When I originally envisioned this particular posting it was before the WC qualifiers had started.  I didn’t write it then because there were simply too many unknown quantities.  For instance, while I’m in complete support of bringing in players like Kenny Cooper, Jozy Altidore, and Freddy Adu into the mix of the first team because of the flashes they have shown when given the chance (or in Cooper’s case the sheer dominance he has displayed in his current goal-scoring form), but I hesitate to create a mental ‘best-case-scenario’ line up that includes them because we just don’t know.  The reality is that we as fans can only evaluate the effectiveness of players that Bradley Sr. actually chooses to play.  To assert otherwise is simply armchair arrogance.

What has prompted me to return to the idea of this article is my own internal need to comment on what I’ve been seeing happen in these initial stages of qualifying.   Wednesday night’s win against Trinidad and Tobago, and I’m not trying to take anything away from the T&T squad, but the win showed a level of play that I feel we should have been at MONTHS ago.  Our current attacking philosophy feels disjointed at best.  I think our reliance on the 4-5-1 type of formation doesn’t take advantage of the mindset that American players need to be groomed to have.  Our national team players are being drilled in a philosophy that, I think, is supposed to be defense-first and tactically sound, but instead is looking like conservatism-first.  Our players don’t seem to be playing with fire and determination.  Our players are picked apart on an individual basis because they don’t play with the fire of a combined unit.

I would advocate that the time has come for some tough love with players who only show ‘potential’.  Eddie Johnson, Brian Ching, Michael Bradley, and even Donovan, Bocanegra, and Beasley, and Dempsey need to be pulled out when their form is not good.  It hurts me to say that because I’ve always been a staunch supporter of allowing players to play through bad form.  But there’s an air of complacency that seems to have settled over the national team, which is ironic given the seeming hesitance of Bob Bradley to call up or field the same squad in repeated performances.

Landon Donovan was quoted after the Cuba game as saying, “”Something that gets overlooked is the goal is to win the game.  The goal is not to win the game 3-0 or 4-0, the goal is to win the game. Once you score a goal and if you’re winning in qualifying, the job then is to make sure the other team doesn’t score.  It’s not always as simple as, `Go attack, go attack, go attack.’  The goal is to win the game.”

In a way, he’s only half right.  The LARGER goal is to win the game.  And no, it doesn’t matter if the score is 1-0 or 10-0.  But this mentality ignores all the other things that go into the game…like focusing on maintaining position, possession, good shape, discipline, and playing with tangible grit.  If you take care of the game, the result will take care of itself.  Right now the USMNT is playing a reactive game.  This will not allow them to grow as a squad.

So what are my personal suggestions?  I would like to see the calm passing out of the back and good positioning of either Jay Demerit or Michael Parkhurst replace Carlos Bocanegra in the back-center of the park to offset the unquestionable physical and mental grit gifts of Oguchi Onyewu, who doesn’t truly provide those passing/positioning options. I would like to see us move away from the two-holding midfielder system OR (radical idea) play 3 across the back and add that extra to the attack while maintaining a duel-holding midfield presence.  I would like to see Bradley Sr. look at his playmaker options and develop that role within the US system.  I think it’s time to call up those I mentioned in the beginning of the article and allow them to develop IN the system rather than waiting until players appear to be the complete package.  I think it’s time to stop looking for a replacement to Brian McBride and start developing a coherent philosophy based around the players we have now.  We need to purposefully use the wings more and develop a true role for what we want those on the wings doing.  Given that we have very few true out-and-out wingers in the US national system (Beasley and Cherundolo are the only ones that come to mind) we need to create a clear idea of what our wingers do in the system because anyone we play out there is out of position and obviously no one has shown the instincts to play the position dangerously.

Just my two cents…