ASN: Is It Improper to Count on Good Performances in January?

Taking part in at dwelling in entrance of a brand new coach with the advantage of three weeks of coaching collectively, the U.S. males’s nationwide staff ought to have crushed Serbia. Why is not anyone significantly bothered by the outcome?

BY

John Godfrey

Posted
January 29, 2017
9:00 PM

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SAN DIEGO—The U.S. males’s nationwide staff took a complete of 12 photographs on aim Sunday afternoon in opposition to Serbia. It managed to get simply a type of photographs on body.

An American squad consisting of one of the best expertise from Main League Soccer squared off in opposition to Serbia’s B staff, a bunch of kids who needed to fly midway around the globe to get to Qualcomm Stadium. The People managed simply two nook kicks over 90 minutes whereas the guests generated seven.

Bruce Enviornment’s unit had practiced collectively for practically three weeks—simply up the street in Carson, Calif.—and but wanted a sprawling save from Nick Rimando within the 89th minute to salvage a tie in opposition to the Forty fifth-ranked Serbians, a staff that had been coaching collectively for simply 5 days.

Fairly dangerous, proper? The coach should be livid, do not you assume? And the gamers should be beating themselves up about now, right?

Improper. Nope. Incorrect. 

Why? As a result of it is January, and in American soccer circles that is a magical time when outcomes and performances by no means matter. Mediocre is OK throughout this window, we have been educated to imagine. They’re simply getting their work in, we’re instructed time and again.

I do not purchase it. 

The Gregorian calendar might say it is January however the one timekeeping gadget that issues is a countdown clock that clearly states there are simply 53 days till an absolute must-win match in opposition to Honduras. You guys need to go to Russia in 2018? Then do not look ahead to March to start out delivering. Do it now. 

From my vantage level, there was a scarcity of desperation on the sphere Sunday afternoon; there was none by any means after the competition.

“Clearly, we would have liked to have won the game today but I think for this time of year it was a good game,” Bruce Enviornment mentioned after the scoreless draw. “I was encouraged by a number of performances for our team.”

Captain Michael Bradley sang the identical tune.

“We continue to feel good about the progress we have made these few weeks and ultimately the result wasn’t going to change that,” Bradley supplied. “This is about getting a group of guys back together and getting everybody going and starting to really have an idea, going forward, of what we need to be about.”

Your flip, Alejandro Bedoya: “There were definitely some positive things. It felt all right. It was a good exercise.”

In all equity, most People performed exhausting. The defenders and midfielders pressured the ball, a minimum of within the first half. They strung just a few passes collectively within the opening 20 minutes and had just a few appears on aim. Darlington Nagbe may showes the potential to be a starter, Graham Zusi held his personal at proper again, and Sebastian Lletget performed like any individual who may very well be a difference-maker. 

However there wasn’t a lot else to have a good time. Jozy Altidore commemorated his a hundredth U.S. look with a poor exhibiting that appeared to show he can not play alone in a single-striker setup—he failed to seek out open areas and may as properly have stayed dwelling. Bedoya was messy on the ball and did not do sufficient defensively. Sacha Kljestan began sturdy however ran out of fuel, or concepts, within the second half. Nagbe ought to have buried his probabilities. Bradley was simply OK.

The performances on the sphere had been flawed. The performances on the press convention and within the combined zone had been worse.

“I’ll be honest with you,” Enviornment mentioned. “If we won 5-0 today or lost 5-0, I’m not sure it would change our world for March. These games are important, especially for our domestic players, but the games that are going to count are in March. That’s where you look at me and get really critical.”

Truly, no. We will be crucial now. The World Cup qualifying course of insists we do.

Has Altidore ever carried out properly as a solitary striker? He has not. So why would he instantly determine it out now? 

“He’s a No. 9 type of player,” Enviornment mentioned. “The important thing with Jozy is getting somebody a bit of nearer to him. That was Sacha’s job right now and Nagbe acquired shut and was a part of some combos with him. We’ll nonetheless have a look at Jozy enjoying with one other striker as properly however total I assumed it was a stable recreation.

“This time of year the attacking players are a little bit behind. They’re just getting their fitness back—their touch and all of that. They trail a little bit, the other players. You could see that today.”

Altidore is a talented passer however he is simply not a holdup participant and he would not have the velocity, or the guile, to create area for himself. He is a robust opportunist and he completely wants a strike companion. Enviornment ought to have acknowledged that—both earlier than Sunday’s recreation or actually 45 minutes into it.

“I thought the Serbian team defended very well,” Enviornment added. “They did a real good job. It was a challenging game for us.”

Yeah, possibly. However Honduras and definitely Panama 4 days later might be defending simply as properly, so crediting your opponent would not actually hack it at this stage of qualifying. Tipping your cap to your opponent is a pleasant factor to do; elevating hell together with your expenses tomorrow in coaching is the mandatory factor to do. 

And maybe Enviornment will just do that. Possibly all of that feel-good spin was manufactured simply to get previous the media hordes in order that some critical changes—each attitudinal and tactical—can happen on the apply discipline earlier than the Jamaica recreation on Friday. Let’s hope so.

In the meantime, the coach might need to dissuade his gamers from blaming the sphere situations within the coming week. The Yanks do play in CONCACAF, in spite of everything.

“No excuses,” Bradley mentioned, “but an afternoon kickoff and a choppy field both play into the difficulty of making a special play to break the game open.”

“The condition of the field affected us a little bit in terms of moving the ball quick,” Bedoya echoed a couple of minutes later.

Improper reply. Even when it was true, do not say that. Rise above it. Discover a solution to overcome the pitch as an alternative of utilizing it as a crutch.

Of all of the gamers I spoke to after the competition, solely Sacha Kljestan appeared actively bothered by the outcome—however even he equivocated considerably.

“We would have loved to win this game,” the New York Crimson Bull midfielder mentioned. “I would have loved to win to start out 2017 on a good foot. Fortunately we have one more game against Jamaica to clean things up and work on our relationships on the field. Hopefully, we’ll hope for a win against Jamaica.”

Relationships? Hope for a win? All of it sounds so tender.