U.S. Men’s National Team v. Turkey, Harrison, New Jersey, 6.1.14

The U.S. back line continues to look and perhaps still be unsettled with the World Cup just two weeks off. Against Turkey, Fabian Johnson and Tim Chandler started at right and left back respectively, with Geoff Cameron and Matt Besler in the center. (DaMarcus Beasley started at left back against Azerbaijan last week.) Johnson was the strongest of the bunch. His give and go with Michael Bradley—culminating in Johnson’s powerful, flawlessly timed strike of Bradley’s chipped pass—is the kind of sequence that gave rise to the term “beautiful game” and keeps most of us watching soccer. As for Chandler, he too had a hand in the U.S.’s scoring. His cross from the corner flag early in the second half was misplayed by Turkey’s Haken Balta and set up Clint Dempsey’s tap-in goal.

Those goals of course ultimately gave the U.S. its 2-1 victory. But they shouldn’t distract us from the facts. Dempsey’s goal was a gift and the primary task of a defender is to defend, not to attack. Despite the final score, Turkey players found plenty of time space against the U.S. back line, creating numerous chances they mostly failed to take. Nuri Sahin’s 12^th-minute shot that hit the post is but one example, and Turkey had 23 shots to the U.S.’s 8.

Probably the two most troubling U.S. defensive breakdowns involved Chandler. One occurred in the 60^th minute, when Turkey’s left back switched the field of play with a looping pass to a wide-open Gokhan Gonul. Chandler and left winger Brad Davis were virtually out of the picture when Gonul ran onto the ball, and they could not recover in time to prevent his near-post shot (saved by substitute U.S. keeper Brad Guzan). Chandler was again caught out in the 89^th minute. He carelessly dwelled on the ball in his own half, was dispossessed by Mustafa Pektemek, and then beaten down the U.S. left sideline. Pektemek was initially held up by Guzan, but patiently retreated, teed up a shot, and earned a penalty kick when Cameron stopped the shot using his arm. (Presumably, the fact that the game was a friendly saved Cameron from getting sent off.) So Chandler’s breakdown led to Turkey’s only goal of the night, though as I say there could have been more.

Both of the above breakdowns recalled Chandler’s wind-sucking performance against Honduras in last February’s CONCACAF qualifier, played out in the heat and humidity of San Pedro Sula. Many thought Chandler wouldn’t recover from that performance, and indeed he didn’t participate in another U.S. match until last Tuesday. But Klinsmann clearly likes his German-American players, and five of them are going to Brazil. Speaking of which: For all those who say Landon Donovan sealed his fate by taking time off during three qualifiers—that his break signaled a lack of commitment that could not be forgiven by Klinsmann—then what are we to make of Chandler’s inclusion in the final roster? It is now a largely forgotten fact that Chandler twice turned down U.S. call-ups during this World Cup cycle, once for the 2011 Gold Cup because, as Chandler said, he was “tired,” and once for a round of World Cup qualifiers in 2012 because, as Klinsmann explained it, Chandler needed “to take a break.” Should Donovan’s bridge to Klinsmann and national team selection have been burned by his desire to take a break, but not Chandler’s?

Academic questions aside, it will be fascinating to see who starts at left back for the U.S. in Brazil. Given Beasley’s solid performances at left back during this cycle—and the U.S.’s excellent record with Beasley in the lineup—I regard him as the clear choice, especially since Chandler wilted in the Central American heat last February. And Beasley, who plays club soccer in Mexico, is accustomed to the kind of heat the U.S. will endure in Brazil. More importantly, Beasley in a U.S. shirt has consistently proved himself to be the superior defender. But while in qualifying Klinsmann may have relied on mostly MLS and Liga MX players like Beasley and the recently cut Eddie Johnson, he will in Brazil rely on a higher percentage of European-bred and -based players like Johnson and Chandler.

Not long after taking the U.S. coaching job, Klinsmann hinted that he wanted U.S. soccer to be more reflective of the United States as a whole: “I think the U.S. is a nation that wants to always be No. 1 in the world. It’s the leader in so many areas, and in a certain way you’re almost forced to be proactive in your approach to how you do things. They’re not waiting always until the other countries do something. They just do it.”

I am not sure if Klinsmann is succeeding in making U.S. soccer more successful or more reflective of U.S. “leadership” in other areas. His excellent record of wins and losses makes a strong case that he is improving the program. But if he picks Chandler over Beasley to start in Brazil, it will be another instance of Klinsmann breaking a cardinal rule of American sport and, you could argue, a cardinal rule of U.S. culture in general. That rule is: You dance with the one that brung ya.