U.S. Men’s National Team v. Honduras in Miami, 10.8.11

U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann got his first U.S. men’s national team victory by beating Honduras 1-0 on a windy, rainy night in Miami. The game was a friendly and had little significance even in the hermetic world of U.S. soccer, but Klinsmann continued to reshape the U.S. side’s style of play into something less reactive and more aggressive. During the first half, for example, outside backs Timothy Chandler and Steve Cherundolo, on the left and right respectively, routinely made runs into the offensive third. I thought they both had excellent first halves and deserve much credit for the victory.

The first goal would not have happened without the outside backs’ efforts. The goal came off a corner kick created by one of Chandler’s many runs down the left sideline, this one coming in the 35^th minute and ending in a cross that was played out of bounds by Honduras. Cherundolo took the corner from the right flag, playing the ball short to Brek Shea. Shea tried to cross the ball into the box but his attempt was deflected and Cherundolo did well to chase down the rebound and pass it back to Shea, who made a run to the flag. Shea’s next cross met with no resistance, in fact was flicked back through the legs of Jozy Altidore and Michael Orozco Fiscal before it found Clint Dempsey at the top of the box. Dempsey impressively created space for himself in the face of the entire Honduras back line, dribbling once to his preferred right foot before dragging the ball back onto his left and taking an accurate shot that beat the keeper high and wide. It was a calm and skillful finish.

The U.S. back line looked far shakier in second half, particularly during the first fifteen minutes or so of that period. In the 55^th minute, for example, Honduras’s Boniek Garcia took part in a give-and-go and had a great look at the goal, but he pushed his shot wide of the target. A couple of minutes later, Honduras forward Jerry Bengston was left all alone on the back post when a cross was played in, and he too missed the frame. Though I think the U.S. deserved to win this game, it should be clear that Honduras had numerous chances. A better team would have capitalized on the U.S. back line’s early second-half lapses, which are certainly cause for concern for Klinsmann.

On the bright side for the U.S., Dempsey had a second goal dubiously disallowed in the 84^th minute for coming over the back of a Honduras defender. To me it looked like a spectacular goal, though Dempsey may indeed have used the defender slightly when propelling himself towards the Jonathan Spector cross. Bad call or no, it’s nice see that Dempsey’s got some serious hops to go with his knack for putting the ball into the net.

Dempsey played with flair at other points in the match as well, and he was involved in my favorite sequence of the game. It started early in the second half with Shea receiving a pass from Chandler on the left and running at the defense. Shea cut the ball back and crossed it on the ground in the direction of Dempsey, who was standing near the penalty arc. Dempsey let the ball roll through his legs, aware that Edu was making a run close behind him. Edu then one-touched the dummied ball to Danny Williams, who was making his own run down the right side. Williams’s shot from near the right corner of the penalty box unfortunately went to the keeper, but the entire U.S. team seemed poised to pounce on a rebound or the ball itself had seen its way past the keeper and across the goal mouth. Most notably, Dempsey made a sprint to the far post that he punctuated with a slide inside the six, as he so often does. The entire sequence showed a high level of skill and fluid teamwork seldom associated with U.S. soccer, and I’m sure it pleased Klinsmann no end.

Tim Howard was his typically solid self, preserving the shutout with at least a couple of good saves, in particular a kick-save in the 19^th minute. Bengston had gotten way behind the U.S. defense and Howard rushed at him, made himself big, and deflected the shot from about eight yards off his line. It was another great opportunity lost for Honduras.

As for some of the rest of the U.S. players, Shea continues to look mostly impressive. He played the entire match and hustled on both ends. He was by no means perfect—he gave the ball away on a few occasions and horribly missed a sitter by letting a perfect Altidore cross get too far behind him—but he had a number of dangerous crosses into the box, including the one that resulted in the Dempsey goal and, five minute before that, a pass from the end line that found an open Williams near the top of the 18. (Unfortunately, Williams side-footed a shot over the bar.)

Altidore also had a strong match, hustling until the 83^rd minute, when he came off and received an appreciative pat on the back from his new coach. Kyle Beckerman had a typically gritty performance in midfield. The U.S., and indeed any team, can always use high-energy hard-tackling players that no one wants to play against, and Beckerman is certainly one of those.

Longtime U.S. fans also got to enjoy the returns of Oguchi Onyewu, who played the entire second half, and DaMarcus Beasley, who came on in the 65^th minute. The recentness of Onyewu’s return to the national team may have had something to do with the defensive lapses at the start of the second half, since of course back lines must play as a single, synchronous unit and that takes time. Onyewu didn’t have a spectacular game but looked mostly strong at center back. Unfortunately for him, he did miss a point-blank shot on a wide-open goal, painfully sending a volley over the bar in the 66^th minute. Beasley looked good as well, earning a corner in the 69^th minute and drawing a foul in the 78^th. He might have scored in the 87^th off a long ball from Howard, but he took it off his chest a little too hard, bringing the ball down too far wide of the goal to get off a good shot. I’d forgotten how slight Beasley is—his USMNT profile lists him at 5’8” 145, and by the looks of his waifish frame he must have been weighed while wearing a sodden uniform. If he wants to play under Klinsmann at that weight, he’ll have to do better with balls like the one Howard sailed to him in the final minutes of the Honduras match.