USA vs. RUSSIA

By: Joey McCune

2-2. How the hell did that happen?!

It seems that the good ole US of A has miraculously pulled another result out of nothing. And although we’ve drawn with the number 9 team in the world, this match showed us more than we’d like to see in terms of problems. I most likely will never be the coach of the national team, but I’m going to take a crack at our most glaring issues and how to fix them. I’ll mostly talk about guys that were in the squad against Russia, but I’ll mention a few others as well. If you don’t like profanity, I don’t know what to tell you. Grab a beer and get comfy.

Manager:

We start at the head of the snake. Jürgen Klinsmann. Anyone who watched the Russia match would be hard pressed to say that Klinsy sent out a team that he thought could pull an upset. If anything he came into this match expecting a loss. In my eyes this is unacceptable. You are the national team coach of the United States of America!! You can’t go into a match scared!! We have the talent to beat any team on any day if used properly. Klinsmann has got to first figure out who is best XI are, and he needs to figure out a base formation that he can then work off of depending on game situations. The Russia game saw the US line up in what was either a very defensive 4-5-1 or an ineffective 4-1-4-1, that saw Jones and Bradley going forward into attack. I understand that it’s just a friendly and he can experiment, but we’ve run a different system almost every game. Players are successful when they know their role on the pitch and it’s not changing from game to game. I could go on for longer but this is making my blood pressure spike. Long story short, Jürgen needs to come in to games headstrong and confident in his team; he also needs to look at the national pool and pick a formation that he can then plug in his best XI.

Goalkeeper:

Tim Howard has saved our ass more than America saved the French during WWII. Plain and simple. No matter what happens at club level, when he pulls on that US shirt the man is a monster. It is hard to find many negatives in Timmy’s game, which is a major plus for the national team. But, what the hell do we do if he gets hurt?! Rimando, Johnson, Guzan. Those are the first three that come to mind, in no particular order. I can’t honestly say that I am comfortable with the health of our net at the international level with those men between the pipes. While Tim is a legend, we need to find a number two ASAP.

Defense:

Jesus Christ. I don’t know dude. It’s bad. Like really bad. This one has to be split into two categories, center backs and full backs.

Full backs:

This one is easier so I’ll take it on first. We’ve tried out a lot of players at left back, while Cherundolo has had a monopoly on the right for quite some time. If Cherundolo makes it to Brazil as our starting right back I will be shocked. He’s 33 right now, and still a year and half out from the World Cup. Nobody wants a 35 year old full back starting for their country at the World Cup!! I think that Timmy Chandler needs to take over the reins on the right side and bring Dolo as a vet on the bench. Chandler is only 22 and has been playing at the top level in Germany for years! He’s athletic, he gets forward when needed, and he’s not 35 freaking years old. Left back, this one has been an issue for a while. I like Fabian Johnson. He’s naturally right footed, but his weak foot is good enough that it isn’t too much of an issue when it comes to crossing on the run. Left back is going to be a rough one until someone makes a huge break through.

Center back:

Clarence Goodson is a worse center back than me, and I’m 5’7” with a bad knee. He deserves no more call ups, plain and simple. So who should be our CBs? Boca is the brains of the back 4. It’s shockingly evident, especially when he’s not in the game (see Goodson, Clarence). Carlos suffers from the same problem that Cherundolo does though, as he is also 33. Time is definitely not on his side, but he keeps himself fit so it may not be much of an issue. Boca’s brains make up for what he lacks in pace and leaping ability. Now who the hell can we plug in next to him? Not Clarence Goodson, what a piece of shit that guy is. I think it’s high time that we start seeing a lot more of George John, Omar Gonzales, Matt Hedges, and the somehow forgotten Jay DeMerit.  GJ, Omar, and Hedges are all quality center backs, but Gonzales is the only one to have been capped (2 times). Think about all the guys they’ve plugged in, and George John has zero (that’s the same as none) caps. The next few games should involve these three guys. Now for the other man that I mentioned. Jay fucking DeMerit. What more do you want me to say about the guy?! Determination, grit, athleticism, brains, and a bad ass mullet (R.I.P.), he’s got what you want in a center back. And should Boca be hurt, I can think of no better replacement than someone that has played the position at the highest level and been successful. Time may not be on his side, but I think he could easily make it to Brazil and play a major part. I’ve left out any comments on Geoff Cameron because, let’s face it, he used to play for Houston and they don’t count as actual people.

Midfield:

Michael Bradley all day long. No matter what, he is in the starting XI. The guy is the engine to the US squad when used correctly. He plays smart passes, he scores, and he covers every blade of grass between the boxes. Jermaine Jones needs to just go away. He’s a liability. Every time he ventures forward he ends up on the ground, and then takes 20 minutes to get back up, and if he’s playing defense everyone expects him to be carded. No more of him please. Danny Williams has done pretty well in my eyes. He sits just in front of the back four and slows down attacks good enough that I think he keeps his place. Sacha Kljestan, what a dick! If anyone can explain what he adds to the team I’d love to hear it, because I don’t see a damn thing (aside from looking like Euro trash). Mo Edu I think still has something to add to the team. For me he is best as a holding mid, someone to bring on when you need to close out a game.  We have a lot of depth in the middle of the park, Jürgen just needs to figure out how to plug them in, and three defensive midfielders on at the same time isn’t the way to go moving forward.

Forwards:

Jozy Altidore had a good game today. There I said it. If you disagree with me then you are just letting your left over hatred from his last game float over to this one. Jozy was the lone striker today, don’t let Herculez Gomez’s name on the team sheet fool you, Jozy was alone. Aside from that, he had zero service. NONE! Was his second half worse than his first? Yes, but he worked harder in this game than I’ve ever seen him do previously. He tried very hard to find the game by dropping deep or floating wide, even coming back into our defensive third and earning a free kick then sprinting back into the attacking third. He didn’t score and I account that to lack of service. Hard to score if you aren’t given the ball in opportunistic positions. I don’t think that it is time to give up on Jozy yet, I think Klinsy needs to give him someone to work with. Insert Herculez Gomez and Terrance Boyd. Herc was simply used wrong today. He’s not a winger, never will be. He’s best up top causing problems for center backs with his constant movement and work rate. The movement of Gomez creates space for his strike partner, if Klinsmann would give him one. Terrance Boyd is as green as green can be. But he’s got something, something that we haven’t seen in a while. He’s big, he’s fast, he holds the ball up fairly well and I love that he is comfortable with his back to the goal. We’ve lacked that in attack for a long time. Jury is still out, but he could be damn good. Agudelo is another young guy that I think is still trying to settle and find his style. I thought he’d start to grow in New York being able to play with Henry, and then they brought in 50 strikers and traded him to (shithole) Chivas. Agudelo still has a lot to show and is still very young. Of these four, Herc is the old man at 30. The next oldest? Jozy Altidore at 23. If you give this group time and opportunity we will have something special.

As for the young guns we saw today, Gatt and Diskerud, they had a decent first game. Josh Gatt has been someone that I’ve been raving about for months. He’s fast, he can cross, he knows when to come inside, and he is extremely confident on the ball. Keep your eye on this one, could be the future on the right wing. Mix Diskerud played competently when he came on. Let’s not get all crazy just because he scored on his debut. We need to see him for more than 20-30 minutes to really get a feel for this guy. If you want more Josh Gatt goodness by the way, go on YouTube and put on your party hat.

Now going forward we need to see what happens when Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan return to the squad together. No matter how good we are with one, we are better with both! The Hexagonal match ups will show whether or not Klinsmann will address our problems and if he is willing to continue to cap young, exciting players.

Thanks for the read and if you like laughing you should follow me on twitter @jtmccune !!

Joey McCune