach Bruce Arena has publicly criticized players such as Landon Donovan, DeMarcus Beasley and even Kasey Keller. But in fact, the coach bears a great deal of responsibility for the failings on Monday. It is true that Beasley had a terrible game, but it was Arena who placed him on the right to make room for Bobby Convey on the left. Convey played poorly, and was arguably not ready for a start against the Czechs.
That gets at the main problem in the line-up Arena sent out. It was a good squad, that should certainly have performed better, but it was probably not the best against the sturdy Czechs. Instead of relying on players like Convey, Lewis, Pope and Beasley, Arena should have looked to stronger, larger players such as Johnson, Bocanegra and Ching.
The omission of Johnson, especially, was puzzling. He showed in the final three exhibition games that he was ready to play a full game. His strength and finesse were perfect against a team like the Czech Republic, and he just missed scoring when he finally came on in the second half.
Tactics
Besides the line-up, there were other problems, certainly. The U.S. did not mark tightly, did not use the quick passes it needed against the Czechs. The team was unarguably intimidated by the stage and the opposition, but that did not pass with time, perhaps due to the early goal. It was a dispirited performance, for which one cannot blame Arena.
The U.S. seemed to forget how to use the width of the field, with an incredible dependence on forward and backward passing instead of side to side.
The lack of a creative and distributing midfielder hurt the United States a great deal. There is no one to fill such a role. Reyna is more of a holding player, which is important as well.
He and Donovan do not play well together. It is difficult to bench one of them, since they are among the best players the United States has. But Arena has to consider the possibility that one must make way for the other, with Donovan substituting for Reyna late in games.
Players didn't show up
Individual performances left a lot to be desired. Beasley in particular played extremely poorly, again he is more comfortable on the left and should have lined up there. Convey did not live up to Arena's expectations. Cherundolo and Lewis failed to handle the difficult duty of containing the Czechs on the flanks. Arena would do better to use a central back on one of the outside positions or go to a 3-5-2 formation to give more coverage at the back.
Onyewu and Pope both gave Koller too much room on the first goal, but it is hard to fault them on Rosicky's subsequent beautiful strike from distance.
Donovan disappeared after the first 15 minutes, and Mastroeni failed to be the midfield stopper he needed to be.
The final factor in the defeat is simply the impressive nature of the opposition. The Czechs were the most impressive team at Euro 2004, although they did not win it. They appeared just as good yesterday. Their performance was great, as the world press noted.
What the world is saying:
Naturally, there was a certain delight to some accounts of the U.S. defeat. But many reports were fiarly clear on the U.S. shortcomings and all praised the Czechs.
The London Daily Mail report called the United States "hapless" and "feeble," noting it was "a nightmare afternoon for America's central defenders." They took the time to take a jab at the quality of the U.S. domestic league, Major League Soccer, saying it had not prepared Eddie Pope for the likes of Jan Koller. "Both defenders were clearly petrified by him," they said, which actually is not fair. The report concluded by noting that the United States were ranked 5th in the world by FIFA, but that rating is mostly because the USA rarely plays top-notch opposition. Certainly true, and a long-time problem in the FIFA ranking system. If the United States does not improve in this cup, FIFA will certainly be forced to re-jigger the ranking system
EFE, the Spanish news service, found fault with the U.S. despite its growing contingent of Europe-based players. "The U.S. showed nothing positive," their report said, although they gave some recognition to Reyna's play. The wire report criticized Arena's formation featuring only one striker, and noted that the substitutions were ineffective.
The Mexican news agency Notimex was full of praise for the Czech side, calling their performance the best so far at the World Cup. "Like a well-oiled machine, the Czech team did whatever it wanted to its' rival, which barely functioned against an infinitely better side," they wrote. "It was a knockout." Ouch.
Posted: Tue - June 13, 2006 at 09:28 AM
Quick Links
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Categories
Archives
XML/RSS Feed
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Jun 13, 2006 10:01 AM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Jun 13, 2006 10:01 AM