By IVES GALARCEP
WASHINGTON– The U.S. Men’s National Team celebrates the 100th-year anniversary of U.S. Soccer with today’s friendly vs. Germany (2:30pm, ESPN2).
The U.S. come in off a rough 4-2 loss to Belgium in Cleveland and head coach Jurgen Klinsmann is ready to trot out a close to first-choice lineup for the match. Only Herculez Gomez is not available among regular starters, with Michael Bradley and Fabian Johnson slotting into starting roles after missing the Belgium match due to club commitments.
The day marks a very important match for the German-Americans on the U.S. roster, with Jones and Johnson starting and Terrence Boyd and Danny Williams on the bench today.
The U.S. will be taking on a German side missing most of its top starters due to Bayern Munich’s appearance in the German Cup and Borussia Dortmund’s run to the UEFA champions League final. That doesn’t mean the Germans won’t field a strong lineup. They dismantled a respectable Ecuador side on Wednesday.
SBI will be providing live commentary from today’s match so please feel free to follow all of the action here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Today’s commentary is after the jump):
I feel good win for the Centennial.
Given that Germany was at picnic level intensity, can’t read too much into our offense performance, but we can read a lot into our defensive performance.
Jozy had a strong game. Wonderful volley for the goal.
Evans was solid.
CBs a work in progress, Omar really needs to work on the mental phase outs. I have to believe it will be Cameron and Besler at CB in Jamaica.
Thought Castillo was better than Beas
Big change in intensity going into Jamaica, where they’ll be going into every ball like their life depended on it.
Wow, every one of my posts still awaiting moderation…without pa$$ing or anything close to “bad” words. Drag not being able to contribute to the conversation…Oh well, look for me, I’ll be at post #248, with all the other nuts at the tail end of the thread…talking about 3-5-2s and Marvel.
Disagree about Castillo but… not having Johnson as cover prolly hurt.
“where they’ll be going into every ball like their life depended on it.” –> horrible fouls that won’t ever be called. =(
Yeah, should have clarified that regarding Castillo. I don’t want to see either one at LB at a WC…I’d pull my hair out. Should have said I like Castillo’s game better up field than Beas’
Evans certainly did better than expected today, but I’m confused about why some people think he was MOTM good. Germany generated some attacks from his side, and his marking was far from perfect. He was alarmingly slow to close out an attacker at the top of the 18 on at least one play.
I’m really worried about the defense in general. Castillo looked terrible in his stint, Besler and Gonzo were both slow to react at times, and Gonzo just doesn’t seem to mark people in the box. We’re going to be in big trouble if we don’t get the central defense sorted out.
On the plus side, the front 6 looked great.