Fresh Faces Help U.S. Solidify Squad

Chicago, Illinois- The U.S. National Team put in a solid performance at Soldier fFeld on Saturday night. Bob Bradley’s revamped squad rebounded well after taking a tough loss in Costa Rica on Wednesday, and despite the quick turnaround, walked away 2-1 winners over Honduras.

The most glaring difference between the Honduras win and the Costa Rica loss was the U.S.’s ability to control possession in the middle of the field. Clint Dempsey’s giveaway four minutes into the match may have led to the visitors opening the scoring, but aside from that one gaffe, the mistakes were few and far between.

One of the heroes on the night was Houston Dynamo midfielder Ricardo Clark, who played what can only be described as an inspired match against one of the most dynamic midfield tandems in the CONCACAF region.

“They scored on us in the first half, but I think we had the better of play and I think a lot of it started with me and Pablo (Mastroeni),” Clark said after the match.

The pairing of Mastroeni and Clark was one that many pundits would’ve questioned had it not been successful, but the two MLS veterans did well in keeping Honduras from building through the middle, and as a result the visitors were reduced to sending hopeful long balls forward throughout long stretches of match.

“I thought we did well with making it hard for them to play in the center of the field, cutting off passing lanes and making it solid in the midfield,” the Furham University product said.

With the match level at the half, Mastroeni, who played the full 90 minutes in Costa Rica and was showing signs of fatigue, was brought off in favor of Benny Feilhaber. Like Clark, Feilhaber was making his return to first team action after an extended layoff, and the two seemed to fall into step rather quickly.

“In the second half, Benny is a little more dynamic going forward, so I think that helped us out a lot to be successful,” Clark said of the change.

Centerback Oguchi Onyewu also hailed the play of the midfielder in front of him noting that they cleaned up a lot of the trash in front of him and Carlos Bocanegra.

“I think defensively our center midfield put out a lot of fires so it made it easy on our center backs throughout the game,” the Standard Liege star said.

Onyewu was also positive about the performances of his new defensive partners Jonathan Spector and Jonathan Bornstein, crediting the two with stepping in a filling a vital roll.

“I think both Jonathans played very solid,” Onyewu said. “They stepped in when we needed them most and I really have nothing negative to say about their play tonight.”

The quality performances out of all of the fresh faces will have an added value for Bradley’s squad going forward. The team will fly out of Chicago on Monday with the final destination being South Africa and the Confederations Cup’s group of death, which includes Brazil, Italy, and Egypt.

The victory leaves the U.S. with ten points from five games in the Hex. Costa Rica also won on Saturday, so reclaiming the top spot in the table will have to wait, but Mexico’s loss, coupled with Honduras falling at the hands of the Americans, created a five point gap between second and third place and a comfortable slot for the U.S. heading into the second half of the final round.

Allen Ramsey, Goal.com

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