Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. So, when El Salvador went into their "pee-wee basketball"(meaning cramming every possible player into the center of the 18 yd box) defense, did Bradley make no adjustments to switch the US attack outside to the wings? Why did he continue to let Dempsey and Donovan continually get repelled from the top of the 18 yd box? Because dude is insane... Oh wait, there is more evidence to support my claim... Why does he continue to leave his son in the game when he obviously has no business on the field at all? Insanity is genetic apparently, because Bradley Jr. took repeated shots from 9000 miles away missing by the same distance. Hell, so did the whole US team for the first 70 minutes of the game Saturday.
The game started good for the US. They displayed solid passing, and had a couple of solid chances in the first 8 minutes of the game. All were thwarted by the afore mentioned "distance shots". The atmosphere was hostile and the game was physical. The El Salvadorian speed superiority was clear from the start. This was going to be a fight. Then, along came the 15th minute...
GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!GOAL, GOAL, GO-GOAL!!!!!!
Eliseo Quintanilla walks in and puts one in the back of the US goal. Here we go again... After this point in the game, the Americans started playing like their normal selves. No spacing, poor passing, and the inert ability to trip over each other on a 130 yd pitch. They go into the half down a goal. And, the insanity is present. No Altidore, no Adu, no offense.
The second half started much like the first ended. No adjustments in personnel, no adjustments in strategy. The Americans continued to attack the middle of the El Salvadorian "shell" defense with the same result. Altidore, the 19 year old up-and-comer, joins the fight in the 61st minute replacing Heath Pearce (who has no business suiting up for the US ever again). Along comes the 72nd minute and.......
GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!GOAL, GOAL, GO-GOAL!!!!!!
Cristian Castillo soars high and puts it past Guzan, 2-0 El Salvador. Things are now dire. However, the US play did start to pick up with the addition of Altidore. They finally realize that the wings have been wide open all night. Hejduk gets wide, crosses it in to Altidore and he finishes cutting the lead in half. Now the bullshit that everyone hates about soccer begins. The El Salvadorians begin dropping like flies. At one point, the goalie was on the ground for a good 4 minutes apparently receiving ACL surgery ON THE FIELD. He looked to have injured his left leg on a save attempt and when down screaming aloud as if he had been shot. You know, they can swim across a gulf, but can't crawl over an out of bounds line. This type of behavior continued for pretty much the rest of the game, with pretty much every player experiencing "serious injuries" wink, wink. Wading through the nonsense, Hejduk chunks Altidore out of the way to head in the equalizer in the 88th to save some pride for the Yanks.
Where do we go from here? As said before, Pearce needs to go. He has been irrelevant as of late. Sasha Kljestan needs to step it up, or step it out too. Bradley needs to find a way to get the young guys like Adu, Edu, and Altidore some starts because Dempsey and Beasley seem to be exiting their primes. Dempsey, in particular, has been extremely disappointing. I am not sure if he thinks he has some sense of entitlement because he plays in the EPL. But his performance in the past year has been a far cry from his break out performance in the 2002 World Cup. Finally, Bradley needs to explain to his son that he is not John Terry and needs to stop taking shots from the upper deck, and quit committing stupid fucking fouls right outside of the box. When all is said and done, they will have a chance to redeem themselves Wednesday night when they take on Trinidad & Tobago. Tune in and see if the insanity continues.
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