For months the “specialized” media talked about this USA National Team and whether it would advance from the FIFA World Cup Brasil 2014 Group G -along with Germany, Portugal and Ghana- or not. The so-called “Group of Death” by soccer fans in the U.S. -I need to clarify that around the world the “Group of Death” was Group D- was to be a make-or-break for the future of U.S. Soccer under the reign of German-born Jüergen Klinsmann.
Player selection was a question mark, while playing style -or lack of- was an even bigger one. Everyone in the American soccer community is by now very familiar with everything that has been said, so my focus will be on the first match of the 2014 FIFA World Cup against Ghana. Many people believed going into Brasil 2014 that by beating Ghana -a huge monkey on the back of U.S. Soccer- our chances of getting out of the group stage increased exponentially. Never mind Portugal and Germany -in that order-, “3 points is all we need!”. Well, I don’t think so. This Ghanaian side is the youngest in the World Cup, therefore lacks serious experience. I say this because defeating Ghana was not -at least on paper- as monumental task as the media and fans seemed to believe. That it was going to be difficult, absolutely.
And it was. But it was difficult not because of a talented, or speedy Ghana side. It was because of the lack of vision by Klinsmann to secure results while ahead. After Dempsey’s superb, nation-rattling goal merely 30 seconds into the game, the U.S. failed to generate additional serious scoring chances, but instead granted the midfield to the Africans who in turn put the Americans against the ropes. Not surprisingly Ghana’s equalizer came in the second half. Late in the second half, which for a moment seemed to indicate that to be the final outcome.
If the Americans suffered to put away the youngest team in the tournament early in the match, what can be said about putting Portugal or Germany to rest? It will be a much more difficult task, and that will be the breaking point for this American team. Portugal is deeply hurt in their pride, and Germany will not hand us any pity just because our head coach is German. I really doubt it.
While injuries played an important role against the U.S. National team yesterday, that is exactly where roster selection comes to the rescue. But in the case of Klinsmann’s selection, I believe it will hurt more rather than help. I am not making a case for any individual player here, I am simply stating that some of the players who traveled to Brazil are not the players the National Team needs in these type of circumstances.
A win is a win, no matter how you slice it, but sometimes the way you win will not be enough against certain competition. And I believe that will be the case when we play against Portugal and Germany.
