U.S. Men’s National Team v. Antigua and Barbuda, North Sound, Antigua, 10.12.12

The U.S. men’s national team continues to play down to the competition in CONCACAF qualifying matches, needing the full 90 minutes to generate the game-winner in this narrow 2-1 victory over Antigua and Barbuda. To be fair to the U.S., the conditions were about as poor as you can imagine in a FIFA World Cup Qualifier in 2012. The playing surface looked like sodden foam rubber irregularly painted green and yellow, with patches of dirt showing here and there, and the rain came down in tropical fashion for what appeared to be the entire game. Also, the U.S. 24-man roster called in for this match was down four players. Defenders Edgar Castillo and Fabian Johnson were late scratches, and midfielders Brek Shea and Landon Donovan were, as I understand it, hopeful choices to begin with. They were injured when they were called by Klinsmann, remained injured (Donovan with a knee injury, Shea with an abdominal strain), and were unavailable last night.

Having listed those considerable obstacles, last night’s performance was, despite the result, not a promising one for the U.S. They were fortunate to come away with three points against a team that has not yet won a semifinal-round game after five attempts. Very few U.S. players distinguished themselves. Herculez Gomez, who has played so hard and so well in recent national-team games, had a night he’ll want to put behind him. Twice he received through balls in the box, and twice his heavy touches resulted in balls rolled directly to the Antigua and Barbuda keeper. Clint Dempsey looked frustrated when he was in the camera’s eye, but he was seldom there. Danny Williams played for 56 minutes but he too failed to have a significant impact.

Williams was subbed for the erratic Jermaine Jones, who had one of his lesser nights. Shortly after Jones checked in, he was given a yellow card for handling in the U.S. end. There was nothing subtle or inadvertent about it; Jones actually raised his hand above his head to flick the ball. As a result of the foul, a free kick was awarded in a dangerous area (luckily for the U.S., nothing came of it), and Jones will have to sit out the next match against Guatemala due to an accumulation of yellows. Incredibly, Jones appeared to lunge for the ball again with his hand later in the match. It’s stunning, bizarre actually, that a player from the Bundesliga would show such a lack of discipline.

The U.S. defense occasionally looked vulnerable, and they were badly exposed on Antigua and Barbuda’s goal. Due to Fabian Johnson’s and Castillo’s injuries, Carlos Bocanegra was moved to left back, and he had a mostly rough night. In the 25^th minute, he and Graham Zusi failed to clear a Quinton Griffith throw-in to the very large and fast Peter Byers. Byers collected the ball, left the U.S. players standing in his wake, and then drove to the end-line, skinning U.S. center back Geoff Cameron as if he (Cameron) were playing in ski boots. Fellow center back Clarence Goodson fell down trying to defend Byers’s cross and Dexter Blackstock scored.

The U.S. does, however, deserve a lot of credit for getting this away victory in such a tough and strange environment. And MLS fans can feel some satisfaction that it was not Clint Dempsey or even really Michael Bradley (who did have a strong game) who were prominent in this victory, but Eddie Johnson, Zusi, and even Alan Gordon, who not only earned his first cap when he came on for Gomez in the 73^rd minute, but justified Klinsmann’s surprise call-up with a clutch and skillful assist on the game-winner.

Though the U.S. looked ineffectual for great stretches of this game, controlling possession but failing to generate scoring chances, their two goals rose above the general level of play and surroundings. The first came off a give and go between Zusi and Bradley after a corner kick, the former tracking away from his own goal to receive Bradley’s pass and then curling an arcing left-footed cross to the back post. Johnson ran onto it and snapped a sure, technical header into the ground and from there into the back of the net.

The second goal was even prettier. In the 90^th minute, right back Steve Cherundolo took a throw-in in the final third, sending a ball near the flag to Sacha Kljestan, who’d come on for Zusi about ten minutes earlier. Kljestan one-timed a side-footed pass back to Gordon, who in turn calmly one-timed a cross off a short-hop towards the back post, where Johnson buried it. The four-player exchange wasn’t necessarily spectacular, but no four players in the world could have executed it better, and the goal came with one second left in regulation time.

The U.S. plays its final semifinal match next Tuesday, against Guatemala in Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City. After Guatemala’s victory over Jamaica yesterday, the U.S. needs only a tie to ensure its place in the final CONCACAF qualifying round of six, otherwise known as the hexagonal or “hex.” But anything less than a victory over Guatemala will be a disappointment for U.S. players, coaches, and fans. The environment will be friendly, the playing surface perfect, the opponent an objective underdog. If the U.S. is to join the exclusive club of elite soccer nations as Klinsmann intends, it must be able to win such games convincingly. And we should remind ourselves that the U.S.’s biggest soccer rival is again the gold standard in CONCACAF. Mexico is now 5-0 in semifinal games and has already qualified for the hexagonal.