[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Bradley was poor today. With Dempsey so isolated and Johnson appearing to drift in and out of games, your most consistent creative option is Zusi, who's been excellent for you so far. It's just Klinsmann has you playing in a way there's rarely anyone to pick anything up. But I still think his caution is probably your best bet. I'd worry that if you did start to open up a bit more against Belgium your own lack of real quality at the back could become a bit embarrassing if the likes of Hazard have one of their good days. You should just try and tighten up at the back, and hope you can nick a goal when the opportunity arises. Belgium don't look great but they'll likely outscore you if you start to try and really go at them.

i see what you're saying, and it makes a lot of sense. however, my feeling is that the usa has very little control while on the defense, unlike, say, italy.

we lack great central defenders, and our midfield isn't opening up well on the counter, so all we can do is pray and dodge bullets and hope howard stops the meteors. the more we sit back the more they push us. today during the first 10 or so minutes, or was it 15, can't recall, germany had 100% possession, it was ridiculous. germany's goal, i saw it coming before it happened-- they had us against the wall.

on the other hand, whenever we can go on the attack we are able to better dictate what goes on in the game. today it was no good because we brought too little, too late.

this might sound bananas, but i think we have more hope playing like argentina-nigeria. i.e., win by scoring more. during the portugal game we won while we were on the attack. the moment we tried to defend the advantage, we lost it. we probably would have been safer going for the 3rd one instead of sitting back. i understand other teams can do that but i'd rather have hazard defending than attacking us.

ps- bradley has been poor all 3 dates.