Just two games stand between the U.S. Men’s National Team and the next stage of World Cup qualifying, and Jurgen Klinsmann’s men must start that two-game schedule by navigating a tricky trip to St. Vincent & The Grenadines.
The Caribbean minnow is by far the lowest-ranked side in group play, but an early Oalex Anderson goal put a scare into the U.S. when the two sides collided last year in St. Louis. Friday’s clash is set for Arnos Vale Stadium, a traditional cricket venue that will feature scorching temperatures and game-changing wind.
Heading into Friday’s clash, the U.S. will be without several veteran leaders. Micael Bradley joins Michael Orozco on the suspension list, while Jermaine Jones returned to the Colorado Rapids due to injury. Add in the absences of Gyasi Zardes, John Brooks and Clint Dempsey, and the U.S. will see several shakeups to the lineup.
Leading the USMNT squad will be captain Jozy Altidore, who is joined up top by Bobby Wood. In defense, Kellyn Acosta steps in at fullback as Fabian Johnson slides into a wide midfield role.
The SBI staff will be offering updates and analysis in the comments section below, so feel free to follow along, and as always, please feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions below.
Enjoy the action.
Pulisic definitely have to hold and Zusi not.
bedoya, Yedlin and beckerman very badly.
Finally it was a very poor football that
presented by USMNT
The el tri blog is 2 blocks down, to your left…
And you win best comment of the match.
@antonnynoronha, If you’re so critical of the usmnt, why bother following their games. The US team don’t need a fan like you!
Final: Pulisic with two. Kljestan, Altidore, Wood and Besler each add one of their own as the U.S. cruises to a 6-0 win.
Kljestan appears to be playing with loads of confidence. Looks really good connecting short passes…. regardless of competition.
didn’t take him very long to make his presence known
Both Pulisic and Kljestan have been spectacular since coming on. Game well out of hand, but impressive nonetheless.
Pulisic with a cool goal after a great ball from Kljestan. Man that kid has some first touch.
Pulisic with the goal!!
is it time to upgrade CP22 to CP18…?
Just need Beckerman sub out.
Kljestan and Pulisic in for Bedoya and Johnson in the 67th minute.
Took Pulisic just a few seconds to already show his quality. Kid looks so good on the ball, not to mention quick.
Credit to Kljestan as well. Absolute dime to find Pulisic darting into the box. Making Klinsmann look like a genius with those two subs.
SUB…sub…sub…
St. Vincent with some spunk in the 2nd half. USA has been dominated early 2nd half. Klinsmann needs some subs.
The islanders don’t seem to understand how to play on the line. Another disallowed goal.
Another goal for St. Vincent, but another offside call. Anderson just a shoulder off again, but the hosts have looked significantly better in the first 15 minutes of the second half.
Normal sub pattern, I expect. Take off an attacking midfielder around the 65th minute, Zusi for Pulisic maybe, swap a striker 10-15 later, Jozy for Morris, and around the 85th minute sub out either the other forward for a midfielder or a straight mid for mid swap, either Nagbe for Wood or Bedoya.
StVG goal disallowed due to offisides.
Multiple players offside as St. Vincent & The Grenadines poke one home. Good call from the linesman.
Good call,multiple players offsides multiple times
Did Guzan touch the ball at all in first half?
Yes. StVG actually had 1 or 2 decent chances. He also received some criticism from the announcers over a choice to come off his line on a cross.
yeah, he made a decent stop on a header from the 6yard box. Not a hard shot, but it could have gone anywhere from there. Damn Guzan stinks
Didn’t hear them say, but doesn’t look like any subs were made at halftime.
Second half is underway.
Saint Vincent is a bunch of thugs. Hopefully we can finish this game without picking up any injuries(knock on wood).
I wouldn’t call them thugs, personally. When you are outclassed, you tend to foul more, etc. What normally would be a simple challenge is now a bad tackle.
[insert joke here about “knock on Wood”]
Pretty cool to see Ives posting here with his updates. Thanks IG
if you play this way against Trinidad and
Tobago will lose the game, the midfield can
not be maintained for the next game,
bedoya, Zusi and beckerman are terrible
Ives any word on why zelalem didn’t go on loan?
Ives with the 3-0 lead at the half when would you start subbing some of the starters to rest them and save them from getting any cards. Before the T&Tgame? And what subs would you make?
Should be be pressing for goal differential or do they let up a bit. (My guess is you never let up in WCQ games)
Not sure if I’d call it “letting up” but would expect Klinsmann to get some guys out of there to save them for what could be a very important match against T&T.
that horror, through very bad field, hope to
replace soon.
bedoya out Nagbe or Kljestan in
beckerman out Pulisic in
altidore out Morris in
Man the Vinnies are not very good. If me and my mates were fit at all we could give them a run skill wise. hope nobody gets hurt
Goals from Wood, Besler and Altidore have the U.S. up 3-0 heading into the half. Feel free to fire some questions our way to get everyone through the halftime break.
You guys got it. Guess I’ll work now…..through HT at least.
Excellent play from Wood to control that ball and earn the penalty. Horror show defending. Jozy steals the goal, though. More ammo for the Jozy apologists. Not very well struck but he gets keeper to move (keeper guesses?). He does have a very powerful shot though.
We get it… you don’t like him. BTW, where you here 1 1/2 – 2 years when I was defending JK for choosing Bobby Wood because he saw something in him?
3-0 after a Jozy penalty. Wood draws the penalty after being taken out by a “flying tackle” from the StVG defender. Stupid tackle really…
GOAL Altidore! The USMNT forward goes for power and slams it home from the spot. USMNT cruising at 3-0.
Jozy nearly nips a chance at goal but dribbles right into a defender as he tries to shape his body to goal. This guy really needs a cracker to get his confidence back.
Would a penalty kick do? Wood taken down in the box and the U.S. will have a chance from the spot. Would assume Altidore is on it.
I’ll take it on the sheet but for his confidence I think he needs one of those goals he would have attempted and scored when he was on top form. He takes so many touches on the ball now and with each successive touch his odds to score get slimmer. He needs a good two-touch screamer from the edge of the box or a nice hard low shot off a square ball.
At least he scored since he missed the birth of his daughter today.
Can picture his wife going “Don’t even bother coming back unless you score a goal.” Haha
Besler right place, right time. What on earth was that defender thinking with that header though. He headed it softly right across the face of his own goal. Good finish at any rate.
GOAL USA!! It’s Matt Besler with his first USMNT goal, takes advantage of a failed header clearance, chests it down and blasts the left-footed shot from close range.
Ives – how long does BeIn have the away rights to the games? Any idea of any of the other domestic networks (with better platforms) interested in picking up those rights?
Unfortunately, the home federation controls the tv rights, and BeIN seems to be very good at negotiating deals with them. ESPN, Fox, and NBC don’t seem interested in dealing with each central american and caribbean federation.
See this article from US Soccer: http://www.ussoccer.com/about/media-services/faqs-world-cup-qualifying-television-rights
This could get ugly. Besler with a headed goal from. Zusi to StVG defenders head to Besler.
Apologies. Besler’s goal was not a header.
Sweet volley
Excellent shot from Wood makes Jozy look good for having bad feet. Fabian looked to mis hit his first touch too, that didn’t look like an intentional pass; he kind of stretched his foot awkwardly.
Bobby Wood makes it 1-0 in the 27th minute. Nice combination between Altidore and Johnson, who lays it off to Wood for the nice right-footed finish from the top of the area.
Wood! Nicely placed to the keepers left to score. Nice pass from Altidore to Johnson to Wood.
Those of you watching anyone looked good or bad through the first 20 minutes?
Beckerman and Johnson look comfortable as you would expect. Zusi moving around well, Bedoya delivering some good passes. Wood missed an early chance.
FYI… go90 app works for me
Well how did Wood not score there?
At least we were smart enough to go with the all whites today instead of the black unis the U23s wore in Colombia earlier this year.
Home team gets the preference, and St. Vincent’s yellow jersey made it okay for USA to rock the white. That will help on a hot day like today.
Wasn’t Colombia also in yellow? Nice to see you and Ryan here by the way, let me close my SBI Twitter window.
Except for poor Brad Guzan.
Acosta a surprise, I would think we are better with Johnson at LB and Pulisic on the wing, but maybe Acosta has really been “expressing himself” in training.
Acosta has looked very good in previous appearances at left back, which has obviously been a position of weakness. Gives Johnson a chance to get forward and give USMNT another playmaker in the attacking third. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Pulisic later if the U.S. has a lead, though.
Bedoya gonna be the advanced CM?
Gonna be a hot one!