Who do you think the United States should put on the field to take on Spain?
Here is what I’d like to see:
Altidore Davies
Donovan
Torres Feilhaber
Bradley
Bocanegra Spector
DeMerit Gooch
Howard
I think we’ll need 3 quick midfielders to combat Spain’s stable of midfield maestros, so that’s why I’m leaving off Rico Clark and Clint Dempsey (not to mention that neither player has played well for the Nats in some time).
I liked what I saw from the Davies\Altidore combo against Egypt, so let’s see if we can’t develop it some more. Davies speed, if nothing else, will certainly bother the Spanish backline.
So – what do YOU want to see from the US on Wednesday? Please leave your teams and analysis in the comments section below!
Filed under: US Men's National Team |
The Post: A Keeper's Best Friend 
I like your idea for a line up, but I’m just curious: why do you think nobody talks about Freddy Adu? Do you think he’s really as bad as his lack of playing time suggests?
I want him to play, but I’m not sure why Bob Bradley seems to be so against it.
The problem right now for Adu is that I think Bradley sees him as only able to play high up the field (which is ridiculous).
I’d like to see him get a run-out though, either as Jozy’s partner (though I’m a big proponent of using Davies’ speed) or as Donovan’s opposite.
Against Spain, though, I think we need to see an extra midfielder (Torres), rather than an extra wing\attacker (Adu), so it’s merely situational why I’m leaving him off this particular lineup.
I wonder whats happened to Adu, also. Bradley has never given him a chance. His confidence has to be shot.
I like the lineup but will find it hard not to include Dempsey but his form, of late, shows he may not deserve to be there. What about moving him in Donovan’s spot and moving Landon wide on left replacing Torres. I would love to see Freddie on right instead of Feilhaber.
Dempsey will certainly start – especially since he scored the clincher earlier this week, plus he is our most accomplished field player, since Claudio “boy do we miss him” Reyna!
I know Dempsey will start, as he’s one of Bradley’s favorites. He and Donovan have free passes from here to 2014 if Bradley is around.
As for Adu, I don’t like seeing him out wide, as I’d rather him either be up top with Jozy\Charlie or in behind the 2.
I agree with Freddie out wide…what about behind the front two….but if you do that I dont like Dempsey wide, either. Dempsey drifts too much when he plays wide. Freddie will probably get lost out on the flank, too. Ok,ok….Freddie starts on bench…but give the guy a shot in the second half…please!
Personally, I think Dempsey needs to be given the boot for a while. He hasn’t shown up to play for more than 10 minutes in a game in some time now.
I think Adu could play that position rather easily and effectively if given the chance.
Altidore Davies
Dempsey
Donovan Adu
Bradley
Boca DeMarit Gooch Spector
Im all about some Freddy Adu. BB WILL NOT play him until he gets regular club playing time. Thats it. Nothing more. He should be our #10 – the attacking MF w/o too much defensive responsibility. Jozy and Charlie must be the strikers with Donovan and Dempsey out wide – provided they play Defense First when we are over matched, such as manana. MB holding and across the back from left to right: Boca, Demirrit (or someone better), Gooch and Spector, with Howard, obviously.
The problem with using Donovan as the left part of a diamond is that he isn’t suited to being a midfielder.
We lose the use of his speed when he’s stuck that far back in the play.
I also don’t think Dempsey is effective for us as anything but a striker – he seems to think “attacking mid” means “emulate Cristiano Ronaldo”.
I want to agree with you about Freddie’s lack of playing time keeping him out of the line-up but it’s not consistant (Beasley, Feilhaber). There is something deeper with his exclusion from Bradley.
Dempsey should only be playing upfront. If Bradley had the balls, he would not start Dempsey (due to past terrible form) but that wont happen. I still am a big Dempsey fan but his defense has a lot to be desired plus I think he is really tired and shows it on the pitch.
As far as Bob Bradley is concerned – Adu doesn’t defend, but Donovan and Dempsey do. That’s why we’re not seeing him.
Personally, I think Adu should be on the pitch regardless of his defensive capabilities.
Ryan:
Concerning your lineup suggestion, why not have the 4 backs flat vs. “bucketed”? I ask only because at their extremes, there could potentially be a huge gap between Bradley and LD and Spain loves the middle of the field.
And I’m with you on Adu.
-Chris
I don’t believe in anything but a flat backline, but I type it up like that to make it look even.
Those are some long names and it looks goofy if I type them all out on the same line.
The backline would look like this ideally:
CB……JD…OO…….JS
Oh yeah, you actually have the same line-up as I would.
Yeah, most of the time I just separate the outside players from the inside players and put them on different lines for the sake of readability.
I don’t believe in anything but a flat backline, but I type it up like that to make it look even.
Those are some long names and it looks goofy if I type them all out on the same line.
The backline would look like this ideally:
CB……JD…OO…….JS
——
Ha, good. I was going to say that could spell disaster for our D.
What, you don’t want to revert back to u14 days of 3 backs and a sweeper?
My U14 team always used the “3 backs and ‘floater’ concept” – I like to think we started a trend of defensive mids that led to Makelele’s eventual success!
Bob Bradley needs to get slapped for not playing Adu and Torres. He hasn’t even given them a chance. I hope BB looks at last year’s game against Spain and sees how well Adu played against them.
Anyways, here’s my line-up:
Dempsey…..Davies
Torres
Donovan Adu
Bradley/Clark
Bocanegra Spector
DeMerit…..Onyewu
Howard
Dempsey is more offensive minded and he scored for us when BB moved him to the striker position. Jozy isn’t doing it for us. Donovan created a lot of chances when he played out left against Egypt. I like Torres’ creativity and Adu’s vision will be good on the right wing. Bradley and Clark will have to play more defensive minded for this game. The back four have been fairly decent. It will be nice to have Bocanegra back.
However, with BB as coach, this line-up is highly unlikely.
Jam,
I believe that’s a 4-5-2 you have listed – might not be legal.
oh…i wasn’t sure whether to play bradley or clark which i why there’s a slash.
my bad for the confusion