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SBI USMNT Man of the Match: Mix Diskerud

Mix Diskerud, Jozy Altidore

Photo by ISIPhotos.com 

By DAN KARELL

With the U.S. struggling to break down a dogged and determined Azerbaijan side midway through the second half, head coach Jurgen Klinsmann turned to a player who always seems to create chances when he’s on the field.

Just four minutes after coming on the pitch, Mix Diskerud provided the game-changing moment.

Off a Brad Davis free kick from 40-yards out in the 75th minute, Diskerud helped keep the ball in place inside the box so that Michael Bradley could fire. Bradley’s shot was deflected by the leg of an Azerbaijani defender but the rebound bounced up and towards Diskerud. The Norwegian-American reacted quickest and side-footed home to put the U.S. in the lead for good.

Diskerud’s quick thinking earned him SBI USMNT Man of the Match, as chosen by SBI staff.

Diskerud beat out other strong performances from Geoff Cameron and midfield pair Jermaine Jones and Bradley.

What did you think of Diskerud’s performance and goal? Which player stood out the most to you?

Who did you think deserved Man of the Match honors? Cast your vote here:

  • Mix Diskerud
  • Michael Bradley
  • Jermaine Jones
  • Geoff Cameron
  • Brad Davis
  • Timmy Chandler
  • Jozy Altidore
  • Matt Besler
  • DaMarcus Beasley
  • Aron Johannsson

Who did you vote for, and why?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Is anyone going to the Jacksonville game and is sitting in the AO section and still haven’t gotten their tickets?

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  2. another point to take from this game imo: our subs are much better than theirs. all of their highly organized defense definitely seemed to slip once the subs flowed in

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  3. i thought tonites performance was clear warning sign.

    ball movement was sluggish. final third finishing was off,

    this should have been a 6 -0 drubbing. this team was horrible and we couldnt finish till they ran out of gas.

    i clearly remember jones waving his arms to tell our players to attack. it was sad.

    bradley looked off, run dmb looks way too small, bedoya was non existant.

    on plus side our crosses were decent zusi and davis.

    jozy was up and down. he had some poor touches and some nice dish offs.

    this team has alot of getting to know each other to do in short time.

    i still dont know why you do all this trial and error so close to world cup. shouldnt you have done this 6-12 months ago?

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  4. didn’t like Beasley’s performance, but it wasn’t AWFUL. i thought Chandler did better overall with his half.

    hopefully we can put to rest the idea that Jones is incapable of playing as a #6. also, Bradley just not his usual self last night. not a bad game, but not as deadly as usual.

    Besler was iffy in the 1st half but pulled it together in the 2nd. Cameron looked pretty good and honestly, Omar did too.

    Johnson is fantastic and some of his darting runs were great to see. i like him at RB and you can tell he has been playing there for Hoffenheim. as for Yedlin, didn’t really have much to do defensively but looked good enough overall. so good on him for not being awful.

    Zusi and Bedoya did a very good job i thought, Bedoya particularly. the dude is in form. Davis, man, way to make me eat crow. on point and great energy off the bench. super-sub no doubt. and of course Mix was great too and another great sub.

    i thought Jozy looked pretty good tonight, caused them a lot of problems. but of course his finishing was eh. needs to get that cleaned up. Wondo started bright but faded as the half went on. in the 2nd he was involved, but wasn’t effective. AJ did well off the bench and his header was sick. he was unmarked but we saw Wondo hit his right at the keeper when he was unmarked, so it’s not always a guarantee.

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    • I had a similar assessment on many of your points.
      Beasley= okay, chandler = above average
      Besler got better, but had a bad first half.
      Bedoya looked quick and tracked back well too.
      AJ looked better than Wondo in my opinion, but they are very similar players.
      Davis, way out performed my expectations.
      We disagree on-
      Fabian, he really misplayed some balls in the first half. I don’t know if it was the wind playing tricks on him, his vision, or something else. I felt like there were at least 3 relatively easy traps that he let fly by him out of bounds. His runs in the first half were mostly ineffective. In the second half, he had 2 really nice plays which is maybe what your focusing on. I’d still rather have him on the left as he can hit a solid cross with his left and I don’t think Chandler can.
      Omar, he looked slow. Would have given up a penalty on his lame dive in the penalty box had the striker had any ball skill at all. Really disappointed in him. He is looking more and more like the 2010 Gooch recovering from injury.
      Zusi, I was more or less indifferent on his performance. I wouldn’t call it solid.
      Bradley, I would call it a bad game. He had several turnovers that probably should have led to goals. He created more opportunities for the opponents than his teammates.

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  5. I voted for Davis, but I thought Gonzalez deserved a listing. The defensive line improved markedly when he came on, and he covered up some bonehead errors from the midfield very nicely, even with that weird knee brace (which looked like it went all the way up to his neck?).

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  6. Hard to argue with Davis and Diskerud as the two top men of the match. Davis and Jozy linked up very well a couple times. Diskerud seemed to be there in the box when it counted. I thought Zusi had a very good first half, and our backline seemed solidified. Cameron great on set piece defending. The problem with ranking Wondo and Jozy is that both of those guys are forwards who line up on the backline. Both of them pair the best with Dempsey as a strike partner because he’s the creator. We saw Jozy try to do a little of that and Johansson try to pitch in as well, but without Deuce drawing defenders out of their shape the forwards were going to get very little joy paired as they were. I thought Jones was pretty solid. Bradley had an off game, though. Wasn’t linking passes he usually hits in his sleep. We’ll need him to be on his game if we have any chance of advancing past the group stage.

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  7. It is clears to me that the diamond isn’t working. I think this team plays better in the 4-2-3-1 — with the slight tweak of pushing Bradley forward out of the two.

    We aren’t really finishing in the final third in this formation. And teams know how better to attack the diamond.

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  8. Mix’s goal was a great bit of determination, but I thought his best play was a few minutes after he scored, he slid a very deft pass into the box for Bradley running onto it, who should have done more with the opportunity.

    I’m not entirely sure who deserves Man of the Match since no one truly dazzled, but I do know that it shouldn’t be Michael Bradley. Very uncharacteristically shaky game in terms of composure on the ball and distribution.

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  9. Maybe I’m just a grumpy old man but I’ve never been this bummed about a World Cup summer. I can’t get excited about our roster, I can’t get excited about our group, and I can’t get excited about those ugly kits.

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  10. I’m the biggest Bradley fanboy on the planet. I have an 08/09 Bradley #12 jersey, and a statue made out of his used chewing gum in my closet. But he was just plain bad, worst game I’ve seen him play in a long long time.

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  11. Jermaine Jones played confident and covered a lot of territory; seemed stronger than all others. He’s my choice. Not sure Mix was ‘all that’ and I don’t care about his number but nice touch on the goal for sure and he did keep the ball alive prior to Bradley’s shot. Bradley was ineffective and even sloppy at times. Overall not very impressed. Someone needs to provide a little magic to elevate this team.

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    • Agree that Jones had a great game. He played the 6 close to perfection, just what we all have been screaming for him to do. There were a couple of times where you could tell he reeeaaalllly wanted to run forward and get a little crazy, but he got himself under control, made the smart pass and returned to his position. I thought that was probably the biggest takeaway from this game. JJ can play the 6 well and with discipline for the USMNT

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  12. Find it interesting that a few nice hold up plays vs Azerbaijan and ~1 nice move make Jozy a possible MOM and gained him praise throughout match. No one had a terrible game but I certainly dont think anyone had a great game.
    This was not a good match-up for a warm-up game. What exactly was tested today besides the patience of US fans?

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    • How to break down a defense? How to play (and not play) set pieces? How to stay robust against the counter?

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      • Ok, how about it? Is this the type of defending on set pieces we will see in Brazil? Are we expecting to see 11 lower league European players behind the ball in Brazil?
        Yes, defending the Azerbaijan counter will certainly serve as a good prep.

      • Certainly the quality isn’t quite there compared to what we’ll see but you don’t practice with live rounds your first time out. Secondly we could see a team bunker if we get behind or if they have the points to advance while we need to score.

        As for Jozy he had a couple of nice hold up plays but he also had some nice runs to the outside channels to advance the ball up the field and also had some good interplay with Chandler and Davis in the second half. MOM is a stretch but he played a good game.

    • I thought Timmy Chandler had a hell of a half. He went forward, taking on defenders. He brought a spark that Beasley was lacking.

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      • Chandler did look reasonably good. Had several turn overs, but they were aggressive mistakes. I’d prefer to see him on the right and FJ on the left.

  13. Disagree with Bradley being mentioned for MOM, he was way off his normal game tonight. That one turnover he had in the defensive end at the beginning of the second half would surely lead to goals against WC opponents.
    Aside from Mix, FJ really impressed at RB. Didnt watch a lot of hoffenheim, but i can see why he was a constant at that spot. Also I thought Zusi had a good first half, showed some creative spark and his usual solid free kicks. I think he will earn a spot on a european roster as a result of this WC.

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  14. Bradley had a BAD game, JJ was worse and I think a contributing factor to Bradley’s play. Mix was a gamechanger. I thought his passing and intuitive,smart field position counts as much for MOM as the goal.

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  15. Am i the only american fan looking forward to russia 2018.
    I don’t want to sound negative but the only way usa wins in brazil, is by putting bradley, diskereud, johansson, dempsey and altidore up front, some way some how.
    Those 5 need to get used to each other asap and play green and bedoya on the wings. Honestly with all respect to fans, zusi, sucks and bradley needs help. The backline is always the easiest to be form and kilnsi is poking his ass with the backline.
    But please kilnsi, you need to play Dempsey, altidore, johansson,diskerud, and Bradley together no matter what. Just like Argentina, Brazil, Spain, do it!!!!!
    Your left and right defenders need to have speed and creativity, we need a 4 3 3
    And this team can do it

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    • Our shooting and passing in the final third didn’t look great but very few teams pass the ball with impunity in that area against a team dedicated to keeping 11 behind the ball. Add in some tired legs and it wasn’t very surprising the game played out as it did. Still we found a way to get the goals in which I think bodes well.

      I hope Turkey and Nigeria will be better training for what we’ll actually see in Brazil. Not expecting the teams in our group to bunker on us unless they feel the game is well in hand.

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  16. Hard to critique these players because most of them looked fatigued—some, like Bradley, from the first minute.

    Notable exceptions: Johnson, Wondo, Bedoya, Yedlin. (Maybe more, but those guys stood out to me.)

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    • When they were working out to be fit so much there should have been more shot practice and training. This is what we get after 3 years? Sad.It will get better though.

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    • fatigued…? from what? I know Taylor said that in broadcast, but like most US commentators he is an apologist and cheerleader for US. Azerbaijan league ended same time as other leagues in Europe so their players are equally as exhausted from a long season. Fact is we didn’t look very good against a below average opponent. It is OK to admit it…now lets expect more from Turkey game….as Turkey is a quality opponent.
      I would accept lack of motivation to play Azerbaijan as more realistic excuse than fatigue.

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      • Fatigued from two weeks of intensive training to build endurance. Short-term energy stores all used up for the moment

      • Ok. Thanks. I expect Jurgen will have that endurance kicking in just before the Ghana game. Until then I will expect a sluggish team.

      • Wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve run over 75 miles in the last 10 days, a lot of it at a sprint. I get the feeling that JK put them through the wringer to see who could stand at the end, and to give Azerbaijan an edge so our guys would have their backs against the wall. (Side note to JK: want to make our team feel like it’s them against the world? Have them read the comments section)
        Only way to get out of this group is to out-hustle and out-fight the group. Despite our continued improvement they’re still more technical, we have to have bigger heart.

      • nick, just to add to Lil’ Zeke’s response: Klinsmann stated as much the day before the match—that his players were exhausted from two-a-day fitness workouts and that this match would serve to cap that off and begin their recovery period.

      • Several guys looked really sluggish. I thought Bradley and Howard had poor body language.
        Zusi, Besler and FJ were clearly not as good as I expect them to be. I still don’t like FJ at RB.
        Gonzales was the lone substitute who really looked bad, although Yedlin was mediocre as well.
        Pleasant surprises in Bedoya, Mix, and Davis.
        Johannson and Wondo are too similar. I’d like my bench striker options to bring different capabilities to the plate.

      • Jesse: in that match, I would agree that Aron and Wondo were quite similar. But normally, they are very different: Aron is creative, likes the ball at his feet, is as likely to shoot as he is to dribble as he is to pass. Wondo, by contrast, is a poacher through and through.

        It was just such a weird match. Largely because Bradley was so off.

      • Okay. Fair enough. I’ve only seen him play 6 times? A couple times for AZ and then all his US games. As a late sub against Bosnia I recall seeing some ball skill. The Panama game I don’t know what to make of, that was really chaotic at the end. The other times I’ve seen him, he has hovered around and felt more like a poacher.

  17. Am I the only one who saw Mix challenge for the head ball in the box that went to Bradley for the shot? He had no business winning that challenge, but he did, and then followed up the shot with a goal. Does he get an assist on his own goal?

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  18. I am a huge Bradley fan but worst game I have seen from him in a long time. Hoping he was just off tonight and this isn’t a look into things to come

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  19. Mix wearing the number 10 jersey was surprising when I first turned the game on late in the second half but his response about wearing LD’s number was perfect. He said he plays for the crest not for a number/player. Correct answer. Keep it up Mix.

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  20. This was one of the worst games I’ve seen Michael Bradley play. How is he mentioned as a contender for man of the match?

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    • This. We can’t have Bradley misplacing that many passes, losing possession that many times, or not hustling to a loose ball against Turkey, let alone Ghana.

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      • I think Bradley played badly because this entire new team set up is so new. It’s confusing, seems mumbo jumbo somehow, not organized. It hurt my brain, likely his too.
        The nearly complete lack of dribbling and not so good skills had me wanting Green to come in. At least he dribbles well, is direct and has solid skills.

      • Given the large sample of bradley performances we have to date, I’m more than willing to chalk this outlier up to “wind” and move on.

        If he struggles against turkey and nigeria, then I’ll start to worry.

      • Davis has never played in a top 5 league and has not regressed from his last year’s form. By the way, SBI selected Mix, not Davis, as the MOTM (read the main post above).

      • regressed? whatever dude

        if MLS can hone and keep Davis sharp, it can for others too. That’s why y comment.

        and whoever SBI has as MOTM, it still doesn’t take away from Davis coming on and being involved in both goals and other plays…the best guy on the field

      • Bit of a leap. If bradley consistently performs as pedestrianly as he did last night absent obvious alternatives (wind, fatigue), then maybe you’re on to something.

        Until then, occam’s razor.

      • It’s a fair point. Perhaps this game was a hick up for MB and he will be performing at the top level once the WC arrives. We will be facing much stiffer competition that Azerbajan in the WC. My point is that the difference in the level of play in one of the top leagues and the WC cup is much smaller than that for MLS and the WC.

      • Bradley looked pretty dejected while talking about Donovan getting cut. I don’t think his head is in it.

    • I’m a fan of MB90. He cannot do this. As I tell my 4 year old: this is not acceptable (against teams like Ghana, Portugal and Germany). He must be better. He is not playing the Impact.

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      • Travis’s son once played a game like that when he was 3. Travis made him run laps and burpies for two hours straight until he threw up all of the gatorade and red bull Travis gave him.

      • I’m such a Jr fan that i named my child Generalismo. Every year we will celebrate his birthday with four candles.

        yes, not one of Jr’s better outings and yes, one of Jones’ better outings. Jr. had little space b/c he sat so did 80% of Azer’s team. Jones, playing deeper, had acres of space.

        Wouldn’t mind seeing Jr playing Jones’ position and Mix being the attacker.

      • Agreed, but if think it was necessary for JK to push MB up so he could make it clear to JJ that he must sit back and play destroyer. Jermaine fancies himself a box-to-box guy w/ some attacking chops just like MB. JK probably finds it hard to tell the only consistent Champions League player we have that he’s wrong and that MB is better than him.

      • Actually Mr. Skywalker, i would not have minded seeing MB90 given a rest when Mix entered the match. Let him play that spot.

    • I agree, but you know what will happen. Ives will get on his high horse and shoot us down for not knowing enough about soccer, and say Bradley was a genius, and we suck, we are just forum posters.

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    • Agreed. Bradley was off his game. Begs the question though; did the team look bad because Bradley was off his game or was Bradley off his game because the team was playing bad? Either way what pretty much everyone has been saying for the past 2 years holds true. This team will only go so far as Michael Bradley can take them.

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      • The team looked decent about between minute 5-20. Bedoya, Zusi, and FJ looked deadly. Bradley disappeared for awhile and coughed u some balls. He looked behind in his reading of the game.

      • I thought FJ really struggled in the 1st half. I thought JK would move him to the left when Chandler came in.

        If Chandler and FJ are your left and right backs, FJ should be on the left.

        The the FJ misjudged several balls yesterday, I started questioning his vision. Does he wear contacts? Was the wind messing with his eyes? Is his left eye just bad?

      • The right wing looked dangerous though the final execution wasn’t there. Watching FJ get wide and up so quick was scary; also saw him cut in extremely fast (where he ended up sliding on his back). On a better weather day equating to better passing that movement is going to be surprising opponents.

      • For now I am chalking it up to:
        1) heavy legs from conditioning drills
        2) new formation / new player combinations
        3) pre-WC jitters

        I think mostly – heavy legs from all the sprints, suicides, and aerobics the whole team has been put through.
        He will find his groove.

    • Agree not a great match by Jr.

      But you gotta wonder; if his excellent, well-taken and clinical shot is not cleared off the line and instead goes in, are we still saying he had a poor match?

      Yeah, yeah i know…the old saying about if my aunt had a _____ she’d be my uncle.

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    • That’s a legit question, my thoughts were that he’d see the field as a sub most likely paired as a CM if we need offense.. where the flipside of that is Beckerman as a late sub when you need defense trying to protect a lead

      But predicting what’s gonna happen with this team has become an exercise in futility so for all I know Mix will sub for Timmy Howard…

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      • Klinsman’s first lesson to US Soccer fans was never bet on a prediction. It’s a waste of time.

      • In a diamond midfield you could use mix at any of the non-jones midfield positions, depending on which side you want the diamond to collapse toward.

      • I never liked the idea of holding on trying to protect a lead.
        My reasoning is that that has always been US teams Achilles heal, the age old adage playing to win, versus not to lose.
        Anyway great to see the over all talent level is improving on the USMNT.
        in closing Mix, often seems to have more impact coming off the bench.

      • It’s why in last WC, Bradley insisted his team avoid their weakness by going down a goal early in the match. Now we’ve got’em right where we want’em!

      • If he was gifted with a little more pace or a left foot it would be a much nicer problem. He isn’t going to replace Jones, Bradley or Dempsey (barring injury). That means he has to play on the outside, or we need a new formation.

    • If we played a 4-3-3 with a holding midfielder (Jones) and two slightly more advance midfielders (Bradley and Mix), it would let us put all three of them onto the pitch.

      However, to do that you would need to have something like Dempsey starting wide but drifting in behind Altidore, and you’d pretty much need the pace of Green on the other wing to keep the opposition honest at all.

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      • Was that a response to me?…Yea, I’ve always been watching, hence saying that’s a legit question.. meaning it’s a Good question

    • We have a wealth of central attacking mids. Have for a number of years. That’s what LD is. Also CD, Zusi, Bedoya, and Mix. Some might even say Green, Bradley and AJo fill that role too. Some of those guys can play the wing and tuck in, like LD always did. I was impressed to see that Mix could play the wing as well, though his speed isn’t great. (Neither is Zusi’s though – or LD’s anymore according to JK). That’s why we’re playing a 4-2-3-1, bc it puts more CAMs on the field, though maybe not in their best position. I still like a 4-2-2-2 formation though, so we can get more of our guys central and allow the fullbacks to get up the wings. Either way, making the best us of our attacking, creative mids is the real challenge for any US coach.

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      • We are probably too late in the cycle to introduce new formations. Generally I like the 4-2-2-2 to match with our personnel.

    • crickets from the eurosnobs who have never seen him play….showed more technical ability than any other US player

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    • Davis was my vote. Aside from getting stiffed on a clear penalty, I thought he provided the spark that was obviously missing in the first half. And wasn’t it his corner that AJ scored on?

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    • i still don’t think he should have made it over LD, but Davis looked great out there. certainly deserved to earn a PK and contributed positively the entire time. also, him and Chandler played very well together. good connection between them. i would not start him though, no reason to ruin a good thing off the bench! lets see what he can do against Turkey.

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      • He was a little tentative and nervous at times, especially when tracking into traffic into the middle of he pitch. But, I agree Davis looked really class working the wing with Chandler, making the simple and obvious routine overlapping runs, supporting runs, moving to open space and providing outlets – expertly. His dead ball delivery was generally quite good. It looked like on one corner from the right, when we were already up 2-0, that he went for the far 90, trying for an “Olympic goal” straight of the corner.
        Classy, very classy.

      • 1st header wasn’t a miss, just a good reaction save by keep, sure he could have placed better.
        2nd one was not an open header…it was a good cross and a very good header and a great save.
        not saying he deserved MOM, but certainly one of better players on field.

      • Maybe it was because I was at the game, but I had a totally different view of Wondo. I was not impressed…

      • Neither was I. Wondo’s passing in particular was sub-par IMO. Gave away possession to easily with his poor passes and lack of control.

      • Huge Wondo fan. His passing and trapping were U-10 material. Any physicality appeared to upset his concentration.

      • What you saw was a California tan. If you want to know whether or not he has a Brazil tan, you’re going to have to look under the kit….

      • eh, he was ok but outside of those two chances he was mostly ineffective. he was involved, which IS good, just didn’t do much after that 2nd opportunity.

        also, AJ showed Wondo how to finish a header when completely unmarked in the box.

      • A header to the middle third of the goal where the goalie is, is not a good header – it is an OK header, on frame none the less. Both of Wondo’s headers were to the middle third of the goal mouth.
        Johannsonn’s header was perfectly placed. Upper 90, tight to the woodwork. Unstoppable.
        Got to have that killer instinct. No mercy.

      • Other than those headers, what else did he do?

        His positional sense in open play is not up to par, IMO. He is just not an international player outside of CONCACAF.

    • Nice to see Mix, and Ice our vikings come up well.
      WonderWow showed why he is a threat, but he perpetuated teams weakest skill finishing. Jozy, not great but ok, he still seems a little tentative and still regaining his confidence.
      being that Klinsy is still tinkering seemed to move a lot of people around out of there comfort zones.
      i’m thinking if Jone’s continues to hold that destroyer role down as anybody who knows him from Shalke, and Besiktas, I believe he will.
      JJ, showed better pace than I have seen in a few years?(finally in full fitness),
      covered more ground effortlessly.
      It looks like someone may be able to replace one of the redundancies there?,(that may be LD’s only hope barring things unforeseen.
      I’m not going to speculate any more but in light of the fact that based on what I saw in Davis, we could use him, he makes an impact. (when I asked if we had three left foots better than Green, it was meant to shed light on just how important that balance is.
      Looking forward to a piece of Turkey…

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    • Yep! Did the 2 most important things a DM needs to do: stop the attack and distribute from the back. He is solid. Still wouldve liked to see me some Beckerman though, but I understand why he needed the minutes.

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  21. Hard to argue with the game-winner. For the course of the whole game I thought Jones and Jozy were best, albeit in a mediocre effort all around.

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    • Jones looked like the only player who really knew what he was doing and was willing to work hard. No, I guess Jozy looked like he was working hard too. Just didn’t know what he was doing.

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    • Jones did what he was supposed to do and spent the whole game urging the players around him forward or to actually move around. He was the only leader out there besides Howard.

      His passing let him down for me, and why I think Mix is fine earning MOTM. Jones tends to do one too many Hollywood passes. Saying that, Bradley offered him no linking support so he was almost forced into long balls.

      Bradley and Jones are our Lampard and Gerrard: Individually great players who just can’t seem to work together.

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      • how bad was Bradley… I don’t know if it was the wind, but his touch looked way off. He gets flop of the match for me.

      • 5-10 miles runs, 2000-3000 yards of wind sprints, suicide drills. Makes the lighter touch on the ball kind of heavy, ummmm tight and clumsy, and the legs feel leaden.
        The lads will be in shape and they will recover their lighter and truer touch on the ball.
        In due time.

      • agreed, JK said before the game there could be heavy legs and there were. Bradley will be just fine.

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