Jermaine Jones is among the veterans back in the fold as the US begin to prepare for next month’s big one against Mexico.
Jon Levy
USA v. Peru: Your TYAC Preview
How did we get here? It’s a valid question, especially if we use the national team’s pride-inducing performance at the 2014 World Cup as our backdrop. No, it was never a slam dunk that the USMNT would win this summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup, so the fact that the team is using the upcoming friendly matches as a tune-up for the Confederations Cup playoff isn’t shocking. The real surprise is just how poorly the team played in the tournament en route to the semifinal loss to Jamaica.
Manager Jurgen Klinsmann’s job isn’t on the line- Sunil Gulati has made that clear- but make no mistake about it, this team is in crisis mode. The need to restore stability is at a premium, so the deserved call-ups for midfielders Dax McCarty and Sebastian Lletget will have to be put on hold. It’s time to reestablish chemistry for which we have precedents, and to test it against two very different opponents.
Let’s kick the usuals around and then dive into the particulars, shall we?
Series: 6th Meeting. Series Tied, 2-2-1. This is the first meeting between the Yanks and Los Incas in 15 years. The Americans won the last one 1-0 in Miami at the 2000 Gold Cup (back when the Gold Cup involved invited sides from other federations, like the Copa America). FIFA rankings are hard to understand, and Peru slots in at 46, but have been as high as 15 in the last two years, and are ranked in the Top 20 in ELO Rnakings, which is all a long-winded way of saying Los Incas have been playing nice soccer of late under Ricardo Gareca and the sixth meeting between these two nations may be the best.
Weather: Hot. Labor Day weekend in the nation’s capital. High Friday will be around 90 degrees, and there’s a chance a thunderstorm rolls in and cools things off before kickoff. But it will be muggy, humid and generally tough footballing conditions, which favors the Yanks, we think.
What to watch for from the Yanks:
Defensive stability and scoring chance creation.
The US lacked both in the Gold Cup, and the fact that the team made it all the way to the semifinal is more a sad commentary on the strength of CONCACAF than a testament to American grit. So how can the Yanks solidify the D and create more quality scoring chances?
Starting at the back, the Brooks/Alvarado center back pairing can’t happen, at least not right now. The two were Jurgen’s first choice duo in the Gold Cup, and they were routinely picked apart and caught out of position or not communicating by CONCACAF teams that don’t rhyme with Texaco. Not okay. Abundant talent or no- the US can’t afford more moments like below.
@SteveDavis90 Alvarado: https://t.co/6JGO3Q0R9b
— Kyle Bonn (@the_bonnfire) July 18, 2015
The Tim Howard vs. Brad Guzan goalkeeper debate won’t be much fun if each guy is hung out to dry by his defenders every ten minutes. I’m hoping that Matt Besler and Omar Gonzalez will get back together in the heart of the US defense as they did in the MLS All Star Game against Tottenham, but I won’t protest much if Geoff Cameron or John Brooks is in the mix, as they were in Brazil. Hopefully Ventura Alvarado can watch and learn from the bench.
As for the fullbacks, Cameron and natural CB Michael Orozco seem to be fighting it out in training for the right to start on the right, and Klinsmann looks set to choose between Tim Ream and Greg Garza, who it should be noted has played sparingly at Atlas, on the left. Late call-up Jonathan Spector’s role in camp remains to be seen, but the Birmingham City right back is probably more likely to feature in the second of these two friendlies. Going with Cameron and Ream against Peru (with a view towards the Rose Bowl) would seem the safer choice, essentially populating the backline with four “defend first” center backs, but that’s not Klinsmann’s style. And managerial preferences aside, the best we’ve seen the USMNT look in the past few years has been with speedy, overlapping fullbacks on the field. So I hope to see Yedlin and Garza on the defensive flanks, but none of this will matter if Jurgen can’t reintroduce some defensive steel back into the midfield to protect the backline.
Alfredo Morales is in another US camp, rewarded for club success without much return internationally. (Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)
After the poor showing Kyle Beckerman put on tape this summer, his omission from this squad is understandable. Here at TYAC we’ve been big Dred Pirate Beckerman fans for a long time, so hopefully he gets a more fitting national team swan song at some point, but now the onus is on the manager to find a player (or two) who can do the job against Mexico next month. More on that role later.
As sad as the newfound shakiness of the American defense is, the regression of the attack is just as alarming. Jurgen Klinsmann wasn’t hired to replace Bob Bradley four years ago in order to help the team bury two out of three chances created per match. He was hired to implement a style that uses meaningful ball possession to generate more chances than Bobbo’s team usually did. Language from his opening press conference on this front is telling:
“Studying your culture and having an American wife and American kids, mainly right now my understanding is that you don’t like to react to what other people do. I think this is maybe a starting point. I think America never really waits and sees and leaves it up to other people to decide what is next. I think America always likes to decide on its own what is next. This guides maybe towards a more proactive style of play where you would like to impose a little bit the game on your opponent instead of sitting back and waiting for what your opponent is doing and react to it.”
We saw the US do exactly that in World Cup Qualifying and in the 2013 Gold Cup. We saw many of the players on this squad do so in the course of 80 magical minutes against Portugal in the World Cup. But the USMNT attack took a major step back this summer, and these players need to find some flow fast. Though Michael Bradley won’t join the team until the Brazil match, he’ll clearly be on the field in October (he doesn’t wear the captain’s armband and carry the “MB90” moniker for nothing), but the debate about where to deploy the team’s best midfielder rages on. I think it’s pretty clear he’s a true central midfielder, as comfortable in defense as he is in attack, but the manager seems to have a fetish for playing Bradley further forward. It’s “the better you are, the closer to the opposing goal you play” principle gone wrong. Silver lining: at this point we’ve got a large enough sample on attacking midfielder Bradley for me to say that he’s much more productive with two forwards ahead of him than he is when asked to link up with a single target striker. Hopefully, if Jurgen insists on playing MB90 up the field as is the new usual, he’ll start Johannsson and Altidore up top and utilize whoever plays Bradley’s role as a stand-in for Michael. This creates continuity in repetition for the players around Bradley, and that’s crucial going forward. It also allows this roster’s two best forwards (and probably America’s two best) to develop a rapport for two matches if the US is going with a two striker system next month.
Less moody and more consistent than the Cubs pitcher, Carlos Zambrano leads a strong Inca defense.
And what will we see out of Peru?
In a CONMEBOL world full of the attacking flair that we rightfully associate with South American soccer, Peru has carved out a reputation for defense and organization. They are notoriously hard to break down, so this friendly has a very specific purpose for the Yanks. If you can score on Peru, you can score on Mexico.
To score on Peru the US will first have to get past an energetic midfield full of guys that seldom gamble with their defensive positioning. Then comes the real challenge, breaking down a backline marshaled by Carlos Zambrano. No, not the old major league pitcher; the Eintracht Frankfurt central defender that most Bundesliga teams would kill to have. Not only does Zambrano help perform the near impossible task of covering for Timmy Chandler’s defensive deficiencies at club level, he also one ups Mexico’s defensive leader Francisco “Maza” Rodríguez with respect to age and form. While Maza is now 33 and back playing his club soccer in Mexico, Zambrano’s 26 years old and at the very top of his game. I’ll type it again. If you can score on Peru, you can score on Mexico.
Peruvian Player to Watch: Paolo Guerrero (Flamengo)
Don’t be fooled by the fact that he’s 31 years old and plays in Brazil. Paolo Guerrero’s a bad bad man. Germany has been good to Peruvian strikers, and El Depredador is testament to that. He came up in Bayern Munich’s system, joining fellow Peruvian Caludio Pizarro on the senior team before transferring to Hamburg and becoming a fixture at the club for six seasons. All he’s done since starting his late career Brazilian adventure is score the match winning goals for Corinthians in the FIFA Club World Cup semifinal, and final. Remember that Corinthians team that beat Chelsea in 2012, upsetting the “UEFA always wins” apple cart? Yeah that was Guerrero. He scores everywhere he goes, and given the current state of the American defense, that probably means at RFK Stadium on Friday night. Guerrero’s blend of phenomenal skill, instinctual movement, and craftiness will provide a great test for the USMNT, but as I’ve already said, I’m not confident our boys will make the grade.
These friendlies could help tell us how much Jermaine Jones has left in the international tank.
US Player to Watch: Jermaine Jones (New England Revolution)
Germany Jones is back from injury, back with the USMNT, and for the first time in a long time he’s listed as a midfielder. We all saw what Jurgen was trying to do in attempting to convert Jones to a center back in order to both extend his international career and shore up a position of weakness for the national team. Sadly that plan didn’t work, and now with Beckerman out of the reckoning, defensive midfielder is suddenly a need for the Yanks.
Enter Jermaine Jones, Danny Williams, and Alfredo Morales. Let’s toss Morales aside for a second and try not to think about why he’s still getting chances with the national team, lest our heads explode. Dax McCarty Army, there’s your guy to point out and scream “Why not Dax!?!?”
Danny Williams on the other hand has actually earned this call-up, more so than any of his earlier tryouts with the US. He’s now focused on one position, and he’s made great strides as a dedicated defensive midfielder for Reading. But Danny Williams wasn’t the best American field player in the most recent World Cup. Danny Williams doesn’t have a track record of stepping up in the biggest moments for both club and country. Those plaudits go to Jermaine Jones, and if he’s healthy, we need to let JJ loose. It’s also important to note that Jones can play as either a “traditional six,” shouldering the defensive midfield responsibilities on his own, or with a partner. We’ve seen him do both for the national team, and if the manager favors the dual destroyer approach as he did in Brazil with Jermaine and Beckerman, I’d be more than happy to see Jones cutting out attacks and pulling the strings in tandem with Williams, Bradley, or maybe even Mix Diskerud (who’d be more CM than DMF, think GC Final 2013) against Peru. But Jermaine Jones is a must. I say play him at his best position until his legs fall off, and do the same with Michael Bradley once he gets back from Toronto FC duty while you’re at it. Thanks Jurgen.
Prediction: USA 1 – 1 Peru
A mixed result the USMNT. Yes, they score on Peru, which isn’t easy, but I think the lone goal conceded probably flatters a work-in-progress defensive group. A gold star to whichever of the guys in our little goalkeeper competition preserves the draw.
Enjoy the match, and Go USA!
Jon Levy is Co-Founder of The Yanks Are Coming. Follow him on Twitter @TYAC_Jon and e-mail him at jon.f.levy@gmail.com.