General

The Aftermath: How Bad Was It For The U.S. Last Night?

Jun 4, 2009, 7:46 PM UTC

â†µYeah: that did not go well. The Nats managed a single shot on goal, that from Freddy Adu in the 87th minute, before a meaningless stoppage-time penalty. By that time Costa Rica had already scored three goals, two of them due to horrible defending. All told: disjointed, preposterous, horrible, horrible, horrible. â†µ

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â†µâ†µRather than dwell on it, though, let’s hit some points and move on: â†µ

â†µâ†µWhat was that formation? On Tuesday I was excited to see the U.S. deploy a replay of their aggressive stance against Trinidad and Tobago, but coach Bob Bradley saw that and raised, going with the first 4-3-3 I can remember the States deploying. Unfortunately, all this did was marginalize Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey, expose the center of the pitch, and leave Costa Rica free to maraud down the wings. Suddenly the 4-5-1 seems considerably more palatable, and the same goes for Bradley’s insistence on dual holding midfielders. â†µ

â†µâ†µInjury obviously had something to do with it: no Ching or Edu or Hedjuk or Cherundolo, but, man, if you’re really relying on Ching and Hedjuk being healthy you’ve got issues. (Cherundolo is another matter—the dropoff from him to any other wingback on the roster is steep.) I don’t understand why the U.S. can’t just put Dempsey up top, where he plays—well!—in the Premiership. â†µ

â†µâ†µWhat was that substitution? Jose Torres may have had some defensive issues in the buildup to the first goal but that was mostly Pablo Mastroeni placing an enormous fork in his back (and a sweet finish), and other than that Torres was probably the USA’s best player in the first half, keeping possession in a multitude of tough spots and showing uncommon (for an American) deftness on the ball. So of course he gets yanked for Kljestan, who wasn’t horrible but, I mean, come on.â†µ

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â†µWhat was that goal? I wasn't even mad at Costa Rica's second goal, a two-touch one-two that wouldn't have looked out of place from Argentina followed by a lancing volley. It's 30 seconds into this highlight package: â†µ

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â†µâ†µI dunno, maybe Marvell Wynne should have been able to do something there, but that’s tough to stop. The final score wasn’t just on the USA sucking. Costa Rica was good, man. â†µ

â†µâ†µWhat was that, Demarcus? Beasley is not a left back against real opposition. It’s not his fault he’s been sucked into a position he has no business playing by the implosion of Heath Pearce and general Bornstein malaise, but that experiment should be over. He’s good defensively when he’s backtracking like the wind and closing down space as a supporting player, but as a guy who has to play in front of a deft attacking player it’s not working. â†µ

â†µâ†µWhat can we say to mitigate this? One: Wow, that turf was goofy. Two: Since this game was bumped up a week because of the Confederations Cup, half the team didn’t even participate in the training camp, going direct from their clubs to the sweaty and raucous Saprissa. Three: Many injuries, including one to the only kid (Edu) whose European adventure appears to be working out. â†µ

â†µâ†µIs that helpful? Eh ... a little bit. Depending on how together Mexico can get it in the near future, this may have been the Nats’ toughest matchup in this qualifying cycle. Their record in Costa Rica attests to that. But it bodes seriously unwell for this summer’s congested match schedule and makes the Honduras game Saturday a must-win lest some serious panic about qualifying set in. â†µ

â†µâ†µSo ... generalized ugh from here. The Honduras game can either make this a bad memory in a hellish place to play or put an exclamation point on the serious question marks raised herein. â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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