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Dutch Strangle, Break U.S. National Team, But What Else Is New?

Mar 4, 2010, 11:30 PM UTC

â†µâ†µSoccer friendlies have scores, but since they’re basically â†µexhibitions they should really be graded on a ratio of hope to misery. â†µUnfortunately, the national team’s latest against Holland scores a 1:8 â†µin misery ratio despite a respectable 2-1 final scoreline against FIFA’s â†µNo. 3 team in the world. â†µ

â†µâ†µDon’t take my word for it. A sampling of reactions ranging from â†µdepressed to apoplectic in the aftermath. That’s â†µOn Point: â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥Oh where to begin from this debacle?â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µNo â†µShort Corners, which is run by an actual soccer journalist:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥â†µâ‡¥No-one likes to watch a game like that. The charge at the end was â†µâ‡¥scant consolation for the surrender that had preceded it and one â†µâ‡¥suspects the Dutch had already gone home mentally.â†µâ‡¥

â†µâ†µâ†µYou could delve into the depths of Big Soccer for more, but that â†µplace is always upset about something. I started opening my mail around â†µthe 65th minute. It was not a good game. â†µ

â†µâ†µNigel De Jong’s crazy, â†µdirty tackle—in a friendly!—and the bone it broke in Stuart Holden’s â†µfoot is injury to insult. Holden is out â†µaround six weeks and is questionable for the World Cup. I officially â†µdid not write that post about the injury situation looking sunnier. â†µ

â†µâ†µSo. Here we are. A few comments on how certain players did:â†µ

â†µ

â†µJay DeMerit. DeMerit was very solid defensively but â†µthere's a reason he topped out as a really good Championship-level â†µcenter back: he's a hoofer. The USA had very few opportunities to â†µpossess the ball and DeMerit played a role in that with a series of â†µaimless balls upfield. He doesn't have to be Lucio, but he's so â†µuncomfortable with the ball at his feet that he ends up giving away â†µpossession in situations where he is not under pressure. â†µ

â†µâ†µStill, he might be a regular starter because of ...â†µ

â†µâ†µJonathan Bornstein. Argh. I’d never seen a ref not â†µgive an obvious penalty out of sheer pity before yesterday. The USA’s â†µleft back situation is untenable. Everyone can see this except Bob â†µBradley, who not only left Bornstein out there long after he’d proven â†µcompletely incapable of coping with the Dutch but actually moved him â†µinside to central defense when he brought Heath Pearce on. I get playing â†µthe guy for a while to see if he can hack it, but moving him to a â†µposition he won’t play in the World Cup unless there’s a plague of â†µfrogs? Does not compute.â†µ

â†µâ†µIf Steve Cherundolo and Oguchi Onyewu are healthy—even if one of them is â†µhealthy—there’s no excuse for putting Bornstein on the field in South â†µAfrica. Spector and Bocanegra play left back in top-flight leagues. â†µBornstein is stuck in MLS for a reason. â†µ

â†µâ†µLandon Donovan. Donovan was invisible but it’s hard â†µto tell whether that’s his fault or his teammates’. With so little â†µpossession and so few useful balls coming out of the back, Donovan had â†µlittle choice but to watch the forwards try and fail to hold the ball up â†µfor him. Altidore did okay, I guess.â†µ

â†µâ†µHowever, once Holden went out and ...â†µ

â†µâ†µDaMarcus Beasley came in, he had a much bigger â†µimpact on the game than Donovan. Leaving aside the free kicks, Beasley â†µhad as much impact as any U.S. player. So it wasn’t impossible to do â†µsomething despite the lack of help from his friends. Maybe Donovan was â†µtired. He’s been playing a lot at Everton.â†µ

â†µâ†µ---------â†µ

â†µâ†µU.S. soccer fans tend towards hysteria even in the best of situations, â†µthough. Realistically, a full-strength Holland side is one of the â†µworld’s best teams and a USA side without Onyewu, Davies, Dempsey, â†µFeilhaber, and Cherundolo is going to get torn apart, especially when â†µDonovan is having an off night. The player pool is frighteningly â†µshallow. â†µ

â†µâ†µThe game didn’t tell us much we didn’t already know: against top â†µflight competition, the U.S. will not have a lot of possession. Players â†µstill in MLS are not international caliber. Bornstein argh. Etc. The U.S. â†µremains the Butler of international soccer, dominating the Horizon â†µLeague of CONCACAF but clearly overmatched by the top teams. The good â†µnews is that all those top teams are in other groups, and by June a â†µcavalcade of injury reinforcements should arrive. â†µ

â†µâ†µIf the U.S. can shuffle its backline so Bornstein and Pearce are not â†µserious threats to play, find a midfielder to pair with Michael Bradley, â†µand get enough attacking bite back in the lineup by June they will be â†µfine. After the last two WCs, getting out of the first round will be â†µsomething like a win.â†µ

â†µ

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

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