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USA ties Ivory Coast, 0-0, in Olympic tune-up

The U.S. men’s Olympic team played Ivory Coast to a scoreless tie in its opening match of the ING Cup in Hong Cup on Wednesday.

The Ivorians, led by Chelsea striker Salomon Kalou, out-shot the Americans but could not find the net. The U.S. team struggled to create chances in its first Olympic tune-up match.

Here was the U.S. team’s starting lineup:

Brad Guzan, Marvell Wynne, Maurice Edu, Michael Parkhurst, Michael Orozco, Sacha Kljestan, Stuart Holden, Jozy Altidore, Brian McBride, Michael Bradley, Freddy Adu.

Charlie Davies, Dax McCarty, Benny Feilhaber, Danny Szetela and Patrick Ianni entered the match at halftime.

Comments

  1. —–Altidore—McBride——

    Rogers——————–Adu

    —–Szetela—-Bradley——

    Orozco——————Wynne

    ——Parkhurst—Edu——–

    ———-Guzan————–

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  2. Just FYI to everyone else here: The commentators today actually weren’t that bad. They rarely are. Rarely as bad as complainers make them out to be, I mean.

    Sorry, but I’m grumpy tonight and I’m just sort of tired of kneejerk commentator-bashing. Not for any particular reason — I have no ties to the TV biz — but just… I don’t know. Just kind of fed up with it. Call this commentator-bashing-bashing if you like.

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  3. ____________Guazan______________

    _Wynne_____Parkhurst_____Orozco_

    _________Edu______Bradley_______

    ______________Adu_______________

    __Kljestan___________Rodgers____

    _______McBride___Altidore_______

    That’s how the starting line-up needs to look for the team to have the best shot at success, imo.

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  4. I was pleasantly impressed with Wynne and Brad Guzan. Benny Feilhaber looked pretty solid too. He needs to have a big tourney so he can sign with a decent European club.

    Overall, Ivory Coast did look better in the game, but i’m blaming it on jet lag mostly. Plus, the team is still trying to gel together.

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  5. Ack the sky is falling! It’s a tune up. We have three scrimmages before three guarenteed matches of olympic competition. There is no point in blowing your load before getting to the games that count.

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  6. I actually thought Edu was the MOTM for the US. He was strong, confident on the ball, and won anything that came his way. I hope they get their legs before the next match. The offense looked mighty weak.

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  7. Anyone have thoughts about whether Nowak will also explore a 3-5-2 in this tournament? It almost seems the roster fits for it. I didn’t see the warm up match today – not sure where Edu really played on the field.

    Guzan

    Wynne – Parkhurst – Orozco

    Edu – Bradley

    Klestan – Adu – Holden/Rogers

    Jozy – McBride

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  8. Good tie by a jet lagged USA team on a very hot and humid night in Hong Kong only 36 hours after getting in against a very fast and skillful Ivory Coast side.

    The second half team was better than the first half team. MOTM was Guzan. Dax stood out for his energy. Rogers stood out for his world class speed, He was dangerous at time and was not afraid to go at defenders although his touch was slightly off. Bradley had a decent game. Adu did not have any space to operate so it was not a good game for him.

    The USA coaching staff gets good grades for trying differnt line ups and formations to see what works.

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  9. @ Jay Dubya,

    Zizzo was left off b/c of his club situation. He’s on the cusp of making the first team and getting minutes.

    Hannover informed him (publicly I might add) that he’d be better served if he stayed with his club. Not fair, but he’s a pro and made the right choice IMO.

    I’m sure he was in the running though.

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  10. Thom,

    USA refers to USA Network, which has been owned by General Electric, the parent company of Universal Studios and the NBC family of networks for a few years.

    USA is included in the vast majority of basic cable packages.

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  11. A sudden burst of energy produced this:

    USA vs. Japan, 8/7, 5:00 am EDT, MSNBC and Universal HD

    USA vs. Netherlands, 8/10, 7:45 am EDT, USA and USA-HD

    USA vs. Nigeria, 8/13, 5:00 am EDT, USA and USA-HD

    Anyone know if USA and USAHD means good old NBC?

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  12. @ AllNats:

    british, huh? well i guess that takes a bit of wind out of my little rant about American announcers — but i stick by it. and, of course, i have just as little patience for foreign commentators who dismiss US players out of hand. so, consider me still resolutely annoyed. thanks for writing back.

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  13. @mdc:

    They were british two guys I’d never heard of. The game was broadcast on the Star Sports Network. Prior to this game I had heard numerous complaints about incompetent Star Sports announcers. After this experience I have to say they weren’t unfounded.

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  14. I didn’t see the game but, going by ussoccer matchtracker mickey mouse statistics, Orozco was our worst defender. Edu, Wynn, and Parkhurst did equally well, though Edu and Wynn were more involved. Parkhurst made the fewest mistakes, thought he wasn’t as involved as Edu. Was he in sweeper mode?

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  15. Does anybody know if the second game on 8/2 will be televised, or have a link to watch?

    Will they replay the first game? if so, when and what time?

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  16. @ AllNats:

    any idea who was calling the game?

    i know i’m not adding anything new to the bemoan-our-tv-talent game, but i just don’t understand the tendancy to conflate knowledge of the game with hardline editorializing (or, for that matter, boosterism). there’s a place for that in the half-time/wrap shows, talk radio, print journalism, etc. But unless you’re going to be concise and purposeful about criticism as it pertains to specific instances on the field, well, then, to this viewer it often smacks of insecurity and sour grapes from some of our formerly “illustrious” stars turned [mis-]talking heads.

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  17. Parkhurst was fine. Nothing spectacular, seemed a tiny bit unadjusted to the 4 man back line.

    Overall the US team needs more time with each other. This was a good tune-up against a fast Ivory Coast team that had already been there for a week.

    Give credit to Nowak for not tiring players out, and trying different things. He switched left and right mids in both halves. Looks like he is still trying to see what formation and players works out best. My estimation is we need to allow space for our playmaking/attacking mids(Adu) by having some wingers that open up the game.

    McBride and Altidore is stil a tossup in the 4-4-2 as they had relatively little or no service. both showed a flash here or ther but weren’t on the same page at the same time.

    Defensively we looked suprisingly good. We’ll see happens in next game. overall a C+ performance.

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  18. I’m a little curious about why Sal Zizzo was left off the team. He seemed to be pretty sharp last year with the U-20s. To much competition on the wings? He never even seemed to be in the discussion.

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  19. Oh yeah, and the announcers were about as bad I’ve ever heard.

    All I got from them is that Freddy Adu is a terrible terrible player who has been nothing but a bitter disappointment to everyone who has seen him play (they continued to rant about this long after he had been subbed off), and that Robbie Rogers would look good in cowboy movies.

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  20. Rogers came on the half for Altidore. According to matchtracker there were 4 subs at the half and 2 at the 50′. The only player on the bench who did not get in to the game was Seitz.

    Ives had everything correct in his posting but forgot/overlooked the 6th substitute which was Rogers.

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  21. So, who do you think will be getting service to McBride? Other than Rogers, I don’t see a crosser, unless Wynne finally received his copy of “How a Man-Giant Should Attack from the Back”.

    Kind of a useless senior pick if he doesn’t get crosses played to the head.

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  22. Watched the match. Surprisingly we looked better with the second half group than the first, though neither group of players could really get anything going in the final third.

    Adu was relatively quiet, though he was taken down in the box for what should have been a pk. McBride and Altidore had a few individual moments, but were never on the same wavelength. Hopefully that improves as they continue to play together.

    Kljestan looked a little lost. I thought Benny played well enough to be fighting for a starting spot. Bradley was solid as a defensive mid. Rogers also played the whole second half, he looked dangerous for the first 15 minutes, then was rather disappointing for the rest.

    Orozco was ok, but definitely looked uncomfortable at left back. Parkhurst, Edu, and Wynne were for the most part solid in back, and Guzan wasn’t really tested much, but had one or two nice stops.

    Of course this is all just my opinion.

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  23. Mark and Dave don’t worry be happy. Robbie Rodgers played the entire second half. The USMNT played better with their subs in the second half. The startes did not look good at all. The nats had no shots in the first half although a penatly should have been called when Adu was taken down in the box. McBride, Altidore, and Adu really need to work on their chemistry becuase it was not there for this game. Guzan made several saves throughout the game to keep this game scoreless. All in all not a bad outing for a tune up.

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  24. Other than the curious absence of Robbie Rogers, I don’t think people are going to have a whole lot to complain about with that lineup. Hopefully, we’ll click into gear once the real tournament starts.

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  25. Ditto that! Where was Rogers???…don’t tell me he is banged up. I think he is the critical piece to us being dangerous

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