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USMNT vs. Ukraine (SBI Live Match Commentary)

USAUkrainePanel

By IVES GALARCEP

The U.S. Men’s National Team takes on Ukraine in Cyprus today in the last match Jurgen Klinsmann will have to evaluate his European-based players ahead of the pre-World Cup training camp in May (2pm, ESPN2).

Several players who haven’t been with the national team in some time are with the team today, and Klinsmann will be taking a closer look at some of those players. Players like Oguchi Onyewu, Danny Williams and Juan Agudelo.

SBI will be providing live commentary on today’s match so please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action (Today’s live commentary is after the jump):

Comments

    • nailed it. bye bye to those guys for the 23 spots. biggest disappointment tonight though, as foooooo points out below, is Altidore and Dempsey. Especially Dempsey. Seems like he didn’t even want to be there. Stop being so graumpy dude, you’re a freaking millionaire for Christ’s sake!!!

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  1. Uninspired and piss poor technically. No one showed any quality. For the life of me I don’t see anything in Brooks so far. I haven’t seen him play in Germany, but in all his USA appearances he hasn’t looked like any kind of prospect. Gooch is done. Sacha is done. Altidore just pisses me off to watch. Dempsey starting to piss me off too.

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  2. Ugh. Some wasted opportunities to learn things, since we already know that:

    1. Castillo isn’t a international quality left back – maybe wingback.

    2. Jones and Kljestan don’t complement each other well – and neither are defensive/holding midfielders.

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  3. updated starting xi

    ———————–AJ——————————-

    –Donavon——Mix—————Bedoya

    ———Bradley——Jones——————————–

    Fabian——-Besler——Gonzo——— Cameron—

    —————————Howard——————————

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  4. Just shows you how US players should aspire to Champions League caliber teams and not MLS teams (for awhile at least). MLS will get there baptism this World Cup.

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  5. The writer from Grantland who said the US shouldn’t bring Julian Green to Brasil even if he were willing to make the switch needs to re-think his analysis. We just don’t have the talent, period.

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  6. Johansson, Williams, Bedoya, Jones, Howard, Johnson, Cameron, and even Shea all played pretty well. Everyone else looked either bad (Jozy, Clint) or just awful (Onyewu, Brooks, Castillo, Kljestan) Thank God this isn’t our first team

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  7. Klinsmann needs to pull the trigger and start johannson. Play castillo in left mid or replace him with beasley. Dempsey is no longer a starter.

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  8. Johannson showed pretty well why he should be starting ahead of Altidore who could barely trap a ball.

    No wonder he was dropped from Sunderland’s squad entirely.

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  9. Fugly display from basically every American on the pitch, even Howard. If this is what we should expect from the European contingent going into Brazil… Yikes.

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  10. Notice nobody wants to comment on both cases there of Jozy turning the ball over with a bad pass and a really poor first touch.

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  11. So, we go to Brazil with an all MLS lineup, except for Johansen and Jones and Bedoya. Clint stays home, too.

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    • he completed those passes most of the game. in the first half he was the one who could actually make a pass to get the team into the final third

      he wasn;t great but not a train wreck

      the backline’s inability to play simple football doomed the whole squad. Should have been 5-0 Ukraine

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  12. Besler would have prevented 1 if not both of those goals. Maybe even Gonzales or Goodson would have too. But Onyewu and his 70-year-old-man knees are killing us…

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  13. The captain’s band and the fat wallet seem to have slowed Dempsey down. Gone is that East Texas glare, replaced with the Rafa Marquez too cool for the pitch slow jog.

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  14. This is more fuel for the fire of those who say the US couldn’t qualify from Europe. We look outclassed in every part of the field.

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    • half this team wont see the field in Brazil. You can’t take anything away from this match about the quality of our overall team. You can draw conclusions about our depth, sure. And I’m not sure who thought we”d get out of UEFA anyway.

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      • Ukraine won’t be going to Brazil at all. Yet, they are playing like a team that is preparing to go, rather than the timid/disinterested/boneheaded BS we’ve seen from the yanks.

        Regardless of how understrength this U.S. team is, it still represents the majority of the European-based American players — players who also happen to be fighting for a world cup spot. The fact that it looks like boys against men is telling, and yes, it shows that the U.S. has very little depth.

      • Meh.

        It was a bad performance. Yes. But we wouldn’t be calling oursleves world beaters if we had won this game 10-0, so your bombastic tales of woe and sings of the end times on the other end of the spectrum may be a bit over the top. No?

        We don’t have to qualify for Europe so that means jack squat. I can just as easily say that many Euro teams would have a tough go of it qualifying in CONCACAF – which means jack squat.

        The game was a warm-up and a test of character and, though I didn’t watch it, it seems a great many guys didn’t do themselves any favors. Its a process and JK is doing his thing. I am quite certain we have’t been eliminated as of today.

        Let’s chilax a bit, let the process play itself out and put things in perspective.

  15. I just don’t see the Kevin Bacon comparison. I mean there is a slight resemblance, about as much as Klinsmann and Detlef Schrempf.

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