By: COLIN REESE
If Jürgen Klinsmann and the United States trot out Brad Evans, Kyle Beckerman, Brad Davis, or Chris Wondolowski at the World Cup, no one will be impressed by American soccer.
While the goal is to win as many games as possible, there is a connection between the skill required to play attractive soccer and winning.
The United States historically has been much less skilled on the ball than top soccer nations, but Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley, and Geoff Cameron are exceptions to this characterization.
Klinsmann hasn’t reduced the USA World Cup roster from 30 to 23 players yet, but there are certain players and certain combinations of players that he would be wise to use.
Three names in particular stand out: Joe Corona, Mix Diskerud, and DeAndre Yedlin.
All three of these players have been described as somewhat unlikely to make the final roster by many observers, but their talent is undeniable and an improvement to many of the players that the United States used in the past.
U.S. Soccer even released a promotion video about Joe Corona, which can be found below, and the video seems to be some sort of indication that U.S. Soccer is using an official video release to build up support for the American attacking midfielder playing for Tijuana who hasn’t even been listed as a member of the final roster yet. No such other videos have been released, and the video on Corona appears to have used footage recorded prior to the announcement of the preliminary roster.
Releasing a video showcasing a player that could be potentially cut before the World Cup starts was a strange occurrence, and one has to wonder if this indicates that Klinsmann does in fact intend to put Corona on the final roster, despite the fact that Corona was largely dismissed by most American soccer writers (not this one) as a very unlikely roster inclusion.
While many Americans have misgivings about players like Diskerud, Corona, and Yedlin, World Soccer Source has no reservations about openly contending that Diskerud, Corona, and Yedlin are much better players than Brad Evans, Brad Davis, and even Graham Zusi, which is an opinion that is not shared by the most prominent American soccer writers and pundits.
With Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey being excellent attacking players that excel mostly when playing off strikers and playmakers, it’s logical that Klinsmann put two playmakers like Corona and Diskerud on his 30-man preliminary roster.
Likewise, the inclusion of DeAndre Yedlin who, along with Chris Klute, is perhaps the most exciting American outside back in some time also makes a lot of sense.
For outside back starters, Klinsmann knows that he already has Timothy Chandler and Fabian Johnson who are both Bundesliga outside backs that can play on either side of the defense, so including a young and dynamic two-way outside back like Yedlin as one of his best back-up outside back options is a smart move, even if Yedlin is young and inexperienced. Klinsmann has limited options. He can’t really play Brad Evans against Ghana, Portugal, or Germany.
In short, Klinsmann as coach of the United States needs to take his more talented and proven players, and use new talent to fill in the needed spots.
Despite the use of Dempsey as a second striker playing where a central attacking midfielder would play in a 4-2-3-1, Klinsmann would be wise to start Donovan and Dempsey as the right and left wings and start either Corona or Diskerud as the central attacking midfielder.
Jermaine Jones and Michael Bradley are the logical starters as the defensive midfielder and as the central midfielder or box-to-box midfielder, and Jones needs to be specifically instructed to play the stay-at-home midfield destroyer role. If Jones can’t or won’t play that role with the United States then Geoff Cameron needs to be started as the defensive midfielder.
Omar Gonzalez and Matt Besler have been the starting center backs, and despite Klinsmann never specifically saying so, there is a strong feeling that Cameron will take Gonzalez’s starting spot, which would make Cameron and Besler the starting center backs.
Nevertheless, a center back pairing consisting of Maurice Edu and Geoff Cameron would give the United States better defending, more athleticism, and better technical ability in the center of the defense.
For the United States Men’s National Team, there is no reward for playing small when the status quo of your national team is to play soccer not founded on excellent technical ability.
The final verdict is that the USA Starting XI should be:
HOWARD; CHANDLER, EDU, CAMERON, JOHNSON; JONES, BRADLEY; DONOVAN, CORONA/DISKERUD, DEMPSEY; ALTIDORE.
– It’s very unlikely that both Mix Diskerud and Joe Corona will be cut from the final 23-man roster. Both Corona and Diskerud can give the USA the playmaking role that the team needs. Maurice Edu is another likely roster inclusion to play as a defensive midfielder or as a center back.
– If Jones proves unwilling to play the defensive midfielder role, then Besler should retain his starting left center back spot with Cameron playing as the defensive midfielder.
-At the central attacking midfielder spot, Corona offers more versatility than Diskerud, and starting him in between Donovan and Dempsey allows all three players to freely switch places, in order to produce a fluid and dynamic combination of attacking midfielders behind Jozy Altidore at the striker spot.
