US loses for the same old reasons, yet again.

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[Post New]12/04/2022 08:33
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NoYou
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The Guardian really takes the US style of play to task after the loss to the Netherlands.

"What did the US lack most at the World Cup? Football intelligence"
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/dec/04/what-did-the-us-lack-most-at-the-world-cup-football-intelligence

"This is a difficult one to handle,” Berhalter reflected when interviewed on the pitch after full-time. “We came up short today, but not for a lack of effort.” Effort may not have been lacking, but many other qualities essential to footballing success were: commitment off the ball, defensive nous, ruthlessness in front of goal. Despite the precision of the opposition’s finishing, the US were not undone by moments of individual brilliance, quirks of technology, or other acts of semi-divine footballing intervention; instead their demise was almost entirely self-inflicted. The US failures were in defense and attack, basic areas of core technical competence. Truly, this was a team who saved their worst for last."

"USA’s familiar shortcomings exposed against clinical Dutch at World Cup"
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/dec/03/usa-netherlands-world-cup-2022-soccer-last-16

"The Americans’ profligacy from promising attacking positions, their imprecision in building chances from possession and their consistently poor set-pieces all came under a harsh glare on the world stage after persisting through an often-rocky World Cup qualifying campaign. For three matches in Qatar they were able to make up the difference with closely knit team play fueled by boundless energy in midfield. But when the reserves ran dry on Saturday night, their defects finally caught up with them."


How many US Youth soccer matches have I seen with this same style of play. Run-run-run-run until you are tired and then sub out someone else who run-run-run-run-runs. It's frustrating that this mentality has such a hold in the US when over and over again it isn't working at the top levels.

[Post New]12/04/2022 09:12
quote
Size5Balls
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America did not originate their style of play. They just happened to adopt it. Certain players on the American team are not suited to play that style including Pulisic, Musah, and Zimmerman. America also lacks any bench depth which is crucial to tournament play.
[Post New]12/04/2022 19:10
quote
westsidesoccer
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NoYou wrote:The Guardian really takes the US style of play to task after the loss to the Netherlands.

"What did the US lack most at the World Cup? Football intelligence"
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/dec/04/what-did-the-us-lack-most-at-the-world-cup-football-intelligence

"This is a difficult one to handle,” Berhalter reflected when interviewed on the pitch after full-time. “We came up short today, but not for a lack of effort.” Effort may not have been lacking, but many other qualities essential to footballing success were: commitment off the ball, defensive nous, ruthlessness in front of goal. Despite the precision of the opposition’s finishing, the US were not undone by moments of individual brilliance, quirks of technology, or other acts of semi-divine footballing intervention; instead their demise was almost entirely self-inflicted. The US failures were in defense and attack, basic areas of core technical competence. Truly, this was a team who saved their worst for last."

"USA’s familiar shortcomings exposed against clinical Dutch at World Cup"
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/dec/03/usa-netherlands-world-cup-2022-soccer-last-16

"The Americans’ profligacy from promising attacking positions, their imprecision in building chances from possession and their consistently poor set-pieces all came under a harsh glare on the world stage after persisting through an often-rocky World Cup qualifying campaign. For three matches in Qatar they were able to make up the difference with closely knit team play fueled by boundless energy in midfield. But when the reserves ran dry on Saturday night, their defects finally caught up with them."


How many US Youth soccer matches have I seen with this same style of play. Run-run-run-run until you are tired and then sub out someone else who run-run-run-run-runs. It's frustrating that this mentality has such a hold in the US when over and over again it isn't working at the top levels.



Their podcast commentators were even worse in the wake of the tie. Who cares. Anybody who grew up with English football in the 80s and 90s knows that it was not and could not have been the football geniuses in England who revolutionized football in the EPL. It was imported, lock, stock and two smoking barrels. The problem today is that English fans confuse the EPL with English football itself. Nobody is guiltier of this confusion than the English media. Most fans there still hiss when the ball is played back, sneer when defenders are smart enough not to slide-tackle, and giggle with joy with every absolutely pointless cross thrown into the mixer. The people on the continent are doing circles around the English in developing players, including a number of players on that English team. I give the players and the league and its owners credit in opening a very provincial league to external influences, which is a key to long term improvement and competitiveness. Soccer intelligence? Come on. We have a very shallow talent pool. Those players have plenty of IQ and frankly are not as athletic as a lot of their opponents.
[Post New]12/04/2022 23:33
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Size5Balls
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We played the Dutch straight up and lost. It's OK. I have no problem with the way USA played the game. We didn't park the bus at any point. USA dominated possession in the first half and were down 2-0 at that point. It just shows what we need to work on. We've never had a midfield before now. Yes you want to win, but I see great strides in this team. We have no bench. We have to use what we've got, but just a good midfield won't win you every game, especially when they have a clinical striker like Memphis. We don't have one of those. We have striker by committee, which doesn't cut it at this level.
[Post New]12/05/2022 09:52
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retiredref
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When a opponent is allowed to score the same goal twice in one match you have to look at the tactical approach and the management. Why were there no adjustments to the tactics to prevent from from scoring the same goal again? Even worse when considering the same play created a couple other chances just as good which were sent high or wide.
[Post New]12/05/2022 10:49
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Blutarski
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retiredref wrote:When a opponent is allowed to score the same goal twice in one match you have to look at the tactical approach and the management. Why were there no adjustments to the tactics to prevent from from scoring the same goal again? Even worse when considering the same play created a couple other chances just as good which were sent high or wide.


Not picking up the third or fourth man joining the attack isn't so much a matter of management or strategy as it is an individual responsibility. Semantics maybe, but I would lay that one at the feet of the players involved, not so much coaching.
[Post New]12/06/2022 21:01
quote
Size5Balls
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retiredref wrote:When a opponent is allowed to score the same goal twice in one match you have to look at the tactical approach and the management. Why were there no adjustments to the tactics to prevent from from scoring the same goal again? Even worse when considering the same play created a couple other chances just as good which were sent high or wide.


Spain, Belgium, Germany, Uraguay, and Denmark went out before the US or in the same round of 16. Those are all better teams that couldn't figure it out either. It's a tough tournament.
[Post New]12/07/2022 11:13
quote
Nova2Euro
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Blutarski wrote:
retiredref wrote:When a opponent is allowed to score the same goal twice in one match you have to look at the tactical approach and the management. Why were there no adjustments to the tactics to prevent from from scoring the same goal again? Even worse when considering the same play created a couple other chances just as good which were sent high or wide.


Not picking up the third or fourth man joining the attack isn't so much a matter of management or strategy as it is an individual responsibility. Semantics maybe, but I would lay that one at the feet of the players involved, not so much coaching.


This. Also...

Watching the match with NLD, I kept thinking back to all of the joy about how Sergino Dest "chose" the USMNT over NLD. No way he gets into that Netherlands team. Just not good enough.

3 or 4 times in this tournament, Weston McKinnie had big changes that were nearly identical to the ones that Depay and Blind scored on. I don't think he put a single one even on frame. Just not good enough.

The third NLD goal, with the man coming unmarked for a simple (if not necessarily easy) volley. Just not good enough.

In fairness, though, the round of 16 isn't bad. Better than Germany, lol.
[Post New]12/08/2022 15:33
quote
Blutarski
Member Offline
NoYou wrote:The Guardian really takes the US style of play to task after the loss to the Netherlands.

"What did the US lack most at the World Cup? Football intelligence"
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/dec/04/what-did-the-us-lack-most-at-the-world-cup-football-intelligence

"This is a difficult one to handle,” Berhalter reflected when interviewed on the pitch after full-time. “We came up short today, but not for a lack of effort.” Effort may not have been lacking, but many other qualities essential to footballing success were: commitment off the ball, defensive nous, ruthlessness in front of goal. Despite the precision of the opposition’s finishing, the US were not undone by moments of individual brilliance, quirks of technology, or other acts of semi-divine footballing intervention; instead their demise was almost entirely self-inflicted. The US failures were in defense and attack, basic areas of core technical competence. Truly, this was a team who saved their worst for last."

"USA’s familiar shortcomings exposed against clinical Dutch at World Cup"
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/dec/03/usa-netherlands-world-cup-2022-soccer-last-16

"The Americans’ profligacy from promising attacking positions, their imprecision in building chances from possession and their consistently poor set-pieces all came under a harsh glare on the world stage after persisting through an often-rocky World Cup qualifying campaign. For three matches in Qatar they were able to make up the difference with closely knit team play fueled by boundless energy in midfield. But when the reserves ran dry on Saturday night, their defects finally caught up with them."


How many US Youth soccer matches have I seen with this same style of play. Run-run-run-run until you are tired and then sub out someone else who run-run-run-run-runs. It's frustrating that this mentality has such a hold in the US when over and over again it isn't working at the top levels.



I don't think there is anything wrong necessarily with the high effort, athletic style that we play with. It's a byproduct of our soccer culture and won't change until our system matures. Better coaching at the youth and college levels is needed to change our emphasis, and that will take some time. In any event, it's not why we lost against the Netherlands. I thought the team made a decent showing overall against a very good Netherlands team. It's just one game. If we had simply picked up the late attackers and had half of their finishing ability ourselves, we would have been dangerous.

I don't think we can expect to win the world cup at this stage, but this was a decent start at regaining some respect. Given the parity that now appears to exist, we're at least in the mix for 2026.

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