Any More Foot Left To Shoot?

Arsenal took on Boca Juniors in the Emirates Cup today. They jumped all over the South Americans 2-0, only to table 2 goal scoring offers within 3 minutes of each other that the visitors couldn't refuse. And quicker than I lost interest in Cowboys & Aliens (What an underachieving film! With such a cast, director and budget, this is what Hollywood gives me? For these ticket prices? But I digress), the match ended 2-2.

This is the same water-bottle-slam-inciting, violent-gesticulation-inducing behavior from the same area of the field as last season.

While it's easy to write this off as "just another preseason friendly," it's excruciatingly difficult to read play-by-play from the past few trophy-less seasons' goals-allowed history - the latter being what matters. For all the theory behind the Xs and Os to playing attractive football, it is never more than a proposed means to an end. Great players understand this... sometimes to a fault. Announcers pussyfoot around addressing it, but the shortcomings of Messi, Rooney, Ronaldo and the like are on full display on the rare occasions that they cannot produce at the level they're used to. Granted they have different coping mechanisms and usually stay professional, the fact remains that losing isn't OK.

So who could fault Nasri for balking at signing a new contract? His individual moments of brilliance inspired standing ovations... for what? Rescuing us from uninspired losses to clubs like Fulham? Fulham's ambition couldn't even keep their manager at the helm.

The classic definition of insanity is performing the same actions under the same circumstances, expecting different results.

Everybody seems to forget that this young-look team was originally labeled an "experiment." Wenger now relies on "stay-the-course" and "adherence to values" rhetoric in defense of his error-prone squad. This holds weight when it has been proven successful in the past. Sadly, the reality is that while Arsenal have stayed in the Top 4 and maintained a profitable business model, supporters are only gifted more high profile losses on the European stage to go with congested schedule excuses for sub-par domestic performances. Therefore this is still an experiment which needs to be dynamic and able to address areas of deficiency. We haven't established many values!

You don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, but our tub's looking rather murky.

The Bad News: Promised changes in personnel haven't happened yet.
The Good News: The season hasn't started yet and transfer window is still open.

Bob Bradley Gets Sacked For The German Guy

Bob Bradley was "relieved" from his position as the Head Coach of the US Men's National Team. This comes as a bit of a surprise considering the case for Bradley making the most of his resources seems plausible. But Sunil Gulati's made his pursuit of Juergen Klinsmann no secret. He just needed the signing to look "respectable." Granted the past year has been nothing to write home about for the USMNT and with US football seemingly in the doldrums, the timing of this decision seems as appropriate as it's going to be.

Seemingly forgotten is:

• The rediscovery of Freddy Adu.
• The 2010 World Cup and its inspirational group stage comebacks.
• The 2009 Confederations Cup run where a defiant US squad shocked the world - snapping Spain's record win streak in ruthless fashion. They then rode that momentum into the finals, pushing the Brazil powerhouse to the brink of foreclosure.
• The 2007 Gold Cup win.
• The discovery of Charlie Davies.

Because what we are left with is:

• 2011 & 2009 Gold Cup embarrassment, 
• A thrashing from Spain in the "rematch friendly"
• 2010 World Cup knockout stage disappointment (Yeah, from Ghana... again),
• No apparent back 4 and a streak of rice-paper displays.
• An absence of world class striking talent.
• A youth system that doesn't promote dynamic play or sufficiently develop Footballing IQ.
• A watered down domestic league, drunk on its business model and expansion "success."

I have always admired Bob Bradley's approach and competitive mind. He has shown the ability to adjust and make lemonade. These traits make him a desirable coach and leader. The "figure it out" mentality seems undervalued in these days of posturing and system dependency.

The real burden of recent results falls on the USSF. Its brand will suffer with this run of form considering the USMNT isn't getting results and seems to be moving backward while the MLS has certainly taken 5 steps back in terms of its level of play. This is illustrated by the shellacking its teams took during the World Football Challenge friendlies and All-Star game vs. Man Utd. These are games where mid-season form MLS clubs are supposed to be outworking big European clubs - making matches interesting and compelling teams to loan their fringe players out for worthwhile experience. It ain't hap'nin this year.

And where are our stars? Landon Donovan hasn't been 100% healthy since his loan to Everton. Tim Howard can't save us from every poorly defended attack. Clint Dempsey's great when he isn't being keyed on and hacked all game. Juan Agudelo is promising and it will be interesting to see just how far the Freddy Adu comeback story goes (not that his national team value has ever dropped to me). But after that...

...

With that said, I'm not sure Bob Bradley's departure hurts or helps US Football because Juergen Klinsmann is walking in on the recession.