USA v HON

Jacob

over 9 years

Brad Guzan controlled the back line brilliantly and had a couple good saves to go with it. Brooks seemed like he was a part of almost every clearance and was a brick wall in the CB position. Brooks' counterpart, Alvarado, did basically the exact opposite. Stepping in on a few clearances early on, then falling apart in the second half allowing Honduras their only goal of the match. The midfield for the USA tonight was completely average at best. Bradly delivered some good balls into the box but other than that, possession was minimal and passing was horrendous. There was no connection between Bradley and Beckerman and as a result, there were very few scoring opportunities created by the two. It was nice to see Yedlin getting himself in that shooting opportunity and how about Zardes showing effort to come back and play some defense on multiple occasions. Overall, far from great but it could have been worse for the Midfield tonight. Jozy who? He played in the game tonight? Besides his shot that set up a Clint Dempsey header, Altidore was non existent. He looked flat and unmotivated and took too many touches, wasting great opportunities. Then there's Duece. Man of the match in my opinion. Could he have played better? Sure. But with two wonderful headers and some brilliant skill moves and attacking play, he picked up the slack for the man to his left, Altidore. The only sub to truly make an impact was Brad Evans with a wonderful sliding challenge right in front of goal to stop a possible game tying goal late in the match. Wondo looked energetic for the short time he played and I wouldn't be surprised if he gets the go ahead to start the next match. All in all, average match from the USMNT tonight. Sloppy passing and wasted possessions left fans wanting more. However, as in all tournaments, you want to peak later rather than earlier and this team seems to be on track to do so.