[When the game state changes, the approach of both sides inevitably changes too. The Americans problem, however, is that they have been too easily affected by this, especially when theyve gone ahead. An easy, if basic, way to measure this is by considering the possession statistics during the various changes in game state. For example, when the U.S. were leading 1-0 against Ghana for 81 minutes, they had just 38 percent of the possession. When Ghana equalised, the U.S. suddenly sprung into life, and in the buildup to John Brooks famous header, they had 59 percent of the ball. But once the goal was scored, it immediately dropped back down to 28 percent. When needed, they could dominate the game, but they were too submissive when ahead and invited lots of pressure. There was a similar situation in the Portugal game. At 0-0, the U.S. started with a respectable 40 percent of possession but quickly went behind and were forced to dominate. At 1-0 down, they had exactly 50 percent of the ball, and when spurred on by Jermaine Jones thunderbolt, the U.S. recorded 52 percent of possession in the buildup to Clint Dempseys goal. But then, at 2-1 up, they had just 21 percent of possession.] espnfc.us/blog/tactics-and-analysis/67/post/1921151/prolonged-possession-a-must-for-us
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 15:27:02 +0000
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