By DAN KARELL
Earning a rare start alongside Michael Bradley, Mix Diskerud showed flashes of why he’s being touted as a future starting midfielder for the U.S. Men’s National Team.
Diskerud combined well with Bradley and connected with Jermaine Jones at centerback and Jozy Altidore at forward when the U.S. were attacking in the final third, creating a few chances that the U.S. were unable to fully capitalize on. While the U.S. finished the match in a 1-1 draw with Honduras, Diskerud earned SBI USMNT Man of the Match.
The 24-year-old midfielder beat out Altidore, Jones, and Greg Garza for this game’s honors.
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What did you think of Diskerud’s performance against Honduras? Which played stood out the most to you?
Share your thoughts below.
They put him at the 6, he played terrible at the 6 and he gets Player of the game ? Nah.
If Honduras was better, we would have been beaten up and it would have been on him.
Looks like every article on the USMNT now is going to involve the eurosnob section of the USMNT support writing a bunch of posts bashing Bradley because he’s in MLS now and must therefore be a bad player. Currently, these folks are on the Mix bandwagon. However, they should note that even now Bradley plays at a bigger club and in a better league than Mix.
I do not often find myself agreeing with slowleftarm, but this seems to capture the sense of the SBI comments fairly well.
a lot of it is overblown.
i didn’t think MB had a bad game, he made good passes and circulated around the midfield well. as did Mix to a greater extent. Honduras, while they are not a great team, is a difficult team to pass through and play a clean game and I think the Mix-Bradley CM combo looked really promising.
good point about Toronto > Rosenborg, but the general sentiment that you are seeing is Bradley in 2012-13 vs now and Mix 2012-13 vs now – they are going in opposite directions and the national team is all about who is hot now. Bradley better pick it up soon; not that he is in danger of losing his spot but we all know he is better than this.
100% correct slowleftarm.
And the man-crush on Mix continues…
Red Bulls need to let Henry and Cahill ride into the sunset and sign Mix, Jozy and Ream as DPs.
Jermaine Jones
So at what point does one start wondering what Morales is showing in practice that isn’t showing up in matches? Or is his quality in off the ball (therefore out of camera view)? I’ve seen him in several appearances now and don’t know what to make of him. Garza and Diskerud and Yedlin seem to be making the most of their chances. Bradley seems to now have inherited the collective ire that was previously reserved for LD and Dempsey (if he’s not a game changer he must be crap). That said, I do find myself wanting more from him lately. Does he need a break or a transfer?
“Bradley seems to now have inherited the collective ire that was previously reserved for LD and Dempsey (if he’s not a game changer he must be crap).”
or even when he is a game-changer, in this case. 🙂
but i agree that we should be expecting more from him. while i disagree with these short-term-memory fans who think he’s terrible, i do think he’s regressed since he tranferred to mls.
Morales got 15 minutes! That is never long enough to make an accurate evaluation, only enough to fuel speculation.
Jones was my MOTM. Game-saving tackles in the second half, great work rate.
agree.. RE: Mix he seems to fade as the game goes on, he’s good for about 40 minutes or so and then he disappears for long periods of time
Diskerud looks good needs to get to La Liga or Holland. Bradley puts in the work but his passing and touch have been crap since he came to MLS
Haha yes – as soon as he joined MLS he became a bad player. Makes sense.
Is it possible to pick no one as man of the match. They were awful. Couldn’t combine passes. Even completed passes were a step behind so that the recipient couldn’t do anything. Most everyone was terrible. If I had to pick…. J. Jones. Then Garza. Everyone else was awful awful. It was a terrible game to watch and if anything, Honduras deserved to eek out a win.
Glad this FIFA break is over.
Garza was the best player for me tonight. Knew when to go and when to stay. Was calm on the ball, made some nice passes, really solid. He just seems to have a maturity about his game, which makes sense considering how long he’s been a professional already.
(to clarify, I don’t mean he was MOTM, just the most solid player out there overall)
I too am impressed by Garza. I thought he might have had a little more time and space than he realized when he took his volley attempt. He’s definitely making a case for himself quickly. Getting regular minutes too with Club TJ. OTOH, his CTJ teammate Joe Corona is dropping stock in his last three outings this cycle (Czech, Ecu.HOnd.).
Agree that Garza was the player who most exceeded expectations. Of course, next time out people will expect him to put that long range shot on frame and his crosses on teammates heads or else it will be considered an epic fail.
Unbelievable, Mix Diskerud! The Mix Diskerud who made the failed impersonation of Jermain Jones with his fumbling attempt at a tackle, which should have been a red card! The one who had no stops or defensive takeaways?
Yeah, coach Klinsmann knew what he was doing, giving him defensive obligations.
In modern midfield (with very few exceptions), everyone has defensive obligations. These are learning opportunities. but I am sick and tired of watching the US give away last min leads. That is 3 out the last 6 games we played (4 of those games, we had leads). We need to really work on killing off the game.
On a side note, out right and left flanks are looking good for the next cycles:
– Right: Chandler/F. Johnson/Yedlin
– Left: Chandler/Garza/Gyau
Throw in Gatt in he can ever get healthy
@CroCajun and Two Cents – the reason why Mix played behind MB90 was to force the youngster to focus on defensive responsibilities. In games that matter, Mix will play closer to goal. This is the perfect match to force Mix into a stretch assignment. He will be a better player for it.
yes, I hope this is just a learning experience. Because really their roles should be switched. But even then I don’t know if that’s the best midfield combination – we’ll see who else steps up in the next few years.
The only reason Mixx didn’t look even better for me was that Bradley was constantly dropping deep. It was clear that Mixx was set up to receive the ball from the defense and help build out of the back but Bradley was regularly coming back for it. He didn’t quite get in the way but it confused the shap and left no one for either to pass to. Mixx is close to a starting spot but working out how all the pieces come together is gonna be a key part of Klinsi’s job over the next few months. I don’t believe Bradley is the answer at CAM but Mixx is forcing questions in that midfield.
I agree with the choice, but I will admit I have been a fan of Mix for some time, so I suppose my review may be biased to be honest. However, I try to look at it as a third party Most consistent player and created chances that other players failed to capitalize on. And the tackle for the yellow was weak in my opinion. He got the ball. You can say trailing leg or whatever, but it looked clean to me. I think he and Bradley worked well together, but I didn’t think that Bradley had a great game. If he had, I think those chances created would have ultimately been finished. Now I want to see a Jones and Mix combo, at least for now. I don’t see Jones sticking around for Russia, but would like to see that combo destroying the midfield for now.
Let’s not forget that Bradley played a beautiful ball over the top for Altidore that resulted in our only goal. Bradley may not have been his 2013 self, but a Bradley moment of inspiration once again created a chance. Can’t rule that out when looking at his performance.
Honestly, why they don’t just switch roles is beyond me.
I’m not disregarding that, but on a whole, not a great game. In addition, the position switch would be an obvious choice, which is why Klinnsman probably won’t do it. I like Klinsmann overall, but he can be really frustrating. He is like the only coach that consistently puts players in positions they don’t play day in and day out for their club teams or at the very least where everyone else thinks they can/should play.
Well it may be reverse psychology. If he knows Bradley is going to track back no matter what and Mix is not the greatest defender. Assigning them those opposite positions forces them yo focus on the aspects of their game he wants them to develop. Mix was really trying to play well defensively, I don’t think that would have happened if he had just be assigned in the 10 position and told to go forward.
Bradley completely killed Mix’s game today.
Bradley did not have a good game. Even when he was back deep he gave the ball away a lot. He and Dempsey were weird. Clint just seemed to have his brain turned off.
hmmm…. please recall the series of events that led to the goal:
Mix tackled the ball loose, it rolled to dempsey, who cleverly heel flicked it back to MB who took a touch and sent a picture perfect ball softly to Jozy’s chest who cut in and beat gk near post.
obviously that’s just one play but overall things are gonna happen. MB had a couple bad passes etc, so did others, MB also played a great ball for an assist. people being harsh are basically saying, “yea the goal(assist) was cool but you’re no good”……
if we could only combine MB and Mix and then clone the result into two identical players………………………………
Ah was that Dempsey? The camera cut away in the replay I didn’t see who it was. But still, he didn’t seem to be quite on it and then after the first 30 minutes or so he just never touched the ball again.(That’s not really his fault so much.)
He still needs to work on his defensive abilities. The late tackle and yellow card led to the game tying goal for Honduras. Not sure I would let him off the hook for that by naming him man of the match.
Also, if it was supposed to be his role to cover defensively as a number 6, late in the game he did not do that and stayed up front and let Bradley do the running in back to get open for the backs to pass to him.
If I were Klinsmann (and I had not changed it at half-time to move Mix forward and Bradley back) I would not be terribly pleased with either of them.