SoccerAmerica - Americans fail to connect 06/13/2010

[USA-ENGLAND] Although it came back from 1-0 down after the fourth minute to tie England, the USA's inability to connect on its passes cost it a chance to beat England ripe for the upset. The Americans had by a significant margin the lowest completion rate on their passes of any team during the first two days of the World Cup.

Steve Cherundolo was the only American to complete as many as 50 passes. Mexico, whose completion rate of 79.68% contrasted with that of 57.98% for the USA, had five players complete 50 or more passes.

COMPLETION RATE
TEAM CP (PCT.)
Mexico 447 (79.68% )
Argentina 446 (74.71%)
England 339 (69.61%)
France 369 (69.49%)
Greece 340 (68.00%)
South Korea 333 (66.73%)
Uruguay 277 (63.82%)
Nigeria 231 (62.94%)
South Africa 209 (62.39%)
USA 218 (57.98%)

U.S. STARTERS
PLAYER CP (PCT.)
Jay DeMERIT 18 (66.67%)
Clint DEMPSEY 33 (66.67%)
Steve CHERUNDOLO 50 (66.00%)
Carlos BOCANEGRA 32 (65.63%)
Landon DONOVAN 49 (61.22%)
Robbie FINDLEY 20 ( 60.00%)
Michael BRADLEY 40 (60.00%)
Oguchi ONYEWU 37 ( 56.76%)
Ricardo CLARK 33 (51.52%)
Jozy ALTIDORE 20 ( 45.00%)
Tim HOWARD 36 (38.89%)

Source: FIFA statistics.

0 comments

Kaoru Forbess

commented on: June 13, 2010 at 4:48 p.m.

Torres for Clark. That's the way to get those numbers closer to a proper balance.

Ric Fonseca

commented on: June 13, 2010 at 5:37 p.m.

I've been saying this for since Torres was selected. But Banal Bob Bardley (BBB)is iether in love with Clark, and wholeheartedly loves Junior or just cannot see the value Torres would bring in. And true the US MNT DOES in fact and deed fails to connect, something I see other teams do with regularity, but the US, well ho-hum, what else is new? Findley may have speed, but I keep saying he still needs more time on the vine before the bigger times ahead of him... speed, but zilch on finishing.

Scott O'connor

commented on: June 13, 2010 at 6:22 p.m.

Pathetic that a central midfielder would be the 3rd lowest percentage on the team. Guarantee you though Bob doesn't get these stats or wouldn't understand them if he did. Clark's his man and that's that. Torres will get some useless minutes against Algeria when we've already been eliminated by Slovenia. At least Bob might get fired if the team doesn't get out of this weak group - that's the only silver lining.

Joseph Krantz

commented on: June 13, 2010 at 8:09 p.m.

Maybe he can bring Torres in for the final eight seconds as he tried to do with Gomez.

Walt Pericciuoli

commented on: June 13, 2010 at 8:20 p.m.

Torres,Torres Torres, if we want to improve our possesion(pass connect)He is the only player that can be added that will influence that stat. If we are serious about winning, we'll need to score. Recently, only Buddle and Gomez have shown they can be added to take up that slack. Its' not rocket science.

Lloyd Elling

commented on: June 14, 2010 at 1:02 a.m.

JOSE TORRES>>>>JOSE TORRES>>>>>JOSE TORRES. Let's see Buddle and Gomez up front.

karl ortmertl

commented on: June 14, 2010 at 9:52 a.m.

Most people badly overrate England, as did Bradley. His self-defeating use of his son and Clark to stack the defense against an overrated British offense led to these woeful statistics. If we didn't have some truly gifted offensive players to put in the middle of the pitch, I could see taking Bradley's stance. But, as it is, his lack of confidence in using the weapons at his disposal is very disheartening. A bad coach can kill you and that's what I'm afraid we're stuck with here. Donovan and Torres in the middle, Clark and the coach's son on the sideline is what's need here.

James Froehlich

commented on: June 15, 2010 at 11:23 p.m.

I love the song that everyone is singing because Torres has been my man since the T&T game. My concern is that BBB has set him up to fail. Torre is the type of player that IMO needs to mesh with the team and BBB has made sure that his playing time has been very intermittent. If he puts him in to start, Torres better be brilliant or he'll be out at half time just like the T&T game. Also I definitely agree that England has been over-hyped. I loved Beckenbauer's comment on the SA home page. Dead on as far as I'm concerned. I predict that England loses their first game out of the KO round.

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