USA v. MEX

Josh Westerman

over 10 years

Men of the match: EJ played a great 60 minutes and only faded after Dempsey dumped him on his head. But that was after he scored the goal that sends us to the WC. One turnover where he thought he was fouled led to a dangerous opportunity for Mex. Jones was on another level and had Mex shell-shocked by half time. Overall incredible performance, despite two questionable tactical / positional moves at the end of the first half that gave Mex a couple opportunities. He was gassed on those plays because he was all over the field. Impossible to play with that much intensity and not make a couple bad decisions. Positives far outweigh the negatives. Others: Mix may not have the strength to fight from the start at this level, but he's a nice spark sub. Did exactly what he was supposed to do when he glided past the tired Mex defenders and supplied the pass for the second goal. Made it look easy. Don't think Sacha would make that play. Donovan scored the goal that iced the game and was otherwise active all over the field especially on defense. Looked sharp. Did Goodson put a foot wrong all night? Several key clearances that he made look easy as well. Bedoya was quietly effective as well. Some great defensive work and got in a handful of professional fouls to stifle Mex without seeing red. Exactly what we needed on the right wing. With Donovan and Bedoya working so hard, Mex was forced inside to Mr. Jones' neighborhood. With Beckermann shielding the back four and Jones terrorizing, Mex didn't like being Mr. Jones' neighbor. Howard's first save was nice, but he didn't have much to do after that. Made a couple of easy saves look more dramatic than they really were (probably could have saved Dos Santos' toe poke with his chest). Beasley and Beckermann were both generally solid, despite a couple early turnovers for Kyle and the near trickybeas own goal for DMB. Dempsey did not look very sharp, and I initially felt that he played poorly. After watching a second time, it's clear that he was effective despite not being 100% on his game. He made things happen out of shear determination. Spent a lot of time on the mat and drew a lot of Mex attention. Penalty miss. Can Landon start taking them again? We didn't skip a beat on defense with Parkhurst at RB. Looked good with the ball and going forward as well. Omar had a couple lapses (turnovers and marking errors) that didn't cost us but are a cause for concern. His pass straight to Mex led to Mex's first real opportunity of the game. Zusi didn't have much to do after coming on late. He may have gone down the pecking order after Bedoya's performance last night. With Dempsey and Donovan in midfield, and a striker up top, it sometimes looks like a 4-3-3, and Zusi is too much of an attacking player to be one of the more defensive midfielders from the start in that formation. I thought Klinsmann did well with the lineup and subs. We learned a lot from these two games. We need to start a striker, Landon can be very effective from the left and Bedoya makes the right side strong defensively. With Bradley, Altidore, Chrundolo and Besler available, we could end up playing essentially the same formation in Brazil, with some substantial upgrades. I'd be very happy with this: ------------Altidore ----------Dempsey Donovan --------------------------Bedoya ------Bradley--Jones----- Beasley/FJ ------Besler-Goodson--Dolo --------------Howard