"Roman Torres"
Junior Seau
At age 39 Junior Seau was one of the oldest players on the field in this year's Super Bowl. It was remarkable that he could play a position as demanding as linebacker at that age and at a high enough level to start on an undefeated team that was playing in the Super Bowl. Tonight he one upped himself.
Playing under the assumed name "Roman Torres", Seau captained Panama's U23 side in their group B Olympic Qualification match against the United States. Forgetting for a moment that he is over aged and not from Panama, this may be one of the most amazing feats in sports history. In America we have seen some impressive multi-sport athletes in the past. Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, and Jim Thorpe come to mind, but each of these men's accomplishments pail in comparison to Seau picking up a new sport at age 39 and competing in it on this stage. Fortunately for him and Panama , this blog's readership is likely about ten percent of his age, so his secret will stay safe.
I apologize for that, but every time they showed a close up of Torres tonight I said, "God, he looks exactly like Junior Seau!" I could not really find a picture to do it justice unfortunately.
I suppose I should write something serious about the match. The best thing I can say about it is that it was a good result. Between the announcers and scouting around a few message boards, I get the feeling that most people feel better about the match than I do. Yes, three points is three points, but I still saw a lot of the same flaws as I saw against Cuba.
Our attack continues to stagnate in the attacking third. We possessed beautifully for spells. We were fairly patient when the moment was not right, but when that perfect ball or piece of skill was called for to break down the final layer of defense, we never delivered. I see too much hesitation in the final third. I can not tell if this because of a system that the squad may be unfamiliar with, the boys just not being familiar enough with each other, or if some nerves are getting to these guys. Whatever the cause, it remains a concern. After two matches against weaker teams, we still have not scored a goal from the run of play.
Defensively, we were again not put under a tremendous amount of pressure. Whereas Cuba seemed to have difficulty generating a consistent attack to test the US defense, Panama appeared to make a tactical decision to keep numbers back. I wondered if the Cuba fiasco played a part in this apparent decision to largely play for a draw. What worried me was the chances we did give up despite any real consistent threat. Seau err... Torres really should have made it a 0-1 game early when he got inside of Edu on a corner early in the match. Overall there were not many great looks for Panama, but I fear that a more capable side could really take advantage of our back four. The arrival of Jonathon Spector after the group stage will help, but he is only one man.
Player Ratings(1-10 Scale):
Altidore: 5--He looked a little better than versus Cuba. His service has not been great, but I would still like to see him work a little harder.
Adu: 7--He did not look nearly as dangerous as the past match but was still the best bet to put Panama under pressure, well taken penalty.
Gavin: 4--Showed some skill at times, but never really seemed to get into the match. Touches and decision making left a lot to be desired.
Kljestan: 5--I liked him out wide a lot better, but he was serviceable in the middle tonight.
McCarty: 7--Worked hard for 90 minutes tonight. Some nice moments in the attack, but he mostly gets the rating for his efforts tracking back on defense. He committed a number of smart fouls in the middle third.
Holden: 6--First time I've seen him play, and I love his effort. At times his technical ability did not match the motor, but I don't think two minutes ever went by where I was unaware of his presence on the pitch.
Wynn: 5--Got himself into good spots getting forward often in this match, but did not seem to have the skill to match his runs. He could have drawn a higher ranking perhaps, but he squandered too many nice chances on the wing.
Sturgis: 4--For me it just was not a great showing by him tonight. Any 1v1 he defended looked precarious, and he gave the ball away in a couple dangerous spots.
Edu: 6--This would be higher if it was not for Torres' near goal. Looked good in the center of the defense aside from that. I question what we're losing with him out of the midfield, but McCarty held his own.
Orosco: 5--This was the toughest one for me to grade. His role was not one to get involved with the attack, and with the little amount of pressure Panama put on us, he was tough to get a read on. He did make a couple important tackles, so perhaps I'm selling him short with a 5.
Seitz: 6--He has to get a little credit for a clean sheet but was never really tested tonight.
Man of the Match: Freddy Adu (Not nearly as emphatically as in the Cuba match).
Strangest Announcer Comment: ". . . And the Bundesliga star gets his first touch on the ball . . . Zizzo still looking to break into the first eleven at Hannover."
That is pretty remarkable that he is a "Bundesliga Star" despite the fact that he doesn't start for his club who are, by the way, a middle of the table team this season.
Thanks to anyone who actually reads this nonsense. I'll be away recording music this weekend, so I probably won't post again until Sunday night or Monday when I discuss Fulham's important victory at Craven Cottage over Everton!
3 comments:
Well, I tried to post this earlier, but the byte-gods don't like me.
I thought we had a good match -- despite Junior kitting out for Panama. There's a lot of concern expressed this morning along the lines of "if we play like this in the later rounds" -- yeahbut we're playing Panama and we needed three and we got three. Let's worry about the bigger fish when it's time to fry them.
Nowak was experimenting and I thought, for the most part, that the experiments worked. I think he was blessed to have no Feilhaber and no Bradley. My only quibble was that Adu would have had a more effective match if he hadn't spent the first 45 minutes trying to be a right winger.
Lots of good comments Don. I agree that the most important thing was to get three, and we can worry about other teams when the time comes. There are some things to be concerned about, though.
Agreed on Adu. If he wants to play a wing, I'd rather see him on the left where he would be a little more difficult to defend.
Unlike every American announcer, I do not feel the need to stroke the ego of the american sports fan. Yes, anytime you can get a win against Panama without 3 red cards, 4 injuries, and a bomb threat is a solid win. However, I thought Altidore has looked terrible in the first two games. This is in part because the US Soccer Foundation has still not figured out how to play with a skilled attacking forward. Every team from the women to the men is still trying to lofted balls to Brian McBride so that he can win them with his head and everyone can catch up and hopefully scrap a goal out of his hard work.
If I am honest with myself, I can only say that I was impressed with Freddy Adu and Dax Mccarty, although the former has his moments of poor play. I know these players are young and still learning, but if the U.S. Soccer Foundation is going to keep stroking their ego and telling them they are the worlds best players, they, U.S. Soccer foundation is only making things worse.
As a soccer nation we are still fairly weak. Yes we have progressed into one of the better soccer countries but we still have far to go.
Post a Comment