re: Official: Klinsmann named head coach - press conference Monday in NYC

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Things wrong with Skeletor:

2. Inability to start a game with a winning strategy (Slovenia, Panama, Ghana)


I don't think there's a leader on the field. Either Bocanegra doesn't organize or can't. Donovan and Dempsey, and I think, Cherundolo are "playing" leaders (i.e. Do As I Do), not vocal leaders. I'm never a big fan of goalkeepers as captains, because they're always yelling.... it's hard to tell when it matters.

So, I'm not removing blame from Bob about the slow starts, but I'm placing the large part of that on the players. I can assure you that the pre-game speeches didn't consist of "just wander around out there for a bit.... if you give the ball away in the center circle... don't sweat it." Come on.

However, Bob has to identify and/or develop a captain, and I think he failed in that regard. I also think that part of the problem toward the end was Michael trying to be that vocal leader, and the rest of the team pushing back on the kid that doesn't play anywhere trying to take over.

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Solid, yet again.

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it isn't a direct attack on our players. every center back in the world does it at some point or another. that is a hell of a lot better than:

1. shite, i shouldn't have played that ball/gotten caught in possession
2. panic
3. goal

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True.

We saved this part until the ball got to midfield.

That should be an auto-ban for posting it.

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thought that basically every goal we've given up in the past two years has come from a giveaway while we tried to play possession through the midfield.

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I would say that Bradley was increasingly trying to bring us out of the bunker style and this where our defensive problems have come in.

I have mixed feelings about the change. Everyone's gaga with attack attack attack or possess the ball like Barca does but that's going to get us beaten like yard dogs by good teams (or even some of the athletic pacy counterattacking teams we meet in qualifying like Panama.)

We played the bunker defense and counter attack style very well in the past. It was our identity and we often punched above our weight employing it.

I can see that opening up our game a bit especially if this filters all the way to down to developing more technically proficient players as a positive for the future but I'm not sure that it pan out results wise short term any better for Klinsmann than it did for Bradley.

Again, I'm not opposed to the change at all but it's at best a long term plan whereas a manager that would have us playing like Greece or Paraguay would actually probably see better short term results until we have the midfield players that can actually possess the ball without disastrous turnovers.

Several times it wasn't a center back and was played with little to no pressure.

This is frickin' fantastic news! :nana: :cheers: :cheers:

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Several times

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='s

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Bob-ball(boom ball)

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?

and, you don't need pressure to have a, "what the frick do i do?" moment

ETA: i would be marginally more convinced of that argument if tim ream didn't come in and do the exact opposite. if bob bradley said anything, i'm sure that most of the time it was, "don't play balls that you aren't comfortable playing."

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ETA: i would be marginally more convinced of that argument if tim ream didn't come in and do the exact opposite. if bob bradley said anything, i'm sure that most of the time it was, "don't play balls that you aren't comfortable playing."

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Exactly. I can't understand why so many people think our defenders launch too many balls because Bradley told them "when you're in your back third don't even look to pass just close your eyes and kick the hell out of it".

The best defenders in the world launch balls out of play when they're not comfortable with an outlet. The problem is that our defenders are often too slow to see a passing angle develop or there's really not a passing angle there because of mids not moving into the best space.

Some of that positioning can be coaching but it's also just having vision of the pitch developing, which, for as much as people talk about first touch is just as much what distinguishes elite players.

We actually seem to get in the most trouble when we try too one touch passing through the midfield. It's more likely to result in a break coming right back at us than vice versa.

Fun fact: "Bunker Bob and "Bob Ball" never really existed.

Discuss.

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bob bradley did some things wrong and some things right. this one was neither of those.

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On this point... as I've said before... Bob's primary coaching issues were:

A. Not finding a leader.
B. Trying to play a system (possession, slow buildup) that our personnel wasn't capable of.

If he would have stuck two big center backs in the middle, SAT Clark (I know, I know) and Bradley RIGHT in front of them, clogged the middle, and just attacked down the wings and crossed the ball in, we would have had better results. Ugly results, but better results.

Bob shot for "progress" and either couldn't coach the players he had, or couldn't find the players to coach what he was trying to do. In the end, it was probably something in between.

Re: Bob Ball.

It felt like we defaulted to aimless kicking at times, but that wasn't indicative of a planned tactic. It highlighted a consistent lack of composure, which might be an indictment of American soccer as a whole rather than a particular proclivity of Bob's. This lack of composure manifested itself in other ways and in other games.

Klinsmann, with his insistence on playing attacking football, has a large job ahead of him, in attempting to teach something that is perhaps intangible.