It was almost as if the U.S. national soccer team was channeling the Lakers: Hardly showing up for a road game they really didn’t have to win — and getting hammered.
It’s tough to play in Costa Rica. The Ticos are one of the top three soccer nations in CONCACAF, and carried into the match a 6-0-1 home World Cup qualifying record vs. the Yanks.
Make that 7-0-1. With almost no resistance from the guys in white and blue.
The jeering of the U.S. national anthem had hardly subsided when Costa Rica scored, 79 seconds into the game. It was all downhill from there for the Yanks.
What went wrong? Let’s enumerate.
–The U.S. formation was a disaster. A 4-3-3, offense-oriented formation for the first time in … forever? Playing on the road against a strong opponent, you don’t come out offense-heavy. You play your 4-4-2 with a pair of holding midfielders, settle into the game, try to avoid giving up a goal in the first quarter-hour and see if you can snake a point out of the country. Instead, Bob Bradley ran out a formation light on defensive stoppers, and there’s no one Bradley can blame for that.
–It wasn’t just the formation that was an ugly mistake. Several of Bradley’s choices to play were, oh, awful decisions. Marvell Wynne and DaMarcus Beasley at outside backs? Wynne never had started a World Cup qualifier and you give him his debut in Saprissa Stadium? Beasley has been glued to the bunch with the Glasgow Rangers forever, and you put him out there, too? When Bradley had him at left mid, at least his mistakes didn’t generally lead to goals. At left back, they will. I mean, remember when Beasley was a serious player? Then he went to Europe and got buried, the flip side of the “they have to leave MLS to get better argument.” You don’t get better when you never play.
Both Wynne and Beasley had horrible games. Wynne looked lost and indecisive, and Beasley looked, well, like a guy who hadn’t played in two months. His inability to handle a pass under pressure led directly to that second-minute goal that ended this one just seconds after it started.
–Pablo Mastroeni. I love Pablo … circa 2002. The Pablo we have now is old and slow and unsure of himself and can’t tackle a toddler on a park playground. It would be kind to say he was invisible, but he was glaringly obvious. He was the No. 4 who was whiffing on tackles as Ticos ran past him.
–The three forwards, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore, didn’t seem to have a clue how to operate in a three-forward formation, which is understandable, to an extent, in that the U.S. never plays that way. (Really. Can anyone recall the last time the U.S. played with three forwards?) Miscommunication and guys bumping into each other, when they weren’t invisible, was a big problem.
–Donovan, the designated handler of restarts, is in a slump. He is having real trouble putting decent balls into the box on corners, or clearing walls set up between him and the goal. I have no idea what this is about (maybe we can blame the horrible artificial turf in Saprissa), but a big U.S. advantage is on restarts because it can take advantage of its size But that’s negated if Landon can’t get the ball into the danger zone, and of late he hasn’t.
Basically, the Americans sucked. From start to finish. No passion, no energy, no plan. It was as if they had held a team meeting and looked at the hexagonal standings and decided, en masse, that they could mail in this one and still finish in the top three and get to South Africa for 2010.
They probably are correct about that. Considering they are the only team in the six-nation standings that has even one point on the road (that 2-2 tie at El Salvador). But that means pulling themselves together in time to handle a good Honduras team in Chicago on Saturday.
Win that one, and that’s 10 points from five matches, and the Yanks are on their way to South Africa. Tie or lose, and now they’re back in the scrum to get one of the three automatic berths awarded to CONCACAF.
They will be playing without Michael Bradley, the gritty midfielder who often is on the edge of out of control but also is the one American who can be depended on to show up with some passion and energy. (He has two yellows and has a one-game suspension.) Who plays in his stead? Jose Francisco Torres, perhaps? Or perhaps just go straight to Donovan, and ask the little guy to turn into the playmaking mid.
And who replaces Mastroeni, who has to come out? Back to you, Sacha Kljestan?
Frankie Hejduk returns to right back if he’s healthy, because Wynne isn’t ready for prime time. And do you give Beasley even another minute at left back? Or does Jonathan Bornstein get a chance? Not even Heath Pearce was as bad as Beaz was in Saprissa. And Altidore and Dempsey up top again? Well, maybe. Unless Brian Ching is over his injury, and he plays, and you move Dempsey back to the wing, where he doesn’t have to wait for someone to bring him the ball.
Man, oh man. And the U.S. is the 14th-best soccer nation on the planet? Who are we kidding?
The Ticos are solid. But they aren’t as good as the Americans made them look.
Now the Yanks have to hope they haven’t sunk into a funk as scary as the result in Saprissa hints at, because they need to get a point — and preferably three — out of that match against Honduras.
And if they don’t show some cohesion and energy and grit in that match, you won’t even want to watch them in the Confederations Cup in South Africa, two weeks hence, when they play Italy, Brazil and Egypt. That could be uglier than the 1990 World Cup.
4 responses so far ↓
1 William K. Wolfrum Chronicles » Blog Archive » No one expects a blogaround - Here, there, everywhere // Jun 4, 2009 at 4:18 AM
[…] Paul Oberjuerge: What went wrong in Costa Rica for the U.S. National Soccer Team. […]
2 Damian // Jun 4, 2009 at 1:39 PM
It’s very hard for me to keep this brief after that pathetic attempt to play soccer and compete last night in San Jose, but I’m going to try my hardest. Having said that, brace yourself for one of my typical responses.
Let me first start by addressing the major, broader-view topics — 1) the U.S. is not #14 in the world, more like somewhere between #25-30; 2) the WC qualifying player pool is too large; 3) the U.S. needs to better stress the importance of playing well against the better teams; 4) without more money available in U.S. Soccer and MLS, and a better supply of coaching, this country will never advance deep into non-CONCACAF international tournaments (i.e. World Cup, Copa America, Confederations Cup).
Some of this is the player’s problem. Some of this falls on Bob Bradley. Some of this falls on U.S. Soccer. And with the way we have conducted soccer in this country, it makes me wonder whether the U.S. will forever have inherent disadvantages while trying to improve the on-field product.
Point 1 — The FIFA rankings system will always positively weight the U.S. and Mexico because of the regular competition it faces within CONCACAF. Of course, there’s little the U.S. can do about the rest of the CONCACAF minnows, but it is guilty of not going out of its way to play in the Copa America and to schedule friendlies against real soccer nations. No, hosting Sweden’s domestic league all-star team, sans Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the like, for three years running does not constitute real European competition. If you want to better yourself internationally, you have to make the effort. Travel to South America or Europe during their soccer calendars and play friendlies against the best players of those nations. It’s the only way you grow in skill, adopting a faster speed of mind to play and character/mental toughness. You want a preview of the Confererations Cup? Losses to Italy and Brazil while sitting back the entire match just to try to maintain some dignity in the scoreline. A toss-up against Egypt in the battle to avoid the Group cellar. The U.S. needs to take chances and make efforts to play the best competition as regularly as you can. Never turn down a Copa America invite. Play the B squad in the Gold Cup when it conflicts with a Copa America year. If it takes restructuring the MLS season to fit the international soccer calendar, do it.
2) It’s a bad idea to use this many different players in these World Cup qualifiers. I think only 5 field players have featured in each qualifier thus far. That means half of your lineup is changing from match to match, not to mention players are being asked to move around and play in different positions. How can you build cohesion and chemistry this way? It shouldn’t be difficult to determine your best 18, or 8-9 players that deserve to start every match and stick with them and make your best lineup stronger. Playing for the U.S. shouldn’t just be for anyone having put together a few good games recently with their MLS or tiny European club. Playing for your country is only for the true elite. Bradley is guilty, like many U.S. coaches before him, of tinkering with lineups, players’ positions and rosters far too much. Look and see how often the top nations in Europe and South America change their lineups in qualifying or tournaments. You can almost always count on the same 8-9 players in a starting lineup each match. World Cup qualifying is not the time to tinker and give players auditions. Yes, the U.S. will still get to South Africa next year because CONCACAF is among the weakest regions in the world. But when you are in the bottom half of teams within the field of 32 at the 2010 World Cup, you need to build your team for that World Cup group you are placed in now, not a month before the tournament.
3) It’s so funny to hear how some people will take the focus away of Wednesday’s terrible loss by saying, “We’ll be OK. We have a home match with Honduras Saturday. We’ll win that and we’ll be on track to qualify for 2010.” When you’re in CONCACAF, that shouldn’t be the issue because U.S. qualification is automatic.
The issue should be analyzing how you are playing against the caliber of teams that are World Cup-bound and getting your teams up for playing hard and intensely in those matches. When are these guys going to hold themselves accountable and examine the “how” they play the game and not just rest on the line, “don’t worry, we’ll qualify.” Not only did the U.S. not show up to play hard and work yesterday, but Bradley treated it as an experiment — let’s give Wynne his first qualifying start, let’s play Beasley out of position in defense. Let’s thaw out Mastroeni from the ice chamber and let him start. You don’t pick a World Cup environment in Costa Rica to perform this experiment, are you kidding me? Too many on this team are too soft, too young, intimidated on the road and doesn’t get what it means to play in World Cup matches. They think they are entitled to the berth. No one put in defensive challenges or went to ground to put in a tackle. Instead, they’ll probably sit back and complain to anyone listening that the turf was too hard.
Look at all 3 goals, which could have been disrupted if anyone had the heart will and physical mindset to challenge the Costa Rican dribblers. Beasley gets caught too high up field on the first goal. Wynne gets spun around and Onyewu is caught too far up the field on the second goal. Bradley defends flat-footed and lets the forward, whose back was turned to Bradley while dribbling away from the goal intially, circle him on the dribble for the third goal without even trying to chase him down, while Bocanegra stands there and lets him get off the shot without stepping up to challenge, put a foot or a tackle in before the shot. If Bradley was tired in the 70th minute and couldn’t be bothered to run while trying to defend in a 1-v-1 situation, then that’s on him for not being conditioned well enough to play at this level. Sub him out before you make observers wonder whether there is a Little League-type of nepotism happening within the ranks.
Games are dictated by a team’s midfield and Bradley/Mastroeni couldn’t have been softer and couldn’t hold the ball to save themselves. They were scared to put in challenges and lost the ball far too easily each time they were pressed. If it takes a 2nd half yellow card to get Bradley out of the lineup, then so be it.
If you haven’t taken notice of the signs that this team may not be internationally ready for the big stage, remind yourself that in the World Cup qualifying process over the last 8-9 months that they lost to Trinidad & Tobago, gave up a first-half goal at home to Cuba, gave up 2 goals to El Salvador and lost that match apart from the fact that El Salvador’s approach in managing a lead was so feeble, born out of the fact that El Sal is not used to winning matches, and here they give up 2nd- and 13th-minute goals to Costa Rica, which won’t even be a factor in the World Cup once it qualifies. Again, it should be about the how you play and not all about the result vs. CONCACAF weaklings. This team smacks of a lack of experience, leadership and knowing the heart and work ethic and desperately needs veteran direction. With the likes of McBride, Keller and Friedel internationally retired, it’s going to be very tough for Bradley to find enough veterans that he can put on a squad in the next year who can still play at this level and be around to influence the team. I suppose he was thinking about that veteran leadership question when he recalled Mastroeni, but his game is clearly past its international sell-by date.
4) Of course, I’ve always believed that we will continue to search for the answers as to why this team cannot move up a level to compete with the big boys until we bring in better coaches at every level to improve the collective technical skill and the thoughts and approach of how to play the game. I don’t think we can succeed until players out of high school or before can become part of a professional academy and not waste important, productive, formative years playing college soccer because that product just isn’t very good. Also, U.S. Soccer won’t seriously contend internationally until they spend some serious money on a coach and a full system structure of coaches within U.S. Soccer who have played and managed the game at the highest level, both club and country, and knows the mentality and style of play it takes to compete against the top teams. Through all of the coaches U.S. Soccer has gone through, the style and approach to the game has been the same: while defensive organization has been mostly solid, there has never been any semblance of building attack and creating dangerous possession. Possession continues to be lateral or backwards upon feeling the slightest sense of pressure, diagonal balls forward between the midfield and forward channels are still scarce and we are still waiting to develop the types of players that can carry the ball at defenders, take them on and beat them in order to create opportunities. The U.S. never holds a decent presence in attack on the road against a decent opponent, or home or away against competition that is equal or greater to itself. Go back and count the ‘quality’ opportunities to score last night. There weren’t any inside the penalty area. Zero. The PK goal at the end was a gift from a referee who truly felt sorry for a team that had been outclassed, outhustled and looked intimidated and beaten. And yet we’re playing against Costa Rica. As good as the Ticos are at home, their talent does not play in the top 10 leagues in the world.
If you made it through this post, I commend you.
3 Ryan // Jun 4, 2009 at 1:45 PM
The yellow on Bradley was ridiculous and he will be sorely missed on Saturday. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s been in our best player for about 8 months now. While Papa Bradley trots out a different partner every match, Mikey is a constant. He tackles well (with the exception of the one bad tackle he seems to have ever couple of matches), he has a great work rate, he links up well and while he turns the ball over, it’s bound to happen with as much as he seeds of the ball. He’s made great strides since moving to Germany and could be the guy to make a major impact in S. Africa.
4 Costa Rica 3, Yanks 1: No Problem, Yet // Sep 7, 2013 at 6:08 AM
[…] America, and when it comes to winning at home … they pretty much are Brazil. (Check this 2009 entry; same score, and it looked even […]
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