The World Needs More Ninjas

Well, US soccer’s World Cup is over with a 2-1 loss to Ghana. Congrats to the Black Stars. I’d rather see them go (along with Italy) rather than have two European teams advance out of the group. Time for the US to start focusing on South Africa in 2010.

The US did get screwed again by the refs giving Ghana a questionable penalty kick in the box near the end of the first half. In reality, the game probably should have been a tie…which means the US still wouldn’t have advanced. However, it’s undeniable that the US didn’t deserve to advance with their overall level of performance in group play.

Other than the Italy game, watching the US play was rather disappointing (which was disappointing for another reason). They had pretty much zero ability to strike and finish for some reason. Definitely a setback after their quarterfinal run in 2002. This pretty much shatters any street cred we had in the international community. The whole team just seemed out of sync and, for the most part, lethargic.

Landon Donovan didn’t do much of anything and just seemed to cement the stereotype that he stays in the MLS because he can’t hack it in Europe. Beasley, while having flashes of brilliance (e.g., the assist on the goal to Dempsey), seemed unable to dribble with much control or take advantage of his speed. McBride just couldn’t finish anything near the goal. Reyna seemed to be just kind of going through the motions. The overall performance reminded me of Daniel Powter’s Bad Day: “So where is the passion when you need it the most”? Didn’t seem to be in Germany for the US team.

Some of the bright spots included Dempsey (who scored the only US goal), Eddie Johnson, and Onyewu (who gets bonus props for having playing for Clemson). Onyewu looks to be an excellent defender for the US in the next two World Cups once he figures out how to work the refs a little better.

I think Bruce Arena’s done as the US coach, this being his second World Cup. If you’re having trouble scoring, the coach is going to get a lot of flak for sticking with a 4-5-1 set (i.e., only one striker). He didn’t seem to be able to tap the talent of the individuals the way a coach should. If the US overachieved in 2002, they definitely underachieved in 2006. Plus, he’s got to coach the players how to handle the refs better. If taking falls and theatrics is part of the game, then the US just needs to suck it up and learn how to keep up with the Europeans in this regard. There were definitely bad calls against the US, but the opposition was much better than the US at working the refs to get those calls. The US needs to learn this, I guess, if they want to compete.

I’d like to see them experiment with a European coach to see how that goes for the next World Cup. I think it could greatly help the US tap their potential better. Jürgen Klinsmann, who is the German coach this year and lives permanently in California, has to be a top candidate in this regard. Guus Hiddink, of Dutch descent, is kind of the international coaching star at the moment. He got the Australian team to the Round of 16 this year and South Korea and the Netherlands to fourth place finishes in 2002 and 1998, respectively. For the next World Cup, however, he’s already signed with Russia.

Here’s a CNNSI article that details what’s next for the US team after their World Cup exit.