USMNT

By: Colin Reese

Lead from the front.

In World Soccer Source’s previous article, this writer explored the possibility of a Michael Bradley and Benji Joya two-man defensive midfield, but this article goes one step further and backs Michael Bradley as the defensive midfielder, Benji Joya as the playmaker, and Jozy Altidore and Juan Agudelo as the strikers.

Jürgen Klinsmann is clearly dissatisfied with the performance of the United States Men’s National Team, and the choice of Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey to return to Major League Soccer instead of staying with Roma in Bradley’s case or finding a different club in Dempsey’s case obviously greatly disappointed and angered Klinsmann.

Additionally, Klinsmann is dissatisfied with the way that his defenders hit long ball clearances instead of working the ball out of the ball by staying calm on the ball and using quality passing to get the ball out of the danger zone.

If the coach of the United States is truly this dissatisfied with the play of the United States, then he should consider the possibility that the players that he uses simply do not have the technical skills or the physical gifts to give him what he wants.

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By: Colin Reese

Benji Joya’s loan to the Chicago Fire of Major League Soccer makes the prospect of Joya playing for the United States in the World Cup within the realm of possibility, and World Soccer Source thinks that Joya should start for the United States in the World Cup.

Given the need for Geoff Cameron to play as one of the starting United States Men’s National Team center backs and given the poor partnership between Jermaine Jones and Michael Bradley, starting Benji Joya as a central midfielder of the box-to-box variety with Michael Bradley playing a slightly more defensive role could really improve the quality of the American central midfield behind the attacking midfielders.

There’s a belief among many American soccer observers that Benji Joya is just a promising and raw player that isn’t ready for the World Cup stage, but the United States Men’s National Team can ill-afford to allow complete central midfielders of Joya’s caliber to watch the U.S. World Cup games on TV, even if they are young and inexperienced.

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By: Colin Reese

What would a Young USMNT XI look like?

World Soccer Source takes a look at a hypothetical USA XI without veterans like Tim Howard, Geoff Cameron, Jermaine Jones, Michael Bradley, Landon Donovan, Benny Feilhaber, Clint Dempsey, and Jozy Altidore.

Most of the players listed above will be and should be United States Men’s National Team mainstays for years to come, but many of the younger players can help to form a Starting XI that contains not only the core players but also the new talents.

The future of the USMNT is in good hands, and there appears to be plenty of technically-skilled and athletic players that can produce a brand of high quality soccer that is effective against top national teams. These players are young, but by making a hypothetical Starting XI with them, one can see how the quality of the national team in terms of the ability of the defense to not only defend but also play out of the back is matched by the ability of the Front Six to keep possession, creating scoring chances, and put the ball in the back of the net.

Below is a 4-2-3-1 formation made up of up-and-comers in addition to some more well-known and established American footballers in MLS and other leagues:

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By: Colin Reese

From a tactical standpoint, the use of Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan where a central attacking midfielder plays in a 4-2-3-1 formation has made little sense because both players are better suited to play wide in that formation.

If the United States Men’s National Team were to use a 4-1-3-2 system with two strikers, it would make sense for either Dempsey or Donovan to play the second striker role with the other player either playing out left or right in the line of three attacking midfielders.

Formations and positions are fluid in soccer with a little more fluidity present in the attack as opposed to in the defense, but the idea that either Dempsey or Donovan are the main orchestrator and creator in the attack is an illogical concept.

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By: Colin Reese

Americans should celebrate the difficulty in fitting all of the capable players that merit serious consideration for a World Cup roster spot onto the 23-man United States Men’s National Team World Cup roster.

Nevertheless, the United States will need its most talented players to get out of Group G, even if many of the players that helped the U.S. qualify for the World Cup are in the “Drop” category below.

Not all change is progress, but change is needed when a national team uses players that either lack the comfort and skill on the ball needed to compete in a World Cup or players that lack the requisite level of athleticism, which manifests itself in quickness, speed, or agility.

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By: Colin Reese

Jürgen Klinsmann has never really proven that Brad Evans and DaMarcus Beasley are better right and left backs than Eric Lichaj and Fabian Johnson, and starting capable outside backs will be essential for the United States Men’s National Team’s chances in the 2014 World Cup.

Putting Brad Evans on the roster to play as a central midfielder instead of Kyle Beckerman would logically make sense given Evans’ superior speed and ability to defend and go forward compared to Beckerman, but why not use the outside back roster spots for players like Eric Lichaj or Jonathan Spector when he’s healthy?

Whether you think Omar Gonzalez and Matt Besler are the best USMNT center back options, at least they play those positions well in MLS and in CONCACAF – the only question mark is how well they’ll be able to handle better World Cup attackers.

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By: Colin Reese

Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey as the right and left attacking midfielders with Michael Bradley as a defensive or box-to-box midfielder should be the starting point for any United States Men’s National Team Front Six.

Instead of having the central attacking midfielder be free-roaming attacking midfielders like Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, the United States Men’s National Team should just start Donovan and Dempsey out wide and let them loose while a natural playmaker orchestrates the passing and the attack from the center of the park because the playmaker links the defensive midfielders to the attack and improves the passing and scoring ability of the USMNT.

Donovan and Dempsey are going to go where the game takes them and switch sides, and they should be allowed to do that for the good of the team. Embracing that philosophy eliminates the odd practice of requiring one of them to be pulling the strings in the attack instead of being attackers who play off a playmaker with more of a gift for playing final balls and creating a tempo of one-to-two touch soccer.

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By: Colin Reese

This is an opinion piece that proposes a 23-man USA roster for the 2014 World Cup, as opposed to being a prediction about which players Jürgen Klinsmann will select.

Everyone has their own opinion about players, teams, and coaches, and many people support Klinsmann’s USA roster selections; that’s what makes soccer a great sport to discuss and debate.

There seems to be less American soccer media discussion about the merits of Jürgen Klinsmann’s roster selections than one sees out of the media in other countries when analyzing, critiquing, and reporting on the choices made by other national team’s coaches.

The 2014 World Cup roster for the United States Men’s National Team should be set up to have a starting player at each of the positions in the 4-2-3-1 formation, and it simply isn’t.

Jürgen Klinsmann’s rosters do not contain starting natural outside backs with substitutes for both positions, and the rosters also do not contain a starting and back up central attacking midfielder.

This like the absence of Joe Corona on the roster as a fixture to play as a substitute for Clint Dempsey or Landon Donovan are just a few examples of the lack of balance and the lack of the requisite personnel to field an effective 4-2-3-1 formation, which is Klinsmann’s preferred formation.

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By: Colin Reese

While the strike partnership of Jozy Altidore and Aron Jóhannsson is definitely something that the United States Men’s National Team should start very soon, a strike partnership of Juan Agudelo with Jozy Altidore presents its own unique benefits.

By and large, it’s safe to say that Agudelo is a more creative, a more technical, and a craftier player than Altidore, but Altidore himself has become a technical player that does display creativity and guile when given a striker partner, as opposed to when he’s stranded on a desert island up top.

The principal benefit and rationale behind starting Agudelo and Altidore together as center forwards is their ability to bring a two-pronged attack comprised of fast, tall, quick, and strong strikers who also bring a lot of skill and scoring ability. Agudelo and Altidore aren’t famous strikers in world football, but they are two strikers who would stretch any defense and make any defense really work.

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In World Soccer Source’s previous article, this writer proposed a United States Men’s National Team Starting XI that this writer believes can improve the overall quality of the United States and make the USMNT more competitive in the World Cup, but this article attempts to predict a more-likely Starting XI, even if some of the picks aren’t players who have been Jürgen Klinsmann regulars.

The philosophy behind this Starting XI prediction is that Klinsmann will make some adjustments to better address the reality of the skill-level of the United States’ opponents.

Here is World Soccer Source’s prediction of a USA XI that Klinsmann could possibly field for the 2014 World Cup:

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