USA played well and showed the same spirit before Klinsman was in charge, and more to the point this is the man that took Altidore instead of genuine quality upfront. He also had some actual quality and not just work rate on the bench.
It was an exciting game but USA were shocking upfront, they broke almost exactly as often as Belgium did yet created, it was like 3 shots vs 25 or something maybe towards the end of 90 minutes. They were in plenty of great positions where one pass to get someone into a shooting position and they couldn't do it. One or two better choices in the team, earlier subs, and taking an actual striker rather than Altidore could have been the difference.
Defensively they were pretty sound, the CB's were immense and Tim Howard picks himself(though as above Belgium gave him the chance to save almost every shot, Belgium's finishing was woeful, they should have scored 6+ in normal time). But offensively USA were a shambles, they got to the box excellently, Bradley all game long picking out the right ball, right weight, right direction to get the team moving on the counter attack but the final cross, the final pass into the box was woeful.
Mirallas, while good, still missed a few sitters, Mertens was a joke, De Bruyne was shocking all night long with the goal being the only time he looked composed on the ball the entire evening. Fellaini could have gone off at any stage without anyone noticing.
It was a game desperately lacking in quality for 90mins and most of the other 30 was pretty poor as well.
One of the reasons a team like USA has done so well is more about how poor Belgium, Portugal, Ghana and Germany have been than how great USA were or what a job Klinsman did. He made critical errors and inherited the team spirit.
The team spirit comes from the players more than the manager, the USA players cared more about it and were willing to run themselves into the ground, England half assed every game, different managers really won't change that. They have cushy jobs and don't care, if the manager drops all the wasters and picks the next tier of players down, you get players also in cushy jobs, also thinking they are great, who will play the same way.
England may beat USA, USA may beat England, who cares, England won't win a world cup with the current quality, attitude and ego's and USA don't have the ultimate quality to go with their attitude and willingness to work for the team rather than themselves.
