U.S. Men’s National Team v. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sarajevo, 8.14.13

The U.S. men’s national team brought a number of their best Europe-based players to Sarajevo, including Michael Bradley, Tim Howard, and Jozy Altidore. But most MLS and Liga MX players—including Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Graham Zusi, and DaMarcus Beasley—stayed home. Oddly, the two MLS players that did make the long trip were from the same team (Eddie Johnson and Brad Evans, from the Seattle Sounders). To fill the remaining gaps, U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann called in three Europe-based youngsters: John Brooks, Aron Johannsson, and Bobby Wood, all of whom got their first U.S. caps on Wednesday.

So the roster was a hodgepodge, even by national team standards. And in the first half of Wednesday’s match the U.S. play reflected that quality, looking disjointed and devoid of class. In the 7^th minute, Eddie Johnson dwelled on the ball in the U.S. final third, carelessly giving it away. Four Bosnia-Herzegovina attackers pounced, then Edin Dzeko shot, collected the rebound, and shot again, this time threading the ball behind a U.S. back line that was too slow to cover the exposed goal.

A few minutes later, Altidore had a good chance to score but played an oddly weak ball across the face of goal that no teammate had a hope of latching onto. In the next five minutes, Mix Diskerud lost possession three times. In the 30^th minute, after clearing a corner kick convincingly, the U.S. defense relaxed and Geoff Cameron was beaten off a header on the second ball into the box. When the first-half whistle blew, with the U.S. down 2-0, all those European soccer snobs, inside and outside the stadium, must have been chuckling into their hop-rich beers and yelling towards the field and their TV screens, “You’re not in CONCACAF anymore, boys!”

I was thinking along those lines myself. But the game changed remarkably in the second half. It is true that Klinsmann used all six of his available substitutions, but it should be said that the two most transformative players in this game were Bradley and, especially, Altidore. The latter scored a hat trick and assisted on the U.S.’s fourth goal, and Bradley had a couple of assists and generally displayed as much class as Dzeko, Miralem Pjanic, or anyone else on the Bosnia-Herzegovina roster, currently ranked 13^th in the world by FIFA.

Many critics consider Bradley to be the U.S.’s best player right now, and much has been written about his passing ability and soccer IQ. Those traits were clear to see against Bosnia-Herzegovina, and his pass to Altidore in the 86^th minute that helped put the U.S. up 4-2 was a calmly delivered, understated thing of beauty.

His passing ability and game smarts don’t need further burnishing from me, but I will point out two additional elements of his game that may lie beyond the obvious and widely recognized. The first is how strong Bradley is on the ball. He’s not a particularly large midfielder, and God knows he’s not a particularly fast one, but he frequently seems to defy the physical law stating that weight moves weight. Through a combination of leverage, reading his opponent, physical strength, strength of will, and no doubt other factors, he routinely runs bigger and faster players off the ball. In addition to that, he has an uncanny ability to slide (or “go to ground” or whatever) when the ball appears to be just out of his reach and deflect it so that his team either maintains or regains possession. He did this no fewer than three times against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the first half. Maintaining and regaining possession are of course critical factors in winning games, and Bradley’s well-timed slides help his teams win those battles. (The U.S., incidentally, had about 60% possession on Wednesday.)

To move on to Altidore: anyone who thought his otherworldly game against Panama in June was a once-in-a-lifetime fluke national team performance needs to go check out the Bosnia-Herzegovina match before Watch ESPN takes it off the website. Altidore was a rare bright spot for the U.S. in the first half, but he was a supernova in the second. He helped get the U.S. on the board in the 55^th minute with a great first touch off a long ball from Bradley; Altidore’s trap fell to Johnson, who scored off a side-footed shot into an empty net. Less than five minutes later, the U.S. pulled level off a nice sequence that started with newcomer Brooks playing a pass from the back to Fabian Johnson, who turned and found Altidore, also playing with his back to the goal. Altidore made a nice turn himself and laced a spectacular left-footed shot far post to beat the keeper.

Remarkably, Altidore outdid that strike with a dead-ball hit in the 84^th minute. I don’t recall Altidore ever taking free kicks for the U.S., but he took two of them against Bosnia-Herzegovina. And maybe I’m forgetting something else, but I can’t remember a U.S. player hitting a free kick as sweetly as Altidore hit this one, a dipping ball struck with power and accuracy into the top of the net near post. After the goal, Altidore ran toward the stunned, silent crowd, his arms outstretched as if to say, “Where’s your CONCACAF-bashing now?” He’d score again, in the run of play, two minutes later to put the game out of reach.

This post is already too long but something should be said about 22-year-old U.S. national team newcomer Aron Johannsson, who was born in Alabama, grew up in Iceland, and plays his club soccer with Altidore’s former Dutch-league club Alkmaar Zaanstreek (AZ). Johannsson played less than thirty minutes against Bosnia-Herzegovina, but he looked unmistakably skillful, smart, and dangerous. Soon after coming on, he slid a nice through ball to Altidore; in the 74^th minute he deftly settled a ball in the box to create a volley for himself; and in the 77^th minute he had a very good touch in the box to blow by a player, creating another good shot for himself. The thought of Johannsson working in the final third amidst clever, quality players like Bradley, Dempsey, Donovan, and Altidore is appealing.

But don’t take my word for it. Here’s Altidore on Johannsson’s strong performance: “I'm not surprised at all. Aron, over the past six months I was with him at AZ, you saw in training his ability to see passes and score goals and beat people so effortlessly. He's such a smart player and I'm so happy he chose the U.S. I think he'll be an asset going forward and I think he'll help us a lot.”

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.