Klinsmann's tinkering is counterproductive in Mexico loss
About 25 minutes into the United States men’s national team’s 2-1 loss to Mexico in the first game of the final round of World Cup qualifying on Friday, central midfielders Jermaine Jones and Michael Bradley went over to their coach, Jurgen Klinsmann, while there was a break in play for an injury treatment. Presumably, they pleaded for an end to the German’s odd and untested 3-5-2 formation, which he called a 3-4-3. That is really an irrelevant distinction. Because the Yanks immediately reverted to their standard 4-4-2 and gained a grip in the game.
[ USA-Mexico: “Dos” of revenge | USA’s big hope | Pregame unity | Match tracker ]
By that time, much damage had been done. Jesus Corona had watched as U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard tipped his curling shot off his far post. Michael Bradley had won a ball off Giovani Dos Santos in his own third, but it had skipped away from him and was picked up by Miguel Layun. His shot was deflected past Howard by Timmy Chandler, who trailed way behind the play. And Carlos Vela had headed Corona’s sharp cross off the crossbar above the beaten Howard.
The Americans were fortunate to only have given up Layun’s 20th-minute goal and could well have been down by three.
They had never played in this formation for their national team before. And while it fits the personnel well on paper, this was a reckless time to try it out. It had been more than a decade since the U.S. had played with a back three, and the experiment backfired into a flaming pile of wreckage for Klinsmann, as Mexico’s wingers cut inside from the flank and dragged the three central defenders all out of shape.
“Unfortunately, in the beginning, our midfielders didn’t get into the one-against-one battles we expected them to get into,” Klinsmann explained after the game, even though, strangely, he also claimed that Mexico had played as he’d anticipated it to. The adjustments by his counterpart Juan Carlos Osorio, a noted tactician unlike Klinsmann, had gotten the better of him. And he either wouldn’t acknowledge or simply didn’t realize it.
Yet in the loss there were positives. Even though this was the first time that Mexico had scored a goal in Columbus, never mind won there, after four straight World Cup qualifiers had ended 2-0 to the U.S. Or that El Tri hadn’t won on American soil in a decade and a half.
If Mexico ran roughshod over the USA in the opening half hour, the home team was at least an equal for the remainder of a pulsating, back-and-forth game.
“The way they space themselves out and do a few things tactically, means that you have to have clear ideas about how you’re going to go about dealing with it,” said Bradley, the U.S. captain. “I thought in the second half we were able to, just by virtue of rearranging ourselves and a little bit more intensity, get after them a little bit more and really close things down and really tilt the bar in our favor.”
With a hot start in the second half, and a quick Bobby Wood goal, the Americans got back into it. And until they conceded a late winner to Rafa Marquez, who ran away from his marker on a corner and scored with a perfectly-placed header, the Americans were largely the more dangerous team.
“I think Mexico had the better part in their first half,” Klinsmann said. “The second half was outstanding [for us]. The only thing that was missing was a couple of goals. We had enough chances to put it away. But we didn’t.”
There’s truth to that, and if any good should come from this game, it’s that the second half reaffirmed what this team ought to be doing. Namely, playing an admittedly unimaginative but nevertheless still very effective 4-4-2 formation and competing with teams through their intensity, athleticism, fitness and the occasional touch of genius from 18-year-old phenom Christian Pulisic or – oh my stars! – Jozy Altidore, like his turn and setup for Wood on the counter for the lone American goal.
The U.S. isn’t in a place where tactical trickery will serve as a tool in its belt. The Americans do a few things well, and they’d better double down on them. Mexico is a strong team, perhaps as strong as it’s ever been, even though Osorio is on the hot seat while the team has just lost once all year – because to be El Tri’s manager is to be in acute danger of losing your job. And, in all honesty, there’s no great shame in losing to them. Even at home, in your team’s emotional fortress where you’d never before lost, much as it may hurt.
What is far more urgent now is to rebound for an away game in Costa Rica, where the U.S. has never once garnered even a point in World Cup qualifying. The Americans know full well that a no-points start from the opening two games could spell trouble, no matter how forgiving the hexagonal round in CONCACAF is by sending three of six teams to the World Cup and a fourth to a playoff.
“The message is very simple: We go down there and get a result,” Klinsmann said. “Which we will do.” This, he added, was just the first of 10 qualifiers.
Klinsmann likes to talk about pushing his players out of his comfort zone. He means this in all ways. And whether this is a part of that broader strategy or not, he has a habit of putting players in unfamiliar positions. On Friday, he essentially did that to his entire team by pouring it into a formation that was entirely novel to his side.
The thing about this team, however, is that it thrives when it is comfortable. That when it plays the way it knows how to, it does better. This seems self-evident, but it’s a truism often lost on Klinsmann. If anything, this game demonstrated that. Leave well enough alone and this U.S. team will be just fine.
If it took a painful loss to the Americans’ arch-rivals to drive the point home, it may prove a lesson worth re-learning if it helps clinch an eighth consecutive World Cup berth to Russia.
Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.
