-Chris Ballard
If you’re a season ticket holder at pretty much any MLS club, the chances are that you’re looking forward to this summer’s run of friendlies against European club teams. Or maybe; you’re not looking forward to it - it’s possible you’d rather see your team concentrate on actual competition.
Showing posts with label friendlies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friendlies. Show all posts
Steve Davis has a dispatch from Toronto this morning on the potential site and opponent for the 2011 MLS All-Star Game. The new
Bob Bradley has called in a youngish, slightly hodge-podge roster for the American friendly against South African next week in Cape Town. Included are the rumored Agudelo, Abbossoumonde and Diskerud, plus a surprise in Teal Bunbury (whose national team choice I wrote about recently), Tim Ream, and Eric Lichaj.
Let's pretend. You're the coach of a national team, which means your opportunities to run your charges through their paces are limited, and your pool of players is fluid and unpredictable. Your team has issues with depth in central defense, and an overabundance (quite suddenly) of defensive-minded central midfielders. You have friendlies on the schedule and the mandate to push the envelope. What do you do?
There are several questions to which we'll have answers come game time, including whether or not Bob Bradley intends to move away from his tried and true 4-4-2. The looks of the roster seems to indicate a change is coming.
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| Jermaine Jones will finally make his USMNT debut |
Bob's first act as newly re-signed US National Team head coach was calling in a 20-man roster for the upcoming friendlies against Poland (Chicago - October 9th) and Colombia (Philadelphia - October 12th). The number of fliers taken by Bradley was fairly small, though there are a few interesting inclusions, and omissions, on the list.
From a "fan of the game" standpoint, tomorrow night's USA-Brazil friendly brings the opportunity to see the next generation of Brazilian talent stake their claim to the nation's fortunes moving forward. Pato and Neymar alone are worth the price of admission from this angle, and I'd be willing to wager that it's a combination of the shirt and those names that will fill the New Meadowlands.
But from an American perspective, focused solely on the fortunes of our ever-improving (we hope) international efforts, tomorrow is just a place-holder. Bob Bradley's status is unclear. Several players are either on their way out or are already established as future contributors. For the US, the game is half big time money making/exposure event, and half...well, I'm not really sure. Bradley and company will absolutely want to win, but even if they do, I'm not sure what it will mean.
I do expect it to be a competitive match.
Check out my match preview piece at Soccerlens for more on what this game is...and isn't...for each side.
Ultimately the value of this game has very little to do with the US program's on field progress.
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| Jones gets first USMNT call up |
by Brian Mechanick
The USA roster has been released for the August 11 friendly vs. Brazil, and here it is:
GOALKEEPERS- Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton)
DEFENDERS- Carlos Bocanegra (Saint-Étienne), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United)
MIDFIELDERS- Alejandro Bedoya (Örebro), Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Maurice Edu (Rangers), Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus), Jermaine Jones (Schalke), Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht)
FORWARDS- Edson Buddle (Los Angeles Galaxy), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake), Herculez Gomez (Pachuca)
Thoughts on the Roster:
Bob Bradley and US Soccer have sent a clear message with this roster: win. A friendly against Brazil in front of 55,000+ fans in New York is not the time to play an experimental roster. The USMNT has some momentum right now, and win over Brazil could be good step in keeping it going into next summer’s Gold Cup, hosted in the USA.
Bradley was wise to leave out the players with the most unsteady club situations. Jozy Altidore is reportedly in the process of moving to Turkey’s Beşiktaş. Jay DeMerit and DeMarcus Beasley are without teams. Stuart Holden needs to lock down a starting job after missing much of Bolton’s season with injury, Clint Dempsey needs to impress new manager Mark Hughes, and Oguchi Onyewu needs to do anything he can to get a shot to play at AC Milan.
Some fans really wanted to see some young players play against Brazil (the likes of Omar Gonzalez, Ike Opara, and Edgar Castillo), but this isn’t the game for that. With more friendlies to come in the fall against lesser-known teams, expect the youth to begin got be mixed in then.
The striker pool is thin, but choosing Charlie Davies would not be the right decision. Reports are Davies is still on the way back from his injuries, and he would be much better served getting better and trying to get back into the mix at Sochaux then getting a 10 minute run around vs. Brazil.
Jermiane Jones is the name that stands out as a member of the roster. After being hyped for a year before the World Cup, Jones’ injuries proved too much for him to join the USMNT. At 28 some debate if he’s too old to factor for 2014, but as the most talented defensive midfielder to play for the US since John O’Brien’s heyday, Bradley is wise to see what the German can do.
Look for this game to be the start of Clarence Goodson’s fight to be a starting CB through this next cycle. He impressed in his brief appearances so far with the team, and a strong performance against Brazil could help push Goodson out of Norway to a bigger league.
Don’t be surprised with this striker pool if we see Bradley go to the 4-3-3/4-5-1 that was so much more effective for the USA in the second halves of its games. In Donovan, Bedoya, and Kljestan, the USA has the attacking players who can play in support of a strong striker like Edson Buddle.
A lineup prediction: (4-5-1):
---------------Howard-----------------
Cherundolo—Goodson—Bocanegra—Bornstein
------Bradley---Edu---Feilhaber-------
Bedoya-------------------------Donovan
---------------Buddle-----------------
Two weeks from today, the US National Team returns to the field. Brazil comes to the States with a young and talented squad under new head coach Mano Menezes, who will look to put his mark on the team while giving the next generation of Brazilian players a run out at Giants Stadium. The Americans will look to...do what exactly?
At this juncture, it seems certain that Bob Bradley will coach the team. The roster announcement is expected early next week, and with only one day of training ahead of the match, big changes are probably not in the offing. Most of the usual suspects will be there.
Let's consider this match a respite then, before the long four-year cycle begins anew and we start to worry about which young players are getting their shot, which older players will continue to contribute moving forward, and if the team will even have the same man in charge. Even if Bradley is on the sideline in New Jersey, we still don't know if he'll be staying on for another run. Gulati and US Soccer have remained tight-lipped, nothing has leaked about any meetings, and rumors about the Fed's thinking are non-existent.
Despite the short timeline, I hope to see Bradley call in a few players who didn't go to South Africa but have appeared with the senior team in the past. Alejandro Bedoya comes to mind. So does Charlie Davies. I'm honestly not sure if the timing is appropriate for Davies, but he's participating in competitive preseason matches, and appears to be fully recovered. Sochaux open their Ligue 1 season the Saturday before the Brazil match against newly promoted Arles Avignon. Maybe Brian Ching appears in light of his service, though that might seem patronizing after Ching was left off the World Cup roster.
Over 40,000 tickets have been sold for the Brazil game, and though I expect many of those tickets were purchased because of Brazil and not the US, it's not as if there's no buzz for the match. Except, I don't feel any buzz personally, and I don't get the sense anyone really cares all that much. Most of that is because it's a friendly and a massive come down after the World Cup, but some of it is because it the game represents almost no forward momentum for the program. We don't really expect to learn anything new.
Lame duck coach? Maybe. Outgoing players, or some who likely won't feature much in the next cycle? Probably. Nevertheless, it should be entertaining.
The match will take on added meaning if we learn something about Bradley's fate before then, if he shocks us all and calls in a experimental team, or if calls up Jermaine Jones. Remember Jones? Apparently he's finally healthy (no, really) and training with Schalke. At some point in the near future he figures to make his US debut. It's just a few months too late for most fans.
In the immediate aftermath of the Wizards 2-1 victory over Manchester United yesterday came the inevitable superlatives and the equally expected backlash. For Wizards and some MLS fans, the win was a landmark by which the league and the team can be measured; the biggest win ever, the biggest goal of the weekend (Arnaud's or Kamara's, take your pick), etc., etc., HOLY CRAP THE WIZARDS BEAT MANCHESTER UNITED AND THIS PROVES SOMETHING UNPROVABLE.
To which the response was swift. It was just a friendly (it was), United's team was hardly even medium strength (mostly true), and pre-season friendlies are not usually hotly contested by the team in pre-season (yup). We could debate just how much the Wizards players cared versus how much those United scrubs did, but without the powers of time travel and telepathy it's impossible to know. Maybe United did mail it in while the Wizards played with every bit of themselves. It's certainly easy to assume, and for those looking to minimize the Wizards' win throw it out without proof.
That's all relevant. But the context gets lost in the one-side-crows-the-others-slaps-them-down dance, because the supporters of both arguments refuse to allow for subtleties. The exhortations of Wizards fans, a biased crowd blinded by their loyalties and naturally ecstatic with the result, shouldn't be assumed to the opinion of the masses. Nor should the wet blanket crowd, anxious to put everyone in their place, get a pass for being so derisively dismissive. There's a middle ground as to the weight of the Wizards win. Somewhere.
No one, at least no one sane, thinks that the Wizards are better than Manchester United. No one thinks MLS is approaching the Prem in quality. The Wizards aren't suddenly going to steal away "die hard" United fans from middle America. But because it was United, the most famous and valuable club in the world, it has real meaning. It was by no means "defining", and it might even stretch the definition of "historic"; but we can safely assume that millions of people who didn't know about or hadn't heard of the Wizards before yesterday know them now. There's a undefinable value in that, and it's unfair to criticize those tasked with selling MLS (TV commentators and the like) for breathlessly describing the win in over-the-top superlatives.
It was Manchester United. Excuse everyone for getting a little excited.
Everyone needs to relax. It was what it was, but no need to rain on anyone's parade. A little enthusiasm never hurt anyone. Even less important is worrying that the excited claims of a few MLS fans is going to hurt the reputation of all American soccer fans, coloring us as uninformed or naive. Who cares.
United was recently crowned the world's most valuable sports property at $1.8 billion. For a bit of perspective, and using the MLS expansion fee as a an easy base value for the typical American franchise, United's worth is equivalent to 46 MLS teams.
If we compared salaries for those that appeared in the match yesterday, the difference would be mind-boggling. The Wizards are a K-Mart team, United the finest Tiffany has to offer.
The Wizards win is a big deal for one day for those reasons and more. 50,000+ showed up at Arrowhead to watch. Soccer's place in the Midwest can only be helped by the event and by the Wizards win, and superlatives should be forgiven in the immediate afterglow. All that being said, it's probably best to move on quickly.
The other talking point from this game involved the straight red to Jimmy Conrad for his tackle of Dmitar Berbatov in the penalty area. First, it was a clear red, and if this match wasn't a friendly there would be no discussion of Terry Vaughn's call. I suppose it's fair to talk about the spectacle and keeping the sides level despite the call being correct; I just don't particularly have a problem with the call, and in the end it actually benefited the Wizards. By holding on for the victory (hell, by retaking the lead) while a man down, a greater air of accomplishment is attached to it. Right call, maybe wrong time, adds a bit more weight to the victory. Not worth the energy needed to debate it.
Again, moving on to things that matter. IT'S ALL-STAR WEEK!
From Dave of Sounder at Heart comes a novel concept: clubs should be promoting cup competitions that actually matter over meaningless friendlies that do nothing but stretch resources and pack already bursting schedules.
The Sounders lost to Celtic yesterday, in part because keeper Terry Boss was sent off for a foul on Celtic forward Georgios Samaras. Samaras actually managed to put the ball in the net despite the foul, making the decision by referee Paul Ward to award a penalty and red card to Boss an odd one. It was a friendly after all.
It's unfortunate that the entertainment value of the match was destroyed by Ward, and it highlights the problem Dave is attempting to bring attention to. Sounders fans pay for these friendlies as part of their season ticket package, while matches in non-league competitions like the CONCACAF Champions League and US Open Cup are left out and shuffled to auxiliary facilities that hold 6,000 fans. It's encouraging that 45,000 Seattlites showed up to watch Scotland's legendary club go up against their beloved Sounders, but it's disheartening that so much more importance is given to exhibitions than to games that can lead to the club winning trophies.
The reality of the matter is that these friendlies bring in money. MLS teams are hardly doing so well that they can turn their nose up at the case when clubs like Celtic and Man United are on annual summer tours and would like to stop by. While the Sounders can draw impressively no matter the opponent, other clubs need the name draw to bring in the masses and augment their bottom lines. It's not a matter of profit in most cases, it's a matter of offsetting losses.
Dave is suggesting this for everyone, though his obvious concern is the Sounders. He happens to support a club that has no excuses when it comes to promoting meaningful matches over friendlies. The Sounders don't need the name of Celtic to put 30k+ in Qwest Field.
By including CCL and Open Cup tickets in a season ticket package, the club gives the fans a reason to go to those matches. By not including them, the club is making it imminently clear that the games hardly matter, that the tournaments are extraneous the rest of the season, and that there's little reason for their most committed fans to attend. How can we expect fans to care about cup competitions when the club sends the message that they're not important?
There are practical reasons for MLS clubs to invite teams with massive fan bases and big names to the States for a tour of friendlies; but the longer theses games are given precedence over tournaments that should mean something, the harder it will be to build interest in those tournaments. Dave thinks clubs should start giving the fans a reason to pay attention.
This is a first step. For me, the end game is to no longer need summer friendlies with third stringers from Tottenham and experimental sides from Celtic to makes ends meet. That may not be possible for the foreseeable future. and even if these games always happen, Dave's point stands: promote competitions that matter, include them in the season ticket package, and leave the friendlies to the tourists.
I'm fully behind #trophiesnotfriendlies.
I'm not against All Star Games as a general rule. Choosing the best players a league has to offer, bringing them together, and holding an exhibition game is an American institution stretching back to the birth of the baseball version in the 1930s. All of our major professional sports have such a game, and it makes sense that Major League Soccer would have one of their own.
I've even defended the MLS version as a necessary showpiece event; this league needs exposure, and with the current format of MLSers versus a notable foreign club, exposure is gained. This year's game against Manchester United is certainly an attention grabber.
But the league needs to make its mind on a few issues. They've given lip service to the importance of winning the CONCACAF Champions League, yet the All Star Game is scheduled in conflict with the CCL efforts of LA, Seattle, and Toronto. Per the All Star First XI release:
Due to international competition – MLS teams in the CONCACAF Champions League the week of the 2010 AT&T MLS All-Star Game – the MLS All-Star Game Day Roster will be 23 players as opposed to the 18 players used in the past. LA Galaxy and Toronto FC players who are All-Stars will arrive in Houston on the day of the All-Star game and will be available to play against Manchester United. No Seattle players will be available for the game day roster, but can be named All-Stars.
Seattle players are unavailable because they play Salvadoran club Isidro Metapan at Qwest Field the same night as the All Star Game. The two games will even overlap, since MLS v. Man United start time is 8:30 PM Eastern and the CCL match goes off at 10 PM Eastern.
Meanwhile, Galaxy and TFC players will fly into Houston the day of the All Star Game after participating in their own Champions League matches the night before. Ahem.
In the interest of TV, the aforementioned exposure, and putting the game in a prime time slot so people might stumble upon it on a Wednesday night, perhaps there was no other option for the league. By scheduling it in direct conflict with "important" an international competition for one of their clubs and one day later for others, however, they only appear to be minimizing the CCL. Actions speak much louder than words.
There's no doubting that a friendly against Manchester United that showcases the league's best talent will catch the eye Euro-focused American soccer fans. The league clearly sees this game as important to growing their fan base, otherwise it wouldn't exist in this form. In the short term, it might even be legitimate to argue that the All Star Game is more important than the Champions League; but longer term, both for the reputation of MLS among soccer fans here and the standing of the league in the region (where talent can found), the Champions League means much more.
If there's not a workable slot to put the game, and I'd argue that Wednesday, July 28th is not truly workable considering what else is taking place that day and the day before, than the All Star Game shouldn't happen. Period.
I give MLS a lot more slack than many observers, but even I find it difficult to stomach holding a glorified exhibition in the midst of a competition they claim they'd like their clubs to win.
Should any Galaxy or TFC player, if they play significant minutes on Tuesday night in their Champions League qualifier, really play in a meaningless game the next night? And yet with names like Donovan and DeRosario, it's hard to imagine they won't at least appear.
That doesn't sit well.
Losing 4-2 at home to a "B" Czech side isn't good. There's plenty to be concerned about from what was a fairly abject defensive performance.
But really, what has changed? What's different now, after Bob Bradley put out an experimental lineup full of guys either coming back from injury or making a last gasp effort to make the team?
The three themes I heard most last night, in order of relative importance, and my visceral reaction to the angst:
1. Onyewu didn't look good
No, no he didn't. He's obviously still stiff, far from one hundred percent, and potentially a liability at the back if he doesn't get any better. I mistakenly thought he would go a full ninety, and the fact that he didn't is a concern. But to think that a player pushing the timeline on a what was a fairly unusual knee injury would look any better than he did is nonsense; doubly so if there's no allowances made for Gooch improving over the course of the next two weeks. He has to be able to play, of course, but an ice pack on his knee wasn't unexpected, nor is it necessarily a sign of major problems.
Gooch's health and form was worry before and it's still a worry now. But the degree of that worry hasn't gone up, at least not for me, and I'm not ready to say Clarence Goodson should start because of it.
2. The defense look bad/unorganized/terrible/abysmal
Second (or possibly third choice keeper). Makeshift backline that included one assumed starter, and he was getting his first game action since October. Essentially, there are too many variables for me to be overly concerned about how a team that looks nothing like the one Bradley will start against England played. Are there endemic issues with the American defense? Maybe. But it was always going to take the first choice guys having a very good to great game for the U.S. to make it out of the group and go further in South Africa. Last night's performance changes nothing, and it certainly shouldn't be seen as an indication that goals will be flying into Howards net next month.
Besides, the two guys most critical as backups had solid individual nights in Steve Cherundolo and Clarence Goodson.
3. DEPTH!?!&!&*@! (as in, there is none)
Again, this isn't new. The U.S. isn't churning out enough high-quality players to have the luxury of a fully prepared and international-class second choice lineup. This is particularly notable in defense, as it was last night. Guzan isn't ready for prime time, Maurice Edu is only an emergency option at centerback, and Jonathan Bornstein is, well, Jonathan Bornstein. Hearth Pearce didn't do himself any favors either, but none of that was terribly surprising. Goodson's strong performance, and what appears to be his growing confidence, is a silver lining that cannot be discounted; if Onyewu is unable to play, Goodson is a reasonably solid backup. There's a drop off certainly, and it may damage American chances in South Africa if Goodson is starting, but we already knew that, didn't we?
I get it. Whenever the evidence of the shallowness of the American squad is exhibited for us all to see, conniptions follow.
The roster announcement is today at 1 PM ET on ESPN, at which point there will be plenty of time to pick over Bradley's squad, finding holes and points of weakness.
Speaking of which, the American Soccer Show will be live tonight to give you an outlet to praise/bitch about the roster at 8 PM ET. Check the website for details.
On the positive side, there's reason to believe that Herculez Gomez' amazing path to the National Team will continue with him going on to the World Cup.
Since it's required, here's my roster prediction:
KEEPERS: Howard, Guzan, Hahnemann
DEFENDERS: Bocanegra, Cherundolo, DeMerit, Onyewu, Goodson, Bornstein, Spector,
MIDFIELDERS: Donovan, Dempsey, Bradley, Edu, Clark, Holden, Beasley, Torres, Feilhaber, Bedoya
FORWARDS: Altidore, Ching, Gomez
*Yes, I changed this one already.
Saturday should tell us a lot. If things go poorly then, if Onyewu hasn't made any progress or can't play, or if the full first team lays a complete egg, panic mode is understandable. It's just a little too early.
I'm a bitter man today, all thanks to the money-generating job that a.) has nothing to do with soccer and b.) embodies everything that is wrong with the world. Only the anticipation of an almost-full-strength USMNT playing tomorrow in Amsterdam is keeping me from completely losing it.
Tomorrow's game is a double-edged sword for us fans and observers. While it only really matters what Bob Bradley is able to glean from the game, the result will color fan perception, spawn a flood of opinion, and set up the next three months of discussion.
Because that's the way it works.
So how will the community (meaning fans, bloggers, etc.) react, and what will we have to look forward to from now until May?
A peek at a few possible scenarios:
1. The Dutch dominate the Americans, winning by multiple goals and shutting them out.
In this scenario, the Chicken Little crowd will rise up as if imbued with the power of Zeus and hold court on the utter crappiness of the USMNT. They will tell us all, in loud and haughty tones, that Bob Bradley is a terrible coach, Americans are terrible players, and that the World Cup will be a complete disaster. Reveling in the joy of being right all along, many won't shut up until the Americans win a World Cup game.
There will be apologists, of course, though they will naturally be much quieter in their response. Injury excuses will be raised, the names of Oguchi Onyewu and Charlie Davies will be invoked, and the timing of the game will be pointed out. Three months is still time enough to get it right.
2. The game ends in a scoreless draw.
This result lends itself to ambiguity, though not scoring will drive more than a few people mad. Again, Davies name will be invoked as our only hope, only ratcheting up misplaced focus on a player that has yet to kick a soccer ball since his accident. The backline will probably get a little bit of both sides; either they'll say that the Americans played well enough or the shutout will be chalked up to a poor Dutch attack. In this case, individual performances from players on the fringe or just returning to the team (Edu, Beasley) will be the focus.
3. The game ends in a score draw.
See number two, only this time there will be at least one goal to talk about. The quality of the goal will be scrutinized (to the point of exhaustion), with some likely to discount it if the Dutch defense made any kind of mistake. The scorer(s) matter too, of course, and lord help us all if Eddie Johnson gets the tally; the angst over whether or not he's a viable choice for the World Cup and a possible starter will be analyzed to death. Hand-wringing in full effect.
On the other end, we'll be looking at the defensive work on they goal(s) from the Dutch. How did the ceterbacks do? Does Bocanegra (assuming he starts on the left) have the speed to hold up there? How badly do we miss Gooch, and holy crap when will he be back? You get the idea.
4. The Americans lose a close game.
Like number two, there is enough ambiguity built in to this result to allow for a wide range of opinions to come out of it. Individual performances will be put under the microscope for those with a long view, while the collective play will probably be lambasted in some quarters and evenly measured in others. Again, the response to this results depends on whether or not the US scores and how many they concede. Losing by a one-goal margin is still a terrible thing if they Dutch boss the game and simply can't score more than once or twice.
This result, other than a score draw, might provide the least fodder for looking at the team as a whole, though that won't stop some digging deep for things to praise or criticize.
5. The Americans play exceedingly well and win the game
Allowing for the variations (i.e., conceding or not conceding) this is the result that some might argue is the worst possible one. Why, you ask? Because it will send the fan base into a frenzy, ramp up the hype machine, and set us all up for the inevitable fall that will come when we crash out of the World Cup in the first round come June. How else could a win over the third ranked team in the world be taken? Would it prove that the Americans are actually pretty good at the moment?
You must be crazy.
No, a win in Amsterdam will, as well as getting the hype machine going, elicit the typical response; the win will be labelled "fluky", "lucky", or "flattering" by at least a few. Bob Bradley will still be castigated, but this time because the win will obviously cause him to gloss over the team's flaws, never mind that fact that he's a professional soccer coach who would still be analyzing the performance down to the second win or not, leading into a poor World Cup.
Or something like that.
The homers will come out in force with an American win as well, thumping their chests and claiming that the United States will be "shocking the world" in South Africa. Donovan will be lauded as top quality, Altidore will get the requisite praise, and the return of Gooch, Dempsey, and (possibly) Davies will be framed as evidence that the US will only be better come June.
No matter the result tomorrow, extremes, as usual, will probably rule the day. Those with more measured approaches, win, lose or draw, will be drowned out. It's a function of sports discussion, be even more so, soccer.
The game I'm looking forward to; the overwrought analysis, not so much. And there's a pretty damn good chance that I'll be guilty of it at some point.
There are 101 days left before the World Cup. The United States will kick off against England one day later, meaning Bob Bradley will have exactly one hundred days to prepare his team when the take the field to play the Netherlands in Amsterdam on Wednesday.
What the first hundred days are to a newly inaugurated president, with the down-to-the-smallest-detail planning to best push through and initiate the policies and programs most important to them, the last hundred days of World Cup preparation, with the down-to-the-smallest-detail scouting and training efforts, are to US National Team head coach Bob Bradley.
Bradley's problem is that he'll have little chance to see his team work together before June; the Netherlands match happens with almost no prior training, as players filter in from their clubs around the Europe and North America. This isn't unique to the US, as the nature of international soccer requires doing as much as possible in small windows of time; while Mexico has scheduled a veritable slew of friendlies for the run-up to South Africa, they'll rarely (if ever) have a full squad that represents the team they'll be taking to the tournament. Wednesday is the only FIFA date on the schedule before May.
The information Bradley takes in on Wednesday will be only a small part of the greater whole that will help him decide which players will make the cut. Part performance with while in the USA shirt, part club form over the next three months, part fitness and part necessity (i.e., replacing an injured first choice player), the criteria used to choose players is complex and ever-evolving. This makes World Cup team is a delicate recipe, prone to being spoiled by one or two wrong decisions made at the wrong time. Make a mistake in how you handle the build up or egos (see the US in '98 and '06), and it can all go horribly wrong; get it just right, and surprising things can happen.
The heat on Bradley will rise significantly beginning Wednesday, with just one hundred days to go.
Assessing the situation moment, with that notable (meaning nice and round) milestone coming up:
The Good
The return of Maurice Edu. Mo scored the game winner against Celtic on Sunday, will certainly play (if not start) in Amsterdam on Wednesday, and provides Bradley with a strong, athletic, box-to-box midfield option to play along side Michael Bradley.
Ascendant options. Torres, Holden, and Johnson are all playing well and with confidence in their respective club situations; Holden and Torres may battle for a spot, or could both find themselves in the team, while Johnson could emerge from no where to take over the striker spot that no one else has yet claimed in Charlie Davies' absence.
The Bad
Injuries. Not much more to say, though it's not as bad as it seemed just a few weeks ago. Onyewu is close to resuming training, Cherundolo is not on the roster but is in Amsterdam to train with the team, and Dempsey is on his way back. Still, those missing contributors makes this week's team slightly different than what Bradley will hope to play with in South Africa, lessening the import of the Netherlands match.
The USMNT returns to the field Wednesday, the last day that the countdown clock for World Cup 2010 will read triple digits. Things will only get more intense from here.
We interrupt the usual MFUSA weekend radio silence for a discussion about the importance of a friendly.
Specifically, we're talking about the USMNT's upcoming friendly in Amsterdam, where they'll take on the number three ranked team in the world. Bob Bradley has called in what appears to be the strongest side he can, and while the injuries keeping out two of his best players likely to be in the World Cup team (Clint Dempsey and Oguchi Onyewu) put the Americans twenty percent short of their potential, it will be their first full "A" squad test in 2010. It has meaning and import, both as a World Cup preparation exercise (i.e. for player evaluation) as well as for the greater confidence of the team.
But does it mean more than that? Does the US need a strong performance, perhaps even a win or a draw, to validate themselves in the eyes of the footballing world?
Nigel Reed seems to think so, as evidenced by his piece today on the Canadian Broadcasting Company's website. Forget for a moment the irony of a piece on a Canadian site opining on the need for the United States to prove a point in Amsterdam (okay, so that was a cheap shot, and I think Reed is actually English); even if Reed was writing for an American outlet, I would still have the same response:
No, Nigel, they don't need the validation.
Beating or drawing against the Dutch would be a wonderful, wonderful, thing, and I obviously hope it happens. We would all feel much better about the US chances moving on towards June (with the two May friendlies still to come) if they could beat a top-ranked team on their home soil. The Americans rarely play well in Europe, as evidenced by the most recent trip there in November, where they fell to both the Danish and the Slovaks with mixed A-B sides.
But getting a result in Amsterdam is important only for the here and now, not to prove a point to the everyone else. This isn't some insular "who cares what they think?" typical American attitude, it's pragmatism; if the USMNT starts worrying about what everyone thinks when they play, they're not focusing in the proper direction. They should win for themselves, because they're competitive athletes win the drive to do so, not because it matters what the rest of the world thinks.
Validation from external sources is only important if it brings with it some tangible gain; beating the Dutch is about the Americans, their confidence, and proving to themselves that they're good enough to go to South Africa and do well. If they lose, it doesn't matter that nations with longer and richer soccer histories will still discount them, because that ignominy plays no part in how then can, and will, play come June.
Despite what you may have heard, the outcome of a soccer match is not dependent on the reputations of the teams involved. Brazil doesn't win because they always have, they win because they're good. Spain won't land on African soil as one of the heavy favorites because they have a history of performing well on the biggest stage (they don't), but because they're good. If the United States is to advance from their group, perhaps move on to the quarterfinals, or god forbid go even farther, it will be because they are good enough to do so, not because they've earned the respect of some unnamed arbitrators of such things by beating the Netherlands in March.
The win? Needed, as wins always are. The validation? Not so much, because those things take care of themselves. Do well when you need to, and people will respect you; but that respect means nothing aside from the warm and fuzzies it brings, or the small individual effect it could have on Americans on the club level. I'm certain that much of the world respect, fears, and takes England seriously. That's all very nice, but it will do nothing to help them win games. Fabio Capello knows that. The players know that. Even the fans know that, despite the amount of pride it brings to crow that everyone thinks they're very good. Respect gets you nowhere when another team of eleven men with their own hopes of victory are lined up across from you.
The Americans know all that as well. I can't imagine that as a group they give any thought to their reputation abroad; they may hope for personal validation, because that relates directly to their own career success, but when Bob Bradley is lining them up for training on Wednesday, not a single one of them is thinking, "We need to win this game so the world will take us seriously."
Nigel Reed says the United States needs to send a message on Wednesday. I respond by politely saying they need to win, but not for the message it sends.
The American MLS All-Stars finished their mini-tour last night with a last-gasp win over El Salvador in Tampa.
Few, if any, of the Americans truly distinguished themselves; though the US dominated the game, putting the ball in the net was a major issue. Too many clear chances were missed, with Sacha Kljestan being the biggest offender. Sacha finally got his goal, of course, putting the US ahead for the win in added time.
“Overall, there were some good efforts and we saw some very positive things on the field tonight,” said U.S. Men’s National Team head coach Bob Bradley. “We went down but continued to push to get a win, and when you can come away with a result from a good play at the end that’s very positive.”
The real business of preparing for the World Cup begins now. Bradley will give us a glimpse of what the tournament team might look like, save a few omissions due to injury, when a mostly Europe-based team takes on a real challenge next Wednesday. Lucky for us, we won't have to wait long to find out who will be there; US Soccer is set to release the roster sometime today (per Grant Wahl and other sources).
There are a number of players who are either finally healthy or just on the edge of the squad who are based in Europe and might be in Bradley's team. Edu. Beasley. Bedoya. Eddie Johnson. Fred-....just kidding.
General consensus is that Brian Ching, Clarence Goodson, and Heath Pearce did the most to help their cases in last night's game. All three would seem locks for the Netherlands match roster, so they may have another chance to up their stock. More interesting than the carryovers will be those dropped; will Chad Marshall, who didn't play against El Salvador, be included? What about Robbie Rogers, whose performance was almost comically atrocious?
Bradley on Ching:
“Brian has just been in this camp. Brian had a little bit of an injury at the end of the season last year. We talked with him, we talked with Dominic Kinnear, we agreed that January he would work on his own, he would do strengthening, and we would get him into camp in February. I think in this camp, it’s like a preseason. He starts and the first few days, you can see it’s a little bit slow. But Brian has qualities on the field in terms of putting himself in good positions, holding balls, bringing guys into the game. He’s a player that works hard for the team. He puts himself in good positions. I think often he makes players around him better because of the type of honest, dirty work that he does. I thought that was clearly the case in the second half. Had some chances, the goalkeeper made some great saves, but he got himself a goal, and I thought he had a good presence."
I have trouble buying into the theory that one game can decide a competition, though if you choose to view last night as a "Ching v. Casey" showdown, Ching clearly came out on top. Club form will also matter, and while I don't think Casey can do enough for Colorado to set him apart from Ching, or that Ching will play poorly enough with Houston to fall beyond Casey, the opening part of the MLS season* will play a part.
And let's not forget that injuries can happen at any time.
Bradley on the roster for the Netherlands:
“It’s important to say that decisions for Holland involve many different factors. In some cases we might have an idea that we want to see another guy play, so not bringing in a player isn’t necessarily a statement that he has for some reason dropped down a little bit, just that we have two opportunities, this week and the next game to see some guys and we also recognize that we’ve had a number of these players away from their club teams a good amount in January, in the case of a guy like Clarence Goodson, because his team in Norway had actually started doing stuff. MLS guys, it’s just been this last stretch but we factor all those things in.”
Say what?
As important as these two "B" friendlies over the last month have been to Bob Bradley and the process of filling out his World Cup roster, things get kicked into a higher gear, and very quickly, for next week.
It won't be the full first-choice team, as it will be without Dempsey, Onyewu, Feilhaber, and Cherundolo (am I missing anyone?), but will certainly provide a better picture of where things stand just over three months (!) ahead of the World Cup.
Who would you like to see called in for the match against the Netherlands next week?
Head over to the American Soccer Show's UStream channel to listen to the live post game show as soon as the final whistle blows.
Add Turkey to the USMNT's pre-World Cup schedule; the UEFA nation will visit Philadelphia on May 29th, the last friendly before the Americans head off to South Africa and their date with England (not to mention Algeria and Slovenia).
It's nice to the schedule begin to fill out a bit, and though many fans will wonder why there aren't more friendlies set, a match against Turkey will be a strong test against a side with plenty of pride to play for after failing to make the World Cup themselves. Better yet, I can't imagine that the Turkish diaspora in the United States will be descending on Philly in large enough numbers to ruin a home send off, making the match a smart move simply from a "feel good" perspective.
The Turkey match alone won't be enough to sate everyone, of course. There still seems to be a large portion of the fan base mildly concerned that the US hasn't already scheduled more matches, and more matches against quality opponents. While Mexico sets up six match tours of the US, the Americans have only booked games against the Netherlands (March 3rd) and Turkey.
Not that Mexico is really testing themselves with matches against the likes of Iceland (ranked 94th), New Zealand (a World Cup team, but ranked 79th), and Senegal (ranked 91st). Are the Americans' two matches worth more in a "quality over quantity" sense than the Mexican full slate? Maybe, but since the American preparations are an individual concern that really has nothing to do with anyone else, it doesn't really matter. Make note of the last date on the Mexican tour, the match set for Reliant Stadium in Houston; the opponent is "TBD" and could end up being the United States.
Perhaps more aptly assessed is the warm-up schedules of the Americans' Group C opponents, England, Algeria, and Slovenia. It's those three sides the US will need to get enough points off of to advance to the knockout rounds anyway, so it might be a better to take a look at their plans*:
England
3/3 versus Egypt, at Wembley Stadium, London
Algeria
3/3 versus Serbia, at Stade du 5 Julliet, Algiers
5/29 versus Ireland at Croke Park, Dublin
Slovenia
3/3 versus Qatar, Petrol Arena, Cleje, Slovenia
*These are the dates I could confirm with a cursory search of the web and federations sites.
In comparison, the US schedule is fine. In fact, the US schedule looks pretty good all things considered, especially with the stern test that the Netherlands will present in only a few weeks. Remember that between now and the send-off match against Turkey that the only FIFA date is March 3rd.
How does everyone feel about facing Turkey in Philly?
*UPDATE* Add Czech Republic on May 25th at a location to be determined (Rentschler Field at in Hartford is among the rumors) to the USMNT schedule, per a US Soccer press release today.
Nothing to see here, folks. The entire post was based on a something Brian Ching said, and it turns out it was a false alarm. I should probably just delete this and pretend it never happened.
On the most recent episode of The American Soccer Show (download here; relevant bit starting at 19:10), US international Brian Ching noted that he hoped to be called in for "Holland and Germany". Both Zach and I missed it at the time, unfortunately, or we might have followed up. The Holland match has been confirmed, and will take place March 3rd in Amsterdam; but Ching's reference to Germany is the first time such a match has been mentioned anywhere. Is it possible?
Did Ching misspeak? Or is USSF working on a match with Germany that only the players know about?
To this point, I have been unable to find any other reference to the match, and US Soccer has not responded to requests for comment.
If there is a Germany friendly in the cards, it can only happen in April; the German FA has lined up a string of matches for their side leading up to June, with every month between now and then having at least one scheduled game, then two send-off matches in May:
Source
The Americans on the other hand, much to the consternation of their fan base, have no matches planned after the March 3rd showdown with the Netherlands in Amsterdam:
Source
None of that, of course, is evidence of anything. I'm just trying to place Ching's comment, since it came so out of the blue (enough so that neither Zach nor I caught it while conducting the interview).
When contacted for comment, the German FA responded by pointing to a scheduled USWNT match with Germany on May 22nd, so it would appear that either something got lost in translation or they were being intentionally evasive.
If and when US Soccer does get back to me, I'll update this post. I'm not hopeful that they'll confirm what Ching said, though if there is a match either scheduled or in the works, we might expect a non-denial denial.
A Germany friendly would certainly make me happy, with the clear need for tough competition before South Africa of paramount concern. The Netherlands game is a nice start, but the clock is ticking on World Cup kickoff, and Bradley needs more opportunities in the months to come to test his squad and make final adjustments.
*UPDATE 2/9*
Per Brian Ching on Twitter, his mention of a Germany match was a mistake. False alarm.
