Ok, I finally got my laptop back up & working with a spanking new hard drive, so the fun now continues...
With several younger players making their international debut the U.S. Mens' National Team thumped China, 4-1, this past saturday. The scoreline may have done a little injustice to China's 1st half play but the U.S. pretty much dominated the 2nd half & squandered a few chances to perhaps even have scored more.
The U.S. started out pretty well & scored their 1st goal from a DaMarcus Beasley penalty kick. Beasley had been taken down in the area by the Chinese keeper after a nice run behind the Chinese defense & a brilliant low lofted through ball by Michael Bradley, son of the US coach, Bob Bradley, & was a pretty sweet pass. Beasley made no mistake from the spot, drilling the shot just right of down the middle with the Chinese keeper diving to his right, 1-0, US.
The US goal seemed to energize the Chinese however as the next few minutes the Chinese played more aggressively on both defense & attack & their determination was rewarded with a goal in the 15th minute after a failed corner kick clearance. Zhang Yaokun rifled a shot to the near post from just inside the area on the left. Nothing US keeper Tim Howard could do with, 1-1.
After the tying Chinese goal, the play was pretty even although the US still looked the more threatening as the Chinese were playing with a flat backline & the US several times had balls played behind the defense that just evaded the attacker or were mistimed & called offsides.
The US slowly asserted themselves more in the attacking half & got the go-ahead & ultimately game-winning goal after some nice short passing work on the right side with yet another lofted ball into the area by Sascha Kljestan for Benny Feilhaber. Feilhaber still had work to do as the Chinese keeper rushed out to stop the shot, however, Feilhaber kept his cool & lofted the ball over the Chinese keeper before colliding with him & the ball landed in the net after a Chinese defender failed to get the proper touch on the ball to clear it off the line as he made contact with it, 2-1 US.
The rest of the 1st half was played out fairly evenly although you sensed the US had more in them as the Chinese continued to have occasional trouble with the ball behind the defense & seemed to have trouble organizing the defense after losing possession of the ball .
The US indeed began to have more opportunities on goal than the Chinese although they squandered a few decent opportunities for their 3rd goal & it began to look like a match that the US would either have to struggle to hang on to the 2-1 win or give up a tying goal against the run of play for a 2-2 draw.
Luckily, that is not what happened as the US scored their 3rd goal off a corner kick on a header from Clint Dempsey. As they lined up to take the corner, ESPN color commentator, former national team member & current US alltime goalscoring leader, Eric Wynalda, pointed out that the CHinese were completely leaving the backpost open & unguarded. Benny Feilhaber either saw the same thing or has ESP b/c he delivered the corner exactly there- to the backpost where Clint Dempsey lost his marker & hit a powerful header past the Chen Dong, the Chinese keeper, for a 3-1 lead.
The 3rd goal seemed to deflate the Chinese & it was only a few minutes later & the US had their 4th goal off yet another corner kick, this one delivered by DaMarcus Beasley (who had an outstanding match, by the way). Big central defender Oguchi "Gooch" Onyewu directed a nice header to the far post again as the Chinese left it unguarded for a finishing 4-1 scoreline.
Overall, a very good match for the US as they attacked well throughout the game although the final ball & crosses still need work to be consistently dangerous against teams that would be better organized defensively than the Chinese seemed to be. It was also a good match as several younger players got their debut caps in the US jersey. These included: Sascha Kljestan (who started), Lee Nguyen, Kamani Hill & Charlie Davies.
This match should give the US plenty confidence heading into the Gold Cup which starts thursday even for those players who didn't play in this match such as usual captain, Landon Donovan.
LineupsChina: Chen Dong, Zhang Shuai, Zhang Yaokun, Sun Xiang, Li Tie (Li Yan, 76th), Shao Jiayi, Xu Yunlong, Dong Fangzhuo (Zheng Bin, 67th), Zhao Xuri (Du Wenhui, 89th), Wang Peng (Qu Bo, 59th), Wang Dong
United States: Tim Howard (Kasey Keller, 46th), Carlos Bocanegra, Benny Feilhaber (Jesse Marsch, 80th), Michael Bradley, DaMarcus Beasley (Lee Nguyen, 80th), Clint Dempsey, Ante Razov (Charlie Davies, 66th), Jonathan Bornstein, Sacha Kljestan (Kamani Hill, 74th), Jonathan Spector (Frank Simek, 74th), Oguchi Onyewu
Goals1-0
USA, 10' Beasley (pk)
1-1
CHN, 15' Yaokun (Peng)
2-1
USA, 28' Feilhaber (Kljestan)
3-1
USA, 75' Dempsey (Feilhaber)
4-1
USA, 79' Onyewu (Beasley)
CardsCHN, 9' Dong
USA, 81' Bradley
US Ratings (out of 10)GK: Tim Howard, 6.5- Not too much to do, made a nice save from a free kick & could do nothing with the shot on the Chinese goal.
RB: Jonathan Spector, 5.5- I'm being a little rough on him here especially as he's one of the younger US players. Defended well but his offensive runs were a little mistimed sometimes & his service balls were lacking.
LB: Jonathan Bornstein, 6- Average game. Got caught upfield a few times but again like Spector, he's young & he'll hopefully learn when to make runs & when to stay back.
CD: Carlos Bocanegra, 7- Played well in the center, won most of the headers in the defensive half & generally kept Manchester United reserve player Dong Fangzhou quiet.
CD: Oguchi Onyewu, 7.5- Same as Bocanegra for the most part, gets .5 bonus for the goal he scored.
RM: Sascha Kljestan, 7- Played well & will only get better. Had a nice pass for the assist on Feilhaber's goal.
LM: DaMarcus Beasley, 7.5- Initially started up front on the left in a 4-3-3 & interchanged with Dempsey but after the Chinese scored their goal & Bob Bradley switched the US to a 4-4-2, Beasley went to the left in midfield. Was a constant threat with his speed & runs behind the defense & played much better but still needs to work, in my opinion, on playing this way consistently. Scored the U.S. openeer on a PK after getting the foul call that led to it.
CM: Benny Feilhaber, 8- Was very industrious in midfield, was a constant threat on offense with his runs & passing & did fairly well on the defensive end. Showed good composure in scoring the 2nd goal.
CM: Michael Bradley, 7- Would've given him a 7.5 but he picked up a needless yellow late in the match when he fouled a Chinese player in a position where he didn't really need to foul but was a constant pest winning the ball in midfield & the defensive half. Still pretty impressive for a 19 yr. old midfielder in that deep-lying midfield position.
CF: Ante Razov, 6.5- Worked hard, won headers but seemed a bit off from the rest of the US attack.
ST: Clint Dempsey, 7- Played well enough & scored the 3rd US goal on a header but tried to dribble too much in his own half.
Subs: 46' for Howard
, GK: Kasey Keller, 6- Not much to do in the 2nd half as the US started to control the game.
66' for Razov,
ST: Charlie Davies, 6.5- Caused the Chinese defense to foul him early & often to try & negate his speed which he showed on a few occasions also had a half chance to score.
74' for Kljestan,
RM: Kamani Hill, NR- Not enough time to really do anything.
74' for Spector,
RB: Simek, 6- Defended ok in his short appearance.
80' for Feilhaber,
CM: Jesse Marsch, 6- A cap that was more a reward for long service with several teams under Bob Bradley. Tackled well.
80' for Beasley,
LM: Lee Nguyen, NR- Not enough time to really do anything of consequence.
US Man of the Match: Benny Feilhaber- Passed very well, had several nice balls that he played past China's back line. also got forward several times & made a nice run to set himself up for the goal & showed great composure to lob the keeper for his goal.
