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June 26, 2014Well, somehow the USMNT managed to survive the dreaded “Group of Death.” I don’t know how they did it, because it wasn’t very pretty, but they did. They did it after Jozy Altidore got hurt minutes into the World Cup. They did it with Clint Dempsey forced to fill his shoes at the top of the offense while also dealing with a broken nose. They did it despite one of their best players, Michael Bradley, playing in such a way that he was probably the most maligned player on the team. Despite it all and despite losing to Germany 1-0 today, the United States Men’s National Team defied the expectations of most.
It wasn’t a pretty game against Germany to be sure. The United States seemed to be losing the time of possession even worse than the occasionally flashed minute totals. At one point the ESPN broadcast told us it was about 60-40 with Germany dominating possession, but in that first part of the first half it felt like 90-10. Not only were the United States losing the time of possession, when they did have the ball they weren’t remotely dangerous. Thinking back to the game now, it feels as if they only had three or four chances all game. On top of that, only two of those were truly even “dangerous.”
The play in the midfield was sloppy again in the wet conditions. Beckerman and Bradley held well defensively, but lacked the opportunistic touches that would have turned defensive stops into offensive runs. More often than not, they turned good defensive plays into dangerous runs for Germany or awkward looking fouls. Bradley avoided getting a yellow, but Beckerman earned one in the 62nd minute.
Jermaine Jones was active all game and seemed to play with the most energy of any on the USMNT, but he also seemed out of control. After shocking me with a wonderful goal in the prior game, Jones again looked dangerous a couple times when it appeared he was going to get behind the German defense. But a lack of touch ultimately nullified all those opportunities. Still kudos to him for at least appearing dangerous in his attacks out of the midfield.
Anyway, the USMNT lost 1-0 and advance the Group of Death after Portugal defeated Ghana 2-1. The United States finish second in the group and advance to play the winner of Group H. That is likely to be Belgium who play Korea later in the day today. Belgium is good too, so things won’t be much prettier for the U.S. going forward. Then again, it was no easy task going up against Germany either.
For now, it’s worthy of celebration. The United States have advanced out of their group. And isn’t it amazing how a 1-0 loss can feel so much better than the previous 2-2 tie? Only in group play though. Now it’s win or go home.
16 Comments
Belgium’s good, but not invincible. Tuesday’s game should be a close one.
People seemingly love to bang on Bradley (and I’m usually a lukewarm apologist), but he’s been pretty bad. Yes, he’s hustling and challenging, but he lacks touch—and his errors have been costly. We’d better pray he gets it together, as he goes, we do.
What’s Altidore’s status? Is he completely done or is there a chance we see him Tuesday?
I thought we defended well. Despite all of their possession, Germany didn’t really create all that many scoring chances. I realize the Germans made a point of neutralizing Bradley, but his first touches and passing were awful again. Our attack is dead in the water when he’s off. Also, Dempsey should consider wearing a mask. Whenever he got near the goal with the ball, the German defenders would take shots at his face which caused him to fluff one clear scoring chance.
Germany put in just enough effort to keep us at bay.
I don’t know shinola about soccer, but Bradley (aka the bald dude) looked horrible.
Totally agree. They went 3/4 throttle. But no matter…we made it. And let’s also be glad that no one died in the group of death. It appears it was over-hyped.
They made it painless. Getting the win and still leaving us a chance to advance.
As is the case in many sports, it’s not hard to tell when someone is not performing well. Not sure what has happened to Bradley, but he’s not even close to what we saw in qualifying, particularly when it comes to first touches.
Bradley today…sheesh!!
and, the benefit of getting a tough group is that you get great experience against tough teams (the negative is it being tougher to actually get out of the group). I would take any of the teams in our group over Algeria, Russia, or S.Korea.
are you sure about that? 2 Ghana players were dismissed and when is the last time you have seen Altidore?
He’s with Luca Brasi.
As a side note on Ghana…how funny is it that the players were worried they wouldn’t get paid and were near mutiny. Last night, the gov’t flew $3M in cash to Brazil. If anyone’s lucky to be alive, it’s that dude making the delivery…
yeah, I’m not sure I want to have a briefcase full of cash entering South America.
There have been problems with African FA’s “losing” FIFA bonuses in the past. I don’t blame them for asking for payment in full up-front, though I don’t know that a duffel bag full of cash is a good idea.
If you told me that Altidore would be injured in the first half of the first game and that Bradley would be terrible, I’d have assumed we would finished last in this group. It is a major accomplishment to advance, and a lot of the credit has to go to Klinsman. I criticized him a ton for his statements about not being able to win the WC and for leaving off Donovan, but the guy has done a fantastic job recruiting talent, getting this squad ready, game strategy and having the right players on the field. Also, Dempsey and Howard have been incredible.