For the second time in three weeks, the U.S. Men’s National Team will take the field against Ecuador, but this time, a berth in the Copa America semifinals is at stake.
After successfully navigating the group stage by topping Group A, the USMNT is set to take on the CONMEBOL nation on Thursday (9:30 p.m., Fox Sports 1). The rematch comes just weeks after a 1-0 USMNT win in a pre-Copa America friendly, as the U.S. toppled Ecuador on a late Darlington Nagbe winner.
The Portland Timbers star may figure off the bench in Thursday’s encounter, but only one change has been made to the USMNT starting XI. Due to the suspension of DeAndre Yedlin, Matt Besler has been added to the USMNT lineup and will likely hold down the left back position. The move shifts Fabian Johnson to the right, where he will face off with talented winger Jefferson Montero.
Aside from that, the USMNT lineup includes the same personnel that featured in each of the group stage matches, as Jurgen Klinsmann will look to lean on his regulars in Thursday’s must-win clash.
If you will be watching today’s soccer, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action.
The key word is after. Two yellows in the opening round plus quarterfinal and you are out for the next game. Once in the semis it takes a red card to not play in the finals.
Why does no one mention that the cope America rules have said that yellow cards clear after the quarterfinal game ?? Per the mlsnet article….
Is that true?
Tis true. No player can miss the final due to yellow card accumulation. Only a red in the semi can cause a player to miss the final should we make it etc
I’ll admit it. I have been very harsh on zardes particularly for his first touch but zardes runs and fights and in this game, even if without his score he still was crucial for the us
No Jones, Bedoya or Wood, lots of guys ran out of gas at the 70th, going to be a very different line up
Bring on Lionel Messi
I think brad guzan deserves motm on this one. Crucial saves bailed the d out a few times today
I think Guzan had a good game. But he didn’t make any great diving saves. To me its Brooks. He broke away so many crosses.
I like many others have blasted JK, and he still leaves some things to be desired, but he has this team playing with that old US fire and so e added panache so kudos to the boys and Jurgen for a job well done!!!! Big time win right there
Wow, Bradley looking like a defender there!
This is bad player management, you can’t play the same outfield players for 4 straight games and not sub guys out until the 75th minute…..it leads to yellow cards because of tired legs and now we lose 3 players for the next game…if there is a next game, jesus
Jermaine Jones you stupid hot headed moron. How is it we play 10 guys for a whole 2nd half in 2 straight games???WTF damn
And this is why you tinker.. this is why you experiment… you find shit out like besler turning out to be a decent/good back up lb.
Amongst a myriad of other similar examples 🙂
Don’t get me started on the things JK has uncovered with his tinkering. It hasn’t all been Bedoya at DM (which at the time Bedoya was not an offensive threat, but always had good bite to his tackles and solid positioning to make himself available as an outlet; two key traits of a DM; silly to test that out against Brazil tho smh) or Jones at CB (not a dumb idea; if you saw how awesome it was last night whenever Geoff did his best impression of Hummels, you now understand why JK wanted a CB with the technical skills of a mid.)
I can punch harder than that!
Wood misses next game, For my money he has been the best US player in this game so far.
Everything I’ve always wanted altidore to do Wood does and then some. Runs on to balls, holds up play, uses his body, plays the smart pass, creates his own chances.
The focus should be pairing wood with Jozy as Clint becomes a factor off the bench, which he keeps proving is further away than we think. I feel in 2 years Clint will still have enough fire to be a super sub with wood Jozy zardes as the front runners to start (could zardes get a euro transfer between now and then…?)
Wood always reminded me more of Charlie Davies than Jozy altidore….. And chuck made a great partner with Jozy….history might be showing us something here…
I guess only time will tell. As of right now and at the rate wood is progressing he is leaps and bounds ahead of altidore. There is still hope for Jozy, maybe he’s had a wake up call. Has to figure out how to stay healthy before anything else.
Leaps and bounds? At woods age Jozy was scoring 30 goals for AZ and setting the record for American goals in a euro season….. sooooo…. I’m all for wood, but as a partner with Jozy
Just doesn’t make sense to merely discard a player like him
“as of right now” DLOA. Altidore, right now, can’t lick the dirt of Woods cleats. (name that movie)
I’m not talking about stats I am talking about how he plays, seeing the intelligence in his game and how well rounded he is. Could that change, is bobby at his all time high? Could be. Could Altidore still reach his potential? Maybe. But right now Altidore isn’t sniffing a starting spot. I know you love Altidore, I like him too. If scoring goals in the dutch league is his peak it’s a sad one. I also never compared Wood to Altidore, I said I always wanted Altidore to do the things wood has already shown he can do. As for Davies, I thought he was an up and comer and I can see that comparison. Hes been out of the equation for a long time, not really much point in talking about him, sadly.
I think we have a similar sentiment but maybe my point is coming off wrongly. I’m not trying to make this Wood vs Altidore. Merely that woods progression doesn’t knock back Jozy, it actually helps him and the whole team. Clint was never a motor guy, more of a “select the proper moments to hustle” guy. This never paired optimally with Jozy. But with wood showing well and gettin to the level that Jozy and Clint are on, it means Jozy now has a speedy hustling strike partner. Thus the mentality should be “this is exciting! Now we have a great second striker to pair with Jozy as Clint phases out. Start Clint and wood in 442, sub Jozy at 60′ for Clint. Then as Clint becomes a sub you flip the roles.
Jozy wood
Pulisic Nagbe Bradley (zardes/Zusi/bedoya)
FJ Brooks GC yedlin
25, 23,
17, 25, 28, (25/27/29)
29,23,30,22
Not bad starting lineup. Add 2 years to those ages and its still a strong lineup with blend of youth and veterans.
So again, my takeaway isn’t “Jozy better step up to keep up” because he’s already past where wood is at his age (yes 30 in a season at AZ impresses me more than 17 at a 2Bunds club…. It is what it is); thus the takeaway is, rather, now we add a strong striker o Jozy and Clint and zardes and we now have options as Clint phases out instead of forcing a Jozy Clint pair that is too similar to succeed
Yeah I see what you are saying. I guess what I am getting at is until time catches up with clint, jozy is the odd man out. I see it more as Jozy never paired well with Dempsey(or anyone really, maybe johannsen at AZ) rather than the other way around. Against the best competition in important matches Dempsey proves himself far more than Jozy. I do think woods ability across the board is better than Altidore now and in his early 20s. Jozy had one great season, it was a fine one but hasn’t come close to that again. I do think Jozy needs to get better and step up because at the professional level it is what have you done for me lately not how did I compare when I was your age… and maybe wood will be a great partner with him, I hope so when the time comes because at some point father time will knock on clints door.
Altidore’s biggest problem is his hamstring injuries. They have limited his effectiveness since 2014 and they have limited his ability to remain sharp and fit. He would not be the first soccer player to end his carrier due to injuries in a slow downward spiral.
My concern about Wood is that he is too hot headed and loses his cool too often.
He gets fired up for sure but I like that, he’s passionate and a fighter. He seems smart enough to not let it hurt his game.
He is young, he will get more level-headed with age (not sure what Jones’ excuse is).
Jones < Zidane for all time dumbest red card in an elimination game in a major tournament but it's damn close.
Easy dumbest US red card I've seen in my 23 years following the team
Bedoyas was just as stupid
jozy’s comes to mind.
Aios mios JJ whyyyy(in my Kel voice)
Cameron was lucky on that one. Easily a PK.
We gotta defend corners better than that!
looks like klinsmann nailed it with the back four. gotta say, i was not too sure about how besler would hold up, but it looks like he’s just been instructed to stay flat with the two cbs, and bedoya’s doing a great job of helping out while still providing something on the attacking side.
Guzan comes up big, Cameron does well to harrass without committing a foul. What was Bradley thinking?
while i’m leery of saying anything negative about brooks when he’s in beast mode, i kind of thought he could have cleared that out before it got dangerous.
but yeah, it certainly wasn’t the smartest pass from bradley. guzan and cameron saved his ass on that one.
I can’t understand the Korean announcers. What is the shots on goal total for the US (I am pretty sure Ecuador is 0.
Wood took the ball to the goal line passed back to Jones who crossed to Dempsey who headed it in.
Lousy feed here in the Dominican. How did we score??
According to a poll two week ago, the majority of the people on this site didn’t even want Dempsey starting.
The switch from a 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 has helped both Wood and Dempsey a lot. The disapproval of Dempsey was partly because his poor fit as a target forward in a 4-3-3
yep. and unless the dempsey-wood partnership starts to look unstoppable, we’re back to the same debate once jozy gets healthy. the gut feeling is that we really shouldn’t be depending on dempsey much longer, but he’s so important to us, it’s hard to keep in out of the starting XI.
IMO, the disapproval of Dempsey was due to stupidity. There were a lot of people dissing him 6 months before the World Cup. then there were people dissing him before the Gold Cup. While he was at Fulham, until the year he had 17 goals, people were underestimating him. When he was at Tottenham, people put him down despite being third on the team in both goals and assists when Gareth Bale was having a super year and he and Defoe hogged the ball. People under estimate Dempsey at their peril.
“People under estimate Dempsey at their peril.”
absolutely.
however: time waits for no one, and such. you can write the criticism off as “stupidity”, but he really did have some games where he looked totally lost and out of sync with the rest of the team. he’s not getting any younger, he’s lost most of his speed, and he’s quickly becoming a one-note player. only thing is, his “one note” is that he’s by far the best goalscorer we have, and he turns up for the big games.
Great work by Wood. I am in Korea and the announcers just said captain america dempsey
That’s all bobby wood. Great patience and Vision
Nobody’s taking advantage of the vast empty space on the left side.
Wow, first Jones, then Bradley, then Cameron make bad passes, those guys gotta step it up.
Would someone please tell Jermaine Jones to stop giving the ball away…
Jonesis picking a bad day for poor passes.
Hope it improves.
He’s having an awful game!
it did.
Real grass in Seattle, imagine that!! And the ball doesn’t bounce funny, imagine that!! Let it stay, please!!
It was always going to be ugly, no matter who you put in to repack Yedlin. I really hated seeing Besler there last time though. He lost so many balls, didn’t attack, didn’t defend.
Besler?? Lets hope that works out. Besler will be dealing with a bunch of speed down that flank.
Yeah I don’t know how this is any better then Orozco, but let’s see what happens
Besler did Better than I thought with the speed. With all the cards it might be time to consider Fj in the midfield. replacing jones on the other hand isn’t really possible.