Hex Game 1 Recap
In a sloppy effort all around the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) lost to Honduras 1-2 when Jerry Bengston tapped home a pass from Oscar Boniek Garcia in the 79th minute. The goal was a microcosm of the day for the USMNT as goalkeeper Tim Howard came well off his line to stop Garcia when it looked like defender Geoff Cameron was still in the play. Their miscommunication on the deciding sequence was nothing compared to Omar Gonzalez, who was in position to clear the ball had he been paying attention, fell asleep leaving Bengston wide open with nothing between him and the net except the ball.
The fact that Cameron and Gonzalez were involved in the mix-up that led to us losing the match and immediately falling to the bottom of the table was not lost on the media. Manager Jürgen Klinsmann made a controversial call by leaving long time captain and central defender Carlos Bocanegra on the bench in favor of the Geoff-Omar duo in the middle. While there’s no doubt that having Boca on the pitch would have made our back line more organized, and likely gained us at least one point, I don’t fault Jürgen for putting his talented youngsters out there. One can certainly question if a World Cup qualifier on the road is the best place to debut an entirely new back line but there’s also something to be said for the trial-by-fire approach.
Cameron is 27, Gonzalez is 24, left back Fabian Johnson is 25 and right back Timothy Chandler is 22. People can pine for Bocanegra and Steve Cherundolo all they want but the fact of the matter is that they will both be 35 by Brazil 2014. Fabian-Geoff-Omar-Timothy is the back line of the future and Klinsmann decided that the future is now and I have no problem with it. You can be sure former USMNT managers like Bob Bradley would have never taken such a risk but Jürgen being a forward thinker took a chance and got burned. I think the Fabian-Geoff-Omar-Timothy back line can work and gives us our best chance to win but it was glaringly obvious that they needed more time together to develop some chemistry.
(There’s also this little tidbit that both Gonzalez and Chandler no longer have the option of playing for Mexico and Germany respectively.)
On offense we could not maintain possession as Los Catrachos had the ball 57% of the time. I think defensive holding midfielder Danny Williams might have permanently lost his position to Maurice Edu (subbed in for Danny at the 58th minute) because Williams could not complete a pass to initiate the offense out of the back to save his life.
The other area where we were lacking was an oldie but a goodie, providing service from wide positions so forwards Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey could finish. Eddie Johnson started in the “Landon Donovan Spot” (side note: we NEED you Landon) and was replaced by the equally ineffective Sacha Kljestan in the 59th minute. Jermaine Jones had his moments on the other side, notably setting up Dempsey’s goal is the 36th minute, but they were too few and far between. Jones was replaced by Graham Zusi in the 67th minute and Zusi looked every bit of the MLSer he is.
Give Honduras credit, they scheduled the game in the heat of the day (high-80’s & VERY humid), grew the grass on the pitch out long (making it more difficult to run) and wore a white kit (forcing the USMNT into their dark blue). All of these tactics worked as the eleven European based players and three MLSer’s who played all looked tired at various points. In fact after Bengston’s go-ahead goal the USMNT was unable to mount any kind of possession, much less attack, in the final 11+3 minutes looking dead-legged across the board.
I’m trying not to get too down after the first match of ten but what I saw in Honduras is just an extension of the flat play I saw during the third round of qualifying. By my count the USMNT has had two good performances thus far in qualifying; the first and final matches of the third round. The four matches in between those, and the opener of the fourth round, have been a combination of too close for comfort wins and confounding defeats.
I fear that Herr Klinsmann’s days could be numbered if he doesn’t get a result against Costa Rica on 3/22 because the way we’ve looked throughout qualifying to this point does not inspire confidence heading to Azteca on 3/27. Luckily for us Costa Rica tied Panama 2-2 on a goal by Bryan Ruiz in the 84th minute and Jamaica managed a shocking 0-0 draw in Mexico. So while we are at the bottom of the table things aren’t that dire…yet anyway.
Team W D L GD Pts
Honduras 1 0 0 +1 3
Costa Rica 0 1 0 0 1
Panama 0 1 0 0 1
Jamaica 0 1 0 0 1
Mexico 0 1 0 0 1
United States 0 0 1 −1 0
The fact that Cameron and Gonzalez were involved in the mix-up that led to us losing the match and immediately falling to the bottom of the table was not lost on the media. Manager Jürgen Klinsmann made a controversial call by leaving long time captain and central defender Carlos Bocanegra on the bench in favor of the Geoff-Omar duo in the middle. While there’s no doubt that having Boca on the pitch would have made our back line more organized, and likely gained us at least one point, I don’t fault Jürgen for putting his talented youngsters out there. One can certainly question if a World Cup qualifier on the road is the best place to debut an entirely new back line but there’s also something to be said for the trial-by-fire approach.
Cameron is 27, Gonzalez is 24, left back Fabian Johnson is 25 and right back Timothy Chandler is 22. People can pine for Bocanegra and Steve Cherundolo all they want but the fact of the matter is that they will both be 35 by Brazil 2014. Fabian-Geoff-Omar-Timothy is the back line of the future and Klinsmann decided that the future is now and I have no problem with it. You can be sure former USMNT managers like Bob Bradley would have never taken such a risk but Jürgen being a forward thinker took a chance and got burned. I think the Fabian-Geoff-Omar-Timothy back line can work and gives us our best chance to win but it was glaringly obvious that they needed more time together to develop some chemistry.
(There’s also this little tidbit that both Gonzalez and Chandler no longer have the option of playing for Mexico and Germany respectively.)
On offense we could not maintain possession as Los Catrachos had the ball 57% of the time. I think defensive holding midfielder Danny Williams might have permanently lost his position to Maurice Edu (subbed in for Danny at the 58th minute) because Williams could not complete a pass to initiate the offense out of the back to save his life.
The other area where we were lacking was an oldie but a goodie, providing service from wide positions so forwards Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey could finish. Eddie Johnson started in the “Landon Donovan Spot” (side note: we NEED you Landon) and was replaced by the equally ineffective Sacha Kljestan in the 59th minute. Jermaine Jones had his moments on the other side, notably setting up Dempsey’s goal is the 36th minute, but they were too few and far between. Jones was replaced by Graham Zusi in the 67th minute and Zusi looked every bit of the MLSer he is.
Give Honduras credit, they scheduled the game in the heat of the day (high-80’s & VERY humid), grew the grass on the pitch out long (making it more difficult to run) and wore a white kit (forcing the USMNT into their dark blue). All of these tactics worked as the eleven European based players and three MLSer’s who played all looked tired at various points. In fact after Bengston’s go-ahead goal the USMNT was unable to mount any kind of possession, much less attack, in the final 11+3 minutes looking dead-legged across the board.
I’m trying not to get too down after the first match of ten but what I saw in Honduras is just an extension of the flat play I saw during the third round of qualifying. By my count the USMNT has had two good performances thus far in qualifying; the first and final matches of the third round. The four matches in between those, and the opener of the fourth round, have been a combination of too close for comfort wins and confounding defeats.
I fear that Herr Klinsmann’s days could be numbered if he doesn’t get a result against Costa Rica on 3/22 because the way we’ve looked throughout qualifying to this point does not inspire confidence heading to Azteca on 3/27. Luckily for us Costa Rica tied Panama 2-2 on a goal by Bryan Ruiz in the 84th minute and Jamaica managed a shocking 0-0 draw in Mexico. So while we are at the bottom of the table things aren’t that dire…yet anyway.
Team W D L GD Pts
Honduras 1 0 0 +1 3
Costa Rica 0 1 0 0 1
Panama 0 1 0 0 1
Jamaica 0 1 0 0 1
Mexico 0 1 0 0 1
United States 0 0 1 −1 0
posted by D$ at 7:23 AM
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