The Nats went to Hamburg yesterday missing just about all of of their big stars. No Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Claudio Reyna, Brian McBride, Eddie Pope or Oguchi Onyewu. Germany, on the other hand, had a rather full roster, headlined by such world stars as Michael Ballack, Oliver Kahn and Miroslav Klose. On paper, it looked like it would be a blowout, and for once, that held up on the field. The US "B" team may be able to handle Guatemala and Norway, but a nearly full-strength Germany is another thing entirely, a fact that was painfully driven home as the Nats ended up on the wrong end of a 4-1 scoreline.The US started well, weathering the initial storm, and had a few good chances in the early first half. But as the half came to a close, Germany began to apply more pressure, and the Yanks were lucky to get to the whistle without conceding a goal.
The second half was a disaster. The Americans looked like they were sleepwalking through much of the half, giving up a goal in the first minute and then a flurry of three goals later in the half. They didn't close any attackers down, gave them loads of space to run, and gave away too many sloppy passes. Ballack didn't have a defender within 10 feet of him when he scored his goal, and he was standing on the penalty spot. You can't give a player of his quality that kind of space. Keller had no chance. The US was able to pull one back through Steve Cherundolo's 75 yard pass that squirted through everyone and rolled into the goal, but it was a fluke. They were lucky to get it, although it made up for Eddie Johnson's earlier header from a corner kick that would have been a goal had Oliver Kahn not bent his body like Gumby to save it.
Players that I think helped themselves: Cory Gibbs and Jimmy Conrad (despite getting shellacked, both looked like they belonged on the field with the world-class German players), Bobby Convey (several dangerous runs and free kicks), and maybe Eddie Johnson (wasn't real involved in the game, but came very close to scoring once and collided with Kahn on 'Dolo's goal).
Players who did nothing to improve their status: Brian Ching (invisible except for 1 shot early on), Josh Wolff (came off after 17 minutes with a concussion), Pablo Mastroeni and Kerry Zavagnin (had a few good tackles but gave way too much space to the German midfield).
Players who hurt their cause: Gregg Berhalter (caught ball-watching on a couple of goals, totally at sea). He should not make the roster over Gibbs, Pope, Bocanegra, or Conrad.
Michael Lewis of ESPN.com has a different opinion.
I don't know that underselling the team to our European opponents was a bad thing, but it still hurts to travel all that way and get pounded. Even Bruce Arena admitted the game may have been a mistake (since it was not a FIFA-sanctioned date, we weren't able to get a lot of our players released for this match). I'm trying not to read too much into this result, since the US roster was so depleted, but it still stings given that recent successes of the team.
No comments:
Post a Comment