USA vs Morocco

[Stout]

We had better DAMN WELL face up to and learn from this wakeup call!!! From the coaching all the way through the effort, we did NOT show up to play in this game, and this is NOT acceptable at this late stage. Yeah, Morocco is better than many people think, and yeah, they scored against the run of play, but NO EXCUSES.

Why in the HELL are we coming out with only one forward? I mean, do we WANT to tell Italy and the Czech Republic that we're planning on playing bunker D and only trying to get it forward on the counter? Are we trying to fool them into thinking that? It had better be the latter. Arena, you KNOW BETTER THAN THIS!!! Aaaaargh!!!

As for the players...step it up. Period. You reeked. You showed some good moments of putting passes together, but had NO killer instinct, made the 39th ranked team look like a top squad, and just did not look like a team ready to participate in the World Cup, let alone win games there. We should be ashamed, Arena should rip them a new one, and he should go back to the mother-loving DRAWING BOARD with his own plans. And I hope to God Reyna is okay!

 

[Zeno]

You have to realize that the US best players are on defense and in the midfield. Arena using 1 forward is an attempt to get the best players on the field at the same time.

I didn't see but the last 15 minutes of the game but if he had only 1 forward up front (I'm assuming it was McBride) where did he have Josh Wolff and Eddie Johnson playing?

Reyna getting hurt is unfortunate but can we really every expect anything else from him? He's just frail or unlucky or both.

 

[Stout]

You have to realize that the US best players are on defense and in the midfield. Arena using 1 forward is an attempt to get the best players on the field at the same time.

I didn't see but the last 15 minutes of the game but if he had only 1 forward up front (I'm assuming it was McBride) where did he have Josh Wolff and Eddie Johnson playing?

Reyna getting hurt is unfortunate but can we really every expect anything else from him? He's just frail or unlucky or both.

Wolff was playing midfield. When Johnson came in, he played up front, but that was late. We DO have the personnel to play 2 forward; Wolff has experience at this level, and both Johnson and Ching can serve as well. We simply CANNOT expect to win or even draw against such world-class teams playing with one forward and hoping to score on counters. It just won't work.

 

[CaptTurbo]

That was shocking. This team does not look anywhere near as good as the last world cup team.

 

[Stout]

That was shocking. This team does not look anywhere near as good as the last world cup team.

I'm very, VERY worried. We don't have the underdog advantage we had last time around.

 

[SECTION 11]

We are so, so, so overrated. We have nobody that can score at this level. Hell we don't even have someone that can take a decent corner.

 

[Zeno]

We simply CANNOT expect to win or even draw against such world-class teams playing with one forward and hoping to score on counters. It just won't work.

It works for other teams and if we have the right players in place it can work for us as well. Our lack of true strikers is a real weakness, might as well put our best players out there...Wolff and Johnson wouldn't be what I'd consider part of our best 11.

We can't beat the Czechs and Italians straight up we have to hope to score off counters and set pieces, we won't beat their defenses with your standard attack, all the players we have who can beat someone off the dribble are midfielders by nature and not strikers.

When we play with 5 MFs during our possesion the formation sort of changes to 3 up front as the adjustment is made with Beasley & Donovan or Dempsey moving forward.

On defense Jan Koller is going to give us all sorts of trouble on set pieces, he's nearly 6' 8"..our tallest defender is Onyewu at 6' 4" and Lord help us if he gets one on one with Cherondulo (5' 6") or Lewis (5' 10").

 

[Zeno]

That was shocking. This team does not look anywhere near as good as the last world cup team.

This group is tougher than the last one but you have to remember the US did not look good in warm ups leading up to that WC either. Not to mention the injuries of Armas, Vanney, Reyna and Cherundolo leading up to the torunament. The defense is much better than last time around too--not having Agoos is addition by subtraction in itself. Then you have the experience factor of young guys like Beasley and Donovan who are only 24(?) and already have a WC under their belts.

All it takes is a luck break early on like we got against Portugal and the team could change. Had Portugal scored first in '02 who knows what the outcome would have been.

 

[Zeno]

Reading on SI.Com and USSoccer.com the US ran a 4-3-3 to start the game with Wolff - McBride - Beasley up front.

Thats a pretty ballsy system of play for international competition and may just show that Arena is scared about the team creating chances to score. But I do like a midfield of Reyna Donovan and O'Brien.

I think if I was doing the lineup now it would be...

Keller in goal of course.

Cherundolo-Pope-Onyewu-Lewis on defense

Donovan-Mastroeni-O'Brien-Reyna-Beasley in the midfield

McBride as the lone target player up front.

95% of the attack would be from the midfield. Lewis is an attacking option out of the back and Cherundolo is a danger serving the ball on set pieces. Scoring opportunities would have to be created that way...its the unfortunate make-up of the US squad.

 

[Stout]

At this point, I just hope we have Reyna healthy!