Graham Zusi scored off the bench to cap a 4-0 US rout of Costa Rica.
Neil W. Blackmon
The United States routed Costa Rica 4-0 in Chicago last night, saving its Copa América Centenario, and perhaps its manager’s job, in the process. The game was the second consecutive match for the Americans against a nation that reached the World Cup Quarterfinals in 2014, and while the Ticos were without goalkeeper Keylor Navas (more below), they largely had a full complement of field players at their disposal. In any event, it was an impressive victory which sets up a win or draw and advance game with an underwhelming Paraguay side Saturday evening in Philadelphia. The comfortable victory was an enormous turnaround from Friday night’s opening game defeat to Colombia, and while the scoreline was certainly flattering to the US given the play on the field, the team collectively deserves credit for taking their chances well and competing with a sense of purpose.
Here are my takeaways from the rout of the Ticos.
Costa Rica dominated the first half hour of the game, but thanks to the early penalty, had nothing to show for it.
I wrote in my match preview that I imagined the Ticos would press the Americans aggressively, in an effort to win the ball higher up the pitch and launch their patented counters faster and deeper in the US half.
Yes, the Ticos reputation is one of a very defensive side that stays deep, absorbs pressure and counters- but that’s easier with a lead and you can still absorb and counter while providing ball pressure. These aren’t mutually exclusive things. In fact, Costa Rica utilized an almost identical strategy against Italy’s 4-3-3 in Brazil, and repeated the tactic in the round of sixteen against Greece. They defeated Italy because of Keylor Navas and becausethey were flexible enough to push up, get tight to Italy, and stop Pirlo and Motta from dictating the terms of the game with incisive passes to the three Italian attackers from the center of the midfield. If you make the attackers drop deeper, the formation becomes compromised, and the opponent becomes disorganized.
An obvious example was early in the game when the US passed out of the back. Costa Rica would move forward, with their front three pressing the CBs and Michael Bradley, and the wing-backs in a position to move forward onto the US forwards. Guzan, uninterested in playing the ball from the back, would boot the ball downfield, the Ticos would win the second ball, and begin attacking again. This continued even after the Americans took the lead.
But the penalty mattered, a great deal.
https://twitter.com/ThatDamnYank/status/740347008733577216
About the penalty, the Ticos can have little argument. You simply can’t shove the back of an attacker in front of a referee- it is going to get called. But the penalty didn’t just allow the US to pull ahead, it- along with the formation tweak I’ll mention in a moment- awakened Clint Dempsey, who had a massive game. And the penalty had to demoralize Óscar Ramírez’s side, who had executed a plan with great risks to reap great rewards, namely, that for a half hour, Costa Rica often continually won possession high up the pitch and launched quick counter-attacks with clever passing combinations, using the pace of Joel Campbell and Christian Bolanos against an uncertain US defense and Jones and Wood stretched to cover. When you play good soccer and finish a third of the game behind anyway, it is tough, especially on the road.
Clint Dempsey was brilliant following a smart tactical adjustment.
After thirty minutes, Jurgen Klinsmann switched the formation to a 4-4-2. The tweak immediately reaped dividends, turning a 1-0 game where the US were on the back foot into a 3-0 rout.
Prior to the tournament, we wrote that at this stage in his career- really throughout his career- Clint Dempsey had been best deployed as a forward with a strike partner, whether it be Bobby Zamora at Fulham or Oba Martins last season in Seattle.
Klinsmann made the adjustment.
The result was a group of misfit toys, with one man playing without support and two CF’s playing winger, were given a chance. Until the change, the US continued to be disjointed and frustrated:
https://twitter.com/shinguardian/status/740466335881297920
By switching to a 4-4-2, Klinsmann helped the attack and the defense. With a wider midfield, the US snuffed out the space where the Costa Rican wingbacks were pressuring the Americans, and stabilized the roles of Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones. Perhaps more critically, the manager simplified things for Clint Dempsey, providing him support up top in the form of a strike partner, Bobby Wood. Wood, freed from the square peg round hole winger role, rewarded Klinsmann with a goal (howler assist aside):
Clint Dempsey, who finished the game with a goal and two assists, was free to do what he does best, run face-up at defenders and create, and he did so, creating multiple chances in the Americans 15 minute barrage prior to the half. Credit Klinsmann where credit is due. His changes helped the US grab a frenetic, up for grabs game by the throat.
They also signaled, if only for a brief moment, the pragmatism that marked the early successes of Klinsmann’s tenure. Indeed, Klinsmann noted the team will remain flexible tactically throughout the tournament.
“The [formation] depends on our opponents as well. We don’t have the luxury to [play] the same against everybody. We need to modify things according to who we play against.”
The Ticos had a solid and proven plan, but soccer is weird. And the drop-off after Keylor Navas is not survivable for them long-term.
As noted above, it made sense to deny Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones time to cut out incisive passes to the US front three. Indeed, it worked, as even when the US did receive the ball, they were very deep and had trouble with their linking. But the penalty changed things and when Patrick Pemberton allowed a really soft turn and shoot goal near post to Bobby Wood, the Ticos were finished.
I told a fellow media member last night I thought this was an entirely different game with Navas, maybe a 1-0 but maybe something different altogether. Dempsey isn’t a great penalty taker; Navas is a fine penalty goalkeeper. Wood’s technique was terrific; Navas doesn’t get beat near post on that particular shot. Navas just won the Champions League with Real Madrid; Patrick Pemberton is nicknamed “La Eterna Estatua”, which means “The Eternal Statue.” Goalkeepers matter for small nations- ask the Ticos about Brazil in 2014; ask Trinidad and Tobago about Shaka Hislop in the 2006 cycle. As sharp as Costa Rica’s attacking talent is, they don’t win a World Cup group with Uruguay, England and Italy without their goalkeeper and they don’t weather the storm on the road against a desperate US either.
Further, the “soccer is weird” part gets back to the game itself. Yes, the US were brilliant in stretches. But in the end, their chance creation wasn’t sensational and based on expected goals, Jurgen Klinsmann was correct in his assessment last night that at times, the United States played better soccer against Colombia.
#USMNT non-penalty expected goals:
– vs Colombia: 0.72
– vs Costa Rica: 0.73— Paul Carr (@PaulCarr) June 8, 2016
You’ll win a bunch of games when you are 2.28 over your non-penalty expected goal number. Howlers help too.
Klinsmann may be under pressure, but he is resilient.
Once again, Jurgen Klinsmann circles the wagons against Costa Rica.
Sunil Gulati is a very busy man. Very busy, and often, very much unavailable. So it was interesting that he made himself available to the media the day before the US played an elimination game against CONCACAF rival Costa Rica. It was even more interesting that hours before the crucial match, Gulati delivered the following salvo regarding Jurgen Klinsmann’s job status.
“We need to win a few games,” Gulati said. “I didn’t say Jurgen Klinsmann had to win games. I said we did. No one has ironclad job security; for coaches and players, it’s about results.”
“Results are what matter, and everyone understands that,” Gulati added. “The last 18 months over all haven’t been what we would have hoped for, especially in official competition. We’re not where we’d like to be, and while I don’t get too high or too low based on one game, we’ll look at everything at the end of this competition.”
Klinsmann, the manager and technical director of US Soccer, has long been thought of as more or less invincible, with only a willful resignation or a failure to attain World Cup qualification forcing his removal.
Gulati’s statements served as a rebuttal to that line of thinking.
It’s possible that Klinsmann will remain the US manager and technical director regardless of what happens Saturday in Philadelphia and beyond at this Copa América. Indeed, I wrote in the build up it was difficult for me to imagine a scenario outside of losing three on the trot where Gulati made a change. I still don’t see it happening, unless the US are at risk of failing to get out of the final round Hex. But Gulati, an economics professor, is facing hard realities: diminishing crowds for friendlies, decreasing men’s revenues, multiple legal battles with the federation’s trophy winner, the USWNT. He needs results. And Klinsmann has struggled to deliver since his team defeated Ghana in Natal.
Klinsmann has seen pressure before, albeit a different type of pressure, three years ago in the aftermath of a disappointing World Cup qualifier defeat and a story, written by well-respected American soccer writer Brian Straus, that the American locker room was soured and the side were in tactical disarray.
The next opponent in the midst of that last crisis of confidence? Costa Rica, of course. And with a blizzard, literally and metaphorically swirling around his side, Klinsmann’s charges dispatched the Ticos in the snow and regained full control of their World Cup qualifying fate.
The maelstrom felt more than metaphorical Tuesday evening. It was a palpable pressure, eighteen months of dour results and the prospects of being eliminated in two matches in a tournament held on home soil floating in the air, dangling like the Sword of Damocles over Klinsmann’s head. Once again, a win over Costa Rica provided respite, good medicine.
That such a sense of relief is felt after the US defeat a nation they haven’t lost a competitive match to on home soil since 1989 is a discussion for a different day. Maybe it shouldn’t be. Maybe that’s the real lesson, or the kernel or truth about our collective progress from soccer shadowland to proper footballing country. Does the US even need a transformation? Perhaps the fact that’s a debate proves how quixotic Klinsmann’s promises and fight is. Perhaps not. What is certain is that the US won, and Jurgen Klinsmann has quieted the noise in the system, at least for a few days.
Onto Philadelphia then, a city that doesn’t appreciate excuses, and one with sports fans that booed Santa Claus. In a way, it is a fitting setting. Redemption is always dirty work. Often it times, it should also be said; the end is messy too. It’s rarely speckles and precise. One wonders what will happen if things go south against Paraguay, given that even the deep reservoir of Sunil Gulati’s patience appears to be running dry.
Neil W. Blackmon co-founded The Yanks Are Coming. Follow him on Twitter @nwblackmon.