us soccer: post qualification hangover
The US Men's National Soccer Team's twin losses this week to Slovakia and Denmark — both World Cup qualifiers from Europe — should raise serious concerns about the health of the USMNT program and its chances in this year's World Cup Finals.
As always there are plenty of excuses for the losses. The team was playing without the majority of its starters away from home against European competition -- always a difficult scenario for the US. And, while the likes of Slovakia and Denmark don't sound impressive, they did qualify outright for the Cup finals while teams like France and Portugal were surviving in playoff rounds this week. But excuses are a poor substitute for victories and what the US side needs now is to prove they can win with any set up against mid-level competition. I'm not asking Robbie Rogers to beat Brazil, but I don't think it's too much to ask him to beat Slovakia when his team holds 60 percent of posession. We need to raise our expectations for this team and they need to raise their own expectations. If the US is ever going to be more than a Cinderella story they need to beat teams like this anywhere and with any lineup. They have the talent to do it, but I question whether they have the will or the coaching staff to make that step. With that said, a few observations from this week's matches: The US has no depth. This is he most obvious and striking result of the past two games. MLS has not yet produced a play er pool that can go out and play at the international level. In time it will, but that time is not now. Certainly the US has 15 players (maybe 18) who can play with anybody, but when some of those players are missing the drop off is dramatic. The importance of Landon Donovan cannot be over-stated. Like Claudio Reyna in the mid-1990's, Donovan must be on the field for the US to win. Despite playing domestically he is clearly the best American field player there is. He controls the ball, dictates the attack and provides leadership. There are American players with more technical talent or more athleticism for sure, but no one has a the complete game like Donovan. In the World Cup, The US will rise or fall on his performance. Our forwards need to play. Eddie Johnson is our most athletic player, but without consistent playing time he's completely lost. Since moving to dreadful Hull City as a second half replacement, Jozy Altidore's first touch had gone from bad to completely incompitent. Freddy Adu, one of the most technically gifted players the States has ever produced has tragically fallen off the face of the earth in order to find some European glory. Our best players do not play and this is a massive detriment to the program, because it leaves us with second-rate giants from MLS. Sure they are physically imposing, but they are sorely lacking in talent.This is a huge problem and 'm not sure how you solve it. While I've just bashed MLS in the previous paragraph (and for the record I am a big supporter of the league) I think Johnson, Adu and maybe even Altidore could benefit from coming back to the league -- even if it's on loan -- to get into game shape. If our forwards are going to come from MLS anyway, they might as well be our best forwards. And they damn well better be in playing shape.
Bob Bradley is not a national team coach. It's a shame, because I like Bradley and clearly the players like him, but he just doesn't have the stuff to coach at the international level. He makes decisions to late and does not adequately prepare his team for matches. We saw it last week and we saw it in the early rounds of the Confederations Cup.
Bradley has done a lot of good things -- not the least of which is bringing lots of players into the side, dramatically increasing the player pool. Charlie Davies, for instance, may never have seen the light of day under another manager. But, he lacks the expertise and experience to bring together a diverse group of players from around the world and prepare them for top-class competition in a short period of time. Bradley is a great club coach, but coaching a club day in and day out is a much different prospect than coaching a national team.
The US missed an opportunity to hire a world class manager to take them into this year's World Cup. I have no doubt we would have been better served and would be farther along had we hired someone with experience on the international level. Unfortunately, we'll now have to wait at least another cycle to see what that type of coach could bring to our team.
