Welcome on board and good first post. Yes we were "too nice" and I beleive that's due to how we play the game but we have to change that culture if we want to compete in today's game. Peru was fouling us everytime we carossed the half disrupting any sort of momentum we were trying to create, how many times was Glen able to stand or manuver with the ball at his feet? Not only was he swarmed by white shirts as the lone striker but everytime he touched or came close to they had him eating grass. We on the other hand we giving them loads of space, they were beating us to most balls, they attacked in numbers, with options in transition, many times were we escourting or chasing and that is probably the main reason reason we never had a chance to stay in the game.
We have to learn to stop our opponents from early, shutting down space, disrupting their flow by fouling (smart of course) at times, giving up nothing easy until we figure out how to break them down. We all saw the first goal, got burned down the line, two defenders ball watching, no communication, unaware of where the foraward was, so many things wrong with that play. Then again if we did what we had to do to prevent that cross ball we would've hung in the game a little longer.
It's tough for me to critisize our players when most of them are not use to playing at a high level of intensity that is essential for the international game but if we'll like to be competitive and give ourselves a chance we must learn to make our presence felt when we take the field. I truly hope that this was a lesson learn and we can take away these things from it.
