The Soccer Thread (Version 7.0)

Uggh.

 

Losing to Jamaica. We hired JK for that!?!

 

And on two free kicks? Just poor.

 

Down goes the Americans...2-1. Last play of the game is when it's kicked out of bounds and 3 fans jump over fence to grab the ball and run back into crowd. Ref blows the whistle...I'm watching in Spanish...so not sure what happened there.

 

You don't get a point in Jamaica, suddenly you're needing to make up ground elsewhere. Which means I sudden have a sinking feeling about Brazil.

Even with the name players sidelined, JK should have been able to get one point out of that match. Especially when you're leading 36 seconds into the damn thing.

 

The first one? Not much, imo. Keeper can't expect the ball to go more or less straight through the wall like that.

 

We will advance to hex even if we finish second.

 

True, but another bad showing against Jamaica or Guatemala and it could be lights out and a 3rd place finish. Heck, the U.S. actually needs at least A win at this point, draws aren't going to cut it since Guatemala may try to pour it on against Antigua and Barbuda on Tuesday to win the tiebreaker in goal diff.

 

USA needs to win Tuesday. Huge game, which is baffling for the fourth game of qualifying. I'm sure Jamaica will pack it in and try for a goal on the break. Didn't watch the game, but it seems the USA had zero creativity. Haven't heard one word about Jozy Altidore. Seems like only Dempsey played well. And for the love of all that's good in this world, can Kyle Beckerman please never see an international soccer field again? Graham Zusi is better, albeit a different kind of player.

Antigua and Barbuda led Guatemala at halftime but lost 3-1 in Guatemala, so I won't hand the return game to Guatemala yet. That game is equally huge for Guatemala. And think about this for a second - if Jamaica wins and Antigua wins, there's a three-way tie for second.

 

Beckerman is pretty terrible. Saw this elsewhere on the internet as a reaction to the goal, and it cracked me up:

"That dumb hippie gave up the fk AND jumped on the wall AND deflected the grass cutter."

 

It would be harsh to pin much blame on the forwards. With the US playing so narrow and with three D-mids, there was no service regardless of who was running around up front. The US might be able to generate some offense with Baby Bradley charging forward and two other D-mids hanging back, but any other combination simply will not work. Jones and Edu are pure destroyers -- the very occasional shot from distance notwithstanding -- and Beckerman can be box-to-boxish at an MLS level but is too much of the same in international play.

Did it look to anyone else that the US set out to get a draw in Kingston? I thought the US was supposed to be striving for more than that after hiring Klinsmann, who is all about positive, attacking play. Grimly grinding out results was the old way under Bob Bradley, but the US I saw on the field against Italy, Mexico and now Jamaica was almost no different. This max-protect approach removed any chance of offensive impetus and allowed Jamaica to be in position to win with two set pieces despite generating almost nothing from the run of play.

Now we need to see whether this high-minded rhetoric from Klinsi has any substance to it. The US has to put Jamaica under pressure on Tuesday with width and possession. There should be two defensive midfielders at most in the starting lineup. Goodson/Cameron is acceptable as a center back partnership as playing Bocanegra risks getting caught out for pace. Johnson would be better served on the left wing rather than left back, but the lack of any good left back options (no Spector or Boca) means he's stuck there for the time being. Cherundolo needs to reclaim his place at right back to at least get some extra width.

Midfield is where the US lost in Kingston and it's where it will have to win in Columbus. Since Klinsmann is unlikely to play a flat-out 4-4-2, putting Edu and Williams in front of the back four should provide sufficient pace in the midfield shield. That frees up Dempsey, Torres and Shea to play in an attacking trio behind Altidore -- preferably with Torres in the middle. Torres obviously isn't in Klinsmann's good graces at the moment, but he's the kind of player the US is going to need to keep the ball and make plays in the space Jamaica will inevitably leave as it sits deep and tries to play on the counter. Gomez could start for Dempsey if he's too gassed after Friday, and Zusi is certainly an option off the bench if Bad Brek makes another appearance.

The Hex is far from lost, of course. Three points on Tuesday and another three at Antigua & Barbuda gives the US 10 points going into the finale at home to Guatemala. With Guatemala and Jamaica playing each other on Oct. 12, even a draw on the 16th should be enough to secure a top-two finish. Then comes the Hex, which brings with it slightly more margin for error. (As an aside, I really hope Canada makes the Hex. They haven't made it that far since qualifying for France '98 and it would be great to see them back in the mix.)

 

I agree things aren't lost just yet, but they really do need six points from the next two matches. I'd rather not have to rely on getting three points out of the final group match just to get to the next round.
This is like I said before. The U.S. almost always seems to lose (or draw) the matches it should win and every now and again gets a result that surprises everybody (see Italy or Mexico) that makes people think, "NOW we're on the road to world soccer relevancy", only to lose at places like Jamaica.