re: These United States of America vs. Our Hat (ESPN2, 8:11 CT)

I think the US will play better next week. But, like I said they should've done better. A few factors played in the draw.

Geez this board is so temperamental, this was an evaluation tool, nothing more...
We had the same ugly play and the same result with our A squad last time we played them. I'm not bent out of shape at all, I'm excited to see our 1's back in action next week

rather than doing traditional ten point player ratings I am just going to use the garbage scale.
Ex. Morales, morrow, beltran, evans, bruin, wondo, and davis are all unadulterated garbage. Put them in the trash can and never call them in again for any reason.

Feilhaber, GAM, and beckerdreads are all refuse. They have flashes of usefulness, but in general are not worth any significant playing time and should be discarded. Unfortunately beckerman and maybe GAM will get callups.

S Johnson, gonzalez, zusi, bedoya, and gatt are the only ones out there tonight that I would like to see more of. Bedoya and gatt both need a lot more polish, but I can see the upside. Particularly with gatt I appreciated his hustle and general discontent with mediocre bullshite abortion soccer. Zusi, bedoya, and gonzalez will get callups for backup roles, rightfully so.

Frankly I wasn't expecting a lot more from this game, but what most concerned me was the shift in tactics. Of course we started out trying to work the ball, but because of lack of general skill and hustle players got frustrated. After about 30 minutes we went into autpilot/sleepwalk mode. Then at about 65 minutes we actually started to close people down quickly as soon as they got the ball which frankly we should have done all game against a very pedestrian opponent. Some spaces started to open up but by then we were playing bob ball and nobody really gave a shite anymore.

Last rant, why was mix not even on the bench? It was pretty obvious that there was no central creativity, so we bring in feilhaber who lets be honest will never make any significant contribution the the national team. It would've been nice to see how mix would have fared and given him some more international playing time.

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Agudelo's growth isn't being stunted by MLS. Chivas USA just sucks. MLS isn't going to sell Juan for anything under his value.

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And what is his value? He doesn't deserve a 6mill+ bid for him right now.

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Brad Davis and Beckerman have been with their respective clubs for quite sometime now Bhoy, hardly journeyman.

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Journeyman in soccer = hard-worker, but will never get better than they are now, and they aren't anything special currently. I think that describes Davis and Beckerdreads well. I know that you like Davis because he plays for your shitty club, but c'mon, he just isn't good enough.

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Feilhaber, GAM, and beckerdreads are all refuse

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Yeah... no. Feilhaber was the best player on the field at times, GAM saved our arse against Antigua and Barbuda, and even Beckerdreads has his moments.

I think Klinsmann's oft discussed tactical naïveté is beginning to show. I've lost count of the number of times he's completely murdered the formation and Starting XI. He's gotten bailed out in several friendlies with the extended allotment of subs, after some very lackluster performances in the first half of those games.

Typically national team managers use a set formation for their roster. Bob Bradley, aside from a horribly conceived 4-3-3 in Costa Rica, always used a empty bucket 4-4-2. Jogi Löw almost always employs a 4-2-3-1. England typically uses some form of a two striker system. Spain usually uses a variation of a 4-3-3 (be it the tiered 4-6-0 or an offshoot of 4-2-3-1)

Tonight Klinsmann went with a 4-4-2 without any speed on the flanks until Gatt and Bedoya came on. He's gone with the 4-3-3 without any width. He tried the popular 4-2-3-1 that turned into a 4-5-1 without any support for Jozy or Herculez Gomez, the lone forward up top.


As someone tweeted earlier...

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Only referring to hypocrisy w/ this tweet: when Klinsmann loses, it must be #MLS' fault, but when Bradley lost, it must be his fault. #USMNT

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I like Klinsmann's ideas for US Soccer. However, so far in his actual job as a manager, he's been very average.

GAM's a substitute striker. He'll never be first choice...but I'd want what he can bring me off the bench.

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gold medal Mexicans

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We beat the Mexican senior team. The team that won gold was their U-23s, while we were at the house.

Friendly results are great, but both of those results (as well as the Russian result) relied on players who came on as fourth used substitute or later. Friendly results also don't mean shite if we lose in San Pedro Sula next week.

ETA: Klinsmann wouldn't have been able to throw in Diskerud had we needed a goal against Russia in a competitive fixture. Same goes for Orozco-Fiscal and Terrence Boyd, the combo used in the Mexico victory.