Friday, June 8, 2007

Post-match thoughts

The U.S. started defense of their Gold Cup title successfully with a 1-0 win over Guatemala. But there is plenty of room for improvement going forward. The game wasn't pretty and by the end it seemed the U.S. just wanted to escape with their three points, which is what ended up happening.

Some thoughts on the match:

- Oguchi Onyewu did not play a great game. Even before his second yellow, he wasn't the force he needed to be. At times he killed Guatemalan chances but other times he was in bad positions and let himself get into a bad situation on the second yellow. The U.S. will miss his athleticism against Trinidad.

- Carlos Bocanegra wasn't exactly a pillar of strength either. He had a bad clearance attempt that nearly was a Guatemalan goal early in the match. He lost his head a bit and saw yellow after giving away a free kick late in the game. The call was for fouling Carlos Ruiz, a call that was absolute garbage, but Bocanegra needs to be better than snapping at the referee especially while wearing the captain's armband.

- Taylor Twellman got the start for a couple of reasons. First, Bradley said he wanted Eddie Johnson to have a couple more days to rest up for Trinidad even though he came on late in the match. He was probably planning on starting one forward in one game and another in the other. He also said that the Guatemala game was "tailor-made for Taylor," then laughed and apologized for the pun. It really was a game that Twellman could have shined in. He had a great assist on Dempsey's goal but Twellman missed an open header late in the first half that could have broken the game open. Landon Donovan crossed into the box and Twellman ran onto it and slammed a header on frame but the ball went over the crossbar. I contended that if he was wearing a Revolution jersey, there is no way that ball wouldn't have found the back of the net. For some reason, though, that stuff happens to him in a U.S. jersey. He could be such a dangerous weapon for the U.S. if he could put shots on frame.

- I don't know if it was intentional but Landon Donovan out on the right was not as effective weapon he could have been had he roamed more. I don't know if he had the freedom to move around or not but he stayed on the right side quite a bit. Overall, the flank play was the difference in the game so it could have had an overall positive affect but Donovan seemed to be too tied down to that side of the field. There's no way of knowing what would have happened had Gooch not got sent off but I think Bradley was going to put Donovan up top when he subbed in Steve Ralston and maybe that could have led to a late counterattack opportunity for Donovan. Still, he had some good crosses and runs and he did well on the set pieces.

- The young guys held their own. Michael Bradley, Benny Feilhaber and Jonathan Bornstein all played well enough to maintain their starting spots - fitness setbacks aside - for Saturday's match. Bradley was very active in the middle of the field and Feilhaber did well on the ball while Bornstein did a good job on, uh, that Guatemalan forward, whatever his name was, number 11 I think. Bornstein gave away a few inches and pounds to that guy but still did well. He also started the goal-scoring play when he fed DaMarcus Beasley, who then fed Twellman and then Dempsey.

- The crowd was very loud and very pro-Guatemalan. Frankie Hejduk, though, didn't mind or notice really. He told the San Diego Union-Tribune's Mark Zeigler: "I'm so used to it by now. It doesn't even faze me. I'd rather have 20,000 Guatemalans and have a full stadium than have 5,000 people here and the stadium be empty. This is what we play for. This is what we live for, having a little pressure."

5 comments:

rep21 said...

The only thing I thought about this match, and previous matches, is how bad Bradley is as a coach. I mean, we got rid of Arena for this guy? The team yesterday looked, tactically, like crap at every position except goalkeeper. The team hasnt really looked great all year, but we have been playing some bad teams at home to disguise this fact. If we make it to the gold cup final, Mexico is going to win. Then in copa america, we are going to go three and out and might not even score a goal.

gnupate said...

Number 11 was Marvin Avila, I thought he gave the US some problems throughout the game between his speed and flashes of a good touch on the ball.

J.S. said...

Onyewu. Didn't this guy say he wanted to "trasform" the center back position before last years world cup on one of those joga bonito vignettes? This guy has a million dollar body and ten cent head. I know it's easy to bash this guy after the Guatemala game.

However, can you answer this:
Has Onyewu's improved after last year's World cup?

L.B. said...

I think Guatemala is a tough and determined team. For some reason, their style has always been difficult for the US to break. Look at the scores of the last meetings:

2007: 0-0 here
2005: 0-0 in Guatemala
2005: 2-0 here
2000: 1-0 here
1999: 3-1 here (one US goal in 90th minute)

All those scores have been close because Guatemala has kept it close with their style. I don't think we should jump to conclusions after one sloppy victory.

As far as Onyewu goes, it sure seems like he's lost in space out there. I guess we know why he didn't stick around with Newcastle. It will be interesting to see Jay DeMerit pair with Carlos Bocanegra, if that's what Bob goes with on Saturday.

Anonymous said...

I saw trouble signs with Gooche's game even in the 1st half. I don't think the team should necessarily "throw him under the bus," but as you said, he is a work in progress. At a minimum, the coach should try DeMerit as an alternative and continue to work with Gooch.

I actually liked how they played in the latter 1st half and first couple of minutes of the 2nd half. Afterwards, they just got rattled. The team just has to get used to that. Copa America atmosphere and refereeing may be just as unforgiving, and the opponents will all have more skill than Guatemala.

I thought Twellman played pretty well, save for a missed header. Good work rate, nice runs off the ball, gave Guatemala problems. Confidence and finishing touch will come with more playing time.