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USA vs. Brazil: Reaction

September 11th, 2007 | By: Carter Daly | 7 Comments »

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I always think, especially for friendlies, that it takes a few day to process all of the “what mattered” and “what didn’t”, because it is truly just one game, that counts for basically nothing.

A few days have now passed since the Brazil friendly and there are a few things I noticed.

For one, Team America played great, entertaining, physical soccer. You could not have asked for a more entertaining match from a viewer’s stand point. I think the United States deffinatley played well enough for at least a tie, but a few things (Gooch own goal, delerious ref) went against them. But since this is a friendly you can’t get too down about things like that. Repeat after me: It’s all about the quality of play.

Don’t mention the five game losing streak, just take note that the USSF finally decided to start schedualing tough friendly opponents instead of the cupcakes we would steamroll in the past on the way to a ridiculously high fifa ranking. The faith is still with Bob and he has done alot of good in a short time and I for one can’t wait to see how the cycle progresses with him at the helm.

If you hadn’t noticed, Clint Dempsey, aka The Trailer Park Hero, aka Duece, is on some kind of hot streak. This is the Clint I was calling for a bit back when I said he was lacking his edge. Well, he found it. What was most impressive was the way Dempsey knew his role this weekend. He wasn’t trying to out-dangle ‘Dinho, or out-stepover Robinho. He held the ball well against a tough Brazil squad and allowed play to facilitate on the attacking end for the Americans.

Another shining star was Michael Bradley. He brought it all. What’s great about Michael is not just his insanley Gattuso like characteristics in the midfield, or the way he can make a gorwn man crap out his organs in fear, or his strength on the ball when being harassed by some of the best players in the world, but what he can do to the tactics side of things for his Daddy. Michael, as I see him, is a perfect D-Mid for the United States. Benny Feilhaber, or say Danny Szetela, are sometimes classified as D-Mids, but are in that type of two-way mold where they can pack a more offensive punch. Bradley could add to the offense too, but what he is best at is clearly breaking up oncomming attacks and stomping on people. This gives the rest of the squad a world of options, because you can put him behind three truly attack minded players in the midfield. Now that’s not to say nobody is going to track back on D, but he can do alot of damage back their, in a diamond type formation. Just for future speculation, why (in certain situations against certain opponents obviously, everything is situational in soccer) pair Bradley in central midfield with another D-mid type, not as strong, with a bit of offensive punch in Feilhaber, when you can have Rino Bradley lying deap in the midfield, with say come 2010 Freddy, Mr. #10 himself, in th epurley attacking midfielder role. The options are endless.

All in all the result did not reflect the game, and the USA definitely stepped up from their previous couple efforts.

Your thoughts on the friendly? The recent revival of the Clint Dempsey show? Michael Bradley’s beastliness and what he can do to future lineups?

Tags: bob bradley, Brazil, Clint Dempsey, Freddy Adu, Friendlies, Michael Bradley, Rino Gattuso, USA, World Cup 2010, World Soccer

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Comments

By Tony | September 11th, 2007 at 6:43 pm

Definitely.

By elle | September 11th, 2007 at 6:57 pm

dempsey is shaping up quite nicely, i love michael bradley but he tackles like paul scholes, and gooch just makes me want to cry. Seriously, how many goals has he basically handed to the opposition in the last few years. I don’t even want to talk about donovan until he decides it’s time to go to europe again, but the rest of the boys played well, especially against a team like brazil.

By bram | September 11th, 2007 at 9:23 pm

I agree with your thoughts on Dempsey and especially Bradley. Bradley’s determination was amazing. He spent the day going head to head with Kaka, Robinho, and Ronaldino, and he acquitted himself well. Bradley also tackles far better than Paul Scholes. I can’t even remember the last time Scholes tackled and actually got a piece of the ball. While Bradley is young and may still make some dumb decisions, Scholes is a yellow card waiting to happen every time he goes in for a tackle. And for what it’s worth, if you look at any of the great defensive midfielders in the world, they all make lots of mistakes. The difference is that Gattuso or Keane had enough clout with the referees to get away with them. Bradley is still too young, and an American, so he is warned more often still. In time, I expect Bradley to start getting some of the calls that go against him, although he fully deserved the warnings he got in the Brazil and Canada games.

I was also impressed by Wolff’s performance. While he still doesn’t deserve a place in any starting XI, he looked far better than the player I remember in Arena’s World Cup warmup matches.

If Adu or Altidore can develop into a legitimate attacking threat, the US will start to be a real soccer power in the world. Right now, we are still too reliant on Beasley, Donovan, and Dempsey. All those guys are great second or third attacking options. We need one great first attacking option.

Posted from United States

By KS | September 12th, 2007 at 7:51 am

What’s Beasly doing on the pitch? His head just didn’t seem like it was in the game, and I don’t recall being impressed with his play the last few times I’ve watched him….

Posted from United States

By JoNo | September 13th, 2007 at 5:16 pm

The team is looking good!

Posted from United States

By Jake | September 19th, 2007 at 10:43 am

Why are we not playing Altidore? What gives? We have no better option in attack. In fact, we have no other options.

Posted from United States

By Adam | September 30th, 2007 at 7:59 pm

This is a late reply, but I agree with whoever said we need a first attacking option. We need Eddie Johnson to become a world class striker or Altidore to get more experience (for he will inevitably become a world class striker). I don’t think we really played very entertaining soccer. For the most part, we lacked a great deal of cohesion and couldn’t string many passes together. Of course later in the game this improved with the Dempsey goal being a good example. But, overall, our attack is missing a real striker. (EJ is so fast and clinical but his first touch and decision making is still poor.)

Also, Gooch is only good for when we are playing a brash, physical team. He was awesome against Toni when we played Italy. But, against a team like Brazil, he should never play. He just doesn’t have the grace and quickness needed. Conrad would have been a better option because he is tactically very sharp.

Another also, why did Beasley lose all of his confidence on the ball? He’s one of our best technical players, but he never runs at defenders like he used to! This is discouraging to see.

Posted from United States

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