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USA-CZECH REPUBLIC ANALYSIS
By Ridge Mahoney in Gelsenkirchen
Finding fault for the 3-0 thrashing in Gelsenkirchen starts on the other side of the midfield line, where the Czechs lined up better players at nearly every position. Only by everybody topping their game could the Americans have matched the Czechs on this night and almost nobody did.
The Americans succumbed as much as they were outplayed by fluffing first touches, reacting sluggishly to knockdowns and second balls, and wilting under the pressure and passion of talented opponents. The glaring gap in quality didn’t equal that of a 5-1 thrashing by Czechoslovakia 16 years ago, but came close enough, especially considering Jan Koller pulled a hamstring and hobbled off, and Milan Baros didn’t play.
Pavel Nedved and Tomas Rosicky, the focal points of a five-man midfield, seared the U.S. with audacity and pace. Thomas Galasek stuffed the middle. Outside backs Marek Jankulovski and Thomas Grygera shrewdly timed their attacking forays. And central defenders David Rozehnal and Tomas Ujfalusi, lamentably, had little to do.
In its essence and in its best moments, the World Cup boils down the sport to its most primal and yet most breathtaking elements. Nationalistic fervor sometimes drives men to stratospheric heights of performance, and while only rarely does the tournament scale those heights, the Americans received a rude reminder of what happens when only a few of them show up.
An American team idling at the opening kickoff seldom got past second gear. Computer statistics showed the USA with 55 percent of the possession, but anybody not powered by chips saw Czechs firing and Americans wheezing. Unforced errors were common, mindless touches were plentiful, breakdowns were frequent.
Coach Bruce Arena and a few players moaned about conceding an early goal and surely a pulverizing, point-blank header by Koller in the fifth minute tilted the field sharply. Yet a courageous team claws its way back into the game, if not by quickly striking back, then with possession touches as teammates flow forward, combination play of rhyme and rhythm, and fierce duels for every ball.
That goal personifies just how out of sync were the Americans for much of the game. A long kick upfield by Kasey Keller quickly turned into a Czech counterattack when Rozehnal lobbed a ball into a yawning right flank for Grygera with left back Eddie Lewis stranded in midfield. Grygera’s driven ball led Koller to bump Eddie Pope out of the way and crash his header into the net.
Rosicky doubled the lead by collecting a headed clearance by Oguchi Onyewu from a Nedved cross and drilling an unstoppable shot into the top corner from nearly 30 yards. He added a third when Nedved sprang an offside trap as Onyewu hestitated and Rosicky ran onto his pass to slot the third goal past Keller.
Much attention had been focused on the Onyewu-Koller aerial duel and Onyewu actually won nearly every head-to-head showdown. But, again, Onyewu faltered at the critical moments. His clearing header — from a good cross it must be said — when straight to Rosicky, and he reacted much too late as Nedved’s slide-rule pass sent in Rosicky.
But culpability abounded on the U.S. side. DaMarcus Beasley, marred by some atrocious play in the final warm-up games, sunk to unprecedented lows at right mid yet played the full 90 minutes.
Bobby Convey was better on the left but not by much. Lewis, marooned on the first goal, drilled balls forward that Brian McBride struggled to control. Steve Cherundolo got knocked off the ball by Nedved a couple of times and served a few decent balls but decent wasn’t going to cut it on this stage.
Only Claudio Reyna and at times Landon Donovan seemed equal to the Czechs, but so much defensive work was required of Reyna that opportunities to push up were few. One of his runs netted a feed from Donovan that he drove against the post from 25 yards with the score, 1-0; a few minutes later, Rosicky shot from further and just a tad sharper.
Donovan could have done more but with Beasley stunted and Pablo Mastroeni stretched by the dynamic Czech midfielders and McBride often double-teamed, his efforts to link the attack faltered. A scything first-half dribble yielded a shuddering body-block and yellow card for Rozehnal but a free kick from 40 earned nothing.
Arena swapped Cherundolo and Mastroeni for John O’Brien and Eddie Johnson at halftime, switching from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2. This gave the U.S equal numbers in midfield against the 4-1-4-1 deployed by Czech coach Karl Brueckner with Baros sidelined. Johnson struggled initially, then launched a couple of good shots. O’Brien played a few smart balls when not tracking Nedved, et al.
But talent and tenacity, not tactics, dealt this crunching defeat. This was a good whuppin’.
The U.S. team is better than this, yet in 90 minutes wiped away nearly every fond memory of 2002. Top World Cup teams are exquisitely knitted outfits embroidered by rare jewels; compared side-by-side, the U.S. looked mighty tattered.