The US are ready for their World Cup Qualifiers
When you think of USA vs. Argentina, the first thing that might come to your mind is ‘demolition’ or ‘crushing defeat’. As an avid US Soccer fan, those were the words I was hoping wouldn’t have to be thought about, talked about, whispered, anything at all. To my surprise, I turned on the Tivo to watch the game, and the US never once made me think such thoughts (I know, shock of my life).
The first 20 minutes were shaky, and we needed Tim Howard to step up a few times, but we held on. As time progressed, we started to combine, attack, keep possession. The US played the game I always knew they were capable of. The defense was solid, midfield was comfortable, attack was (well it was Eddie Johnson, what do you expect) well, poor. This unprecedented performance by the USA is a complete 180 from the game against England.
The Yanks committed countless turnovers, never had much going forward, and left some glaring holes in the defense at Wembley. Against Spain, they had some bright spots, but fell back and let Xavi beat them on a goal that was the result of some horrendous flat-footed defense. Against Argentina, there were attacking ideas, strong stringent defense, and timely goal keeping. Eddie Johnson forced Abondanzieri to slide out and save, Heath Pearce forced him into a diving save, Clint Dempsey’s deflected shot almost went in, and Oguchi Onyewu hit the crossbar. Although there were no goals, we came close, and in the second half, the US was getting an equal share of play.
I was not optimistic about the USMNT’s chances against Argentina, the #1 team in the World. Out of all of the friendlies the US played, Argentina would have to be the most difficult. The USA had been demolished by England, and manhandled by Spain, two teams that aren’t as good as Argentina, but The Yanks came out and showed what they are capable of.
Heath Pearce was a machine on the field. Nobody got by him at the left-back position, and he never turned the ball over. He also got up the wing and put in some extremely dangerous balls. He also tested Abondanzieri with a gorgeous strike; unfortunately, Abondanzieri was up to the test. Pearce cemented his spot at left back with a fantastic performance.
Damarcus Beasley and Clint Dempsey are back. Both of them were poor against Spain and England, but were revitalized against Argentina. Beasley’s speed saw him run up the left wing, leaving defenders in his wake. His ability to spread the game out, and push up high, alleviated the pressure on the central midfielders, and allowed the team to have more time on the ball.
Dempsey was back to his normal self again. He was dangerous when he got the ball, and was constantly getting dragged down. His excellent ability to carry the ball and shield defenders was on display, and he almost won the US the game when his shot was deflected and missed the goal by a foot. Beasley and Dempsey left me bewildered in England and Spain, but gave strong performances against Argentina.
Landon Donovan returned from injury, and showed what the US lacked against England. Donovan is the poster boy of US Soccer, and he receives a lot of flack for it. He has never been successful in Europe, but his success for the US National Team is undeniable. He received his 100th cap last night, at the young age of 26. He was also the leading scorer in US history at the age of 25. He showed why he’s had so much success on the international stage against Argentina. At Wembley, we lacked the willingness to run at the defense, and take chances. Donovan, with his great speed took on Argentina with no hesitation. His pace troubled Argentina, and his ability to see the field and quickly combine was awesome. He is never afraid to take on a defender, no matter who it is. Having Donovan back helped the US put on a strong showing.
When the USA walked out onto the field, the capacity crowd cheered their lungs out. The supporters were clad in mostly red and white, something that doesn’t always happen in the US. Whether it was the fans, the excitement of playing the world’s best team, or Bob Bradley putting out the right lineup; The USA can be happy that they matched the play of Argentina. I can confidently say The Yanks are ready to begin World Cup qualifying against Barbados.
The 2008 Soccerlens Awards: Vote For Your Favourite Football Sites Here
I missed the game because I was on vacation. Is there any site, anywhere, that I can get the lineups, and possibly the match report. How strong of an Argentina side did the US witness ?
Well, considering Argentina really didn’t look like they were really trying… they pulled out Messi after the first half, and only started him because of contract agreement… they would rather he sat out.. not to mention Argentina was missing such players as Tevez and Riquelme…
All in all, a good one, but not one to draw any conclusions from… Spain came with full power, becuase it was preparing for Euro’s… I believe on the Spain game is where we should draw conclusions from, because that was a game played with true intensity and desire from a rival…
I also saw the game and the U.S.A looked very strong at the end and in many points I thought they had the game.
Steve, you can get a match report at
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=544361&cc=5901
The US saw a full strength squad, minus Tevez and Riquelme who were left off the squad for both Mexico and US games.
Besides that, Messi played a half, and was very good. No doubt the US gained confidence in the second half when he went off. It was a great game for the US and you can see match highlights here http://ussoccer.com/ in the video player on the right hand side.
The US played a fantastic game, and deserved at least a tie.
Spain played it safe against U.S.A and Argentina didnt even bother, wishful thinkers keep trying to convince yourselfs, the best is yet to come!!!!!
What we must look at is the fact that those 2 first games against England and Spain were away… that is key for US, they need more away games against soccer powers, to get their players mentally ready…
some of the younger players were just to scared to play to their potential… We can’t wait until the World Cup again to play away games… I think this was one of the main reasons we did so poorly in the world cup 2006… Lets see how we would do agianst Brazil in the Maracanai, or Argentina in the la BonBonera…
All those players in the european leagues are used to racous crowds, compared to MLS… a raucous crowd at the Carson center for an LA Galaxy game is nothing compared to Anfield Park for a Liverpool Game
look, i agree that its much more difficult to play away, and we probably would have lost at la bonbonera had we played there. However, you can’t deny progress has been made. losing miserably to england losing a close game to spain, then tying the worlds number one team. regardless of where we played argentina. it is a great result to tie them. you can’t deny the US that.
look, i agree that its much more difficult to play away, and we probably would have lost at la bonbonera had we played there. However, you can’t deny progress has been made. losing miserably to england losing a close game to spain, then tying the worlds number one team. regardless of where we played argentina. it is a great result to tie them. you can’t deny the US that.
About away games. we are doing that already. Swiss in europe, South africa away, Poland away, England and spain, We won all of those games except against England and spain, and the spain game, we probably should have held out for a tie.
During the 90s, it used to be that teams like Argentina could throw out their “C” side and cream us (except for Copa 95). Now they actually have to come and have some respect for us. Granted, we’re not world beaters and the fact that this was a friendly with lots of subs diminishes the result some, but this was an excellent result for the US. Both sides had chances they should have put away. It was a good game and a good test for the US. Argentina have to be disappointed that they did not beat what I’m sure they feel is a vastly inferior US team. No wishful thinking here.
And who says that Argentina didn’t bother? Looked like they wanted to score bad enough to me! The fact that Cruz got stood up by Timmy a multitude of times doesn’t mean they weren’t trying. It just means Timmy was up for it and Cruz couldn’t get the job done. I guess if he was “really” trying, Cruz would have done some amazing flick over his head and over Howard to score all those goals, right? I mean, there’s no way a US goalkeeper could ever stop a shot from someone who makes more money than he does…
well said phil