U.S. Men’s National Team v. Mexico in Philadelphia, 8.10.11

During the first half of last Wednesday’s friendly against Mexico, the U.S. men’s national team did a pretty good imitation of the punchless, mediocre team I’ve been following closely this year: the New England Revolution. The U.S. played with one useless striker on an island up top with his back to the goal (Edson Buddle playing the part of New England’s Rajko Lekic), were unable maintain possession, couldn’t generate shots in the run of play, and relied on defense and set pieces to stay in the game. In short, they allowed the opposition to dominate the period and went into the locker room down 1-0, not having managed to get a single shot on goal. All drearily familiar stuff for Revolution fans, but really, enough about New England.

It seems a little harsh to pick one guy from an entire roster that was more or less invisible for 45 minutes, but ESPN announcer John Harkes singled out U.S. midfielder Jermaine Jones near the end of the first half: “I’m not sure what he brings to the game. . . . I haven’t seen anything from Jermaine Jones.” My own candidate for the most out-of-sorts U.S. player in the half would be left back Edgar Castillo. To give some examples: Castillo sent a header off the back of his head and over the byline for a Mexico corner in the 32^nd minute; he whiffed on a half-volley a minute later; he gave the ball away in the 38^th minute; and he punctuated the half with a horrendous, unchallenged cross that sailed right to the feet of a Mexico midfielder who happened to be ten yards away from the nearest U.S. player. And so on.

But despite these gaffes, Castillo and his defensive mates deserve commendation for their performances over the course of the entire game. They didn’t suffer a serious letdown in the final third all night, even on Mexico’s lone goal, which was thing of beauty. Oribe Peralta, who had Michael Bradley right up in his grill, got in front of a blistering cross from Andres Guardado and flicked it far post for the score. Like many beautiful things—whether poems or songs or whatever—the goal was partly a result of inspiration and luck. I doubt if Peralta could score again in that situation if he were given a hundred chances to do so. But whatever the case, the goal certainly wasn’t Bradley’s fault, nor the defense’s. The U.S. back line—Castillo, Steve Cherundolo, Michael Orozco Fiscal, and Carlos Bocanegra—played Mexico tight all game long. Most of El Tri’s shots came from outside the box and sailed harmlessly over the bar. Given how Mexico shredded the U.S. in the recent Gold Cup final, last Wednesday’s defensive performance is something U.S. fans can take heart in.

Speaking of the Gold Cup final: after Giovani dos Santos’s dominating, almost Brazilian-like performance in that game, I can only conclude that some devious U.S. fan spiked the Mexican coach’s cheesesteak with ‘shrooms before the friendly in Philly. How else to explain why dos Santos didn’t come on until the 55^th minute? Then again, the coach may know something we don’t, because virtually the minute dos Santos checked in, the U.S. grabbed the game by the throat and looked like a totally different team from then on. In the 56^th minute, Buddle sprang free off a Cherundolo throw-in and earned a corner. Landon Donovan sailed in a nice ball and Bocanegra slammed it on target. It was a header that Barcelona’s Carles Puyol himself might have been proud of, but the shot hit Mexico keeper Guillermo Ochoa in the hands.

The feel of the game changed most significantly in the 60^th minute, when Brek Shea came on for Jones and Juan Agudelo came on for Buddle. Shea looked just as strong and imposing in his 30 minutes against Mexico as he has against most MLS competition this season, which is saying something. He’s a rare U.S. player that can run at defenders and finish. The elegant and skilled Agudelo added just about as much spark as Shea, and those two combined to set up the U.S. goal in the 73^rd minute. Agudelo received a throw-in at the flag and played the ball back perfectly to to Shea, who dribbled in traffic to the byline and hammered a perfect low cross past the outstretched keeper and onto the foot of fellow MLS player Robbie Rogers. Rogers tapped the ball into the net just a minute after he’d come on as a sub. Rogers had a busy and effective twenty minutes. Not only did he score, he should have drawn a red card in the 86^th minute. At that point, he ran onto a beautiful chipped pass from Agudelo, got behind the defense, and was taken down by Gerardo Torrado. Torrado grabbed Rogers by the jersey and sent him sprawling to the ground but somehow managed to avoid getting sent off.

MLS players did remarkably well in this game, not only Agudelo, Shea and Rogers, but also Kyle Beckerman, who played the full 90 minutes as a holding midfielder, and Donovan, who came on strong late and was probably the man of the match. Donovan almost certainly should have drawn a penalty kick in the 77^th minute after making an impressive run with the ball from midfield into the penalty box, where he was convincingly knocked on his tail by a Mexico defender. Not only did the referee not make the obvious call, he went a step further by peevishly signaling for Donovan to get off the turf, as though he were malingering. So much for home-field advantage.

As for non-MLS players, I was most intrigued by the play of Jose Torres, who plays for Pachuca in the Mexican league. It’s not that he had a particularly memorable game, but he was steady and looked potentially explosive, as in the 22^nd minute when he made a brief and tantalizing run through the midfield. Torres, Shea, Donovan, and Agudelo could be a dangerous quartet of attacking players. Here’s to hoping they’re all on the field together more often in the future.

This was of course Jurgen Klinsmann’s first game as U.S. national team coach. And Torres—not to mention Shea and Rogers—would likely not have been on the field had Klinsmann’s predecessor Bob Bradley been calling the shots. I am one of those (apparently a large number, judging from the articles I’ve been reading) who believe that Bradley did an excellent job with the national team but that it was time to move on, time to bring in a coach that might have a different opinion of potentially game-changing talents like Shea. In the short term anyway, Klinsmann has brought in some exciting young players and added some excitement and exuberance of his own to the sidelines, pumping his fists like a long-time fan when Rogers scored and smiling like a goofy kid during the post-game interview, all of which is a far cry from the stereotype of the grim and humorless German. (And a far cry from the often grim and humorless-seeming Bradley that we got to know over the years through interviews and sideline shots.) Klinsmann’s act will wear thin quickly if his U.S. teams don’t show improvement over Bradley’s, but the last half hour of this game had me doing a little enthusiastic fist-pumping of my own, and that’s a good start.