CONCACAF Gold Cup: US – Guadeloupe Preview
On Tuesday the US will look rebound from a poor performance that led to the team’s first group stage loss in the history of the Gold Cup as well as the US’s first loss ever to Panama. Streaks like those are bound to break, but the timing could have been better. There are a large number of scenarios that will lead to the US advancing out of the group stage, but the easiest way is to get a win against Guadeloupe.
In their first two games, Guadeloupe has not played well, but kept the games close. Against Panama Guadeloupe were essentially not on the field and went down 3-0, but in the last 30 minutes the team came to life and pulled two goals back with only 10 men. In Saturday’s game against Canada, Guadeloupe had a similar lack of offense and also spent nearly the entire game a man down, but Canada could only manage a 1-0 win off of a PK.
Guadeloupe’s tendency to earn red cards is both good and bad for the US offense. If the team can keep up a constant pressure, Guadeloupe may get frustrated and start committing fouls to break up plays. This, however, means our players will have to suffer said fouls and avoiding desperate and studs-up challenges is a priority. Bob Bradley has already said he is going to be making changes to the starting line-ups because of the short turn around after the last game. I would expect Altidore to stay up top, but Agudelo has not done well so far and Wondolowski has done even worse. Dempsey or Donovan could see themself as the new strike partner or Altidore will be a lone forward with a new midfielder coming in.
If Coach Bradley decides to go back to his 4-5-1, bringing in Kljestan would give the US a midfielder who is comfortable on the left side. In the past two games our offense has come mostly from the right side via Donovan and Cherundolo; adding a left-sided midfielder will allow the US to utilize both flanks on the attack. Bradley could also bring out Edu for another defensive possibility to let Michael Bradley move forward more. If the US keeps a 4-4-2, Edu could also see a start if Bradley decides to sit Jones after a minimal performance against Panama.
Our center back pairing is almost guaranteed to change for this last group stage game. We’ve seen some promising play out of Ream, but with the US’s future in the tournament on the line look for Bocanegra to slide over to the center to make room for Spector or Bornstein on the left. Gooch has also been sitting on the bench, so we could see him come in as well in order to keep Bocanegra on the left and to keep our height advantage on set pieces. Guadeloupe has not found the back of the net much this tournament, but they were able to put in two goals against Panama so the US cannot take any chances going down again.
Coverage for the game will start at 7:30 CST on Fox Soccer.
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The best thing that can happen for US soccer is we lose…and Bradley gets fired!
Typical asinine comment from someone who discovered soccer an hour and a half ago. Yes, your small, selfish interests would be best served by a freaking disaster for US soccer. That’s a great plan. Moron.
By the way, it’s Guadeloupe.
The Strikers beat Guadeloupe 2 weeks back, in Guadeloupe, 1-0 in a non-publicized friendly tune-up. I think the USA should be able to handle them.
GO USA!!
Come on Kenn, you know the drill. I too thought it was a short sighted comment but… You’re fee to express your opinions but it doesn’t mean you get to attack people.
@BQ – I would charge him a fee too
@Kenn – “freaking disaster for US Soccer” you have basically summed up the last couple of years for the Men’s squad. Thank you. I’m not going to be an apologist for the team, the coach, or the players.
The country of our resources and population base is not performing up to premier world soccer standards.
After all these years our young talent is producing below world standard abilities and results.
Although Bradley’s departed would also be welcomed on my part, it still does not resolve the personnel problem and the talent level. However someone must be able to train our back 4 to actually work as a unit in defending and correct the problem of most of the team’s inability to play off the ball.
The team reflects the coach though in their play IMO – boring and reactionary
I do give a tip of the hat to Dempsey for being a great example of how the game should be played to his teammates.
As I’ve said before Bradley=Arena=Sampson. We need to break the chain of the US coaching conundrum. We promote coaches who are can play politics, not develop players and coach. Too many years are/were spent developing the same types of players in ODP and the Academies. We need creativity, we need committed defending. Unfortunately for the US the English coaching and play style has been predominately adopted. However, England gets the best athletes in their country to play for their national team, the US does not. I agree with Tomass that the US waits around and reacts, versus having any consistent creative ideas for holding the ball, building, then attacking. It is funny that other sports in the US don’t worry about coaching certificates and coaching education attainment…way to much of that in the US soccer, way too much coach talking and not enough of playing and trying things in practice and games. I think what US soccer needs is some good old fashion competition and free market. Perhaps a 2nd 1st division that is not mired in FIFA BS. You only have to look to the world governing body to figure out how much good-old-boy and quid-pro-quo runs US and World Soccer. So in summary, I hope the US wins, but Bradley gets canned anyway. Still time to transition a new coach before the 2014 world cup.
Hey look Kenn is using his real name today? Does anyone know how many aliases he has? No really I’m asking a serious question because I think even Kenn loses track of all of them.
Guadeloupe (French pronunciation: [ɡwadəlup]; English: /ɡwɑːdəˈluːp/; Antillean Creole: Gwadloup, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres (629 sq. mi) and a population of 400,000. They’re so big I’m surprised they are not in USL Pro yet! If we don’t win this game Bradley should be tarred and feathered, not just fired
As far as the US MNT playing style is concerned until a few Iniesta’s and Xavi’s show up in the US we are best to attack up the outside using our strongest 1v1 international players. Trying to out build-up Spain would not have produced anything better down the middle as far as our attack goes. Bob does have the team attacking to their strengths.
442 vs 451? I would not play a 442 in this day and age. But our two forwards (in this system) have roles to play in opening up space for Landon and Clint to play 1v1 into.
Why we struggle at defending so often is a mystery to me. Even most good U16 teams can defend well at least. It may be more related to poor midfield defending shape, and letting the other team get good quality chances often from the center of the field. That may be relate to the fact that our attacking style needs mids to also get up into the attack . We lose the ball in the center 1/3 too often, we are not able to control the tempo when defending, and end up back in out own defending 1/3 quickly and in poor shape way too often.
Usa,only play hard when they are loosing,not consistent…
re: jwolter7
“As far as the US MNT playing style is concerned until a few Iniesta’s and Xavi’s show up in the US . . .”
Even if we produced an Iniesta or a Xavi, they would be riding the pine behind Bradley, Jones, Edu and even a Ricardo Clark under this current coaching staff.