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Bruin’s brace leads USMNT to scrimmage win vs. Club Tijuana reserves

By IVES GALARCEP

Will Bruin is making the most of his first stint with the U.S. Men’s National Team, scoring two goals to help the national team post a 3-0 victory against Club Tijuana’s reserves in a closed-door scrimmage at Home Depot Center on Tuesday.

Philadelphia defender Jeff Parke provided the third goal for the Americans, who were playing in their final warm-up before the Jan. 29th friendly against Canada in Houston.

All three goals came in the second half of a match used by Jurgen Klinsmann to further evaluate his team a week before the Canada friendly.

The match came on the same day news broke that camp participants Edson Buddle and Steven Beitashour were sidelined for the remainder of camp with injuries.

What do you think of this development? Hope Bruin earns a start against Canada? Surprised to see Parke get on the scoreboard?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I thought 3-0 was good, but then i saw it was against reserves and thought maybe they should have scheduled a college team or an mls team.

    Reply
    • Not sure either of those was a good option as MLS has JUST started spring training after months off and college season has been over for at least 2 months. Surely even the TJ reserve team is better than a college team. U23s would have been a much better opponent if they were reasonably available and had practiced some together lately.

      Reply
    • MLS teams are just starting their camps and would not likely present a fit obstacle. Nor would they likely risk their players getting hurt at their likely fitness level. The Dynamo will be playing their academy and then a college team first.

      In terms of college teams, NCAA has rules on spring seasons, at least when I played you had like 5 competitions (either stand alone games or tournaments), x number of weeks of permitted spring practice. Spring semester just started, players may not be 100% fit, and teams may not be wanting to burn practice and games this early in the semester.

      So even if it’s Tijuana’s reserves, it makes sense because they are in-season and relatively in shape.

      Reply
      • Tijuana reserves was about as good of a match up as you can expect for this sort of thing. In truth, it really doesn’t matter too much who we played. This was all about seeing who could apply what had been taught in the last week or 2 in training to a game situation. Who would follow coaching instructions? Who would keep shape and work hard for the team? ect ect..

        I would expect the starting lineup that played in this game to be very similar to the one we see against Canada.

  2. I’m fairly certain lineups were (and I might be slightly off):

    Hall – 1st 30′
    Johnson – 2nd 30′
    Hamid – 3rd 30′

    1st half
    Beltran Besler Gonzalez Morrow
    Zusi Evans Beckerman Davis
    Wondo Johnson

    Morrow had a couple dangerous runs
    Johnson had some nice touches running at and past a defender

    2nd half
    Morales DeLaGarza Parke Lade
    Bedoya Diskerud Feilhaber Gatt
    Bruin Agudelo

    1st goal – horrible turnover in the back that Agudelo took advantage of to lay off to Bruin for the score (still had to beat keeper from my view)

    2nd goal – I was looking down at my phone…doh!!

    3rd goal – free kick from the left side nicely deflected into net from maybe 10-12 yards (hard to tell)

    Chippy 2nd half with a good amount of yellows for a scrimmage….mostly to TJ

    Maybe 30 people at most behind the eastern side fence to watch the match.

    Reply
      • Really hard to tell…TJ wore black shirts with no numbers. Not sure how ref kept track of yellow cards. Perhaps Garza was there…one of the players had a scruffy beard which I believe Garza has. I’ve heard Guido is with the U-20’s and I’m not familiar with Rodriguez.

        I had a hard enough time figuring out the US. Players yelling at each other helped a lot. You hear a lot at these scrimmages…Wondo was going apesh*t at a TJ player early in the match…f bomb after f bomb.

      • TJ seemed to bring a very young squad for the most part. I think the U-23 side last year was better competition.

      • i believe both Rodriguez’s were there and could have played. and no, garza is also first team. and like someone else said, guido was with u-20s.

      • 2nd team also brings the youth attack – which is nice considering they are the ones who scored.

        Switch the defensive 1st team to the 2nd and hopefully we have the starting 11 against Canada. But considering the 1st team included Zusi, you’d be fearful, wondering if Klinsi really thinks that’s the first team.

    • That looks like the real lineup and I would not be surprised if Hall in fact starts. Klinsi seemed to have had U23 blinders on in terms of the keeping pool last year, and I think the U23s are simply not as good as Hall (or even some other O23s). So, this is as it should be.

      Reply
      • In terms of off ball movement Bruin is more of a Ching/ target player.

        In terms of predatory instincts he can finish them better than some of the people in camp.

        Bruin’s generally-acknowledged limitation is he is pretty dependent on service. He’s not dribbling anyone, and even though he sometimes gets behind a MLS defense I doubt he has the speed to burn internationals. But he can finish a cross and if we’re calling in Gordon we might as well be giving him a shot.

      • “Bruin’s generally-acknowledged limitation is he is pretty dependent on service.”

        I can think of very few forwards who are not ” pretty dependent on service”.

    • While that is all true, it is a ridiculous, Bruin and Wondo are nothing alike, and those three characteristics have nothing to do with Wondo’s strong suits. How does his movement, touch, and finishing compare to Wondo?? Not well. If you want to compare him to MLS forwards start with Conor Casey and Brian Ching.

      Reply
      • I will say Bruin needs work on touch and movement, but considering he’s been playing in two different formations in the last year, I’d say he’s adapted very well. As for finishing, well it’s pretty obvious Bruin is a finisher and he most certainly is showing increasing potential in that regard. He had a stand out sophomore year in terms of offensive production. Plus, I suspect Bruin’s confidence will continue to build and he’ll start taking chances outside the box too. He has cannon on that right foot when he wants to show it.

    • Wondo is more of an athlete but his Twellman brand of hustle is less useful internationally. However, I can see Bruin getting into the box and getting header/poach type goals.

      Reply
      • Apropos of nothing, but “The Imperative Voice” is one of my favorite handles. Then again, I’m a writer so I like all sorts of knee slappers about serial commas, syntax and such like….

      • He wrote on a variety of topics, such as horses, soccer, politics, infidelity, and your wife.

        He wrote on a variety of topics, such as horses, soccer, politics, infidelity and your wife.

      • I loved the comment John Terry gave Wondo – overheard by the mikes in the all star game –

        “Your movement is like a nightmare for me”

        You really don’t get much better praise than that.

  3. That can only continue to bolster Bruins confidence. I know Klinsman has been really impressed with Bruin during this camp. My guess we will see Bruin at some point against Canada next tuesday. He may start you never know.

    Reply
    • You’ve really brought a lot to this conversation. How truly shocking it is that Tijuana decided not to release their senior squad in the middle of their season for a closed door scrimmage to help the USMNT’s Hex preparation.

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    • Borderliners. Today’s reserve can be tomorrow’s starter if we get injuries or retirements. So while it was neither team’s A squad this sort of thing still matters.

      Reply
  4. Sweet! Good news about Buddle! Now we’ll definitely see Wondo, EJ, and Bruin. That’s the lineup I originally wanted to see. We should play a 4-3-3 and take it to Canada hard!

    Reply

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