'Tappa' happy with Boyz despite 'early' elimination IAN BURN

[Tilla]

There was some tough. It was more the heel of Jones coming up and lightly brushing Taylor's knee. All of a sudden, it broke Jones' stride and both feet stopped moving and he tumbled in a heap.

The touch was so minimal that is hardly would have stopped Jones if he wanted to continue charging to goal.

[Karl]

. Ball distribution from Ricketts had much to be desired and too many of his kicks wound up being speculative 50-50 balls where we predictably gave up possession.

True or False?
How many are too much?

1st half long kicks that did not work: 3

2nd half long kicks that did not work: 2

Total 5

We need to judge the number where we predictable gave up possession as opposed to those that helped the TEAM - (i.e. Free-kicks or other possession = where Jamacia retained possession).

...and the circumstances under which the long kicks were made: i.e. those where a defender showed for the ball or pulled wide or moved in free space.

...and importantly those of the 4 we lost, how many there were that there were alternates to taking a long kick? [It is all well and good about calling for a short pass...when there is no one to make that pass to as your TEAMmates are miles away playing 'high up'. In those coircumstances it would be downright silly rolling out a 50:50 ball. Far better to have that 50:50 as far from goal as possible with layers of teammates i.e. defenders, between the ball and your goal.]





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Ricketts

3 min: Long kick to Shelton - Shelton to Johnson (good effective kick - It worked)

4th min: Long one bounce to US 'keeper - Wasteful

4th min: Left foot clear under pressure - Goes to US

7th min: Passed to (Taylor or Reid - number not clear)

8th min: Ricketts passed (appears to Reid)

11th min: Ricketts passed to Reggae Boyz wing back (not sure whom)

15th min: Passed to Reid

16th min: Long to Shelton - US defender climbs on Shelton's back - Dangerous position for US. Austin takes kick it flies wide of the US goal. (good effective kick - It worked)

19th min: Passed to wide left at the back

21th min: ...to defender wide left

28th min: ...to Philips

29th min: Long to Shelton...Shelton to Philips (good effective kick - It worked)

30th min: ...to teammate wide right

40th min: ...Long to Johnson - (good accurate kick - It worked)


42nd min: Long to Johnson - (good accurate kick - It worked)

43 min: Long to Johnson - Johnson heads on to US - (good accurate kick - It worked)

46th min: Long to Shelton - Shelton heads on to Johnson - (good effective kick - It worked)


End of 1st half.
Total count -
17 passes out.
8 long passes, which I contend were his only options.
9 short passes.

2nd half

64th min: Long to winger (Winger fouled - Kick to Jamaica)

69 min: Long to midfielder - Jamaica

73 min: Roll to Philips (left)

74 min: Long to Johnson - Foul by Johnson - US kick

79 min: Pass to left

87th min: Pass to Philips wide left

87min: Pass wide to Reid

89th min: Wide to Philips

89th min: Cleared long to US put under pressure by Philips


End of 2nd half.
Total count -
10 passes out.
5 long passes, which I contend were his only options.
5 short passes

That is how I saw it!
__________________

[Twan]

There was ample example of our being coached to play a certain style. ...and in this match ample evidence that the players departed from that. Yet the players held the score to 0 - 0 beyond the 1st half...and then suffered a deflected goal and a man sent off.

...and for all that they were up until the 80th minute, 1 goal away from taking it to extra-time.

The failing was taking care of the ball as in the previous matches. No coaching can help on that at that stage.

USA 52% - Ja 48%

Missed opportunities, giving away of the ball i.e. less possession was our loss, right there.

Karl, could it be that the style of play and the formation that we used with some success in previous games, didnt work this time because of the quality of the opponent ? The USA team has much better players than the teams that we Barcamised in the previous games ? They were faster with feet and thinking.
I posted from the Grenada game that we were much too slow in passing the ball.and that was quite evident on Sunday added to that we were confused with the interchanging by the USA.
Tappa saw that we were non existent in the middle and nothing was done at halftime to correct that....in a way he was like Diego Maradonna against Germany...he seemed lost. He is inexperienced and will learn from this experience.

[Karl]

It was a number of things.
Primary as far as am concerned - lack of possession.

We gave away the damn ball too much.

There were others - we failed to take our chances.

We played a man down for a long time.

Yes - USA played smarter and faster.

Well I did not see that non-existent midfield - I saw less possession. Losing the ball too often.

Look...if the other TEAM has the ball more than 50% of the game your forwards, your midfield will lack possession and your defense will be under constant pressure.