Howard - 6 - Some say he should have claimed that cross but I thought he was left out to dry by our defense and he had two guys coming at him unmarked. Evans - 7 - How can I give him anything lower for bailing us out? He did offer nothing going forward the first 90 minutes of the game and looks a notch below the rest of the guys technically but come on, his name is now in US folklore. That shot was very well taken. Gonzalez - 5.5 - Gonzo is strong aerially and worked his butt off today but he doesn't close out gaps quick enough and still gets caught ball watching. John Anthony Brooks, please watch these game and think about starting in the '14 WC. Besler - 5.5 - Made some decent passes out of the back and was generally composed but he too had his ball watching moments and looked vulnerable against Johnson. Beasley - 6.5 - He's a veteran winger playing out of position and it shows. Still, he worked hard and did an acceptable job defensively. I still hold my breath every time a defender is running at him anywhere near the box because it looks like a penalty waiting to happen. Bradley - 6.5 - Looked out of sorts at times and took an embarrassing shot at goal when he should have laid it off to Zusi but redeemed himself by saving us with his composure in the end to set up the Evans goal. Jones - 7 - Was an engine and the most dynamic player out there until he went down. We need to cross our fingers that the concussion isn't serious. Zusi - 8 - Set the table for Jozy brilliantly for the first goal and was determined to make things happen. His professional foul cost us a goal but it was still the right decision. Not having him against Panama is a bit worrying. MOTM Dempsey - 5 - Just one of those games where Deuce hardly looked involved. He did have a nice chance on that header but other than that, I struggle to remember any offensive inroads he made. F. Johnson - 5 - Looked active early and dropped off drastically. I'm one of his biggest fans on here and think he's tremendously skilled but he just failed to make an impact. Was rightly subbed off. Altidore - 7 - Jozy did a nice job to free himself for the Zusi cross and do what he does best. I liked his willingness to drop back at times. He didn't get enough service to really put his mark on the game after that goal. Subs: Cameron - 6 - Geoff did what was asked off him. Not much else to say. E. Johnson - 4 - Lost his marker on the Jamaica goal. That's unacceptable, especially for such a short cameo with fresh legs. Castillo - 5 - Tried an unnecessary cheeky attempt late in the game when he should have looked for Jozy and was scattered and out of position several times in his stint. Disappointing couple of games for "El Homie". Klinsmann - 8 - Two of "his guys" left major marks on the game and the game plan he wanted to implement looked effective when the guys listened.
Howard 5.5- Should have claimed that ball before Beckford's head made contact even tough he was a mile offside. Evans 7- Covered well enough, but rescued us with a composed finish. Gonzalez 5.5- Looked very uncomfortable tonight. Seems to be lacking confidence, but he wins every aerial battle. Besler 6- Decent night, but needs to position himself better when pressing the man on the ball as he got turned a couple of times tonight. Beasley 7- He dealt with the Jamaica's only attacking threat (Johnson) for most of the night with relative ease. Zusi 7.5- Provided some good width and crosses, and was about the only one willing to take on a man. Tracked back well too. Bradley 6.5- Passing was a bit poor at times Jones 7- Good ball pressure and kept the play moving offensively. Johnson 4.5- Ugh, extremely poor in every aspect of the game, no other way of saying it. Dempsey 6- Was calm on the ball, but fairly quiet. Altidore 7- Clinical finish and made a few other decent runs Cameron 6- Kept the defensive pressure up Castillo 5.5- Wasn't much better than Johnson Johnson N/A
Howard - 5.5 Evans 7.5 - defended well, got the goal Gonzalez 6 - Lets face it, Jamaica really didn't do anything all night, won every aerial battle Besler 6 - See Omar Beasley- 6.5 - Great speed, made a couple nice interceptions Jones 7 - Please let him be healthy enough to play the next game Bradley 6 - I thought he looked a bit tired at the end, set up the goal, had one or two unusual turnovers where I was like "what just happened?" F. Johnson 5.5 - I thought he looked good early on, faded quick Zusi 7.5 - He played smartly, composed and creatively all night long. What a feed to Jozy. Dempsey 5.5 - Didn't really do much, kind of surprised Jozy 7 - Great goal, didn't do much otherwise, had a couple nice layoffs in the final 1/3rd. EJ 4 - Lost his mark Castillo 5 - Interesting shot at the end there.... Cameron 6 - Glad he saw the field today, definitely made some simple plays out there Klinsmann 8 - Got the 3 points on the road, stuck with Evans as well as the Besler-Omar pairing and got rewarded for it.
Howard - 6 Made a save that I didn't see. Fine otherwise. Evans - 6.5 LEGEND Gonzalez - 6.5 Good Gonzo showed up Besler - 5.5 He was out there Beasley - 5.5 Again. Game. Not the answer. Jones - 6 Uhhhhh, o.k. Bradley - 6.5 Saved our ass with assist there Zusi - 6.5 Cross master Dempsey - 6 aaaaaiiiiiiiggght Johnson F - 5.5 This game was boring until the last 5 minutes and really everyone should get a 5.5 but Fabian is taking the symbolic boring 5.5 Jozy - 6.5 Scores Cameron - 6 O-Mid Castillo - 5.5 what evs EJ- 5.5 Could of had one at '94 Cross master
It wasn't pretty. GK Howard: 6 - Had little to do much of the match, faultless for the goal LB Beasley: 5 - Beasley has a habit of getting half-beaten a lot, but his positioning and play in possession were fine. Not nearly as good as everyone has been saying. CB Besler: 6.5 - Not perfect, but he held the back-line together in a strange game. Best combination of pace, technicality and instincts that we've had in a long time. *Edited down .5 because of his non-clearance in the second half. CB Gonzalez: 5 - Not fast enough to make up for his lapses. RB Evans: 7 - Got skinned badly once, but other than that held up very well in defense and possession. He's not Dani Alves. Magical winner. CM Bradley: 6 - I liked his work defensively, but his passing and decision-making were a little off in possession. Still more helpful than hurtful. CM Jones: 6 - Still mostly a mess in the final third, but he did his usual thing until he got hurt. LM F. Johnson: 4.5 - Off the pace and lost the ball too many times RM Zusi: 6.5 - Beautiful move and cross to score the first goal, but he couldn't do much more to exploit the space Jamaica provided him all night. CAM Dempsey: 5.5 - Almost marked out of influence entirely, but his presence allowed Altidore to operate comfortably ST Altidore: 6 - Scored a silver platter goal and provided a deep conduit for many attacks, but nothing dynamic in the final third besides a cheeky back-heel. CM Cameron: 6 - A suitable replacement for Jones. CDM has always been Cameron's best position. LM Castillo: 5.5 - Nothing bad, nothing great ST Johnson: 5.5 - Far more composed than Boyd was, but could've done better.
For those of you down-rating MB, do you realize that he completed 90% of his passes? That he played the ball to Zusi, enabling the cross to Jozy? That he assisted Evans on the winner and only because MB took the defender on and beat him? MB = MOTM My criticism of MB is that his skill level is sufficiently high that he should be driving more toward the goal than he did, especially when there is the opportunity for him to pull defenders out of position.
Bradley is a step above. Very rarely misplaced a pass. Excited to see how besler and Omar do with blas Perez...they should be very very familiar with him
These would be the ones I'd quibble with. The only person more at fault than Howard for that goal was the AR who had already blown 4 offsides calls one way or another. Bradley and Jones had one of their down games; Mikey looked off until about the 75th minute, and he and Jones never really had control of the game at any point. Edgar Castillo, though, was awful. Completely out of his depth and not skilled enough to contribute like we need someone in that role to. If he were any good at playing the game of soccer, this game would have ended 3-0, but he single handed-ly blew two straight counterattacks. One with his AYSO shot from distance, and one by taking a really bad touch and losing possession. I would really like to not have him be on the field again.
What were the blown offside calls other than Jamaica's goal? I watched the game and still have it on DVR so if you tell me what minutes I can watch again.
Stats don't tell the whole story though. Bradley was a little off yesterday, he was getting dispossessed at times where he could normally have held the ball and his shots/crossed past that third minute attempt were worse than usual if not downright awful at times. Granted an off MB90 these days is still one of our better performers because he's just that good right now, but it wasn't one of his better games. Still, he stepped up where it counted so we can't be too harsh on him.
Howard 5 I don't think he can be expected to come and get the cross on the goal, but it would have been nice to see a brilliant Timmy moment at that point and save our asses. Only made 3 saves all night. Evans 7 Don't crucify me, but JAM had their way with the right side of our defense, and Evans especially, for the latter half of the first half and early second. He didn't provide much for overlapping runs either, but he saved our asses and love him for it. Gonzalez/Besler 6 Thought both played well and did what was asked of them. Omar looked better I think but both were satisfactory. Besler could have been punished for trying to take the ball down in the box on that cross, he needs to just boot it and learn from Omar's mistakes. Beasley 5.5 Provided far more going forward than Evans, but also was beaten a few times (surprisingly for speed twice) by the JAM attackers. Again needs more help from the midfield when defending one-on-one. Bradley 6.5- Surprisingly poor game from usually my favorite player to watch. Uncharacteristically bad give-aways in the midfield and poor decision making on the shot where he snubbed Zusi highlighted the night. Of course he had the assist on the winner, so again you are my hero. Looked like maybe he was trying to do too much? Jones 7 Defensively locked down the space in front of Omar and Besler, offensively wasn't AS great though. Hope he can play next game. Johnson 4 Really, forgot he was on the field. So the poor grades I am seeing from others on here are probably warranted. Would rather see Eddie Johnson get a start in this position. Dempsey 6 Didn't do much, but was going up against 2 and 3 defenders every time he had the ball (get used to it Duece this isn't the EPL and you have a target on your head). JAM hounded him with a defensive pressure we should have matched in our defensive third. Zusi 7 Had probably one of his best games for the US. But that isn't saying much. Took on a man one time for the assist, sent in 2 or 3 good crosses (2 or 3 poor ones as well) and was pretty quiet otherwise. Had tons of space to run into with the ball, but does not have the speed or technical ability to do so. Klinsman's prototypical player though, calm on the ball and good passer. I see him starting in the position as long as JK is coaching this team. Altidore 6 Again was pretty quiet other than the goal. Played even more casual than he usually does, and looked exhausted when he was taken out. Hopefully he can get some legs under him before Tuesday's game. SUBS Cameron 6 Actually, did surprisingly well and we actually attacked better after he came in and didn't lose any defensive pressure. If Jones can't play Tuesday I think Cameron will get the go-ahead in midfield. I wouldn't argue too much. Castillo 4 Looked out of place in JAM's half with the ball at his feet. Why didn't we switch Beasley to the attacking left and put Castillo at his preferred LB when he came in? Johnson 5 Really would have liked to see more from him, but not enough time. Really did more defending than attacking. Edit* MOTM; Come on . . . Evans.
Not much love for this thread. 12 ratings out there in the media: Altidore - 6.9 Zusi - 6.8 Bradley - 6.75 Evans - 6.55 Besler - 6.4 Cameron - 5.9 Beasley - 5.8 Jones - 5.8 Gonzalez - 5.55 Howard - 5.35 Dempsey - 5.35 Castillo - 5.15 JohnsonF - 4.9 JohnsonE - 4.3 A bit surprised Jozy tops the list. Bad night to be a Johnson. Jones and Gonzo were the most controversial both rating as low as 4, but garnering 7's as well. Besler was the most consistently rated all 6, 6.5, or 7.
Altidore - 7.0 Worked hard, got us started, was a handful. Zusi - 6.5 Great service on Jozy's goal, also a worker bee Bradley - 7.0 It is interesting to watch him in this new role, not sure if he has to check back quite that far. Evans - 6.5 He struggled on the defensive end a bit, all crimes forgiven on the goal. Besler - 6.5 Learning while getting the job done Cameron - 6.0 Stepped in capably, that can be difficult, multipositional Beasley - 5.5 I was nervous all evening, a stop gap who has performed acceptably Jones - 5.5 Not his best night, even so, a force to be reckoned with Gonzalez - 5.5 Still learning, lacks the quick turning body he might need. Howard - 5.5 Acceptable, I am hoping we get another look at Guzman, soon. Dempsey - 5.5 Not nearly as effective as vs Germany, every team will be watching him Castillo - 4.5 Hmmmm . . . JohnsonF - 5.0 Hardly noticed him, didn't some say he was going to be the answer to our midfield attacking concerns? JohnsonE - 4.0, Looked like the old, lost, going through the motions, EJ. JK 8.0 got the tough Concacaf road W, without LD and Cherundolo or Chandler. Well prepared from the two Euro friendlies. Hopefully, has learned from some earlier mistakes.
Well, I think the media definitely got the top 5 right in terms of its composition, but I think it's very debatable as to the actual order of the top 5. While I wouldn't give him the same rating as the top 5, Cameron was a good sub-on for Jones and deserves his above average rating as well.
Going to have to disagree. If he can show his club form with the US National Team then he will be an asset. Saw him play a number of times with Tijuana both in person and on TV and he can offer something to the team and probably is our best hope long term at left back. Now there are tons of cases of players never recreating their club form at their National Team so not saying it's a guarantee, but based on the club form (and how shit the other LB options are) he really needs to be given more then just 40 minutes.