Montezuma’s Revenge

Is he thinking? Or does he really need to go?

So it’s been a few days since what friend of the blog (FotB) Brian Strauss dubbed the “Massacre at the Meadowlands.” Like Bushman I wasn’t expecting a win when I woke up Sunday morning. To be honest, I wanted us to lose to Honduras last Thursday to prevent anything close to this situation. Plus I would’ve had a few more fantasy players back in MLS over the weekend.

At halftime, I was encouraged, figuring that we were more than holding our own and that even a 1-0 loss would be a moral victory considering the group that was in uniform that day. Then the wheels came off in the second half.

It wasn’t as quickly as against Brazil in the Confed Cup final, but the results following Jay Heaps’ brain fart were even more damaging. On Heaps, elbow from Gio dos Santos or not, how can you grab a guy’s jersey in the box? It’s like putting a hand up in a Duke jump shooter’s face and begging the refs to blow the whistle on any contact whatsoever. And that’s something Heaps should know a thing or two about.

In the grand scheme of things, Heaps doesn’t matter for the Nats. He won’t be in South Africa. But Bob Bradley will.

Over the past two tournaments, Bradley has been out coached multiple times. Some of the blame can surely go on players, but those are also the players that Bradley is choosing for the roster. More disturbing is the trend of allowing second half goals after both managers have had time to make adjustments. As you surely have read, the two finals this summer have seen the U.S. outscored 8-0 in the second half, but the problem goes deeper than that.

In the Confed Cup, the U.S. was outscored 7-3 in the second halves. The Gold Cup saw an equal seven goals scored and conceded, obviously skewed by the Mexico game, but also playing against a few minnows, one of which (Haiti) scored a pair in the second half. World Cup qualifying is a different matter though, as the Yanks hold a 7-2 advantage in the second half against teams that are more difficult as a whole than the five opponents faced in the Gold Cup.

So what does this mean? Well, two things methinks.

First, and obviously, the U.S. isn’t on par with the upper echelon. Against Italy, Spain, and Brazil (and Brazil again) the second half difference was 7-1 in favor of the foreigners. It’s not something that’s going to be rectified by next year when Project 2010 will be as successful as Project X.

The second, and more troubling, is that Bradley seems to be a better single game coach than he is a tournament coach. The antithesis of Bora Milutinović, if you will

There are two reasons I see for this. One is an inability to tactically make adjustments during the game, and, as evidenced above, at halftime when any real changes have to be made. The second is relying on too many core players who can get you results a game or two at a time in qualifying, but are unable to deal with the rigors of a tournament due to a lack of depth. That’s where the finger pointing turns back to Bradley as again these are the players he selects and the same ones that he rarely substitutes.

Twice in the group stage at the Confederations Cup, Bradley went to the locker room with a sub in his pocket. Maybe he was trying to save USSF the $5,000 appearance fee, something he doesn’t do when Sacha Kljestan is on the roster, but both games were finished with at least 20 minutes left. That came back to bite the team in the ass against Brazil in the final as guys like Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey had nothing left in the tank.

Again on Sunday against Mexico, coming off a game less than 72 hours earlier that saw the same starting lineup, it was obvious that at least one defender needed to come off, yet Bradley did nothing. Granted there weren’t many options, but that again falls on Bradley’s shoulders. Heaps did eventually come off, but that was his own doing on an innocuous second yellow.

As another FotB Craig Stouffer wrote on Sunday evening, Bradley can play Houdini at Azteca. And that one-off game is what he’s best at. A win there, much like against Spain, and the “Massacre at the Meadowlands” will be remembered as much as the one that involved Crispus Attucks. However, looking forward to South Africa 2010, Bradley’s managing might be the biggest obstacle in the way of success for the Yanks.

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One other thing about Sunday’s loss that disappointed me: The complete and utter lack of heart after going down 3-0. Heath Pearce quit on several plays. Captain Brian Ching tried to show leadership after the third goal, but apparently is no Patrick Henry (apparently I’m on an American Revolution history kick today).

I’m not saying that Gio dos Santos should have been stretchered off with a shattered ankle, though that would’ve been nice for August 12 and a much more productive red for Heaps to “earn.” But I don’t recall any hard tackles on him, or any of the Mexican players for that matter, to “send a message,” as hockey players say. It didn’t have to be a reincarnation of the Broad Street Bullies, but to allow a guy to torch your team and more or less take it laying down, that to me is as damning to those players’ chances for going to South Africa next year than anything else that happened during the Gold Cup.

-- Pat Walsh