USA-T&T Takeaways: Playing same team as on Friday was horribly wrong decision
- by Ridge Mahoney @ridgemax, Oct 11, 2017
1. “We
failed on the day. We have no excuses.”
So spoke head coach Bruce Arena in his postgame press conference. He spoke of himself as much as his players and staff, for
he was hired 11 months ago to take over a Hexagonal campaign that had started off with two defeats for the first time and accrue enough points to get the Americans to a World Cup for the eighth
straight time.
The failures on this day were many, starting with an overall listless performance and punctuated by errors such as the sliced clearance by Omar Gonzalez that looped
over keeper Tim Howard’s head for the first goal. The second goal, a knuckling strike from distance by Alvin Jones, exploited a lack of pressure by midfielder Darlington
Nagbe on the ball, which was a constant problem throughout the match.
The attacking tridente of Bobby Wood, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic that had
looked so dynamic and dominant on Friday sputtered throughout the game, with Wood especially quiet. They were unable to build on a great strike by Pulisic early into the second half that cut the 2-0
halftime margin in half, with only a couple of shots -- the shot by substitute Clint Dempsey off the base of the post and Wood's short-range header in the 88th minute -- forcing T&T keeper
Adrian Foncette to scramble.
With a 2-0 lead and a rather young team on the field selected by head coach Dennis Lawrence, T&T found a belief that a stunning upset was
possible and played confidently. The Americans had started sluggishly and for only brief periods came anywhere close to matching the intensity of their opponents, another element in which the
Americans often fell short during the Hexagonal.
2. Same XI looked and played tired.
Rather than invoke
extensive changes to his starting XI playing a second game on short rest, which he had done throughout the Hexagonal, Arena went with the same starters who had rolled over Panama, 4-0, on Friday, but
got very little reward for his loyalty.
All the intensity and sharpness so prominent on Friday had apparently dissipated. If this was due to the draining effects of playing a second game
in warm, humid conditions much like those in the first game, Arena and the medical staff failed badly. Lethargic going forward and sluggish in transition, the Americans were a step off the pace from
the kickoff and looked absolutely ponderous once T&T had taken the lead.
For the past several years the national team has been monitored and tested during training sessions to measure
their range of motion, recovery rates, and other metrics that the coaches use when they decide on their squad selection. By whatever methods, Arena sent 11 players onto the field in Couva who looked
physically slow and mentally dull. If he and his coaches thought this was the best XI to put on the field, they were horribly wrong.
After the destruction of Panama came praise from the
players about how well they were prepared physically and tactically and how sharp they were emotionally. Really, none of them looked ready for battle on Tuesday and regardless of where teams stand in
the Hexagonal table, playing any one of them on the road is usually a tough task.
3. So what happens now?
Without a World Cup to prepare for, and U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati facing his first election challenge in February, does it make sense for Arena to stay on and conduct the annual
January training camp?
There will be games to play in 2018 on the FIFA dates for friendlies and with a lot of younger players ready to break into the senior team, the program must go
forward in some fashion.
There are veteran players either side of 30 who will eventually drop out of the pool rather than face a five-year slog for the next World Cup and given that the
U.S. failure to qualify for the last two Olympics has apparently affected the senior team as well, a natural course of action would be to promote Tab Ramos from U-20 head coach to Olympic coach
and concentrate on that group of players. (The 2020 Olympic Games will be hosted by Tokyo.)
Gulati or his successor will eventually have to decide on a course of action regarding the
national team, which for the first time in nearly three decades will be in a World Cup cycle without a World Cup. It’s a severe blow to younger players such as Pulisic and Kellyn Acosta
to be deprived of a World Cup, yet it’s a staggering shock as well to veterans like Matt Besler, Omar Gonzalez, Michael Bradley, and others in the 28-30 age group
that probably won’t get another chance.
They and the game in this country will go on. But the unthinkable has happened and the inquests will, and should be, extreme.
Playig the same 11 players is not wrong. Teams all over the world play the same 11 over and over and over again. It all came down to attitude. It doesn't matter if people say the right things. what matters is to approach things with the right attitude. US players and coach kept saying they would not take T&T lightly but actually, they underestimated them. They approached the game with cockiness and snobbishness that by just walking onto the field, they would prevail. That they have a devine right to be in the World Cup finals. Guess what, Destiny punishes those snobs very hard. Many stars of the USMNT think getting paid millions of dollars, in MLS or somewhere else, makes them better than the hard working and less paid players of this region. Cockiness at its best.
Agreed - the problem wasn't playing the same XI, it was that most of the XI didn't perform on the night. Against a poor side with nothing to play for too. And all they needed was a draw to qualify.
The USA lost because it underperformed in its quest to imitate a suffering international brand of soccer. The US lost by having an off day playing sub-par, low-grade kickball ... no fluidity or imagination ... and willing to settle for a tired, staccato brand that dominates the global soccer scene, that aims at methodical mediocrity.
Until the US stands up and boldly commits to a fresh new approach of inspired, weaving, predominantly one-touch, total, true, pure soccer — a paradigm-buster that all the great teams in ball-control team sports strive for and are consumed with, as a priority — then the best that we Yanks can hope for is more drubbings and displays of inconsistent, chop-chop, second-rate kickball, like we saw at T&T, where even if we managed a draw, we would have, at best, been on the fast-track to a mediocre nowhere. Yes — yesterday may have been a painful blessing in disguise.
We’re better than that. When we take the bull by the horns and find our own brand and way forward in a foreign sport, instead of copying someone’s dreary residue and interpretation, we do brilliantly and find our way to the front of the class. Exhibit 1: ice hockey ... or better yet, women’s soccer. We need to dare to be great, and not settle for fitting in, in order to be good enough. That’s the American way!
Ray, Thank youvfor your spot on analysis.
i've seen better creative, one touch play at the club and college level in the United States. Hopefully, we'll find our style and it will be vastly better than what we saw last night.
Ray, Thank youvfor your spot on analysis.
i've seen better creative, one touch play at the club and college level in the United States. Hopefully, we'll find our style and it will be vastly better than what we saw last night.
Ray, Thank youvfor your spot on analysis.
i've seen better creative, one touch play at the club and college level in the United States. Hopefully, we'll find our style and it will be vastly better than what we saw last night.
The USA lost because it underperformed in its quest to imitate a suffering international brand of soccer. The US lost by having an off day playing sub-par, low-grade kickball ... no fluidity or imagination ... and willing to settle for a tired, staccato brand that dominates the global soccer scene, that aims at methodical mediocrity.
Until the US stands up and boldly commits to a fresh new approach of inspired, weaving, predominantly one-touch, total, true, pure soccer — a paradigm-buster that all the great teams in ball-control team sports strive for and are consumed with, as a priority — then the best that we Yanks can hope for is more drubbings and displays of inconsistent, chop-chop, second-rate kickball, like we saw at T&T, where even if we managed a draw, we would have, at best, been on the fast-track to a mediocre nowhere. Yes — yesterday may have been a painful blessing in disguise.
We’re better than that. When we take the bull by the horns and find our own brand and way forward in a foreign sport, instead of copying someone’s dreary residue and interpretation, we do brilliantly and find our way to the front of the class. Exhibit 1: ice hockey ... or better yet, women’s soccer. We need to dare to be great, and not settle for fitting in, in order to be good enough. That’s the American way!
The USA lost because it underperformed in its quest to imitate a suffering international brand of soccer. The US lost by having an off day playing sub-par, low-grade kickball ... no fluidity or imagination ... and willing to settle for a tired, staccato brand that dominates the global soccer scene, that aims at methodical mediocrity.
Until the US stands up and boldly commits to a fresh new approach of inspired, weaving, predominantly one-touch, total, true, pure soccer — a paradigm-buster that all the great teams in ball-control team sports strive for and are consumed with, as a priority — then the best that we Yanks can hope for is more drubbings and displays of inconsistent, chop-chop, second-rate kickball, like we saw at T&T, where even if we managed a draw, we would have, at best, been on the fast-track to a mediocre nowhere. Yes — yesterday may have been a painful blessing in disguise.
We’re better than that. When we take the bull by the horns and find our own brand and way forward in a foreign sport, instead of copying someone’s dreary residue and interpretation, we do brilliantly and find our way to the front of the class. Exhibit 1: ice hockey ... or better yet, women’s soccer. We need to dare to be great, and not settle for fitting in, in order to be good enough. That’s the American way!
(Sorry for the annoying three-peat posting ... I can’t figure hour how to delete the redundant ones).
Criticizing the playing of the same 11 players in both matches smacks of monday morning quarterbacking, unless you think the US has 22 players of equal ability. I think the opposite; it is gutsy not to play the same 11. Theoretically, you play your best 11 players in your WC qualifying matches. We clearly did so against Panama, and it worked like a charm. Had Arena chosen a different starting 11 against T&T and we lost, he would have been accused of taking T&T lightly.
The basic problem here is who should be on the field when playing two matches four days apart. It's one thing for youth players to play matches even on successive days, with unlimited substitution. At the international level and in the elite national leagues, coaches have enough depth to field different lineups, e.g. EPL and Champions League matches. One could always critique Arena's choices against T&T, player by player. The bottom line is that the USMNT has a significant lack of depth, so shallow that some of the players knew they were only along for the ride.
Arena's selection of mostly MLS players, with whom he is most familiar, is another matter. All you have to do is watch an MLS match in close succession with an EPL or Bundesliga match to see that MLS lacks the pace and quality of play of the other leagues. That's also why MLS is so populated by foreign stars well past their prime. How can you expect a regular MLS player to play with pace and technique at the international level, as if by magic?
To fire Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley years ago only to bring them back is definition of insanity. Do the same thing over and over expecting different results???
The entire US Soccer Federation needs an overhaul Period. Starting at the top with Gulati. The only 2 player worth keeping are Pulisic and Wood. Everyone else needs to be replaced. We have 3 years to get it done in order to qualify for the next World Cup.
How can we not find 22 young guys to kick a ball in a nation of over 300 million?
How many coaches facing a last place T&T with everything riding on the game would not have gone conservative and stayed with the seasoned players? We don't want any mistakes giving the game away, right? As many have noted during this campaign the team has many cracks and we have to fault the coaching for not doing a better job illiminating them. Sometimes in sport you are unlucky and once in a while you are really unlucky. Of course we set ourselves up to be really unlucky and the worst came true.
I've watched every USMNT game over the past 2 years. There is only one problem which lead to this failure to qualify. It is not talent. It is not coaching. It is not tactics. It is the lack of desire, effort and work during the game.
I thought Bruce had solved this problem because it improved markedly after he took over. However, down the stretch, I saw the same lackluster performance creeping back in. The #1 culprit, Michael Bradley. How can you be the Captain and play like a 3rd CB who plays nothing but safe passes, usually backwards passes to the goalie? How can you be the Captain, down 1-0, then 2-0 against Trinidad, but continue to trot around the field as if there is zero urgency? How can you be the Captain and have the ball 40 yds out from goal but decide it's better to pass the ball 20 yds backwards rather than move forward and attack?
Completely agree with the analysis of Bradley - he looked confused and unable to make a decsision. Bizarre actually, and allowed T&T to get everyone behind the ball on a few occasions.
Growing up I played all the major sports in the US. Eventually choosing 2... Futbol, and Boxing. I boxed for about 15 years, and played futbol for as many years. Playing 1 year in college. The difference in the 2 sport was that in boxing it was all up to me. A 1 man sport... in futbol it's up to all 11 players who are on the field... if only half of the team plays well, you will lose at this level. Futbol has exploded it is no longer a given that the biggest countries in the world will make it!
Futbol has changed from 1900 to 1930 to 1975.
Today the game is played globally... even the smallest and poorest countries play and sometimes advance. US has a huge pool of playes to pick from. Not so for T n T. One of things A boxer must have is a HUGE heart, and tenacity. I saw no heart in the US game yesterday, forget tenacity. Winning carries momentum, something they haven't had during these games. I was shocked. Socceramerica didn't see this coming.
The US played flat... lacked the intensity needed to carry them further. T n T didn't play well either but they made the best of there opportunities.
Looking forward to the WC. BALOMPIE!!
Jimi that was my father’s favorite sport he was an amature boxer they fought for watches when he was a kid. After he left the army after WW2 he had over 100 fights. Beat the champion of the Army. He also managed to make a career out of it doing strong arm work. He would also take some home for my mother, my brother and I. Indirectly I learned our football from him. Ran around from home at 11 to get away from Daddio. While living in the park during the summer I saw an Italian soccer team men’s team practice. Something about the game I liked. The manager would see me watching all the time. He leaves just hands me a ball and says practice. Played my first league game with them at 16. My youngest son never dug our football. He was an ordinary keeper. Then he found BJJ that became his sport. Black belt player goes to tournaments in Brazil and other places. But he loves working in construction loves it. Works 12 hour days 6 days a week and thinks nothing of it. I could never do what he does. He opens up his shin on the steel. He raps a bandage with electrical tape and keeps working. They all do that I think they are all nuts. But on that it is like a team. So he finally found a team that he loves.
Further to the above. I'm not saying Bradley is a bad player. I'm saying the team, as a whole, has a tendency to sit back and wait for the opponent to dictate play. They have a tendency to play vanilla safe rather than attack as if their country depended on it. This attitude is the most obvious with the Captain, Michael Bradley. You can't have a player as your Captain if they are completely without any Fire in their belly. Find a new Captain or two, someone who is the emotional leader, someone who will not accept his teammates giving less than 100%.
About Mike Brad. I was a big supporter of his when he was playing in Serie A. He was extremely positive and pressured the ball on defense.
Whether it was the move to TFC or just getting older and less hungry (having millions in the bank can do that to people), he has not consistently shown that drive and leadership to bring the drive out in others.
There was a telling post-game moment on BeIN last night when the on field reporter was talking about an interview he did with Bradley right after the Costa Rica loss last month. He said that he was asking Bradley about the inconsistent effort and not matching Costa Rica's intensity in the game at home and asked what could Mike do to try to lift that intensity for the next 3 games. He said (here comes the moment) that Bradley looked him dead in the eye and said that he completely disagreed with his assessment about their lower intensity against CR.
The reported said that he had a feeling right there that this team was basically dead. They cited the lack of "guerra" (spelling) in the team that they had been following since the beginning of the Hex. Teams of old would fight tooth and nail for every ball. This team rarely appeared to hustle. If a ball wasn't right in their channel, they would make no effort to go after it....
It all struck me as completely what I've been watching for the last year-plus. I've watched every USMNT game for the last 10 years. They've lost that drive, desire, the "fight" of the older teams. Perhaps it's because those older teams were still striving for international recognition that American Soccer was pretty good, worthy of Europe and S. American attention as nearly equals. The current crop seem to believe they achieved all that and have nothing to prove other than collecting their points at home and draws on the road just by showing up at the park.
I sure hope the next generation is pissssed off about this failure and uses it to NEVER take success in soccer as a given.
We need a coach that is going to come in and bust some butts. Create a positive playing style while not throwing away that good ol' American hard work and desire to succeed that we citizens put out there every day.
US Soccer has been stale for some time now. Due to modest success in some previous World Cups, the organization seems to prefer same old, same old, rather than reaching for new heights. Klinsmann was a stab in that direction, but he proved to be too flaky to go past one cycle. Still, the organziation stuck with him until his disorganziation led to the disatrous start in the Hex. Going back to Arena seemed like a "safe" bet, especially after an inconsequential undefeated run, but that was merely masking the problems, not solving them. American soccer, as demonstrated by MLS, is not world class. It's a repository of old ideas, simple tactics, limited technical aiblity, and no imagination. It's time to look at the example of countries like Germany, and yes, the UK, to understand how to turn a moribund program around. Soccer owes it to the kids like Pulisic, who have worked so hard only to be let down by creaking structure that should have been demolished and replaced years ago.
Agreed. Germany had 2 mediocre WCs in the 1990's.
Beckenbauer revamped and reorganized the youth system to better create world class players at every position.
Since then, last 4 WCs: 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 1st.
Out of disappointment can come greatness if the energy is directed properly.
There is no SINGLE reason for last night's loss. Several good observations: Klinsmen should have been removed sooner (in my opinion he should never have been placed at the helm); the team took TT for granted; MLS is more focused on bringing in "old" European and Latin players than developing the US based talent; the US team looked like the team of the 70s; USSoccer leadership is emulating a tired and outdated brand of Intl, Soccer (Great point RLindenberg: look what happend to Brazil Natl. Team when they attempted to play European style soccer at turn of the century. I recently attended a girls COLLEGE SHOWCASE in VA. TRAVEL teams came from around the country in hopes of catching the eye of college recruiters and possibly U17/20 coaches. What a disappointment! Considering the THOUSANDS of $$ parents invest in this "more competitive" soccer environment, the final product comes up very short. I coach Rec soccer and and often stop by to watch the practices run by my Travel collegues. It's a stiff, outdated brand of short touch, tippy toe pass and dribble circuits, which does not necessarily translate well in game scenarios. My skin crawls each time I see this. My two cents worth of advice to USASoccer: 1)Start over. Create a three or four level tiered competitive pro/semi-pro system where teams are MOTIVATED (by money, prestige, attendance, etc.) to move up-down the ladder as they develop their own internal youth system. 2)Let's promote small, local teams similar to baseball farm teams where stadiums are family sized and friendly (especially when it comes to cost). 3) Work with the NCAA (but don't get caught up in their shaddy antics) and help with scholarhips for our kids who could use the finanacial assistance. This does not mean under represented minorites, much less players brought in from around the globe. Personally I am tired of reading about FOREIGN players in our college sports who are on schoarships. We can't find someone in this country to kick field goals or shoot basketballs? 4)Quit bringing in retired international players. Instead spend the money HERE. The US has produced some of the world's best goal keepers. What happened? I don't see Tony Meola's or Howards on the world stage anymore. I'm w/Ray. It's time for the US to step up or shut up. We must decide whether once and for all if we are going to participate at a truely global level. The soccer "experiment" has been going on for almost half a century. It starts with a soccer mentality, and despite the recent loss it is now clear that the failure of the USMNT to qualify for the WC was a NATIONAL embarassmaent. Let's build on this shame and get the country behind a fresh approach to an old sport no matter what country it originated in. After all, England may have created the game, but Brazil showed the world how to play it!
Like I said for US soccer it is 1975 today. Hmm, I wonder what Ricky Davis and Kyle Rote Jr. are doing these days.
What were you doing 10/11/1975?
We simply suck.
I have heard that Gulati's position isn't even paid. Can someone tell me if that is true? Seems wrong if we desire results.
2nd, if you believe playing the same 11 was okay, then blame falls to the players, not the coaches or system.
If you believe that it was a mistake to play the same 11, then understand that everyone, from players to coaches, make mistakes. You can't just fire someone and hire another thinking that person will never make a mistake. You would need to analyze the tactics for all of the games, not just one, then decide if responsibility lies with the coach. Has anyone here ever coached? When your teams loses, is it always your fault? Of course not.
And quit hammering MLS. Don't you think they would love to have Messi and Ronaldo etc. here and play an amazing brand of soccer? Of course. It's about money. MLS doesn't have it because they don't have big TV contracts like football. They don't have the money to build stadiums or multi-tiered systems. We don't have private clubs where kids are signed at 12 and move away to a school/academy.
But that's okay, like other players in the world (Messi, Neymar), you can leave home and go play against the best in England/Europe and return home to represent your country.
The team has been on an upward arc (see 2014 WC) until now. Why panic? Things could have and should have gone better but you learn and move on. You tell your players this after a loss, so why act as if your hair is on fire.
Last, I just hope Fox Sports doesn't waver in their committment to the sport. Not qaulfying probaly hurts them the most and if they bail, real damange can be done in both the promotion of the sport and $.
P.S. The women now become the face of US soccer for the next few years. They deserve our attention and respect.
the US play poorly - there is a culture of mediocrity and incompetence in the US deriving from political correctness which extends everywhere, even sport
in the current US political climate (build the wall) it was very short sighted of the Mexican and Costa Rican national teams to lose seemingly on purpose to keep the US out - reminds of the 3-3 tie between Sweden and Denmark in the 2004 European cup to keep Italy out of the 2nd round.
T&T is 250x smaller than the USA, literally. Iceland, qualified. Panama, qualified. Honduras, almost there. Even if these countries all ramped their growth rates, they wouldn't begin to put a dent into the number of youth that play in this country.
Pay the women equal (like Norway), and clean house on the men's side. BTW, the rebuilding needed to start yesterday. We don't have the luxary to wait for the election or twenty months until the next friendly fixture. Gulati needs to do the honorable thing and step down (or impeach him forthwith), he has severely damaged the US Soccer brand with his missteps, lack of strategic thinking, lack of knowledge of the game. He is an empty suit who doesn't deserve to lead this federation.
We have the football/soccer infrastructure (we did not in the early 70's, 80's, and even 90's). Coaches at the youth level are jumping through the hoops US Soccer holds up for them to jump through in order to develop the future talent. Problem is, in terms of USMNT, it's a road to nowhere.
All federations go through existential crisis at one time or another, we just need to do it deliberately (like we are telling our coaches to run their sessions) and with an EXTREME sense of URGENCY!
It was not the field, weather..... both teams played under the same conditions.
It was not a conpiracy, even if one existed it would not account for the poor performance and loss to T&T. It WAS a bad game/loss with huge and unfortunate consiquences. This team, for many reasons is in sad shape. If the USA can't beat a T&T team that only had one win then it deserves what it got. I say this with all due respect to T&T...they certainally deserved it yesterday.
Many, many different opinions about USA failure to qualify. Before the game many know nothing, after the game many are geniuses on coaching, systems, players, fields, To me Soccer it's a simple game, and even with all the money, organization, population, and more. USA still in the developing process and still learning from failures to become better. Soccer it's love and passion for the game, dedication, ball control, sacrifice, honesty, respect, and knowing that there will be dark days as yesterday, swallow it and learn from your fall. Brasil, Germany, Holland, England, and many great ones had fallen too. To me the Soccer ball has only two destinations, your team mate or the opponent goal. Now the ball it's on the other side, now regained, control it, pass it to our team mate, kick it towards their goal, score and we will celebrate! Play it simple.
I would love to see us hire a huge coach next.
We need someone with some chops to kick our guys in the azz and make them play every game to their potential.
I know most of the really good coaches are taken, just saying it would be nice to get a skipper that can get the most out of our players who would love the challenge of turning this huge but average (in terms of soccer) country to the next level.
Jose Mourinho anyone?