USSoccer

I hate to turn into "that guy" but I blame the managers. I truly think that we are a better side than we've shown under Bradley and the late days of Arena. I think we have guys that would make us look like a different team entirely if they got more playing time like Parkhurst, Cooper, Altidore, Adu and even lesser obvious ones like Danny Szetela, Sacha Kljestan and Kyle Beckerman. I know it's way too early to start pinning any hopes on him, but I swear this Jorge Flores kid for Chivas in every bit as promising as any player we've produced recently. Very Nery Castilloish. I know Beckerman isn't a name that gets any of us wet, but with his passing ability, there is no reason he shouldn't be playing ahead of Mastroeni or Clark. I know Cooper didn't stick at Man U but he has the touch and finishing ability to be a true center forward. I know Szetela is young and unproven, but he plays with a creativity out of the midfield that few of our guys can. Parkhurst requires no excuses to why he should play. He is flat out our best defender with ball at his feet and our smartest positionally. He should be playing. I believe we are deeper than we've shown. I think Bradley is dropping the ball developing players. He only plays guys in Europe which is fine when they are the best players we can field, but these dudes in the Scandanavian leagues or the Austrian league are not as good as some of the MLS options we have. When he does play MLS players, it's the wrong ones. We don't need Ricardo Clark. We don't need Pablo Mastroeni. Bradley calls new guys in, but they are either the wrong guys or he just doesn't ever play them. Bob Bradley's number one problem, even bigger than his failings with squad selection is how weak he is tactically. We have a lot of players who don't fit into traditional positions. Landon has no classic position. Either does Adu, Bradley or Dempsey. Look at those 4 names. Those are arguably our 4 best players. When your 4 best players aren't having their abilities maximized by the manager, that's a problem. Guys like that and Szetela, Beckerman and Jorge Flores probably don't fit into a bucket, double destroyer 4-4-2. Well then FING toss it and find what does work! What in the hell was all that testing in the Copa America and all our friendlies for if not to find what works best for our players?! If he hadn't been trying to grind out results against South Africa, Sweden twice, Poland and Switzerland, maybe we'd have a better idea what our best tactical formation is! I tend to believe that Bradley is symptomatic of the problem rather than the problem in and of itself. The USSF is run as if you gathered all the crappy old school baseball guys in one room and told them to run a soccer federation. There's way too much "this guy paid his dues thru the system (ODP, Bradenton, etc), so he deserves callups/coaching jobs". That, to me, is the issue. Our ODP system completely sucks. You have bad coaches identifying the wrong players, and coaching them stupid. I played in ODP camps. The twin destroyer/high pressure empty bucket is an ODP wet dream. That's how they are taught. They aren't trained technically well, so when they reach a certain level they have nothing except athleticism. No real touch or instinct. So, we have guys who are system guys. That's why Kyle Beckerman doesn't get called up. He wasn't an ODP/U-17 guy. Name the last hispanic prospect for the USMNT? You can't, because the ODP camps cost money. They'd rather get the $500 from Connor Smith's parents than go looking for Juan Alvarez from Palacios, TX who has a ton more ability and talent. We don't look for foreign coaches, because the USSF is arrogant enough to think that they can take an MLS/ODP guy and make him the manager of what's alleged to be a top 20 side. We have no technical director. Our U-20 coach sucks. He's another high pressure ODP guy who got bailed out by a bunch of talented kids who probably ignored him. We emphasize the wrong traits in players all the time. That's why Parkhurst doesn't get called up-he doesn't fit the system's idea of what a central defender should be. If we replaced Bradley right now with like Gus Hiddink or Luis Felipe Scolari, in 4 weeks we'd be a better side because they'd fix the stupid tactical errors that Bradley is making. We'd play more attractive soccer. Our leading scorer in 2008 wouldn't be fricking Gooch. Long term, though, the USSF needs to change how they scout and ID players. MLS youth academies will help, but realistically USSF needs a foreign director of youth development to completely overhaul the scouting system.

Dude, Middlesboro? Really? Christ. We're going to waste another player's development for a bottom end EPL team playing kick and run pub-ball?

I came to an epiphany last night at about 3:30am when I couldn't sleep. The US isn't as good as any of us thought 12 months ago. Sure, it's nice that we pants Mexico when we play them here, but the only reason we beat them here is because they perpetually play us stupid. They have more talent. They have more technical skill. We might *might* be more athletic, but that's really it. If the players listen to Sven, they're going to roll through CONCACAF. We can't hang with the top 10 teams, and while we can generally handle the teams ranked around us and above, it's not like we're playing awesome ball when we do it. We still have the same technical flaws we had in 2004. We can't play the ball on the ground, our first touch is generally poor, we have only a handful of players who are willing to run at defenders, and our defenders can't pass the ball. We can't build an attack organically. We can't break down a bunkered defense. We can't shoot from beyond the 18. Look at our roster. We suck at left back (Heath Pearce is our best option, and he's not really very good). Our central defenders look like they're handling a hand grenade when the ball is at their feet. Cherundolo is good. Our wing mids are either technically skilled or fast, but not really both. Combine Dempsey and Beasley and you have a real player. Either on their own is decent. Our center mids are either bad (Clark), old and bad (Mastro), young (Adu and Edu) or playing out of position thanks to stupid tactical choices (Bradley). Our forwards...man. Eddie Johnson played ok for him yesterday, and that still was bad. He should have scored twice. Jozy is going to be good. And then there is our best outfield player. He's not quite fast or strong enough to be a true forward, not physical enough to play CM, and disappears when he plays the wing or in Europe. Our goalkeepers are good. I suppose that's something. The question is, how have we made no progress in 4 years? How are we still exhibiting the same flaws as when we started WC2006 qualifying?

I love the FMF. Mexico's biggest enemy is Mexico. Sven could do good things for them...if they let him.

I'll have more thoughts later, but quickly: -Dempsey probably should sit against Argentina, and probably 1 leg against Barbados. He has been below average for the nats for a while. Either he took a beating in the EPL, or he's gassed, or playing 4 positions for Fulham screwed him up completely. He's lost his offensive verve completely. His touch is bad. He should have finished the Adu ball. His passing is poor. He seems surly and without any inspiration, which is the most stunning thing for me. That sucks to say because he's my guy, but he's in poor form right now and really has been since the Gold Cup. -Adu gives our team what we've lacked forever: a true playmaker. We were actually looking like a quality side in the first half, and it was because Spain respected Adu and because Adu could hold, distribute and attack from that attacking mid spot. That should be written in pen for him from now on, really. He was great today. -Bradley tried something different. If you put Landon on one wing and Jozy up front with Adu in that CAM spot, we actually have an attack. I liked the 4-5-1 for us, actually. -Edu and Bradley linked well. Good for them. Overall, the first half was light years better than last week. The second half was crap because we had no midfield play. I'm going to ignore the pantsing of our defense by Xavi. I'm going to flip out if Hejduk plays meaningful minutes anymore. Ditto for Wolff. It's not 2001 anymore.

OH MY GOD. I can;'t wait to watch us lose 6-1 when I get home.

Just like Corey Patterson. Pie has a bad attitude and doesn't care.

The 8th pick and Gordon for DWade.

As I understand it, Rui Costa was the cause of all the problems at Benfica last year. He was basically the unofficial Director of Football while still playing. He hired and fired all the managers. Now he is retired and was named the official Director of Football, but there are still plenty of Brett Favresque rumors about him coming back. That place is a mess, I don't even know if they have a manager yet. If he stays upstairs and they settle on a good manager, then I'm fine with Freddy staying. I know the fans love him and his goals per minute rate was tops on the team, but I'm not sure where he stands with Costa. I think Szetela is still at Brescia, but La Liga/Seria A is fine either way for me as long as he plays. You're right about the EPL. Unless you are on one of the big 4 or Tottenham, you're not going to be playing good, technical football. I thought Szetela was at Racing. Did they loan him to Bresia?

He's using imaginary numbers. Eleventeen, thirtytwelve, etc.

Wow, I'm psyched if this is true. I really, really wanted him to develop in Spain. Villarreal will be a great situation, especially with a loan to get lots of pt. Next step is giving Freddy 90 minutes against Spain so he can have a similar buy. Edit - Ives is reporting Recreativo Huelva is the potential loan side. I don't know that Freddy is going to find himself a better fit than Benfica right now. Rui Costa is retiring, right? The only reason he wasn't starting there is because they weren't going to bench their national hero for Adu. I think next season is when you'll see Freddy make a Michael Bradley type impact for his club side. Quite honestly, I'd love for most of our better players to end up in Spain or Italy. Dempsey would be a better fit in La Liga. Donovan as well. I'm well known for wanting Bradley on Juve. I think Freddy would be a good La Liga player. Szetela is already in Spain. I don't think the EPL fits where we want our team to be. Too much kick and run, not enough technical development.

Word is rapidly spreading that Jozy Altidore has been bought by Villarreal for the summer transfer window and will be loaned out to a lower level La Liga side. Which is just fine for me; I wanted him in Spain over England anyway. Also, may I say that it is complete pants that I'm not going to be able to watch the game until like 8:30 tonight?

:( I still believe he will someday be with the US. 2014 might be a better team to make a real run at the WC. Even if Bradley lasts through 2010 I don't see him here beyond that. I find it hard to see another Bruce Arena type tenure coming. Expectations have at least grown a lot over the past 10 years. If we struggle to make it to the Hex Bradley might well be in trouble.

Sven is going to make them very good.

Any other federation that considered itself a world-class side would have Bradley on the shortest of short leashes. I'm beginning to question what the point of these 3 friendlies was. If we wanted to showcase our crap depth players like Jacqua, Wolff and Califf who are out of contract, we could have played some lower profile sides and not embarrassed ourselves. There should be no excuse for this kind of roster, ever. MLS in season? So what. Screw you, FC Dallas. Kenny Cooper should be there. Piss off, Houston Dynamo. Brian Ching should be there. Jozy should be there, although his absence is somewhat forgiveable from the European fixtures. If he is absent against Argentina, it's a joke. Donovan should borrow Beckham's big boy pants and play. We should never, ever go into a game against Spain or England with Hejduk, Mastroeni, Califf, Johnson, Wolff and Jacqua on the 22 man roster. Ever. The way Bob Bradley and the USSF is wasting these high pressure friendlies by allowing camp fodder to be showcased for jobs that still won't make them any better is borderline [expletive]. Seriously, that roster reads like our B/C team. It's awful. If this were 2006 again and we had to put together a WC roster with the current player pool, I would bet that half this roster (at least) isn't on it. And this is not even touching on his in game tactics.

Jonathan Spector is going to be out with a torn labrum for 3-6 months. Not that it matters in Bradley's system, but he's probably our most skilled central defender with the ball at his feet.

That's the thing. If BB had gone out there with a 4-3-2-1 or something, with the correct personnel, and we'd have lost 2-0 or 3-1 or something, fine. However, without LD he assumed he could just plug in Josh [expletive] Wolff and play that godforsaken empty bucket in Wembley against a Top 8 side's A team. That's freaking crap. As someone who really looked forward to these 3 friendlies, I can say with 100% certainty that if that's the best he can do tactically, I'm not looking forward to any of the other 2 games. It was boring, embarrasing football and we didn't deserve to be on that field. There was zerop game plan. No one directing the attack. Our best 3 players were not once in a position to influence the game. Our 2 strikers were not even MLS quality. That can't keep happening. Bradley needs to be able to adjust his formation and tactics to the situation. We need a Technical Director from outside the USSF. Badly.

Id say more, but this sums it up perfectly. We had our 6th and 7th best strikers playing an A friendly in Wembley. Bradley needs to think outside the box tactically.

Given the lineup that was out there, I'm not shocked that we were totally beaten in every way possible. Not a single US player played well. When you start Wolff/Johnson up front, you're asking to suck. Then, the stupid empty bucket meant that we had no midfield possesion, meaning DMB and Clint were cut off and dead. That was tactically and personell-wise one of the worst matches I've seen the US play.

Reading some of the comments on SBI...man, RBNY fans hate them some Claudio Reyna.

Sorry about the result, Wolf.

I'm not at all shocked Terry missed that. I'm also not shocked that Ronaldo's stupid hesitation helped him miss that. The best player on the field tonight was Carlos Tevez.

I agree. I'm just pointing out the disparity. I mean, obviously there is a huge difference considering Benzema had a very nice showing for Lyon last year (24 games, 14 starts, 7 goals) and Bradley came out of nowhere this year. It's just pretty incredible what Bradley did this year, and if Bayern or Chelsea were talking about buying a midfielder from another country with an edge to him who scored 20 goals in the eredivisie, I'd expect a much higher transfer fee. I'd also be very, very excited. I dunno, the fact that American players have lower relative transfer fees makes our guys a little more attractive and accessible to the mid and lower table sides, which probably helps our overall player pool. To a top tier side, it's a complete steal. If Dempsey cost $12m in transfer fee, he'd still be in MLS. As it stood, he went to Fulham where his game has no doubt improved, and the only reason he went there is that FFC was bargain hunting. Bradley at $12m is a bargain for a side like Everton or Juve (please, please Juve). They're basically getting a player who has a quasi-Ballack upside for the cost of Craig Bellamy. As the pool improves and we see Jozy, Freddy, and Bradley playing signifigant roles for big clubs, you'll see the overall fee for American players rise.

I can't believe people seriously think Greg Maddux is anywhere near Pedro level. Pedro is like Grey Goose to everyone else's Skol.

The only change I'd make to that three would be maybe Michael Parkhurst instead of Rogers. I'd like Kjlestan to get a look, but with Bradley's stupid empty bucket, unless you're a straight D-Mid, you aren't getting a look in the center of the pitch. I really like Orozco. We need more defenders who can actually pass and handle the ball with some skill. I'm sick of Gooch and Boca just blasting balls in any direction. Drew Moor on the right had an equally terrible game. Both of them would be on my list except that I consider them nothing but camp fodder. Another name to consider launching into space would be Frankie Hejduk. I think he's done, but you never, ever know...