Compelling Soccer

As I begin this Tuesday kickoff, I'm left wondering if the US Under 20 team must always play on the same day as Liverpool...

-I caught the second game for the Trinidad Under 20s yesterday and the effort was loads better. Perhaps the raucous crowd in the first game, they were playing hosts Egypt, affected the players. Or maybe it was just nerves of a different sort as many haven't been in a competition this large before. Either way, things were better in this one, even if the results ended up being the same points wise as they fell 2-1 to Italy.

Interestingly, Jack Thomson did not maintain his play. In fact, he was very poor yesterday on the right side. His crosses were extremely inaccurate and frequently went out for goal kicks. That got worse as the game went along and Trinidad began to get the better of the play, gaining more possession and opportunities. The rest of the side improved, beginning with a much better defensive effort on the ball. In the second half, they did far better to tackle and when one man couldn't get the ball off the Italian attacker, the group did well to converge and force him to give it up. The defense effectively shifted, preventing any runs. Heck, Italy's game winner came on a broken play. A much better effort was made all around.Also credit the substitutions Marcus Joseph and Aubrey David made impacts on the game when they entered, using their fresh legs to pressure the ball effectively. And this time Juma Clarence found the back of the net, rather than just the woodwork.

The downside was that this was, in many ways, a missed opportunity. They frequently failed to cash in on golden opportunities, including a shot that found the underside of the crossbar but did not cross the goal line. I'm still not sure why their first goal was disallowed either. It had to be a foul call because no one was offside with an Italian player hugging the post. Plus, the Italian defense was porous. There was room to run. But a very poor first touch seemed to be endemic of Trinidad's team. It was hard for anyone to settle the ball quickly and as a result, valuable seconds were lost giving Italy's defense time to recover, if not make an outright challenge of the ball.

Overall, I feel better about this squad than I did last Thursday, which is good. We'll see what happens in what will likely be their final game against Paraguay. A great performance and a win could send them through to the knockout stages, though that would have to be a truly great performance considering they have a -4 goal differential heading in.

-Liverpool makes a trip to Italy today to face Fiorentina and they will do without Javier Mascherano and Yossi Benayoun. Benayoun is a big loss; he's been one of the more consistently threatening players this season, providing a good compliment to Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard. Could Ryan Babel be given a chance to shine here? Jay Spearing played in the Carling Cup tie a week ago, but he wasn't impressive against a League One side. It maybe hard to give him a start under these circumstances.

-Also happening today; the US under 20's take the field. Consider this third spot on the Kickoff punishment; a (non Jay) demerit of one for every goal allowed. They'll face Cameroon but as I said, I have no idea if that's easier or harder than Germany. Cameroon always finds a lot of its senior team members in European leagues, so it isn't as if the talent isn't there. We'll see what happens, but the US needs points and fast.

-I'm a critic of Bob Bradley and frequently get frustrated by both their style of play, their results and the media's resistance to calling it out. Thankfully Leander Schaerlaeckens over at Soccernet agrees. For me, this is the money section:

"If the U.S. team is to truly outgrow its B-country status, as its current world ranking implies, its media and fans will have to hold it to a higher standard and evaluate it as such. Dunga was very blunt about such a standard before captaining his Brazil team to victory at the '94 World Cup. "If we don't win it, I'll be killed," he said. Such a statement wouldn't be tolerated in America, and whether Dunga meant it literally is up for debate. Still, it reflects the mindset we should strive for, as it stands in marked contrast to the American attitude toward big tournaments. Sure, the U.S. is not Brazil. It probably never will be. But if making it to the second round of the World Cup is hailed as a victory in its own right, how can we expect the program to achieve more?"

Bingo. The problem now is that we have yet to adjust our expectations. 20 years ago, qualifying for the World Cup was a huge deal. Ten years ago, qualifying with ease and rising to a level comparable with Mexico was great. In the present day, it's time to demand more. Some might argue we're progressing too quickly, but let's face it, the US has resources other countries do not have. The talent is progressing quickly; never have we had as talented a group as the current crop of US players. Heck, the US actually has strikers who can create on their own; when's the last time you saw that. But our expectations for the squad are still stuck in 1989; make the World Cup and all is well. It's time to expect more. Accountability is necessary if the US national team wants to take it to the next level.