Jurgen Klinsmann and the US begin the road to Russia Friday night in St. Louis.
Jon Levy
The United States begins the process of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia tomorrow night in St. Louis (6:30 PM, ESPN 2) against the tiny south Caribbean island nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is the earliest in the modern era the US have started play in a qualifying tournament and in many ways, that’s a good thing, a chance for the Yanks to put a disastrous summer and disappointing October behind them, eyes fixed ahead on a new goal.
The early switch also presents challenges. With no friendlies to transition from the side that lost 3-2 to Mexico in the CONCACAF Cup, Klinsmann was faced with a difficult roster dilemma. Call in the veterans and ask them to weather the early qualifying storm, or begin to transition some out while leaving others in the team with the understanding that results are paramount. Klinsmann (mostly) opted for option B, infusing some youth but also standing by his veteran core, recent results be damned.
Tomorrow evening in St. Louis, the US in theory at least get as gentle a World Cup qualifying opening as one can get in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The 129th ranked side in the world according to FIFA, the team the islanders call “Vincy Heat” is led by Cornelius Huggins, by far the nation’s most famous footballer. Its best player is a fisherman, and its most promising young players labor in the United States, playing in the second/third division USL for what are functionally MLS reserve sides.
In other words, all signs point to three points and a convincing three points, which would be a nice respite for a team that has been outplayed at nearly every turn since qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Let’s kick the usuals around a bit and then dive into the particulars, shall we?
Series: First Meeting. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, with a population of 109,000, is an archipelago of 32 islands and cays at the southern end of the Caribbean (see inset, map). It is marketing itself more and more as a tourist destination and is popular among US yachters in season, but as Caribbean islands go, it has a smaller tourism industry and is devastatingly poor. The result of this poverty in footballing terms has been a country that has only recently dipped its toes into international soccer waters. Simply reaching this round is an enormous accomplishment at home, something that has rightfully generated great pride. Yet this is also a nation with only one Gold Cup to its name, let alone World Cup qualifiers, and Friday night will be the first time they’ve played the United States in any capacity.
Weather: November in Missouri. Mid 30’s and clear around kick. Fabian Johnson Misery Index: 2. Let’s just say Fabian won’t take himself out of this game because of the weather.
An interesting footnote on the weather Friday night. The Americans trained in Miami this week to prepare for the scorching equatorial island conditions they’ll encounter next week in Port-of-Spain when they play the second qualifier of the cycle against Trinidad and Tobago. That’s all well and good but how valuable that training will be after playing in a cold Busch Stadium Friday night is a reasonable question, as is scrutinizing why the US would want to put more travel burdens on players, particularly the European ones, ahead of two qualifying matches.
For perspective, the difference in temperature in Port-of-Spain Friday night and St. Louis will be around 40 degrees, with Trinidad temperatures in the mid-70s Friday evening after dipping into the 90s Friday afternoon.
Fabian Johnson and the US haven’t had a complete performance since Manaus, and even that ending was bittersweet.
What to watch for from the Yanks:
Simply put, I’m watching for an ideology. So I’m going to write a few words about that. If you’re looking for a really well argued article on why DeAndre Yedlin should be played at right back and Fabian Johnson should be moved back into the USMNT midfield (and you’re not already sick of reading our TYAC arguments for that), please go checkout Ives Galarcep’s excellent piece.
Now, onto the macro-level analysis on why something’s got to change, and quickly. It’s no secret that this blog called for the end of the Klinsmann regime after the CONCACAF Cup loss to Mexico. And we stand by that opinion. Results, performances, position changes, player choices, and a number of other factors influenced our thinking. But boiled down to its very essence, we’re calling for Klinsmann’s head due to a change in, or better stated, a lack of, ideology.
Jurgen started his US Soccer career by tell us about the big changes he was instituting, and initially we could see that change of mindset on the field. It wasn’t the difference between watching West Brom and watching Arsenal, but the Yanks started playing a much more possession based game. And as the team got better Klinsmann would add new, logical wrinkles into the game plan. We’re passing the ball with fewer touches through the midfield; we’re going to open it up even more by playing with more width. Okay, we’re getting good at that, now we’re going to speed the whole process up; fast, Fast, FAST! And we’re going to add in a situational press, where our attacking players force defenders into mistakes or panic passes, giving our possession-based attack the ball back cheaply.
But that ideology, which powered the team through World Cup Qualifying, the 2013 Gold Cup, and for 70 glorious minutes against Portugal, the World Cup’s Group of Death doesn’t seem in any way connected to this team anymore. Yes, we’ve seen flashes of the type of play I described since the 2014 World Cup, notably in the immediate aftermath against Czech Republic, and in the second half of a high-tempo counterattack friendly win over Germany. But, those performances feel like encores now, and after this summer, the house lights have definitely come back on.
Fittingly, almost poetically, it seems like Klinsmann’s USMNT truly lost its ideology when the cult of possession-attack himself deployed the team in a defensive shell against Belgium in the biggest game he managed with the US. Klinsmann abandoned his own fundamental principles at a time when he should have been trustworthy and courageous, and despite his best intentions, his decisions have been tearing his team apart ever since.
But this match- these two matches really- present an opportunity for a new beginning. Friday’s match also pits the US against a weak opponent. It’s a get-right game. A game in which the manager and the team can show something, even if it’s not the ideology or style I’ve been flogging in this post.
Show me something. Show me something that makes sense. Show me what this team is going to strive to do going forward. Show me an ideology.
And what will we see out of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines?
Here at The Yanks Are Coming we’ve made the measured, adult decision to fill this section with video of CONCACAF teams CONCACAFing against the US. Enjoy the high-energy bunker defense!
Exhibit A- last cycle, the US vanquish Antigua and Barbuda on a cricket field that makes Yankee Stadium’s NYCFC pitch look vast. Okay, that last part isn’t true. But note how the Americans needed an Eddie Johnson goal at the death to get out of this one with full rewards.
The thing is- Saint Vincent doesn’t have anywhere near the English league talent Antigua and Barbuda had in that cycle. And the US are at home. So maybe some bunkered Belize is more appropriate…
Or maybe the game is somewhere between, given the US struggle for anything resembling form and St. Vincent and the Grenadines lacking eleven full-time professionals.
In the end, sometimes cinema best explains these types of colossal mismatches. Here, the Yanks are the late Jack Palance’s psychopath Jack Wilson, calling out St. Vincent and the Grenadines for their inadequacy. “And where do you think you’re going, the World Cup?” The islanders, represented in the clip as homesteader Frank “Stonewall” Torrey, bravely stand up to Palance’s bully tactics. But in the end, well, they end up dead.
Vincentian Players to Watch: The Seattle Sounders FC 2 Forwards (USL)
Twenty year old striker/fisherman Tevin Slater is this team’s shiny new toy, especially after something of a star turn in his first four caps, which all happened to be World Cup Qualifying matches. So on the rare occasion that Saint Vincent venture forward against the US, Slater should garner constant attention from Jurgen’s latest incarnation of the American backline. That scenario should leave the door open for a pair of young strikers who are already much more tenured with the national team. Nineteen year old Oalex Anderson and 22 year old Myron Samuel both play for Seattle’s USL side, S2, and they’re both capable of punishing a ramshackle US defense on any counterattack. Now SV & G probably can’t afford to deploy all three forwards from kickoff, but they could all be on the field in St. Louis near the end of a close match, hoping for a smash and grab result. And who’ll deny them a shot at that relative glory against a USMNT that’s essentially put the antithesis of killer instinct on tape in 2015?
Maybe Tim Howard or Brad Guzan? Maybe.
One of ta handful of Americans who has shined in a tough year for the men’s program, Matt Miazga has earned a debut.
US Player to Watch: Matt Miazga (New York Red Bulls)
The young center back may not see action in this match. He may not even see action against Trinidad and Tobago. But he should. For a defense that’s fallen deep into disrepair, Matt Miazga could be a stabilizing force, even at 20 years old.
To say Miazga’s enjoying a breakout 2015 would be an understatement. The former Poland youth international went from battling for a starting spot on the American U20 World Cup team to starting for the U23’s as they battle for a berth in the Olympics, and anchoring the Red Bull defense. Oh, and his insertion into the RBNY lineup also happened to coincide with the team’s rocket-ship rise to the top of Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference. That’s not to say he was the league’s best defender or anything. He wasn’t. But he did make the short list for that award, rightly so. (And yes, it does help that the American player pool’s best ball-moving defensive mid plays in front of him… hint hint, ground control to Major Jurgen…)
For those of you not familiar with Matt Miazga, what we have here is towering 6’4’’ central defender who makes up for his relative lack of speed with positional defending instincts beyond his years. He’s a fiery guy, who, like a young Michael Bradley, is learning on-the fly to harness that part of his game in a positive ways. He went from a frustrated “come at me bro!” fake punch against the Honduras U23 squad in early October, to keeping his composure and holding his ground for 120 minutes against DC United in the MLS playoffs the past two weekends.
So give the 20 year old kid a shot. Could any pairing he’s involved with actually be any worse than the Brooks/Alvarado lost-at-sea partnership we saw in the Gold Cup this summer? (There are two answers to that question and both are no.)
Jon Levy co-founded The Yanks Are Coming. He can be reached at jon.f.levy@gmail.com and you can follow him on Twitter @TYAC_Jon.
Prediction: USA 4 – 1 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Call it an uninspiring but comfortable win. Stanford kid with a goal and an assist. Real test comes away at Trinidad and Tobago. Buckle up.
Enjoy the match, and Go USA!