Are we serious with that, United States?
I just finished watching the United States play England in an international friendly and feel compelled to to vent my frustrations. Wow. What a horrible performance. I really wanted to watch the boys pip the Three Lions at home, who were ripe for the picking.
We only get precious few chances to impress the English, our big brother in the footballing world. What a golden opportunity - in the game’s greatest cathedral, in front of 70,000 skeptical English fans, to show how far we’ve advanced. Instead, we come out and look like a bunch of bloody muppets.
(Any excuse I have to run a photo of Stevie G - I’ll take it.)
Lineup: Remember when Beckham moved to MLS and all the U.K. journos were calling it a “pub league?” Ricardo Clark didn’t do a whole lot to dispel that notion. Starting at defensive midfield, the only MLS player in the starting XI repeatedly fouled English players around the penalty area. With Beckham on the field - this tends to be a problem.
It was Clark’s foul on Wes Brown that led to England’s first goal, a John Terry header off a free kick from Becks. This lapse of judgment from Clark was absolutely unforgivable. Not only is Brown a defender, but he was travelling away from the goal when Clark jammed his foot in there. Nothing about Clark’s idiotic play resembled a tackle. As a result, the Americans went into half down 1-0.
Don’t even get me started on Josh Wolff. I understand he was an injury replacement for Landon Donovan, but yeesh! He’s playing striker for us? He doesn’t even have a job!
Execution: I ran out of space in the lineup section to address the most dreadful selection, DaMarcus Beasley. Luckily, his free kicks were so horrible I get to talk about him here. I have never, ever, seen anyone worse at free kicks than Run DMB. His performance today was an absolute disgrace.
I’m a lefty who takes free kicks as well, so maybe I’m hypersensitive, but the fact remains that in close games, set plays can make all the difference. Just throw the ball in there and give your players a chance. On numerous occasions, Beasley failed to get the ball over the head of the first defender. Just dreadful.
Things got much better when Freddy Adu and Eddie Lewis started taking the free kicks (although Adu goofed a couple times as well).
What We Learned: By his absence, we learned how crucial Landon Donovan is to the Americans. Without him on the pitch, the English had nothing to worry about defensively. Wolff and Eddie Johnson failed utterly to hold the ball, make incisive runs, or link up with their midfield. The United States continually turned the ball over in the midfield, preventing any semblance of a rhythm from being established.
Say what you will about Landy-Cakes, and I usually do, but there is no one more important to the American team. It also underlines how thin the Americans are at striker - and therefore how important Jozy Altidore’s development is to our long-term success.
Finally, I think Beasley is d-u-n done. I understand he’s coming back from a knee injury, but he appears to be totally ineffective. It’s time to relegate him to a reserve role and hand the position over to Adu or even Sacha Kljestan, who’s been in form for Chivas USA.
Eddie Lewis, perhaps because he looks like an accountant, is one guy who is continually dismissed by fans, but he also showed his worth today. He also deserves a look at left mid.
So there you have it. I understand that sometimes, in a friendly, it’s more important to look at the players you have than play for the victory. At least that’s what they say. However, it would have been nice to not get embarrassed.
What did everyone else think? Is Hose the only other person who watched this game?
May 28th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Absolutely atrocious outing. Where was Altidore? Why are we trying to use Eddie Johnson and Clint Dempsey together, when they can’t even combine for a tally on the club level? Makes me wish McBride hadn’t retired from the international game.
Someone who deserves a chance up front is Kenny Cooper, of FC Dallas. Big kid who could actually hold the ball and be a force in the air. He was picked up from Man. U. back in 2006, and is currently 2nd in the MLS in goals scored. He likely would have been in a similar position last year if not for the fact that he broke his leg.
Bottom line, there were few bright spots in this subpar performance. The youth development programs of the US are broken, several notches below those elsewhere. We need to develop sporting academies, that function both as K-12 schools and serve as feeder programs into the professional leagues. The current Olympic Development Program is far too political (see Freddy Adu) and does nothing unless players actually try out, which many don’t.
May 28th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
I kinda agree that we need better youth programs, but I’m not totally convinced it would solve the problem. There is a ton of youth soccer being played in the United States. Stands to reason we could come up with 20 world class players out of the millions that are playing select level soccer in the United States. I think the talent just needs to be identified sooner. That, and kids need to view soccer as a legitimate path to fame and glory. Right now if a kid is the fastest/quickest on his team he will be playing soccer until the football coach notices him, at which point he will be a receiver/cornerback.
May 28th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Yeah, I’m thinking that some players weren’t released from their MLS teams for the friendlies - that might explain some of the curious personnel decisions.
Kenny Cooper’s been a juggernaut for sure - good call.
Robbie Rogers is a bit young, but he’s finding the net as well. You can’t tell me Twellman isn’t a better choice than Wolff. Chris Rolfe’s also decent. However, those guys are all reaches.
MLS is requiring teams to meet certain minimums for youth academies, although the results don’t look real promising yet. Sounders have some grandiose plans for how their going to develop their youth system - clinics, camps, and all that.
You’re right though - as of now, it seems the only players in the national team pool went through Bradenton. You can count the exceptions on one hand (Feilhaber for one).
One player, and I’m really hopeful this works out, that might contribute one day is Seattle’s Ellis McLoughlin. He looked outmatched against U-23 competition in Toulon, but he’s only 17 and set to join Hertha Berlin’s youth academy. He’s young but he’s someone who could contribute at striker for the national team someday.
May 28th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I also think MLS needs to do more to promote itself to kids. You know how in Little League, all the teams are the Cubs or the Yankees or the Reds? They don’t do that for soccer.
If MLS proactively approaches the state youth soccer associations and gives them replica jerseys, it’s much more likely for American kids to catch on to the game and keep at it past age 12. That would expand the player pool by, I believe, a substantial margin.
The United States, with the collegiate system, already has a great system for identifying talent. Problem is, by then it’s already too late. Other countries have their players in soccer-intensive academy by age 16. The jury is still out as to whether the MLS youth academies can fill that role, but it doesn’t look good so far. The ROI isn’t there yet.
May 28th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Fig Jam, my references to the youth program are based on the experiences I had. While I went on to play in college, I quit the Olympic Development Program around my junior year of high school, because it was evident that player selections from the district to state level and then state to regional pool were based on little more than name recognition, and very little talent evaluation is done. Club soccer seems to be light years behind AAU when it comes to pushing the talent pool, and with college recruiting being done mostly on a regional level, there are many kids who fall by the wayside. For the most part, unless a kid is very proactive about getting his name out there, the only colleges that will likely recruit him are local. Since college is the largest feeder into MLS, and most college players have little interaction with the National team pool, there are large gaps in the process.
Basically, other countries get the highest level players into their professional programs before they ever toy with college. Combine this with a professional league that has international talent, and the national team pool should hope to steadily improve. My hope is that the MLS development will continue, thus improve our national team
May 28th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I had to listen to the game on BBC Sport while at work (thanks for sucking, ESPN 360!) and the limey announcers were SAVAGING Adu throughout the second half. Was this just standard issue British exaggeration, or was he really stinking it up? They gave the impression he was the worst man on the field.
May 28th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
I wish I knew someone from England so I could ask them about Euro right now.
May 29th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Freddy didn’t do a whole lot on the field, but he wasn’t the worst player by any stretch of the imagination. When he came on, the team had all but given up.
May 31st, 2008 at 1:18 am
I wish I knew more people who don’t care about soccer so I could talk to them about the NBA finals. But every time I bring up Boston vs. LA, they always just seem to spout some random shit about some soccerballerZZZ named Serena and Venus losing in France.