USMNT: The Big Think from Spring Friendlies

Write On Sports posted the piece to which I referred earlier today.

Seeing as I'm linking to it, it doesn't make sense to labor the points it contains, but I do want to note the general thrust of the argument it makes. The essential point is that seeing as we don't produce great players in this country, the main task comes down to figuring how to fit together the pieces we have. This is partly a reaction to the love-fest Feilhaber received after Ecuador, but it's more fundamental than that.

At any rate, I really struggled with the language I used and don't know that I ever found the correct phrasing for what I'm getting at. To give it one more shot: we've got good enough raw materials - not ideal, mind you, but good enough; the focus needs to be on training these guys to think better about the game. I didn't mention this in the piece, but I think Bob Bradley's headed in the right direction on this, at least conceptually. That's what I get from some of the quotes Marc Connolly dredged out of various people in articles about Michael Bradley and Benny Feilhaber. I think we're to a place where we just need to work on making the people we've got more effective. So, that's the point of the Write On piece. Hope y'all like it.

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