US Soccer 2008…2004 All Over Again?
The parallels surrounding the United States Men’s National team are striking when you compare them to the same group in 2004.
As qualifying began, the US was ranked very highly in the FIFA World rankings, as high as fourth(!) in 2006, a few months before the World Cup. As qualifying begins this year, US Soccer will again be faced with having to dispatch the minnows of CONCACAF, something that has been extraordinarily easy for the US in the past. But I see a pattern setting up, one that if it continues will doom US Soccer again come 2010.
If The US is serious about moving up in the world of football/soccer, they need to do a few things. Important changes will need to be made, and tough decisions will have to be made as well.
First and foremost, the mistake of not scheduling tough friendlies can’t be made again. The US Soccer federation did an excellent job of scheduling games against England, Spain, and Argentina over the least few weeks, and the results told us a lot about US Soccer. Namely, this team needs Landon Donovan(Landon Donovan haters out there..enough. Stop with the nonsense about Donovan this, Donovan that. You look and sound ridiculous.)
Also, I think the argument can and should be made as to whether Bob Bradley is the right man to lead this team. For me, I’d say he is not. He is a good coach, but the United States lacks the technical capabilities to comepete with the world’s best. The fact is, Bradley hasn’t shown me anything that makes me think he can guide this team any further then Bruce Arena did in 2006. I’m sorry I just don’t see it.
If it were up to me, I would let Bradley go and make signing Guus Hiddink my number one goal. Hiddink may be the best manager in the world today. He guided South Korea on their amazing run at the 2002 World Cup, and is guiding Russia during their Euro 2008 run. I think Russia and the US are fairly similar on skill level, so imagine what Hiddink could do with us?
Finally, player development has to improve. Situations like Giuseppe Rossi are unavoidable when it comes to the players desire to play for another country, but we have to continue to develop our own players and getting them to the national team. We have good young players in Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore, Michael Bradley, etc. Continue to blood them. They’re grown men, they can handle it. Give them opportunities. Don’t be afraid to lose.
Against England and Spain, we played like we were afraid, and we lost because of it. To me, that falls on the coach. There’s no way you can send your troops out to battle with fear in their hearts. We can’t continue to make the same mistakes again. Improvement is needed.
Can all of this be done by 2010? It’s possible. But it has to start now.
You really believe that the U.S. has anybody as good as Arshavin? I think there is a wide gap in talent b/n the U.S. and Russia. No way the U.S. even qualifies for Euro 2008 in a group with England and Croatia.
I also think you’re overestimating the US’s strength in relation to Russia. I also think you look on Donovan too highly as well. I fully agree that Donovan is actually playing up to his hype this year, but he’s isn’t the scoring force for the national team he’s made out to be. He may score all kinds of goals in MLS, but I want goals from him for the national team that come from the run of play, not PKs or set pieces.
Andurski, Arshavin is one player, so on par with him…no. As a team though, yes I think we’re similar. I agree we would not qualify in that group, but I think if we have a better coach, our chances are better.
Erik, I simply do not care how Landon Donovan scores goals. A screamer from 30 yards out counts exactly the same as a sitter or a PK. I think when we are at our best(this means no Eddie Johnson’s, josh wolfe, ricardo clarke,) i think we’re pretty good. I would like to see us up against a squad like Russia with Hiddink as our coach. I’ve always said that losing out on Klinsmann was a big mistake on the part of US Soccer and I stand by that.
I’m really tired of the anti-US articles on this website. Wait until 2010 and we’ll prove you Eurosnobs wrong.
Is this how you take the sting of not qualifying to the Euros? England should worry about itself and how it’s going to perform for the 2010 World Cup because they didn’t look great against France and looked like a shadow of it’s former self against America. My prediction is . . . England will get throttled in 2010. Look I didn’t even have to make it into a blog post!
Yawn. Steve, I am American. I wrote for an American soccer blog for over a year. I’m probably a bigger fan than you. I’m not English. I could care less about England. I’m a realist though. We need better coaching, better friendlies, better player development. Its not anti-American, its the truth. I’m tired of settling for second rate for my country, and i can sense you are too. So hopefully US Soccer will deal with it.
And i’m not a Eurosnob.
i think usa has a great team but no good coach
In our last string of friendlies against top teams we’ve repeatedly given the ball away under pressure. When Freddy has the ball we look more like a real team. Freddy and Landon need to be the focal point of the team. Sure Bradley is playing these top teams to either draw or to lose respectably but we sorely need an offense to give the other teams something to think about.
And yes, I agree we need a coach with more ideas than Bob’s got.
donovan is a flop , if he have any quality , why isn’t any good team behind him , don’t tell me that a player dream is to play for galaxy? please , that is ridiculous as that ronaldiho is a non drinker, besides I consider that the continentents should have a puntuation acord to a game level , like eupe and south america 5 asia and africa 3 or 4 and central america or where the usa play should be 1 point? because how is it posible that the stupid ranking show them above mane better teams , by name and even more in the field .
Donovan…what? I’m just gonna say this. I don’t care if a team from Europe never calls Landon Donovan. When he puts on that USA shirt and steps out on the pitch for his country, he is our BEST player, hands down. I’m not sure what you’re trying to get across with the continents stuff, but Donovan is not a flop.
Frank, You’re totally right on that one. We lack an attacking flair in the midfield when Adu doesn’t play. He’s become very vital to our attack. Now here’s the trick…how do you get him, Donovan, Dempsey, Beasley, and Altidore on the field at the same time?
First off,Bradley no good!!! Donovan not good enough!!! The biggest problem for the U.S. is, it fails to use the talent that they have in its country and instead opt to nationalize foreighn youth. Keep up the bad work.
Brian, it’s simple on how to do that.
Play Altidore up front by himself, Donovan and Adu right behind him, Beasley on the left, Dempsey on the right. It’s not that difficult, I can figure that one out.
But we don’t have the same quality as Russia in my opinion. We have no one who can bag goals like Pavyulchenko, no one who can attack like Arshavin, and even Bilyaletdinov. No one like Yuri Zhirkov who can play on any wing, and even full back.
Our CB’s imo are shite. Onyewu and Bocanegra are starting because we have no one else, Heath Pearce is a decent LB, but against England we got killed with Cherundelo at RB. We don’t have a proven holding midfielder. And we can’t score goals consistently enough in the run of play. Our coach is fit for League 2 football, and our league is shite. Our young players want to go overseas to be tested. They don’t play and then they never improve. We will NEVER contend for a World Cup, at least in my lifetime. Also, Landon Donovan is well overrated. He is good, but he wouldn’t play on any of the top 10 teams in the world consistently. He plays hard, but he just doesn’t have the talent, or else he would be overseas.
You mention at how England didn’t play well against us, uh, we couldn’t get the ball in their final 1/3rd. They didn’t need to do anything and they cruised to a 2-0 win. There was never a time in that game where I thought we could score.
Good article, just the only problem is we aren’t that good.
Um, Donovan isn’t our best player. Tim Howard is the best player the US has. You can argue that Donovan is the best field player that we have, but Tim Howard is the best player we have.
The Russians are better technically but the US players are stronger so it would be an interesting game, to say the least.
Hey Brian, I agree that we need better coaching, but I’m not sure I see all the same parallels between the current rendition of the USMNT and that previous version. We had to get through the CONCACAF in the 2002 qualifying, and we did well at that cup. I’d be interested to hear you flesh that out more. What exactly are the parallels that you see?
PS - what happened to State Side Footy?!
Better friendlies, how can you beat Argentinia and Spain?
The problem with Donovan is that he goes to sleep every four years, at world cup time. He’s fine in friendlies and in qualifying, but he simply will not play on the big stage. The US is wasting its time with him.
Rob, Yes that would be the formation I would run too. But since our CB’s aren’t exactly…great…do you run the risk of just having one defensive mid on the field? If Michael Bradley can develop into a Gattuso type, then we are in business, but until then….we’re stuck in nuetral.
Erik…I dunno if I agree with that. I like Howard a lot, but to say he’s our best player? Its close, but how do you compare a striker/winger to a keeper? Its tough. I think Donovan is more important, because we absolutely stunk without him in the lineup against England and Spain. He makes the team go.
Jeremiah…SSF moved back here to the main page. More readers, more comments, etc. This article alone has gotten more comments than anything I ever wrote on SSF.
Good coaching is the lynch-pin, the fact that USA has gone this long without grabbing a high-quality coach is completely ludicrous.
Let’s also stop looking at Russia in hindsight. At the point of Hiddink joining them (and even a little while after) they were a little pathetic.
Last point is to improve on the culture of football in the US. Right now there’s far too much emphasis on it’s physical nature - they need to get someone in there who can administer and institute a more technical approach from the highest level in the MLS down to the lowest in the various academies.
We’re not talking about who is more important to the team. We’re talking about who is better.
Its always difficult to compare players at different position. A defender is hard to measure against a striker b/c they require a different skill set. A holding midfield requires a different skill set than an attacking playmaker center mid.
But at his position, Tim Howard has attained more success than Donovan has been at his. Howard plays for one of the better teams in the most competitive leagues in the world. If not for Edwin Van der Sar and a bad run of form, he could have been playing for the best team in the world. Donovan plays for a team that isn’t one of the best teams in a league that isn’t the best in the world.
Could Donovan play for a better team in a better league? Its a possibility, but he’s not doing it.
Donovan’s LA Galaxy are in first place in their conference actually, and Donovan should win MVP if he keeps up his pace this year. That being said, I think you’ve won this argument, but I still think Donovan is more important to the team than Howard is.
Donovan does lead his country in goals scored, while Howard is one a hell of a keeper. But Howard has had more success. I still think it tough to compare the 2 though in terms of who is better. The US would be ok with Brad Friedel or Guzan in goal. Without Donovan, this is a much different team.
I think a major step would be to change the NCAA substitution rules so they match professional and WC matches. That will force the players to get more technical and tactical and slow down the footrace. Coaches will have to get a lot better as well. Instead of trying to set up youth systems which US Soccer and the MLS don’t seem to have the resources for we should improve what we already have.
hiddink is a pipedream. this is the second article this week i’ve seen about that and while it’s great its not like its actually gonna happen or fix some of the more glaring problems w/ player development unless we were able to hire hiddink and his staff and were able to keep them for something like 5-10 years to change the culture of soccer here. that’s something that wouldn’t happen anyway because alot of people @ us soccer think we’re on the right track and would refuse to give control over to one guy. that being said, we’re probably better than we ever have been…at least potential wise…and i’m guessing that’s good enough for the suits @ us soccer.
i absolutely agree. howard is our num#1 stopper but we have many good keepers. without donovan and or Adu to take charge of the midfield the US look lost. no creativity, no flair as you say. skill players! i want M.Bradley to be our holding midfielder, but he can’t. not right now. he scored 20 goals in holland. how? as a holding midfielder? thats not the position he plays there. Bob Bradley should know, it’s his son. he needs to play more upfront. another coach is vital to be considered like Russia. we have talent yes, direction no. let’s give Bradley credit though, he has given young players playing time. and they have responded. he has helped give hope to US soccer for the future and for all of us to comment on this topic. the olympics will give more of an idea where US soccer is heading now. can’t wait!