Quote:
Originally Posted by DJJasonp
Besides Onyewu, our defenders dive and (late) slide tackle way too often.
With that said - this loss is on Bradley. After the 10th minute, we had no players on the ball or behind the ball when Mexico had the ball. We literally looked like a hockey team on penalty kill with just about 10 men in or near the box.
I dont think Donovan had a bad game at all....same can be said for Jozy, etc. They freakin' never got any touches due to the penalty-kill "just clear it out" mentality.
|
I'm not sure this is entirely true. I'd have to rewatch the game, but I think Davies and Ching both played forward for most, if not all of their time.
Regardless, I doubt his gameplan was "get destroyed in the MF and launch the ball forward from the defense." The bunkering look was a byproduct of never controlling the ball from the defense through to the MF. When your constantly making poor clearances out, allowing consistent attack from Mexico, your MF is going to be dragged forward.
That's the players, not the tactics. We depend far too much on getting a lucky counter from one of our forwards or attacking mids. That's fine, but you also have to be able to control the ball in the defense and MF. Dribble out of trouble and make controlled passes to set up an attack, or at the very least, hold possesion and slow the game down a bit.
Sometimes I wonder if I watched the same Spain and Brazil games as everyone else. We still had zero possesion in the Spain game, especially in the second 45'. If anyone wasn't nervous as hell during that, I want some of whatever pill they get to take. Same with Brazil, once they got things together.
Really, the biggest problem was that everyone not named Charlie Davies had a shit game. Some worse than others, but a strong bleh across the board.
Now we need to fix this shit, and soon. But let's remember - Mexico always wins at Azteca. And we came in and played with them for 90'. I was pissed off as much as the next guy, but not a terrible result.