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Confederations Cup Special: Were USA That Good Or Were Spain That Bad?
Goal.com's Amoy Ghoshal analyzes the first semi final of the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and wonders whether it was a case of USA being good or was it because Spain were really bad....
25-Jun-2009 9:38:17 PM
USA
played in a way, a team should play against Spain-
they were well disciplined, well organized at the back, won the battles in
midfield, put men behind the ball and counter attacked whenever possible.
There is no doubt that the Americans deserved to win the game but the performances of many of Spain’s superstars might suggest that it was rather a case of Spain having a bad day.
At the back Pique and Puyol didn’t have the best of games while both fullbacks Capdevilla and Ramos were at fault in USA’s first and second goal respectively.
Capdevilla was easily muscled out by club teammate Altidore in USA’s first goal. The former Deportivo man struggled all night against the pace and physical strength of Altidore and even conceded a yellow card for a professional foul.
While the second goal was a simple finish for Clint Dempsey after some casual play by Ramos who didn’t clear the ball first time. Both of them are normally more than a threat going forward but last night despite getting into good positions on a number of occasions they couldn’t provide the final pass for their strikers.
In midfield, Xabi Alonso was nowhere near his best as most of his long diagonal passes were easily dealt with by the American defence and he also should have closed down Dempsey a lot better in the lead up to the first goal.
The Liverpool man wasn’t a regular at Euro 2008 as Villarreal’s Marcos Senna played the role of a holding midfielder. The latter’s absence was not noticeable during the group stages but last night his physical strength in the middle of the park was missed by Spain.
Reira was wasteful and didn’t really trouble USA right back Spector while Arsenal skipper Fabregas, who didn’t really make too many mistakes, wasn’t comfortable playing on the right side of midfield.
Upfront Torres produced flashes of brilliance but never really looked like scoring and strike partner Villa often tried to do it all alone. All these do suggest that there were too many below par performances from the Spanish side.
Now for that we also have to give credit to the US team. At goal Tim Howard produced fine saves whenever necessary and the back four did an outstanding job against probably the best strike partnership in world football. Oguchi Onyewu in particular was excellent throughout in dealing with aerial balls and lead the defence very well.
The midfield worked really hard and made it difficult for Xavi and co to play their natural game. Clarke was brilliant wihile Dempsey and Donovan working their socks off on the flanks. Upfront, Altidore was always dangerous especially in the first half while Davies also did his job pretty well.
It is true that USA’s work ethic and discipline never allowed Spain to settle into any rhythm and a timely goal in the first half also dented the confidence of the European champions.
But one thing which was noticeable and surprising was the fact that Spain started playing long balls and kept crossing from the very early stages of the game.
We often see them playing their normal quick passing game no matter what the situation is. But last night they started panicking a bit especially after conceding a goal and played with a style which we normally don’t see them doing.
Now that’s definitely down to the fact that USA hardly allowed them any space and defended deep but we can also question the tactics of coach Vicente Del Bosque and the mentality of the Spanish players for playing with a style foreign to them even though there was lot of time left for recovery.
The substitutions and timing of it were also a bit surprising. There were other players on the pitch who were doing a less impressive job than Fabregas but the Arsenal man was replaced by Cazorla who found it tough to get used to the pace of the game and never really got going.
One can understand Del Bosque’s move of playing with a much more straightforward 4-4-2 by bringing off Cesc but that should have been done either much earlier or even at the start.
While Reira was substituted much later by Mata and the latter looked much more enterprising than the Liverpool midfielder and should have been brought on much earlier.
Also Bosque should have been more bold and substituted Alonso with a striker. Surely at 0-2 down in a semi final, you don’t need a holding midfielder. On other hand coach Bob Bradley got his tactics spot on and also made timely substitutions to keep things fresh.
To sum up we can say that the Euro 2008 champions had an off day. There were too many mediocre performances and wrong decisions all over the pitch.
While for USA everything went according to plan. Everyone starting from goalkeeper Howard to Coach Bradley did their job and caught Spain off-guard to cause one of the biggest upsets of all time.
Amoy Ghoshal
There is no doubt that the Americans deserved to win the game but the performances of many of Spain’s superstars might suggest that it was rather a case of Spain having a bad day.
At the back Pique and Puyol didn’t have the best of games while both fullbacks Capdevilla and Ramos were at fault in USA’s first and second goal respectively.
Capdevilla was easily muscled out by club teammate Altidore in USA’s first goal. The former Deportivo man struggled all night against the pace and physical strength of Altidore and even conceded a yellow card for a professional foul.
While the second goal was a simple finish for Clint Dempsey after some casual play by Ramos who didn’t clear the ball first time. Both of them are normally more than a threat going forward but last night despite getting into good positions on a number of occasions they couldn’t provide the final pass for their strikers.
In midfield, Xabi Alonso was nowhere near his best as most of his long diagonal passes were easily dealt with by the American defence and he also should have closed down Dempsey a lot better in the lead up to the first goal.
The Liverpool man wasn’t a regular at Euro 2008 as Villarreal’s Marcos Senna played the role of a holding midfielder. The latter’s absence was not noticeable during the group stages but last night his physical strength in the middle of the park was missed by Spain.
Reira was wasteful and didn’t really trouble USA right back Spector while Arsenal skipper Fabregas, who didn’t really make too many mistakes, wasn’t comfortable playing on the right side of midfield.
Upfront Torres produced flashes of brilliance but never really looked like scoring and strike partner Villa often tried to do it all alone. All these do suggest that there were too many below par performances from the Spanish side.
Now for that we also have to give credit to the US team. At goal Tim Howard produced fine saves whenever necessary and the back four did an outstanding job against probably the best strike partnership in world football. Oguchi Onyewu in particular was excellent throughout in dealing with aerial balls and lead the defence very well.
The midfield worked really hard and made it difficult for Xavi and co to play their natural game. Clarke was brilliant wihile Dempsey and Donovan working their socks off on the flanks. Upfront, Altidore was always dangerous especially in the first half while Davies also did his job pretty well.
It is true that USA’s work ethic and discipline never allowed Spain to settle into any rhythm and a timely goal in the first half also dented the confidence of the European champions.
But one thing which was noticeable and surprising was the fact that Spain started playing long balls and kept crossing from the very early stages of the game.
We often see them playing their normal quick passing game no matter what the situation is. But last night they started panicking a bit especially after conceding a goal and played with a style which we normally don’t see them doing.
Now that’s definitely down to the fact that USA hardly allowed them any space and defended deep but we can also question the tactics of coach Vicente Del Bosque and the mentality of the Spanish players for playing with a style foreign to them even though there was lot of time left for recovery.
The substitutions and timing of it were also a bit surprising. There were other players on the pitch who were doing a less impressive job than Fabregas but the Arsenal man was replaced by Cazorla who found it tough to get used to the pace of the game and never really got going.
One can understand Del Bosque’s move of playing with a much more straightforward 4-4-2 by bringing off Cesc but that should have been done either much earlier or even at the start.
While Reira was substituted much later by Mata and the latter looked much more enterprising than the Liverpool midfielder and should have been brought on much earlier.
Also Bosque should have been more bold and substituted Alonso with a striker. Surely at 0-2 down in a semi final, you don’t need a holding midfielder. On other hand coach Bob Bradley got his tactics spot on and also made timely substitutions to keep things fresh.
To sum up we can say that the Euro 2008 champions had an off day. There were too many mediocre performances and wrong decisions all over the pitch.
While for USA everything went according to plan. Everyone starting from goalkeeper Howard to Coach Bradley did their job and caught Spain off-guard to cause one of the biggest upsets of all time.
Amoy Ghoshal
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