Has Bob Bradley, (and by extension, the U.S. men's national team he coaches) lost his mojo? First he couldn't lose - now he can't win or draw.Is anyone worried, or was the loss to Sweden in a friendly insignificant in the grand scheme of things?
Thoughts?
9 comments:
We should be forgiving of Bradley, who showed he makes good decisions in the Gold Cup.
I think taking out Bornstein and Donovon was very sporty and we do want a good number of people to play during a friendly.
I'm sorry I missed it. How were the new guys?
I am not sure what "mojo" means in this context. I am concerned not about the results, but about the lack of any progress in the quality of play.
I do not see any intelligent pattern in the tactical approach we have for the game. If we are a counter-attacking team (and I think that we are - we don't have the skilled players to plan another way against good teams), we need to be MUCH quicker in transitioning from defense to offense. I see absolutely no improvement on that front from game to game.
I also don't see any improvement in either our passing in the middle, or our movement off the ball. We have players with speed, so intelligent 1-2s should result in good counterattacks. We rarely, if ever do, that.
So, I guess I am back to where I was when they hired Bradley - I think they should have gone with Klinsmann or another experienced foreign coach. I like that Bradley is giving younger players a chance to play, but I think they need more substantive guidance.
I guess I mean "mojo" in terms of how Bradley was able to get good results at the start of his tenure, and there seemed to be a lot of energy and momentum behind the team that's less visible now.
I didn't make too much of the US beating Denmark or Ecuador earlier this year (though the win over Mexico in February was impressive) so I'm not going to make much of this result either. I think the US lacked a bit of sharpness in front of the goal, especially in the first half, and I think Sweden's physical play may have been a bit much to overcome.
Overall, there were some things to improve on and some things to feel good about.
It's hard for me to count this one as a loss. That goal never should have counted. It should have been a yellow card and free kick the other way.
Either way, I'm not so concerned about this game. I think it's good that we're getting the team on European soil. Of course I wish we'd have won, but I'd say with the way that we played in the second half in particular, we gave a good account of ourselves.
However, I am concerned about Dempsey. He missed a wide-open net in the last Fulham match and missed a mostly-open net today. If he'd put any pace at all on that ball, the keeper had no chance to recover and stop it. Hopefully it's not a trend for him.
That's about as well as I expected the US to play. We're organized defensively, and have solid scrappy defenders and a good keeper. So, we can hold our own in that department.
At midfield, we got pretty much ran over. Feilhaber played out of position in the first half, and it showed. The set up is essentially without a true center midfielder, so it's no wonder we got nothing done there. And Beasley does as well as he can for being an international player who weighs just over a 100 pounds.
And up top you have two converted midfielders playing forward. After all that, kind of what I expected. A painfull display in which our organization and solid defending kept us in the game against Sweden, who themselves only had a couple of dangerous players.
Don't think that Bob is our long-term choice. Scheduling games in Europe is a fine idea. If we do well, it reflects well on Bob and his approach. If not, then we have a decent justification to get someone more experienced.
The U.S has allways sucked when playing away from home, I for one am not surprised.
Mojo? Friendlies don't worry me so much, unless they're in prep of some tournament. As far as Bradley goes (and as is probably obvious), Gold Cup = good, Copa America = not so good.
Still, given the lineup, I would have liked to have at least seen a goal (I'm looking at you, Dempsey and Beasley). Let's see how they do against Brazil.
Bradley's got some more time to prove himself, as far as I'm concerned.
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