Castrol Performance Recap
In soccer, the players most often control the outcome, but a good game plan can certainly provide the blueprint for success. In the comprehensive 2-0 victory against Jamaica in the Gold Cup quarterfinals, U.S. head coach Bob Bradley deployed a 4-2-3-1 formation that confounded a Jamaican team entering the match brimming with confidence after going unbeaten in group play without surrendering a single goal.
"I think we had them pretty much pegged in terms of our scouting report on them," U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard said to reporters after the match.
By using three advanced and mobile midfielders, the U.S. team was able to create confusion amongst the Jamaican defenders about who to cover and when, which opened up space for passing lanes and good attacking combinations. With impressive ball movement and spacing that helped spread the field, the U.S. was able to stretch their defense and wear their opponents down physically by controlling the time of possession (59 percent to 41 percent). Equally important, this approach limited the ability of Jamaica's dangerous attack to gain any momentum.
"We felt that the way they defend that we could play a lot of passes, make their defenders have to make decisions about who would they would step to, and then our ability to move the ball over 90 minutes was going to control the game and create chances," said Bradley afterwards.
Students of the game have seen the U.S. team utilize both obvious and nuanced tactical changes throughout the last four years. In the seven games between the 2010 FIFA World Cup and this summer's Gold Cup, the team has trotted out a 4-2-3-1 formation five times – including the games against Brazil and Argentina – as well as a 4-3-3 and their more traditional 4-4-2. While a lot of factors go into the decision on a formation (personnel, opponents and conditions, to name a few), it is always designed to maximize the strengths of your team while limiting those of your opponent.
