BRENT LATHAM – Watching the remaining teams in South Africa slug it out, after the U.S. was eliminated by Ghana on the first day of the Round of 16, I’ve come to one principal conclusion: with one notable and excusable exception, no one who’s anyone plays a 4-4-2 anymore.

It’s not that other formations haven’t always existed, but it seems like the days of the 4-4-2 have come to a sudden end. In fact, of the final eight in the tournament, only one team got to the quarter finals playing the standard 4-4-2, and as I’ll explain, that team isn’t married to it at all. It’s certainly something to think about as the U.S. searches for its new coach.In fact (again with one notable exception), the 4-4-2 seems to have been the old-fashioned standby at this World Cup for teams without more creative ideas or players. And it’s run into a lot of problems. When a formation with two flat lines – in back and midfield – meets something a little more creative, such as the interesting 4-2-3-1 that a lot of teams have been gravitating to, something interesting happens.

It’s geometry – a midfield aligned in two rows with two holding mids and three attack minded players tends to create two side by side triangles that open up passing (read attacking) lanes against a central midfield in a 4-4-2 that by definition has to be flat either vertically or horizontally. If you go back and watch the first half of the Ghana game (or just skip it and take my word for it), you will see that, basically, that’s what happened to the U.S. a number of times when it looked like the Ghanaians were running circles in attack.

Back to the final eight, and you’ll find that Uruguay, out of necessity more than choice, lined up in a 4-4-2 for the quarters and today’s semifinal. They had been playing versions of a 3-5-2 or a 4-5-1 earlier in the tournament, but got caught with personnel problems after the South Korea match and ended up opting for a more standard 4-4-2. What resulted were incredible problems possessing the ball and controlling the tempo against Ghana’s 4-5-1 (or 4-2-3-1) and Holland’s 4-2-3-1.

Of course you could just argue that better teams are outclassing those insisting on a 4-4-2, but that would be to ignore a heck of a lot of evidence at this World Cup.

The reason I bring this up now, on the eve of the second semifinal, is because Spain has been insisting on a nominal 4-4-2 from the start of its matches, but it has actually morphed pretty quickly into a 4-3-3/4-1-4-1 before Spain has been able to find success in any of its matches.

Tomorrow, the big question is if Vincent from the Forest will ditch the 4-4-2 from the start, bring on an extra mid and play a 4-5-1(4-1-4-1) from the opening whistle. If he does, and it’s successful, you may start to see 4-4-2 eulogies appear around the soccer world before the final.

One more question: what does this mean for the U.S.? With an athletic team, a deep, skillful midfield, and a dearth of forwards, it may be time to try some new geometry. A lot depends on who is in charge a few months from now.

by Brent