Football 365 reports on England goalie's David James, who says:
"I don't want to look at this World Cup as a personal mission. I look at it as a team mission. Yes, you want to be No. 1, you want to play every game and lift the World Cup, but if that doesn't happen it will be a case of: 'If I'm there, my contribution will have aided whatever success we have.'
That's mighty fine, but the problem goes far beyond James himself. England is, in many respects, a team specular to Italy, in that it's got everything right but the goalkeeper (unlike Italy where, so far, everything needs work but that human wall Gigi Buffon, a certainty as much as a bare necessity for Lippi's weathered defense). Mind, I do think England has its best shot at winning a World Cup since 1990. That time they assembled a killer but tremendously unlucky team. This time around they've got all their ducks in a row, especially without whiny Becks, and Capello is a winner and a closer.
Still, the goalkeeper department is a problem. For one, all four of England's top teams have foreign goalies, and have had them for quite a while: Van der Saar for Man-Utd, Cech for Chelsea, Almunia for Arsenal, and Reina for Liverpool. Even more importantly, there isn't a significant new, young generation of English goalies elsewhere. This isn't merely a problem with England. Italy's top four teams in this year's Serie A also had foreign goalies, and if it weren't for Buffon we too would be in trouble. But a problem it is, and a pretty serious one.
To conclude, it's not like the goalie--whoever it is--needs to worry all that much against the uninspired and uninspiring U.S. forwards. England will get through the group stage just fine. But if they have any higher aspirations, they will need a good man for the job, and right now they just don't seem to have it.
3 comments:
Yes, English keepers won't need to really be worried about US forwards; but that's because most of our offensive firepower isn't at forward, but with Donovan and Dempsey in the midfield. (Things would have been different if Davies was not injured--and if Rossi had decided to play for the US.) Watch when Torres gets put into the game against England--you will see a completely different US side, where even the forwards look dangerous (see the first versus second half against Turkey).
You make a good point, Paul. If that's the case (I haven't watched Team USA in any of their pre-WC friendlies yet), then you guys will benefit from Ferdinand's injury more than from poor goalkeeping.
Incidentally, sometimes I think of goalkeeping as an inglorious, last-resource job: if it's needed, something else didn't go right. To say that your goalie was the game's m.v.p. is praise for your opponents and a blow to your midfield and defense. There are exceptions, of course, but I think that's generally true. What do you think?
I hope we can benefit from Ferdinand's injury. It does depend on Bradley's tactics and personnel choices. Bob will probably focus on defending with four across the midfield, including two defensive mids (Bradley and Clark/Edu), attacking on the counter. This was the key to beating Spain. However, the English will be focusing on breaking down the wings and crossing the ball into the box, so the strategy used to defeat Spain will work only if our wing players can discourage crosses from Lennon, Cole, Johnson, and others. The right side of the US--Cherundolo and (probably) Donovan--will be solid; the left side--Bocanegra and Dempsey--looks far stronger than a few weeks ago.
If we focus on defending and breaking for the counter, look for Robbie Finley to possibly start. Finley's speed, essentially replacing Davies's pace, might help to break down a slower English defense; Buddle or Gomez might start for a slightly injured Altidore, which would increase team speed even further.
Howard will be important for the US game; if he is man of the match, then that probably means the US faced a good number of shots on goal and wasted possession in the midfield. I generally agree that if the keeper is the MVP, the rest of the team has not played well. Against Spain, experts forget that the Spanish side did not have that many clear chances; Howard made several strong saves, but, outside of that, more was done by the defense (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcTwC6ekrx4). Our problem is that three of the four defenders that played against Spain--DeMerit, Gooch, Bocanegra--are coming of injury, so Howard may need to do more for us to win the game (he will need to be good in the air and capture any loose crosses or corners). But not like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3VFLdnqSBw
I would like Bradley to try a 4-2-2-2, with Torres and Bradley playing in front of the defense; I could see Bradley moving into this formation if the US is tied at half. If tied at half, the English will be rather testy and may feel rushed to score a winner. Inserting Torres for Edu/Clark would put a player with tactical sense into the midfield to spring a counter against a pressing English side.
This game would be far easier if we could actually keep possession, Torres can do better than any of the other mids...
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