Team USA have a lot of garbage laying around. Old veterans who can’t cut it anymore, tired tactics and one player development expert disguising himself as a coach. Here’s my laundry list for the US National team.
Bruce Arena: “Arrivederci”
Notice how all the players giving negative feedback about Arena all play under better coaches in European leagues. Arena has taken the US as far as he can. It’s time to get a tried and tested international coach at the helm. Klinsmann is the perfect fit: He has won the World Cup, he may be coaching a World Cup winning team right now, he lives in the US and my friend Vicky who lives in Stuttgart says his Mom’s bakery makes really good muffins.
4-5-1: Should be Forbidden
Ewww… This creates ugly football and even worse: it didn’t work.
Out: Eddie Pope, Brian McBride, Eddie Pope, Kasey Keller, Eddie Pope, Claudio Reyna and Eddie Pope
These guys are going to be in wheelchairs by 2010. Their age and lack of speed showed through all three games. One person in particular was a yard off the ball every game. I'm not going to pick him out but his name rhymes with 'dope' and 'nope' and 'no hope'. The old guard needs to go. The only player I can see hanging around is Pablo Mastroeni.
In: DeMarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey, Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu
The European based players showed their worth. They were the one consistent part of the US squad and are the core for future development. Beasley wasn’t great but he was being played on the wrong side of the pitch. You don't play Alex Rodriguez and make him hit from the other side of the plate.
Landon Donovan: ?
This guy doesn’t need to go play in Europe like everybody’s suggesting… he needs to disappear into the mountains for three years, fight off a bear or something and return a man.
Freddy Adu, Zak Whitbread, Jonathan Spector: The Future
The youngins need to become big players over the next few years. These guys are the future for US Soccer and have to become stars. No pressure guys but the future depends on you.
John O’Brien: One More Chance
He’s going to be almost 33 by the next World Cup. He has one more chance to get healthy and be fit by 2010 or we maybe only be able to ask, "what could have been?"
Clint Dempsey, Eddie Johnson, Josh Wolff: More MLS Players Needed
The MLS crew certainly showed its worth in this World Cup and you have to wonder why more attacking MLS players weren’t in the squad. Maybe Twellman should have made the squad. Maybe Eskandarian should have been considered.
The US showing in this World Cup wasn't horrible. We tied the group winners, Italy, in the toughest group of the tournament, down a man. Next time a better group seeding could see the US on a run like 2002. Let's just hope CONCACAF isn't reduced to 2 teams from 3. --- Now for your viewing pleasure based off of current form, age, gradual improvement and me, guessing out of my ####, here are my prediction for the US squad in 2010.
If you have been visiting most World Cup websites (like this one) you probably have noticed the Nike & US Soccer “Don’t Tread On Me” campaign. The web banner features a snake curled around a ball that menacingly warns others to “Beware” and has a countdown clock numbering the days/hours/minutes until “US Soccer Attacks”. Problem is the clock is sitting at 00:00:00 and the US still hasn’t attacked.
The consensus is that the clock needs to be reset, the question is should they put 60 minutes up on the clock counting down the remaining time until US v. Italy, or add four more years until South Africa 2010?
Nike clearly wishes they were more influential with Bruce Arena's line-up, seeing their poster boy Eddie Johnson relegated to the bench the first half of the Czech game. Even worse, budding rap-star Dempsey hasn’t seen any minutes yet and golden child Freddy Adu is stuck back home playing for the MLS in the mausoleum known as RFK. In this case a Nike-centric starting line-up couldn’t be worse than what we saw on Monday.
How much does a brand affect play on the field? Obviously not that much. But I did some addition and like the manufactures points in Formula-1, here are the team by team, brand by brand results.
Marathon
G:2 W:2 L:0 D:0 P:6 Average:3.00
Nike
G:11 W:8 L:2 D:1 P:25 Average:2.73
Umbro
G:4 W:3: L:0 D:1 P:10 Average:2.50
Adidas
G:9 W:5 L:2 D:2 P:17 Average:1.89
Puma
G:17 W:2 L:11 D:4 P:10 Average:0.59
Joma
G:2 W:0 L:2 D:0 P:0 Average:0.00
Lotto
G:3 W:0 L:3 D:0 P:0 Average:0.00
updated through today's Portugal v. Iran game
Clearly these stats are warped due to the fact that Ecuador, the only team sporting the Marathon brand, hasn’t faced any real opposition and Puma will make jerseys for any third-world country. Not much to take into account, just some interesting stats I thought I would blog for your enjoyment.
I like soccer. I watch a lot of soccer. Sometimes I play soccer and it's a sad site.
I pretty much exclusively support Liverpool after being deserted by the MLS (see: San Jose Clash… I mean Earthquakes… I mean Houston 1836? errr… Dynamo, whatever). I’ve been following the game since 1995, and in-depth since about 2002. I’m currently a senior in college at Arizona and catch Sounders games over the summer in Seattle. So yup, that’s about it.
