First thought about the USMNT's 4-3 win in Amsterdam over the Netherlands:
Second thought: this was a wide, wide open game - it looked nothing like what we'll see out of CONCACAF teams in the Gold Cup next month. But that's 100 percent okay. A great result is a great result, and Jurgen Klinsmann has proved quite adept at getting great results in Euro friendlies over his four years in charge. This one was way more fun than the 1-0 win in Italy, and more promising/revealing in some important ways.
And as pointed out on Twitter: We've crushed Klinsmann for his team's penchant for giving up stupid, soft late goals (not just in friendlies - this happened in the World Cup). They reversed that trend today, and hopefully that's a sign of things to come.
Here's a few things:
1. Dyson Sphere
Here's the definition of a Dyson Sphere, taken from Wikipedia: A hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star and hence captures most or all of its power output.
The USMNT's attack is a Dyson sphere, and Michael Bradley is the sun. Klinsmann has prodded and pulled his lineup apart, trying multiple formations, and all in the service of trying to maximize the potential offense generated by Bradley's ability to switch the field, play the final ball, or play the second-to-last ball. It's the best way to create attacking energy for a team that kind of lacks a pure, final third chance creator in the Landon Donovan or Tab Ramos mold.
You probably saw the two secondary assists Bradley picked up today. I don't have the stats for all-time USMNT secondary assists (I'm not even sure if it's something that's tracked), but I'd imagine he's right there with Donovan in the record books should it exist.
But there were other plays from Bradley that illustrate just how important he is, and just how good the US have become at harnessing all the energy he creates:
This wasn't just Bradley having a good game. This was Klinsmann putting the right pieces around him (true d-mid protection in Kyle Beckerman and Danny Williams; multiple runners up top and on the overlap) in a way that he didn't manage last year.
I'm still disappointed by our performance in Brazil, and always will be. But I was never on the #JurgenOut bandwagon – I always said he deserved to manage at least through the Gold Cup – because coaches, like players, can improve. They can learn. They can fix what's broken (or what they broke).
Klinsmann appears to have done something close to that. Bradley has free rein out there, and the Dutch had no way of containing him:
So let's give Klinsmann credit: He's harnessing the power of his best chance creator, which doubles as his team's best chance for success.
2. Speed Kills
Here's the tail end of said amazing run, including the finish by the much-maligned Bobby Wood:
I haven't really enjoyed watching Wood miss empty nets over the past nine months or so, the time during which he's been a regular part of Klinsmann's team. But he's one of those forwards who is always making the attack more dangerous because he's always, always putting pressure on the defense with his speed and the timing of his runs. I don't think he'll ever be a clinical scorer, but Josh Wolff wasn't a clinical finisher back in the day either, and he sure as hell played a significant role in some great moments for the US.
Wood's game is a lot like Wolff's. He pushes off the shoulder of the last defender, and makes a ton of inside-out runs to clear space for the second line of attack. At the same time he's strong enough on the ball to make plays inside the 18.
Ok fine, Leander's such a killjoy. But when Wood came on, it was 3-1 to the hosts. It finished 4-3, and I don't think it's because the guys in Oranje quit.
Wood and the rest of the subs – Mix Diskerud, DeAndre Yedlin, Jordan Morris and Danny Williams – all deserve a lot of credit. Diskerud played a little tighter to Bradley than Alfredo Morales had, while Wood, Yedlin, Morris and Williams stretched the game open with raw athleticism.
It may not work against everyone, but it worked today.
3. The Big Worry
The best US defender was the woodwork, and teams that consistently give up big shot numbers consistently lose games. This is maybe more dour than it needs to be...
But it's not wrong. Gyasi Zardes deserves a lot of credit for a great goal, and for always finding room to be dangerous, but his defensive IQ and work rate from the wing put Brek Shea under constant duress and asked a guy learning how to play left back to defend 1-v-2 for most of the first hour. Alfredo Morales was surprisingly slow in getting out to help.
Things weren't much better on the right-hand side, which included this lovely second half play when Timmy Chandler finally realized that life is an illusion and all effort is just futility screamed soundlessly into the abyss:
None of the above absolves the central defenders from blame. John Brooks is 6-foot-4, but continues to play like he's 5-foot-8. Michael Orozco got beaten near post on one of the simplest runs a forward can make.
I have more sympathy for Ventura Alvarado, who doesn't have the amount of USMNT or first-team experience that the other two guys boast. But I don't think it's a coincidence he was the guy who came off at halftime.
So as usual there there a lot of caveats and qualifiers to a US performance. But this time, there was a ton to celebrate as well. The US attack is working again, and it's fun to watch again, and a win is a win.
