“It was hot, the grass was long, it was tough on our legs,” American goalkeeper Tim Howard in the NY Times after his teams defeat.
How about, instead of making lame excuses players should just admit they didn’t play well enough. What will be the next excuse - we lost because we didn’t have the Cheerios for breakfast?
The USA team consisting of: Howard; Johnson, Gonzalez, Cameron, Chandler; Johnson, Jones, Bradley, Williams; Dempsey, Altidore - ranked 28 in the Fifa World Rankings should have comfortably dealt with the young side from Honduras - ranked 59 in the world - in this Concacaf World Cup Qualifier.
Sadly for team USA, and their experienced coach Jurgen Klinsmann, this 2-1 defeat does not bode well for qualification for the World Cup next year in Brazil. At this stage of qualification team USA and their experienced players should be flying, destroying young, inexperienced teams and leading the charge to represent the Concacaf region in next years World Cup. However, with this result coming on the back of a dismal 0-0 draw with Canada last week, they will certainly have to up their game.
For the US, senior players - Clint Dempsey, Michal Bradley and Tim Howard will need to rally the troops ahead of the next game against Costa Rica on March 22nd.
Dempsey having given the US a 1-0 lead in the 36th minute will need to draw on his good form that he is currently displaying in the Premier League for his club side Tottenham Hotspur. While the question of who plays in defense will need to be addressed given Klinsmanns’ decision to leave out the experienced Carlos Bocanegra and start Omar Gonzalez in his place.
Klinsmann has his work cut out. Aside from working on defending and attacking, employing new tactics and motivating the team, perhaps Klinsmann should also spend a little time with his players on how to provide a ‘decent’ excuse for when they perform poorly.
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