The US opened the Gold Cup with a well earned 2-1 win in Texas over Honduras. Jurgen Klinsmann elected to maintain the 4-4-2 structure he has used over the past few years. After analyzing the four main phases of the game with video breakdowns (seen below) the US has a lot of good things to build on as the Gold Cup progresses.
Photo Courtesy Dallas Morning News
Build Up Play
Scoring from two set pieces, the Yanks attacking play was decent but slightly lacking sharpness in the final third. Jozy Altidore was primarily the forward tasked with operating off the shoulder of the back four. He ran the channels looking for passes from the wide men but failed to get in behind the defense due to the deep Honduras back five. Altidore was fairly efficient holding up the ball. Clint Dempsey on the other hand provided the link between the midfield and attack. He was only fouled five times, but Honduras took their turns roughing him up all evening forcing free kicks and preventing him from truly taking over the match. Michael Bradley getting alongside the front two is the key to the system and when he did the Americans were dangerous.
Seen in the video above, much of the attack began out wide. Fabian Johnson made a few impressive foray’s causing trouble for Honduras, yet Gyassi Zardes was quiet. On the right, Deandre Yedlin and Timmy Chandler always looked threatening but never dangerous. Yedlin had a great first half chance that was saved. However, he lacked precision in his touches in the final third.
Counter Attacking
The counters were largely negated since Honduras played a risk free strategy. They refused to play any dangerous balls out from the back rather electing to go long. They also played a back five and elected keep four defenders back for the majority of the match. Thus, as seen below, the chances for the US were few and far between. However, Bradley and Yedlin had a couple of nice moments and could be a threat later in the tournament against a more ambitious opponent.
Transition Defense
Relying heavily on fullbacks getting forward and overlapping with the midfielders, the US on paper looked susceptible to the counter. Honduras did create a couple of half chances although overall the Americans were diligent in sprinting back on defense. Key to stopping the counter was Kyle Beckerman. Seen below, even him stepping in a passing lane and forcing a horizontal pass gave his teammates precious seconds to recover. Finally, Yedlin and Zardes intelligently covered when their fullbacks were caught forward.
Defense
For the majority of the match, the US defended in a low block and elected not to pressure up the field, most likely due to the Frisco summer heat and humidity. They dropped into two banks of four and the wide players were tasked with supporting defensively since Honduras often had two men out wide due to their 5-4-1 starting formation. At times the central partnership struggled defending one vs one situations taking risks trying to steal the ball rather than keeping the man in front of them. However, Brooks and Alvarado settled in as the match carried on.
As seen in the video, the central duo of Beckman and Bradley were caught late in the match chasing upfield and leaving space between the lines. Possibly this was due to tired legs and perhaps we see Klinsmann make a sub in the future when the US has a lead to provide more solidity in this area.
Overall, the US performance was solid. Ideally consistently fouling Dempsey would result in yellow cards but CONCACAF operates by different rules. As the tournament progresses, the familiarity in the final third should improve. Playing a physical and rugged opponent to open a tournament can be difficult and the US not scoring from open play should not be a trend that continues.
