History of the US MNT

Clevelandmo · Sep 18, 2012

Came across this interesting history/summary of the US Men's national team via SI journalist Grant Wahl. A must read if you havent been a diehard fan from the beginning. Although make sure you have some time; it's long.

http://whatahowler.tumblr.com/post/31313126129/what-is-american-soccer

As far as what it says about the current team, I have to agree, but would be a good deal more critical of some things than the author

The ups and downs of Bradley’s tenure are part of the life of a soccer fan. But that’s not what Gulati wanted the life of the U.S. soccer fan to be, and in 2011, he finally got his man. Klinsmann’s star had dimmed after a brief, unhappy stint at Bayern Munich, but he lived in Southern California, was familiar with the U.S. player pool, and had bona fides that were pretty much unquestionable. He also came in with a plan. “You don’t like to react to what other people do,” Klinsmann said in his first interview after being hired, promising to instill a proactive, possession-based game that was modeled on the 4-3-3 sweeping most of Europe.

The U.S. had come a long way as a soccer country since the tenure of Milutinovic, the previous European-born coach. And while Bora was hired to bring the Yanks to a level of respectability, Klinsmann was there to put the Americans over the top. The fact that Klinsmann has the likes of Michael Bradley, Feilhaber, Jose Torres, and Sacha Kljestan all in their prime, all apparently ready to run a central midfield possession game, suggests he has the pieces to assemble a U.S. team that can—finally—make the ball do all the work. But so far he has been reluctant to find a mix that can be termed anything but “ultra-defensive.”

And it’s hard to blame him, especially when his results have varied mostly from “satisfactory” to “spectacular.” There have been two of the latter sort: the first, 1-0 in Genoa over the Italians; the second, a monumental 1-0 win over Mexico at the Azteca, a first for the U.S.

What makes Klinsmann’s set-up different is that he’s throttled back from the openness of the Bob Bradley years, and shied away from the balance of the Arena years. Defensive-minded players crowd the midfield, sending a simple message: “We dare you to beat us from the flanks.” Mexico took that dare, attempting 39 crosses in the 1-0 loss; a year previous in the Gold Cup final against Bradley’s U.S., they’d attempted only 10. Yes, El Tri dominated possession both times, but against Klinsmann’s scheme they didn’t really trouble Tim Howard until the altitude took its toll in the final 10 minutes.

Routinely dropping more creative players for a three-man defensive midfield trio—he’s even made it four, on occasion—runs counter to the attacking, expressive soccer Klinsmann has talked about in interviews. It could be that Klinsmann sees the development of the team as a staged process—and he wants to shore up the defense first. Or, it could be that he’s simply committed to choosing players who play in Europe and that doing so creates a defensive-minded roster. Either way, given those personnel choices, and Michael Bradley being played so deep, even more of the creative onus has been placed on Donovan— now working narrower and with less space—and Dempsey, the one player who’s bloomed under Klinsmann. The offense has subsequently sputtered, producing nearly a goal less per game than it had under Arena or Bradley.

With this approach there’s a risk the U.S. will lose some of the counterattacking verve that’s been at the heart of every success they’ve had since re-emerging on the national scene. At their best (Germany 2002, Egypt 2009, Slovenia 2010) the U.S. were able to take good teams, crack them open, and make them run toward their own net. While Spain has mastered the world through tika-taka since 2008, their one major stumble came in the 2009 Confederations Cup semifinals to a U.S. team that was better trained (and more naturally inclined) to absorb pressure, not exert it.

The 4-3-3 has become so dogmatic that the U.S. U-23 squad—using a much more attacking set-up than the full national team—refused to switch out of it even when they were getting run out of Olympic qualifying by the likes of Canada and El Salvador. Klinsmann, it seemed, was content to sacrifice a chance at the Olympic stage to make a tactical point. The question is whether that’s a point which needs making—and if he’s picking the right guys to make it.

This is a different era, though, with a coach who has been tasked specifically to force an evolution. But even if Klinsmann knows what his players need to do to create a new national identity for American soccer, the question remains: Can they do it well?
Click to expand...

Forum	Title	Date
Prem talk, Those Other Leagues, and International	World Cup History	Jun 10, 2010
Prem talk, Those Other Leagues, and International	USMNT History at the WC	May 30, 2014

History of the US MNT

Clevelandmo Active Member

Share This Page

About Us

League Standings

Useful Searches

History of the US MNT

Clevelandmo Active Member

Share This Page