Photo by Howard C. Smith/ISIPhotos.com
By FRANCO PANIZO
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The score was different, but the final result was the same.
Nearly three years after the U.S. men's national team played to a scoreless draw with Argentina, the Americans tied the albiceleste 1-1 through an equalizer from substitute Juan Agudelo in front of a record crowd of 78,936 fans at the New Meadowlands Stadium on Saturday.
The 18-year-old's second goal in three international matches not only pulled the United States level after Esteban Cambiasso's first half goal, but also helped the team overcome a sluggish first half in which Lionel Messi and co. thoroughly dominated possession and the majorty of the goal-scoring chances.
"As the game moved along, the responses were good," said head coach Bob Bradley, who switched the team's formation at halftime from a 4-5-1 to a 4-4-2 when he inserted Agudelo and newcomer Timmy Chandler. "I think to come away with a good result against a very good team, (there are) some things to talk about, things that need to be improved, but also some positives."
Among those positives was the performance of Agudelo, who built on his first two impressive national team caps by injecting some life into a U.S. attack that looked to be on the brink of flatlining in the opening 45 minutes. Agudelo showed a willingness to take on defenders and made dangerous runs as the U.S. team got itself back into a game that displayed Messi's magical touch throughout .
Agudelo's second-half cameo was highlighted by his goal in the 59th minute, when he knocked in a rebound after Mariano Andujar swatted away a Carlos Bocanegra header.
"For a young player, whenever you put (Agudelo) on the field, you can tell he has confidence," said Bradley. "He puts himself in good positions and when the ball comes, he's strong and he has something where he's looking to try things, things that make sense."
Chandler was another youngster who impressed. The 20-year-old right back made his U.S. national team debut by coming off the bench at halftime, and although he had some trouble containing Ezequiel Lavezzi, he demonstrated an ability to get forward well and swing in nice crosses.
"I thought he played very well," said Jay DeMerit, who played in his first U.S. game since last summer's World Cup defeat to Ghana. "He got up and down, he recovered well, played some very good balls into the box, and that's what you always ask from your right back. I thought he did all of those things very well tonight."
A veteran who shone in the match was Tim Howard, who came up with big save after big save, just as he did in the match in June 2008. Howard kept the Americans in the match by denying Messi, Lavezzi and Angel Di Maria repeatedly, and there was little he could do on the Argentines' lone goal.
After Messi played a ball into the middle of the penalty box, Howard made a kick save on Di Maria's effort from point blank range, but Cambiasso was there to rifle home the loose ball.
The U.S. team almost gave up a second before the intermission, but the defense, which included Oguchi Onyewu and Carlos Bocanegra, held firm.
"We understood that the first half didn't go the way we wanted, and you can't against a very good team come out and just, in your attempt to push the game, leave things wide open," said Bradley. "But we felt that there was more in us. Now we wanted to push a little bit higher, defend a little bit higher, be more confident with the ball."
In order to help accomplish that, Bradley began the second half by switching to a 4-4-2 formation and replacing Jonathan Spector and Jermaine Jones with Chandler and Agudelo. Those changes paid divends as the Americans found their rhythm, jumpstarted their attack and ultimately got the equalizing goal from Agudelo.
The United States next faces Paraguay at LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee on Tuesday.
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What do you think of the United States' draw against Argentina? Who was your Man of the Match? Impressed even more by Messi and Argentina after this game?
Did you see the game? Argentina dominated the first half. Usually, you get a yellow card when you are defending.
I feel the same way, but I am looking forward to the day when a draw is a disappointing result as a US fan the majority of the time rather than a food one
Yeah thank god! It’s funny because I feel like on here a few months back everyone was really keen on bradley dropping the 4-4-2
Yeah, his post was ludacris. I do not understand how my post did not make since. I was typing in English.
Maybe everyone’s just dazzled by Chandler or something, but I’m surprised there’s not more commentary on how poor Spector’s performance was…
“ludacris”? Seriously?
Biglia and Mascherano deserved to be bitchslapped both
+++
Gooch looked terrible.
New Jersey’s own Juaaan Agudeelllooo
I was also surprised he took off Jones instead of Edu. My guess is that he chose to keep Edu on the field because the US was down at the time and Edu has been more of a scoring threat this year than Jones has. Michael Bradley might have been a candidate for substitution because he’s not been playing ninety minutes but he also has a history of scoring late goals.
Chandler look fairly good going forward but needs to tidy up his defense. Altidore look very good the second half look dangerous and gave the Argentinian back line a hard time. If he ever finds his scoring touch he just might turn out to be a fairly good player just not for the U.S but internationally too. Aguadelo got a goal but played how I expected him to play. Made some decent plays but look lost and uncomfortable on the ball sometimes.
The defense did well but Gooch although he had some good played look stiff and he really cant pass out of the backfield. Majority of the time with or without pressure he would just boot it somewhere. The midfield should never consist of those 3 guys ever again I mean again. It’s the second time with this midfield and the second time we looked this defensive and lost offensively. If anything put Dempsey as the withdrawn if Holden isn’t available and play Aguadelo, Chandler or someone else out on the wing. Dempsey does well when he gets the ball but a lot of the time he just doesn’t go looking for it and with him playing that position he should see the ball more.
Idiot
I’m fine with it.
Bigtime pimpin..
Chandler needs to start.. Agudelo is sick.. I promise to keep my exspectations of this kid at a reasonable level.
Great request but with his DAD as the coach this will NEVER HAPPEN!
Yes, the first half was a disaster, Jim. The fact that the team played so much better in the second runs counter to your claim that Jones was playing well. He wasn’t.
Jerome, everyone is thinking we need to stack the midfield before the game. Isn’t it a bit of Monday morning quarterbacking to claim the coach should have known better all along. After he pulled Jones and subbed Spector, the team played significantly better. One of his substitutions scored the leveler. I say credit to Coach Bradley for inciteful adjustments.
Wholeheartedly agree.
Reading some of these comments, I’m wondering if we were watching the same Michael Bradley.
Agudelo…an 18 year old kid. When he gets past his nerves by playing against world class players. I wonder how good this kid will really be
I agree with all of this. As someone who ended up attending with some Argentina supporters, it was nice to hear them shut up after the first half.
I honestly don’t understand all of the Michael Bradley hate in the comments (although, not unexpected, I guess). From where I was sitting, he had a very good game.
1st have was terrible but we turned it around and the changes at halftime along with the formation were the correct ones. question is should we play a 4-5-1 or 4-4-2. personally i think it depends on the opponent.
Good job from the boys!
Glad to see no one seems to be jumping on the Agudelo as savior bandwagon like was done for Eddie Johnson, Freddy Adu and Jozy Altidore. He is a very good young player with has a good touch and he is quick enough to diosrupt defenses. The goal was a nice opportunistic play. Still there we moments when he looked like a teenager playing against adults (whoa he was). His trajectory so far has been amazing I hope he keeps improving, if he does, he will become something very special.
I thought Bradley did well tracking back on D and pressuring attackers/mids. Granted, it wasn’t genius, but I don’t think it was as godaweful as you all say it is.
Chandler rocked. Spector dissapointed. Agudelo defined the new slogan tonight. Boca is getting to old and out paced too often. Don’t know what Gooch’s deal was tonight – maybe bad sushi. Jones was a huge disappointment. I saw his debut vs. Poland live. He rocked it. Triangle then? Dont remember. Edu was solid. Jozy…the jury is still out on him. We should never see him solo again imo. He obviously works better paired up – 4-4-2 whether you all like it or not. Bring on Paraguay!
I was at the game. The US really quieted the Argentine fans in the second half. The Messi, Messi cheers were silenced.
In the first half, Jones was the one who looked like he was supposed to be the attacking mid of the three and he did not do it very well. Not that Bradley is a better player than Messi, but he did have a much better game. He played the role of defensive destroyer to near perfection.
In the second half, the substitution of Agudelo for Jones opened up the midfield and had the effect of bring Dempsey and Donavon into the game more. I thought BB would substitute Edu due to the yellow card, but… Chandler looked good going up the right side and that led to a good share of the US chances in the second half.
Onweyu, Demerit and Boca defended well, but all 3, especially Gooch, made way too many aimless clearances or passes that missed the mark. I would hav eliked to see some of Ream in the back.
I am pretty tired of the M. Bradley haters, in this game, he was clearly the central midfielder who took the lead in stopping Messi (of course, all 3 had their moments, but it was Bradley who most often took command and made the definitive play). He did that, I think without any dicey fouls, unlike Edu who got the card and Jones who I thought was lucky to escape without a caution.
It is almost routine for him, but Howard again made it a long night for Argentina.
I was glad that Batista was taking this game seriously as evidenced by his not using a lot of subs. It would have ticked me off if he had thrown in 5 or 6 subs and the US had scored after that.
I just got back from the game (only took me an hour and a half to make the half hour train ride from the Meadowlands to NYC–AWESOME). It should only take me another twelve hours to defrost.
And wow. Just wow. The first half had me gritting my teeth, but the game just changed entirely in the second and you could feel it in the stadium. I will be honest and say that I expected our defense to be absolutely routed (especially when I saw Specs and Bocanegra were our outside backs), but they did well against Messi. And the feeling of a full capacity stadium just going absolutely insane, despite being frozen, when Agudelo scored was just incredible. Really no other way to describe it.
Why are you putting in a B squad defense ? SMH.
Are you serious Bocanegra is not a weak link the goal did not come from his side it came from Demerit and Spector side. Also Boca has scored the most goals as a defender for country in this current generation of US talent.
bump chandler on the wing
howard is a top 5….maybe top 3 keeper in the WORLD. Mad props to ‘stoner.
My new ATK nickname for Timmy….
Heinze did play they were missing Aguero though.
Really loved seeing agudelo and alitdore out there together, with their youth really shining. Though this summer is important in terms of reaching the Confederations Cup, it is still all about building towards 2014 for me. Though Holden is hurt, I hope to one day see a lineup of:
Forwards – Agudelo, Altidore
Midfield – Donovan, Holden, Bradley, Dempsey
Defense – Lloyd (?), Ream, Boss, and Chandler.
Maybe we can see how Lichaj would do on the left-side of the defense. It couldn’t be worse than Bornstein.
Please read my comments before you post a comment in reply that is ludacris and vague. I watched the game Edu, Bradley, and Jones were not attacking at all. Did you not see how far Jozy had to track back on Def??? He should not have to do that, but since coach Bradley still continues to put him up top by himself we were not getting any shots cause Jozy had to play Def way far back. I knew that the game was going to be slow. those three in the middle are to defensive. None of them were attacking. The USA is not good with three in the middle in midfield. I do not know if you know this, but USA’S BEST FORMATION IS 4-4-2. Jozy needs a striking partner always if he starts look at the confed cup ala Davies was with him. Look at all the times he has scored or assisted he had a partner to make passes and move past and to with.
They did, but who did you expect them to support?
Agree. But, What is Up Bradley as the coach? He does his best to make our team stink in the beginning until he realizes he made a dozen mistakes, And switches is it. Im starting to wonder how many more games we could have won. And he also has no problem showing favoritism to Mike. We were all wondering how bad this 4-5-1 is with 3 Defensive CM’s, but with respect to the players. It was mike’s turn to be subbed off since he does not play with his club and Jones and Edu are. Bradley’s rule was playing time. so much for that. Jermaine Jones to CB…
Oh, and hats off to the USMNT for not giving up and to Argentina for such a great performance.
USA ALL THE WAY!
I’m not a fan of Jozy’s past performances, but I will say that Jozy played better in the second half when he wasn’t up top alone, though he needs to do better with his decisions on when to go forward and when not to.
He had a few bad traps but I think he played pretty good overall.I don’t think I’ve ever praised him before so that’s a first.
By the way, we got 4 yellow cards and Arg. got 0. C’mon refs…there should have been at least 1 that should have been given to them…right?
A few things I learned tonight:
1) Without Holden (and maybe even with him) we don’t have the midfield or striker personnel for a 4-5-1 (or 4-2-3-1, or 4-3-3 or whatever you want to call it). Jozy can’t play well alone, and we don’t have an attacking mid currently to make it work.
2) Agudelo needs to see the field, but please, our 18 year old striker with one club goal and 2 nat goals is not a 90 minute starter. I see him (for the Gold Cup) filling a similar role to tonight- 30 minute super sub, running at tired defenses and paring up with a target man. He might be the starter by the WC, but he isn’t ready for that by June.
3) Chandler needs to be on the field, but I don’t trust him as our Gold Cup RB. I think Dolo is fine for the Gold Cup. Perhaps moving forward (between Gold Cup and World Cup) we can explore Chandler as a first choice RB.
4) So, if we need Chandler on the field but not at RB, can’t explore the merits of a 4-5-1 without Holden and shouldn’t play Agudelo 90 minutes this summer, what should we do for the Gold Cup?
I think that THIS summer, you run a 4-4-2, starting Altidore and Dempsey up top, and starting Donovan and Chandler at the wings. Chandler would give us nice width. I think you then bring in Aguedlo as a sub for Chandler, and move Dempsey back to the wing. You would also have Bunburry and Buddle on the bench to give you different options (allowing you to sub Altidore as well).
I am not crazy about Dempsey and Altidore up top (I think we tried it in the World Cup run up, and some at the WC without much luck), but I really think it is the best option. Seriously, I think our Gold Cup attacking options are:
– Altirode/Aguedlo starting up top playing most of the game (Chandler on bench)
– Altidore/Dempsey up top, Chandler starting, and Aguedlo exploiting mismatches as a 30 minute sub (second half sub is the only role he has known with USMT)
– or keep forcing the 4-5-1
If those are my Gold Cup options, I say start Dempsey up top…
It’s only a friendly, but can we please see, just once, a Bradley free midfield. It will either shut the haters up, or give them a legit argument. Either way, I want to see it.
Que? Oh, cue.
I’m not wholly adverse to this lineup with Holden back, but I think our next generation of forwards are worth playing. I believe Altidore, Agudelo, and Davies are all going to see significant time through the cycle. Hard to see enough time for them with only one up top.
Bocanegra is a major weak link, and the fact that bornstein is next in line is very frustrating. 3 defensive mids is shiite. MB will never be pulled, which in the first half had me furious. That being said, MB and Edu played very well together in the 2nd half. Love Agudelo up top with Jozy. A Dolo/Chandler right side would be sick. A Chandler/Holden right side would be sick. A Chandler Donovan right side would be sick. Did I mention how annoying the left back issue is? 2014 back line = David Regis, Kitchen, Gabe, Chandler.
first half was ugly but effective against a polished Argentina. 2nd half, we played them almost to the point where the US had them on their heels. Bright spots Agudelo,and Chandler. Better play from the rest of the US squad….and,of course Howard. note. US was actually pushing back and double teaming Argentina players to the point of creating small wars on the field. This was most impressive. too bad it did not happen in the first half.
Gale? Are you serious? He isn’t ready for real international competition.
Remember Brasil vs USA 2-0 and 3-2. Ghana 2-1 wc 2010 and wc 2006 2-1
*ESPN interview
Just watched the ESPN w/Agudelo after the game, kid seems pretty grounded and just at awe with the moment. Nice to see that appreciation he has in these days. That’s something that is definitely lost in the other major sports and leagues nowadays.
hahaha. preach
Argentina had technics, skills etc but no goal. But they didn’t have tevez, huguain,henzei, and others. Argentina has the capacity to build 3 national teams. But good job USA and agudelo ny redbulls must be proud to have a player like that in there club.
Jones is a No as of right now. good player, but not fitting into the scheme of things. until that changes, pair MB and Maurice and let’s go 4-4-2
I say start Edson next to Jozy on Tuesday, then sub in Juan again, keep him routined like that for now
DeMarit and Chandler changed the game in the second half by playing calmly out of the back and catching Argentina way off guard with that ability; they did not expect that after the first half display…no way
Embarrassing as it may be, the best thing to do is to mind your own business. You’re there to enjoy a soccer game with friends of family, not to have words or a physical altercation with some nut you don’t even know.