Music to listen to:  Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by Daft Punk (live)

 

Its a few days late but here are my final thoughts on the USA’s performance in the Gold Cup Final against Mexico:

Bornstein had a bad game…but it wasn’t all of his fault:  The prevailing thought of the Gold Cup Final was seeing Bornstein continually get beat on the right side of the defense by numerous Mexican attackers and midfielders.

When the USA suffered an injury to the defense in the middle part of the first half, head coach Bob Bradley made some lineup adjustments and placed an inexperienced Bornstein in that position.  He didn’t perform well and should be admonished for this.

However, there were too many instances when the central midfielders, particularly Michael Bradley, were caught out of position on defense for being too aggressive on  offense.

This is understandable when you’re trailing by two goals with 30 minutes left in the contest but the USA held a 2-0 lead in the middle of the first half.

The overall midfield needs improved possession:  The biggest reason that the USA tends to give up big leads or even have terrible starts in international competitions is the lack of possession in the midfield.

While it shouldn’t be expected that the USA turns into Brazil or play “total football” like the Dutch or Spaniards, it would be nice to see the team be able to get four or five consecutive passes together and really test the opposing defense.

I don’t have a solution to this and I’ve heard the many excuses for this such as the USA playing a direct, English style of soccer that doesn’t work internationally or the lack of coaching or bad players, you get the idea.

Tim Howard had arguably his worst game in years as the starting goalkeeper:   There have been numerous times when Howard has not only been the best player for the USA, but the top player in the entire game for numerous contests.  His struggles on Saturday wasn’t his best effort.

Furthermore, I know that he’s an intense player and demands much from himself as well as his teammates, but Howard’s continual antics of yelling at his teammates after every opposing shot or pass that gets near him would not be approved of if I was his coach or played alongside him.  That may be amateur sports psychology on my part and his teammates may respect Howard greatly, but as a viewer, it doesn’t look good.

Freddy Adu has the chance to be a solid pro:  Adu is an interesting case because most non-soccer American fans look at the 22 year old as someone who still has time to establish himself as a top player internationally if he catches the right breaks.

However, I look at soccer as a sport where the age of the impact of the top players is between female gymnastics and tennis.  While its not as crual as gymnastics where your peak Olympic-level years are around 14-18, elite soccer players tend to make hay as a professional and/or international player between the ages of 18-24, like tennis.

Adu’s problem is that he’s played in numerous countries at different levels in the past four years.  He’s played with Real Salt Lake in MLS, Benfica in Portugal, AS Monaco in France, Belenenses in Portugal, Aris in Greece and currently in Rizespor, which plays in the second-division in Turkey.

He needs to play consistently for an entire season with one squad.  Hopefully his positive effort in the Gold Cup will give him this chance.

It would be best for the USA to find another coach before qualifications for World Cup 2014 begin in earnest:  I’m actually a fan of Bob Bradley and think that he’s done some good things for the team.

However, I’m never a fan of any coach for any country staying for two consecutive World Cups unless its under unique circumstances like you’re a top-five squad with many players returning for the next campaign or if you’re a country that is rebuilding from the bottom and need more than four years to build a solid foundation.

The USA national team doesn’t fit any of these qualifications.  You could see in the Gold Cup performance that the team has reached its maximum level under Bradley and its time for a change.

Mexico is really, really good:  The Mexican national team  has continually been under-achievers in the international level but I’m making the call right now that if everything breaks right for the squad, they’re a darkhorse to win the World Cup in 2014.

El Tri finally have a top-10 player in the world in Javier Hernandez who is gaining valuable experience at Manchester United and is firmly in his prime.  When you add Giovani dos Santos, Aldo de Nigris, Pablo Barrera and a cast of others, the Mexican squad is arguably a top-10 team internationally.

The defense is older than I would like but the United States didn’t lose to Cuba or Canada in the finals.  I think that should be considered in the final analysis.

Those are my quick thoughts, what are yours?