Good morning all. Today the U.S. Men’s Olympic team faces off against the Netherlands in a crucial group match for both teams. The Americans won their first group game, 1-0, against Japan, while the Dutch tied Nigeria, 0-0, in their opener.
I will be providing live commentary on the match over at the NBC Olympics website, where you can watch high-quality live feeds of all the Olympic matches.
If you will be watching the USA-Netherlands match, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
For now, let’s take a look at the lineups:
——————-McBride———————
Holden————Adu—————–Rogers
————–Bradley—Kljestan————–
Orozco——Edu——–Parkhurst—-Wynne
——————Guzan————————
Yes, it’s the same starting lineup as the Japan match. Surprisingly, Jozy Altidore is left on the bench yet again. I thought Peter Nowak would go with Altidore over McBride with just two days having past since the Japan game, but Nowak is sticking with the 37-year-old striker.
Sacha Kljestan and Robbie Rogers get starts despite subpar performances against Japan. Rogers will be switching over to the right flank, with Holden moving to the left flank where his defensive work will better help left back Michael Orozco.
I have to say that I’m very surprised to not see Danny Szetela in place of Kljestan, or even Benny Feilhaber. Nowak has a lot of faith in Kljestan and it will be interesting to see how the Chivas USA midfielder responds.
Here is the Dutch lineup:
———————Babel———–Beerens—————-
——————————Bakkal————————–
Drenthe———————————————DeGuzman
——————————Maduro——————————
Emmanuelson—-Jaliens———–Marcellis——-Zuiverloon
——————————-Vermeer———————-
Dutch changes from the first match are Roy Beerens in for the injured Roy Makaay and Ottman Bakkal in for defender Calvin Jong-A-Pin.
What do you think of the USA starting lineup? Shocked that Altidore is still on the bench? Surprised to see Kljestan back in the lineup?
Share your thoughts below.
Great result that we would have signed for at 7:45AM.
This is not a criticism on Sacha’s whole game today, just one play. But I just don’t understand why a minute and a half into injury time is he trying to flick a ball on his own side of the field to a teammate instead of just drilling it downfield. I am not one to want to just play kickball, but another 90 seconds and they are in the quarterfinals. Just kick the ball down the field! Very frustrating.
how frustrating that the u.s. outplays the netherlands and tie 2-2 on a late goal!!! maybe now the dutch coach will shut his trap because his team was within one minute of not even advancing out of the group stage. i’m proud of the boys for outplaying one of the best teams in the world and hopefully we can advance to the next round.
I think the next tie breaker is Goals For, and right now we have 3, while Nigeria has 2. If that is correct (I would think that Ives will let us know for sure), then a tie would put us through, but the 2 silly 2nd yellows will really hurt.
It is a disgrace that Nowak failed to use all 3 subs in a game like that.
A fresh set of legs the last 5-7 minutes could have made the difference.
The man is a horrible coach.
This was not a great result – maybe it would be if the Dutch were superior, but they were not. We probably should have had another goal or two
-God did Holden make some bad decisions with those tackes and that breakaway of his on goal.
I gotta go calm down
Hey i mean we tied Holland and Japan ‘should’ have beat us with the amount of chances they made….i mean
If we draw against Nigeria, we have the same GD as them. What’s the second tiebreaker?
I learned this from Tony DiCicco at his goalkeeping camp…the wall is a wall…the wall should never jump!
Oh well…a great, yet disappointing result for the Yanks today.
Lets not forget men – this is an amatuer compettition, and damn did we make some amatuer plays
Never thought I would feel shattered drawing with the Dutch. This was one of the best U.S. performances. We totally dominated 2/3rds of the game. The Dutch did nothing in the second half. But…
Bradley’s yellow was very stupid. And no Adu is a big loss.
my goodness…..what a group this has turned out to be…..does anyone think that Japan could MAYBE pull a result against Holland?
Hey guys, what are the tiebreakers? If we tie Nigeria, aren’t we still ahead based on goals scored? What’s the deal?
Stuart Holden, from hero to zero.
Unbelievable. Great match for the US. Man – what a hollow tie. We really deserved 3 points from this.
Looks like we’ll se Altidore, Benny and maybe Szetela in the next one.
Man, I cannot believe we gave up that goal………….
Who knows the tiebreakers in the event of a draw with Nigeria since Holland will definitely beat Japan?
Why the F@#$ does a wall ever jump? And why does Bradley risk a yellow? Frustration and yet they had moments of brilliance today. Combine it with moments of stupidity and I guess you get 2-2.
I still cant believe this – gut wrenching.
We were the better team, and we choke. Now, we have to beat Nigeria without Adu and Bradley – we are gonna need all the luck now
Not sure, but I don’t think a draw against Nigeria necessarily gets us through. If the Netherlands beats Japan by 2 or more goals and we tie Nigeria, then three teams have 5 points. We would have the worst goal differential, though.
well that sucked. still a great result, but now adu and bradley are out.
Was I the only one yelling at Bradley to just kick the ball and not get the yellow?
And I don’t care what Cello says, I hate it when the wall jumps, it’s much easier for the keeper to get a ball up high than it would be for a shot along the ground.
Such a disapointment.
I can’t believe that happened.
I hate everything right now. Prediction We tie Nigeria and Japan loses to Holland 5-1. Holland goes through on goal difference. I hate everything right now including Marcelo Balblowass’s tard commentary!
Balboa just said Nigeria will be missing two starters. Is that right? What’s the story there?
I think i am gonna vomit.
The Netherlands deserved to lose, and we should have easily taken this game. Yet, the last ten minutes we make the poorest decisions and passes. Sacha, who scored that great goal for us, also helped blow our lead by making a horrible pass in midfield that led to the free kick.But the whole team deserves blame for that choke job down the stretch.
And did anyone else know that they Dustch were gonna kick under the wall? It bit us in the ass
Now we have to beat Nigeria. This is terrible.
DAMN YOU STUART HOLDEN. ROT IN HELL.
Absolutely the most painful way to get a result you would have killed for two hours ago.
What a kick in the nuts at the end. Nice to make the Dutch coach eat his words a bit, and I know if someone told me prior to the game that we’d draw with the Dutch I’d be happy. But just a heartbreaker we couldn’t hold on…
now we have no Adu….no Bradley….and we need a draw….we lose in that one……and we’re out…..
WE ARE F***ed!
Are you kidding me??? there goes a huge opportunity by us.
What a way to give up 2 points. Final USA 2-Dutch 2.
Ok, so what’s the group look like? Nigeria and America at 4, Netherlands at 2, Japan with 0. So it’s win and move on for us. Lose and Netherlands should pass us assuming a win verse Japan. Japan can move us through by taking points verse netherlands. Oi vey.
Couldn’t we just block that free kick?
Even though we were the dominant team and deserved the win, a point against the Dutch is a great result.
I still like our chances to move on.
Bradley’s so-cslled “smart yellow” (idiot Balboa) looks incredibely stupid now. I was worried that this might happen.
Now the freddy and bradley yellow cards seem a lot more significant.
No Bradley, no Adu for Nigeria.
Uh oh.
…..Thats always been our problem….giving away silly fouls….
So now you’ve got Nigeria with no Freddy and no Bradley. You just need the draw but still…
It’s the USA curse, hopefully we can pull this out in the last game
Weak. The U.S. should be through already.
Time for Altidore to carry this team next match…. No Adu, No Bradley
Ugh.
God damn it. On all levels, we give away too many freaking free kicks from dangerous territory
Crap.
god dammit. god dammit. god dammit.
Doomed
man…….are you serious………that coulda been ours…….
Guys, keep it up. I am actually in Hong Kong (saw all the ING cup games…zzzzz) and we are beating the clogs (first time ever) and I can’t even get the game (not even in China!). All the press had these guys getting massacred. Win, lose or draw, sounds like they made the US of A prouder than hell.
all of that for them to score in overtime