Photo by ISIphotos.com
BY DYLAN BUTLER
SEATTLE — The United States National Team did something on Saturday night that it failed to do a week ago in South Africa — protect a two-goal halftime lead.
Of course, there's about 80 places in the FIFA rankings between Brazil, which scored three second-half goals to win the Confederations Cup, and Grenada, which conceded two more goals after halftime in a 4-0 thumping in both team's CONCACAF Gold Cup opening game at Qwest Field.
But the victory was impressive, nonetheless.
"We said at halftime there's a professional way to finish that game," U.S. National Team coach Bob Bradley said. "That involves having discipline, knowing how to respect the opponent, but at the same time making sure that in a good, smart, mature way you know how to finish the game."
The U.S. certainly accomplished that goal in front of 15,387 fans on the Fourth of July as Robbie Rogers and Charlie Davies scored eight minutes apart in the second half to sink the Spice Boyz.
"Last time I played here, I think it was 30,000 people, all Sounders fans, unfortunately," Rogers said. "To come out here and see all the American fans, it was a great experience."
Rogers was named man of the match after terrorizing Grenada down the left flank. He set up Freddy Adu for the Americans first goal and sent a cross to the far post that Stuart Holden headed into the net fo the Houston Dynamo midfielder's first international goal on his national team debut.
"I was kind of overwhelmed when I scored," Holden said. "To score on my first cap, the whole experience and to get the victory first off was important to us."
The U.S. temporarily move in front of Group B on goal differential, after Honduras needed a 76th-minute Carlos Costly header to beat Haiti, 1-0, in the opening game of the doubleheader. The two favorites to advance out of Group B will meet at RFK Stadium in Washington on Wednesday.
"The result is what we wanted," said defender Steve Cherundolo, who played in his first match since March 12 after successful hip surgery. "Can we play better? Yes. Do we need to play better? Yes. Honduras is going to bring a very good team on Wednesday and we need to be ready for them and improve on a few things from tonight."
What did you think of the U.S. victory? Impressed in its comprehensiveness or aprehensive because of the quality of opponent? Who stood out for you? Let us know.
HAHAHAHA I can’t believe the ADU hate on this blog!!lol Anyone who knows anything about futbol should know that this kid playe great condidering he hadn’t played in a game for 90minutes in sometime now. Adu had good possesion, passed well, and almost scored a brilliant goal from outside the key!.. I don’t see any U.S player to have first touch skill like Adu’s when hitting a rainbow shot over the goalkeeper. Casey & Cooper in those situations would just choke. Adu’s first goal was put in the corner by his thinking. Cooper or Casey would have just shot the ball down the middle without thinking like a skilled futbolero! That’s the difference between Adu and the some of our overated players in our team. Adu in those situations hardly ever misses. Anyone here watched Dos santos play yesterday?? This kid has been playing frequently for the mex team, yet he can’t finish or play great for 90mins against a weaker team like Nicaragua.lol Trust me wen I say this, Adu is the only player we have that could change the way a game is played.
Rogers & Holden are just average. We have younger players in Europe with no playing time who can perform better than these two guys who play frequently. Pure fact.
Nice post Libero, I agree.
I don’t subscribe to Henry school of Adu lovefest – but to other posters, the kid wasn’t that bad. He unselfishly moved the ball and kept possession, and he showed a couple of flashes. His set pieces were well taken.
It was nice to see the B team dominate, but I wonder if the winner of last years top whistle league in the DC area could give the Spice Boys a run.
Very hard to take much from this game. In context – everyone looked great.
I’m more curious to see what BB does with line-ups the rest of the tournament. I don’t get much time to follow MLS. So, seeing Pause, Arnaud, Beckerman, Evans etc. was cool.
The degree of Adu hating on this blog is unbelievable. Moreoever, there is very little, if any, true fan support of any American player on this blog. Like the average American male sports fan in any sport, the dominant theme is to trash anyone who has achieved a higher level. Sorry your playing days ended in HS or club boys.
Is it any surprise why Michael Bradley was so emphatic in his comments about American fans after the Spain win? If American soccer “sucks” then it is because the American soccer fan sucks.
Look at a re-play of the game focusing only on Adu and you will see that his play does not deserve the level of criticism on this blog. He does look like he had “heavy legs” but his set pieces were solid and his run of play balls out wide were very nice, although we did not have the speed to get to all of them.
Americans always want the superhero athlete who will save the day RIGHT NOW – it ain’t Freddy or any soccer player for some time. Fact is Freddy should have gone to Europe before he was 15 – he would be a better player now. But he is STILL a player who can contribute on the national team – if BB didn’t think so he would NOT be on the roster, right??
On the bright side, more US kids under 18 are going to Europe – at all levels of play. If the USSF can just figure out how to cut the political BS about how they pick kids and get the best players on the pitch, we’ll see a US team that can consistently perform at the top international levels. They have a start with the academy program, but that is no where near the final answer.
So, c’mon let’s just leave Adu alone. God knows we all agree he has not played enough this past year.
——————–Cooper—————–
Rogers—————-Adu————Davies
—————–Clark—Holden————
Pearce—-Marshall—-Parkhurst—-Cherundolo
——————–Perkins—————-
Our central midfield tandem last night had no chemistry whatsoever and barely any bite. Clark and Holden play in central midfield for Houston and they were really on a roll this season so I think this makes a lot of sense. I think Davies speed and skill will, along with Rogers’, stretch the defense. Cooper should bring some hold up play while maintaining the nose for goal. I think everyone was getting fit on Sunday and now that we’ve got momentum we can face Honduras.
Mike,
All I could see was that Davies was alone up top. He is nto cut out for that.
We know what Ching can do, so I would have really like to see Cooper and Davies up top with Adu underneath.
Not sure why BB thought he needed 2 DMs against Grenada.
Lets hope Bradley continues to mentor Rogers and bring him along:
Posted by: Tom R | July 05, 2009 at 12:58 PM
I hope Bradley leaves him alone … he’s doing fine by himself
Everyone dises Adu, that he has never shown anything, but we have never had a player do what Adu did at the U20’s world cup. I know it was only the U20 world cup, but still, we have never had another player put on that kind of display against good teams at that level, or also in the olympics against Holland. So Adu has something, whether it can translate to the senior team, that is the big question.
Beckerman looked real good. I wonder if that is because he is use to playing on turf. Adu looked shakey. I didn’t know if it was the turf, or rust. I also wonder if the coach has been telling Adu don’t dribble the ball, just pass it. I watched part of the El Salvador vs Costa Rica game, and they way they were playing they would shred this US team apart. Hopefully our energy will raise up against a better opponent like Honduras.
“These guys should be happy for the opportunity, honestly most should be buying there own plane ticket to South Africa.”
Other then the obvious their/there question… This brought to mind a question that maybe Ives can answer. Or maybe I should save it for the question and answer…
Ives, what does USSF do for players that are part of the player pool, but not part of the team? Are they offered access to an allotment of player/staff tickets? If the team travels via charter, are they allowed to come along? Or is it truly, the “only way they’ll get to the World Cup is to buy a ticket?”
I was too drunk last night to remember the game, I only watched the last 30 minutes. I’ll be at RFK wednesday though, sober.
Happy Independence Day Will Smith.
A little off topic, but was wondering, why is the Gold Cup always played in the US (since 1990)? I think it would be good if the Gold Cup was hosted in different countries as well … even if one country is too small, it can be a two country host. It would be good for their economy and it would also toughen up the US.
If they have to do in the US … perhaps focus on a part of the country so the games aren’t all over the place. It would be a local boon to the economy of that region, advertising / marketing can be concentrated, probably get more attendance and excitment than having the games essentially being one-offs all over the US.
Grenada was woeful, I am sorry to say; I don’t think it was stiff enough opposition to provide insight into how the US roster would play against the kind of team we will struggle with. Brazil, Italy, Egypt, Mexico, Costa Rica…. etc etc
Rogers was good. I’d like to see how he would fare against a better team.
I thought the Adu and Holden goals were “gimmes” – the assists were the tough part, though Freddy and Stuart did put themselves in the right spot to finish.
The Grenada gentlemen sure liked to give the US players a lot of space to work with. I wish we could tell the better teams – “Hey, back off, you need to stay at least 2 yards away from the man with the ball!” 😉
Well Adu’s twitter explains what we all saw……..But even when hes not anywere near game sharp you can see the Flashes of Brilliance…Freddy get Club playing time NOW.
Freddy Adu’s twitter:
“rustyy.Thanks for all the messages.Game sharpness is not there.felt slow due to heavy legs.legs wouldnt do what i wanted.Good win.important”
http://twitter.com/FreddyAdu11/status/2479024752
Beckerman is a very aerage player — probably 7th on the list of defensive midfield prospects behind Clark, Jones, Feilhaber, Edu, Mastroeni, Holden, and Pause. I know this list can be quibbled with, but the point is that Beckerman needs a haircut and to focus on MLS. He’s not an international-caliber player.
Good — Holden and Rodgers giving us some depth on the wings — where I’d love to see Torres play some too. I also thought Pause was very good and Davies was a handful. Davies is a very exciting forward and should see a lot of time next year.
Bad — Not too much to say, but Adu looked very rusty and had a few times when he decided not to go 1 v 1, when he would have been. He’s just not ever shown much, in my opinion. And the finish — it was, frankly, poor. A world-class keeper stops that side-foot pass rather than merely touching it. Hardly an emphatic goal.
This was clearly the B team, most of the possession passing was neutral or backwards, and we got most of our cutting edge outside or on long balls. The long balls won’t be there against good teams, but the outside will be.
i was at the game looked more like a 4 2 3 1
the wingers where pushed up far on the pitch .. many times they played as high as davies.
Rich, it wasn’t a 4-5-1. Adu was basically another forward. If you watched the game you’d realize that. If anything, it was a 4-4-1-1. If is was a 4-5-1 then Adu did a terrible job of tracking back.
Coope fanboys kill me… He is just not that great for the way the us plays. He’s not fast, and he doesn’t hold the ball well. he drops back to much often as well.
Yes he has a good nose for the goal but other then that i don’t think he is a good fit..
Beckerman lookedOK posession wise.
BUT… there were two-three occassions he could have been stripped of the ball (almost was) by a more skilled opposition. And a free run on our goal.
The guy put himself in that situation by hanging onto the ball too long.
That fault worked on the attack too where more one touching could have cracked Granada earier and often.
Tommy – Beckerman didn’t have a bad game, but he doesn’t seem quite as technical as other CM options we have. Little bits of sloppiness getting the ball settled and away on simple passes that could be a problem against better teams.
I do agree that he has a great attitude and work rate. I probably shouldn’t have singled him out as I don’t place much value on this game for evaluation purposes.
The fastest growing popluation in the USA is Hispanic, but there was not even 1 Hispanic player that played for the USA yesderday.
what does kenny cooper have to do to get a minute on the field for bradley? serious… i mean he put in arnaud before him… ARNAURD…
Posted by: baloosh13 | July 05, 2009 at 09:04 AM
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Date his daughter or niece