ASN: Yanks Rating Three Second-Half Objectives, Beat Guatemala

Timothy Chandler, Clint Dempsey, and Chris Wondolowski tallied for the U.S. males’s nationwide crew because it defeated an overmatched Guatemalan facet, 4-0, in a Gold Cup warm-up in entrance of 44,835 followers.

BY

John Godfrey

Posted
July 03, 2015
9:25 PM

SHARE THIS STORY

IT TOOK THE U.S. MEN’S NATIONAL TEAM an hour or so to get untracked however as soon as it lastly did the expertise disparity grew to become evident and the People cruised to a 4-0 victory over Guatemala in Nashville.

The match, a warm-up for the 2015 Gold Cup that begins on July 7, gave U.S. supporters loads of positives to rally round—and fairly a couple of negatives to fret about. Timothy Chandler scored his first purpose for the nationwide crew and Clint Dempsey took a assured penalty, however the protection appeared disorganized at occasions and Jozy Altidore flubbed two golden probabilities to get on the rating sheet. 

All instructed, the scoreline flattered the Yanks, as Los Chapines gifted the U.S. one marker due to an personal purpose and Guatemalan striker Jose Contreras missed two absolute sitters that may have made the competition way more attention-grabbing.

No, it wasn’t one for the time capsule. And U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann knew it.

“Result? Nice,” Klinsmann mentioned afterward. “Obviously 4-0 sounds really nice. Performance? Not so nice. I’m not happy with that performance. I’m kind of disappointed with a couple things: movement off the ball, speed of play, urgency—things that we talked about before were not executed the way we wanted them to be executed.

“We have been fortunate to not get a tie, actually firstly of the second half. If it’s 1-1, it’s an entire totally different ball sport. It appears very nice at 4-0, however we now have lots of work forward of us.”

The sport acquired off to a sluggish begin however within the sixteenth minute U.S. left again Fabian Johnson turned on the afterburners, bombed down the left flank, and floated a beautiful cross meant for a streaking Jozy Altidore. The U.S. striker was pulled down within the field, nonetheless, and the referee signaled for a penalty, giving the People an early alternative to take the lead regardless of some shoddy play.

Altidore, Clint Dempsey, and Michael Bradley all appeared all in favour of taking the penalty, however Altidore claimed it and stepped ahead to attempt to put the Yanks forward.

He didn’t. 

Altidore stutter-stepped his means as much as the ball and delivered a low, too-slow, right-footed shot that had an opportunity however Guatemalan goalkeeper Paulo Motta dove to his proper, stretched out his proper arm, and batted the ball away.

The U.S. hadn’t performed notably nicely as much as that time and the missed alternative appeared to deflate each the gang and the squad. 

A couple of minutes later, nonetheless, a bit of fine luck put the Yanks forward. 

DeAndre Yedlin pushed down the precise wing and delivered a cross that did not look notably harmful—there wasn’t an American wherever close to it—however Guatemalan defender Carlos Castrillo botched his headed clearance and delivered a fantastically positioned ball—immediately into the again of his personal purpose.

The People did not deserve the 1-0 lead however they took it nonetheless. 

As a substitute of constructing on this luck, nonetheless, the People appeared flat and gradual all through the rest of the primary half. Although overmatched on paper, Guatemala held its personal on the pitch. In truth, the guests almost scored twice earlier than the break. 

Simply after the half-hour mark Carlos Mejia created a little bit of house on the left flank and delivered a harmful cross to a surprisingly open Ruben Morales. Luckily for the U.S., the ball skipped previous the Guatemalan attacker and U.S. goalkeeper Brad Guzan swallowed up the unfastened ball. 

On the 39-minute mark the guests had one other nice scoring alternative when Wilson Lalin eluded Chandler on a protracted free kick and had a free header in entrance of purpose. As soon as once more Guatemala let the Yanks off the hook, as Lalin nodded the ball into the turf and straight at Guzan.

The primary half ended with the U.S. main 1-0, however no person on Klinsmann’s crew might have felt good in regards to the efficiency. 

Klinsmann made three substitutions on the half, bringing on Greg Garza, Ventura Alvarado, and Gyasi Zardes as Johnson, Omar Gonzalez, and Graham Zusi all sat down. 

The early returns weren’t good, as Guatemala almost scored but once more one minute after play resumed.

The sequence began when Guatemalan substitute (and Seattle Sounder midfielder) Marco Pappa blasted a left-footed free kick right into a the guts of the attacking zone. One other sub, Carlos Ruiz, tried to pounce on the ball however simply missed. Ruiz distracted Guzan, nonetheless, and the ball ricocheted off the goalkeeper and fell to a large open Jose Contreras, who one way or the other managed to push the ball large. 

It was a real howler, and Guatemala by no means recovered from the gilded alternative. 

Over the following 10 minutes the People started to dominate possession and appeared more likely to take the lead. Each Dempsey and Altidore squandered good alternatives in entrance of the Guatemala purpose, nonetheless, with Motta stoning an unmarked Altidore for the second time within the contest.

As the sport approached the one-hour mark, a U.S. crew that appeared so assured and harmful in opposition to Germany and the Netherlands in June had but to place one previous the No. 93 crew on the planet. 

The Yanks broke by way of, nonetheless, due to an incredible purpose from an unlikely supply. Proper again Timothy Chandler, scoreless in his earlier 22 appearances for the U.S., created one thing out of nothing when he lower into the channel and unleashed a blistering 28-yard strike—along with his weaker left foot—that sailed previous an outstretched Motta and simply contained in the far submit. 

Chandler’s great strike gave the U.S. a 2-0 lead and a jolt of confidence—maybe even serving as a reminder that the U.S. ought to outplay and outscore its Central American opponents.

Fifteen minutes after Chandler’s strike U.S. captain Michael Bradley dribbled into the Guatemala penalty space and was bumped to the bottom. One other penalty was known as, and this time Dempsey stepped ahead to take it. The previous U.S. captain delivered a assured Panenka that despatched Motta sprawling to his left because the softly hit ball eased into the middle of the purpose and made the rating 3-0.

Within the 84th minute Contreras noticed his second simple scoring likelihood go to waste when Ruiz freed him up on the sting of the six-yard field. As soon as once more, the striker failed miserably, blasting the ball over a gaping purpose from point-blank vary. 

The People closed out the scoring two minutes later when Zardes danced to the tip line and fed Wondolowski for a tap-in that gave the U.S. a 4-0 victory….that did not actually really feel like a 4-0 victory.

“I’m actually glad that we had the chance to go on the market tonight and see the place all people is,” Klinsmann said. “We had some very optimistic performances in some methods and a few not so optimistic performances. We now have to speak to the gamers in a crew context and in addition discuss to them on a person foundation and take it from there.

“We now have 4 days to organize for a sport in opposition to Honduras. If you happen to guys had an opportunity to observe them play Mexico two days in the past, you possibly can anticipate a really, very nasty sport from Honduras, a really aggressive and tough sport. We’ll discuss by way of that the following couple of days.

“We now have to step it up so as to get three factors on Tuesday night time.”

John Godfrey is the founder and editor in chief of American Soccer Now. He tweets about soccer right here.