Posted by: HoosInLondon? on Thu Aug 7 2008 7:14:18 AM
Message:
The first ten minutes and last ten minutes were particularly bad for
the US. I think Nowak made a huge mistake not subbing earlier. Japan
seemed fresher than us at the end. Szetela and Feilhaber came in too
late.
Edu (though he seemed to tire and made some mistakes late) was great.
Wynne was particularly good. When he gets beat, he recovers in a
split second. Parkhurst had one gaffe late, but was generally good.
Orozco struggled in the second half, but did better in the second
half. Generally, I can't complain about the defense. Guzan was great
except for the missed punch late.
In the midfield, Bradley was okay, though he completely disappeared
for most of the second half. Klejstan did alright breaking up
Japanese attacks, but his passing was embarrassing. He should start
be on the bench. Holden and Rogers made zero impact in the first
half, which killed our attack. Bradley was playing so far back, and
without Holden and Rogers making themselves available Adu and McBride
had zero service and zero help. We didn't get in one decent cross to
McBride all game. And too often Freddy would have the ball,
surrounded by three Japanese defenders, but no white shirts were
moving for him.
Altidore did little but be called for weak fouls. Not sure what the
referee had against him. He had the one chance when he split the
defense, but a defender's late tackle put Altidore off balance and he
touched it too long. Frankly, he should have just gone to ground. It
was an obvious foul. That would have been a dangerous free kick from
the edge of the box.
The referee was pretty good in the first half, calling it tight. But
he really annoyed me in the second half. The yellows on Adu and
Bradley were awful. I do think he got the no call on Edu right, since
Edu never grabbed and the Japanese player totally flopped. The no
call when Adu was two-armed shoved in the back was much more dubious.
I'll take it, but that form's not going to cut it against Holland and
Nigeria. Klejstan needs to sit. Bring on Feilhaber or Szetela (who
both will provide just as much defensive cover as Klejstan but with
much, much better distribution) and let Adu float in the middle
between Bradley and the forward. Putting Adu up top with Bradley in
such a deep-lying position means there's no support for the attack in
the center of the midfield.
