World Cup Thoughts

Arrrrgh. So close yet so very far away.

It was a fun run with lots of excitement and emotion but ultimately the things that added all of this flavor was our undoing. You simply can not get behind in 3 out of 4 games and expect to get a result. So much potential and opportunity simply slipped through our fingers in the process..

On the positive side, this was a much better effort than the 2006 version. Coming into 2006, we were ranked a hilarious #6 in FIFA rankings and proceeded to show just how silly this was. We were slow, we were tactically and technically weak, and we were overmatched throughout. The one thing we did show in 2006 was heart. The effort against Italy was inspirational.

For 2010, we came in ranked a realistic 14th and showed that we actually know how to play the game. We've improved the overall level of the team with better / more experienced players, our speed of play was much better, we scored goals in every game, and we showed the level of intensity we had in the 2006 game v Italy throughout the tournament.

As we look to 2014, it'll be interesting to see if we can continue to improve. On the plus side, the growth of soccer in the US is starting to take root. Our premier players are playing in top leagues around the world. We should continue to play better all around. Still, there are several areas that we have got to get better at:

Team focus. The problem with giving up early goals has been a huge problem for the US side going through the qualifying process and that it continued in the Finals was no surprise. We need to improve our mental toughness and be ready to go from the whistle.

Defensive line. One of the reasons we became the Cardiac Kids of 2010 was that our defensive line was routinely overmatched. Poor communication, missed mark-ups, and routinely being beaten one-v-one was standard fare. We've got to do better and if we expect to get out of the group play we've got to be able to defend more reliably. DeMerit came to play but the rest of the defenders were pretty much MIA and that's being kind.

Finishing. Listening to the talking heads, they felt our #1 gap was the lack of a world class striker and when you look at the opportunities missed you can see their point. The reason I'd put this need as third on my list -- but still on the list -- is that we were both getting chances and scoring goals through out the tournament. We scored in every game and had two goals taken away, so that was a big positive. But there were simply too many times where we had open nets or one-v-one situations and were unable able to find the back of the net. In the final game v Ghana, they had two different forwards go to goal and finish with power. We had none.

Looking forward to seeing the beautiful game in Brazil 2014.