USA Underwhelms In Loss at Jamaica: Thoughts

There was a lot of celebration for the home side in Kingston last night.

The search for words continues today, nearly 24 hours after one of the USA's more horrible displays in recent years.  Which do you care for: boring, horrid, atrocious, disinterested, overconfident, or maybe another adjective?  These were all used multiple times in various posts on blogs, match reports, and social media ramblings about last night's performance.  They are all true in their own right.

Was it really THAT bad?  Can we stop and state, that outside of two great set piece displays by the Jamaicans, we probably come out with a point?  Clarence Goodson even noted last night that outside of the free kicks, Jamaica really only threatened from distance, and didn't spend a whole lot of time behind the USA defense.

The problem with that statement is, the set pieces are what mattered in the end.  RSL's Kyle Beckerman gave up the first on a silly foul, and Stoke's Maurice Edu gave up the second.  Both were in horrible positions and were just begging to be taken advantage of.  In the case of the first goal, insult to injury was added to the RSL captain as the low strike deflected off his leg when he jumped and into his own net.  It wasn't an own goal, but it didn't matter.  Was it a freak goal? Sure, but it counted.  

In the end, the bigger problem for the USA was a total lack of creativity in the midfield.  You had Beckerman, Edu, and Jermaine Jones, all of whom are pretty much the same type defensive mid player.  None of the three were effective passing the ball, and as much as it pains me to say it, Beckerman just got torched a few times by Jamaica's Rodolph Austin.  It wasn't a pretty performance.  With the USA minus both Landon Donovan and Michael Bradley, there was pretty zero creativity and service to the forwards up front.  Dempsey had the early goal, and it was all she wrote.  

So where does the USA go from here?  The game against Jamaica Tuesday at Columbus Crew Stadium is pretty much a must win for the Stars and Stripes.  Jamaica is obviously superior in the midfield, and that has to be addressed.  I liked a possible solution presented on ESPNFC, where the USA goes with more of a 4-4-2, possible giving the defensive midfield some more cover.  The article also suggested starting Brek Shea out wide to try and help with the attacking aspect.  Would it work?  I don't know, but something has to be done or the USA is going to be on the outside looking in at the 2014 World Cup.

A lot of credit has to go to Jamaica though.  This was not a case of the USA just making mistakes.  Jamaica outplayed the USA and deserved the result in every way.  Tuesday is going to be tough.