MLS Allstar Line-up

With the players that were selected, I'd like to see a 3-5-2 that looks something like this:

                     Kenny Cooper              Juan Pablo Angel

                                    Cuauhtemoc Blanco
Landon Donovan                                                 David Beckham


                  Shalrie Joseph             Pablo Masroeni


   Jonathan Bornstien                                  Frankie Hejduk

                                         Jimmy Conrad

                                            Matt Reis

MLS Allstar Votes

Matt Reis - NE


Drew Moor - DAL
Michael Parkhurst - NE
Bakary Soumare - CHI


David Beckham - LA
Cuauhtemoc Blanco - CHI
Stuart Holden - HOU
Sacha Kljestan - CHV
Steve Ralston - NE


Kenny Cooper - DAL
Landon Donovan - LA

The Magnus Effect

"Carlos kicked the ball with the outside of his left foot to make it spin anticlockwise as he looked down onto it. Conditions were dry, so the amount of spin he gave the ball was high, perhaps over 10 revolutions per second. Kicking it with the outside of his foot allowed him to hit the ball hard, at probably over 30 ms-1 (70 mph). The flow of air over the surface of the ball was turbulent, which gave the ball a relatively low amount of drag. Some way into its path - perhaps around the 10 m mark (or at about the position of the wall of defenders) - the ball's velocity dropped such that it entered the laminar flow regime. This substantially increased the drag on the ball, which made it slow down even more. This enabled the sideways Magnus force, which was bending the ball towards the goal, to come even more into effect. Assuming that the amount of spin had not decayed too much, then the drag coefficient increased. This introduced an even larger sideways force and caused the ball to bend further. Finally, as the ball slowed, the bend became more exaggerated still (possibly due to the increase in the lift coefficient) until it hit the back of the net - much to the delight of the physicists in the crowd."

The Rain in Spain Falls...

We have learned a lot from our two dismal performances in Europe. And I say dismal despite the results on paper, a 2-0 loss to England in London and a 1-0 loss to Fifa ranked number four in the world Spain, because of badly we looked and how few scoring chances we created. Some have claimed that our defense looked strong against Spain, to which I counter that any defense will do reasonably well when you have all eleven players behind the ball. There is no doubt that the US bunkered in for the entire second half against the Spaniards.

So what did we learn about our players:

Freddy Adu: Without a doubt the best offensive player on the US against Spain. Adu seemed the only player capable of holding onto the ball and looking to play dangerous attacking balls forward. His turning chest trap into the box that led to a cross right across the face of goal was a great oppurtunity for the US, if only the US had a player positioned to take advantage of the play. He also played a fantastic leading ball to Eddie Johnson, the kind of pass beyond the skill level of perhaps all the US players in the entire US player pool. There is no longer any excuse to keep Adu out of the starting eleven, at least not now when he is quite obviously the best player on the field for the US.

Michael Bradley: Bradley is not ready for a starting spot on the USMNT. In all his time with the US team he has varied from playing reasonable well to completely awful. And in the last two games he's tended more towards the latter. Bradley's lack of speed prevents him from being any kind of decent ball winner, and often leads to reckless challenges. As one blogger on a recent comment page said "Bradley is a dumb foul waiting to happen." Multiple times in the game against Spain Bradley's poor handling of a pass led to a loss of possession for the US. Bradley has obviously had success at Herenveen but his performances with the USMNT should be the ultimate test of his place on the US team. Right now it seems like he is a good future prospect, not quite deserving of his consistent starting post in the US midfield. Although with the nepotism involved with having your father as the head coach, I would not be surprised to see Michael Bradely on the field in every future game for the US.

The Strikers: Clearly there is not much there for the US. Eddie Johnson has played much better than anyone expected in these last two friendlies. That being said his inability to score on an easy glaring header against Spain presents the reality of Eddie Johnson. We still have to hope the US has a player or two somewhere that can step up into this position. With Altidore headed to Villareal there is still real hope that he can be the striker we have always been looking for. Until then though it would be nice to see some other players get a chance at the role. Kenny Cooper is second in scoring in MLS this year and has always looked like a quality player. Chris Rolfe is a quick, agile, skillfull striker who plays on perhaps the best team in MLS. Young players like Jeremiah White and Johann Smith should also be considered, as both are said to possess impressive speed.

The Defense: The US still can claim a solid backline. Bocanegra and Onyewu always do well at disrupting attacks and clearing balls played into the box. Bocanegra is a lock but perhaps we should take a second look at Onyewu. On Xavi's goal Onyewu was out of position, seemingly trying to occupy the same space Bocanegra was already in, leaving a gap for Xavi to drive through. Cherendulo is still strong although it would be nice to see him in attacking positions more often. Pierce is a weak link for the the US side. Reasonable on his defensive responsibilities, it is hard to imagine any left back being worse at distrubution and passing in general. We have to hope for someone else to come along and fill this role.

In Total: Obviously I did not mention all the players who played in these two friendlies, instead focusing on the ones who stood out as being either poor or good. Most everyone else played typically or slightly underperformed. It is hard to know what the US would have looked like had Donovan been healthy and playing at the top of his game. No matter who the head coach or surrounding players, the US always looks best when Donovan is playing his best. We can only hope that his return, along with Adu, can propel the US forward into a quality international side.

If we must play a 4-4-2

Bob Bradley's empty bucket midfield has exposed the USA's lack of a dominant central midfielder. With only two players in the middle you generally expect one to do the dirty work; winning loose balls, shutting down attackers, covering lots of ground; while the other bridges the gap between defense and offense, carries the ball foreword and orchestrates the attack. With the empty bucket (two defensive central midfielders) you expect both players to do the dirty work, and rely on the team to be able to transition to offense through strikers checking back and wingers tucking inside. Unfortunately for the US, our midfield seems to not cover enough ground in the center to disrupt the opponent, nor pose any sort of a quick transition to offense. We don't even seem to build the attack very well from the back. The obvious solution is that we put another man in the middle of the field, bringing the total to three central midfielders. We could swap out one of our forwards who seem to be useless without that transitional midfielder anyways, making a 4-5-1 formation, or push someone up from the back line and play a 3-5-2. Bob Bradley seems reluctant, if not adamantly opposed to playing anything but a 4-4-2. So then the solution must be found in personnel. We must find two central midfielders who as a tandem are able to both cover ground in the middle and play consistent balls to our attackers and wingers. We must also choose attackers who are able to check back to support the midfield, create space for themselves to receive passes, as well as hold possession longer than usual.

Why our personnel failed us against England:
Wolfe couldn't create space for himself, therefore rarely received the ball. And when he did get possession he could not keep it.
Clark and Bradley simply cannot cover enough ground in the midfield. Both are prone to reckless tackles and inconsistent passing. Bradley is the more promising of the two, and may be out of position based on his performance in Europe this season.
Beasley is out of form.

I believe the key to the USA's midfield struggle is Pablo Mastroeni. Until someone is able to disrupt the opponent the way that he has in the past and still can, he needs to be on the field. Let's hope that is why Bradley called him up for this next game. I think that with Pablo Mastroeni and anybody as our two central midfielders we can then get on with figuring out which of our attackers are the least useless. We have to start Freddy Adu. Here is how I'd like to see us start out against Spain unless Donovan can play or Bradley finally bails on the 4-4-2:


                 Freddy Adu Eddie Johnson

    Eddie Lewis                            Clint Dempsey

             Maurice Edu       Pablo Mastroeni

Heath Pearce                               Steve Churundalo

          Oguchi Onyewu       Carlos Bocanegra


                              Tim Howard

But really I think this would be better:

                               Jozzy Altidore

   

    Freddy Adu      Landon Donovan      Clint Dempsey

         

                  Maurice Edu    Pablo Mastroeni

Heath Pearce                                       Steve Churundalo

 

            Oguchi Onyewu     Carlo Bocanegra

                                  Tim Howard

USA friendly roster and line-up hopes

Here are the initial 33 players that will be used for the 3 upcoming USA friendlies against England, Argentina, and Spain:


G:
Dominic Cervi - no team
Brad Guzan - Chivas USA
Tim Howard - Everton
Troy Perkins - Valerenga
Chris Seitz - Real Salt Lake
D:
Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham
Dan Califf - Midtjylland
Steve Cherundolo - Hannover
Jay DeMerit - Watford
Frankie Hejduk - Columbus Crew
Oguchi Onyewu - Standard de Liege
Michael Orozco - San Luis
Heath Pearce - Hansa Rostock
Jonathan Spector - West Ham
M:
Freddy Adu - Benfica
DaMarcus Beasley - Glasgow Rangers
Michael Bradley - Heerenveen
Ricardo Clark - Houston Dynamo
Maurice Edu - Toronto
Benny Feilhaber - Derby County
Eddie Gaven - Columbus Crew
Sacha Kljestan - Chivas USA
Eddie Lewis - Derby County
Pablo Mastroeni - Colorado Rapids
F:
Jozy Altidore - New York Red Bulls
Brian Ching - Houston Dynamo
Kenny Cooper - Dallas
Clint Dempsey - Fulham
Landon Donovan - Los Angeles Galaxy
Nate Jaqua - Rheindorf Altach
Eddie Johnson - Fulham
Robbie Rogers - Columbus Crew
Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich

Here is who I'd like to see starting against England:

           Jozy Altidore

Landon Donovan   Freddy Adu Clint Dempsey

Maurice Edu    Michael Bradley

Eddie Lewis Steve Churundalo

Oguchi Onyewu  Carlos Bocanegra

Tim Howard

And really Pablo Mastoeni could be in there instead of either Edu or Bradley, and the attacking midfielders could be in any formation, just so long as we've got 3 guys in the middle. And for God sakes, will a left sided player please step up so I don't have to keep typing Eddie Lewis's name into line-ups.

DuNord Style

I thought I would link to a few good soccer reads I've come across recently. There is a consistent theme in these two articles, why people hate soccer stars. And they are both funny as well.

It is quite obvious that there is a Donovan-hating contigent in the US soccer fan base. I've always contributed this mostly to Donovan being used as the poster boy for American soccer, the Golden Boy if you will, and yet not quite being able to live up to this standard in some people's minds. Also perhaps those who dislike him fail to notice all the positive little things he sometimes does in games, the detailed stuff that more second-hand soccer fans don't see. From a neutral perspective it's clear that Donovan is the best US soccer player, with speed, skill, and vision that have helped him become the leading US goal scorer of all time. Steve Davis analyzes this phenomenon in an article I found linked to from DuNord.

Christiano Ronaldo is probably the best player in the world right now. There must have been an interesting TV piece on Ronaldo to inspire this column, a column that is more entertaining than insightful. If some British people don't really like Ronaldo, perhaps it is due to his pretty-boy image and his past affinity for diving. Anyways this one's pretty good too.