The U.S. Men’s National Team kicks off U.S. Soccer’s 100th year, and a very important year for a variety of reasons, with tonight’s friendly against Canada in Houston (9pm, ESPN2).
An MLS-heavy side will take the field at BBVA Compass Stadium tonight, with players looking to impress Jurgen Klinsmann enough to not only gain ground on the USMNT depth chart, but also to potentially earn a place on the World Cup qualifying squad that will travel to Honduras for the Feb. 6th match against the ‘Catrachos’.
The U.S. defense will be in the spotlight tonight, with the centerback pairing of Omar Gonzalez and Matt Besler playing for what could wind up being a starting role in qualifying.
The Americans will face a Canada side that is much younger, and weaker, than the side that forced the full U.S. team into a scoreless draw in Toronto. Dwayne DeRosario leads a young Canadian side that looked awful in a 4-0 loss to Denmark during the weekend.
SBI will be providing live commentary before, during and after the match, so stay with us as we bring you all the action and analysis on tonight’s match.
Enjoy the action (Tonight’s Match Night Commentary is after the jump):
Man people, relax. This will take time. Are we at Denmark’s level yet? No. We need a B team, or a C team that compete, and Klinsmann is using the January camp for their education. Unfortunately for us, there is a big drop-off. Unfortunately for us, USSF needs to sell some tickets too.
One good thing I can say about Klinsmann is that he has continued our A-team’s education too, in Ljubljana, Mexico city, and in Genoa.
And what can we say about those games?
Practice drill for all Canada games and US home WCQ’s(except v MEX): 11v16 with only 3 players from the sixteen-side allowed to cross midfield…! Bunkering in friendlies SUCKS! I even cringe when we do it against the likes of Mexico/France/Italy…
Why is everyone so surprised at this result? Look at the USA lineup, a bunch of crappy MLS players. what did u expect?
I don’t know what this game say’s, but it was a hot mess of cow dung. Not one player stood out.
But this is what you get for Camp Cupcake.
Why in the world was Diskerud not even in the 18? Instead we got a completely ineffective Brad Evans and Brad Davis.
Does anyone know if the USA actually has a coach?
No, two years ago the USSF decided they needed a name, not a coach.
benny, zusi, beckerman all seemed pretty effective to me. a sigh to everyone else. we aren’t moving very well at all.
Unacceptable result… total fail
I’m so disappointed that I may cancel all plans to watch all the home matches and 1 away match. At my age I’ve got better things to do. Thanks a lot boys. I could have done better if I had 30 days of training. Go back to MLS and be satisfied.
Go turn on the NFL then. Bye.
You haven’t a clue!
As a shameless Feilhaber fanboy, I think his performance was one of the few positive takeaways from this game. A couple of iffy touches, but he looked like the only one on the field capable of producing anything of quality in the second half. Hope he did enough to impress JK, he’s an great option off the bench at the very least.
I agree the ball circulation in the final third was much better once he was introduced into the game.
More pathetic, US team showing or Houston fan showing?
Sorry dude but two B teams on a Tuesday? It would be totally different if the European league players were there. I dont make the rules of the snobby soccer fans I just observe them.
Pouring rain, 40 degrees…
Scott, yes. Aren’t they trying to get n the roster for the hex? The motivation was there, the execution was not
??? US players fighting for spots yes. But the end of camp friendly that you schedule is with Canada… this is the type of game you will get. Canada always going to bunker, foul, and make any game near unwatchable. Should have scheduled better.
??? How about an example of what team you would have faced instead of just ripping the selection? It’s easy to say Canada’s style sucks. Not to mention almost every team except MEX packs it in during qualifying against us anyways.
Wow. On the bright side this B team will not lead us in the Gold Cup.
Let’s hope it’s our C team that we just saw.
Not impressive. However, we dominated possession and often its difficult to play against a team with 11 men back. Also didn’t have our top two finishers Dempsey and Gomez. Donovan could have helped to with his speed and final ball.
It’s easy dominate bunkered team. Pathetic!
And then he goes and does that…never minddd
Goodnight everyone!
well that’s a win for Canada –
thank goodness for cable – can you imagine driving 30 minutes, parking, and paying for that – houston we have a problem
Schedule a friendly with Canada and this is what you get. Did anyone actually expect them to show up and try to play?
Feilhaber definitely deserves to be called
Freekick baby!