The USNMT is only as good as it's defense
| 12
|
by Foolsgold
At the 2002 World Cup held in Korea and Japan, the US lost in the quarter-finals to eventual finalist Germany. It was their best finish since 1930, when the tournament featured only thirteen teams and the US won their group only to lose in the semis. Was it an amazing run of luck or were the US squad really that good?
Well, first they were placed in the 'Group of Death' with hosts South Korea, a loaded Portugal side that featured Luis Figo and Rui Costa, and Poland which had players from nine different European leagues. The US were considered the 'easy points', and it certainly helped that in their opening match with the Portuguese, that their opponents underestimated them. Because of this, Portugal found themselves down 3-0 by the 38th minute of play, a deficit that proved to large to overcome.
In their next match against the host nation, a Clint Mathis goal in the 24th minute put our boys up 1-0 and even though South Korea equalized with about ten minutes to go in the match, the damage had been done. South Korea than helped us out with a 1-0 win over the unprepared Portugal, meaning that four points were enough to send us through and a 1-3 loss to Poland was meaningless.
In the first round of the elimination matches, the US drew Mexico and promptly sent them packing with a 2-0 defeat of their fiercest rivals. Then they lost to Germany by a respectable 1-0 margin in the quarters, earning the respect of the world in the process.
So maybe it was luck that the Portuguese underestimated both the US and South Korea, but that doesn't take away from the fact that they played relatively well. I think the real reason why the team did so good, was because we had intelligent, experienced players, especially on defense and particularly in the middle.
Our defense back then mainly consisted of Eddie Pope, Jeff Agoos, Tony Sanneh, Frankie Hejduk, and Greg Berhalter. We also had Pablo Mastroeni and of course, Claudio Reyna, as holding/defensive midfielders. The average age of that group? 29. Average amount of International caps going into the World Cup (sans Mastroeni, who was relatively new to the squad and only played due to injury)? 59. A good defense always gives you a chance at winning matches and we had a pretty solid and experienced one.
Since most of those players have retired from international play over the past few years, the US has seen their FIFA ranking fall from a peak of 4 prior to last year's World Cup to the recent valley of 17. Get ready for it to fall even further though.
Yesterday, the US lost their sixth straight match 4-2 to Brazil and over that streak they've used thirteen different players on defense alone: Jay Demerit, Oguchi Onyewu, Steve Cherundolo, Carlos Bocanegro, Heath Pearce, Danny Califf, Jonathan Spector, Jonathan Bornstein, Marvell Wynne, Drew Moor, Bobby Boswell, Jimmy Conrad, and Frankie Hejduk. Thirteen players in six games in a bit extreme and not only does that hurt the chances of them playing better together, how many of these players do you think are good enough for the 2002 World Cup squad?
Well, in my opinion, the only ones that have had enough playing time to prove themselves worthy of making the 2002 squad would be Cherundolo, Bornstein, and, of course, Hejduk, who was on that side. Bocanegra and Onyewu need to be benched until they start using their brains or just dropped completely. They have both shown that they are undisciplined, are always a red card waiting to happen and consistently get caught out of position. It's high time we give other players a chance to gain experience.
I don't care whether it's Califf or Demerit, Spector or Pearce, Wynne or Moor, we need to figure out a solid group of defenders and stick with them. The Copa America fiasco was just stupid and wasteful, if we aren't going to continue to use players from those squads, what was the point? I also feel that if Gooch and Bocanegra's play are representative of their coaching, then a change at that level should be made.
The only positions the US team seems to be progressing at is midfield. Feilhaber, Bradley, Beasley, Mastroeni, Donovan, and the ever versatile Dempsey, are the cream of the US crop, but it's futile if our defense has more holes in it than a Roman aqueduct. Seriously, I didn't expect us to beat Brazil yesterday, but Bocanegra and Onyewu were running around like two chickens who just had their heads cut off.
Originally posted here
