A United Effort

For the average American sports fan, the effort given by the US Men’s National Team had to be satisfying.  It was a typical display of good ole American grit; pull together, dig down, and battle to the end.  A great effort!

For me, someone looking with a more discernible eye, I relished at the thought of how this team, built and orchestrated by a foreign-thinking coach and ex-world cup star, would fair against the likes of Portugal, Germany, and Ghana, with their superior talent and athleticism. 

I'd say we did well. We certainly didn't embarrass ourselves.  We gave ourselves a chance to win each game, although we were outplayed tactically and technically in 2 out of 3 matches.   Which begs the question: “How far have we really come as an international soccer playing country since the last world cup?” If I'm not mistaken, we got this far in the last world cup, and prior to that an American coach took us even further!  It makes one wonder.

From a position standpoint, anyone watching the Germany match can easily see we have one of the best goalkeepers in the world.  But remember, we always have.  Keller, Friedel, Meola just to name a few.  So, in terms of quality, that position hasn't changed all that much. 

The back line still leaves something to be desired, for sure.  We had to convert a former midfielder, Beasley to take the left back position, which he did admirably for someone with not very much experience in that role.  I must say, I believe Fabian Johnson is a real find.  He’s very athletic, a good defender, and a real threat going forward.

But, as in years past, it was the strong athletic defenders along with the goalkeepers who kept us in games in similar matches. So, again, this really hasn't been much of a change.

Our central defenders still need to show much more consistency in understanding some basic defensive skills such as 1v1 marking, positioning in the box, and passing choices in starting the attack once we win the ball.  I thought that Yedlin played extremely well.  He is a young, gifted, athletic soccer player with a bright future.  I would be very surprised if by next year, he isn't playing somewhere other than the MLS.  The Premier league or the Bundesliga perhaps? (ed. note: Charlie originally drafted this post on the evening of July 5^th.  The morning of the 6^th it was reported in US media that Yedlin may be headed to Italian powerhouse AS Roma.  How's that for a prediction?)

As far as the midfield positions go, I have to applaud the workhorse performance of Jermaine Jones throughout the cup.  To be honest, I had my doubts about him.  Guess he was saving his best for the big stage.  Other than Jones, I think we were very average along this line, and this is probably where it all fell apart.  We worked back and fought hard defensively, but once again, once we won the ball, there was very little creativity in our buildup and passing choices once we entered the attacking third.  This is where our buildup of attack typically broke down and the result was usually a controlled possessive buildup by our opponents which forced our attacking players to chase all the way back into our defensive third again, thus killing any attacking momentum we may have had and making our next buildup that much more difficult.

So, obviously, we still need the creative midfielder type who is comfortable on the ball, can run forever, distribute well and threaten the goal on occasion.  Think a young Italian named Andrea Pirlo.  We need one! (I have to add that Bradley gave his all in an unnatural position.  He is so much better at the holding midfield role and planning his runs forward into the attacking third.)

As far as strikers go, I'm at a loss to think that after at least 20-30 years of saying we need to produce real finishers, we still don't have one.  We have one who can hold the ball, we have one that can usually finish the poacher-type goal, we may have one that can beat people 1v1 on occasion, but I just don't see a complete attacking forward; One who can hold up play in the attacking 3rd, unbalance defenses with incredible 1v1 skill, and finish on goal both short and long or in the air.

Once again, this makes me question where our focus should be on teaching our youth.  We're all getting pretty good at organizing defenses to stay close in every game (same as our World Cup team did), but maybe we need to continue to encourage the little ones who just want to be the hero and score goals!!  Be the Messi, the Neymars of the world.  Lord knows, we need them at the next level!