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Re: [nas] USA-Korea -tactics.......
I wrote:
>> (You may notice I haven't said a bad word about Agoos
>> or that cheesy guy :)
RichieAnimal@cs.com writes:
> Why not Agoos is stinking out the place ...
It's too late now for us to change our personnel, skills, fitness,
and other team qualities. That's what we do in the 3.9 years
between Cups. When you get to the Cup, you have to dance
with whatever ability you brought.
Agoos may not have much left on the international level, but I
trust Arena to know what his players can do. If Agoos keeps
getting starts, that must be because we don't have anybody else
who can do it better. We might have faster defenders who jump
higher, but they won't have Agoos's years of experience in
organizing the defense. Arena must have weighed all that, and
gambled that a well-organized defense with a slow guy in the
middle would be more effective overall than 4 fast, uncoordinated
individuals. Second-guess him, if you want; that's what fans are
supposed to do :)
As for Agoos giving up (and scoring :) goals, I attribute that just to
his role. He's the central defender, so he _should_ always be
around the point of the attack. So if he's playing properly, he's
always going to be nearby every opponent's goalscoring
opportunity or backdoor entry pass, just because that's what his
role demands. Frankly, I was more worried about our pre-WC
friendlies in which we were giving up goals with no defender
anywhere in sight (because Regis fell down). I can accept that
Agoos gets beat out by a better player making a better individual
play, but not a defensive structural collapse that lets somebody in
unmarked. We've shown by now that when our defense is well-
organized, it's pretty darn tough to crack, regardless of our lack
of foot speed. Portugal and Korea couldn't score in the run of
play.
> ... and who is the cheesy guy?
Uh ... Edam Stewart? Brian McBrie? Limberger Donovan?
Dang ... can't think of his name ...
:)
> Bunker and counter attack is a good strategy when you're worried
> about Korea's speed.
"Bunker and counter-attack" assumes that you can counter-attack.
"Bunker" is what we ended up doing.
> You have to have the balls to make a few short passes ...
Oh, we tried that for a bit. We just didn't have the technique to
succeed, so we quickly turned the ball over with a bad pass.
> Just one note on Poland their keeper was absolutely terrible
> against Portugal. Is he always that bad?
Jerzy Dudek plays for Liverpool, so he's got talent. On a good
day, he shuts down other EPL teams. His two games here have
not been good days.
> Was he that bad against Korea as well?
Briefly, yes. But both times, his team defense collapsed, and hung
him out to dry.
Hwang Sun-Hong (he of the turban-like head bandage vs the USA)
snuck unmarked to 3m in front of the left post, with no defender
(other than Dudek) within a good 3m of him. Entry pass, one touch
shot to the near post, Dudek sprawled and missed. That was more
the fault of 8 guys in front of Dudek who let Hwang stroll in
unchallenged, and then sat ball-gazing as the pass came in. Still, the
flight of the ball was eerily similar to Pauleta's first goal, which
came
from about the same position and also beat Dudek to the near post.
(In contrast, Seol's shot on Friedel just before the PK was closer
and harder, and Friedel made that save, so Friedel is a god.)
Yoo Sang-Chul picked up a loose ball ~35m out, carried forward
to the top of the box, and shot from about 20m out dead center,
with nobody between him and Dudek. His shot was chest-high,
about halfway between Dudek and the left post, Dudek lunged
and blocked with two hands, and it bent his fingers back and
deflected into the upper left corner. Even 1-v-1, he really should
have saved that, since Yoo's shot placement wasn't that good.
--
Eric Wang
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