I'm divided. On the one hand if at after the game against Italy you had told me the US could get 2nd place and beat Spain I'd say that would be incredible. However the opportunity to win something major and a FIFA tournament is major let alone the chance to beat Brazil and then failed went it was so close I'd have said that it was heartbreaking - which it was. So yes given initial showings the US has a lot to be proud of, however chances like these are few and far between....
Here are my thoughts:
1) USA may have found a way to get results, with less talent than other teams: by playing insane defensively and countering just a few times per game. This is basically Italian football. Of course, this puts tremendous pressure on those limited opportunities though.
2) USA needs to learn how to pass the ball and keep possession. In both the Spain and Brazil games, it really felt like USA only have the ball for about 20% of the game and was usually unable to string more than 2 passes together. It was really pathetic. Granted, they were up 2-0 in both of those situations after creating opportunities at the beginning of the game.
3) I guess what I'm saying is that the US midfielders have no field-vision and turn the ball over too much to expect anything great (i.e. final 4 at the world cup). The US does have the talent to get a result here or there, but they really need to improve their passing so they don't end up giving 25 shots to the opponents every game.
4) As evidence of their lack of possession, check this out:
http://www.fifa.com/confederatio...s/
distance.html
It's a link showing that the US traveled 173000 (meters?) with possession and a whopping 250000 without possession. No one else was even close to that margin in the tournament. The US needs to learn how to pass to increase their chances of winning consistently. This tournament could still be a great stepping-stone with the discovery of Davies, Bradley being fantastic, and Donovan playing out of his mind.
Gutsy, that is an absolutely ridiculous stat. How do they calculate that? More importantly, why do they calculate that? Also, that link gives you "top speed", of which the US hit 31.59. Is that km/hr?? Wow, some people have a lot of time on their hands.
That reminds me of (i think) the 2006 NBA playoffs when the Cavs played the Pistons. I think it was when the pistons won it all. The announcers kept saying that Rip Hamilton runs more distance during a basketball game than any other. Another ridiculous stat. While I understand the relevance of these stats in a macro sense, its really hard to evaluate trends in these stats.
Just proves that some people are bigger dorks than us. YAY!!!!!!
USA USA USA!!!!!!!
My recollection is that they use computers at the major fifa events to track movements of each player and then calculate top speed and distance traveled from the computers. The computer system is expensive and is probably not always available.
Here are the player stats for distance traveled:
http://www.fifa.com/
confederatio...ceandspeed.html
Donovan was #2, and dempsey #3 for the tourney, each running over 57000 meters. I also like their passing stats, though i question how subjective it must be.
My feeling is that Landon Donovan is right...we're past moral victories here and we may never get another chance like that again. It's definitely a disappointment to lose in the finals.
I agree that simply beating Spain after looking so lousy in group play feels good but, at the end of the day, it's HOW the US lost. They got absolutely annihilated in the second half. Giving up a goal within the first 65 seconds of the second half? Jeez, that's amateurish.
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