I’m in utter shock.
If you told me before the game against Ghana that Clint Dempsey was going to break his nose and be invisible for 80 minutes, Jozy Altidore would go down in the first half, Matt Besler was going to come out halfway through, Michael Bradley would have one of the worst games we’ve seen him have — if I’d known those things, I’m shocked and thrilled we found a way to win it.
That’s the greatest omen that you could take out of the first game and into Portugal: That we faced such adversity and found a way to win.
I think it’s a combination of both the goal 30 seconds in and the loss of Altidore, we were flustered. When have you ever seen Michael Bradley not connect passes and kick the ball away like that? We were up a goal, but without Altidore, we didn’t have that outlet up there to alleviate the pressure.
In the midfield, Jermaine Jones had a great game, Geoff Cameron had a great game. I look at it as just sheer resilience, fight and guts that allowed us to win. But we should’ve had better ability to hold possession without Altidore. That’s the negative.
Everybody’s debating what Jurgen Klinsmann’s options are now. The one thing we’ve learned about Klinsmann is whatever you expect him to do, expect the opposite.
One is you put Dempsey up top. Or you give Aron Johannsson another run. Or you use Chris Wondolowski.
I don’t like any of those options.
Wondo — who I love — is not a target striker: He’s the second guy, a guy who plays off a target striker. Johannsson scored a ton of goals this year, but on this team, in this system, he’s not a target striker either.
What I like — but what I don’t expect to see — is a false nine. Drop an extra player into midfield and pack the midfield. Play without a striker. Let Dempsey figure out a way to come out of the midfield, if Graham Zusi is healthy put him in with Alejandro Bedoya. Ask Dempsey to be the highest midfielder, play without a striker. I think that would be problematic for Portugal.
I didn’t like — and still don’t like — the diamond with Bradley as the highest guy. But I’m always defensive-minded. Kyle Beckerman did a great job, but I would rather like Bradley paired up with somebody. He’s not a playmaker.
I also would be tempted to go with a Spanish-type lineup.
This one is real guesswork. But the one thing we know is we’re not sophisticated enough, mature enough as a team, to play for a point. We have to find a way to be threatening and go after Portugal. If we play like we did against Ghana, we’re going to get ripped apart.
Portugal is far superior to Ghana in terms of moving the ball around. We’re not sophisticated enough to do that. That’s not something we have in our arsenal. We have a lot of things: We have talent, we have depth, we never quit on a game. But we’re too naïve, and we’re not sophisticated enough to kill a game for 30 minutes.
We survived against Ghana, with Altidore being hurt. This requires something different.
A lot of the games have been great, but this one for us — and Portugal — is our World Cup. I can’t wait to see it.