By: COLIN REESE
Now that the USA is out of the 2014 World Cup, criticism has been circulating about Jürgen Klinsmann’s defensive tactics and his poor decision to deploy Michael Bradley as a central attacking midfielder.
Many names will be in the mix for the next USA roster, but now is a good time for Klinsmann to take stock of the young talent at his disposal before any must-win games. The United States should let its most promising young players play and see if they display any improvement over most of the players used in the World Cup.
Given Klinsmann’s radical changes to his USA World Cup roster from what seemed to be his preferred 23, Klinsmann’s player selections are hard to predict, but there are certainly young American players in MLS and elsewhere that have shown real skill and promise.
World Soccer Source has long backed the inclusion of DeAndre Yedlin on the United States Men’s National Team, and Yedlin proved that he was not only ready to play at the World Cup but that he was capable of excelling.
With this reality in mind, now is the time to really introduce more of the best young American talent into the national team and let them get experience and establish strong chemistry.
Many of the very best USA internationals should still be the core of the squad, but now is the time for more of the overhaul that should have come a year before the World Cup, even if it was just the inclusion of three or four more new players.
Looking back at the 2014 World Cup, roster spots for players like Brad Davis and Chris Wondolowski could have gone to Landon Donovan or new talents that would have at least offered the possibility of being effective.
Both Davis and Wondolowski have long been considered players that aren’t international-caliber, and it’s a mystery why Klinsmann included them when he showed that he was willing to select young talents such as DeAndre Yedlin, John Brooks, and Julian Green.
Credit to Klinsmann for including these players, but other selections made little sense. In addition to Davis and Wondolowski mentioned above, Klinsmann selected Mix Diskerud, which most people assumed was in place of Joe Corona and Landon Donovan, but then Klinsmann never even played Diskerud to try to better link the defensive midfielders with the attack.
After seeing the United States struggle to display enough skill in most of its World Cup games, it is fair to question Klinsmann’s tactics and roster selections, and it’s also fair to say that Klinsmann isn’t responsible for the fighting spirit that the Americans showed at the World Cup and for which they were praised.
American soccer should now be at the point where it’s reasonable to not approve of the coach of the national team’s decisions, especially when they are valid criticisms about players deployed out of position or roster spots used on players of limited talent by global standards.
An ex-player and coach of Klinsmann’s experience should be expected to do a better job of picking a 23-man roster where there are better first and second-choice options for each position, and the USA Starting XIs need to be more balanced where defensive midfielders aren’t separated from the attacking midfielders and forwards without any creative link-up players to improve the USA’s ability to pass the ball and possess the ball with purpose.
Klinsmann and fans of his coaching have a tendency to use Klinsmann’s playing resume as a way to dismiss any valid and specific criticism of his choices, but just because Klinsmann had an excellent playing career doesn’t mean that all of his decisions are correct.
The gap in the ability of the Americans to keep possession and create scoring chances compared to better national teams was on full display even to Americans that had never really watched soccer at all until the World Cup.
Klinsmann can claim that there isn’t enough talent in the United States or that his players lacked the mentality to take the game to the opposition, but the global praise the American players received for their desire to win and the exclusion of Donovan from the roster directly disprove Klinsmann’s claims.
Ruud Van Nistelrooy working for ESPN voiced his opinion that the Americans’ technical ability and possession needed to be improved starting with the center backs, and Michael Ballack, also working for ESPN, voiced his opinion that the USA lacked creative, technical, and quick players in the attacking midfield that could help to not leave Clint Dempsey stranded up top.
In order to address these problems and test out the talent out there, the following players should be included on the next USA roster, and these players should serve as a starting point to assess their talent, in addition to testing out or recalling other American players depending on the performances of the players selected:
GOALKEEPERS: Tim HOWARD, Brad GUZAN, Clint IRWIN
CENTER BACKS: John BROOKS, Shane O’NEILL, Erik PALMER-BROWN, Andrew FARRELL
OUTSIDE BACKS: DeAndre YEDLIN, Chris KLUTE, Kofi SARKODIE, Kellyn ACOSTA
DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDERS: Michael BRADLEY, Geoff CAMERON, Maurice EDU
ATTACKING MIDFIELDERS: Clint DEMPSEY, Joe CORONA, Fabian JOHNSON, Julian GREEN, Benji JOYA, Dillon POWERS
FORWARDS: Juan AGUDELO, Jozy ALTIDORE, Mario RODRIGUEZ
Who Should the USA Start in its next game when all of the players are available?
GUZAN; YEDLIN, O’NEILL, BROOKS, KLUTE; CAMERON, BRADLEY; JOYA, DEMPSEY, CORONA; AGUDELO.
This starting line-up makes sense because it not only uses Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey in their natural positions, but it uses everyone in their natural position. All of these players have shown that they have the athleticism and technical ability to play international soccer, but they have also shown that they offer more of both of these things than the players the United States normally uses. Given the effectiveness of Yedlin, players like O’Neill, Klute, Joya, Corona, and Agudelo deserve a real shot to prove that they can help to improve the overall skill of the United States.