USA vs. Costa Rica (1 – 3) Post-Game Thoughts

Was anyone else shocked when Torres was taken off at halftime? You know, the one player who wasn’t tripping over the ball? And as bad as Beasley was, Bob Bradley is really the one responsible for the loss. Beasley hasn’t played for his club in months, and, clearly, is not a left back. Why not put Bornstein on? Why not put Demerit in the middle and move Bocanegra to the left? Why line up an attack minded player right in front of a fullback that is a converted winger? Why tell the team to play long balls to Donovan? So many dumb choices. The Confederations Cup should be a nice soul-sucking experience.

I know this won’t be popular, so I’m going to run for cover after clicking “submit comment”, but…

The US missed Brian Ching last night.

There, I said it. Maybe he’s like Emile Heskey is for England. Not the best player, or even close, but he does the essential job of being a big man up front.

It will be an interesting match on Saturday against Honduras. The US really needs to get it together. DMB and Wynne should be benched, they were hammered by Costa Rica´s midfield.

The reason we need Brian Ching is a fault with how we play. When we are clearing from the defense, we don’t relieve pressure to the midfield, we send it to Donovan or Altidore and expect them to hold play up until they get help. Damn, the back 3rd needs to have some composure through the ball and more consistently work through the midfield.

I don’t know if now is experimentation time, but if you don’t want to go “out there”, yes, Pearce is the choice. Otherwise, might we see a
–Boca–Gooch–Spector–Hedjuk backline? That seems like a reach…I’d be concernced with Boca on the left, but it’s his spot with Rennes. Why not?

Midfield will be…ummmmm interesting without Bradley. Torres is in. The reason Bradley took him out is he had stupidly made up his mind that he was going with that approach before the game (I’ll assume.)

Dempsey (on the left) — Torres — Adu or Klejstan (please, no Pablo) —Donovan

But it depends on if Ching can go, I guess.

Man, some tough calls. We need to get something going or it will be a long, long June.

I think it has been said, but what you’re saying has merit Daryl. The way Bob Bradley wants this team to play requires a Brian Ching. The problem is that many of us don’t want to see that style of play.

Granted, in as much as the team was not prepared to play; what was really scary was how each player seemed “afraid” to play. It appeared the US Team was not willing to go and sacrifice to win the one-vs-one ball or match the energy the Costa Rican teamed showed last night. What is most worrying is to listen to the pre-game comments from Coach Bradley and Landon and Michael and Pablo on how it was eye-opening last time they played in Saprissa losing 0-3. That they are better prepared for last nights game. So, what happened last night? Did they forget how to play? What about the comments about being prepared and ready to go and excited to play the game? It was obvious they where not ready for what hit them last night. A total disaster! This was very dissappointing and frankly, shocking loss. It almost appeared like a bunch of high school players getting whipped on by a team who was mentally and physically, ready to play. Very sad result…very sad indeed. Hopefully, the players will show America what they are made of in Chivcago versus Honduras. We can only hope a professional US National Team will show up that we can be proud of.

I think the left back spot belongs to Heath Pearce , hes the best man we have for the job at this time.. Coach need to get his stuff together and put HP back out there at the LeftBack and Freddy Adu need to start with landon and jozy,

lastnight coach was calling 911

Let’s see how Uncle Sam responds against Honduras next.

I miss the days when Papa Bradley was “interim” and we still had hope for a real coach.

Last night WOw! A wake up call indeed. No disrespect to Sam’s Army, but we do not have the personnel to play 4-3-3. We don’t have enough strong two way players. And my brother and I were flabbergasted at Torres being taken out of the game. I couldn’t believe it. The only player who looked comfortable on the ball was subbed out? I didn’t get it. Adu looked confident and smooth as usual. Altidore was out of the game, as was Donovan, Beasley, Onyewu, Mastroeni(though he made a few good tackles). Howard did what he could, but the game was embarrassing for the USMNT. Just wow.

Don’t worry folks there really is no way in hell we won’t qualify for the WC even if we lose the next three games in a row. Honestly CONCACAF qualifying is a joke. What is sad is we will get trashed when we meet real opponents in an actual tournament. It would actually be better if we were only competing for 1 spot then we would have incentive to improve unlike pulling the shenanigans we did against CR last night.

we could debate over bradley’s merits as a coach, but a lot of people will agree that it is too late to bring in another coach and expect him to have successful tactics that are set in place within a year’s time when he will only see his players once a month. sure, we’re playing a lot of matches this summer, but for each of the cups, a roster has to be set in place before the tourney kicks off so there is only a limited amount of experimenting can be done. if a new coach were to come in, he would have to rely on old tactics and that is the exact problem that you have with bob- his tactics.

SP, that was exactly what I thought about a possible coach change at this point. It should either be done now, before the crazy summer we’re going to have (Confed Cup, Gold Cup, and WCQ) or not at all. But it NEEDS to be done and done soon. Worse part is that it took so long for -everyone- to realize that Bradley ain’t gonna succeed at the World Cup level for this to happen.

Honestly, though, I feel that if the US loses on Saturday, there’ll be enough of an imperative to have a coaching change. This could be succesful, I believe, if three conditions are met:

1) We forget about winning the Confed Cup and just try new approaches against three very different teams.

2) We take the Gold Cup seriously, using our best squad (or close to it) to get the team playing together in a long string of matches.

3) The coach is, of course, competent enough to get us through World Cup Qualifying.

There are enough matches, I believe, to alter the USMNT in time, but those FIFA dates have to be taken advantage of. Friendlies, while often not taken seriously, should be scheduled often.

I read this before I left for work and thought about the other comments and tried to get everything organized in my mind to respond. Here goes:

1) If we do not pick up 3 points against Honduras tomorrow there is a very real chance that we may have to play in the play-in leg with South America (currently Uruguay). I won’t go into the schedule since everyone probably knows it but there is are 3 away matches, including Mexico. Given our recent performance on the road, I’m not too confident of our chances of getting a ton of points in these matches. Of course if we get our first win in Mexico and Bradley is still around, all will probably be forgiven

2) We can’t send a B Squad to South Africa for the Confed Cup. Remember the 07 Copa America? We sent a weak team to Venezuela and came in dead last. As I recall, USSF took a lot of grief from CONMEBOL for “disrespecting” the tournament by not sending our best squad. And why didn’t we? WE WANTED TO WIN THE GOLD CUP AND GO TO THE CONFED CUP! What sense does it make to not send our best squad to South Africa? This year the Gold Cup means nothing so we should send some fringe players (which sucks because I’ll be in DC watching us play Honduras).

3) Regarding Bradley, we shouldn’t be too quick to fire him here as there isn’t that much time to get another coach installed and comfortable. I’m in the mindset that if we lose to Honduras, coupled with a really poor showing at the Confed Cup, then Bradley has to go. That being said, I think old Jurgen is looking for a job.

We suck. It is plain as day. The best thing that can happen is if we fail to qualify and the U.S. Soccer Federation wakes up and gets a real coach. Preferably a European. Mike bradley sucks. I mean if your dad is coach then you can start. That is how U.S. soccer works. It has been that way forever. They need to clean house because most of the team sucks. I would love to be a U.S. fan but when you grow up in the 70’s and 80’s watching Germany and Holland it doesn’t leave much hope. Especially when they keep it all in house. U.S. college coaches up against the best in the world. That is a joke. Another thing the announcers for the games are horrendous. Delacambra is terrible. The MLS sucks also.

Instead of saying what might save Bradley’s job in the future, why not look at what he’s actually accomplished with the talent he’s been given and ask if we really want to watch what unfolds over the next year–and through the World Cup.

It’s June ‘09 and how many slots are solid? By my count: Goal-Howard. Defense-Onyewu and Boca. Mid-Bradley, Donovan, Dempsey Forward-Altidore. That’s 7 out of 11. And with all due respect, they’re no-brainers.

Position battles to work out: Torres, Adu and Klejstan in Mid. Ching and Davies up top. Spector, Bornstein, Pearce, Demerit, and Hejduk in defense. Out of these 10 players it seems like only four are getting a look: Ching, Hejduk, Torres and Klejstan.

Does Bradley really think these four are far and away the front runners? For that matter are Klejstan’s skills on par with Torres and Adu? I’m with Antihate: “Adu looked confident and smooth as usual.” And subbing Torres may be the worst tactical decision I’ve ever seen. Torres and Adu were the only US players to come close to matching the skill and composure level of Costa Rica.

All that said, our biggest problem is defense. There’s two spots and five contenders: Spector, Bornstein, Pearce, Demerit, and Hejduk. My gut says Hejduk’s not the answer. Figure it out…there’s some quality people there. We are a team that relies on set-pieces to score. We’re not going to outclass many national teams with our limited creativity on offense. This is our style for now, and it requires a strong defense. So Coach Bob gives us Beasley and Wynne.

That’s depressing.

Wow – Some strong words from US fans. I hope Bob and his ensemble are paying attention and reading this Blog. Good information to chew on! In regards to the players, I see it boiling down to how can we attract more athletic and skillfull players. Look at Brazil or Argentina or the top European teams in England, or Holland or Germany. These players are athletes with great conditioning and great skill. They are hungry for the ball and want to win. It is instilled in them form the beginning and at a very young age. What do future soccer players see in the United States to inspire them? They see Tiger Woods making millions plaing golf; they see Alex Rodriguez making millions playing baseball; they see LeBron James making millions playing baketball; they saw Wayne Gretzky (in his hey day) making millions playing hockey. These are exceptional athletes not playing soccer. If we are able to cultivate such an atlete, here in the United States and give them the love and passion for the game, like the fans in the US already have, then we can begin to think about producing a product and program that would make all Americans proud to support their National Soccer team.

So if you thought Torres could handle the ball, imagine what Freddy would’ve brought. Too many politics. Unbelievable!

We need a foreign coach and we need him now! No politics…Clean slate.

Not playing Freddy in that environment is criminal. He could’ve made some players miss in the first minute of the game to keep some extra possesion until the game calmed down.

Foreign coach!

i’m DEFINATELY not an expert at soccer, but, even I was able to point out things that were out of place during the game. I consider myself to be a Spector fan and usually go off on tangents when he either isn’t playe dor doesn’t dress, and it was kind quite fun for the announcers to question why he wasn’t in Bradley’s top team. I think I spent ten minutes saying to my dog: “See? See? Don’t I say that ALL the time?!” Needless to say, my dog officially thinks I’m nuts, but I was right. And I agree with Torres being taken out after the first half being stupid. I was puzzled, considering he was the only one who could decently handle a ball.

I had to gorge myself in free root beer floats from Sonic to get over the loss.