The U.S. national team returns to action for the first time since qualifying for the 2010 World Cup today when it takes on Slovakia in a friendly in Bratislava (10am, FSC).
The Americans are without Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, as well as the injured Oguchi Onyewu and Jay DeMerit, but there are still plenty of starters who will have chances to show they can play without the team's top players.
They face a tough Slovakia side that has also qualified for the World Cup. Led by European-based stars Marek Hamsik and Martin Skrtel, the Slovakians should provide a stiff test today.
I will be providing commentary for (the second half) of today's match so please feel free to follow along here. As always, you are welcome to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action:
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FINAL- That's all for now. Share your post-game thoughts on today's match in the comments section below.
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FINAL– Bright spots for the USA? The Bradley-Feilhaber tandem looked comfortable together today and played well. Spector looked solid in central defense and just might have put his stamp on that position. Robbie Rogers didn't look bad today. Brad Guzan also looked very good in goal.
Not so bright spots? Bornstein got caught out a few times, and gave up the penalty kick. The starting forwards, Altidore and Casey, didn't make much of an impact today. Goodson didn't look good as a centerback option off the bench.
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FINAL- Slovakia 1, USA 0. The home team takes the match courtesy of a Marek Hamsik penalty kick. Not the prettiest match, but there were some bright spots for the AMericans to build on.
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93rd minute– How badly does the USA attack miss Landon Donovan today?
And how bad is the field in Bratislava?
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92nd minute– Two more minutes of stoppage time.
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89th minute– Cunningham draws a foul for a pretty decent long free kick chance for the USA. They took it quickly and Bornstein's low cross is pounced on by the keeper.
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89th minute– Nice touch and turn by Cunningham, but he's run down and dispossessed rather surprisingly.
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88th minute– McCarty has looked good since coming in. He certainly hasn't looked out of place. Goodson? Not so much.
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86th minute– Johnson with a decent run forward, but can't beat Martin Skrtel.
Spector has done well in central defense today. I wasn't sold on him being able to play centerback well on the senior level, but today I think he's proven he's a solid option there.
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85th minute– Jeff Cunningham gets his first cap since 2005. A well-earned appearance, now we'll see what he can do with the opportunity.
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82nd minute– Very good play by Feilhaber to steal a ball and draw a free kick.
Jeff Cunningham and Sacha Kljestan coming into the match, Jozy Altidore and Robbie Rogers come out.
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80th minute– Goodson has not looked good since coming into this match. You wonder if Chad Marshall's fitness is an issue. He did just recently come back from a knee injury.
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77th minute– Bradley and Feilhaber working well today in the second half.
Skrtel just took a hard hit and is down.
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74th minute– SAVE GUZAN!!! Looked like an offside play but no call and Sestak puts a shot on goal that Guzan kicks away. Nice save.
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73rd minute– I know there's been some criticism about McCarty's call up but the simple fact is that he enjoyed very good form for FC Dallas last season, particularly in the second half of the season.
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72nd minute– Dempsey and Bocanegra come out, Clarence Goodson and McCarty come in. This is McCarty's first national team appearance.
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70th minute– Bornstein with a hard foul from behind, no card.
Dax McCarty is coming into the match.
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69th minute– Still 1-0 Slovakia.
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65th minute– Dempsey's free kick hits the wall, setting up a corner. The Rogers corner is caught.
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64th minute– Eddie Johnson is getting his chance right now and it's definitely interesting to see how an Altidore-Johnson tandem might do together.
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60th minute– Marek Hamsik's 26th-minute penalty kick is still the difference in this one as Slovakia holds on to a 1-0 lead.
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54th minute– SAVE Guzan, Slovakia putting some good pressure on in the second half here.
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51st minute– Johnson with a good look but puts his shot into the side netting. Great pass from Dempsey to spring Johnson.
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HALFTIME– Eddie Johnson comes in for Conor Casey.
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37th minute– SAVE SLOVAKIA. Dempsey's long free kick forces a diving save. Well-struck shot from Dempsey on that one.
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29th minute– Nice passing sequence for the Americans, but Altidore's shot is saved. Better movement from the Americans.
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26th minute- GOAL SLOVAKIA!! Marek Hamsik converts the penalty drawn after Jonathan Bornstein committed a foul inside the penalty area. Slovakia 1, USA 0.
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25th minute– PENALTY! Jonathan Bornstein called for bringing down Vladimir Weiss. A closer look at the replay seems to show Weiss actually putting his arm around Bornstein's neck and then tumbling as soon as Bornstein got an arm up on him.
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2nd minute– USA corner leads to a few shots at goal that are blocked before an offside call. Very good chance there goes wasted.
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PRE-GAME– Spector gets the nod in central defense today. Chad Marshall is not in uniform today. I would have pegged him to get the nod, but he's out.
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PRE-GAME– Here is the USA starting lineup:
————-Altidore———–Casey——————
Rogers—————————————–Dempsey
—————Bradley———Feilhaber—————
Bornstein—–Bocanegra—-Spector——-Cherundolo
————————Guzan——————————-
Wait, did he play left? My bad.
For those wondering about the injury to Cherundolo-
From ESPN:
Right back Steve Cherundolo hobbled off during second-half injury time holding his left knee, but the U.S. Soccer Federation said the initial evaluation indicated no serious injury.
Ok so Slovakia wasn’t playing that hard, but having that much posession is still encouraging. The strikers were the main problem.
For strikers.. Go with a near league-leading goal scorer (Casey, Cunningham, Davies in Sweden), over someone who doesn’t see the field (Altidore or Johnson). The play I observe only reinforces this view. You can also make an argument for a solid starter in a top league like Dempsey and Davies, Dempsey is a top scorer on his team in EPL. These are people who have proven they can consistently create and connect on opportunities. I wouldn’t put the US WC hopes on Jozy’s unproven abilities. Spain and TT game goals are not enough.
Bornstein: Not that bad. Shallow position for US. Will be a #2 when Demerit returns. PK call was total BS on a flagrant dive. That’s all now let’s return to panicing about the strikers.
Don’t pay attention to the results of these friendlies, they really don’t matter. The fact is that we played well through defense and midfield, subtracting a couple of Bornstein mistakes. The pitch was truly appalling. Check my twitter feed for live commentary that actually has something to say about the match. We did really well defending against the counter which is an area where we’ve consistently struggled. So we had a hard time unlocking a defense content to sit back and concede possession. What team doesn’t? Says something that a European team that won their group in qualifying parks the bus in a home friendly, doesn’t it?
The reason Bradley hasn’t replaced Bornstein is because there is no indication that Castillo or any other option will do better than him. We haven’t seen him play on the national team which is different than playing for Tigres.
The only option that will probably play better than Bornstein is Bocanegra, and we can’t really afford to play him there because of the gap it leaves at centerback which has all of a sudden become a position where we can’t lose Carlos.
They have to hone their diving skills.
Seconded
did anyone catch dolo drag himself off the pitch (holding his knee) at the end of the USA match?? Ives, any word if he is seriously injured?
Does this means that if US would play WC qualifiers in Europe that we would have given the European a run for their money possibly even qualify as top of our group (at worst the playoffs)…….we totally dominated Slovakia’s 1st team and they were 1st in their WC qualifying group…….food for thought
Can we please end the Bornstein experiment yet? Everytime I see him play he is giving up a goal. Yes, he got the goal in the Costa Rica match, but I’ve seen him directly responsible for 3-4 goals going in off his mistakes…
Otherwise the game was ugly – we looked fairly good to be honest, but Conor Casey is just not going to get it done. Get Dempsey up there with Altidore, Holden and Landon on the wings.
I think we can all agree that John O’Brien would have solved all of our problems had he been out there today.
Uhm….Costa Rica?
Casey was great today, it was like Ching was out there.
I am glad to see he will be our number 1 option for the next 10 years.
Some definite positives from the match. Spector proved that he was a viable option in the middle, freeing up Cherundolo’s abilities on the right. Bornstein looked good for stretches, but his overall level was not as good after giving up the PK. Guzan looked great, as he usually does when he gets opportunities. Dax McCarty played well. Feilhaber and Bradley really worked well together. Plus, we possessed the ball for long stretches…we haven’t seen that in awhile.
The forwards did not look good. Casey probably looked the best out of all of them. Jozy was off the whole match. EJ was rarely dangerous. Cunningham had a couple of good plays but was not particularly dangerous. But that is what these friendlies are for, right?
Also, Stuart Holden is an important part of the squad. He probably serves the best ball out of anyone on the Nats. Hopefully we see him on Wednesday.
Anyone want to jump on my “Bornstein and Casey are terrible and should stop being called up” bandwagon?
I see that most comments are firmly in line with everyone’s preconceptions…no sense performance interfering with our assessments.
SO I’ll stick with what surprised or disappointed me.
Surprised: I’m not sold on Dax McCarty. but he looked composed on the ball. He did well.
The Feilhabor/Bradley mid field had more bite than I thought it would.
Eddie Johnson has learned not to be a strictly north-south player. He had a couple nice moments.
Disappointed: Clint’s free kicks. He reminds me of an overly clever U12 some games. He puts it on frame from 40 yards out (as I knew he would – surprisingly it nearly made it). Then he’s cute and clever (and ineffective) from closer in. He made some stupid choices. Sasha’s were far, far better.)
I could say I was disappointed in Slovakia. They were ugly and negative, packing the box, and they went down like extras getting shot in a war movie. I think put Donovan and Holden in wide, Dempsey with Josy and we tear them apart.
The Obvious: Casey and Altidore pairing does not work.
Minority Opinion: Bornstein was better than most are saying. The PK was bogus