US vs Azzurri

After another opportunity to watch the game...since my 1st viewing was interrupted frequently. There are a lot of pluses and minuses. I didn't want to harp on the negatives too much after an historic victory over Italy. But the defense was pretty shakey and we were lucky the Italian forwards were a little too eager to receive the ball in open space and running offsides throughout the night. Boca did his usual decent defensive duties. However, I think Goodsen has difficulty tracking the ball and keeping his mark with an overhead pass. Pirlo was doing these consistently throughout the night. And as Boca stated the defense bended but didn't break, thanks to couple of early Howard saves. Also, Sacha can not play against elite international teams. He gave the ball away too cheaply in the second half and couldn't defend. Brek Shea needs to get into a tougher league to improve his play against better teams. He's looked really good against teams of lower calibre, but against France and Italy he hasn't shown a lot of quality. A couple of link up plays here and there, but gave the ball away a little too much.

I knew going into the match that Italy would dominate possession. So I am not going to be too down that the US couldn't play the proactive possession game that Klinsmann wants. The quality difference between the two sides is very apparent. We just don't have the players to go toe to toe with the world's elite. The best we can do is defend and counter most of the time against these teams, but it was nice to see that the US tried to play this way when they did manage to get the ball. Unfortunately the quality wasn't the best at times. Although immediately after Dempsey's well worked goal you sensed some confidence creep into the US side and they tried to play the possession game a bit more. But Italy pressed the game in the final 20-30 minutes with essentially a new Italy team with just as much firepower. So it was very much defend and hold the lead for the US, which they managed to do with some very nervy moments. Thanks to a ton of blocked shots heading on goal, the US finally beat Italy.

The best players of the night were Bradley (who has become a much better player in his short time in Italy), Dempsey, Howard, Johnson, and I'll give a slight nod to Altidore. I am not huge fan of Altidore, I always feel his performance in a US shirt are a little too lackluster. I always get this sense he could have done more. I know there have been times where he worked really hard to hold the ball and didn't have a lot of support in games, but as big and athletic as the guy is...I think he should be turning his opponents more and getting more shots on goal. Just my opinion.

 

Late to class, but I do have a good excuse.

I just finished watching the match via DVR. This is by far the best we've looked under JK. Except for a 20 minute patch in the second half, we looked every bit the equal of Italy. Deuce's goal was a good Deuce goal. It was great to have Taylor Twellman pointing out how he dropped back a half yard to clear himself of the defenders before taking Jozy's sweet pass. Twellman IS a Maryland Terrapin and, therefore, knowledgable about all things.

I think the lineup we have could only be bested in quality by having a fit Stu Holden in for Williams and Whitbread and Ream in for Bocanegra and Goodsen. I finally got 90 minutes of the central mid partnership I've been wanting and both Edu and Bradley did the job well.

I'm with some of the other comments on this board -- although I didn't wet myself -- this was a quality victory against a quality opponent. By my count that's wins on European soil against Poland, Slovenia, and Italy. The hoodoo is over.