A much more satisfying game from the USMNT in Chicago against Trinidad and Tobago tonight. We’ve put ourselves in an excellent position to go through to the next round of qualifying next year. At this point, I’m pretty sure we’d have to have a colossal collapse for us to not go through.
To be clear, my happiness with this game isn’t necessarily due simply to the score. We actually scored two of our three goals from set-pieces, which scoring only from set-pieces has been a source of frustration for me in the past. Despite only scoring one goal from the run of play, we created a good number of pretty dangerous chances from the field that were one solid touch away from being another goal. The final touch is something we’ll need to work on, but we definitely showed improvement.
I liked the addition of Sacha Kjlestan in the midfield paired with Bradley. Kjlestan has been showing some ability as an attacking player for Chivas USA this year in MLS and I’m glad to see Bradley move away from the dual defensive midfield setup for a change. Not sure if that will be a continuing trend, but I’ll be thankful for it tonight. I will say that Sacha looked a little nervous in his first start for the full side, but I thought he settled in relatively well as the game wore on and he and Michael Bradley seemed to possess the ball well through the midfield.
One thing that did frustrate me were the instances of carelessness and lack of precision with the ball. Too many times in the middle of the field, we gave the ball away in really dangerous situations b/c we didn’t focus enough to trap the ball at our feet, or make simple passes that should be pedestrian for professionals and internationals. There’s nothing more frustrating than giving up a bad goal b/c of carelessness when you have been dominating the game as a team. A better team would have punished us for those kinds of mistakes.
Not much more to say about the game tonight. Would have liked to see us put away a couple of the really clear chances we had, but as I said, that will hopefully come. I think the worst thing for me is we have to wait a month before the next qualifier. My fiancee probably thinks that’s a good thing.
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