Shep Messing, who was a teammate of Pele on the New York Cosmos and goalkeeper on the 1972 Olympic squad, will give Post readers his insights and opinions periodically during the World Cup.
Messing also serves as MSG Network’s New York Red Bulls analyst and is calling World Cup games for ESPN Radio. As told to Brian Lewis.
I love how far the U.S. has come.
Anybody who has played before for the U.S. takes pride in being a little piece of the puzzle to where we are today. I did an event with Cobi Jones and Mike Petke, who is now the Red Bulls’ coach, and each of us has some part of soccer history — certainly Cobi, with his number of caps, is a little bigger.
As critical as I am of the national team and coach Jurgen Klinsmann, I take huge pride in where we are.
Although not a favorite, we’ve beaten Italy, we’ve beaten Germany, we’ve beaten Brazil.
If we can navigate our way out of this group, nothing would surprise me. Could we beat Belgium in the next round? Absolutely.
Are we a weaker side? Absolutely. But we can win.
I’m not saying that we can’t win the World Cup, like Klinsmann said. If we survive group play, we can give anybody trouble. We can beat anybody.
That wasn’t the case when I played.
I played against West Germany in the 1972 Olympics. At that time, there were five players from Bayern Munich on that team.
My memories of Germany weren’t great (a 7-0 loss). The only time the ball got past midfield was when I kicked it there. It was 11 college guys playing against West Germany and Bayern Munich.
Uli Hoeness broke my nose with a shot two minutes into the game. He ripped a ball near-post, hit me in the face, broke my nose and they kept attacking — so I don’t have great memories of playing against Germany.
But because of playing with Franz Beckenbauer with the Cosmos, I stayed in Germany for a while and played for Hertha Berlin.
Because of Franz, we used to go over there and train in the offseason, spend a month with Bayern Munich. I love the German style much more than tiki-taka, the strength, the speed and technique.
I’m not a big stats guy, but I looked at how the German attacks in this World Cup have come straight down the middle. That comes down to the guys that are huge concerns for me because our centerback pairing is not a strength.
And how we attack is rarely down the spine, but on the wings. We need to get Clint Dempsey in those pockets. I’d say play a 4-4-2, go with Chris Wondolowski next to him.
I’m sure Klinsmann is approaching this saying if we can’t sit and hold a lead for five minutes, can we play 90 for draw? I don’t think so. You’ve got to keep Germany on its back foot.
It’ll either be 2-0 U.S. or 2-0 Germany. I think it’s going to open up. I don’t think it’s going to be a 0-0 or 1-1 tie, or 2-1. Either we get beat — and beaten badly — or we’re going to shock them. I don’t see a stalemate.
I don’t think Germany is going to be coy. They feel they’re the better team, and on paper they are. I think they’re vulnerable at the back — keeping that statement in perspective — and I think we can get at them.
But in the end, I think we blew our moment at this World Cup in the last five minutes against Portugal. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m still dwelling on what we couldn’t do, rather than on what we can do.
In sports, you’ve got to seize the moment, and we had it right there. At 2:30 Thursday, I don’t think we’ll be celebrating. But I hope I’m pleasantly surprised.