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USA at Ukraine (friendly); Wed 5 Mar 14; Kharkiv, Ukraine
Topic Started: Feb 2 2014, 04:40 PM (979 Views)
garbaggio
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Yeah, as Winslow noted, quite a weak performance by almost everyone out there on the USMNT.

Lousy 1st half where the US created no offense and was quite lucky not to give up more than the single goal. Opening goal was when Ukrainian Harmash beat a badly organized US offsides trap to settle a diagonal pass from a teammate, Howard blocked the initial shot but Harmash gathered the rebound and laid it off to open Iarmolenko who finished into a mostly unguarded net. A few minutes later Ukraine had a 2nd goal disallowed for offsides even though the replay made it look like Cameron kept everyone onsides. Later in the half Castillo let speedy Iarmolenko get way behind him at midfield for a long run at goal (but he shot wide). Anyway all 4 US defenders looked bad enough to be held responsible for giving up goal chances in the 1st half. Kljestan also had a bad turnover that led to a good Ukrainian chance. I also thought Cameron put a shoulder charge into an opponents back in the penalty area at one point but the ref didn't call anything.

There was almost no coherent attack from the US in the 1st half. Cameron and Castillo managed to overlap forward usefully one time each but it didn't lead to any dangerous shots.

The US didn't make any halftime subs but Klinsmann must have motivated or threatened the players effectively because the US started off much better than earlier. Several players were involved in a nice quick buildup where Kljestan crossed to Bedoya who volleyed the ball off a Ukrainian defender for a corner kick. A few minutes later Jozy got open in front of goal but headed Cameron's cross over the crossbar. Shortly after that Bedoya opportunistically shot just wide after Ukrainian keeper Pyatov rushed a bad pass under pressure from Kljestan. Then after that Jermaine Jones played an excellent defensive splitting pass down the right channel that Piatov was just able to break up inches ahead of Dempsey.

The US hadn't scored but was creating chances when some more Keystone Kops defending blew up the good effort.

Ukrainian keeper Piatov cleared a long ball upfield. Gooch didn't judge it well and slipped and fell while closing down on Marko Devic and the ball. The ball bounced and Devic was able to get to it and lift it with a light kick past Brooks who had shifted over to help out but now seemed to have his feet nailed to the ground. Devic sprinted toward goal with the ball as Cameron and Fabian Johnson tried to close in on him from the flanks. Howard came out of goal and blocked Devic's initial shot but he got the rebound back and scored with his next shot. An excellent 1-man effort by Devic but it's disconcerting to see one long ball punted out from our opponent's goalmouth cause our defense to collapse like a house of cards.

So the US solid - but scoreless - offensive effort for about the first 20 minutes of the 2nd half was the bright spot for the game.

Brek Shea, Aron Johansson, Danny Williams and Juan Agudelo came on as subs at different times over the final 30 minutes. As the game approached stoppage time Johansson almost scored on a volley from Bedoya's corner kick (defender blocked the shot on the goal line). Overall, no one who was on the field for an extended period really looked very good.

Bedoya had a few good moments but wasn't a consistent threat. Johansson had the nice volley but was on the field for less than a half hour. I don't remember anything too awful from Jermaine Jones. Howard wasn't at fault on either goal but he didn't vocally organize the defense well in an almost empty stadium.

It's only one game but it makes our talent pool look pretty shallow. Watching bits of the Spain-Italy and Mexico-Nigeria friendlies its hard to see how today's US team would have done much better against other opponents.

Good luck to the Ukrainians in their other struggles.

At the end of the game Ian Darke made some sort of comment that the game was encouraging. For Ghana, Portugal, and Germany.
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garbaggio
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shelsoccer,Mar 5 2014
07:19 PM
Subject to going back and watching the last 30 minutes I slept through, the thing that worries me most is not the play of the marginal Euro-based players. It's the form of Altidore and, particularly, Dempsey.

Yeah, Shel, you posted while I was posting.

Outside Altidore's header over the crossbar and Dempsey's almost run onto Jones' through ball they didn't do much to carry our offense. I've seen enough good play from Dempsey over his career to think he can snap out of it before Brazil. But Jozy hasn't done much in quite a long stretch and I'm worried Klinsmann is deadset on him starting as target forward in Brazil regardless of whether he ever scores again.

Dempsey got into it with Bezus after they went to ground following a midfield collision near the end of the game. I think the ref was right not to punish it harshly (even though his car was firebombed over the weekend, what restraint!). But the sequence kind of triggered an imaginary Beezus and Butthead and Dempsey cartoon flashback...
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Yogi
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I'll attribute my delay in posting my thoughts here on the fact that game pretty much sucked the life out of me!

Awful is putting it mildly. The only benefit is I think it will make Klinsmann's roster decisions a little bit easier as no fringe European based player did anything close to being able to say he staked a spot on the team for Brazil.

shelsoccer though has hit on what I think is something to be concerned about- the form of both Altidore and Dempsey. On the bright side, they have 3 months to change that but their form has been poor since August and that has to be a Klinsmann concern.
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americafutbol10
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Nothing to say...outside of the team, obviously, didn't get the memo that the game had not been cancelled, after all <_<
US Soccer...Don't Thread On Me!

Michigan Football...Harbaugh Effect (GO BLUE!)

LA Galaxy...5-time MLS Cup Champions!

Colombia...VIVA, Cafeteros!
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Rufus T. Firefly
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I am a little disappointed about Kljestan, he plays pretty well for Anderlecht but the guy has received plenty of opportunities with the US and just never seems to live up to the hype. His chances of going to Brazil are small now.

I think the only fringe players who really did not hurt their case yesterday were Bedoya and Shea (that is me admitting Johannsson probably no longer is a fringe player but a likely member of the team now) But the other fringe players probably saw their World Cup hopes dissipate in the Cyprus night air.

Now concerns about Dempsey and Altidore are real, we can only hope they find form with their clubs in these next three months.
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Yogi
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garbaggio,Mar 5 2014
07:28 PM

At the end of the game Ian Darke made some sort of comment that the game was encouraging. For Ghana, Portugal, and Germany.

How true.

Yes even with the caveat that half the expected starters were missing what disappointed me about this game was not so much how fringe players like Onyewu, Brooks, Castillo, Kljestan, etc played but rather how the regulars like F. Johnson, Jones, Cameron, Altidore and Dempsey failed to make a real impact either. Klinsmann should have some concerns about that even if the fringe players actions probably made his final roster decisions easier.

On to Mexico in Phoenix to see if the MLS and Mexico based fringe players can make a better impression.
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Johnbuildr
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My belated thought on this one is that JK has one helluva managing job ahead of him to get the US out of group this summer.

Yogi is spot on, why can't the 5 or 6 experienced players organize and get this kind of a line up to play up to or above their potential instead of allowing the fringe players to pull the entire performance down?? It certainly looked like the "bad ol' days" of US soccer when we simply did not come close to having the talent to compete with teams like Ukraine.

We knew Ukraine would have the emotional edge and probably play hard, but how a bunch of guys fighting for World Cup roster spots could come out and play so uninspired for the better part of an entire game is beyond me.
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum



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