Robert Koren will be a player to watch
The focus has already shifted to England.
Bob Bradley on how facing England, a team with which the U.S. is very familiar, affects the team’s preparations:
“I think it just creates a huge match, good for fans and exciting for the players. We’ll look at it simply as a big challenge and one that we’re thrilled to have.”
Sure, it would be fantastic to see Landon Donovan and David Beckham in a possible match up of two club team mates or Clint Dempsey do battle with a familiar foe in Ashley Cole. The USA has to be pragmatic and not jump on the media bandwagon’s Klieg lights.
It is not England that the USA needs to devote its energy and resources.
It is the other two more unheralded countries. Lets put it this way, the USA is fighting for the second spot with two other countries. That is a 33.3% chance. We need to be more pragmatic.
Robert Koren may not be a household name but it is he who we will be going up against. Koren is the Cesc Fabregas of the Slovenian team and pulls the puppet strings of the attack. West Brom might be back in the Premiership next season because of Koren.
Maurice Edu was recently talking about the dust up between Madjid Bougherra and Kenny Miller at Rangers. Bougherra’s form was a big part of Algeria’s successful defense which kept out the Egyptians in Khartoum.
These are the players we need to focus on.
It might be harder for the USA to escape the Battle of Saratoga like analogies when facing England but they have to remember that smart teams can go far. In 1998, Croatia began its fairy tale march to the semi-finals by not concentrating on Argentina but beating Japan and Jamaica which they duly did.