U.S. Men’s National Team v. Belgium in Brussels, 9.6.11: Brek Shea and Juan Agudelo

It’s official: this blogger’s come down with Brek Shea fever. And I’m happy to say I’m not the only one. In sideline interviews after the U.S.’s 1-0 loss to Belgium last night in Brussels, English Premier League vet Clint Dempsey singled out Shea for praise, and coach Jurgen Klinsmann said it looked as if Shea had been playing for the national team “for ten years.” Not bad for a 21-year-old with just four caps.

There’s something about Shea’s presence on the field—especially when he’s on the ball—that makes him appear even larger than his listed height of 6’3”. I was surprised to hear ESPN announcer Ian Darke mention in passing during last night’s broadcast that central defender Clarence Goodson is 6’4”. Goodson rarely strikes me as particularly tall, whereas Shea, who stands an inch shorter, always strikes me as particularly tall.

To use a tired, I think American sports phrase, Shea “plays big.” To use a moderately fresher term, the guy’s a beast. I’m not exactly sure why this is. I think his commanding presence has less to do with his frequently mentioned shock of blonde hair than with his obvious physical strength (he’s lanky but solid—it looks like he doesn’t carry an ounce of body fat) and the fact that he runs down the field in a sometimes inelegant-looking north-south style that would make former New York Giants coach Bill Parcells nod with approval. In short, Shea occasionally lacks flair, even very occasionally borders on the awkward, but he’s strong and brutally effective. He lacks flair in a way that Magic Johnson used to lack flair on the basketball court. I’m not putting Shea on an athletic par with Johnson, but the latter’s effectiveness lay in the fact that he was both powerful and economical. He might not have dunked like Dominique Wilkins, but there was zero wasted motion when Johnson drove to the hoop.

An example of the economy of Shea’s game came in the final minutes of the match against Belgium. In the 89^th minute he received the ball near midfield along the left sideline and ran directly at and somehow right by the Belgium right back. It almost looked as if Shea were loafing, but he positively blew by the defender, created space for himself, and passed the ball back to Dempsey, who got off one of the U.S.’s only on-target shots of the night. Shea’s run was an example of the truism that good athletes often don’t look like they’re running hard and fast when they actually are. It never ceases to amaze me that sprinters like Usain Bolt and Michael Johnson appear to be jogging when they shatter world records. The guys they dust, by contrast, always look like they’re running at light speed, huffing and puffing and frantically slashing their arms through the air, veritable orgies of wasted motion.

Having talked up Shea, let me add here that there’s plenty of room in my soccer heart for another very young and promising U.S. player: Juan Agudelo. Agudelo came on at the start of the second half for Jozy Altidore. (Given his 40 caps, it’s easy to forget that Altidore is himself still only 21.) Like Shea, Agudelo has a pleasantly laidback or calm quality to his game. But Agudelo is unlike Shea in that his game is characterized far more by elegance and style than power. His ankles and knees seem to have extra joints, and he plays the ball equally well with the outside as with the inside of his feet.

Because of his soft touch and occasionally flashy game, I think many fans will be pulling for Agudelo to succeed perhaps a little more heartily than they’ll be pulling for Shea. Put another way, all those folks clamoring for a more Latin style of play on these shores will probably embrace Agudelo more warmly than they will Shea. There’s nothing wrong with that. After all, it’s only Bill Parcells and Bobby Knight types that don’t want to see a little flair on athletic fields. As for myself, I’m pulling equally hard for both Agudelo and Shea. It’s obviously very early in their respective careers, but here’s to hoping they continue to improve, to realize their potential, to march through their twenties playing alongside each other on the national team, a kind of beauty and the beast pair, running at defenses, raining crosses into the box, slamming balls into the net.

That might seem an odd vision or naive hope, coming as it does after three straight games in which the U.S. has scored a grand total of one goal. And it should be noted that last night’s loss was frustrating not just be because the U.S. didn’t score, but because of the paucity of chances they created. Regrettably, a failure to create scoring chances, even against teams we should rout, has been a defining characteristic of U.S. soccer for as long as anyone can remember. Shea and Agudelo probably won’t change that, but I love the fact that they’re young and getting praise from veteran teammates, coaches, and critics. Their recent play, along with that of the resurgent Altidore and the equally promising and almost as young Jose Torres, has been enough to keep Klinsmann smiling after matches, even though his U.S. teams are still winless after three tries.