the USMNT in Germany
Jul. 7th, 2006 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerA column in its defense by Robert Wagman
Nice try on Wagman's part, but I don't buy any of it.
Yes, we should not have expected to go to the semis when we were playing with a team made up mostly of MLS players witha few foreign-league talents.
But we should have been able to play equal to Ghana (we didn't) and come even close to a draw with the Czechs (we were never threatening).
I didn't measure the performance of Damarcus Beasley, Landon Donovan, and Eddie Pope agaisnt those of Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, and Fabio Cannavaro: I measured them against what I believe those American players are capable of. And they were incredibly lacking.
Did Arena make inexplicable tactical choices? Yes. But more than that, he failed the principal test of a manager: to put together the best team possible with the resources available *and* to prepare that team, mentally and physically, to play their best football.
The US team never looked dangerous; they never looked threatening. Most of the time they didn't look *competent*. I saw teams that were much worse then we were play good, challenging football that was exciting to watch. I watched the US team and was disappointed, not because they didn't win, but because they didn't *play*.
Is it "not worth the effort" to assess our failures and improve on them? Only if we are content to accept the performance of our team in this tournament and believe that this is the best we can hope to accomplish.
Bruce Arena had three tremendous years with DC United and, on leaving, made one of the worst decisions he has ever made by hand-picking Thomas Rongen as his successor. He took over the USMNT after Steve Sampson's disastrous expedition to France in 1998 and acheived a very good result in Korea/Japan in 2002. I think we can now see that his shelf life at a job is about 3-4 years. I wish him all the best in his future endeavours.
Nice try on Wagman's part, but I don't buy any of it.
Yes, we should not have expected to go to the semis when we were playing with a team made up mostly of MLS players witha few foreign-league talents.
But we should have been able to play equal to Ghana (we didn't) and come even close to a draw with the Czechs (we were never threatening).
I didn't measure the performance of Damarcus Beasley, Landon Donovan, and Eddie Pope agaisnt those of Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, and Fabio Cannavaro: I measured them against what I believe those American players are capable of. And they were incredibly lacking.
Did Arena make inexplicable tactical choices? Yes. But more than that, he failed the principal test of a manager: to put together the best team possible with the resources available *and* to prepare that team, mentally and physically, to play their best football.
The US team never looked dangerous; they never looked threatening. Most of the time they didn't look *competent*. I saw teams that were much worse then we were play good, challenging football that was exciting to watch. I watched the US team and was disappointed, not because they didn't win, but because they didn't *play*.
Is it "not worth the effort" to assess our failures and improve on them? Only if we are content to accept the performance of our team in this tournament and believe that this is the best we can hope to accomplish.
Bruce Arena had three tremendous years with DC United and, on leaving, made one of the worst decisions he has ever made by hand-picking Thomas Rongen as his successor. He took over the USMNT after Steve Sampson's disastrous expedition to France in 1998 and acheived a very good result in Korea/Japan in 2002. I think we can now see that his shelf life at a job is about 3-4 years. I wish him all the best in his future endeavours.
