Bradley just broke in on goal, laid a perfect ball off to Jozy, Jozy didn't finish his run. This is so frustrating right now
Beckerman on for Donovan as time runs out. Klinsi wants to get the hell out of this place. Can't blame him.
Full time. 1-1. Disappointing, but not a terrible result overall. I hate Guatemala. Positives are: 1. Nobody died. 2. Fabian Johnson is cap-tied. 3. Jamaica (who already beat Guatemala) drew Antigua earlier this evening. Our next two matches are against Jamaica. If we can take 4 points, we'll go into Antigua with a chance to clinch.
Johnson, by the way, I thought played pretty poorly. He did have a nice run leading to the goal, but two of Guatemala's best chances, including the goal, were directly at his expense.
Ruiz took a poor touch and took a dive for the free kick, IMO. He is the biggest diver in CONCACAF by leaps and bounds, and I'm pretty mystified that he ever gets the benefit of the doubt on anything that doesn't draw blood. Blight on the game.
1. CONCACAF is a joke of a federation. 2. I hate that our national team has to play in these shit holes. I'm always afraid someone is going to get hurt or killed. 3. A tie isn't the worst thing. Just have to win the games at home.
He's horrendous, but while he made the most of that one (no way it was a yellow), I did think it was enough for a free kick. Which was enough.
And that one didn't bother me near as much as the non-advantage. Altidore was alone on the goalkeeper for the 2nd goal when the whistle blew (and he slotted it home after the whistle, for good measure). No reason in the world for that whistle. Likely cost us the match, even though a draw isn't that unfair a result given our play.
Drawing with Guatemala, especially with us having to hold on for dear life at the end, is unacceptable. Guatemala may be a tough place to play, terrible refs, blah, blah, blah and all that other bullshit, but that is not a good team. Their best players are two MLS guys, essentially.If we deign ourselves to be a quality team, we can't have it get so bad that we make a substitution to hold on for a draw against [uck fay]ing Guatemala. That's pitiful. It looks like to me that the USA is actually gassed at the end of these games and I know that Klinsmann has made a point to run these guys ragged in training, including three a day workouts. I have no idea what this purpose serves, but, historically, we are the team with juice in the tank at the end, not falling out. I'm starting to wonder about Herr Klinsmann.
There was definitely contact. I just think Ruiz initiated it after his giveaway first touch, looking for a bailout from the ref. Mission accomplished. Could have been the stream, though. Hard for me to take too strong of a stance on anything with that kind of quality.
I also noticed that nearly everything was set up through the middle. Why don't we go wide anymore? Where are our wing players? Watch the Euros and they get the ball wide all day, but we try to be Spain and pass it through the entire team only using the middle of the field. It's not working very well.
Uni, training has nothing to do with Jozy looking at a ball roll across the face of the goal. I agree with the rest though. I realize the goal is simply to qualify, but I'd like to bash these teams with hat tricks from Tim Howard if it were up to me. I'm tired of just getting by.
Agree. And, Uni, I'm not convinced he knew exactly what he was getting into going down there. I wasn't convinced going into the game (and running them ragged in training camp I think supports that opinion), and the late Beckerman sub just reinforces it. Now he knows, we're still leading the group, and nobody got injured. It's a bad result, but it's not like we don't play badly in Guatemala with some regularity. But now this German group (Jones, Johnson, Klinsmann) knows what they have in store in the Hex. Which we're still in good position to make. And remember that we did lose at home to Panama under Bradley last year.
I was really hoping after the Scotland match that we had found something that would work unlock some of these matches in Central America. Evidently not.
Also, I might get bashed for this, but I thought Jozy played a pretty good game except for that one run (which was just awful on his part). Certainly outplayed Gomez for the first time in a while.
Mexico gave up a free kick goal at El Salvador to tie it up and got off the mat. Pretty direct analogy there. Not looking forward to that matchup in the hexagonal (luckily, it shouldn't matter as far as qualification goes). I like Bocanegra and Goodson generally, but our CB pool is just sad. Boca will be 35 and Goodson 32 in Brazil 2014. Don't think that's going to work. Can't remember how Edu's experiments at CB have gone, but I would probably keep trying until it sticks. Would also serve to break up the central midfield trio of Bradley, Jones, and Edu, which are a bit too similar for my liking.
