Commentary
Ireland-USA Player Ratings
- by Mike Woitalla @MikeWoitalla, Nov 18, 2014
By Mike Woitalla
(@MikeWoitalla)
The USA's winless streak extended to four games with a 4-1 loss to
Ireland in Dublin on Tuesday -- matching its biggest defeat of the Jurgen Klinsmann era, a 4-1 loss to Brazil in 2012.
Starters:
RATING PLAYER (TEAM) GP/G
5 Bill Hamid (D.C. United) 2/0
A bad day for the 23-year-old to pick up his second cap, he did have an excellent save off Daryl
Murphy’s close-range effort and sent a pinpoint pass to Bobby Woods for the USA’s best second-half scoring chance. Beaten four times on tough shots.
3 Fabian Johnson
(Borussia M'Gladbach/GER) 29/1
Right back gave up the ball under pressure to set the plate for Ireland’s go-ahead goal.
4 Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City)
23/0
He intercepted a number of dangerous balls across the middle but lost Anthony Pilkington on the first goal.
2 Geoff Cameron (Stoke City/ENG) 31/1
Stumbled around the ball to allow Murphy’s close-range shot in the 27th minute. Whiffed at the cross-field pass leading to the 3-1, a shot that deflected off him. Committed a foul for the free
kick that gave Ireland its fourth goal.
4 Timmy Chandler (Eintracht Frankfurt/GER) 17/0
The left back won a couple corners when he attacked, but Ireland ruled the wings
on both sides.
6 Alejandro Bedoya (Nantes/FRA) 37/2.
The best U.S. player. Set up three promising attacks down the right wing during the only period when the USA
established some rhythm -- for about 15 minutes in the middle of the first half. Delivered a back-heel pass that sent Johnson on a promising run down the flank in the in the second half. The closest
thing to a U.S. playmaker.
3 Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake) 42/1
Gave up the ball too often with bad passes and mis-traps, and lost a 50-50 battle in midfield that
Ireland exploited on its first goal.
5 Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg/NOR) 25/5
Scored a nice goal after creating the sequence by forcing a bad pass from David Meyler -- but
did little else.
3 Alfredo Morales (FC Ingolstadt/GER) 6/0
Intercepted Meyler’s pass and sent a ball into the penalty area that eventually led to
Diskerud’s goal, but besides drawing a foul and winning a corner kick, lacked initiative on the left flank.
4 Jozy Altidore (Sunderland/ENG) 75/25
Delivered a nice
chip for Wondolowski to set up Diskerud’s stab into the net and hit the crossbar with his only shot, but posed no other danger for the Irish. Capped his evening with a yellow card for a
cheap-shot foul.
4 Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes) 25/9
A fine assist during an otherwise quiet performance. Replaced at halftime by Bobby Wood.
Substitutes:
RATING PLAYER (TEAM) GP/G
4 Bobby Wood (1860 Munich/GER) 5/0
As against Colombia on Friday, blazed
through the middle for a one-on-one only to be denied by the keeper’s fingertips.
4 Greg Garza (Tijuana/MEX) 5/0
Had a prime chance to score during his 25-minute
appearance but couldn’t strike it out of keeper Shay Given’s reach.
nr Jordan Morris (Stanford Univ.) 1/0
The collegian's debut started with 14 minutes left
and he set up a shot for Garza.
nr Rubio Rubin (FC Utrecht/NED) 2/0
Hardly saw the ball after arriving the 77th minute.
nr Tim Ream (Bolton/ENG)
11/0
Entered in the 87th minute.
(1=low; 5=average; 10=high)
We should be ranking the coach
I'll give him the "deer in headlight" ranking then...........
Glad you gave GC 2 ... @ fault in some fashion on all 4 goals ... would give Fabian 2 as well
Kevin Sims you are spot on. Cameron just doesn't fit. I really belived that Besler screwed up on the first allowed goal because he was ready to go cover for Cameron's inevitable failure. Fabian is not a back - he loves to do the fun part of soccer, going forward, but hates to do the work part, running back and actually defending. This entire USMNT scheme is really disappointing.
Wow,
That was poor all around!!
So what are the excuses now - there are none - Except Landon D for the new US NT Coach.
MRSCR!
Poor team play, poor TV commentary, and TV camera coverage at its worst; close-up, of heads, backs, ground play, no visible perception of team shape, open lanes...this sport is becoming a televised Ping-Pong table.
US players are simply awful at first place. The center forward can't even get playing time at Sunderland! And the guy who wears #10 plays in Norway. So there is no point to get mad at the coach. The two best players in US Dempsey and Bradley couldn't get regular minutes at Spurs and Roma respectively. It's the reality of US soccer. If you have players with such limited quality, don't expect great results regardless who coaches the team
The only player that played decent was bedoya, moreover we need to start looking for more technical and tactical players versus sped and physicality. How many more losses do we need to understand this? There is a reason why 7 out 9 World Cup winners happen to be from Latin based countries. Why do we get English or German coaching staffs? Does anyone even know that the EPL has never even had a English coach win the premier league, yet this country only hires these coaches as scout?
One point upon which no one ever talks about. When taking the field, players need to give 100% for the 90'. That goes with the good, the bad, or ugly. Playing in spurts is not good enough. If we had coach Ks passion, desire, and efficacy on the pitch, no one would be crying the blues. Try finding such players.
That is it,JK has to go,this man show ones again that,as an strategist he is 0.I don't accept that a player like Tim Ream be sent into the game on the 77 minute.There are better players than those idiots that he uses all the time.The problem with this man is that he doesn't watch MLS games,other wise he could brought to the squad players like O.Alonso,of the Sounders.He is an American citizen,and a great player that could have done good in Brazil,but JK is so narrow minded.
There is nothing new or better that this man has brought to this country in terms of good Football.In fact,we have slipped back farther than we were before.I use to see better US teams 20 yrs ago,than these ugly inept performers we have today.Just look at that one with the stupid hair,Beckerman,the one with the antennas in the back of his head,this guy is so bad,that is an embarrassment to watch.Once in a blue moon he makes a good pass.All the others are just as bad.My God,how I miss players like McBride,Mathews,Donovan,Reina,and with better coaches this guys performed much better than this guys of today.
I agree with you,Didi P,but how do you explain that in the past we were able to find better players than this poor representatives of today?.Obviously,jk doesn't look around for better material.He sure could do better looking here than having the trouble to look for guys in Germany.Just because their father or mother are Americans living in that country does not guarantee that they would become good footballers.To begin with,this parents didn't have football in their genes,(maybe the American version),and that is very important.So to have the trouble to bring this guys from abroad does not make good common sense,any body can see better talent here than these mediocre players he has brought.Enough is enough, these coach has really made mistake after mistake,and things are getting worse.So please Mr Gulati,do not extend this man's contract,let him go tomorrow. He is doing more harm to World Football in America than good.
Why the outrage towards Klins for how bad players were?? Is Klins supposed to develop senior players in 1-2 years to be much better?? So everybody here is fine with scouting and development system in plaace??
Bill Jones, everyday I'm more and more convinced that you are here just trolling... The silver-linings of this spanking is that for the first time since the outrageous decision of USSoccer of extending JK contract I can actually have some hope this travesty of a coach can be sacked and his days as our coach could be soon a horrible memory.
Bill, yes, why ranting against the coach, he is such a genius that he achieved a dignifying defeat, with these players Bradley or Arena would have gotten a 1-10 spanking against Ireland....Right? What a joke klinsbun supporters are.
The US Soccer needs to determine what they really want. Do want to just qualify or do you want to be world champions? If we want to continue to just qualify then we should just continue to follow the same road map. But if our desire to be world champions then we need RADICAL CHANGE!! We need a soccer REVOLUTION!!!! We need a 21st century master plan. We need 300,000 futsal courts in our inner cities and another 300,000 futsal courts in our suburbs. So kids starting at the age of 5 can play for 3 to 5 hours a day, with no cost, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and no adult interference. The pay to play model is good for teaching kids team work, fight youth obsiety, or to learn how to socialize. But this model will never develop magical, talented, world class players. We need to created and sandlot/playground environment. FUTSAL can be our verison of streetball. We need to embrace futsal to help develop our outdoor game otherwise we just be qualifiers but never world champions. JK, Bradley, Arena, or my mother are not the solution. Bottom line you can't make chicken soup with chicken s#$%. Coaches don't win championships. Talented, magical, creatitive players win championships. REVOLUTION = FUTSAL!!!!
Mike, great. Thx for that. My point is that our overall system is what needs a complete rehaul. Everybody getting fired. This is why you dont resign a coach before 1st world cup. Hwo come no one saids anything about firing that guy?? I am not a Klins supporter but I refuse to be as dumb as to blame him for all of the Senior's team's short comings. That just makes no sense. Afterall, he is giving new guys an opportunity and they are from MLS. to me those German born players have never been that good as to not give other (closer) guys a chance. I will never understand why we dont hire anyone south of the border and why we look so much to Europe for answers we have never found.
Other than perhaps Bedoya, a week of training/playing with the US MNT puts all the US players in Europe more firmly on the benches of their European club teams.
Interesting Comments by some. How about rating the USMNT players on :Technical abilty, speed, and vision. Compare the ratings to other world cup players on other teams. What do you think ? Face it lads our players lack the quality to play at the level we long to see.
I can't even get pissed off anymore. I just feel depressed watching USMNT. From a spectator point of view, there are too many players in the mix. The kid from Stanford was the 50th guy to play this year. The play was completely disjointed. Players rarely seemed to know what to expect from their teammates positionally, and that inevitably leads to turnovers in a game that has little margin for error when moving the ball quickly. "Growing pains" ? Ok, but it makes for a very dull and uninteresting viewing experience.
Is it just me or is anyone else confused about why we continue to play Chandler on the left when he's right footed and always plays on the right in the Bundesliga while Johnson is 2 footed and usually played on the left last year for his club team? It's a small point but may help to explain a bit of the 'fish out of water' look from our fullbacks. Centerbacks are another situation entirely. Can't remember when ours looked as bad as yesterday. Just hope it was a bad day and Brooks develops quickly.
I know I will be stepping on Toes now but really, does anyone think the National Team plays with heart?? There is not a bit of communication on the field you can see that before the game even starts, i.e. National Anthem! JK you need to get rid of the so called (one time) old reliable they are done. What really get's me, look at the crappy hair he is sporting (Beckerman) this is sickening to me, I do understand that has nothing to do with his playing, look at Altidore, but he has given a great chip shot for somebody else. This guy is lazy if he can't get the ball where he wants it - that's it. Way to many "ego players" We missed M. Bradley all day long. Don't tell me anything about Jones he is one of the dirtiest player on the team. Germany didn't want him just for that reason but we take him. Juergen, come and look at our Youth Players you find lot's of pearls there. Last, I've got to make a comment about Ian, Twellmann's side kick. My gosh this guy gives me headaches half of the time he has no idea what he is talking about but he is from the UK and that makes him so good?