USMNT v. Ecuador

Matt Gawel

almost 8 years

Guzan - 6.5 Did everything that was asked of him. Commanded his back line well. Yedlin - 6 Has improved so much as a defender at Sunderland. Hopefully JK will keep him here at his preferred position. Birnbaum - 5.5 Got into good positions on set pieces but could finish. Shaky at times in defense which is his main job. Wouldn't be surprised to see Cameron here full time when healthy. Brooks - 7 Put in a solid shift and made several chance stopping tackles to save the back line. Johnson - 6 Nothing spectacular but made no mistakes in defense which is all we can ask for a LB at this time. Jones - 5.5 I love me some JJ but tonight wasn't his night. The Bradley/Jones duo never works out the way it should. Beckerman - 4.5 Usually always solid, he looked a step slow tonight. Playing 3 CDM's basically made him an obsolete option. Bradley - 7 Michael Bradley is the best #6 the USMNT has ever produced. Look what happened when you play the best US #6 ever at the #6 position in the 2nd half. Zusi - 6 Did well enough and made some decent passes. I feel like JK has him on the team for set pieces but when you have him just make a short corner to Bradley every time what's the point? Dempsey - 4.5 For being the most experienced national teamer he sure is the biggest baby. If he's not getting service he needs he either completely checks out or goes out of position to find the ball. Clint is an all or nothing player and tonight he was much closer to the nothing. Zardes - 3 Giasi is a hard worker but his touch is so bad that you can see his turnovers coming before they happen. It's hard to put a defense on it's heels when you're playing defense on yourself for them. Literally did nothing positive on the night. Nagbe - 8 I was a little upset when Nagbe made the Copa roster because I felt like he took Lee Nguyen's spot and I feel like Lee is the best #10 in the US System. But I was delighted to see Darlington play the Nguyen role perfectly and have a near perfect 45 minutes. He took his one chance at goal with perfection and warrants many more minutes going forward. Pulisic - 7.5 At age 17 he is the real deal. Did not look out of place at all. There's real reason to be excited about this kid. He was about 3 inches away from his first goal but was a pest for his entire shift. Besler - 6 Besler did fine. He wasnt an upgrade over Brooks for whom he subbed out but he did well enough. Wood - 6.5 Bobby Wood is a fighter and makes things happen with his energy. Staying with the play, he caused that goal and has improved so much in the last 2 years. Good to see him taking his chances well. Bedoya - 6 One of the most skilled players on the USMNT probably should've started but he showed well in his shift. Orozco - 5 Not much to say about Michael in his brief outing. JK - 5.5 Deserves credit for the changes he made at halftime but at the same time deserves criticism for the lackluster side he named as starters. Hopefully the 2nd half was eye opening for JK and took some positives from what he saw.