Jermaine Jones, Brek Shea, and Eric Lichaj move closer to their first caps after being called-in to the 20-man squad for October's friendlies.
SBN/Soccer covers the US National Team Announcement
Expect www.7500toHolte.com to drool over this, as two of their players are going to put the US slash kit on in the month. One may even get his first ever Cap.
over 1 year ago
Dave Clark
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What is the story with Lichaj?
He’s yet to make an appearance for Villa (in league play) and has been plating in the 3rd and 4th tiers. He just seems like a weird choice. Of course, I don’t pay much attention to Villa as all my love goes to Tottenham, so I very well could be way off base here.
by chrisperry1983 on Sep 30, 2010 10:14 PM PDT reply actions
He's a 22 year old defender playing for a Premier League club that employ Richard Dunne, Carlos Cuellar, James Collins, Stephen Warnock and Luke Young.
He was stellar in both League One and League Two on loan spells, he’s consistently been one of Villa’s best reserve team players and he’s looked excellent so far this season in Cup competition and the Europa League. (Ugh.)
Yeah, he doesn’t look all that special on the surface, but Villa under Martin O’Neill were very cautious with their young players. Having seen him play a fair amount, I feel comfortable in saying that he’s one of the two best full backs eligible to play for the US right now. Strong in defense, good going forward and a pretty great throw-in. He’s not Gareth Bale, but he’s a solid, solid player who should have gotten a call up well before now.
by Aaron Campeau on Sep 30, 2010 11:00 PM PDT up reply actions
I had a feeling you might show up :)
Thank you for setting me straight. Maybe with O’Neill gone this guy will get out from under the radar. Sounds like he’s a strong prospect. And yes, an American 22 year old playing for an upper mid-table club is certainly impressive.
by chrisperry1983 on Oct 1, 2010 8:47 AM PDT up reply actions
Interested to see him play
Haven’t seen any games he’s played in but I’ve read nothing but good things about him. 22 years old is young for a defender. I’m excited to see how well he does. I see him as a late sub for ’Dolo in one game, maybe starting in another.
Not a terrible squad.
Would be nice to be able to see some of our young defenders who are actually getting playing time, but its understandable they couldn’t be called in because of MLS. Strange that Dallas had some players called in though. CONSPIRACY! MLS wants LA to win the Supporters shield! haha ;)
Here’s a pretty good lineup i think considering the lack of Donovan and younger defenders
-——————-Guzan————————
’Dolo-Goodson-Gooch-Pearce
-———Jones———Bradley————-
Bedoya——Dempsey———Holden
-——————Altidore—————————
subs would be Lichaj for Dolo, Shea for Bedoya and move Holden, Johnson for Altidore. I’m starting Guzan cause Howard is undisputed number 1 and is always awesome. Guzan could use some minutes at some point.
Guzan has to start making CAPs
Or when his contract is up he may not get to stay in EPL.
They better play Benny
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
Benny!
Somehow i missed his name. That guy definitely deserves a start. Can’t believe i missed him. I think he had an excellent world cup. Guy deserves a move to a better club.
I think Guzan is safe. Doesn’t Villa seem pretty high on him. Freidel just won’t leave, and never seems to get old. It would be better for him to get more playing time though, Friedel can’t play forever right? :)
Woops Forgot to say where I'd put him.
I’d replace Bedoya with Benny for at least a game.
I'm wondering if we're going to try to do anything else with formation
Might be smart to try and move away from 2 up top when Altidore is the only striker we seem to have. Buddle, Gomez, and Findley were largely ineffective in my opinion. Lets take advantage of midfielders in a way that gets them in more of an attacking position. I kind of wondered why we never tried something of a 4-3-3 with Landon and Dempsey as Wingers. We seem to have enough central midfielders where we could have done something like Bradley, Edu, Feilhaber/Holden/Torres/Clarke.
And what’s the word with Davies these days? I remember hearing he was struggling to even play with his clubs B team.
-Ben R.
4-3-3 vs 4-2-3-1
The reason i think the US hasn’t employed a tradional 4-3-3 is due to the type of players we have. A normla 4-3-3 has 1 holding/defensive midfielder and 2 attacking/creative midfielders. the 4-2-3-1 is the complete opposite. 2 holding mids and one creative mid in the center. The US has an abundance of good holding midfielders. Plus, due to our weakness in defense 2 defensive mids can boost our defense while also allowing our attacking wings to concentate a little more on attack. Thats why i think a 4-2-3-1 is perfect for the US in the future.
Could do a 4-2-1-3
Which if Dempsey and Donovan are on the wings is essentially how the USA plays
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
Definitely true with Dempsey on the wing.
I’d like to see the team experiment with Holden, Dempsey, and Feilhaber roating between the central mid and right wing/forward position, to see which combo works best. Bradley has yet to try Holden in the center and he seems to have had some success there with Bolton.
That puts an awful lot of pressure on a central midfield
that hasn’t demonstrated an ability to hold possession or play consistently strong defense (yes Ricardo Clark, I’m pointing at you). Who would feed Donovan and Dempsey if they are playing that high? It also reduces Donovan’s ability to track back when opponents run their fullback forward, instead the central midfield gets stretched wide.
But this whole conversation sure seems more inquisitive than Bob Bradley’s thought process. One of his huge faults, I think, is a lack of tactical creativity. He just rolls that good old 4-4-2 out there with very prescribed roles, even if he doesn’t really have the players to fill them. Hence we get overmatched and out of form Robbie Findley because Bradley has to have a speedy withdrawn forward. Despite Edson Buddle’s great form, Bradley almost pointedly refused to play him because, as far as I can tell, he’s a target forward and Altidore was already in that role.
You will hear us on Brougham, you will hear us on Occidental, you will hear us on King. We are all around you, there is no escape.
Possession problems
I think our possession problems are more of a byproduct of the 4-4-2 and a reliance on central defenders that very rarely do anything other then long balls down the field. The 4-4-2 leaves the central midfield out number 3 to 2 when you play against teams playing a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1. Triangles are great ways to pass the ball around people.
Well
I think you just hit the real issue, and it’s something that Bradley has little control over, a general skill deficit compared to the other top 15-20 teams in the world. It’s not just our CBs that punt the ball long, Bradley, Clark and Edu are guilty of it too. Then our supposed skill/finesse CMs (Feilhaber, Kljestan, Torres) give the ball up at the first sign of pressure. You are correct, triangles are great, but I don’t think we have the players who can consistently string together 2 passes under any pressure by a skilled midfield.
You will hear us on Brougham, you will hear us on Occidental, you will hear us on King. We are all around you, there is no escape.
I have more faith in our midfielders then others obviously.
I think the empyt buckets shape Bob Bradley was using means our holding midfielders HAD to send long balls down the field. With our fast wingers pressed high and a reliance on target strikers to hold up the ball they almost had no choice unless they wanted to pass to each other there was no one else around.
I would at least like to see some experimentation out of our coaching staff to see if we can make improvements. Our defense is not strong enough to sit back and absorb 90 minutes of pressure and hit on the counter.
Guzan is a lock to succeed Howard
Seen his hairline lately? You gotta be bald to be the US #1.
You will hear us on Brougham, you will hear us on Occidental, you will hear us on King. We are all around you, there is no escape.
Or a major sports figure in Seattle
Hasselbeck, Keller, Ljungberg, Buhner
I expect Ichiro’s hair to fallout any moment.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
That Makes No Sense
Why would you have Dempsey as your CAM? LOL what a joke. Glad you are not running the USMNT. Dempsey should be either up top or on the wing in a 4-2-2-2. He is a #9 scorer, not a #10 assist/passing guy.
USA does not have the personnel in our pool to pull off a 4-3-3, so all you Barcelona/Arsenal fans should just get used to BB’s 4-2-2-2 b/c it ain’t going anywhere any time soon.
Win or lose, we will always be here for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Oct 1, 2010 2:31 PM PDT up reply actions
That position is basically what Montero plays now
You think Dempsey couldn’t do that? I think Demspey plays better when he can collect the ball deeper and play the floater role.
Even so, i also say Holden could play there and Demspey could return to his standard USMNT position on the right wing.
I don’t htink you give our midfielders enough credit. Its the strength of our team. We should use them better then they are currently being used.
Dempsey and Montero are very very different players
CAM’s are all about passing perfectly weighted balls through to cutting wingers and strikers. Dempsey is much much better at playing up front and receiving such passes and finishing them than he is at dishing them out.
Win or lose, we will always be here for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Oct 1, 2010 6:09 PM PDT up reply actions
What's the difference between a CAM and a WF?
I think Dempsey could be a WF running from the middle off of a target man, but not a CAM.
Positionally the same, but stylistically quite different.
I am not a Supporter | I am not a Fan | I am a Sounder
Sounder At Heart
Thats what i'm trying to say.
Holden can play that position like a CAM cause his passing and vision are excellent. Demspey can play it as the withdrawn forward/scoring threat. Pretty much the same “spot” in the formation, but the player choice makes a difference in how its executed
Holden might be able to play CAM
but we don’t know because we haven’t tried it. Even if he could pull it off, could the rest of the squad make the adjustment to a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 style? That is a bigger stretch.
Right now I want the team focused on winning the Gold Cup next summer so that we can get another trip to the Confed Cup in 2013, which is an excellent warm up for the WC. I don’t want to be experimenting with big tactical changes that might work but could also fail spectacularly.
Win or lose, we will always be here for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Oct 2, 2010 10:31 AM PDT up reply actions
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