The United States got a well deserved 3-0 win over Poland in Krakow under chilly conditions.
Goals from Carlos Bocanegra (12th), Oguchi Onyewu (35th), and an Eddie Lewis free kick in the 73rd provided the difference.
The win is impressive merely for the fact it was on foreign soil against a team that has qualified for the European Championships this summer.
The early road goal and a much more experienced squad then the one put out against Mexico in February reaped rewards. The U.S. managed the game quite well and produced a professional performance and result that is encouraging.
The starting lineup looked like this out of a starting point of a 4-4-2:
Howard
Cherundolo Onyewu Bocanegra Pearce
Dempsey Clark Bradley Donovan
Ching Johnson
Subs: Jay DeMerit, Eddie Lewis, Josh Wolff, Benny Feilhaber
Have your say on the game and the performance of both the teams and the players.
Eddie Lewis too old? Not so fast. Cherundolo, an Arena “has been”? Can’t say that. Donovan “euro-phobic”, maybe not. Very surprising win, hopefully we can get some more confidence from this. Very nice. Sets the stage for a VERY interesting England match at Wembley - surely that team will have sky high intensity with the hopes of a football nation watching very closely.
Comment by Alex — March 26, 2008 @ 6:19 pm
GD,
Not to turn in Mr. Blackwell, but what is your view on the new away uni’s?
Comment by Alex — March 26, 2008 @ 8:59 pm
This is a postive result, not convinced on Lewis for the long term future but he was brought in the appropriate time of game to make an impact.
His left foot has proven effective over the years.
Great win in Europe, something to be positive about and without DaMarcus Beasley. Love the fact the US will play England, Spain and apparently Argentina in the future.
New uniforms looked good in the “tough guy” vein with all navy blue or black. Couldn’t tell as the feed on FSC from Poland struggled where I watched. Nothing made the uniform distinctively American but a 3-0 win did.
On another note Eddie Johnson was a disappointment and hesitant throughout the game in my opinion. We are just dying to find a striker that ruthlessly goes at people on occasion and brings something different. Dempsey has done it at times up front , Altidore could but Johnson is a frustration I believe for the coaching staff yet in the world of U.S. soccer he still is a “potential”, in other countries he would have been given up on by this point due to depth.
Comment by glenndavis — March 27, 2008 @ 8:56 am
Certainly the US Soccer Federation has been doing their homework….Mexico’s FMF should be paying attention…Poland, England, Spain and Argentina?
the US is rolling with THE BIG DOGS of world soccer..except probably Poland…but good team nonetheless…
On the win…I thnk it was a great win…great team effort…set piece goals or not…they still count…you still have to have the athleticism and cold blood to put it in the back of the net…and the USMNT certainly did that…Donovan didn’t play his best game as far as I could tell but he still showed some leadership…
I think if you ask anyone on the team they’ll tell you he’s the leader no question about it…
The unis…I loved them…I just received an email from soccer.com telling me that they’re now available…Im gettingme one of those jerseys…they were great…
Comment by MoisesV — March 27, 2008 @ 9:07 am
Good game, wish the pitch would have been in better shape made the game a bit ugly. How good is Rico and Bradley in the middle I love watching those two in the cm. Cherundolo most underrated player on the US side (in my opinion). Glen what do you think of swithching to a 3-5-1-1 allowing Edu to combine in the middle with Rico and Bradley they all play defense so well I think they would track back well enough to cover the D. Just a thought I prefer a
4-4-2 but so many good up and coming cm’s
Cherundolo-Onyewu/Bocs-Spector/Bornstein
Dempsey-Rico-Edu-Bradley-Donovan/Beasley
Adu/Donovan
Altidore/Ching
wow we have grown in depth so much it is exciting to think of what is to come. Oh and by the way can someone please give Benny Beasley\’s number so Demarcus can try and help this kid out with his enormous ego he has right now (at least what I have heard) the kid has alot of talent and it is really sad to watch him go down this road.
KEEP IT UP BOYS.
Comment by brent — March 27, 2008 @ 10:20 am
Donovan had a great game. If he would have nailed his shot, I’d say it was an outstanding game. He was “in” it from the opening kickoff. He played a complete game. Good to see. Hope he builds on it.
Comment by Nell — March 27, 2008 @ 4:34 pm