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USA 1, South Africa 0: The Highlights

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  1. Seeing as how good set pieces come from repetition and this team basically had never played together before what did you expect from a couple of days of practice?

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  2. “The more that BB shows some balls and calls in some new talent, the better off the US will be.”

    Would you have included Agudelo, Bunbury, Diskerud, Ream and Boss in our World Cup team? Did you even know who these guys were before the World Cup?

    “But BB insistence of using a lone striker”

    Many European teams use one striker depending on the situation. BB does it because he has a hard time finding one let alone two.

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  3. Those shots weren’t anywhere near close to troubling Guzan. He had them all the way.

    The giveaways were to be expected given everyone’s comparative unfamilarity with each other ( even though there were three Crew starters).

    Even though SA are less than mediocre, what was impressive was how the team recovered from giveaways and none of them really came to anything. That was as good team defense as I’ve seen from the USA in a long time, since the Confederations Cup I’d say.

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  4. The Gold Cup starts on June 5, 2011. That’s a long time from now. This team could be mostly out of form or injured or playing for another country by then.

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  5. Is that because of Timmy or because of the back four?

    Gizan was captain and had a fairly young back four but I agree with you he seems to spend more time organizing than Timmy ( who seems to mostly be yelling angrily at people).

    I’m on record as preferring Guzan who overall seems to bring more calm to the defense than Timmy does. But it’s hard to compare, given the different personnel and circumstances.

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  6. Full credit to Guzan for keeping it organized as well. Something I’ve noticed Timmy hasn’t done quite as much of in the past 12 months as he used to.

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  7. sure he was beaten by somma in the early stages of the game, but he grew as it went on. Ok so maybe Lichaj and Bedoya were better, but surely not agudelo..

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  8. LOL , He most def was NOT our best player.

    He showed that he wouldnt be out of place at the camp though. He needs to be more aggressive and bigger(bulk) Before I’d be comfortable with him back there

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  9. Possession is still a problem, no?

    Per set pieces, I think the veterans are going to provide a higher skill set there than the new/inexperienced lot by themselves. Or one can hope they will.

    The hilarious thing about Aguledo’s post-match interviews is that he spends some time dwelling on the fact his initial reaction to seeing the ball go past the line is worry that it would be called offside: “Oh please call it ON!” Could he honestly not see or is every match in SA going to engender goal paranoia in USMNT players from 2010 onwards?

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  10. The only critique I have from last night, was how ineffective we were from set pieces. Watching film on South Africa, they are terrible at defending and marking set pieces, yet we certainly didnt challenge them in that aspect.

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  11. The more that BB shows some balls and calls in some new talent, the better off the US will be. The US was the better team on the night. Brad Guzan, whom I thought should have got a WC start after an abysmal Tim Howard showing against Slovenia, kept the US in the game after horrid defending by Bornstein (OK to be fair, he was not the only bad defender, Spector came in a close second)

    But BB insistence of using a lone striker..wait for it… Findlay, up front was just a bad decision. Not only was he not fast enough to beat the speedy SA defenders, his touch was even worse. How many shots on goal?

    Revelation include Lichaj whose work rate more than made up for some defensive errors, Goodson, who kept a good back line despite having little practice time with his teammates like Ream. and of course Bedoya and Diskerud. Mix’s skill on the ball with three defenders on him in the box, allowed him to get the ball to Agudelo whose deft side-footing shot, made sure his inclusion into future games is assured.

    The great thing about this game is that BB can call upon people, other than the Bornsteins, Spectors and Findleys, who time and time again have been given opportunities to really stink and have taken them with aplomb, to actually perform under difficult circumstances.

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  12. No comments on Tim Ream? I thought, other than Guzan, he was our best player.. kept Somma from doing much of anything. Actually, our whole defense, aside from Spector, played very well yesterday.

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  13. Yah, hopefully the only reason he kept playing findley was because he hadn’t found a proper strike partner for Jozy, and findley was the OOOONLY speedster we had. I think Bradley has been waiting for this game for a long time, thats why he called up Agudelo so soon, it was kinda like, “Please, Agudelo, please give me a reason to call you back, that way i can leave findley at home.” And then u got Teal, who definitely hopped over Findley as well. So i think we’re good for now…..hopefully

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  14. I thought the assist by Mikkel Diskerud was equally, if not more amazing, than the goal by Agudelo. He showed such great composure in the box to hold the ball, pull it back and nimbly thread it into Agudelo. It was a great play.

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  15. I thought the assist by Mikkel Diskerud was equally, if not more amazing, than the goal by Agudelo. He showed such great composure in the box to hold the ball, pull it back and nimbly thread it into Agudelo. It was a great play.

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  16. Fantastic job done by BB. Took so many new guys to a short camp and after a scatter shot first half they looked organized and threatening in the 2nd. Good spacing and far fewer give aways. So many have faulted him for having to adjust at the half, but this time he handled everything very well.

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  17. Not sure about an organized defense I counted at least 2 one on one shots against Guzan because the defense was flat footed. Also saw far too many corners and utter scrambles. Still with the team we had, they did well.

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  18. I really hope Bunbury pans out. We need a forward who can post up and play with his back to goal. If we have someone who can lay it off to inverted wingers like Donovan coming in on the diagonal, then we could really see a 4-2-3-1 work well. That trap-turn-shot was exciting to see from a US forward. Good stuff yesterday.

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  19. the future seems bright, thank God. i’m so glad a bunch of young inexperienced players could come in and step up yesterday, it was amazing to watch. imagine how mix, agudelo, and some of the others will do with the full senior national side around them to elevate their play even more. i don’t want to jump the gun, but we may be in for a very exciting World Cup cycle, and then some

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  20. wow. great game! So proud of our young guys. I don’t even need to list who played great, but for once, props to Bob for making the right choices. GAS FACES THOUGH? for idiotic Somma for saying they would “destroy” us and the South African press for saying they were insulted we brought a weak team. SHOVE THAT IN YOUR VUVAZELA, TRICKS!!

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  21. Remember back when people were on the fence about who is better, Rogers or Holden?

    After the Olympics (way back when) I could see promise in Holden that I didn’t see in Rogers. Then weird injuries kept Holden from making his debut.

    Rogers is very quick. That was a very fast South African team, and he caught them on the wrong foot a few times. Now if he can just get it together we’ll have another weapon on the wings. He’s obviously got the talent.

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  22. This should be the last time we ever see Findley in a USA jersey. That was a swing and a miss for Bradley. Great to see our young upcomers on display. Lots of promise for the future.

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  23. Did that SA journalist who complained about our side sending the kids have anything to say about the SA side and the result?

    American brand of soccer – work rate, speed, solid defense, world class goalkeeping.

    Coach, congratulations on a great beginning to the cycle. Keep moving up.

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  24. I’m so proud of these young guys, the played with some pace and some flare.

    And I applaud Coach Bradley for putting these young guys out there and putting trust in their abilities.

    And its very good to know USA has some young play makers in the pipeline for the future.

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  25. Great memories. Can’t believe I have to wait until January for my next USMNT fix.

    It’s interesting to think that national caps for players like Mix and Bedoya won’t be merely getting them more visibility within their clubs (like is sometimes the case with past US callups), but rather could push them on to bigger clubs in Europe.

    Some very talented kids out there.

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  26. Great team effort and result!! Very proud of the young guns.

    We now have 2 strikers with the same initial and number. So, who’ll get to wear #17 when they’re both on the roster? 😛

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  27. That was as enjoyable a US game as I have watched in some time. Really, really proud of the “Kids in America”.

    Seperate question: anyone else having trouble accessing Grant Whals piece on the game? Every time I click on it I jsut get the header and no text.

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