192ft2

American Personality Disorder 

Here's a question:

Why does everyone presume that to win at the World Cup, a team must play attractive soccer?  Jeff Carlisle of ESPN offered this post-mortem after the Azerbaijan friendly:

But following Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Azerbaijan, it’s evident that the formation is very much a work in progress. Outside of the first 15 minutes, the U.S. struggled mightily to find the kind of fluidity that they’ll need to escape from the "Group of Death" next month. 

I like Carlisle, but he (and many others) have forgotten that "fluidity" is not a requisite in the formula for success.  Consider the finals of the German Cup (DFB Pokal), the FA Cup (England) and the Champions League: of the 10 goals, more than 6 came from set pieces. Oh, and against Azerbaijan, the USA scored both goals off set pieces... While fluid, flowing soccer can create constant pressure and thus lead to set pieces, route one soccer can produce those situations just about as easily.

It's funny that suddenly the USA writers and fans expect the MNT to look like Spain...four and eight years ago we just hoped for not embarrassing ourselves.  While we have a tremendous team of legitimately world-class players, they certainly aren't Germany's (or Spain's, or Brazil's, or Italy's...) staff.  The USA will not be focused on fluid...nor will they be parking buses.  There's got to be a middle ground and if anyone will find it, it's most likely the coaches involved.  Klinsmann and Co. will be pragmatic and play the odds.  The fans and media should do the same.