Tag Archives: El Salvador

WC Qualifying: US 2-1 El Salvador

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It was essential for the US to get a win tonight in Salt Lake City, and we came through with a pretty solid performance. Generally speaking, I would say we played well. Our attack was able to create several very good chances, even beyond the goals we scored, and we were able to possess the ball much better than we have in past matches.

Usually, our most dependable aspect of our game, our defense, wasn’t up to the quality of our more recent performances. Part of that is obviously due to the absence of Oguchi Onyewu, who will be back Wednesday after serving a one match suspension for yellow card accumulation during qualifying. Chad Marshall was a serviceable stand in for Onyewu and the injured Demerit, but his lack of experience at the international level showed from time to time.

The most problematic aspect of our defensive game tonight was our ability to clear the ball out of the box. Jonathon Bornstein’s failure to solidly clear the ball led directly to El Salvador’s goal, and the clearance problems continued for others through the rest of the match.

On the subject of Bornstein, I think he’ll be one of the first sent to the bench once other defenders are well enough to play again. One of the most worrying problems with Bornstein is his defensive positioning. Too often there is a significant amount of space for long balls played over the top that outside attackers are able to run on to and cross the ball into the box. Additionally, his offensive abilities are also clearly lacking. Though his lack of crossing ability is concerning, the bigger issue is his penchant for giving the ball away in our own half. He doesn’t appear to have the poise or confidence on the ball to calmly bring it down and find the feet of one of our central midfielders when we’re trying to transition from defense to offense.

In a bit of a departure from the norm, our attack tonight was solid and lively. The combination of Michael Bradley and Benny Feilhaber was a little more attack minded than Bob Bradley usually ops for, but it fit this match and worked well. Dempsey played well and Donovan has clearly found his best position at outside midfield instead of striker.

Donovan has been able to settle into a position at midfield because we have finally found a pair of strikers that are able to both help create and finish goals. Altidore got on to the end of an excellent cross that he put away and simply put, Charlie Davies is the real deal. Its hard for me to single out what I like about Davies right now, because it’s pretty much everything. His physically abilities are obvious, but his intangibles are the source of his success right now. He has exceptional anticipation of where the ball is going to go and he creates chances from that. He also uses every bit of his strength to play bigger than his size and he never gives up on a play. If he continues to improve like he has over the last year, he will fully establish himself as our top offensive threat.

Qualifying continues for the US Wednesday in Trinidad and Tobago. T&T sits in last place in qualifying, but this cycle has already shown that there are no easy road games in CONCACAF, and with the top four teams all within a point of each other every game is a must win.

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WC Qualifying: USA 2-2 El Salvador

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To put it simply, this was an incredibly disappointing performance and result for the USMNT.  Going into the match the US was #17 in the FIFA rankings and El Salvador was #106, and while road WC qualifiers anywhere in Central America are going to prove a little more difficult due to the hostile environment, the US was heavily favored to come away with a win and three points.  I think they heard that message a few too many times, and then someone forgot to tell them they were actually playing in a game before the second El Salvador goal and 75 minutes into the match.

There was a lot wrong with how the US approached and played this game.  I’m not usually all that critical of the decisions that Bob Bradley makes, but I think much of the blame for the poor showing has to fall on his shoulders.  US soccer has grown to a point where we should recognize when we’re technically superior to teams and take the game to the opposition.  We had no sense of urgency, no sharpness, and we played a generally conservative formation that hasn’t exactly lit up the scoreboard for us in past games.  Its Bradley’s responsibility to get the team ready and set them up in a formation that is going to lead to wins and he simply failed to do that in this outing.

I usually go through the squad and point out some of the bad performances and then some of the better performances.  I think that’s going to be a little more difficult here since so many of the performances were subpar at best.  The most disappointing games from my perspective came from Heath Pearce, Landon Donovan, and Sacha Kjlestan.

Pearce has played some very forgettable games recently and he isn’t looking like he’s the answer at left back, which has been a long standing problem for the USMNT.  Many have called for Beasley to be tried at left back, but seeing how easily he was beaten on El Salvador’s second goal and his generally rusty form, likely a result of his lack of playing time at Rangers, I’m not sure he’s the solution right now either.

Sacha Kjlestan has shown some promise as he’s come up through the national team youth squads, with the Olympic team and a few games with the full men’s team, but his last two showings have been lacking the quality that is needed for him to hold a starting place in the team.

I think Donovan’s game was the most disappointing.  Its no secret that I’m not the biggest fan of Donovan’s and games like this are the perfect example of why.  He’s always noted as the US’s best player and the key to our offense, but he once again showed his tendency to disappear during a game.  In a game when he should have been one of the most dominating players on the field, it was hard to remember that he was even playing.  Donovan’s place in the team is far from in danger, but playing like that is completely unacceptable if you’re going to be a leader on the team.

Good performances from the game; this won’t take long.

Altidore obviously had a big impact on the game and that goes beyond the goal he scored.  He brought a litte bit more energy to the attack and he put a game winning opportunity on a silver platter for Brian Ching in the waning moments.  I don’t think he’s ready for a starting role simply because I don’t think he can go 90 minutes yet with the lack of minutes he’s getting for his club side, but I think he should be getting heavy minutes in the second half of any USMNT game.  As his time with his club increases, so should his role with with the national team.

This is the part where I’m cautiously optimistic about Jose Francisco Torres.  His presence in the midfield changed the tempo, tone, and the impact of our attack.  He was confident on the ball and more dynamic than anything else we had during the night.  I’m cautious largely because he hasn’t played much at the national level yet, but he should definitely be given serious consideration to take Sacha’s place in Wednesday night’s game.

So we play Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday in Nashville.  This is another game that we should win, particularly with us playing at home and having Tim Howard back in goal and Onyewu back in the lineup from his slight knee strain.  Conversely, T&T has some proven players that can definitely hurt us if aren’t on top of our game.  We dropped two points against El Salvador that we should have walked away with and we can’t afford to let that happen again Wednesday.

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