Landon Donovan is good, but he’s not as good as his jersey number suggests, says ESPN columnist David Hirshey.
“Currently, the best player that America has ever produced, Landon Donovan, wears No. 10 for club and country. But Lan the Man is more of a natural wide player whose speed and guile wreak havoc on the flanks rather than a consummate playmaker who brings a sense of calm and invention to the otherwise frenetic U.S. attack,” Hirshey argues. “In short, he doesn’t fit the expectations and requirements of the number.”
As Hirshey sees it, the U.S. will never truly compete for the World Cup until its officiating staff embraces the importance of a true no. 10 player. “In order to advance the quality of his team, Bob Bradley must start embracing the very type of player who he has traditionally shunned. In this, he shares a seat with England’s Fabio Capello, as both seem addicted to the notion that energy, drive and hustle — a team, in other words, of Dirk Kuyt clones — is sufficient to break the will of more talented opponents.
“As long as these myopic tendencies remain in place, neither of these squads has the slightest chance of unseating the Spains, Hollands, Brazils, Argentinas or probably even the Mexicos of the soccer world.”
The only problem is finding a true no. 10 is a really hard thing to do. But with a population of over 300 million, there’s gotta be someone in there.
Jermaine Jones was the lone star in an otherwise unimpressive scoreless tie with Columbia. He hustled to get balls on defense. He spread the field with excellent passing. And overall created a lot of opportunities for his teammates which they failed exploit.
It wasn’t a bad performance by the Americans, but an average to good showing at best. Definitely not a great showing. Leagues from being an elite showing.
When interviewed after the game, U.S. coach Bob Bradley said he hope to continue developing the “talent pool of players” for the remainder of the year, before “narrowing down” the most competitive team for next summer’s Gold Cup, which coincidentally determines who will represent CONCACAF in the 2013 Confederations Cup, aka the World Cup warm-up.
Next up: The U.S. return to South Africa for an exhibition against the home team on Nov. 17 (3 p.m. ET, ESPN2/Galavision).
Playing in a modern 4-2-3-1 formation, the United States looked more fluid than usual on Friday. But sloppy defense and several missed goals by Jozy Altidore allowed Poland to come from behind twice in the exhibition game to finish 2-2.
Altidore scored first, before missing several more shots. The rusty-looking Oguchi Onyewu headed the go-ahead goal in the second half, before Poland equalized in the 73′.
Overall, the defense looked as sound as it did at the World Cup (i.e. “broken”).
Next up: Colombia tomorrow at 8 p.m. ET (ESPN2/Galavision)
It keeps getting worse. Writes Grant Wahl about the pending World Cup qualifying format change:
“Under the new system, the only chance for U.S.-Mexico games in World Cup qualifying would be if both teams surprisingly finished second in their final-stage groups and had to meet in a playoff for the third CONCACAF World Cup berth… American fans had better hope that the U.S. and Mexico reach the final of the Gold Cup in 2011, because that would probably be the only time until 2015 that the two rivals would meet in a game that actually means something with both sides at full strength. And those dreams you had of being in the Azteca when the U.S. silenced 110,000 Mexicans by finally winning a game there that mattered? Forget about it.”
No es bueno. If FIFA approves the change in either December or March, it will cut out 25% of the ways to watch the U.S. national team in between World Cups.
“If Klinsmann wanted the final say, in writing, over choosing the U.S.’ opponents and venues for games,” writes Wahl, “that would have put him in direct conflict with Flynn, who’s in charge of the federation’s business side as the de facto CEO, and who relies on friendlies as a significant revenue source. Flynn, a former executive with Anheuser-Busch, is U.S. Soccer’s highest-paid official, having earned $646,066 in the most recent federation tax statement (more than coach Bradley).
Like the leaders of other modern organizations, the leaders of US Soccer have as their first priority, the preservation of their jobs. In for-profit organizations, the leaders keep their jobs by making profits and growing the business thereby making their owners happy. In a not-for-profit like US Soccer, its leaders do not have to satisfy any owners, just some other bureaucrats, who like the leaders have one priority and that is to keep their jobs. (BTW this is not to demean or insult the many grass-roots volunteers who give up their time and money to support their kids and the sport of soccer). Improvements in the quality of play and the skill level of US players is not on their priority list. In some nebulous fashion these people want soccer to grow BUT only as a means to expanding their own positions and resulting perks. That’s why the effort to bring the WC to the US is so important to them — more money and more prestige but not one step closer to developing a bigger and more skillful player-pool. Any one interested in improving the level of US soccer should take a look at the board of directors of US Soccer and ask themselves why any of these people would care whether the USMNT improves or not, just so long as their cozy little world is not disturbed. Klinsmann has been quite outspoken about the need to shake up this incestuous little group, so who would you pick Banal BB or Jurgen “hold on to your seats” Klinsmann. Just like cynical politicians, the leaders of US Soccer will play the patriotic card, expecting that US fans will blindly support the team while overlooking the hypocrites lurking in the background. The questions is will we continue to blindly support them or withhold our support until they start doing their job of improving the overall state os US soccer and bringing the game out of the suburbs and into the inner cities.
Or so says Juergen Klinsmann, who claims to have had “positive conversations” with U.S. Soccer for “three or four” weeks before the deal fell through due to control issues.
After reaching an alleged agreement with U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati to “have 100 percent control of the team,” Klinsmann says U.S. Soccer wouldn’t “commit” in writing to the terms. “Verbally, we agreed that I should have a hundred percent control of [the team],” he told Sasha Victornine (via SBI). “Unfortunately, they couldn’t commit to that and at that point I said, ‘Well, I can’t get the job done because I have to have the last say as a head coach for my entire staff, for all the players issues, for everything that happens with the team.’
“That was basically the end of our talks, and then they agreed to continue with Bob as the head coach,” concluded Klinsmann. “We didn’t get it to a positive ending because we couldn’t put into writing what we agreed to verbally.”
The botched deal marks the second time in four years that U.S. Soccer passed on Klinsmann in favor of former interim head coach Bob Bradley. For those out of the loop, German-born but California-residing Klinsmann was a top goal-scorer at World Cup. In 2006, he led the German National Team to a third-place finish.
U.S. Soccer has long been criticized for its suspect behavior. In his 2006 book Soccer in a Football World, author David Wangerin chronicled the Federation’s 100 year history, calling it “clandestine.”
If you ask most American soccer fans what they consider to be the most important matches they look forward to, most will have USA-Mexico World Cup qualifying matches at or near the top of their lists.
For the past decade, the U.S. men’s national team’s visits to Mexico City, as well as Mexico’s trips to Columbus, Ohio, have become must-see events. U.S. fans have celebrated the run of 2-0 scorelines at Crew Stadium, while remaining frustrated at the national team’s inability to secure a point or three at Estadio Azteca, where no American team has ever won.
It is this history that makes these games so special, and have fans on both sides of the border counting the days, months and years until the next meeting.
Unfortunately for those fans, and for both national teams, they may have to wait much longer for those matches than they could have ever expected.
CONCACAF is set to dramatically change its World Cup qualifying process, a move that will mean more games and more opportunities for the smaller teams in the region, but a move that will effectively cripple the region’s best rivalry.
Landon Donovan is good, but he’s not as good as his jersey number suggests, says ESPN columnist David Hirshey.
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If you ask most American soccer fans what they consider to be the most important matches they look forward to, most will have USA-Mexico World Cup qualifying matches at or near the top of their lists.