Laley23;402349 wrote:This one, is unfortunately, on Bradley. His starting lineup was piss poor and everyone knew it. He even knew it himself subbing Clark out after 30 minutes. Just terrible.
We just dont have the depth at defense. Bocanegra and DeMerit as well as Cherundolo played solid tournaments, but it would be nice to give them rest. Cherundolo is also one of the worst crossers of the ball I have ever seen.
Definitely agree. If anything, on that second goal, Bocanegra just seemed tired. He tried to play the man, trying to bump him, that's all. I think that Bradley made some bad mistakes with the lineup (Starting Findley and Clark and sitting Feilhaber), and that by the time we made the right changes, it was too late.
In addition, we never make defensive substitutions, and maybe it was the fact we always needed a goal this tournament, but every single sub is for an offensive or defensive player. We can't just sub a defensive one that's hurting because we don't have anyone beyond our starters. It would have been nice to garner the win against Slovenia and possibly sit our defenders so that they could prepare for the next game, but that's just not gonna happen.
Bradley, unfortunately, has done everything he can for the team, so I think it's time to say goodbye to the man. He did well, and at times, he had some great tactical moves, but in the end, he made some huge screw-ups that cost us. Now, who to replace him? I have no freaking clue, but I hope it's someone that teaches us better ball handling skills. One major problem I see with the US is that we play the ball long a lot instead of working it up and holding possession. It frustrates me to no end, and if we wanna move on as a soccer nation, we need to move past that fault.
Lastly, it ticks me off that the referee had no control over the Ghanian flops at the end, and I know that's a lame excuse, I really do, and it's not like it would have helped us to win, but to see no yellow cards given out for delaying game sickens me. If there's anything about soccer I don't like, it's the fact that is discretionary to the referee about how much time is added on based on stoppage in the game.