The World Cup has come and gone and two months after the United States was painfully eliminated by Ghana for yet the second time in as many World Cups we find ourselves questioning the very fabric of a team that Bob Bradley has sewn together. Let's turn back the clock to the summer of 2009. After a bad loss to Italy in the Confederations Cup, American soccer fans everywhere complain of a boring, negative, counter attacking approach to facing the world champions. Bob Bradley's head is demanded on a sacrificial platter for the soccer gods if we ever wish to have international success until the end of time.
What happens next? A gutsy draw against Egypt, the African Champions, a world shocking 2-0 victory over Spain, the European and eventual World Champions, and a "you have got to be freaking kidding me" 2-0 lead against the greatest soccer nation of all-time, Brazil. Now granted, we quickly gave up three goals and settled for our first ever runners-up medal in a major international competition but people were excited! Our boring, negative, counter attacking approach had turned into an exciting, positive counter attacking approach... wait a minute, somethings sounds strange here.
What happened is fans enjoyed winning. They didn't care how it was done. Why? Because we won. We beat the best team in the world and had one hand on the trophy against Brazil. Bradley had figured out how to use the speedy Charlie Davies and the muscular Jozy Altidore as an effective strike partnership and let the uber-conditioned, face of the American team dream boy, Landon Donovan run rampant down the left flank.
Now fast forward back to post 2010 World Cup USMNT Depression, commonly referred to Ricardo Clark Disorder (RCD). Bradley has been hired on for another four years and the complaints are coming in from coast to coast about four more years of ugly soccer.
Here is my issue with a desire to play a beautiful style. Assuming we go with the general backing for a "pretty" style we can assess this means an open, attacking style of soccer. This usually includes at least one dynamic striker, a true playmaker in the midfield, a wing man capable of beating the last defender and providing deadly crosses, fullbacks with the ability and freedom to overlap and jump into the attack and generally a centerback capable of shutting down an attack and starting one of their own in possession. Now these are all things that even the best teams in the world are lucky to acquire. I don't think I would offend anyone by saying the United States is not one of the best teams in the world.
When you look at the American team you really don't see a single identifiable player in any of these roles. Davies and Altidore maybe made one effective striker, but with Davies future lying in question so does the future of American goalscoring. Michael Bradley is great at what he does, but he is not a prototypical magician in possession who can be the point man for every attack. Dempsey and Donovan, those are the two names we saw lined up on the flanks of our attack throughout the World Cup. Both of these players are the opposite of a wing player, as both prefer and are much more effective when cutting inside. The fullback positions are constantly up for grabs and the only American born fullback who effectively gets into the attack is Frankie Hejduk and he's nearing 40. Finally, I don't think anyone would expect Jay Demerit, Oguchi Onyewu or Carlos Bocanegra to start the attack from the back.
When breaking it down like this is it really hard to believe that the United States is just not built to play a "beautiful" style? Why stuff a square peg in a round hole? Americans should embrace their gritty, well conditioned, relentless compatriots. Do we still let in too many weak goals? Yes! Do we lose possession in the midfield easily? (Read RCD) Of course! But I can safely assume that did we not play the style we did that we would not have advanced, would not have scored the most exciting goal in USMNT history against Algeria and Jurgen Klinsman would be imposing yoga in Adidas tracksuits on our players right now. Let's embrace what we have and work hard at becoming a better possession team. Then, with a more established talent pool we can progress towards those teams we envy. For now we are a hard working, never give up, hard nosed squad... heck when I put it like that, it sounds downright American.
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