This year, I’ve written two reflective sports pieces: One was a glowing, but melancholic look at the US Men’s Winter Olympic Hockey team and their march to the Gold Medal game before ultimately falling to the Canadians. The other reflective piece was an angry, biting review of the Washington Capitals 2009-10 season, following their first round playoff loss to the 8th seed Montreal Jaroslav Halaks. What follows, will be a combination of the two, because while there’s anger and letdown, there’s also a good deal of hopefulness.
I always like to start with the bad side of things. When I was a child and I bought a new video game or CD, I would always make sure that I did my homework, cleaned my room, etc. before I unwrapped that piece of entertainment. The idea was and continues to be that once that hard stuff is out of the way, you can truly enjoy something.
When it comes down to the 2010 World Cup and the US National Team, the “bad side of things” begins with Coach Bob Bradley. Ultimately in my book, Bradley is to blame for the National Team not advancing out of the Round of 16 following today’s extra time loss to Ghana. His inability to see what the rest of us saw on the pitch is what ultimately brought our demise. In our first match against the English, midfielder Ricardo Clark looked hopeless. And so he disappeared for the next two matches. Today, he reappeared, started, single-handedly allowed Tim Howard to get exposed leading to the first Ghanaian goal, and picked up a yellow card for good measure. He was replaced 30 minutes into the first half by Maurice Edu, who had played admirably in his absence against Slovenia and Algeria. Coach Bradley didn’t stop with Clark, though. Robbie Findlay found his way back up top today, alongside the corpse known colloquially as “Jozy Altidore (more later on him!!!)” in the starting lineup. Sure, Edson Buddle had provided a spark and changed the attack against Algeria. And sure, Robbie Findlay looked hopeless against England and Slovenia (he was suspended for the Algeria match). But Coach Bradley doesn’t much care for your “visual evidence.” For whatever reason, Edson Buddle spent far too much time on the U.S. bench. Whether or not he looked bad in training or perhaps had difficulties with Coach Bradley (and I’m just speculating on this) does not matter. Buddle came into the World Cup playing the best soccer of his career for the LA Galaxy (who I believe play in something called the “MLS”) and spent most of his time in South Africa watching the games like me.
Coach Bradley’s ineptitude with our starting lineups was what did us in. When you have to use two substitutions (strategic and not injury-driven) before the first touch of the second half, you’ve failed as a coach and strategist. And as far as I’m concerned, Bradley failed during this World Cup. He failed to put the best lineup on the pitch and he failed in preparing his players to play 90 minutes of competitive soccer. I don’t want to belabor the point that most in the real media will, but you can’t give up goals in the first 10 minutes of 3 out of 4 of your World Cup matches and hope to get very far. We came out flat in all 4 games. It finally caught up to us today.
As for the corpse known as Jozy Altidore, I’m perhaps being a little cruel, but it’s been a long time in my life since I’ve been so angry with a player I was rooting for. I like Jozy. He seems like a really nice kid, with a good head on his shoulders. He even came to Amanda’s school this year and by her accounts, was great with the students. However, Jozy Altidore is not ready for primetime lights. He proved it with a dreadful Hull City club in the EPL and he drove a nail into it during the 2010 World Cup. Jozy Altidore sucked today. That’s the best analysis I can give you (okay, maybe not). During the first half, Jozy spent a good deal of time making senseless butterfly challenges (a term I use (usually in my head) when a player is challenging defensively by just chasing after the ball, but never getting it). If you re-watch the Ghana match (and really, who wouldn’t want to?) you’ll see Jozy Altidore running aimlessly, burning himself out, and ultimately never making a difference defensively. And what is truly great about that is that while he was busy burning energy defensively, he was uncreative, disconnected, and seemingly disinterested offensively for nearly the entire match. Really, we spent most of the first half playing a theoretical man down. Because while Jozy was out there, he was playing on a different pitch, in a different country, on a different day today. Jozy was nowhere to be found when we needed him.
Is it right to heap this kind of criticism on a 20 year old playing in his first World Cup? Yes. Yes, it is. Why? Because he’s out there. If you’re going to be out there, you need to actually BE OUT THERE. Why are we supposed to give Jozy Altidore the benefit of the doubt? What in the name of Eric Wynalda was Jozy Altidore ever done for US soccer? Jozy is like a top prospect in baseball who gets called up and mid-way through his first season is hitting .246 with 4 HR and 85 strikeouts. Do you send that prospect down to AA for more seasoning or do you keep him in your lineup and hope he turns it around? Coach Bradley kept Jozy in the lineup, batted him third and watched him go 0-4 at the plate. Perhaps before we fall in love with potential (And don’t get me wrong, Jozy has more than anyone else on this roster) we should check out that attractive characteristic called success first. (And if you use the “he was very good in qualifying” card, that’s your choice. I choose not to play that card. Because the Jozy Altidore I’ve seen recently wouldn’t win the NAIA’s Golden Boot award.)
For all the bad stuff and for as empty as my gut felt after the Ghana loss, more good was done in this World Cup than we realize right now. That will come with time. US Soccer has come a long way since the 2006 World Cup. There is a solid foundation in place. Altidore will be there in 4 years and hopefully be the striker that we needed this time around. Herculez Gomez will have four more years of experience. Benny Fielhaber will hopefully be a starter by then. Charlie Davies will hopefully be fully recovered from his auto accident and be back to the form he was in prior to the wreck that nearly killed him. And there’s always Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey. They’ll both be in the their early 30s by 2014 in Brazil, but you have to imagine that they’ll both be back as the leaders of that team. Neither showed any signs of age this time around. 2014 could very well be the year that US soccer truly gets on the map with the Brazils, Germanys, Argentinas, and Italys of the world.
2010, however, was not. There were moments of true genius though that, while they seem a little soured because of today’s loss, will likely stand the test of time. Landon Donovan’s goal against the Algerians was such a brilliant moment of American sport. The emotion that goal caused will resonate with me for some time. Our blitzkrieg attack to start the second half today will also stick with me. There were moments in this tournament when our team looked like perhaps we were the best team in the world. The next step is to turn those moments into 90 minute blocks. That will be the hard part. For now, though lets try not to focus so much on the bad parts. Our nucleus is in place. Our journey is mapped out for us. Our future is bright. Bring on 2014.
Mid-Atlantic Bias 