El Salvador 2, US. 2...suffice to say didn't see that one coming.
The old hoary cliche, via Vince Lombardi (who as Hank Hill pointed out won five championships without sarcasm), is that a tie is like kissing your sister.
In this case, let's modify the saying to something more along the lines that it's like planting one on your hot half-sister -- a premise of a thousand sitcom tropes and prtafalls.
In other words, mixed feeling.
It's weird, had the U.S. gone down to San Salvador and ground out a 1-0 win (as I predicted Friday) or rolled three or four to nil, it would have been filed in the "Meh" folder...another boring, yet necessary CONCACAF affair on the road to South Africa.
Yet, even though the Nats were down 2-0 and looked about as good as Lindsay Lohan after a five-day coke binge, I found myself bizarrely jazzed up by the two-goal comeback in the final 20-odd minutes.
As Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo might have said when he was still on WFAN (and still heard and semi-relevant) the U.S., "showed some guts."
Is walking away from El Salvador -- the consensus weak sister in the CONCACAF final hexagonal a great result long term? Not exactly, but the U.S. still is atop the group after two rounds and a win Wednesday against Trinidad & Tobago in Nashville, Tenn., and the Nats are well on their way to Jo-burg.
If anything, it was nice to chumpatize, or at least take the wind out of the sails from the rowdy -- air siren firing -- El Salvadoran crowd. (Jesus, was the Luftwaffe approaching the Estadio Cuscatlán? Nice riot/crush fence by the way.)
It was also some nice karmatic justice from the soccer gods, as the El Salvadorans faked and or milked injury after injury in the final half of the game. I think Miguel Montes is down, writhing in pain again! Credit Mexican official Benito Archundia for actually adding seven minutes of stoppage time, because I'd have bet $1 million that the fourth official's board would only have read "3".
Random Items
It's late on a Saturday night, so here are the scatter shot observations from the match, sans my usual notes, so feel free to add what you see fit:
* Saturday encapsulated Brian Ching in a nutshell. His tireless work helped wear down the El Salvadoran defense and set up the first U.S. goal. Yet in stoppage time he was clear on Juan José Gomez and ripped a shot right at the backup keeper, instead of picking a corner and maybe winning the game. Then later, he did have an audacious bicycle attempt after the El Salvadoran keeper came off the line. (That might have been called a foul, though, since the U.S. didn't get a corner even though a defender flicked it off the line.)
* Usually I'm pretty hard on Bob Bradley, but bringing on Jozy Altidore for Heath Pearce midway through the second half was a great move, even if the DaMarcus Beasley experiment at left back worked about as well as in it's execution as the live-action version of 'Popeye.'
* As for Pearce, this was the first time I specifically wanted to pull a Walter Sobchek and tell him he was out of his element.
* Speaking of Altidore, he had about four awful touches that led to giveaways in the attacking third, yet his softly-touched header got the U.S. back in the game. Once he was in the game the U.S. wisely realized the way to win the game was to channel 1950s England and hoof it forward to the big target players and let the chips fall were they may. All-in-all for Altidore, not too shabby for a guy who hadn't played a league game since December.
* Frankie Hedjuk...crossed in the ball for Alidore's header and scored the equalizer in the 88th minute on a header from the corner. Then again, he was run over by Christian Castillo for El Salvador's second goal. Probably not too shabby an overall game from a dude who's 34. Hedjuk might be old, or not everyone's cup of tea, but he needs to be on the roster for 2010 simply for the positive karma.
* Did Brad Guzan do anything tonight to cement No. 2 keeper status? He did have a nice diving parry in the first half to keep it at 1-0. Could he have stopped the second goal? Maybe, but it did take a tough Baltimore chop off the turf. Guzan did look confident in the box and collected any high balls with ease.
* Maybe we should send a bouquet of flowers or a bottle of scotch (with or without Splenda) to Roy Hodgson, since Clint Dempsey was great all around the field all game. Tireless.
* On the flip side, Landon Donovan was shockingly invisible, aside from a 2006-World Cup level brutal free kick.
* The Michael Bradley/Sacha Kljestan midfield tandem was okay. Bradley is a beast, plain and simple -- but a yellow card liability. Kljestan was kind of all over the place, but I like his rocket-shot potential from deep.
* Should we just lump the first El Salvador goal into the category of a defensive breakdown and forget it? The back line was shaky all night, which is odd because you can't say Carlos Bocanegra and Danny Califf -- pressed into action for Oguchi Onyewu -- don't have the experience.
* The more I see of Jose Franciso Torres, the more I like. Great touch on the ball.
* All things considered, I was hoping El Salvador would try that offside trap scenario on a U.S. freekick again, talk about walking a tightrope.
* Was it just me, or did the broadcast booth ESPN erected for JP and Harkes reminiscent of those old scout/lookout towers from the 'Age of Empires' series? And did they have some hot oil to drop out the windows to defend themselves if things got ugly?
* The USL and Miami FC are big in El Salvador? Who knew? What's next, Spinal Tap?
* Again, I'm just getting word from TOP headquarters that Montes hamstring is getting iced, again.
Final thoughts:
Let's be honest. As fans, how long are we going to remember that the U.S. drew El Salvador on the road? A loss would have been one thing, but a draw pretty's up the pig.
Yes, it was concerning that until the final 20 minutes the U.S. couldn't really put anything on target. And if that carries over onto Wednesday, it might be an alarming trend.
Yet the team still got a point on the road when it didn't played maybe a 'C' game, at best. Credit some to El Salvador, which played pretty stoutly -- aside from the late-game flopping. They got a couple chances and converted them, which is how underdogs get results.
It'd be nice long term if the team can draw on this result and use it as some fight-back material down the road.
In the end, on a Saturday night at 9 p.m. I honestly barely wanted to watch this match and it turned out to be a riveting final 45 minutes, which isn't so bad considering how CONCACAF qualification has turned rather monotonous at times for the U.S.
Let's just unleash Freddy against the Soca Warriors.
The old hoary cliche, via Vince Lombardi (who as Hank Hill pointed out won five championships without sarcasm), is that a tie is like kissing your sister.
In this case, let's modify the saying to something more along the lines that it's like planting one on your hot half-sister -- a premise of a thousand sitcom tropes and prtafalls.
In other words, mixed feeling.
It's weird, had the U.S. gone down to San Salvador and ground out a 1-0 win (as I predicted Friday) or rolled three or four to nil, it would have been filed in the "Meh" folder...another boring, yet necessary CONCACAF affair on the road to South Africa.
Yet, even though the Nats were down 2-0 and looked about as good as Lindsay Lohan after a five-day coke binge, I found myself bizarrely jazzed up by the two-goal comeback in the final 20-odd minutes.
As Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo might have said when he was still on WFAN (and still heard and semi-relevant) the U.S., "showed some guts."
Is walking away from El Salvador -- the consensus weak sister in the CONCACAF final hexagonal a great result long term? Not exactly, but the U.S. still is atop the group after two rounds and a win Wednesday against Trinidad & Tobago in Nashville, Tenn., and the Nats are well on their way to Jo-burg.
If anything, it was nice to chumpatize, or at least take the wind out of the sails from the rowdy -- air siren firing -- El Salvadoran crowd. (Jesus, was the Luftwaffe approaching the Estadio Cuscatlán? Nice riot/crush fence by the way.)
It was also some nice karmatic justice from the soccer gods, as the El Salvadorans faked and or milked injury after injury in the final half of the game. I think Miguel Montes is down, writhing in pain again! Credit Mexican official Benito Archundia for actually adding seven minutes of stoppage time, because I'd have bet $1 million that the fourth official's board would only have read "3".
Random Items
It's late on a Saturday night, so here are the scatter shot observations from the match, sans my usual notes, so feel free to add what you see fit:
* Saturday encapsulated Brian Ching in a nutshell. His tireless work helped wear down the El Salvadoran defense and set up the first U.S. goal. Yet in stoppage time he was clear on Juan José Gomez and ripped a shot right at the backup keeper, instead of picking a corner and maybe winning the game. Then later, he did have an audacious bicycle attempt after the El Salvadoran keeper came off the line. (That might have been called a foul, though, since the U.S. didn't get a corner even though a defender flicked it off the line.)
* Usually I'm pretty hard on Bob Bradley, but bringing on Jozy Altidore for Heath Pearce midway through the second half was a great move, even if the DaMarcus Beasley experiment at left back worked about as well as in it's execution as the live-action version of 'Popeye.'
* As for Pearce, this was the first time I specifically wanted to pull a Walter Sobchek and tell him he was out of his element.
* Speaking of Altidore, he had about four awful touches that led to giveaways in the attacking third, yet his softly-touched header got the U.S. back in the game. Once he was in the game the U.S. wisely realized the way to win the game was to channel 1950s England and hoof it forward to the big target players and let the chips fall were they may. All-in-all for Altidore, not too shabby for a guy who hadn't played a league game since December.
* Frankie Hedjuk...crossed in the ball for Alidore's header and scored the equalizer in the 88th minute on a header from the corner. Then again, he was run over by Christian Castillo for El Salvador's second goal. Probably not too shabby an overall game from a dude who's 34. Hedjuk might be old, or not everyone's cup of tea, but he needs to be on the roster for 2010 simply for the positive karma.
* Did Brad Guzan do anything tonight to cement No. 2 keeper status? He did have a nice diving parry in the first half to keep it at 1-0. Could he have stopped the second goal? Maybe, but it did take a tough Baltimore chop off the turf. Guzan did look confident in the box and collected any high balls with ease.
* Maybe we should send a bouquet of flowers or a bottle of scotch (with or without Splenda) to Roy Hodgson, since Clint Dempsey was great all around the field all game. Tireless.
* On the flip side, Landon Donovan was shockingly invisible, aside from a 2006-World Cup level brutal free kick.
* The Michael Bradley/Sacha Kljestan midfield tandem was okay. Bradley is a beast, plain and simple -- but a yellow card liability. Kljestan was kind of all over the place, but I like his rocket-shot potential from deep.
* Should we just lump the first El Salvador goal into the category of a defensive breakdown and forget it? The back line was shaky all night, which is odd because you can't say Carlos Bocanegra and Danny Califf -- pressed into action for Oguchi Onyewu -- don't have the experience.
* The more I see of Jose Franciso Torres, the more I like. Great touch on the ball.
* All things considered, I was hoping El Salvador would try that offside trap scenario on a U.S. freekick again, talk about walking a tightrope.
* Was it just me, or did the broadcast booth ESPN erected for JP and Harkes reminiscent of those old scout/lookout towers from the 'Age of Empires' series? And did they have some hot oil to drop out the windows to defend themselves if things got ugly?
* The USL and Miami FC are big in El Salvador? Who knew? What's next, Spinal Tap?
* Again, I'm just getting word from TOP headquarters that Montes hamstring is getting iced, again.
Final thoughts:
Let's be honest. As fans, how long are we going to remember that the U.S. drew El Salvador on the road? A loss would have been one thing, but a draw pretty's up the pig.
Yes, it was concerning that until the final 20 minutes the U.S. couldn't really put anything on target. And if that carries over onto Wednesday, it might be an alarming trend.
Yet the team still got a point on the road when it didn't played maybe a 'C' game, at best. Credit some to El Salvador, which played pretty stoutly -- aside from the late-game flopping. They got a couple chances and converted them, which is how underdogs get results.
It'd be nice long term if the team can draw on this result and use it as some fight-back material down the road.
In the end, on a Saturday night at 9 p.m. I honestly barely wanted to watch this match and it turned out to be a riveting final 45 minutes, which isn't so bad considering how CONCACAF qualification has turned rather monotonous at times for the U.S.
Let's just unleash Freddy against the Soca Warriors.
Labels: bob bradley, brian ching, concacaf, El Salvador, Frankie Hedjuk, Jozy Altidore, Landon Donovan, Soccer, USMNT, world cup qualifying
I thought Beasley was terrible all night. He was barely involved when he was playing in midfield except with a few attempts to touch the ball around the defender which were easily dealt with. As a left back, he couldn't stop the cross for the second and didn't push up enough when the US was trying to score (see Hejduk on the right).
Hejduk was impressive tonight. He was up and down the right side like he was the youngest guy on the pitch when he was probably the oldest. It's tough to blame him for the second goal because the guy coming forward to attack it is usually going to win it.
I think the Heath Pearce experiment needs to end. He doesn't defend well enough and has no chemistry with Beasley. I think the answer right now is for Boca to move to left back leaving Onyewu and either Califf/Demerit in the center.
Torres needs to start over either Klejstan or Beasley. His touch is impressive and he really delivered some good balls into the box.
I think Bradley got schooled tactically in the first half. The Salvadorans knew exactly what the US was going to do and exploited it on the counterattack perfectly. Bradley then impressed me with some bold changes.
Looking foward to Wed. night.
Based on Pierce and Kljestan playing themselves out of the lineup, I want Spector to get a go at left back with Carlos and Gooch in the middle and Frankie riding his "wave" of good play gets to stay on the right.
Bradley and Torres in the middle with Donovan and Beasily on the outside. I still don't have an answer how to get Donovan involved in games, playing withdrawn foward didn't work so let him get into the play on the right.
Since the US is in a nice place with 4 pts through 2 games I hope they take a small risk and let Altidore and Dempsey start uptop.
Everyone's right Donovan wasn't in this game at all, but I'm putting the blame squarely on the midfields shoulders. Everyone had a subpar night. Service to the forwards was pretty terrible, there's far to many "skill" players on the field for the US to be reduced to kicking it deep to Jozy or Ching and just seeing what happens.
DMB didn't just look bad on the ball, he looked lazy off it. Duece's workright might have been higher, but I don't think his touch was any better. I seem to remember a lot of once touch passes from him that went straight to El Salvador.
I did think el salvador looked better than advertis... OW my knee! Stretcher! Magic Spray!
good break down as usual brah. Talk about rowdy crowd...damn