USA fail to make the most of ideal opponents
After playing a Denmark team who were in buoyant Euro qualifying form, the USA arrived in Switzerland with more days’ practice under their belts, and knowing they’d be facing a well-drilled but hardly explosive Swiss side featuring several changes from their own qualifier against Estonia on Friday.
And with the experimentation for the Swiss continuing all night – they’d made five substitutions by the hour mark) – this was a chance for the USA to finally get over their second-half nerves and hold on to a half-time lead.
Until Altidore’s moment of madness, they’d looked like they might do so. Granted, Silvan Widmer’s introduction had seen the Swiss begin to get forward more in wide positions early in the second half. But despite some shaky moments, generally the US looked set to see out a game against the world’s 12th-ranked side with a confidence-boosting win.
In the end they escaped with a draw amid panic and hoofed clearances, and with a lot of revised question marks over the defense’s discipline and decision-making, as player after player stepped out of position to give the Swiss attack looks on goal.
For a moment, when a shot deflected awkwardly off John Brooks but went past the post with William Yarbrough stranded, it looked like the USA might catch the breaks to get away with it anyway, but then DeAndre Yedlin and Alfredo Morales got in each others’ way on a routine headed clearance from a corner to allow Valentin Stocker to poke home yet another late goal against the USA defense. From then on, it was a case of a rear-guard action against the clock.
Jürgen Klinsmann inherited some events in this game – the absences of Dempsey and Johnson, Altidore’s red – but once again there was little decisiveness in changing events either. And what could have been a decisive snapping back into focus in advance of the lead up to the Gold Cup ended up another fragmented outing.
Brek Shea can do … that
The US fan in the stands in Zurich, who may find themselves heading for animated gif infamy after his slack-jawed response to Shea’s free kick goal on the stroke of half-time, may not be alone.
Shea was not even meant to be on the field, with most observers disappointed by missing the chance to see Fabian Johnson back in his World Cup marauding full-back position. Johnson’s late withdrawal with flu symptoms handed Shea the start, and he proceeded to make his mark on the game. As one Twitter pundit put it, his goal also gives us the entertaining prospect of Shea lobbying to take Orlando’s free kicks in the face of protests by Kaka.
The goal did help mask what’s still very much a work in progress for Shea in that position at this level. His awkward-looking physique belies a better touch on the ball than his ungainly appearance might suggest. But in considering his performance beyond the goal, it’s worth looking at one touch too many too often in his own half, even while acknowledging the danger of his runs and crosses from the left.
That said, the thought that Shea would have already scored twice for the USA this year was probably not on most observers’ lists of likely scenarios at this stage of the campaign, and with Klinsmann enthused by the player’s deployment in a similar role at Orlando, the former Dallas and Stoke player may finally have landed in just the right spot to finally fulfill his potential. He’s certainly kept himself well in the picture for the Gold Cup squad.
Zardes and Altidore show flashes of promise
Let’s start with the obvious – Jozy Altidore’s decision to cap what appeared to be an ongoing monologue on Luca Banti’s performance, by following a clumsy foul with a gift to lip readers everywhere, was stupid. Or fucking stupid, as Altidore might put it.
Aside from changing the course of the game, Altidore’s sending off was completely out of the blue in a game where the sum total of his grievances to that point appeared to be one or two dubious throw-in decisions, and where up to that point he’d been continuing to impress in a hold-up role – frequently seeing off the attentions of more than one Swiss player as he waited, often longer than Klinsmann would like to see, for other US players to support him in attack.
Altidore’s departure left Gyassi Zardes in an increasingly thankless task trying to be an Altidore-style outlet in front of two banks of four, as the US scrambled to see out the game. Eventually Zardes would be subbed out for Jordan Morris in the dying moments of the game.
Yet up to the sending off there were moments where you could see the logic of an Altidore/Zardes front line. Altidore’s strength and ability to link play and turn for goal, could, in time be the perfect foil for Zardes to time his runs off.
And while Zardes did not deal well with a perfect first-half cross from Bedoya and saw an opportunistic header drift just past the post early in the second, there were aspects of his movement and willingness to help lead the USA’s pressing game that made him appear a more natural partner for Altidore than Aron Johansson did against Denmark (notwithstanding the latter’s goal in that game). It’s an experiment worth continuing with as the Gold Cup approaches.
Bradley back to front again with familiar problems
After last week’s reassuring re-emergence of Michael Bradley as the deep-lying metronome of the US team, the captain’s 95th cap saw him pushed forward again into the type of advanced position that has still never quite resulted in anything but a net loss in his efficacy for the team.
Yes, Bradley’s drive on the counter, and his ability to chip dangerous balls behind the defense for his attackers, is a plus, but the US midfield never quite looks as balanced when Bradley isn’t playing with more of the field in front of him. And so it was again against Switzerland, with Bradley’s lateral or forward balls too often missing as he played balls backward to try and bring his team-mates into the play.
Obviously the absence of the injured Clint Dempsey necessitated a shuffling of Klinsmann’s main assets and the coach may have been playing the percentages with Bradley in a nominal No10 role – while Danny Williams stayed deep – but it gave the game the feel of yet another experimental line-up, and of Bradley’s role as yet another stop gap measurement. The moment where the ball was taken off his toes inside the box as he shaped to fire home a rebound, seemed to sum up everything about an evening where the team always seemed to be missing the necessary components to bring the best out of Bradley. These are the games where he appears most indistinct.
Williams does well on return to the fold
In the first half, with Alejandro Bedoya’s smart running, the full-backs gradually getting forward and some all-around smart decision making by the USA on when to stay and when to commit, the centerpiece of the performance was a quietly effective performance by Danny Williams occupying the base of the midfield diamond.
Williams had not played for the USA since the March 2013 game against the Ukraine, but returned to the fold with an effective performance screening the back four while Bradley went forward.
Longer term, and against better opposition, you’d have to imagine that with Jermaine Jones being retooled as a center-back by Klinsmann and Clint Dempsey coming back into the team, that Williams best shot at cementing a starting role is alongside Bradley at the base of a 4-2-3-1 midfield, but given the personnel restrictions for Tuesday’s game, it certainly did his cause no harm to feature prominently in what were essentially two looks for the USA before and after Altidore’s sending off.
And with John Brooks prone to drift out of position behind him and Timothy Chandler equally prone to step into trouble as often as he stepped up the field, Williams had plenty to clean up on the night. That he did so, without undue drama, might not appear to be a high hurdle to clear. But not every US defensive player managed even that, and Williams can be satisfied at having made his case.
