ANTHONY MANNINO- The perception of Bob Bradley’s United States National team is that the squad is “the comeback kings.” The title was well earned after the US squad fell behind on three separate occasions during the world cup, and were able to come back to tie the game each time. The negative side to the title, “comeback kings” is the number of early goals Bradley’s squad gives up. Still, do the stats support the perceptions? Looking back on the US record, here is what I found out statistically about the US squad since the Confederations Cup.
The Confederations Cup is the first time in the USMNT’s history that they will play in an international tournament final other than the Gold Cup. I thought it would be a good measuring stick to see how the team preformed since finishing second in that tournament with a record of 2-3. I did exclude a few senior matches, including the 2009 Gold Cup and January friendlies. The reason is that it would give a fair representation of the US senior squads’ best team, because it was not the first team that was being called up.
The first disturbing find for me was the US squad’s record from the Confederation Cup to now. Again, this does exclude a few senior matches, but the US record over approximately the past two years is 8-11-6. The striking difference in the US record occurred when the men’s team played CONCACAF competition and when the squad played against non-CONCACAF squads. Against CONCACAF opponents, the United States had a solid record of 3-1-1, and the lone loss was in Mexico. This means that against non-CONCACAF members, the US posted a very poor record of 5-10-5. Adding the 2009 Gold Cup does not change this record, and if the USMNT plans on winning a World Cup in the future, this record must change.
Only five wins in twenty games is pathetic, but add in the ten loses and this record is sickening. It is obvious that the US can dominate CONCACAF and should be in the Gold Cup final. This is what we already know, but if the USMNT wants to alter the usual opinion about soccer in the US, their record against non-CONCACAF members must improve. Expectations will continue to rise as they should, but realistically if this record does not improve, what are the US chances of ever winning a World Cup?
Also, the stats do support that the USMNT are slow starters. Bradley’s squad has scored 14 goals in the first half, while opponents have scored 18 goals in 25 games. The USMNT also loves to let in goals early on in the match with 13 of the 18 goals coming in the first 30 minutes of the match. This means that in half of the US matches, they have given up a goal in the first 30 minutes. It is hard for any team to consistently win if they are always digging themselves out of a hole. The USMNT might be known as the kings of comeback, but the USMNT is still being outperformed in the second half. Bradley’s men have scored 20 goals in the second half and have given up 21 in the second half (including Ghana’s extra time goal). It is not surprising that the USMNT gives up more goals than they score with losing record of 8-11-6.
Statistically, the Gold Cup should help strengthen the stats for the USMNT, since all of the opponents will be from the CONCACAF region. That is if Bradley’s men stop falling behind early on in matches. However, the major problem still remains for the USMNT to fix. How does the men’s squad improve against non-CONCACAF members? For me the first step is improving how the USMNT starts matches.
I wish I could have thought of this first. The U.S.’ habit of coming out of the locker room half-awake is awful. Part of it is we can’t play fast to begin with, we only quicken our pace once we’re losing, and the U.S. can’t stay on the attack for more than 5 min. tops. At this point I’m so pissed about our loss to Mexico, that if Bob Bradley doesn’t abandon the out-dated long balls and counter-attacks and engineer a real, hard-attacking, lightning-fast team then I hope he gets the axe.