U.S. Men’s National Team v. Korea Republic, Carson, California 2.1.14

I nominate this game as the most meaningless of the U.S. men’s national team’s 2014 World Cup cycle. It exists as an island on the team’s schedule, appearing more than two months after their last match and over a month before their next. It involved a singular U.S. roster comprised of regulars like Landon Donovan and Graham Zusi and players who almost certainly won’t be on the World Cup finals roster this summer, like Eric Alexander and Luis Gil. All but two U.S. players worked in MLS last season, and all but one will play in MLS next year. MLS players are of course at the tail end of their preseason, meaning that this group could hardly be in worse technical form and game shape than it is now. They did train together and play in some closed-door scrimmages against other teams in Brazil in the weeks before the game, but that’s hardly sufficient for knocking off the rust that comes under such circumstances.

That said, players who still have an outside shot of making the finals roster this summer may have helped or hurt their chances yesterday. Of those, forward Chris Wondolowski must be feeling the most pleased. He scored the game’s only two goals before being taken out in the 62^nd minute by coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who said afterwards: “Seeing Wondo start the year 2014 with two goals was awesome.”

Unsurprisingly, Wondolowski’s goals were not things of beauty. They were poacher’s goals, the kinds of “right place, right time” goals he’s become associated with. This perception may only be partially accurate, but even if it is accurate, it’s no slight on him. I doubt there’s a defender in MLS who relishes marking the strong, savvy, and hard-working forward. Wondolowski has scored 54 goals in MLS over the past three seasons, more than any other player. After the Korea game, he defended his opportunistic style, but also graciously called out his teammates: “I take pride in myself and try to study the game so I can find myself in the right place. Especially when you have great teammates like Landon Donovan, Graham Zusi and Brad Davis, it makes my job a lot easier. Credit to those guys as well.” He’s a player many of us find easy to root for, and after yesterday’s match (and a goal against Brazil’s São Paulo FC in one of those closed-door scrimmages mentioned earlier), we just may get to cheer for him in Brazil this summer.

U.S. goalkeeper Nick Rimando, another likeable, on-the-bubble player, also helped his cause against Korea. He read the game well, snuffing out two dangerous late-game crosses, one in the 81^st minute and one on the final kick of injury time. There’s no question that Korea attackers let Rimando and U.S. defenders off the hook time and again with poor finishes, but even still I can’t imagine another player will supplant Rimando as the U.S.’s third goalkeeper (after Tim Howard and Brad Guzan) this summer.

Speaking of likeable players, U.S. right back Brad Evans will probably be on this year’s 2014 World Cup finals roster. Whatever Evans’s Q Score, the fact that he appears to be a lock for Brazil continues to perplex me, even given the U.S.’s dearth of experienced, talented players at that position. His game against Korea contained yet more evidence that he lacks the quickness and recovery speed to stay with even average international strikers, let alone attackers from Germany, Portugal, and Ghana, whom the U.S. will face in group play in Brazil.

In the 35^th minute against Korea, Evans was beaten badly by Min-Woo Kim, who muscled Evans off the ball, drove past him to the end line and put a cross into the six that easily could have led to a score were it not for Matt Besler’s sliding clearance. It was not Evans’s only suspect moment. He did get forward on occasion, but on his most dangerous attacking run, he decided not to pass to a wide-open Mix Diskerud at the top of the box in favor of dribbling to the end line and taking a shot from a near impossible angle. It was easily saved by Korea’s Jung Sung-Ryong.

Evans’s club teammate, the young right back DeAndre Yedlin, came on for Evans in the 74^th minute to earn his first U.S. cap. Yedlin has the speed Evans lacks, but of course he’s inexperienced so he has almost no chance of supplanting Evans on the 2014 World Cup roster. My guess is that Geoff Cameron—not on the U.S.’s January roster, as he plays his club soccer in England—will start at right back for the U.S. in Brazil, and that Evans will be his backup. Given all of Evans’s caps in this World Cup cycle, he must be a known quantity for Klinsmann by now. For that reason, I’m sorry that Klinsmann did not play Yedlin for the entire match against Korea to see how he fared, and that he didn’t call in other promising young right backs, such as the Revolution’s Andrew Farrell, for the January camp.

U.S. Men’s National Team v. Venezuela at University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona, 1.21.12

I can’t remember the last time the U.S. so thoroughly dominated a quality opponent as they did Venezuela last night. It’s true that the U.S. managed to score only a single goal, and that didn’t come until in the eighth minute of stoppage time. But as anyone who’s watched more than a dozen games of soccer at any level knows, the final score often doesn’t reflect the run of play. This is especially true when a goalkeeper plays as well as Venezuela’s Jose Morales did against the U.S. He saved a Brek Shea header in the 23^rd minute and a Chris Wondolowski header in the 87^th, both shots that most keepers would’ve been helpless to stop. Morales tarnished his performance in my mind with a little gamesmanship near the end of the match. He and all his teammates extended stoppage time by complaining en masse to the referee that Morales had been run into while making a save. In the end, though, the Venezuela players’ shouting and moaning only increased the surprisingly high drama of this friendly and made the late goal—yet another header put on frame by a U.S. player—doubly satisfying.

Credit for the victory deserves to spread more or less evenly across the U.S. roster, mostly a collection of second-tier or B-team players, with the exception of A-teamers Brek Shea and Jermaine Jones (both of whom played the whole game). The friendly was played on a so-called non-FIFA date, meaning that players from most leagues around the world—most notably the English Premier League and the German Bundesliga—were unavailable. As a result, the U.S. roster is now choked with MLS players. Four MLSers—A.J. DeLaGarza, Bill Hamid, C.J. Sapong, and Graham Zusi—earned their first caps against Venezuela. Jones, of course, plays for Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga, and under normal circumstances he would not have been available to play for the U.S. this January. But he pulled something of an Albert Haynesworth last month while playing for his club side, stomping on an opponent’s foot during a stoppage in play and drawing an eight-week suspension.

Rather than further punishing Jones, U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann used the suspension as an opportunity to bring him into camp and even appoint him captain against Venezuela. As U.S. fans know, Jones can be erratic in his play and behavior, as his wildly up-and-down performances in the recent Gold Cup attest. For example, Jones had an excellent game against Jamaica. But against Panama he played poorly and gave former coach Bob Bradley an unjustified earful when he was taken off the field after 60 minutes. Still, there’s no doubt that Jones is a monster physical talent. Giving him the armband and attendant responsibility may have been just the thing to turn his national-team career into something a little less volatile and little more consistent and professional. And while no one likes the thought of rewarding shameful behavior, Jones didn’t stomp on anyone’s foot while wearing a U.S. shirt. Furthermore, he has fourteen caps under his belt, which is actually enough to merit consideration for the captaincy in this relatively callow group.

Whatever one thinks of Klinsmann’s decisions to call up Jones and appoint him captain, the holding midfielder was unquestionably the man of the match against Venezuela. He covered a huge amount of ground last night and was in excellent form. His final ball of the night was the corner kick that led to the lone goal of the game, scored by substitute Ricardo Clark.

Speaking of Klinsmann, he continues to be his likeable self, both during sideline and other media interviews—which manage to be both respectful and b.s.-free—and in the way he encourages his players to be creative and to aggressively take the game to their opponents. Taylor Twellman made the good point last night while calling the game that Klinsmann attempts to create situations in which his players will succeed, taking into account the players’ individual strengths. In the megalomaniacal world of coaching, this is actually an uncommon trait. Most coaches, professional and amateur, prefer to stick with a certain system that has worked for them in the past—say a 4-4-2 in soccer or a 4-3 defense in American football—and force any and all players to adapt to it. Last night, Klinsmann started with a single forward—Teal Bunbury—who has the skills to assume that role. But the U.S. played portions of the second half with three forwards on the field. As Twellman noted, a player like Wondolowski isn’t suited to playing the role of the single forward, so Klinsmann put him up top with others to get the most out of him.

Wondolowski did not disappoint. He came on in the 62^nd minute for the New England Revolution’s Benny Feilhaber and created opportunities to score. Wondolowski—with his Plasticine-like filet of side-parted black hair and fresh-scrubbed Catholic-schoolboy mien—may look like he should be wearing wrinkle-free slacks and keeping books for an accounting firm, but he’s a genuinely tough and polished player. Not only did he almost score off that header in the 87^th minute, he had another good header on goal minutes before that, and a minute before that he appeared to have drawn a foul in the penalty box, though none was called. (The referee, from Mexico, was admirably consistent and let the players play on when he reasonably could.) Wondolowski also showed a nifty bit of skill in the 83^rd minute, flicking a back-heel pass to Bunbury that led to a shot. And in the 76^th minute, Wondolowski artfully used his body to shield a defender from the ball in the penalty box, enabling him to get off a good shot and ultimately earn a corner. Wondolowski’s naked desire to score was refreshing, and you could see his frustration mounting with each near miss. It was even more refreshing to see him celebrate Clark’s late game-winner as if he’d bagged it himself. I don’t know if Wondolowski has a realistic shot of playing in World Cup qualifying matches this summer, but his effort against Venezuela almost certainly left a favorable impression on Klinsmann.

 Former New England Revolution defender Michael Parkhurst, who now plays for FC Nordsjaelland in Denmark, stood out as part of a back line that wasn’t tested much by Venezuela but that played with composure and consistency. Parkhurst and the Houston Dynamo’s Geoff Cameron make a formidable central tandem, and DeLaGarza—who plays central defender himself for the L.A. Galaxy—played well on the right side, making frequent attacking runs. Veteran Chivas USA and national team defender Heath Pearce played on the left. He didn’t have much of an impact, but then again he didn’t have to with the way Venezuela was packing their own box.

I can easily foresee U.S. soccer fans and pundits dismissing this friendly as simply our B-team beating visiting Venezuela’s B-team. But we should remind ourselves that Venezuela is no cupcake soccer nation. It finished fourth in last year’s Copa America, ahead of Brazil and Argentina, which is a respectable finish for virtually any nation on earth. And if last night’s friendly goes some ways towards proving that the U.S. program has more depth than a good South American nation’s program, then that’s cause for optimism. The uniformly solid performance by the U.S. last night may also be concerning for many of our presumed A-team players. Hard workers such as Cameron, Parkhurst, and Wondolowski may just muscle some of them off the roster.