Steve Davis' weekly column, drilling down on five hot topics in American soccer
1. Style-schmyle, but U.S. chances at Copa looking OK
Advocates of the beautiful game, avert your eyes. Here goes: Maybe this is where U.S. national team manager Jurgen Klinsmann needs to throw “style” out the window. At least for a little while.
Approaching Copa America Centenario, Klinsmann has a small core of players who are coming off excellent seasons or are performing at high rev in Major League Soccer. Not all of them, but a sufficiently sized group that it’s OK to start feeling quietly hopeful for something special this summer – never mind if the national team has mostly been a bug on a windshield since modest success at Brazil 2014.
Here’s the catch: Most everyone in this current little assembly of “good form guys” leans more to the defensive end.
Now, a rock solid defense can take a team a long way, especially in tournament play. Anybody remember Greece in the 2004 European Championships? There was nothing pretty about the Greece tactics – except for the pretty pictures of them lifting a big trophy after allowing just four goals in seven matches.
Or how about Paraguay in the 2011 Copa America? Never mind that they couldn’t attack; they defended like guard dogs, “drawing” their way to the final. The team never won a game but kept advancing with draws (and with PK tiebreaker wins).
As for the United States: Who cares if Brad Guzan had a season of misery? Everyone at Villa Park had a bad season. Guzan will be fine in U.S. goal.
The United States has two great center back choices in Geoff Cameron and John Brooks, both coming off successful European seasons. Right back DeAndre Yedlin looks like a man transformed. I spoke to Yedlin about it on Tuesday – he and the team are in town for Wednesday’s friendly against Ecuador at Toyota Stadium. He said he “feels” like a different player after a season of scruffing and scrapping it out at Sunderland. He carries himself like it, too, with a calm assurance about it all.
Perry Kitchen learned new lessons this year at Hearts in Scotland – some of the same lessons Kyle Beckerman learned years ago. So, the team has two trusty defensive midfielders. Between Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones, it has central midfielders who will also put in the work. Same for Alejandro Bedoya, wherever Klinsmann deploys him.
All of this is why oddsmakers have put the United States’ chances at winning the whole doggone thing at third-best, behind Argentina and Brazil.
Here’s the less favorable side of all this: the attack ain’t exactly stacked. Jozy Altidore is hurt. Clint Dempsey can score a couple over a run of games – but he’s not what he used to be. Guys like Bobby Wood and Christian Pulisic may be the future – but the future, by definition, isn’t now.
The idea of tamping down tactical intent won’t excite fans. Same here; I also want the United States to be this swashbuckling, highly functioning, high-pressing hammer of a team, just like Klinsmann has always promised. But that might have to wait. Yes, a little longer still. Perhaps now is time for Klinsmann’s German pragmatism to kick in.
Defend. Counter. Score off set pieces. The United States under Klinsmann does a lot of that anyway, so go with it! Embrace it! Not forever, but for now.
Because this tournament is stacked. Klinsmann says so, suggesting Tuesday that the field is better than a “watered-down,” expanded 24-team European Championship field. He may be right. All the more reason to adjust the mentality: “Defend first!”
No style points for it – but it looks like the best use of his assets for the here and now.
2. L.A. Galaxy rising? Gio dos Santos rising?
Bad news for the rest of MLS – and really, really bad news for the rest of the West: I see good things ahead for Giovani dos Santos, who may have finally found his best usage in Carson.
The Galaxy finished level with San Jose over the weekend; that’s not a memorable result at home for Bruce Arena’s bunch. On the other hand, dos Santos seemed to enjoy his role – which means the Galaxy may be onto something.
The Galaxy did create some chances, one in particular that Robbie Keane bounced over the cross bar. (That happened twice in MLS this weekend, where balls headed down with authority, shots that probably had goalkeepers beat, took a big bounce and went over goal. You see it happen … but not very often.)
Among Arena’s challenges is incorporating Steven Gerrard, trying to utilize his assets while hiding his deficiencies. Then he’s got two guys too similar in what they do – dos Santos and Robbie Keane. Plus, Arena has one too many featured attackers; between Gerrard, Keane, Mike Magee, Gyasi Zardes and Sebastian Lletget, somebody has to sit the bench.
Look at all of the above, all those tactical conundrums – that’s why the Galaxy has been all over the place in 2016 formation-wise. But what I saw Sunday has some potential.
The Galaxy played a diamond midfield with Nigel de Jong as the anchor. Magee and Gerrard played wide, but tucked way inside. By drawing them so far inside, dos Santos was left ample freedom in his role beneath the two strikers, Zardes and Keane.
The Mexican international wasn’t perfect in this one. But he was lively. And he picked up the ball in places that will continue to make him dangerous.
Here’s a bonus: the alignment gets Zardes closer to goal; he tends to do better as a forward rather than a wide midfielder.
So, this formation looks like one that gets the most players into comfortable roles. There are certainly issues to sort out, starting with a relative lack of defensive cover, which opposition will surely look to exploit, especially when the Galaxy plays away.
Then again, every arrangement of these characters has some kind of issue. This one looks most promising to me. And then there’s this: dos Santos being left off Mexico’s roster could be a motivating factor.
The Galaxy has been an MLS Cup threat since the day Arena arrived into Carson; this year is shaping up to be no different. At all.
3. A story in Columbus we aren’t talking about enough
Who could blame fans around Mapfre Stadium in Columbus if, at some point, they just shake their heads, cast eyes downward and think quietly to themselves: “Man, this just isn’t our year.”
Gregg Berhalter’s team has been in a two-month stumble, stuck in 9th place, just 11 points from 11 matches. There was the Kei Kamara unpleasantness. And now this …
Center back Gaston Sauro, a stabilizing element collected last summer, one that helped push Columbus into MLS Cup 2015, is out four months with a knee injury. Sauro is the team’s second-highest paid player. He was a great balance at center back alongside the cerebral and versatile Michael Parkhurst. Now, the most optimistic predictions would have the Argentine veteran returning sometime in September.
The team’s top backup at center back, Tyson Wahl, is currently dealing with concussion issues. Which means the Crew deciders will be shopping in the summer transfer window – they have some chips to play thanks to the big Kamara trade.
As we’ve mentioned before, sometimes talking about center backs just isn’t as much fun, not nearly as sexy, zippy or zingy as discussing attackers. But this is a huge and meaningful blow for Columbus. It also takes us closer to the possibility of a first (one that we mentioned last week; item No. 4): that both MLS Cup finalists might fail to make the following year’s playoffs.
4. Pirlo out for Euro 2016 – Is it really that surprising?
A lot of us seemed caught off guard, even outraged in some places, that Andrea Pirlo wasn’t included on Antonio Conte’s Italy roster for the coming European Championships. But was it really such a huge surprise?
New York City FC is still a mess. Has been. Probably will be for a while, judging by the litany of mistakes from high places inside the organization. Claudio Reyna, a terrific player, but blessed with pretty much nil experience at building an MLS club, was hired to … build an MLS club. A midfield with Pirlo and Frank Lampard, combined age upon their signing at 72? Sure! What could possibly go wrong?
Attempt to play soccer inside what is easily the league’s smallest field? Why not? And then get rid of a manager who can clearly coach and win in this league (Jason Kreis)? Of course they did.
Don’t be fooled by the recent win streak for City FC. Yeah, they got hot for a minute. But they’ve got one win (one!) from seven home games. They still don’t have a quality back line, and now that their aged former English international is healthy again, they’ll have to deal anew with the Lampard-Pirlo conundrum in midfield.
Oh, and now they’ve got the psychological undertow of a 7-0 brick around their collective neck.
All that has been documented, of course. So, back to the point …
How could anyone look good while performing within a mess like that? Not even the inimitable Pirlo can. It’s like sending a guy with a pristine white suit running through a muddy field. On the backside of his mad dash, he’s gonna have some mud on him!
A year ago, Conte seemed OK with Pirlo’s move into MLS. The Italian manager even praised his relocation stateside. A year later, Conte talks of choice and consequences, indicating that Pirlo’s move was detrimental to the legendary midfielder’s chances of further Italian caps. Which led some to ask, “So, what changed?”
Well, that’s easy. Conte might have known a bit about MLS, but he almost certainly didn’t understand much about Pirlo’s precise landing spot, NYCFC. He didn’t recognize a back line that was a 7-0 scoreline waiting to happen. He didn’t know they were playing on a baseball field! He didn’t understand that the players and organization around Pirlo were inferior versions of MLS.
By the way, Pirlo is 37. At some point, he was bound to age out of international relevance. In truth, he probably needed a favorable situation to excel, and thus to continue receiving Italian call-ups. Instead he fell into a ridiculous situation, and probably never had much of a chance.
5. The Little Five
5a. Now, Sebastian Giovinco’s omission from the Italian squad? Yeah, feel free to express some proper outrage over that one. Then again, there were some other curious selections, like leaving Mario Balotelli (not great form, but always shows up for the Azzurri) off the roster. As Shaka Hislop says here, this looks like a roster based more “on club than on performance.”
5b. I ran into Jason Kreis on Tuesday at SMU, where the U.S. team held its practice on game day-minus 1 – that’s event organizer talk for the day before game day. Still doing some business for the national team staff, the former RSL and City FC manager had just returned from South America, scouting Paraguay for the Yanks’ upcoming Copa America clash.
5c. Sometimes I wonder if we don’t talk enough about the (bad) habit of players raising arms, trying to con referees into awarding throw-ins or corner kicks, etc., when the players know better. In other words, the ball comes off Player A, who then immediately raises his arm, saying in effect, “That’s our ball!” It’s more misdemeanor than felony, so to speak, but it’s still lame. It’s gamesmanship, but it’s bad gamesmanship.
5d. People surprised by Dax McCarty’s ability to attack balls and win headers inside the penalty area for the Red Bulls (as he did in Saturday’s win over City FC) haven’t been paying attention. That’s no sin, obviously; MLS adds new fans every day, so it’s par for the course, really. Either way, the guy has done that since his first days in MLS, despite being on the smaller side. Timing and bravery in these things can be everything, as he keeps proving.
5e. We’ll be talking a lot about those surprising Colorado Rapids this summer. About Jermaine Jones and incoming American goalkeeping hero Tim Howard, of course. But soon enough, everyone will know more about Shkelzen Gashi, an Albanian international who made his name in Swiss football. He’s got a nose for goal and is a crackerjack set-piece server. Gashi has created 13 chances from set plays in 2016, tied with Sacha Kljestan for second best in MLS.
Steve Davis has covered Major League Soccer since is first kick in 1996. He writes on-line for FourFourTwo and co-hosts the weekly radio show/podcast ESPN Soccer Today on 103.3 FM in Dallas. Davis is also the radio play-by-play voice for FC Dallas on 100.7 FM.