Tomorrow night the USMNT (United States men’s national team) will play their first of 3 friendlies in preparation for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. First will be against Azerbaijan, who are not going to Brazil. This match will be another tune up of formation and tactics mixing for manager Jurgen.
This as also another opportunity for Jurgen to let some of the younger kids who made the rooster like Julian Green, DeAndre Yedlin, and John Brooks, as well as some of the bench players like Brad Davis, Nick Rimando, and Chris Wondowloski get some playing time. Azerbaijan are minnows in the game and this would be the prefect game to do any experimenting and live game observations.
One issue to work out, which many fans and experts would agree is the defensive back line. Other than DeMarcus Beasley who will most likely play left back, we still don’t know who will be starting on defense. Playing in a group of death with the talents like Cristiano Ronaldo, Thomas Muller, or Asamoah Gyan, you want to figure out your back line ASAP.
Another issue the comes up is experience. By leaving Parkhurst and Goodson off the squad in favor of younger defenders, you are giving up experience. Both Goodson and Parkhurst played several seasons in Europe.
Brooks plays in Germany, but he is also young and mostly inexperienced. Omar Gonzalez only has 14 caps and only played in MLS (did have a brief loan spell in Germany), even Geoff Cameron who just finished his 2nd season in England doesn’t have to much international experience. I can easily see Gonzalez and Besler play central defense with Cameron used as right back, and Beasley left back when the World Cup starts.
Team captain Clint Dempsey will have to guide the offense in the group of death
Who will take Landon Donavon’s spot on starting squad?. Will Jurgen go with two strikers up top on the attack and go with a 4-4-2, or stick to his 4-2-3-1? If Jurgen sticks with the 4-2-3-1, then Dempsey will have to step up his game more to help provide Jozy some support as he will be marked by 2 defenders, and if the team can’t feed Jozy the ball and give him scoring chances, it may be a short lived world cup.
It just will not just be Dempsey that will need to provide help, but whoever plays the two attacking wings will need to be able to make good runs, maintain possession of the ball, good passes and crosses as well. Most likely we will see Graham Zusi and Alejandro Bedoya, although I would like to see how squad would look if Aaron Johansson played wing instead and act like 2nd striker? Aaron lit up the Dutch League with his scoring and also has good speed.
Either way tomorrow nights game is at 10pm est so I doubt few of us will watch, unless you are hardcore enough.
