The U.S. Men’s National Team knew three changes would be coming ahead of Tuesday night’s clash against Argentina in the Copa America semifinals, and head coach Jurgen Klinsmann is clearly opting for experience.
Without Jermaine Jones, Bobby Wood and Alejandro Bedoya, all of whom were suspended during the U.S.’ 2-1 win against Ecuador in the previous round, Klinsmann has called upon MLS veterans Graham Zusi, Chris Wondolowski and Kyle Beckerman to fill the void in the starting XI.
The good news for the USMNT will be defensively, with DeAndre Yedlin returning from his one-match ban. The U.S. defense has arguably been the team’s biggest strength throughout the tournament, and Klinsmann’s selected back four against Argentina is the same group that started all three group stage matches.
For Argentina, head coach Gerardo Martino has made one change up top, bringing in Ezequiel Lavezzi for the suspended Nicolás Gaitán. Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi and Napoli’s Gonzalo Higuain will lead the attack for La Albiceleste.
If you will be watching today’s match, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action.
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7-0
The only thing that Klinsman have brought to the team are his German friends, not because he was a good player it means he can coach, his attitude is the one that the US team show today, insecure and full of excuses, after 6 years with the team I don’t see the improvement, at least the basics, if you have a team that is physically one of the best you should use it to compensate the technique more when you play against a team like Argentina. These games have to be play like finals, with intensity and with the idea of winning, instead I saw a team that were afraid of loosing 6-0 so they got only 4.
Zardes was basically a right back when he could of be probably been one of the most dangerous on top.
About Bradley and Beckermann bad game for both of them but Wondo and Dempsey never gave them to many options either, I was really disappointed with Dempsey since he is probably one of the symbols of the team I didn’t see him at least trying to fix the problems that they were having in the middle and try to play more like a 10.
Anyway sad for the result but even more sad abou the big lie that Klinsmann is trying to sell ” Is a process ”
After 6 years the only process I saw is the naturalization process and not the development.
Ugh, you people expect Jurgen to make the US good enough to beat world class teams? Only God can reverse 100 years of mediocrity, not Jurgen’s five years. We are better off than before but we better grow faster!
Oh no…. We suck again…
In all seriousness though. The only player in our entire player pool with a chance to make their 23 is player. We were unorganized and our passing was horrendous tonight.
I think Klinsmann put Wondo in the lineup to run a lot and press them high but that clearly didnt work. Since he has no pace and a first touch like a brick he cant stretch the field and keep their centerbacks honest.
Now onto Bradley. Jesus Bradley sucked tonight. Passing accuracy was way off and it ruined any going forward opportunities before they even developed. Very inconsisyent recently. This is not good for us going forward into qualifying. We need Bradley to be sharp every game .
We can blame Klinsmann all we want and rightfully so on unorganized defense but our player pool is just not on the same level as the elite national teams. We zero players who played more than 90 minutes in the Champions League. These other teams are stacked with them.
So whats holding us back. Three things, paying league fees for youth soccer, a lack of generational knowledge of the gamr, and poor coaching standards. DA and MLS academies have helped but its takes time. It took Johan Cruyf 15 plus years to turn around Barcelona.
On to the third place match.
What would have worked better is the 4 4 2 with Zardes up top,Dempsey behind then Nagle left pulisic right. Bradley at the 6 anchoring and LB fabian. Klinsmann lineup way off tonight. I’m actually considering his firing would be a very good thing.
-Zardes played well. He ran for the full 90 as we expect from our players, even in a bad loss. I am one usually frustrated by his touch, but he gave his teammates options until the end and forced Argentina to contain on defense.
-Brooks can play at this level. Not perfect, but control and positioning was generally up to the task.
-Zusi played well. He controlled the ball and made decent passes. Confused by calls for his sub as I thought at times he was the best on the field
-Bradley, often one of my favorites. Not tonight. Timid, mistakes, temper problems. Not sure what is going on recently, he has the control and heart to be better than he has shown.
-Klinsmann. I wish he had thrown caution to the wind, but I can’t blame him for playing safe. While he didn’t really give us a chance to win, he was in a tough spot without three top regulars. Beckerman should have been a sub. What do you have to lose by starting Nagbe?
-Messi’s skill is understated
Zusi can have a role on the team, defensive sub for a midfielder when you need fresh legs, but he isn’t a true back up for midfield. Wondo doesn’t give u anything and shouldn’t be on the team, zardes was so much better as the hold up forward it wasn’t even funny. Beckerman could have a place as a defensive sub but you can’t have him start if you are going to displace Bradley for that. Best line up he could have used today would have been maybe for jones, Johnson at LM with besler at LB, Zardes at forward with zusi or pulisic at RM.
Rather disappointed that we seemed to be outhustled so often. We still would have lost 4-0 of course, but nevertheless. If your name didn’t start with a “Z” you looked pretty slow to the ball tonight. Though Brooks was fine.
Klinsman went with a pure defensive line up that got beat by a mistake instantly which destroyed the game plan. Then messi gave a bit of magic, and in second half when we were pressing they got a ball over the top and forced an error from birbaun. This game was lost when klinsman made the roster and his decisions when forced to field a different starting 11.
US clearly out played, but they did what they could.
Pulisic continues to look promising.
Cameron Brooks pairing is solid even though Brooks did get caught ball watching.
Bradley needs to play in front of the back 4 with 5 other players in front of him.
Nagbe did well.
Yedlin and Zardes have speed and are improving.
Johnson just looked scared.
Beckermann is a smart defender, and uses the tools he has well, but his quickness is getting worse.
Wondo is not a counter-attacking forward, he needs to be in games where his team has possession.
Dempsey It is hard to fault him, he does what he does pretty damn well, but he does run out of gas.
no shoot on goal. congratulations to jurgen klinsmann? Dempsey was in field today, when need him, is missing
Top 2 in conmebol v top 2 in concacaf, 11:0 on aggregate…enough said.
Yikes. How’s that for some perspective?
It was a good run. On to the 3rd place game!