*Jürgen Klinsmann and the United States Men’s National Team have four solid playmaker options:
USMNT Positional Depth Charts: Playmakers
Clint Dempsey
A Proven and Proactive USMNT XI For Qualifying
Commentary:
Jürgen Klinsmann’s starting line-ups make no sense.
The United States Men’s National Team can improve immediately if the right combination of Jürgen Klinsmann regulars are started with some newer and not so new proven players.
The recipe is simple: keep Tim Howard, Omar Gonzalez, Geoff Cameron, Fabian Johnson, Jermaine Jones, Michael Bradley, and Clint Dempsey in the starting line-up, and then add Landon Donovan, Benny Feilhaber, Juan Agudelo, and Jonathan Spector .
This gives the United States a solid goalkeeper, four capable and proven defenders, a balanced midfield that can pass, and a more creative and talented young striker in Juan Agudelo.
This line-up is not necessarily the very best option for the United States, but it is a proven and balanced one, which can greatly improve the United States’ play before a more radical overhaul is attempted.
Since Klinsmann likes to use at least two defensive midfielders, then he should start three attacking midfielders in front of them in a four-two-three-one formation.
Here is why the following players should be started:
Goalkeeper: Tim HOWARD (Everton)
The United States Men’s National Team doesn’t have a problem with its goalkeepers, and Howard continues to provide several world-class saves every friendly and World Cup qualifier that prevent the United States from losing. Howard is a proven international and English Premier League goalkeeper, and the United States would have lost a lot of World Cup qualifiers under Jürgen Klinsmann if Howard hadn’t made all the saves that he did.
Right Back: Jonathan SPECTOR (Birmingham City)
Many Americans easily forget how well Jonathan Spector has consistently played against even the most elite international opponents like Spain and Brazil. Using Jonathan Spector gives Jürgen Klinsmann and the United States Men’s National Team, the confidence that an experienced and proven player is being used who is also much younger than Steve Cherundolo.
Center Back: Omar GONZALEZ (LA Galaxy)
Omar Gonzalez has demonstrated that he has the skill and athleticism plus the obvious defensive qualities to play international soccer for the United States, and he is a big upgrade to the skill and athleticism of Carlos Bocanegra and Clarence Goodson.
Geoff Cameron is better and more athletic than Gonzalez, but Gonzalez is a very talented center back who is perhaps a safer choice than tossing some of the younger American center backs into the fire.
Center Back: Geoff CAMERON (Stoke City)
One of the main problems for the United States over the years has been the weakness in the center of the American defense, and Cameron strengthened this weakness when he was finally used as a center back for the United States.
Cameron brings a new level of skill, athleticism, and coolness under pressure to the center of the American defense, and he needs to be played as a center back so the United States can play up to its full potential.
Starting Geoff Cameron and Omar Gonzalez lowers the chances of the American defense being frequently beaten.
Left Back: Fabian JOHNSON (Hoffenheim)
There’s not a good reason to not start Fabian Johnson at left back because he’s simply too good. While some of the back ups at outside back who Klinsmann has put on the roster are suspect, Fabian Johnson is a good starting selection.
Starting Gonzalez, Cameron, and Johnson allows for a defensive set-up that is solid and fairly well-tested, and inserting an experienced player like Jonathan Spector at right back is a safe and good choice.
Defensive Midfielder: Michael BRADLEY (Roma)
Contrary to what many Americans think, Bradley is a defensive midfielder. Bradley isn’t strictly a midfield destroyer who always hangs back deep to break up the passing of the opposition, but he is a defensive midfielder.
Bradley fulfills an important role: he breaks up the passing of the opposition, he provides a passing outlet for the defensive back four, he drops back deep to essentially play as a fifth defender, and he actively participates in the passing play of the United States’ midfield.
Playing at his natural position doesn’t hinder Bradley’s involvement in the game, but it allows him to be a main participant in the offensive and defensive aspects of the game.
Michael Bradley’s more defensive midfield role is equally as important as Clint Dempsey’s more attacking role.
Defensive Midfielder: Jermaine JONES (Schalke)
No one plays in the Bundesliga and the Champions League for a team like Schalke without world-class technical ability. The German clubs don’t let players play whose technical ability and fundamentals are a liability.
The question with Jones is whether or not the United States needs to start Michael Bradley and Jones at the same time, as there are already four defenders and a goalkeeper. Using two defensive midfielders is certainly common, and it may or may not be overly defensive depending on the other players making up the front six of the starting XI.
Right Attacking Midfielder: Landon DONOVAN (LA Galaxy)
While there are a number of talented attacking midfielders in the pool who Jürgen Klinsmann has basically refused to use even if he calls them up, Klinsmann does like Landon Donovan. A great first step for the improvement of the passing and quality of play of the USMNT would be to start Donovan, Clint Dempsey, and a playmaker in a line of three in front of the defensive midfield tandem of Jones and Bradley.
Central Attacking Midfielder: Benny FEILHABER (Sporting KC)
At this point, Klinsmann needs to accept the reality that he cannot simply continue to field starting line-ups without the personnel to produce good passing and shots on goal. Benny Feilhaber is a proven playmaker at the international level, and using one playmaker to balance defensive midfielder heavy formations is reasonable and necessary.
By choosing to start Feilhaber with Donovan, Dempsey, and Bradley, Klinsmann is using a formation which is not risky or experimental, but rather one with a proven track record of success.
Left Attacking Midfielder: Clint DEMPSEY (Tottenham)
It’s important that Clint Dempsey not be tasked with the role of a playmaker because Dempsey’s game is built on attacking the goal and being one of the targets for final balls as opposed to being required to play as a true playmaker, which is exactly what Klinsmann makes him do.
By starting Benny Feilhaber, Dempsey is free to roam around making runs and play off a playmaker. When Feilhaber is used as a playmaker, Dempsey has a teammate who can combine with him and play him the types of passes Dempsey is looking for.
Striker: Juan AGUDELO (Chivas USA)
Taking nothing away from Jozy Altidore’s goal-scoring rate this season or his improved technical skills, Juan Agudelo is a more graceful and technically-skilled striker than Jozy Altidore with the same size and athleticism.
Altidore is stronger than Agudelo, but Agudelo is a powerful and crafty striker who attacks the goal more than Altidore.
In short, Agudelo offers Altidore’s athleticism with higher marks for creativity, smoothness, aggressive play, and technical ability.
Agudelo has never had any problems playing against elite international competition, and unlike Altidore, Agudelo poses more of a scoring threat in international soccer by involving himself in the game more than Altidore .
Agudelo has more experience with the United States Men’s National Team than Terrence Boyd, so Agudelo is a safer pick if the goal is to improve the United States’ play by using experienced players who are better than some of the players currently used by Klinsmann. Nevertheless, Boyd would also bring more of a goal-scoring threat than Altidore.
Outlook:
If Jürgen Klinsmann fields something along the lines of the starting line-up proposed above, then the United States will see a vast improvement in the ability of the team to keep possession of the ball in all areas of the field and an improvement in its ability to attack its opponents.
This is an easy change to make that doesn’t require experimentation or using inexperienced players in vital World Cup qualifiers.
Nevertheless, it would be a mistake for Klinsmann to not allow Joe Corona, Terrence Boyd, and Freddy Adu to see more playing time for the USMNT, and many players like Joe Gyau, Perry Kitchen, Mario Rodriguez, José Villarreal, Gale Agbossoumonde, Andrew Farrell, and Chris Klute should be watched closely and tested.
USMNT: The Best 40 American Soccer Players (May 2013)
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© Colin Reese
USMNT: The Best 40 American Soccer Players (May 2013)
*This list is a counter argument to the ASN Top 100 put out by the website, American Soccer Now, on a monthly basis, except for April. The next ASN Top 100 comes out in May.
*Jürgen Klinsmann doesn’t use many of these players on the USMNT, and that has caused some less than stellar USMNT performances.
1. Clint DEMPSEY (Tottenham)
2. Michael BRADLEY (Roma)
3. Landon DONOVAN (LA Galaxy)
4. Freddy ADU (E.C. Bahia)
5. Benny FEILHABER (Sporting Kansas City)
6. Joe CORONA (Tijuana)
7. Mix DISKERUD (Rosenborg)
8. Juan AGUDELO (Chivas USA)
9. Terrence BOYD (Rapid Wien)
10. Geoff CAMERON (Stoke City)
What’s wrong with American soccer and the USMNT?
There is a disconnect between what the people making the roster, formation, and line-up decisions for the United States Men’s National Team say they want and what they actually do.
Even if they don’t have 11 players to start together who have the technical ability of Brazil, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Argentina, Uruguay, etc, Klinsmann and his staff can still select the most technically-skilled players at their disposal.
Klinsmann and company cannot just keep claiming that it’s a process; the process would be taking the very best technically-skilled players and improving how each of them play and how they play together.
This writer has written about these topics extensively, but Paul Gardner of Soccer America called Klinsmann out in a major publication and Andrés Cantor called Klinsmann out in an episode of The Best Soccer Show from over a year ago.
http://www.socceramerica.com/article/50972/klinsmann-the-salesman-prolongs-problem.html
http://nasn.tv/2012/andres-cantor-on-the-best-soccer-show/
Many American pundits, ex-USMNT players, and soccer writers continue to question even the attempt to play one-to-two touch soccer or use more skilled players, as opposed to criticizing Klinsmann for not even trying to do what he said he wanted to do.
They actually have a problem with even using newer and more talented players in friendlies to improve the quality of the United States Men’s National Team play because they write off the newer and better players as inexperienced and raw.
Even using Benny Feilhaber as a playmaker in a World Cup qualifier wouldn’t be the risky use of an unproven player because he’s proven at essentially the highest levels of international soccer.
Joe Corona, Terrence Boyd, Juan Agudelo, Benji Joya, and Gale Agbossoumonde all receive these “raw and inexperienced” tags from the media and many fans, never mind the fact that all of these players, except Agbossoumonde, have proven that they can perform on the international level.
Let some American pundits tell you about how set pieces are so important and how the United States Men’s National Team needs to play like Americans, but there is only one correct way to play soccer; everyone around the world knows it.
Even non-soccer fans in the United States see the Brazils, Spains, and Italys of the world working the ball around the field by stringing passes together, as they try to get into scoring positions.
Getting to the root of the problem, the primary problem with American soccer and the United States Men’s National Team is that Americans, the United States Soccer Federation, and Jürgen Klinsmann don’t place a high enough premium on technical ability, even though they claim that they do.
Any style of soccer not based on refined technical ability, movement off the ball, and the mastery of fundamentals like using both feet or playing recovery defense isn’t real soccer that will lead to wins against elite national teams.
Klinsmann can claim that he wants to implement a philosophy of a style of one-to-two touch soccer that’s proactive, but this claim cannot be taken seriously as long as a player like Kyle Beckerman is selected to be on a critical World Cup qualifying roster over Perry Kitchen.
Kitchen is faster and more technically skilled. If Klinsmann wants to play proactively then someone like Beckerman cannot be selected over Kitchen who has the skill on the ball plus the physical gifts to compete against better and faster opponents, which Beckerman cannot do.
Even Clint Dempsey is frequently unfairly made one of the scapegoats of the media and the fans for the United States Men’s National Team’s lack of offensive production and quality passing. No one comments that Dempsey has only one striker to combine with and no other attacking midfielders to help him keep possession and attack.
A great example of the continued complaints about Clint Dempsey was the wave of complaints about Dempsey being made captain of the United States.
Recently, Clint Dempsey was made captain of the United States Men’s National Team, and the American soccer media, rather than praising Dempsey, was quick to complain that Dempsey was made captain instead of Michael Bradley.
The American soccer media complained like a Greek chorus that Dempsey didn’t care about the United States Men’s National Team as much as himself and that he wasn’t a vocal leader, despite the fact that Dempsey gives 100% in every game, tries to take the game the to the U.S.’ opponents, and has no problem mixing it up and getting in the faces of opponents who other American players are intimidated by.
Despite the unfounded character attacks on Clint Dempsey, the American media actually complained that the player with the most skill and the greatest proven ability to perform against high level competition was chosen as the leader.
On the other hand, a more serious publication, The Wall Street Journal, ran an article about Clint Dempsey after the 2009 Confederations Cup Final praising Dempsey’s play and effort and proclaiming Dempsey the new leader of the USMNT.
If the American soccer media and fan base is going to call Clint Dempsey lazy and selfish while also questioning his ability to lead the team, then what will they say about other American players, and how much does the American soccer media really know?
If Americans say this stuff about Dempsey, how will they ever be convinced to pressure Jürgen Klinsmann into playing more than one player like Dempsey at the same time in order to create possession and attacking soccer?
Clint Dempsey should be applauded because he plays soccer the right way, and he learned how to play outside of U.S. Soccer’s official development system.
This was the key to Dempsey’s success: not learning to play soccer like an American but rather learning by studying Diego Maradona and playing with Latinos in Texas.
His game is based on technical ability, creativity, two-footed skill, movement off the ball, bravado, toughness, physical endurance, and mental strength.
There is only one correct way to play soccer, if you want to compete with the best in the world, and that way is skill soccer, as opposed to long ball and all crosses: the English way.
There are a lot of great American soccer minds in the United States, and there are lots of people from other countries with so much valuable expertise and wisdom to offer Americans; none of them advocates a style of play not based on one-to-two touch soccer.
One-to-two touch soccer leads to victories. Brazil, five World Cup trophies. Italy, four World Cup trophies. Germany, three World Cup trophies.
Other countries take the most talented players they can find, determine if they have the requisite athleticism to play soccer, and they hone the skills of these players.
Elite teams use the whole field, but they don’t restrict their attack to just running up and down the sidelines with the intention of always looking to play a cross.
Americans need to permanently get rid of this notion that more width and more crosses is the key to more scoring opportunities.
Brazil would never play that way. That style of soccer would never fly in Brazil, Spain, or anywhere else with a good soccer system.
Better soccer nations work the ball around and look for openings in the defense and probe for weaknesses, and if one gateway into the penalty box is closed then they work the ball around until there is an opening somewhere else or in the original place they looked.
From better national teams, you will see crosses played in the air to players who have made runs or who are making runs, but you won’t really see balls just crossed into the box blindly.
You might see balls played across the goal mouth in the attempt to sneak a pass through to a teammate in front of the goal, but you really will not see crosses crushed into the penalty box without a specific target.
Again, the root of the problem of American soccer and the United States Men’s National Team is the low premium placed on technical ability.
Before players are weeded out at a higher level because of a lack of athleticism or a lack of confidence in their abilities, players are supposed to be weeded out if they lack the technical ability to perform in say Major League Soccer or for the United States Men’s National Team.
The United States has plenty of talented and athletic players at every position with the ability to play a brand of soccer more along the lines of the world’s best national teams, but the first steps were already taken by Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley.
Bob Bradley reluctantly played Michael Bradley, Benny Feilhaber, Landon Donovan, and Clint Dempsey at the same time, which allowed the United States to have the requisite ability to perform against Spain and Brazil in the 2009 Confederations Cup and advance out of the group stage in the 2010 World Cup.
Jürgen Klinsmann must take the next step of fielding starting line-ups where all eleven players are technically-advanced and athletic and where the line-ups balance defensive strength with effective and inventive attacking players.
There will always be complaints about which players are used by a coach, but Klinsmann needs to at least use a reasonable balance of defensive and attacking players who all have advanced technical ability and sufficient athleticism.
It takes courage to lose because you tried to win.
Americans have low standards for Jürgen Klinsmann and the USMNT
It’s hard to be in the public spotlight, and what Jürgen Klinsmann and the players on the United States Men’s National Team do is very emotionally intense.
In other countries the pressure the press puts on those involved in professional soccer on the national and international level is much more intense than in the United States, but there’s still a lot of pressure in the United States as well.
With that being said, Americans do seem to have very low standards for Jürgen Klinsmann and the United States Men’s National Team in regards to the quality of play.
There will always be mistakes made by professional athletes, and crucifying professional soccer players for mistakes is inappropriate and classless.
Americans’ standards for Jürgen Klinsmann and the United States Men’s National Team are too low because members of the American soccer media and the American fan base fail to intelligently question why attempts aren’t made to correct tactical and player selection mistakes made by Klinsmann.
Changes: An updated USMNT roster proposal
Roughly a year ago, Jürgen Klinsmann suggested that the problem with the United States Men’s National Team was that the team needed to be “an edge more nastier” and work the referees more.
That tactic seems to have not worked.
Klinsmann once famously said “Anyone can play left back,” and if that was his attitude in a World Cup qualifier, then inexperienced players with a high-skill level deserve a shot in the upcoming friendlies with Belgium and Germany.
Since Klinsmann’s approach to coaching the United States Men’s National Team has achieved no real progress in improving the technical ability of the team, this writer would contend that essentially tossing in a large group of new players into the deep end against Belgium and Germany would at least offer the potential to see some improvement at various positions and in the overall technical ability of the team.
With other CONCACAF teams demonstrating better technical skill in World Cup qualifiers than the United States, the next two friendlies should be used to really take some roster and starting line-up risks just to see what the United States has in the talent pool. Certainly, Germany offers the chance to see new players’ skill level while factoring in nerves and inexperience.
What’s the real harm in really seeing how some totally new and promising players do when thrown into the lion’s den against Germany in an international friendly?
No matter what happens against Belgium or Germany, the United States should fare fine in World Cup qualifiers if it starts Tim Howard, Jonathan Spector, Omar Gonzalez, Geoff Cameron, Fabian Johnson, Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley, Benny Feilhaber, Clint Dempsey, Juan Agudelo, and Jozy Altidore.
As opposed to what Klinsmann suggested below, a major change in the players included on the United States Men’s National Team as discussed below would seem to be a better strategy to improve the level of play.
Change the players or up the nastiness as suggested in the video below? You decide.
Goalkeepers:
Tim HOWARD
Brad GUZAN
Sean JOHNSON
Defenders:
Geoff CAMERON
Omar GONZALEZ
George JOHN
Gale AGBOSSOUMONDE
Fabian JOHNSON
Jonathan SPECTOR
Andrew FARRELL
Chris KLUTE
Midfielders:
Michael BRADLEY
Perry KITCHEN
Benji JOYA
Dax McCARTY
Clint DEMPSEY
Benny FEILHABER
Joe CORONA
Freddy ADU
Forwards:
Juan AGUDELO
Terrence BOYD
Tony TAYLOR
Mario RODRIGUEZ
Possible Starting XI Formation:
USMNT: Benji Joya belongs on the World Cup qualifying roster
You can just see how some players are better than others, and this is the case with Benji Joya compared to the majority of the players in the United States’ player pool.
Benji Joya is a different type of midfielder and player than Clint Dempsey, but in the same way that this writer immediately saw Clint Dempsey’s quality, so too did this writer see the same with Joya.
Many observers and members of the media will call the belief that Joya should be on the United States Men’s National Team “too soon” or “based on a few good showings,” but this is inaccurate. Joya elected to skip college soccer in order to go pro immediately, and he quickly made his way into La Liga MX with Santos Laguna. Even right now, Joya has demonstrated the ability to play as a professional in Mexico as a teenager, and he has also shown that he has the skill and mentality to be both effective and unfazed on the international level by hostile crowds and quality competition.
For a United States Men’s National Team that needs more dynamic midfielders to move away from Jürgen Klinsmann’s overly defensive style of using of Danny Williams, Jermaine Jones, and Michael Bradley at the same time, Joya is the perfect blend of two-footed technical skill, defensive grit, mental toughness, and a love of big games. Joya gives the United States Men’s National Team a true box-to-box midfielder who not only can play one-to-two touch soccer and play final balls, but who can also help to regain possession of the ball in the midfield.
Benji Joya is 19 years old, and this is not too young to play international soccer. Jürgen Klinsmann still has a lot of games in front of him in World Cup qualifying, but time is also running out. Klinsmann simply does not have the luxury to not put Joya on the team, just as he does not have the luxury of excluding Joe Corona, Juan Agudelo, Terrence Boyd, and even Freddy Adu from his rosters.
Both Freddy Adu and Benny Feilhaber have been discussed at great length by this writer, but both are different types of players than Benji Joya. For a coach who insists on using a midfield destroyer with two box-to-box midfielders, Klinsmann can have his wish by putting Joya on the team and starting him with Bradley as box-to-box midfielders and Jermaine Jones as the midfield destroyer, who also offers advanced technical ability.
Skill is more important than experience, but Benji Joya has shown that he has both, given his club situation and the display he put on in CONCACAF Under-20 World Cup qualifying.
Jürgen Klinsmann needs to put Benji Joya on the United States Men’s National Team now.
With Benji Joya in the starting XI, the United States Men’s National Team could line-up with something like this:
USMNT: The Best 30 American Soccer Players
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Comment:
The World Soccer Source Best 30 American Soccer Players
What makes one player better than another player? Good question.
The names on the list are more important than the order as many of these names are drastically different from the first thirty names on American Soccer Now’s Top 100 from February, which asks several writers, pundits, podcasters, ex-players, and analysts to rank American players, but the list does not show how high each panelist ranked each player.
CRITERIA & REASONING:
*This World Soccer Source list is based on the criteria of skill, club performances, international performances, current form, and the players’ performances against high-level competition.
*Ultimately, every soccer fan will weigh each criterion higher than others.
*Some people will value the overall skill of the player: meaning the visual impression of how talented the player is in terms of technical ability, movement off the ball, and athleticism compared to quality competition.
*Other people will value consistent playing time at the club level and club form as the most important criterion.
*Still other people will consider how a player has performed against the highest level of international competition over the years, as the most important criterion as few Americans are playing for truly elite club teams: only Michael Bradley is playing in Serie A, Clint Dempsey plays and starts for one of the best teams in the English Premier League, and Jermaine Jones has been consistently playing and performing for one of the best Bundesliga teams, Schalke, for years.
*Keep in mind that a player’s ranking does not necessarily mean that a player is better or worse, based purely on talent, compared to players above or below the player. One excellent example of this is Freddy Adu.
*Observers are always quick to qualify what they say about Freddy Adu with some phrase such as “No one doubts Adu’s ability, but he needs to be more consistent.” Freddy Adu’s last game for the United States Men’s National Team at the senior level was against Mexico in the 2011 Gold Cup Final, but Adu was widely considered the best American player on the field in that game against a Mexican team that was considered much better at that time and even now. What does this say about Freddy Adu compared to other American players? If Adu plays for the United States Men’s National Team rarely, but normally plays well, how high should he be ranked? How much does signing for and playing, even if for a short time, for Benfica matter?
*The performances of the United States Men’s National Team under Jürgen Klinsmann indicate that there is a major problem with how unwilling fans and the media are to accept the need for change, and there is a problem with the way that players are being selected as the United States Men’s National Team has several well-known problems that many observers quickly point out: a weakness in the center of the defense, poor overall passing, lack of goal-scoring chances created, a low number of total goals, and a heavy reliance on Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, and Tim Howard.
*Every soccer fan, coach, player, analyst, and observer has a certain criterion that they value above others, but the most important thing about this list is that the names on the list are more important than the particular numerical ranking that each player is given.
The World Soccer Source Best 30 American Soccer Players:
1. Clint Dempsey (Tottenham; England)
2. Michael Bradley (Roma; Italy)
3. Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy; USA)
4. Tim Howard (Everton; England)
5. Fabian Johnson (Hoffenheim; Germany)
6. Jermaine Jones (Schalke; Germany)
7. Geoff Cameron (Stoke City; England)
8. Benny Feilhaber (Sporting Kansas City; USA)
9. Steve Cherundolo (Hannover; Germany)
10. Terrence Boyd (Rapid Wien; Austria)
11. Juan Agudelo (Chivas USA; USA)
12. Joe Corona (Tijuana; Mexico)
13. Timothy Chandler (Nürnberg; Germany)
14. Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg; Norway)
15. Freddy Adu (Philadelphia Union; USA)
16. Brek Shea (Stoke City; England)
17. Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht; Belgium)
18. Herculez Gomez (Santos Laguna; Mexico)
19. Jozy Altidore (AZ Alkmaar; The Netherlands)
20. Eddie Johnson (Seattle Sounders; USA)
21. Eric Lichaj (Aston Villa; England)
22. Maurice Edu (Bursaspor; Turkey: on loan from Stoke City; England)
23. Jonathan Spector (Birmingham City; England)
24. Brad Guzan (Aston Villa; England)
25. Omar Gonzalez (Los Angeles Galaxy; USA)
26. Joe Gyau (St. Pauli ; on loan from Hoffenheim; Germany)
27. Jay DeMerit (Vancouver Whitecaps; Canada)
28. Dax McCarty (New York Red Bulls; USA)
29. Zach Loyd (FC Dallas; USA)
30. Perry Kitchen (DC United; USA)
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In defense of Freddy Adu
Many American soccer fans seem to judge Freddy Adu with the same illogical criterion with which Jürgen Klinsmann judges him: only total domination merits a roster spot.
Klinsmann has said that he wanted to see Adu taking over games more and dominating games more before he could play for the United States, but this make little sense from a coaching standpoint.
Why does a technically-skilled playmaker with a special skill-set need to dominate every game in order to play for the United States, when no other American is subjected to this standard?
Klinsmann and American fans want the United States to score more goals, but yet they invent nonsensical reasons to exclude all of the natural playmakers from the starting line-up or roster: Freddy Adu, Benny Feilhaber, Joe Corona, and Mix Diskerud.
Klinsmann and the United States are lacking players that have the technical skill to play a brand of quick-passing soccer that Michael Bradley, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Steve Cherundolo, Geoff Cameron, and Fabian Johnson play. Among the players listed above, none of them are playmakers that play the final passes that produces goals.
Plenty of Americans as well as Klinsmann feel that either Bradley or Dempsey should be forced to be played out of position as playmakers, but this opinion overlooks the reality that neither player is a true playmaker as Bradley thrives playing as a deep-lying defensive midfielder that has strong technical and attacking skills and Dempsey is skilled at attacking defenses and scoring goals.
While both of these players are much better than the majority of their teammates that Klinsmann has been calling up, they have never demonstrated the ability to play a constant stream of inch-perfect balls in the final third that Adu and several other playmakers have shown.
The criticism of Adu has mostly been that he has played for a lot of clubs and that his coaches at the Union this year chose to not start him multiple times.
These two pieces of criticism do not disprove the fact that Adu is the most technically-skilled player in the American player pool and that Adu has performed well for the United States, especially when he has played with players like Bradley, Dempsey, and Donovan, who have the skill level to play one-to-two touch soccer and read his passes.
Adu played most recently for the United States in Olympic qualifying where he not only scored but he also set up two crucial goals to go one goal ahead of El Salvador in the last game of Olympic qualifying.
Adu formed a good playing relationship with talented young players like Joe Corona, Juan Agudelo, Terrence Boyd, Mix Diskerud, Brek Shea, and others.
The last time Adu played for the United States’ senior team was in the 2011 Gold Cup in which Adu immediately changed the game against Panama where he not only played the killer pass to set up Donovan’s assist to Dempsey, but he also played a diagonal pass on the ground and on a silver platter for Bradley, which Bradley failed to shoot with conviction.
Additionally, in the final against Mexico, Adu was praised by both Pablo Ramirez and Hugo Sanchez of Univisión for his ability to unsettle the Mexican defense by taking defenders off the dribble and playing elegant passes and corner kicks; Adu also took the well-placed corner kick which Bradley put in the back of the net with a glancing header.
The United States only lost to Mexico once Steve Cherundolo sustained an injury, and the then-coach, Bob Bradley, made the mistake of subbing in Jonathan Bornstein, who Mexico instantly identified as the defensive weak link.
The problem that Adu comes up against is that when he goes to play overseas he has the stigma of being an American and when he plays in MLS people expect him to take over every game he plays in.
Many American fans seem to expect Adu to set up multiple goals every game and score multiple goals every game, or they do not want him to play for the United States. This line of thinking overlooks the fact that Adu has proven for five years in international play that he has the skill-set to be an effective playmaker even against teams like Brazil, Argentina, Spain, and Mexico.
This ability to be a dangerous playmaker is needed in an American midfield that has Dempsey as a free-roaming attacking midfielder and quasi-forward and Bradley as a technically-skilled defensive midfielder with the skill to play defense, pass the ball well, and to participate in the attack when needed.
While Dempsey and Bradley are the two most proven midfielders at the club level and international level for the United States, neither one has the same gift that Adu has to create goals, and this skill is the most needed quality that the United States lacks, along with a skilled center back partner for Geoff Cameron.
Adu can be used by the United States with a degree of flexibility because the United States and really Klinsmann could elect to deploy him as a second striker with an additional playmaker behind him or use him in a line of three technically-skilled midfielders with the ability to maintain possession and play one-to-two touch soccer.
Whether or not Klinsmann, American fans, American commentators, and American soccer writers think that Adu has performed well in MLS, there is nothing to suggest that Adu has ever demonstrated any difficulty being an effective attacking force for the United States in international play.
Even if the Philadelphia Union’s coaches have left Adu on the bench or off the game day roster on several occasions, these were decisions made by coaches Peter Nowak and John Hackworth, whose coaching abilities have been questioned by many.
These coaching mistakes do not change the fact that Adu has an advanced technical skill-set as a playmaker, and the United States desperately needs a playmaker to create more scoring opportunities.
As this writer has contended in other articles, the United States even has more than one playmaker; lots of observers invent perceived problems with all of them, so they advocate for the United States to force someone to play out of position.
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Among many Americans there appears to be some misunderstanding of the importance and the role of a playmaker. The best teams in the world all use playmakers because goals are the most important thing in soccer, and playmakers create goals, which create victories.
The playmaker is certainly expected to pressure the opposing team’s defense when the opposition has the ball, but playmakers are not supposed to be routinely tracking all the way back deep into their own half to play defense because then they would be out of position to fulfill their role on the team, which is to control the tempo of the passing and to convert their team’s passing into goal-scoring opportunities.
No one with an advanced understanding of the game has really ever questioned Adu’s talent, but people have argued that Adu should not play for the United States if he is not starting and dominating every game in MLS.
The United States does not have the luxury of not including someone of Adu’s ability on the roster because the United States is not good enough to not need players like Adu.
Soccer is a team sport, and just having Bradley and Dempsey in the midfield is not enough technical ability and firepower against opposition with 11 technically-advanced starters; the United States needs playmakers like Freddy Adu, Benny Feilhaber, Joe Corona, and Mix Diskerud to create goal-scoring opportunities for the United States, particularly when the United States is losing.
Hugo Sanchez praised the performance of Freddy Adu against Mexico in the 2011 Gold Cup final.
The USMNT needs to start at least one playmaker
One of the primary problems with the USMNT under Jürgen Klinsmann’s tenure has been his insistence on forcing Michael Bradley or Clint Dempsey to be deployed out of position as playmakers. Make no mistake; Klinsmann knows that both Bradley and Dempsey are not playmakers, but Klinsmann has forced both players to fill this role, which leaves vacuums where both players are naturally-suited to play.
Once Klinsmann deploys Bradley as a playmaker, or just in a more advanced position up-field, Klinsman is leaving the defense with a less technically-skilled defensive midfielder to whom they can pass their way out of trouble. Playing directly in front of the defense does not limit a midfielder’s ability to help to control the tempo of the game or to participate in the attack, as even Andrea Pirlo, a true master, plays directly in front of the defense.
Bradley’s role as a defensive midfielder is one of the most important roles for the team because he sees a lot of the ball when the United States is defending and when they are attacking. Additionally, playing as the defensive midfielder does not hinder Bradley’s ability to attack because he can advance up field either by stringing passes together with his teammates or simply by making dribbling forays up-field to play a quality pass to one of his teammates making a run into the final third.
Many people, particularly Americans, see the defensive midfielder as almost some sort of low-skill position that is reserved for a player with just adequate passing skills, but this is incorrect. Being able to pass with the inside and outside of both feet and play one-touch soccer does not mean that Bradley is a natural playmaker, and whomever the United States uses as a playmaker will need Bradley behind him. Bradley constantly drifts back deep into the midfield because he is needed there unless the United States is attacking an opponent through a series of passes, and Bradley should be played deep in the midfield where he naturally feels inclined to play.
For people without a lot of experience with high-level soccer, Bradley’s fluid technical skills with both feet equate to those of a playmaker, but being a playmaker requires a different and rare sort of passing mentality. A playmaker looks to constantly unlock defenses with final balls, soft chips, through-balls, and even passes with only a slim chance of threading the defense. Bradley can play final balls and score, but he would be better served by having a playmaker starting with him to give him a skilled player to combine with in the midfield. Starting Bradley as a defensive midfielder does not limit his influence on the game.
Even the Italian media refers to Bradley as a mediano, which is a defensive midfielder along the lines of Edgar Davids or Claude Makélélé (who were even more ruthless defensively than a normal mediano), but playing a mediano does not mean that the player does not have good technical ability, even at the highest level.
Although Klinsmann refers to Michael Bradley as a number 6 (a defensive midfielder that hangs back) or a number 8 (a holding or box-to-box midfielder), Klinsmann seems to view the role of Bradley as a player that can fulfill the role of playmaker when also started with Clint Dempsey. Klinsmann forces his starting line-ups into a series of numerical roles from one to eleven intended to create proactive soccer, but his line-ups are almost always devoid of a number 7,10, and 11, as he frequently starts what could be described as two to three number 6’s. In a way, Dempsey is basically used by Klinsmann as a number 11, but there is still no real number 10.
Klinsmann has been reducing the number of creative attacking midfielders in the starting line-up by not playing Bradley as the number six. By way of contrast, Brazil uses a number 5 as a defensive midfielder that does not make attacking forays along with a number 8 who is a box-to-box midfielder that does attack and play defense, but in a recent game against Japan, Brazil started two number 8’s, Ramires and Paulinho, which caused Brazil to keep possession and constantly attack.
Klinsmann would be wise to not always deploy his idea of a number 6 and a number 8, but instead he should use Bradley as the defensive midfielder which opens up a spot for a true playmaker. The United States’ line-ups should maximize the skill of the players in the player pool while making sure any starting line-up is covered on the defensive end by using a talented defensive midfielder and four defenders, unless the United States elects to use three or five defenders.
In addition to starting Bradley as a sort of playmaker, Clint Dempsey has also been utilized as a type of playmaker by Klinsmann where Dempsey either plays as a second striker or just as an attacking midfielder that has the ability to play balls to whomever Klinsmann is starting at the striker position, and Klinsmann usually just starts one out-and-out striker.
One could argue that a problem with Klinsmann’s tactics are that when he deploys Dempsey as a sort of pseudo-playmaker he is depriving Dempsey of having two targets to hit up top, so even if Klinsmann is using Dempsey out of position as a playmaker, he should be using Dempsey plus a pure striker and a second striker.
All soccer tactics hinge on the concept that whatever formation a coach uses to start the game, the formation and the location of the players on the field change as players make runs and cover for each other. Despite Klinsmann’s intention to have his best players, Dempsey and Bradley, be the focal point of the attack in the final third, he is actually preventing Dempsey from being the player to be on the receiving end of not only more but better passes in the attacking third.
Many American writers and fans support Michael Bradley playing almost as a central attacking midfielder as he has an advanced skill-set, but the United States will only see better passing and more success when Klinsmann maximizes the number of his most talented players in his starting line-ups.
Like Freddy Adu and Benny Feilhaber have shown before him, Joe Corona’s brief cameo against Guatemala along with his play in Olympic qualifying and in Mexico gave a glimpse of the passing style that makes for a talented playmaker. Whether Joe Corona is the answer as a playmaker, or Benny Feilhaber or Freddy Adu or Mix Diskerud or some other relatively unknown player in the United States player pool, is up for debate, but one if not more of these players need to be started and definitely included in the roster to allow Bradley and Dempsey to play their natural positions.
Adu has the dribbling, passing, and shooting skills to be deployed as a second striker, so the United States could start Dempsey along with someone like Feilhaber and Corona behind a striker tandem of Adu and a pure striker. Using this sort of line-up would give the United States the ability to maintain possession and create scoring chances, even against top national teams.
There is no rule that only one creative midfielder that looks to unlock the defense can be started, and the nature of the type of soccer that Klinsmann claims to want to play actually demands the constant movement of most of the players all over the field as they pass and move without the ball.
Starting about five years ago, the United States has had enough players with the ability to play quicker, one-to-two touch soccer, but playing this style requires starting technically-skilled defenders, starting Bradley, starting Dempsey, starting one or more playmakers, and starting not one but two forwards (unless the attacking midfielders provide a real and consistent scoring threat).
If the United States and specifically Klinsmann continues to not only start too many defensive midfielders but also defenders without advanced ball control skills in addition to just one striker, the United States will not play the style of soccer that Klinsmann describes as proactive, by which he essentially means actually attempting to beat your opponents by attacking them and scoring from the run of play as opposed to just trying not to lose.
Although it is not a solution for the defensive problems, starting one or more playmakers is vital to raising the skill-level of the United States national team. Contending that the United States does not have playmakers that can play international soccer is quite simply refuted by video evidence to the contrary, four playmakers were mentioned in this article and all of them have demonstrated the ability to fill the role of a playmaker against quality opponents. None of these playmakers are too young or too inexperienced.