My relative silence on the subject of last night’s game between the U.S. and Guatemala has less to do with wanting to forget the whole thing as in trying to put it in some kind of useful context. My attempt to do that should appear shortly on Write On Sports - and I’ll link to it when it shows - but there’s a lot of detailed thinking bubbling underneath all that; that’s what I’d like to look at here.
Since the Write On effort drained me of all ability to think fluidly (it was so...damned...difficult...why?) I think I’ll rock the following, random player comments bullet-style:
- The Feilhaber Man-Crush: Here’s to hoping that last night cooled that a bit. And this has nothing to do with a personal belief he had a bad game; the point, though, is that he didn’t have a good one. Seeing as no one else did, that hardly makes him unique. That Michael Bradley, as I see it, outplayed him on the night gets me wondering whether Bradley wasn’t the decisive person against Ecuador as well. None of this is to say that Feilhaber doesn’t deserve more chances; he does, and many of them. But I’d like to see the Bradley/Feilhaber duo broken up so as to experiment with say, Feilhaber/Ricardo Clark or Bradley/Mastroeni. In other words, team the more-polished passer with an ankle-breaking bulldog and see what happens. The experiment I’m most eager to see is Clark/Feilhaber...so, yeah, it’s not that I don’t like the guy. It’s the hype that gets me.
- Landon Let-Down: I’ll be damned, but those Guatemalans had him figured. I think the only time I saw Landon was when he was picking himself up. He’s still our Landy-cakes and his numbers prove he’s the best offensive player this country has yet produced, but he’s also clearly stoppable. Kids/wife/dinner meant that I couldn’t answer this for sure, but did the Guatemalans just stick a player to Donovan? If I were only looking to kill his game, that’s certainly what I’d do. Whatever they did, though, it worked.
- Mapp’s "Almost" Day: There’s no question in my mind that Mapp posed the most persistent threat to the Guatemalan bunker. Though he never managed the final ball, his runs at least made the Guatemalans chase and lose shape from time to time; damn shame he never managed to crank in that final ball, or totally turn the corner. Still, call this an moderately encouraging outing to place on top of his earlier promising one against Denmark. I’d bump him up to a solid option behind Beasley; on those days you’re feeling cocky enough to play for a win from the outset, you could make him first choice by combining him with a stay-at-home left-back. But, yeah, I like him. He needs to improve to take some attention from Donovan.
- Frank Simek - Best of the new guys. Someone, somewhere detected a habit of Simek hoofing the ball upfield, but I didn’t catch it. What I did catch, was him playing himself smartly out of trouble once or twice, and a late-game surge down the right that looked threatening enough at the time. Credit to him for mixing it up.
- End EJ: For the love of God, can we end this fucking experiment? By my judgment, he didn’t even fight for half the balls lofted his way, which made him nothing as an aerial threat, and he didn’t offer much with the ball at his feet either. Let this guy focus on club ball and see if he can get “it” back - and I wish him luck with it.
- Dempsey: He showed he can play, but only here and there. By the end of the game, though, he was about the only U.S. player still chasing for a goal. Overall, though, he's not winning hearts and minds.
- DeMerit: I’m, frankly, pissed that we still don’t have much to work with around this guy. There simply wasn’t enough for him to do for us to figure.
- Conrad: This may or may not be a lonely position, but I thought he was our best defender on the day. Good at cleaning up and not giving anything away (though that was him on Ruiz’s best shot at the U.S. goal, wasn’t it?).
And finally....
- The Guatemalans: They suck for playing it, but, damn, was that game plan effective. And that leads to...
- The Fundamental Issue: Tedious as last night was, it’s not entirely fair to say the Yanquis don’t know how to break-down an opponent. That “almost-score” - the play that ended with Mapp picking up a smart feed from Dempsey only to send it wide - tells me we do know how. The question is how to do more of it, to train our guys to switch up tactics more comfortably and frequently during the game. Sure, there’s the game plan and there’s the way a player likes to receive the ball, but these cant’ be etched in stone if we’re going to improve as a team and as players. The play described above, which came a bit after the 60th minute, was a good example of that - and we almost caught ‘em out.
All in all, though, we looked awfully confused. And, the reality is, we simply do better against teams who come to play.
All for now...time to shift gears anyway.
Showing posts with label Justin Mapp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Justin Mapp. Show all posts
Chicago Fire: 2007 Season Preview
(NOTE: A decision against being totally psychotic about research no doubt played a hand in making it easier to churn out these previews. I anticipate getting to one of these a day...allowing for the odd day off. That is all.)
Past
Before looking forward, it seems a good idea to look back, so here's a look at what some easily located items had to say about the Chicago Fire's 2006:
MLSnet.com: 2006 Season Wrap
MLSnet.com: Big Questions after '06
My Thoughts on Chicago's '06 (Know my biases)
Present
2006-07 Off-Season Changes
Soccer New England's Ins & Outs for (most) changes to the roster (listed alphabetically)
Roster
MLSnet.com's tardy listing; or the actual current roster from ChicagoLand Soccer
Now...The Future.
Key Men
Justin Mapp - Call him what you will - Clint Dempsey’s little brother, the one-man revival the Peter Tork cut - but he’s unquestionably the unsettling presence for Chicago’s offense. He had a great 2006, not to mention showing flashes for the U.S. men in early 2007, and, absent a key signing, he’ll have to carry still more of Chicago’s offense this year. Skills-wise, he’s up to it, but he has gone missing before.
C. J. Brown - One of the two most-hated players on the Fire - and that’s saying something - but, near as I can tell, Brown is the team’s leader in the back. He’s wicked smart and not a little dirty, but very effective.
Ivan Guerrero - Though he pushes for “most-hated” honors, especially among New England fans, I count this cat as one of the most under-rated offensive contributors in the league. He’s more than his numbers; he gets forward like gang-busters and pulls the opposition defense like taffy.
Liabilities
Forwards? - With Nate Jaqua and Andy Herron gone, there’s a very real question about who will score for the Fire. Calen Carr? Chad Barrett? Rookie Jerson Monteiro? Pencil in “maybe” for the first two and “doubtful” on Monteiro and that leaves a lot of work for Chris Rolfe. Soccer New England’s trade sheet mentions Ryan Coiner, but he’s not showing on any roster I can find. Between Rolfe, Mapp, and Guerrero they do have good mobility up top, but only one player possesses much by way of size (Barrett). After these few, though, there’s a clear shortage of proven quantities. If the Blanco thing fails to come together - or, failing that, an equally impressive deal, or, failing that, one of the new guys coming out of left-field - look for the Fire to stay in more games than they win.
Thin at ‘Keep - I like Matt Pickens; just think he’s a bang-up ‘keeper. But, after him, there’s just some 2nd-year ‘keeper named David Mahoney and a completely new guy named Nick Noble (great name, by the way). One or both might prove as much a happy surprise as Pickens proved to be...but would you want to count on that?
Unknowns
Central Midfield - Whether it’s going forward (Thiago) or having the legs to police the space in front of the back four (Chris Armas, Diego Gutierrez), I can’t believe Chicago will have the players to control the middle of the park. Brian Plotkin looked decent last year and I seem to remember some good things about Logan Pause, but they’re not of the same caliber as the two elder statesmen, not yet at least. I would have put the Armas/Gutierrez midfield pairing in the “liabilities” column had those two not proved me wrong - Armas, in particular - in the past. On the “going forward” side, I’ve seen two sides of Thiago: the raiding, pillaging midfielder and the guy you only notice when he fails to pass the damn ball. The Fire’s chances, and the size of the burden Justin Mapp must carry depends quite a bit on which version of Thiago shows up.
The Entire Draft Class - To be blunt about it, someone in this bunch of new players needs to pay off and not now, but right now.
Prospects in Gambling Analogies
Assuming nothing changes, Chicago off-season strategy amounts to standing pat on a 14 with the house showing a seven. Put another way, enough teams across the league improved that I can’t see these guys keeping up. I think they’ll miss the post-season this time around.
Past
Before looking forward, it seems a good idea to look back, so here's a look at what some easily located items had to say about the Chicago Fire's 2006:
MLSnet.com: 2006 Season Wrap
MLSnet.com: Big Questions after '06
My Thoughts on Chicago's '06 (Know my biases)
Present
2006-07 Off-Season Changes
Soccer New England's Ins & Outs for (most) changes to the roster (listed alphabetically)
Roster
MLSnet.com's tardy listing; or the actual current roster from ChicagoLand Soccer
Now...The Future.
Key Men
Justin Mapp - Call him what you will - Clint Dempsey’s little brother, the one-man revival the Peter Tork cut - but he’s unquestionably the unsettling presence for Chicago’s offense. He had a great 2006, not to mention showing flashes for the U.S. men in early 2007, and, absent a key signing, he’ll have to carry still more of Chicago’s offense this year. Skills-wise, he’s up to it, but he has gone missing before.
C. J. Brown - One of the two most-hated players on the Fire - and that’s saying something - but, near as I can tell, Brown is the team’s leader in the back. He’s wicked smart and not a little dirty, but very effective.
Ivan Guerrero - Though he pushes for “most-hated” honors, especially among New England fans, I count this cat as one of the most under-rated offensive contributors in the league. He’s more than his numbers; he gets forward like gang-busters and pulls the opposition defense like taffy.
Liabilities
Forwards? - With Nate Jaqua and Andy Herron gone, there’s a very real question about who will score for the Fire. Calen Carr? Chad Barrett? Rookie Jerson Monteiro? Pencil in “maybe” for the first two and “doubtful” on Monteiro and that leaves a lot of work for Chris Rolfe. Soccer New England’s trade sheet mentions Ryan Coiner, but he’s not showing on any roster I can find. Between Rolfe, Mapp, and Guerrero they do have good mobility up top, but only one player possesses much by way of size (Barrett). After these few, though, there’s a clear shortage of proven quantities. If the Blanco thing fails to come together - or, failing that, an equally impressive deal, or, failing that, one of the new guys coming out of left-field - look for the Fire to stay in more games than they win.
Thin at ‘Keep - I like Matt Pickens; just think he’s a bang-up ‘keeper. But, after him, there’s just some 2nd-year ‘keeper named David Mahoney and a completely new guy named Nick Noble (great name, by the way). One or both might prove as much a happy surprise as Pickens proved to be...but would you want to count on that?
Unknowns
Central Midfield - Whether it’s going forward (Thiago) or having the legs to police the space in front of the back four (Chris Armas, Diego Gutierrez), I can’t believe Chicago will have the players to control the middle of the park. Brian Plotkin looked decent last year and I seem to remember some good things about Logan Pause, but they’re not of the same caliber as the two elder statesmen, not yet at least. I would have put the Armas/Gutierrez midfield pairing in the “liabilities” column had those two not proved me wrong - Armas, in particular - in the past. On the “going forward” side, I’ve seen two sides of Thiago: the raiding, pillaging midfielder and the guy you only notice when he fails to pass the damn ball. The Fire’s chances, and the size of the burden Justin Mapp must carry depends quite a bit on which version of Thiago shows up.
The Entire Draft Class - To be blunt about it, someone in this bunch of new players needs to pay off and not now, but right now.
Prospects in Gambling Analogies
Assuming nothing changes, Chicago off-season strategy amounts to standing pat on a 14 with the house showing a seven. Put another way, enough teams across the league improved that I can’t see these guys keeping up. I think they’ll miss the post-season this time around.
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