For the United States to advance in the Confederation Cup it needs a three goal win over Egypt and for Brazil to beat Italy by the same margin. Can it happen? Absolutely. How many fans believe it will happen? There is the problem. The US is suffering from a lack of confidence – both outside and apparently inside the dressing room. And it’s not all Bob Bradley’s fault.
Since World Cup qualifying began for the United States, we have seen the team struggle to defeat lesser nations like Barbados, Guatemala, Cuba and Honduras, struggle to draw El Salvador and suffer an embarrassing defeat in Costa Rica.
Now, matched up against the caliber of teams they will face in the 2010 World Cup, (if they qualify,) the only thing we have learned is that this team lacks skill, heart, composure and spine. It would take a Mr. Fantastic type of stretch to find anything good about the United States performance in South Africa.
While maybe not a roar, several former US National Team stars have begun to mutter aloud at how little talent and heart the current crop is showing. Most of the criticisms are couched in politeness, but more and more sharp edges are starting to show. It cannot be much longer before those fissures start to show inside the locker room.
Most of the complaints focus on the coaching, and while there are some mistakes from the technical area, what about the talent on the field that Bradley has to work with? It is almost as though Bob Bradley has backed himself into an imaginary corner, and is sticking blindly with ‘his’ players. Unfortunately for Bradley his players are letting him down big-time.
I am a firm believer that the talent is out there for the United States. In fact, even some of the players who are struggling now could turn things around dramatically in a different scenario. And yes, that includes DaMarcus Beasley. I refuse to believe that the player who showed so much promise eight years ago has disappeared forever. Although his recent performances show he should disappear for a while at least.
We are approaching the 20-year anniversary of continuous US presence in the World Cup. How much better is this United States team than the one that ended the 40-year drought? Have we been able to springboard off that success, using Bradenton, Major League Soccer and all of the supposed improvements in player identification and development?
Bruce Arena famously said that almost all of these early stars would not even be able to make his squad in 2002. That stuck in the craw of many of the pioneers. However, while 2002 was arguably a watershed year for US Soccer, what has happened since then looks more like Old Mother Hubbard.
Since the 2009 version of the United States National Team has faced two teams in the Confederations Cup that they also faced back in the early days of the US revival, let’s compare how this side stacks up against the 1990 and 1994 teams.
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In their Confederations Cup opener in South Africa 2009, the US squared off against world champion Italy. In their second game in Italy 1990, the young US side faced the hosts. Here are the starting lineups.
1990 United States lineup vs. Italy:
Tony Meola; John Doyle, Jimmy Banks, Mike Windischmann, Desmond Armstrong; Marcelo Balboa, John Harkes, Tab Ramos, Paul Caligiuri; Bruce Murray, Peter Vermes.
2009 United States lineup vs. Italy:
Tim Howard; Jonathan Spector, Oguchi Onyewu, Jay DeMerit, Jonathan Bornstein; Benny Feilhaber, Ricardo Clark, Michael Bradley; Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Josmer Altidore.
Many of you fans might be too young to remember, but if you’re scratching your head when we go back to the stone ages of the 1990s, it would be well worth your while to read up and grab a tape or two and learn there was life before MLS.
How many of today’s starters would step into that 1990 squad? (Remember, this lineup would have been even stronger if Eric Wynalda had not received a red card in the first game for the United States against Czechoslovakia. It was a squad that included Kasey Keller, Steve Trittschuh, Christopher Sullivan, Eric Eichmann and Chris Henderson on the bench.)
Even at this stage of their development – in a side made up almost exclusively of players with only college experience – I believe only Howard, Onyewu, and Donovan and perhaps Spector would win a starting spot over their 1990 predecessors.
Admittedly, some of these interpretations will be colored by how these earlier players ultimately developed – not how they were at the time. However, the way the current crop is playing, their future development might not be so rosy after all.
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In the second game of the Confederations Cup, the United States faced Brazil. In the knockout stage of US 1994, the two sides also hooked up in a memorable showdown at the Stanford Stadium.
The fall of the US player becomes even more evident when you look four years later at the squad put together by Bora Milutinovic for USA ’94. The US advanced to the knockout stage and a memorable July 4 showdown against Brazil at Stanford Stadium.
1994 United States lineup vs. Brazil:
Tony Meola; Fernando Clavijo, Marcelo Balboa, Alexi Lalas, Paul Caligiuri; Thomas Dooley, Mike Sorber, Cobi Jones, Hugo Perez, Tab Ramos; Earnie Stewart.
2009 United States lineup vs. Brazil
Tim Howard; Jonathan Spector, Jay DeMerit, Oguchi Onyewu, Jonathan Bornstein; Michael Bradley, Sacha Kljestan, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, DaMarcus Beasley; Josmer Altidore.
For all of the accolades won by the current US players I do not believe any of the 2009 squad would start over their 1994 counterparts. Only Landon Donovan and Tim Howard come close.
The 1994 squad had a bench that included Brad Friedel, John Harkes, Roy Wegerle, Eric Wynalda, Frank Klopas, Joe Max Moore and Claudio Reyna. In fact, this team was so good that players the caliber of Henderson, Keller and Mark Chung did not even make the roster. Other than Donovan, Howard and Onyewu – I don’t think any of the 2009 roster would even make the squad.
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While Bob Bradley certainly deserves a share of the blame for the recent disasters, his hands are tied by what he has to work with. Even two of the players I believe are talented enough to help right the ship have plenty of doubters. Freddy Adu cannot buy a game anywhere he goes, and Jose Francisco Torres’s [CORRECTION] plateauing at Pachuca show’s he has limitations as well.
So, tell me what have all of the development efforts over the last twenty years accomplished? Maybe we have better athletes, although with substitutes walking around gassed ten minutes after stepping on to the field, I doubt that seriously. It is indisputable that we don’t have anywhere near the talent of soccer players.
(Just an aside, but am I the only one who thinks that Altidore, Howard, Bocanegra and Onyewu have been spending a bit too much time in the weight room?)
Bradenton, Project 2010, Generation Adidas, Major League Soccer, the United States Developmental Academies, and all the rest. It is not just a lack of skill, but a lack of heart and passion. It seems the only thing all of this money and effort has produced is a glorified ODP pipeline of prima donnas that barely break a sweat, let alone sweat blood for the jersey.
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After the Egypt match, I will have more on the US coaching situation and next week, I will be handing out my mid-season report card for MLS. A sneak preview would show DC United is performing much better than expected. Meanwhile, Dallas and San Jose might need to attend summer school if they do not turn things around quickly.
June 20th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Comparing squads from today to back then is always a tough discussion to have.
For the US the goals over the past several years has been to get more players exposed to the European style of play and hope they can become stars overseas. Back then the goals were much smaller and achievable – raise awareness and turn heads – and we did that…
While we have been able to at least send more players overseas in recent times, how many of those players have turned into superstars?? very few. the best we could do is have several of our players turn into solid role players for their teams. look at spain, france, brazil, argentina, holland, italy and germany – they have players who play on the best club teams in the world that all compete for the top 3 spots in the premiership, la liga, serie A and budesliga. all those countries mentioned have players that are exposed to the absolute highest level of competition all year round.
the US on the other hand have players who are average/above average players playing for middle of the pack teams in those same leagues. how many americans play in the champions’ league or play on a team that is fighting for 1st in a major european league – we can probably count them on one hand.
when you have players playing for a mid-tier team – those players are forced to play a different style of play b/c they are always trying to preserve a tie / not lose as much so they end up not playing to their maximum potential.
when you play on a winning team, you have more freedom to play your game like some of the world’s best players – messi, torres, CR7/9, Drogba, etc etc. you won’t find the best players in the world playing for a mid-tier team b/c those types of teams won’t allow you to play to your maximum potential.
i think we are doing a good job of starting to get our players play in europe, but we still have a long way before we have international superstars. evolution of a soccer team can take awhile and we are not in a position at all to see any rewards for awhile. it’s still going to be a dark period for us whenever we play teams like Italy, Brazil, France, Holland, Spain, and Argentina.
Players like Altidore and Adu are 3 years away from reaching their potential – heck they don’t even play for their club teams at the moment – how can we expect them to lead us to victory against France and Spain when they can’t even compete against average spanish and french players (they can’t compete at the moment, b/c they are not even on the rosters come game time for domestic games)?
point is – we are still evolving into a good national team and should not be discouraged by the defeats we had so far against italy and brazil. italy and brazil have players who play at the absolute highest level all year round and we don’t. the best we can do for now is hope we can keep up and learn from our defeats.
we are on the right track and comparing 2009 teams to 1990/4 will show you that right now we have accomplished something by at least getting many of our players overseas. now the next step is to turn some of those players into stars and hopefully that can start with Adu and Altidore…
June 22nd, 2009 at 5:43 pm
What is sad is comparing players from 1990 to 2009. One would think that over these 20 years that US soccer development would have improved for the men as much as the woman’s US National Team did. Where were these great players in 1990 when the current players needed coaching as younger’s? With more and more soccer development in the US, some of these players should have learned something in the past 20 years.
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:10 pm
It’s hard to add anything to what you’ve just said. I think the US has substantially deepened its pool of squad players, but leaders and stars are still in short supply.
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:14 pm
I’m not sure the women have improved that dramatically either tho. Again, we have a solid bunch of role players – but where’s the next Mia, or Julie? I think WPS and Pia should help identify and develop – but a decade of MLS hasn’t really produced any mens stars yet…
I do believe the future for both men and women will improve dramatically as many of these older generations do get into coaching and development. You’re already seeing it with Tab Ramos back in New Jersey. And he’s not alone. We still need to change the dynamic of win at all cost in the younger generations. And for that to happen, the pro teams need to get much more involved. They’re goal is to produce quality pro players that they can utilize – not win under-14 titles, etc.
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Phil,
This is my first time posting on your blog. I did enjoy this article on the US Team. I just wanted to say something, if I may.
While reviewing the WC standings for CONCACAF, it is clear that we are in a very precarious position as we speak. We are in second place (behind Costa Rica), followed by a very hungry Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador– in that order. And yet, someone (USSF/Bradley/players?) has failed to recognize the gravity of the situation.
Coupled with that, we have an extremely arrogant Gulati pretty much dismissing fans’ worries about the team:
From NYT dated June 23rd:
“As the president of the USSF, Sunil Gulati did not particularly relish the Bradley-must-go sentiment, or the suggestions that Gulati ought to follow Bradley out the door. Yet, in a sense, the hostile missives represented the maturing of the United States as a soccer country. “We had a lot of correspondence from fans who weren’t happy,” Gulati said Sunday. “In some ways, that’s positive, that they care enough” to express their displeasure…
“I think our fans, for the most part, understand that Italy was O.K. and Brazil was bad,” Gulati said. “We get hammered for the Italy game; we got hammered for the Brazil game. Tonight was as good” as the previous games were disappointing.
“I hope they realize that,” Gulati
When I read that, I was like, “what? You gotta be kidding me?”
Anyway, enough for now.
Jorge
June 24th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Jorge,
Do you feel we are as precariously placed as before after today? I know it doesn’t count for CONCACAF, but it does show the potential and I guarantee Mexico will be worried heading into Azteca.
It doesn’t mean the US is a lock, but I still feel very confident they’ll get a top two – if not top finish when it’s all said and done. And I agree with Sunil, the criticism just means people care. And that’s a good thing. And they responded today in a big way.
Phil
June 26th, 2009 at 11:50 am
[...] gonna back up a week here. Last week, I read a blog piece by GolTV’s Phil Schoen about the National Team and, well their lack of anything. His [...]
July 15th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Comparisons with past players is always interesting, but often problematic. Frankly, I think Arena was full of crap about past players not being able to start. The truth is that, in many ways, the crop of players that returned the US to the World Cup and helped make MLS happen were highly talented players that would have excelled that much further had they been born, developed, and played in countries like Spain, England, Germany, Brazil, or Argentina. So that comment from him doesn’t make any sense. If those players had grown up in a more soccer-friendly environment, they would have developed that much further, and surely would have been that much better. So, I call BS. In particular, Harkes, Lalas, Balboa, Wynalda, Cobi, Ramos, and Meola were terrific players and incredibly important pioneers who fulfilled their promise and proved their mettle either domestically or abroad, or both. They were all very talented. On top of that, they did so much for US Soccer in terms of their contributions to the game from both national and international standpoints (internationally, at least in the context of blazing the path for later players).
Now, with the win over Spain in the rearview mirror, nearly everyone is much more optimistic. I think the truth is somewhere in between. Laments about where the next top-caliber players are going to come from regularly fade quickly into the past as new prospects show up and surprise us. Are there problems? Sure. But we’re on the right track.