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Soccer

USA 1, Argentina 2.. 3... 4...

Posted Jun 29, 2007 12:42AM By Brian Cook (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Soccer

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...and that's pretty much the thumping you expect when you throw your second-stringers out against Argentina, but it almost wasn't. Maybe not "almost". But it 2/3rds wasn't? Eddie Johnson drew a ninth minute penalty; Argentina responded with a set piece chip that bobbled around the box until Hernan Crespo slammed it home, and from there a stalemate settled in until Leo Messi did his Messi thing, found Crespo, and staked Argentina to a 2-1 lead, at which point things disintegrated.

Despite the constant exuberant praise heaped upon the US defenders by GolTV's shockingly not Scottish color guy (he's apparently from Newcastle, which is so close to Scotland it might not be total crap), it always seemed a matter of time before the Argentines got a grip on the knobbly oyster shell that was the US defense, inserted the knife, and prised it open to devour its meaty goodness. Tortured, shellfish-themed metaphors aside, this is exactly what happened in a deflating final half hour that firmly established that yes, Virginia, they're Argentina... and we are not.

It's not all bad. For 60 minutes the US played with one of the top teams in the world, and though they lacked the cutting edge near goal the Argentines had, large parts of the match were impressive soccer. The last 30 minutes, though, was another demonstration that the United States lacks the lethal quality of the world's best sides. Boxes post jump.

THE GOOD
Benny Feilhaber, again. Created the US goal with a pinpoint long range pass to Eddie Johnson and ran the midfield with aplomb. Tested Argentina from long range, forcing a good stop out of their keeper. Showed some limitations when he tried to take on Argentine defenders 1-v-1 -- he doesn't have the burst to get past guys at this level of play -- but the best US player on the day.
Jonathan Bornstein. An assured performance from Bornstein, who was not at fault on any of the goals and capably shut down anyone who came into his area. Few crosses entered the box save for the one that turned into the Aimar bullet, and I don't think any of them came from Bornstein's side of the field.
Marvell Wynne. Wynne got stuck in a bad situation on the aforementioned Aimar goal, trying to shut down two players at once; the rest of the day he was a hard man to beat. He has outstanding recovery speed, which makes up for the occasional mis-step.

Both outside backs were good today. One problem: neither provided much in the way of offense. Understandable, perhaps, against Argentina, but a reason the forwards got little service. More on that later.
Eddie Johnson? An up and down performance for the mercurial forward. The only time the US threatened is when long balls found Johnson on a run; he used his pace to stretch the Argentine defense. Drew and converted a penalty for the only US goal, but...
THE BAD
Eddie Johnson. ...even that was a disappointing, if fortunate, end to an attacking adventure. Johnson was clean through and hesitated, allowing the defenders to react. Several other times he found himself not quite through but close; in each instance he held up, waiting for help and squandering useful opportunities. The contrast between Johnson's hesitancy and the lethal finishing of Crespo, Tevez, et al could not have been more stark. And when Johnson was not running onto balls, when the Argentine defense was set up, he lacked the ball skills to do much against world class defending.
Justin Mapp. Where possession went to die today. The dropoff from Beasley to Mapp was immense and obvious. Mapp has some dribbling skills, but failed to provide anything at all today except, like, two awful crosses. Quintessential moment came midway through the first half when he booted a ball directly out of bounds. Wing play, in general, was dreadful, though Mapp was (mostly) the only actual wing midfielder employed.
Taylor Twellman. A complete nonfactor.
THE UGLY
Eddie Gaven. Even Gaven was surprised when he was called up the Copa squad, and for good reason. The once-promising youngster has been doing nothing in particular for one of MLS' worst teams. His first contribution upon being subbed in was to escort Leo Messi (Leo Messi!) to the middle of the field, where he could leisurely pick out Crespo for the backbreaking winner. Minutes later, he completely failed to cover an overlapping fullback run and that led to a cross and Pablo Aimar's laser header. It makes no sense this guy is on the team at all, let alone actually on the field against Argentina.
Carlos Tevez. It's not nice, but it's true.
THE MISCELLANEOUS
An odd tactical decision from Bradley to go with a 4-4-2 that featured a midfield of Mapp on the left, then a mishmash of Ben Olsen, Ricardo Clark, and Feilhaber in the center of the pitch, largely forgoing any wing play on the right. It worked well enough until the ill-fated Gaven substitution, but maybe that was part of the reason the forwards could get no service at all?

I don't know what to do with the center backs here; they were assured for most of the game; can they really prevent the run that led to the second goal? They were clearly torched on the fourth goal, but other than that I don't know who to blame. You concede four times and there is blame to spread around, but I'm having a hard time pointing the finger at anyone. Honestly, Conrad and Demerit seemed steadier than the Gooch-Boca pairing that came off as dodgy during the Gold Cup. Four goals is four goals, though.

Also, thumbs up on the pinstriped blue uniforms the US wore for the second time today. I like 'em.
THE NEXT
Paraguay stomped Colombia 5-0 in the other Group A match; we get the high flying Paraguayans on Monday. A win puts us in good shape; a draw is okay; a loss and we're in trouble with the goal differential we ceded in the Argentina game.

Tags: argentina, copa+america, CopaAmerica, usmnt

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