There’s no doubting that one of the biggest questions heading into last Saturday’s England was the form and fitness of Oguchi Onyewu. The central defender started nonetheless, and played much better than anyone could have expected.
However, the U.S team certainly got off to a poor start. And while Ricardo Clark deserves his share of the blame, Onyewu showed a bad habit of drifting towards the ball, vacating space in the middle of defense, and leading to chances for the opposition.
Here’s how it unfolded on England’s goal:
Onyewu moves to Rooney while playing the ball, breaking the shape of the U.S. back line.
Gerrard sees space that Onyewu vacated, and moves towards the goal.
Clark fails to recognize the danger and pick up Gerrard’s run.
Rooney plays ball to Heskey.
Heskey plays ball to Gerrard — you know the result.
By stepping up to contend with Rooney, Onyewu vacated the space. And while the fault falls onto Clark’s shoulders as well, Onyewu should have held his line a bit better, and not gotten sucked in so soon. It’s one thing to close down a player when he’s in possession heading on goal, but mistakes like this can’t be made when the pressure is on.
This is all true and Shingaurd had a great article on the 4-2-2-2 that the US plays and how Gooch gets sucked into the ball too often.
That said, what happens if Gooch does not go to the ball? Give Rooney the ball unmarked in that spot and I’d wager he scores one way or another.
So if Gooch does go out to break the Nike swoosh look that a flat back four should look like, then Bocanegra should have slipped into his spot but he was drawn out wide which is when Clark should have seen the hole/gap and the danger and slipped into become the 4th and wide left defender.
Thanks for the comment Brian.
True, obviously you don’t want to leave Rooney alone on the ball. Closing him down is something Bradley probably emphasized over and over again heading into the game. That said, I guess, aside from what you said, Onyewu slows down after getting sucked to the ball. Rooney wasn’t in complete control and nudges the ball to Gerrard.
Of course, he’s coming off a long injury layoff, and while he’s not solely to blame for the goal, he still had a good game.
very cool. would love to see these throughout the tourny