U.S. Men’s National Team v. Belgium, Cleveland, Ohio, 5.29.13

 

The U.S. men’s national team was beaten badly last week by Belgium, whose roster includes an impressive eight players from the English Premier League. And they’re not faceless EPL cogs either, but important players like Vincent Kompany, Marouane Fellaini, Romelu Lukaku, and Christian Benteke. Taylor Twellman and other commentators have noted that the team could make a strong run during next year’s World Cup tournament, and that this group may herald a golden age of Belgium soccer.

So it was not surprising that Belgium dominated the U.S. in this friendly, winning 4-2 in a game that easily could have ended 5-1. (The referee failed to call a clear hand-ball in the box by DaMarcus Beasley in the 39th minute, and called a dubious hand-ball on Belgium’s Toby Alderweireld in the 79th minute to set up a Clint Dempsey penalty-kick goal.) The game was strongly reminiscent of last May’s friendly outside Washington, D.C. against Brazil. Brazil beat the U.S. 4-1, and the gap in technical quality between the two sides was glaring, just as it was against Belgium. Died-in-the-wool U.S. fans might point out that our boys didn’t have Michael Bradley against Belgium, but even Bradley’s presence would not have closed the gap much. And besides, Belgium played without one of its own best midfielders, Eden Hazard.

Against Belgium, the U.S. backline looked vulnerable and, with the exception of Beasley, lead-footed. They were punished early, in the 6^th minute, off a Belgium counterattack that saw U.S. keeper Tim Howard come way off his line to fill a chasm left by Geoff Cameron—a natural center back playing on the right—and center back Omar Gonzalez. Howard was able to break up Lukaku’s dribbling run, but the rebound fell to Kevin Mirallas, who chipped a shot between Clarence Goodson and the near post. After the score, Howard leapt up and repeatedly screamed at his defense in disbelief: “What the f---? What the f---?”

Howard might have saved his ire for a more egregious defensive error committed in the 56^th minute that put Belgium up 2-1. The sequence was painful to watch and saw Gonzalez running towards his own end line in the box to intercept a rolling cross. His first touch was neither fish nor foul, neither controlled trap nor clearance, bouncing off his foot and rolling to Belgium’s Kevin De Bruyne (my candidate for man of the match). De Bruyne passed to Benteke for an easy goal, Benteke’s first of two on the night. On the bright side, Gonzalez is an intelligent player and unlikely to make such an indecisive, careless touch in the box again. And learning from mistakes is probably the only major benefit of staging these friendlies (apart from making money, of course).

The U.S. back line should not, however, receive more than their share of the blame for this performance. Statistics will show that Clint Dempsey had an assist and a goal against Belgium, but he was a nonfactor for huge stretches, something that can be said about most of his teammates. Graham Zusi played strong early, showing a great work rate, but he faded. Fellow starting midfielders Jermaine Jones and Sacha Kljestan were largely ineffectual, as was forward Jozy Altidore. Few shone, and the game had almost no flow on the U.S. side, understandable given the U.S.’s constantly shifting lineup and the fact that they haven’t played together since March.

For me, the most compelling U.S. players lately have been Beasley and Eddie Johnson. (Johnson came on for Altidore at the start of the second half.) Beasley, who played in his 100^th national team game against Belgium, did make couple of errors against Belgium, including that hand-ball that wasn’t called. But he is tenacious, is constantly insinuating himself into the action both on defense and the attack, and recovers superbly if he’s beaten. In the 53^rd minute he looked like a rabid terrier while defending and eventually dispossessing Lukaku in the corner. It was the most impressive play made by any U.S. player on the night. Beasley also repeatedly got forward against Belgium and worked well on the attack with Johnson.

Johnson for his part created the hand-ball call that led to Dempsey’s goal, had two good balls into the box (one in the 67^th minute and one in the 82^nd), and generally made you sit up and take notice. Here’s to hoping Johnson and Beasley continue to get minutes with the national team, and that their dynamism begins to rub off on their teammates.

POSTSCRIPT: I am writing this during the USMNT’s friendly against Germany, which I plan to watch on replay and know nothing of at the moment. It seemed to me going into this Germany match that the U.S. tends to play well after losing big. I just went through the USMNT’s results over the past seven or eight years. I found that in games immediately following those in which the U.S. has lost by two or more goals, the team has a record of 6-6-5. Both the U.S. and their opponents in those games have averaged 1.2 goals per match (rounded to the nearest tenth). Given that history, I’ll predict that Germany—currently ranked 2^nd in the world by FIFA to Belgium’s 15—will beat the U.S. by a surprisingly slim margin, say 2-1.