U.S. Men’s National Team v. Germany, RFK Stadium, 6.2.13

After forgettable performances against Belgium on May 29, Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey led the U.S. men’s national team to a surprising 4-3 victory against Germany in Washington, D.C. Altidore is coming off a season in which he scored 31 goals in 41 competitions for his Netherlands-league club team, a single-season goal record for an American playing in Europe. But he’s had difficulty scoring for his country lately. Prior to the Germany game, he’d failed to score in 11 matches going back to 2011. Dempsey has been much more productive for the U.S. recently, but I can’t recall him being as consistently involved over the course of an entire match as he was against Germany. In short, both Altidore and Dempsey were feeling it against Germany, and they showed themselves to be players of world-class quality.

Other notable U.S. performances included those turned in by Brad Evans, normally a midfielder playing right back for the first time in a U.S. shirt, Michael Bradley, who returned to the team after missing the game against Belgium, and midfielders Graham Zusi and Jermaine Jones, each of whom had an assist and generally looked strong.

On the downside, Edgar Castillo came on for DaMarcus Beasley in the 56^th minute and the U.S. backline suffered for the substitution, giving up two goals in the next 25 minutes. On the buildup to Germany’s final goal, Castillo put zero pressure on the ball, giving his player plenty of time and space shoot from distance. Tim Howard managed to deflect the shot, but the rebound fell to Germany’s Julian Draxler for the easy score. As if to prove the play was no fluke, six minutes later Germany’s Sidney Sam blew by Castillo with the ball at his feet as if Castillo had just roused from a pot-induced afternoon nap. It would be unfair to judge Castillo too harshly based on 35 minutes of play, but his performance should only serve to further entrench Beasley as the U.S.’s starting left back.

While enjoying the aftermath of the victory against Germany—delightful in part because it must have shocked all those snorting European-soccer-loving fans who assume all American players are oafish chumps—we should pause to remind ourselves that this was just a friendly, played in hot, humid conditions more agreeable to the Swamp Thing than a bunch of northern Europeans thousands of miles from home. Germany looked exhausted and out of sorts for much of the game, much as Scotland’s players did when the U.S. played them in Jacksonville last May. When Dempsey scored the final U.S. goal, in the 64^th minute, there’s no denying it came off a beautiful left-footed strike. There’s also no denying that you could have parked a Ford Expedition between Dempsey and the nearest German defender. As commentator Ian Darke observed, “They stood and watched him do it, basically.” Darke also noted that most of the German players on the field were on the bench during Germany’s most recent World Cup qualifier. In other words, this was Germany’s B team. Finally, one of the U.S.’s scores came courtesy of a Germany own-goal worthy of a Benny Hill skit.

In other words, we shouldn’t assume that the success the U.S. enjoyed against mighty Germany will necessarily carry over into the more meaningful match against Jamaica in Kingston this Friday night.