What happened to the USA? Riding the highs of recent wins albeit friendlies against powerhouses, the Netherlands and Germany, to come crashing down in the Gold Cup. In the group stage, the USA endured some tortuous times in putting up disoriented first halves where they just could not get going. A pattern that is becoming increasingly recognizable as if coherence is only a second half virtue. The Cuba thrashing brought a false glow as the USA celebrated what they thought were two halves of a comprehensive display. A little premature as it turned out, Jamaica exposing the USA’s limitations in many different ways.
1. The USA were outcoached by Occam’s razor
You can never be too humble when you are clearly the underdogs. Journeyman coach, Winfried Schafer kept it simple. Defend to the last man and take full advantage of scoring opportunities. There was no shame parking the bus when the USA were attacking especially in the second half and as Darren Mattocks and Giles Barnes proved, the Reggae Boyz needed just two scoring chances to make the USA pay. Juergen Klinsmann on the other hand was caught flatfooted with no tactical nous to break the logjam as the USA made the mistake of going too narrow and thread the needle. The over-elaboration did not work.
2. The USA spent too much time, too many passes in the backfield
The USA were turgid in the attacking areas because they spent most of the time in the backfield. A majority of the passes were between the back four and Michael Bradley. The midfielder scored the USA’s only goal but he was slow and mostly inaccurate. There was no connectivity on the flanks with Brad Evans guilty of exclusively playing to Bradley. Gyasi Zardes, responsible for a number of attacks breaking down was a factor in the USA unable to use width effectively. In fact, the level of constriction was so high, 228 out of the 374 pass attempts or 61% of the total were between Evans (52), Alvarado (45), Brooks (45), Bradley (50), and Beckerman (36). At the other end, the Jamaicans with far fewer touches got upfield much more rapidly through the lightning quick combinations between Kemar Lawrence and Jobi McAnuff down the left flank, terrorizing Evans. Ditto, between Adrian Mariappa and Garath McCleary on the right.
3. The Wes Morgan led defence was rock solid
Wes Morgan, the Leicester City man knows something about miraculous escapes and tough, hard nosed defending under former boss Nigel Pearson. His centre back partner. Michael Hector, finished his first complete season at Reading after four years out on loan. Both defenders, especially Hector were omniscient winning the aerial duels, putting in crucial blocks, intercepting passes, and tackling the ball away. The USA’s single minded devotion to attacking the middle as also pouring set pieces and service to sub Alan Gordon in the last 20 minutes played right into their hands. In fact, Jamaica’s strategy of scoring the one odd goal and letting the defence shut the game down has been very successful with the only exception being Costa Rica, against whom they conceded two goals.
4. Defensive inertia and ball watching cost the USA
Watch this vine of the first goal. Four defenders guard Barnes and Mattocks. The latter positioned between Ventura Alvarado and John Brooks. As the free throw comes in, Beckerman stumbles. Alvarado keeps watching the ball, barely moving a muscle, an inviting gap between him and Mattocks. The Club America defender completely misjudges the flight, Mattocks elevates without being touched as Brooks reacts late; for a simple header hitting the far post and into goal. Guzan who had initially crept up retreats but was still a few feet away from the goal line and could do very little to keep the ball out. The second goal was courtesy a Barnes free kick as he whips it near post past Guzan. Watch how the wall doesn’t move.
5. The USA could not make Ryan Johnson pay for his mistakes
A clearly rattled Ryan Johnson, Jamaica’s third string goalie had an early narrow escape when Aron Johannsson almost made him pay for some fancy footwork that went horribly wrong. Johnson rode his luck again when Johannsson could not keep his header down after the goalie could not hold onto Fabian Johnson’s free kick and parried it straight to the striker. Bradley’s open field swerving blast almost went in after striking the Jamaican goalie on the chest. But the ball fortuitously for the Jamaicans hit the upright. Clearly, Johnson was the weak link and the USA did come close to exposing him but they weren’t able to capitalize on his mistakes.