Per usual, it took the USMNT some time for them to get things going. |
Last night the United States National Team was in familiar, unnecessary and annoying place. They were forced into a must-tie game in the last qualifying match of a CONCACAF group they should have taken behind the woodshed. Instead they let up a 81st minute goal in their first matchup vs. Guatemala, tossed up a dud against an athletic, but overmatched Jamaican team on the road and had to salvage a 90th minute win against an embarrassingly unskilled Antigua and Barbuda just to put themselves in a must-tie position in their final third round match. (That paragraph was about as unnecessary and ridiculous as a paragraph I've ever written, but that can be the United States team in a nutshell).
No matter who seems to coach this squad they seem to thrive in the dramatic moment, and only the dramatic moment. Of course, it's always a theatrical situation they force themselves into. And as if it wasn't good enough that they were in must-tie (and let's just go ahead and say it was a must-win) they went ahead and let Guatemala's only good player get a wide-open breakaway only five minutes into the game. Tim Howard was so stunned by how wide-open this dude was that he got walked slower than molasses dripping down a tree in January. So now with the Livestrong Park faithful in dead silence and the team down 1-0, America decided to sack up and put their throat on this squad.
American answered immediately, and then answered again and again. Before you knew it was 3-1, the game was decided and the U.S. was once again leading the charge into the next round. Yeah it might have been a party by the 36th minute, when Dempsey found twine for a second time, but this never should have happened. We shouldn't celebrate advancing through the third round against countries like Antigua and Barbuda and Guatemala, I mean is A&B even an actual country? Simply put, we've gotten too far as a soccer country to been stumbling through early qualifying rounds. We shouldn't even be stumbling through the hexagonal round. I get that the conditions at many of the CONCACAF stadiums is as ugly as a middle school soccer field in the Bronx, but we are far superior to every team in CONCACAF other than Mexico and maybe even Costa Rica, so it should be a cakewalk.
That's why we hired Jurgen Klinnsmann right? To make this whole qualifying thing a breeze. To transform World Cup aspirations from pipe dreams to a real-life thing. But I'm getting to the point where I don't think it's coaching. I think that he's found the right players for the right positions, he's found the next Stu Holden in Graham Zusi and he seems to have found the best four backs he possibly could. Yet there are major holes in backfield talent and I don't think it's entirely on him. Aside from the fact that our back four has more holes in it than a WWI battlefield, I think this team has a hard time motivating itself.
Guys like Dempsey, Donovan, Altidore, and Bocanegra need an extra push to get their motor really going and that usually comes from an early goal by the opposing team. I'm not doubting their mental fortitude, since they have shown their "never say die" attitude far too many teams. This team is not a group of quitters, not one bit. But they are just a step too slow early on in games and that can often turn into landslide losses against superior opponents. Klinnsmann is trying his best to build a supporting cast that plays with fire from the git-go, but it's hard for these role players to really energize the squad when their leaders need a good ten minutes to really get the blood flowing. As much as a guy like Graham Zusi can immediatley put a ride into one or Herculez Gomez can push the docket up front, Bocanegra gets caught napping or Dempsey is playing too cute in the midfield.
There is a legitimate amount of talent on this current squad that can contend with the big boys in 2014 and maybe some more time for the Klinnsmann effect (should be in full effect already) to take over will really help, but this team has to put it all together. There needs to be a unification of skill, mentality and some good ol' luck. These dramatic wins against CONCACAF opponents are exciting and might boost our shaky confidence, but they won't cut it against Spain, Germany, Brazil, France or Italy.
We dodged a boatload of bullets in this round of qualifying, but that is done and gone now. Starting next February it's the leaders of this team that need to get the guns blazing. And I like Jurgen's style and I've enjoyed watching him find some diamonds in the rough with Fabian Johnson, Danny Williams and Graham Zusi, but it's time to make CONCACAF our redheaded step child. No more excuses, set the tone or we'll be going home early in 2014.
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