The US Team’s next test will be October 10th against Honduras. With only one win to go before clinching a World Cup berth I think we need to start looking ahead. I mean, at this point the US is nearly assured of attending World Cup 2010 in South Africa.
All the time we say about Professional American sports: Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken. I could sit here and site a million times a team stopped doing what was working and it spelled their demise. Guess what? Those teams weren’t Soccer teams.
US Soccer has a chance to step it up and really work out a “new” way to defeat the intensely formidable competition that they will see in South Africa.
This is one of those times when I wonder how much tape Bob Bradley and his staff watch. How many games plans do they go through to get to the right one? How many sleepless nights will he have trying to get ready for someone? How prepared is he willing to be? At the end of the day, I am questioning how much planning is going into these games and this team.
Look at USA Basketball. They hired a monster, Hall-of-Fame coach, got a seasoned GM to build the team, spent countless hours at the expense of the player’s off-seasons, and destroyed everyone at the Olympics. How much do you think Coach K studied and worked for those wins? More than Bob Bradley I bet.
I know Soccer is a possession game and doesn’t lend itself well to the concept of drawing up “plays”, but you know what, we need that!
Soccer is NOT America’s game, but we can play it America’s way. I would liken this to the Revolutionary War. We were playing guerilla warfare while the British were playing bagpipes and marching in formation, letting us know they were coming.
Can we stop trying to copy the European and Latin squads and play soccer in what I would consider to be an American “style”? Can we walk on the field an actually trash talk these people? Can we tell them things that professional football players tell quarterbacks? Things like “I’m coming for you baby!”
No, we play our nice little “Oh, look, we’re so lucky to be good enough to compete with you” game and then get summarily trounced.
I’m over it. I’m going back to my theme of expectation. These players need to be expected to kill on the field. We don’t expect anything of them and then they expect nothing of themselves.
Before I preview the match with Honduras I want to hear Bob Bradley come out and say “We are out for blood!” No holds barred baby! Come on Bob…I want to see some smoke coming from those injun camps!
