U.S. Men’s National Team: March 2015 Friendlies Preview

The national team plays two away friendlies this month, in Denmark and Switzerland. The current team will be without Clint Dempsey, who pulled a hamstring in training on Monday and was sent back to Seattle. Dempsey, who will not be replaced on the current U.S. squad, was one of eight players who were also called in for Klinsmann’s experimental January-camp roster. Some of those players—like Dempsey himself, Michael Bradley, and Jozy Altidore—are mainstays, while others—like Miguel Ibarra and Gyasi Zardes—have just a handful of games played with the senior national team.

The rest of the current roster also has something of an experimental, or anyway unfamiliar, quality.  Midfielder Danny Williams and defender Tim Ream are back in the picture after long national-team layoffs, and five out of the twenty-two players are looking for their first caps, including two dual Mexican-American citizens—goalkeeper William Yarbrough and defender Ventura Alvarado. And speaking of experimental: In a fit of prescience, in my last post I predicted that Brek Shea might be moved to left back on the USMNT, and he did play that position against Panama in the second January friendly, and is listed as a defender on this month's roster. The guess wasn’t a stretch, given the dearth of fullbacks on that January roster, but I did find it odd how few commentators discussed the possibility, at least those that I read and listened to in the days before the games.

Anyway, Shea is now playing left back for his club team down in Orlando as well as for the national team. Given his size and speed, I like the move and hope he settles into that important position. Whether or not he does, it will be difficult for any U.S. player to succeed DaMarcus Beasley in the role. Klinsmann has in my opinion made some poor decisions in his time as USMNT coach, but moving Beasley to left back for the 2014 World Cup cycle was a stroke of genius. And if Beasley continues to perform like he did for Houston last week against the LA Galaxy, we might be begging him to come out of national-team retirement come 2018.

Here’s what you need to know about today’s game, and the game next week.

U.S. vs. Denmark

Time: Wednesday, March 25, 3 p.m. ET

Place: NRGi Park, Aarhus, Denmark

TV Broadcasts: ESPN2, WatchESPN, UniMás and univisiondeportes.com

Current Denmark FIFA ranking: 28 (The U.S.’s current ranking is 32)

Player to watch: Christian Eriksen. Eriksen has twice been named the Danish football player of the year. In his first season with Tottenham Hotspur (2013-2014), he won that club’s player of the year award.

U.S. vs. Switzerland

Time: Tuesday, March 31, 12 p.m. ET

Place: Stadion Letzigrund; Zurich, Switzerland

TV Broadcasts: FOX Sports 1, UniMás, and UDN.

Current Switzerland FIFA ranking: 12

Player to watch: Xherdan Shaqiri. The 23-year-old plays his club soccer for Inter Milan, after having declined offers from multiple clubs in the English premier league. He scored a hat trick against Honduras in the 2014 World Cup.

U.S. Men’s National Team v. Belgium, Salvador, Brazil, 7.1.14

The U.S. lost to Belgium 2-1 yesterday to end their run in the 2014 World Cup. They exited the tournament with a record of one win, one draw, and two losses. In some ways, that unimpressive record belies the team’s level of play. The U.S. looked the better team in its draw with Portugal. They lost by a single goal to Germany, and had a decent chance to pull level at the end of that game. And the U.S. took a strong Belgium team into extra time, mounting a furious push in the game’s final fifteen minutes, pulling back a goal and nearly taking the game to penalty kicks.

More generally, it’s widely agreed that this 2014 team is a more talented group from top to bottom than any past U.S. team, with more players—like young fullback DeAndre Yedlin—who are capable of coming off the bench and making significant contributions. Most also agree that the team, as a group, plays at a higher technical level than past U.S. teams, that it is more dynamic, attack-minded, and pleasing to watch. In these aspects, the team reflects the confident and imposing personality of their current coach, Jurgen Klinsmann, who set out to change the U.S.’s style of play when he took over in 2011 and has made some progress in that area.

Taken another way, the 2014 World Cup is evidence that U.S. soccer’s progression over the last dozen or so years has been gradual at best, that the team still lacks difference-makers on the level of Belgium’s Kevin De Bruyne and Germany’s Thomas Müller. You could make a strong argument that the U.S. was outplayed in three out of their four 2014 World Cup games. Against the high-powered teams in 2014, the U.S. reverted to form; they were back to playing the role of loveable, outgunned underdogs who try hard until the end, rely on their keeper, and fall short.

As results go, there is little difference between this team’s showing and the 2010 team’s showing in South Africa, when the U.S. won their group and lost to Ghana by a goal in extra time. And certainly, the U.S.’s 2014 World Cup falls short of the 2002 team’s run. That group advanced to the quarterfinals, where they lost 1-0 to Germany in a game that easily could have gone the U.S.’s way. Yesterday, against Belgium, the U.S.’s best performance by a field player came from DaMarcus Beasley, who was also on the 2002 roster. That fact underscores the dearth of true difference-makers in the current U.S. program.

Speaking of older U.S. players making a difference: This game will be remembered by U.S. fans—and likely by many fans the world over—for the performance of 35-year-old U.S. keeper Tim Howard. Howard saved 16 shots, the most in a World Cup game since 1966. Almost immediately after the match, Belgium captain Vincent Kompany tweeted: “Two words.. TIM HOWARD #Respect #BelUSA.” Unfortunately, it would have taken a superhuman performance in goal, not merely a sublime one, to prevent a U.S. loss. Belgium created chance after chance in this game, and the goals were bound to come. Or, as Howard said after the game, at some point in that kind of situation, the levee has to break.

U.S. fans got a preview of Belgium’s quality last May, when they dismantled the Yanks 4-2 in a friendly that probably should have ended in a score of 5-1. I thought De Bruyne was the man of that match, and so he was again yesterday, when he had a goal and an assist. De Bruyne and his midfield mates controlled much of the game in Salvador, so much so that Jermaine Jones, who had been such a strong presence in midfield for the U.S. in this World Cup, failed to have much of an impact. (I see that at least one box score has the U.S. winning the possession battle, which is baffling if true and breathes new life into the term “meaningless possession.”) Michael Bradley played better than he had in the U.S.’s three previous games, but that’s not saying much. Apart from his spectacular assist on the U.S.’s late goal, and his usual high energy, he did not play well, giving away the ball too cheaply, both in the run of play and on dead-ball strikes. Alejandro Bedoya—another midfielder I’d had high hopes for coming into this match—put in a similar high-effort, mostly low-impact performance.

I mentioned earlier that Beasley had the best performance of any U.S. field player against Belgium, a performance that was eclipsed by Howard’s play and by the fact that the game ended in a U.S. loss. But let me repeat that Beasley was remarkable. He drew at least four fouls, consistently perfectly timed his steps to thwart Belgium attacks, got forward frequently, and played some dangerous crosses into the box. He saved the U.S.’s hide nearly as frequently as Howard did. Those who watched the U.S. in qualifiers and in the 2013 Gold Cup (where Beasley captained the champion U.S. side) know that his performance against Belgium was no fluke. He’s been one of the U.S.’s most consistent and best players over the last couple of years, which is all the more remarkable given that he’d nearly fallen out of the national team picture in 2010 and 2011. His late-career run will solidify Beasley’s status as one of the best U.S. soccer players ever.

Newcomer Yedlin complemented Beasley’s strong performance on the back line. Yedlin played most of the game at right back, after coming on in the 31^st minute for an injured Fabian Johnson. He attacked with visible confidence, getting forward repeatedly and by my count sending in at least five dangerous crosses over the course of the game. Perhaps even more impressively, he recovered well when the U.S. turned the ball over. He twice tracked back after getting forward to stop Belgium’s talented Eden Hazard, once in first-half stoppage time and again in the 82^nd minute. Klinsmann deserves credit not only for selecting the 20-year-old fullback for the final roster, but for playing him in critical situations. Klinsmann also placed confidence in forward Julian Green, who at 19 is now the youngest U.S. player ever to score in a World Cup. Green played only for the final 15 minutes against Belgium, but he changed the game, scoring a goal off a well-taken volley with his first touch after coming on.

Green almost didn’t get his chance. Remarkably given the run of play during the first 90 minutes, the U.S. nearly avoided extra time and won the game late in second-half stoppage time. With about a minute remaining, Geoff Cameron found himself with the ball about 30 yards from goal and lobbed a pass into the box. Jones headed the ball to substitute forward Chris Wondolowski, who was standing unmarked at the far post. But Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois closed Wondolowski down quickly, and the shot sailed over the target. Reflecting afterwards, Wondolowski neatly captured the situation: “It is a fickle game.”

U.S. Men’s National Team v. Panama, Seattle, 6.11.13

Some sports-related clichés are meant to describe a situation in which an athlete’s physical talents, fitness, intelligence, and confidence mystically coalesce into a dominating performance. A player is “in the zone” or “locked in” or “letting the game come to him.” I don’t know if those clichés applied to Jozy Altidore in the U.S. men’s national team’s 2-0 World Cup qualifying win over Panama last Tuesday, but I do know this: The man was feeling it.

I’ve never seen Altidore play with such self-assurance as he did against Panama, in particular during the first half. He hustled, as in the 10^th minute when he won a ball at midfield on a strong defensive play. He used his body to stonewall defenders, as he did in the 27^th minute when he started a nice sequence for the U.S. that nearly led to a chance. He exuded comfort and confidence on the ball, as he did in the 32^nd minute when he worked in a tight space near the flag to win a corner.

And after ten or fifteen minutes you just knew he had a goal in him. It appeared that that goal would come in the 34^th minute, when Altidore, standing with his back to the goal, received a long pass from left back DaMarcus Beasley. Altidore thoroughly schooled Panama defender Román Torres, muscling him off the ball, turning and splitting Torres and fellow defender Leonel Parris en route to the goal. Torres made a lunging, clumsy tackle, taking down Altidore about ten yards inside the box and whiffing on the ball. The referee, though, missed the call and signaled for a Panama free kick.

After the takedown and call, cameras showed Jurgen Klinsmann furiously barking complaints from the sideline. And while I’m no fan of berating refs, it was hard to blame the U.S. coach. The soccer Gods agreed, and quickly rushed to balance the Karmic scales. Within a minute, Michael Bradley picked up the ball at midfield and ran at the Panama defense, eventually sending a pass into space for U.S. left winger Fabian Johnson. Johnson, who’d played a poor cross into the box just five minutes earlier, made no mistake this time, sending a flawless cross towards the back post and just out of reach of the Panama keeper. Altidore was waiting to side-foot a shot into the back of the net and celebrate with the overwhelmingly pro-U.S. crowd of 42,000 in Seattle.

Speaking of which, this was the U.S.’s first time playing at Seattle’s CenturyLink Field; judging by the result and the U.S. players’ reactions, it won’t be their last. Bradley, not known for his verbal effusiveness, said this afterwards: “Obviously for me you can’t talk about the game without talking about the crowd—unbelievable. The best crowd I’ve played in front of in the United States without a doubt. From all the players, a big thank you to everyone who was here in the city who makes this a special night for us. People should know the difference it makes when you play in an atmosphere like this.”

The only dubious aspect of the venue was its surface, which is normally FieldTurf (i.e., plastic). For the Panama match, though, the plastic surface had been covered in sod, and players from both sides slipped frequently, especially early. In the sixth minute, two Panama players separated by a few yards made a cut and slipped simultaneously. It looked choreographed. Later, and more significantly, U.S. right back Brad Evans was beaten badly for speed. But the Panama attacker, with no direct pressure, slid and fell on the surface. I mention all this in part because I don’t care for watching games played on artificial turf and wish there weren’t so many of them in this country, all the way down to youth leagues. And artificial turf is of course the reason that the patchwork, slippery sod had to be laid down in Seattle for the Panama game in the first place. As Beasley said before the match, “It’s obviously not the best or the same as regular grass, but I'd 100 percent rather play on this than on [artificial] turf.”

Ah, Beasley. In the space of a few games, he’s now my personal favorite player on this U.S. roster, and he turned in another stellar performance against Panama. He got forward so often and so effectively that he might as well have been playing in the midfield. His crowning moment should have culminated in a goal. In the 80^th minute, still running like a fitness addict ten years his junior, Beasley perfectly read a U.S. buildup, came streaking into the Panama box, received a nice through ball from Altidore, and deftly got off his shot, which glanced off the outside of the post. He was picked up off the turf by Clint Dempsey and calmly ran back to his defensive position, equally calmly flashing a thumbs-up to Altidore for the through ball.

Beasley is pure class, and I can’t get enough of him. Unfortunately, he received a yellow card in this match and so will have to miss Tuesday’s qualifier against Honduras. I fear this bodes ill for the U.S., even against a depleted Honduras side. Along with Bradley, Beasley is indispensible to this current U.S. roster. He’s the only U.S. defender with recovery speed, his soccer IQ is second to no U.S. player’s, and he can attack better than any other U.S. defender, including Fabian Johnson, who will no doubt replace him on defense against Honduras.

But that’s not the note to end on. With the exception of Evans, who was picked on by Panama and looked vulnerable, the U.S.’s performance against Panama was uniformly good, excellent even. Along with Altidore, Beasley, and Bradley, Geoff Cameron deserves praise. Cameron played a remarkably solid game at holding midfielder in Jermaine Jones’s absence. (Jones sat out the game after suffering a concussion against Jamaica.) Cameron broke up a significant number of Panama buildups with well-timed tackles. He also looked good on the attack. His perfectly placed ball over the Panama defense in the 53^rd minute promptly led to a goal by Eddie Johnson. Johnson, playing in his club team’s stadium, also played notably well, filling in for Graham Zusi (unavailable due to an accumulation of yellow cards) in the midfield. Johnson’s takedown of Cameron’s pass on that play was excellent, as was his finish.

In case you missed it, the USMNT quote sheet has a good picture of Johnson acknowledging the crowd after the goal, a smiling Beasley clinging to his back.

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.

U.S. Men’s National Team v. Mexico, Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, 3.26.13

Any sports fan has his or her hobbyhorses, and my own current sports fixation is this: I’m convinced DaMarcus Beasley is a transformative figure when he plays left back for the U.S. men’s national team. I mentioned in my last post that I thought Beasley was man of the match against Costa Rica. Of course any individual performance can be a fluke, especially when it takes place on a field covered with four inches of snow. But just four days after the Costa Rica match, against mighty Mexico in Azteca Stadium, Beasley turned in another remarkable 90 minutes at left back, helping the largely callow U.S. back line deliver another clean sheet. One stellar game may be a fluke, but two stellar games in a row initiate a pattern.

Beasley’s USMNT odyssey at left back may continue for at least another few World Cup qualifiers. In an interview with ESPN after the Mexico match, coach Jurgen Klinsmann was asked to talk about the play of center back Omar Gonzalez, who turned in his own memorable performance on defense. Klinsmann spent more time, however, talking about Beasley: “Outstanding, the back line, outstanding. Matt Besler, Omar. How Beas[ley] played the left-back role, it just seems like his whole life he played that role.”

Klinsmann hit on something with that comment. What makes Beasley so fun to watch, and no doubt coach, is not so much his well known physical quickness as his ability to read and react to the game. In that way, he reminds me of his longtime USMNT teammate Landon Donovan. Both are fast and skilled, but crucially they have high soccer IQs. Beasley is adept at anticipating where opponents and teammates will run or pass, putting himself into a position to take advantage of any given situation.

Sometimes his ability to anticipate is obvious, as in the 50^th minute against Mexico. Beasley calmly stole the ball from Javier Aquino in the penalty box then, seconds later after a Maurice Edu giveaway, he sprinted back into the box, deftly intercepted a cross back to Aquino by heading the ball into the ground, and used his left foot to swipe the ball out of bounds. It was a remarkable physical and mental display that somehow failed to generate comment from ESPN announcers Ian Darke and Taylor Twellman.

There are times when Beasley’s ability to read the game is more subtle. In the 24^th minute, for example, Mexico’s Andrés Guardado sent a sideline-to-sideline pass to a teammate on the U.S. left flank. As the ball sailed through the air towards the Mexico winger and Beasley, you could envision the gears turning in Beasley’s mind. He feinted very slightly as though he were about to head the ball up field, then held his forward motion so that the ball bounced between him and the attacker and out of bounds. The result: a U.S. throw-in and a thwarted Mexico attack.

There are plenty of other things to say about Beasley’s game against Mexico, including a yellow card and a couple of occasions when he got beat inside the box. But the fact remains that Mexico tested him again and again—if I had to guess I’d say he was on or around the ball more than anyone else in this game—but he never made a mental error, he never stopped running, and he and his back line didn’t allow a goal.

That’s enough for now. This goalless draw was notable for other reasons besides Beasley, including the fact that it keeps the U.S. near the top of a tough qualifying group. The result also does something to chip away at the U.S.’s abysmal record at Azteca, which now stands at 1-23-2, though it should be noted that in the last two games there the U.S. is 1-0-1.

More subjectively, there was something about last night’s game that reminded this USMNT fan of old times. I hope it doesn’t sound small-minded to say so, but it was kind of nice to watch a group of outfield players that had no hired guns from the remote-feeling Bundesliga. As Major League Soccer’s website noted, the U.S. side that took on Mexico was a team “completely made up of players born-and-bred in MLS (all 14 players who took the field were made in MLS). Players who perhaps are more in tune with the American soccer identity because of their history in the sport in the United States.” The U.S. players showed occasional quality, but what stood out was their collective effort, one in which nearly everyone hustled from beginning to end in the smog and high altitude of Mexico City. It was exciting and heartening to watch.

U.S. Men’s National Team v. Costa Rica, Denver, Colorado, 3.22.13

 

The U.S. men’s national team’s 1-0 World Cup qualifying win over Costa Rica will be remembered as a game played in near-whiteout Rocky Mountain conditions. The snow fell so thick and fast it seemed from TV images that at least four inches of heavy-looking accumulation settled onto the field over the course of the match. It all made for a bizarre viewing experience. At one point in the first half the cameras showed a close-up of U.S. center back Clarence Goodson. With snow clinging to his hair and beard, he looked like a man on his way to a trading post to sell beaver pelts.

The image of Goodson was clear, but much of the game was virtually invisible to spectators. The impenetrability of the snow was compounded by the facts that U.S. players wore white jerseys and the ball was a pale yellow. At crucial points during the match I could hardly tell what was going on at all. Clint Dempsey scored the game’s only goal, but I had to wait for replays to even dimly understand how it transpired. (Jozy Altidore struck a shot that got deflected, and Dempsey ran onto the rebound and fed a yawning goalmouth with one of his hallmark borderline-garbage-but-nonetheless-critical scoring strikes.)

The conditions not only drastically cut down visibility, they blunted players’ technical abilities and gave the game a throwback feel. Long balls were repeatedly lumped forward towards the flags and into the penalty boxes. Players slipped and slid around like kids on a sodden playground. As ESPN color man Taylor Twellman noted, not without wistfulness, near the end of the first-half: “It’s like playing at the park right now.” He and his broadcast mate Ian Darke also pointed out that it was the kind of game in which defenders can easily lose their footing and get punished.

Which brings us to the U.S. back line, the most depleted unit of a team without Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, Danny Williams, Brek Shea, and others (all except the rusticating Donovan out due to injury). Wide defenders Steve Cherundolo, Fabian Johnson, Timmy Chandler, and Edgar Castillo are injured, and Michael Parkhurst is ailing after a recent flu. Former captain and center back Carlos Bocanegra has no club team. None of them is on the current national team roster. That left coach Jurgen Klinsmann with a shallow pool of defenders for the game against Costa Rica, and he ultimately started Goodson and Omar Gonzalez in the middle and Geoff Cameron on the right. In a mildly surprising move, Klinsmann played longtime U.S. midfielder/attacker DaMarcus Beasley at left back.

The back line was, apart from the snow, the story of the game. Cameron had some shaky moments, occasionally dwelling on the ball too long and/or giving it away, but they played well as a unit and deserved the clean sheet. In the center, Goodson shined, clearing balls with conviction and settling them with surety. Gonzalez also looked strong, but Beasley, playing in his 98^th national team game, outshone them all. He was the man of this match by far, and turned in a remarkable performance that may lead to more on the back line.

Beasley’s match started unpropitiously. In the 8^th minute, Gonzalez clocked him in the jaw with the crown of his head during an aerial challenge, a collision violent enough to send team doctors out to attend to Beasley. In the 21^st minute, the U.S. was beaten down its right flank, and Beasley slipped in the box while attempting to head away the cross. It could have been costly, but Costa Rica couldn’t capitalize.

After that, Beasley was nearly perfect, and you could make a strong case that he was the engine of the team. Despite the snow-covered field, he got forward repeatedly. He created the U.S.’s second best chance of the night in the 42^nd minute, sending a perfect cross into the box towards the back post. The Costa Rica keeper misplayed it, and Dempsey was taken down in the box by New York Red Bulls man Roy Miller. Stunningly, the referee did not call a penalty kick, but Beasley’s cross probably should have helped to effectively put the game out of reach.

Beasley was seemingly everywhere, not only attacking down the flank and sending in smart and dangerous crosses, but defending well. In the 83^rd minute, for example, he made a good run forward, then immediately tracked back to win the ball and clear it. In the 45^th minute he might have saved two points for the U.S. as he broke up the rhythm of Costa Rica attackers in the box, snuffing out what looked to be a promising sequence for them. His work rate was superb. Even in stoppage time and on the snow-covered surface the guy was attacking. In the 92^nd minute he had a good exchange with substitute Maurice Edu that ended with yet another dangerous Beasley cross into the box.

I don’t know if we’ll ever see Beasley play left back again, but I for one hope he’ll start there next Tuesday when the U.S. plays Mexico in Azteca Stadium. Beasley himself may be less than enthused by the prospect. In a 2009 Chicago Tribune article entitled “Beasley prefers the midfield, obviously,” he was quoted as saying: "Yeah, obviously [I would prefer to play midfield]. I’ve never played leftback before. This is my first time I play leftback 90 minutes [sic]. It was different.”

Despite those disparaging remarks, Beasley yesterday helped make clear what anyone who has coached on any level comes to realize quickly: outside backs are vitally important to a soccer team. Bad ones can kill a team, both with their defensive mistakes and with the limitations they impose in the attacking half. Good ones stonewall the other team’s offense and ignite their own. I’m beginning to think no other position on the field is more important than fullback. I hope Beasley, who is now 30 and near the end of his career, has come to share that view.