re: Greatest Country in the World vs. Messi y Diez Amigos 6:30 ET, ESPN2

quote:

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bob wanted us to attack more in the 2nd half. he put in a better attacking formation, and we looked 10x better

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he has been playing with a 4-3-3 (or whatever variation thereof). central midfield is our strongest position by far. to get our best players on the field, that would be what he has to do.

problems:

aside from agudelo and maybe chandler or jones, all of our players have grown up playing a 4-4-2. it is not going to be an easy change. plus, with holden, we probably look a lot better going forward in a 4-5-1, anyway.

additionally, in the first half, spector and boca were pinned back/wouldn't get forward. donovan and dempsey had a hard time moving to support altidore, and when out wide, had no choice but to play it centrally.

wrt the 4-4-2, we really only have/had one striker that we could trust to play at a reasonably high level. as well as agudelo has been playing, he has played <10 games as a professional. it's a hard choice to throw him out there in a game like that.

as pitiful as the first half was, it was better than bob getting lazy and throwing fricking robbie findley out there in a 4-4-2. the time to experiment is during friendlies. we are playing some really, really good teams, and we should have a better idea of what we have after those games are played.

now, if bob is having to make changes like that during the gold cup, burn the house down.