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Goodson, Corona headline list of USMNT replacements for Mexico qualifier

ClarenceGoodsonStripes (ISIPhotos.com)

By IVES GALARCEP

The rash of yellow cards that led to a handful of suspensions on the U.S. Men’s National Team for Tuesday’s match vs. Mexico forced Jurgen Klinsmann to call in reinforcements and he wasn’t shy about calling the cavalry.

Joe Corona, Jose Torres, Clarence Goodson and Brad Davis have been called in as replacements for the team, stepping in for suspended regulars Jozy Altidore, Matt Besler and Geoff Cameron, as well as injured star midfielder Michael Bradley, who has officially been ruled out of the Mexico match.

The U.S. team also released German-born defender John Brooks, who leaves the club still not having been cap-tied to the United States. He still has the option of playing for Germany or the USA.

Brooks departure makes it very likely that Clarence Goodson will be called on to start alongside Omar Gonzalez against Mexico. That was supposed to be the centerback tandem that faced Mexico in March before an injury forced Goodson out of the eventual scoreless draw at Estadio Azteca.

What do you think of the replacements? Happy to see Goodson called in? Think Corona and Torres can make a difference? Disappointed to not see Sacha Kljestan called in?

Share your thoughts below.

 

Comments

  1. For all of the flack that Gonzo has been getting lately, one under-appreciated part of his game is that he hardly ever gets shown a card.

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  2. Goodson is fine. He should have been there to begin with. Torres is not exactly anybody I would chose, and Corona has not displayed the quality I would like to see on a US team. I would have liked to see Wondolowski in favor of Eddie Johnson. In my opinion Klinsmann’s better team would have been the B team maybe with Bradley as a sub. My favorite midfielder Beckerman. He should be supported by Diskerud. The team the way it looked on Friday was top heavy with wannabe strikers, lacking a trunk and having, i.e. no midfield, and a defense that couldn’t keep up with opposition.

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  3. Lineup for Tuesday:

    Dempsey—E.J.
    Corona———————————Donovan
    Beckerman—–Jones
    F.Johnson—Gonzalez—Orozco—Parkhurst

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  4. Tuesday Lineup
    Dempsey—–E.J.
    Corona——————————–Donovan
    Beckerman—-Jones
    F.Johnson—Gonzalez—-Orozco—Parkhurst
    Howard

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  5. This one in Columbus will be wild. Mexico is down, but still not out. However, El Tri has been tactically dumb for a while now, so I can’t see that turning around quickly. But then there’s the reality that we’re bringing in Goodson and Corona for replacements. Oh boy. Our B+ team against a tactically poor Mexican A team. Who can call that one?

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  6. Having watched the CR game, for me the biggest error was starting Dempsey and Donovan up front. Our two best possession players were left isolated on an island while the rest of the team struggled to hold on to the ball or kicked it long where there was no hope of either forwards reaching it. The game was over before either Dempsey or Donovan touched the ball. finally we need to settle our fullback situation.I am a big Beaseley fan but those two goals showed his limitations.

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    • Which two goals? The first one where he didn’t have much of a chance on a nice header? The second where it was 3 on 1 from a cross coming in from Orozco’s side? Or the third where he wasn’t involved? I’m not saying he was good or he should continue to start, but he didn’t have much to do with any of the goals

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      • On the first goal, it was Dempsey and Besler who let the goal scorer get the clean header off with pace…would have been phenominal for anyone to have cleared it off the line with a header. Certainly, that was not a routine play.

        On the third, it was obviously Besler who got torched for speed on a 50 yard run from within his own half.

      • Beas should have been closer to the post, so his contact would take the ball away from goal instead of into it.

        On the second goal he just kept falling backwards and let his man jump right over him for an easy header.

      • Second and third goals beling to Howard and Besler. Both eere atrocious. That maybe Howard’s worst effort for the usmnt in a while.

    • The goal scorer on the second goal made his run from deep midfield which should have been Jones’s mark. Besler lost his mark as well, leaving Beasley guarding 3 dudes. I know people look to assign blame after a loss like that (and for some reason, Beasley is a consistent target) but no one was above reproach during that game. Cant put it all on one guy…Team seemed shocked from losing Bradley during the warm up. That being said, they did dominate possession for the last 70 minutes…

      Good point about Dempsey and Donovan being isolated though…without MB, we had zero midfield possession, and JJ was killing us with long balls out of bounds.

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      • Agree with the first point – players, coaches – that loss was a group effort. I would add to the second point about us controlling possession. CR is a tactically competent team. Not great, but not prone to idiotic approaches, either. When you get up by a couple goals early, it is acceptable tactics to sit back and focus on defending against the other team’s growing sense of urgency.

        Besides, by doing that, you have great opportunities at drawing the opponents too far up field, creating counter opportunities. From CR’s perspective, they obviously had some speed advantages, and there’s nothing better than finding ways to create open halves of the field in which three slower opponents are trying to defend two of your faster guys. All it takes is one moment of poor positioning and you’re creating a dangerous scoring opportunity.

        How many real scoring opportunities did we create with all our possession? A few, but unless the soccer gods are with us big-time, those handful of opportunities aren’t going to translate into the couple of needed goals most of the time.

        Possession is a defensive concept. You hold the ball to deny scoring opportunities from the other team. At some point, possession transitions into rapid penetration and hopefully a shot on goal. That’s true of Barca, Spain, the old Total Football teams, etc. So already up a couple and probably not needing to add more, Costa Rica was content to allow us to play possession. Why press the midfield and take a chance getting caught? They focused on the simpler task of preventing the penetration with their numbers back.

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