Off the Ball

By Nicholas Irwin

May 23, 2006 10:00 PM | Link to this

While I’m a little dissapointed by the result (I know it’s a friendly, but come on…we’re not supposed to lose to Morrocco), I didn’t really think we played all that poorly. We’ll obviously need to play better in the World Cup, but considering this is the first qualifier, I thought we looked alright.

First of all, if this weren’t a qualifier, Arena wouldn’t have left Cherundolo in central defense and we probably wouldn’t have given up that goal. We looked pretty dangerous in the second half, though, and looked pretty good defensively until the aforementioned substitution. One thing though: Somebody needs to tell Donovan he’s not Claudio Reyna and remind him that we do need him to score occasionally. He passed up a clear shot midway through the second half in order to attempt an extremely hopeful pass. And this seemed to be a general problem for us, especially in the first half. We were moving the ball around nicely, save for the first 10 minutes, which were pretty much terrible. However, we seemed to be in too much of a hurry at times, and numerous times we had a guy who could’ve taken a shot attempt a pass trying to get somebody the “perfect shot.” If somebody’s wide open streaking to the goal, that’s one thing, but otherwise shooting would be a good thing.

By Nicholas Irwin

May 23, 2006 10:01 PM | Link to this

I meant if this weren’t a friendly BTW, not a qualifier.

By Nicholas Irwin

May 24, 2006 3:54 PM | Link to this

Sorry for the three posts in a row, but this one is a day later.

Anyway, looking at varying message boards and so forth, people are flat-out losing their minds over this. I mean, we didn’t play World Cup-caliber soccer, but given that wasn’t the point of this exercise, all the hand-wringing is a little absurd. But apparently, from what I’m told, Arena needs to be fired before the World Cup, Keller needs to be benched in favor of Howard (I read this an hour and a half ago and am still recovering from it), and it is guaranteed that we will finish last in the tournament without scoring a goal. People seem to be forgetting that friendlies mean precisely squat in the big scheme of things.

The degree to which we pay attention to exhibition games is absurd. If a team has a bad spring training in baseball, everyone claims they’re doomed. Same (or even moreso, in fact) with the preseason in football. And of course when a soccer team looks bad in a friendly, that team’s fans go catatonic. Germany gets killed by Italy in a friendly and the entire country is thrown into upheaval and then they kill us in the next one and everything’s OK. The entire team’s fortunes are changed because of the outcome of an exhibition game?

How many friendlies did we look good in last year, folks? I don’t remember any. Yet whenever it came time to actually play in a qualifier, we always looked pretty good, didn’t we? I’m not saying that there won’t be stiffer competition in the World Cup, but geez…getting a grip might be in order here.

By Chris

May 25, 2006 8:29 AM | Link to this

I have the same opinion of US Soccer that I had before the most recent exhibition. As of yet we do not have the ability to produce players that have the capcity to execute at a world class level when it comes to scoring goals. We were eliminated from the last World Cup because of this and we will be eliminated from this years for the same reason. The effort is very nice and it is good that we can get to the opposing teams penalty box and show class up to that point but then we do not as a soccer nation possess the skill to get “the biscuit in the basket” at the international level.

The European based players showed a higher level of skill and at this point if we send a striker over to Europe at an early enough age maybe he will develop a selfish killer instict with a creative flair that is needed to score goals at the highest level. Brian McBride is the best we have produced and he can score but he can’t create on his own.

After this World Cup it will be time to thank Bruce Arena for his efforts and tell him it is time to go over to Europe and see if he can succeed at a high club level. We will need to bring in a coach and mentality that can start to take us to the next level. I would recommend before the World Cup taking Claudio Reyna and sitting him on the bench next to Bruce Arena and letting him join the coaching staff. Any player that pulls a hammy while running is a little bit to much of a liability. Claudio is one of the greatest players we have ever produced and the doors he has opened for other US players in Europe has been wonderful but I think at this point keeping him on squad and trying to have him be a catalyst with his inability to stay healthy is a liability. Let one of the younger guys step up and take a lead role.

By BassHound

May 25, 2006 11:15 AM | Link to this

As a working member of the media at the Nashville game, I had the chance to sit in on Bruce Arena’s post game press conference… He brought up a few important reminders as to why we shouldn’t all consider jumping ship just yet. He said that for this game, his team was overtrained. Obviously, the 1st week or so in Cary was heavy in conditioning, he also said (over and over again) that his squad was preparing for Mid June, not late May. The substitution pattern was completely premeditated (except Reyna) and so while they were trying to win the game late, Bruce wasnt going to divert from his original sub pattern just to try and win a friendly. For playing completely out of position Gibbs didnt look bad, Cherundolo did. Onyewu and Pope appear to be a solid answer in the central defense. Reyna’s MRI was negative which is very good news, without him Landon isn’t the same player and neither are the rest of our attack minded guys. Outside back is the only position of concern but its a huge concern, rumor is Eddie Lewis is next to try it, but I’m not sure about his speed (Can anyone comment on it?)

also side note. You guys got on some of our American broadcasters pretty hard on one of the last blogs. Truth be told some aren’t great, and some are. Yes, JP Dellacamera is great, but I think Rob Stone is pretty good too. Don’t discout someone just because they were born in the US before 1994. Stone played soccer in college (I believe d1) and from all records was a pretty good player. so he knows the game. now to the point. I think the problem with American broadcasts, is the lack of interest of people behind the scenes. part of ESPNs crew was on the sideline joking about Ronaldini, and they didnt even know how mnay people play soccer at once. I’m not asking that these people know where Bobby Convey played his club ball… but at least know what a midfielder is.

By Michael

May 25, 2006 1:41 PM | Link to this

Some of the camera operators on every channel that has ever carried soccer don’t understand the fact that most of the time we DON’T want close-ups. Closing in on just one guy and the defender near him is showing about 2% of the game. UGA’s football team does this on their in-house videos that you see on the coach’s show. What good does it see to see DJ Shockley’s ear wax and nothing else? Ah, if only they could teach these people things like this!

By Henry

May 26, 2006 7:53 AM | Link to this

Scheduling three games in a week, World Cup Style, was a great decision by Bruce Arena. Better now to blow it than in Germany. Our boys are still playing MLS style soccer. As a youth coach I tried to teach the kid not to wait for the ball and move into spaces, they found that very hard to acomplish, this must be an American habit. Most of our WCT players did this in the game against Morroco. Well just about every American style sport is that way, waiting for the ball and than act. Baseball comes to mind. What we need is professional coaching in the MLS. People that can develop players, like ADU when they are 16 not after they have adopted the pathetic habits exhibited in the college games. Excemple with the Washington team, who’s coach was probably the most passitic coach in the MLS. What a great chance was missed with the development of Adu. Adu go to Europe and learn quickely International soccer, no one in the US will do that for you here. No international goal scorers or solid defenders on the WCT are our main weeknesses. But than the teams we are playing in the Cup have the same problem. I hope we get lucky. Lets see what will develop today and Sunday when the boys should be in World Cup mode.

By Chris

May 26, 2006 9:22 AM | Link to this

Henry,

Thank you for that insight. I concur. When I first saw world class soccer I was impressed with how the ball was sent into space allowing players to run onto the ball. Something I was taught an an early age in sports is that the ball can move faster than the player and it is beneficial to use that to your advantage. Putting the theory into practice of course can be the hard part. The European players on the national team appear to want to send the ball into space and the domestic based players weren’t on the same page on occasion. O’Brian sent a nice ball into Landon (I don’t want to leave California) Donovan over the top that should have created an easy goal and he didn’t make the break early enough to finish.