U.S. Men’s National Team v. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sarajevo, 8.14.13

The U.S. men’s national team brought a number of their best Europe-based players to Sarajevo, including Michael Bradley, Tim Howard, and Jozy Altidore. But most MLS and Liga MX players—including Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Graham Zusi, and DaMarcus Beasley—stayed home. Oddly, the two MLS players that did make the long trip were from the same team (Eddie Johnson and Brad Evans, from the Seattle Sounders). To fill the remaining gaps, U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann called in three Europe-based youngsters: John Brooks, Aron Johannsson, and Bobby Wood, all of whom got their first U.S. caps on Wednesday.

So the roster was a hodgepodge, even by national team standards. And in the first half of Wednesday’s match the U.S. play reflected that quality, looking disjointed and devoid of class. In the 7^th minute, Eddie Johnson dwelled on the ball in the U.S. final third, carelessly giving it away. Four Bosnia-Herzegovina attackers pounced, then Edin Dzeko shot, collected the rebound, and shot again, this time threading the ball behind a U.S. back line that was too slow to cover the exposed goal.

A few minutes later, Altidore had a good chance to score but played an oddly weak ball across the face of goal that no teammate had a hope of latching onto. In the next five minutes, Mix Diskerud lost possession three times. In the 30^th minute, after clearing a corner kick convincingly, the U.S. defense relaxed and Geoff Cameron was beaten off a header on the second ball into the box. When the first-half whistle blew, with the U.S. down 2-0, all those European soccer snobs, inside and outside the stadium, must have been chuckling into their hop-rich beers and yelling towards the field and their TV screens, “You’re not in CONCACAF anymore, boys!”

I was thinking along those lines myself. But the game changed remarkably in the second half. It is true that Klinsmann used all six of his available substitutions, but it should be said that the two most transformative players in this game were Bradley and, especially, Altidore. The latter scored a hat trick and assisted on the U.S.’s fourth goal, and Bradley had a couple of assists and generally displayed as much class as Dzeko, Miralem Pjanic, or anyone else on the Bosnia-Herzegovina roster, currently ranked 13^th in the world by FIFA.

Many critics consider Bradley to be the U.S.’s best player right now, and much has been written about his passing ability and soccer IQ. Those traits were clear to see against Bosnia-Herzegovina, and his pass to Altidore in the 86^th minute that helped put the U.S. up 4-2 was a calmly delivered, understated thing of beauty.

His passing ability and game smarts don’t need further burnishing from me, but I will point out two additional elements of his game that may lie beyond the obvious and widely recognized. The first is how strong Bradley is on the ball. He’s not a particularly large midfielder, and God knows he’s not a particularly fast one, but he frequently seems to defy the physical law stating that weight moves weight. Through a combination of leverage, reading his opponent, physical strength, strength of will, and no doubt other factors, he routinely runs bigger and faster players off the ball. In addition to that, he has an uncanny ability to slide (or “go to ground” or whatever) when the ball appears to be just out of his reach and deflect it so that his team either maintains or regains possession. He did this no fewer than three times against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the first half. Maintaining and regaining possession are of course critical factors in winning games, and Bradley’s well-timed slides help his teams win those battles. (The U.S., incidentally, had about 60% possession on Wednesday.)

To move on to Altidore: anyone who thought his otherworldly game against Panama in June was a once-in-a-lifetime fluke national team performance needs to go check out the Bosnia-Herzegovina match before Watch ESPN takes it off the website. Altidore was a rare bright spot for the U.S. in the first half, but he was a supernova in the second. He helped get the U.S. on the board in the 55^th minute with a great first touch off a long ball from Bradley; Altidore’s trap fell to Johnson, who scored off a side-footed shot into an empty net. Less than five minutes later, the U.S. pulled level off a nice sequence that started with newcomer Brooks playing a pass from the back to Fabian Johnson, who turned and found Altidore, also playing with his back to the goal. Altidore made a nice turn himself and laced a spectacular left-footed shot far post to beat the keeper.

Remarkably, Altidore outdid that strike with a dead-ball hit in the 84^th minute. I don’t recall Altidore ever taking free kicks for the U.S., but he took two of them against Bosnia-Herzegovina. And maybe I’m forgetting something else, but I can’t remember a U.S. player hitting a free kick as sweetly as Altidore hit this one, a dipping ball struck with power and accuracy into the top of the net near post. After the goal, Altidore ran toward the stunned, silent crowd, his arms outstretched as if to say, “Where’s your CONCACAF-bashing now?” He’d score again, in the run of play, two minutes later to put the game out of reach.

This post is already too long but something should be said about 22-year-old U.S. national team newcomer Aron Johannsson, who was born in Alabama, grew up in Iceland, and plays his club soccer with Altidore’s former Dutch-league club Alkmaar Zaanstreek (AZ). Johannsson played less than thirty minutes against Bosnia-Herzegovina, but he looked unmistakably skillful, smart, and dangerous. Soon after coming on, he slid a nice through ball to Altidore; in the 74^th minute he deftly settled a ball in the box to create a volley for himself; and in the 77^th minute he had a very good touch in the box to blow by a player, creating another good shot for himself. The thought of Johannsson working in the final third amidst clever, quality players like Bradley, Dempsey, Donovan, and Altidore is appealing.

But don’t take my word for it. Here’s Altidore on Johannsson’s strong performance: “I'm not surprised at all. Aron, over the past six months I was with him at AZ, you saw in training his ability to see passes and score goals and beat people so effortlessly. He's such a smart player and I'm so happy he chose the U.S. I think he'll be an asset going forward and I think he'll help us a lot.”

U.S. Men’s National Team v. Panama, Chicago, 7.28.13

The U.S. men’s national team—its supposed B-team—beat a highly disciplined and determined Panama squad 1-0 to win the 2013 Gold Cup. Much has been said about Landon Donovan’s excellent, stat-racking play over the last six matches, and he was (predictably) awarded player of the tournament.

Donovan’s performance and the U.S.’s victory in the final, however, were dampened by yet another injury to U.S. midfielder Stuart Holden. Holden tore his ACL in the first half against Panama. It was his third major injury since 2010. Unlike the last two, thank God, this was not a result of a gruesome tackle likely to be replayed tens of thousands of times on YouTube, though that will be cold comfort to Holden and his family. There’s not much to say beyond acknowledging the fact and attendant heartbreak and wishing Holden an Adrian Peterson-type recovery.

His replacement, Mix Diskerud, came on in the 23^rd minute and was, I think, man of the match for the U.S., primarily for his hustle and the strong defensive pressure he applied to Panama players in the middle of the field, during those rare stretches when Panama players controlled the ball. (The U.S. had about 70% of the possession.) Still, Diskerud didn’t appreciably stand out from his mates, and the U.S. should be commended—in the final game and throughout this tournament—primarily for putting forth a uniformly strong effort. The U.S. may have outclassed their opponents, which was expected in this competition, but they also outhustled them.

As a fan of the team, it was gratifying to watch that kind of effort, and I for one am tired of commentators disparaging the achievement due to the supposed flabby competition. Yes, we all know this isn’t the Euros. But the same commentators who, just months ago, were claiming the 2013 Hexagonal was the toughest collection of teams top to bottom in CONCACAF history are now claiming that CONCACAF “isn’t what it used to be.” This is all of course because the U.S. is in the midst of an historic 11-game win streak, is beating quality teams like Costa Rica and Panama, and crushing lesser teams like Belize and El Salvador.

But that is what good teams do: they crush lesser competition. Mediocre teams play down to the level of bad teams and play inspired soccer only when faced with high-quality opponents. We shouldn’t forget that just last year in World Cup group qualifying the U.S. needed a 90^th-minute goal to beat Antigua & Barbuda (!), tied Guatemala, and lost to Jamaica. And I wonder how Mexico players and fans feel about the current level of CONCACAF competition. They can’t seem to win a game these days and lost to Panama twice in the Gold Cup tournament.

Speaking of which, it’s remarkable how Mexico has, or seems to have, lost its luster after thrashing the U.S. 4-2 in the 2011 Gold Cup. In that game, Mexico seemed to have quality in reserve, the U.S. to be a bunch of plodding, workmanlike stiffs. The gap between the two national team programs seemed to grow in 2012, when the U.S. U-23s failed to even qualify for the Olympics and then Mexico went on to win the Gold medal.

The pendulum has now swung swiftly back in the U.S.’s favor, though the change may not be due to fortune or inevitability so much as hard work. On a recent podcast (I can’t remember which), Mónica González—the former Mexico women’s national team captain—lamented that the talented Giovani Dos Santos has turned himself into “half a player,” meaning that he can’t be bothered to hustle on defense. A good point. And the 2013 Gold Cup team was a reminder that players on good teams don’t just possess high quality, they also work hard.