The U.S. Men's National Team can take control of their World Cup Qualifying group tonight with a win in the hostile environment in Guatemala City as the Americans take on Guatemala at Estadio Nacional Mateo Flores.
The Americans come in off a 3-1 qualifying win against Antigua & Barbuda, a sloppy victory, but a win that put the team closer to qualification. Guatemala enters the match in must-win mode after losing their opening match to Jamaica, 2-1, in Kingston.
Fabian Johnson is back in the lineup for the USA, a huge relieve for Jurgen Klinsmann, who will field a full-strength defense tonight. The key for that defense will be containing Carlos Ruiz, the tricky striker is a handful and will lead the Guatemala attack.
SBI will be providing live commentary on tonight's match so feel free to follow the action here. As always, you are welcome to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (tonight's commentary is after the jump):
“If Fabian Johnson is for us, who can be against us?”
-Romans 8:31
streams? Thanks.
Nice bit of news before kickoff: looks like Jamaica was held 0-0 at A&B. Always nice to have your most dangerous opponents drop points to the group minnows.
wow – credit to Antigua and Barbuda.
Lineup: Howard, Dolo, boca, goodson, Fabian, Edu, Bradley, Jones, Deuce, Landon, Herc
Awesome.
Try this: link to sportlemon.tv
A&B might be a minnow, but they are showing that they have some quality players and they play well as a team in CONCACAF.
And I move that we strike FabJon from nicknames we give to Fabian Johnson. Seen it a bunch on this site, and think we should go another direction. Just saying.
I have a very bad feeling about tonight. I’m afraid Klinsmann, with the crazy schedule of five games in eighteen days and twice a day practices, has run the team into the ground. Hope I’m wrong…
A&B is a better side than people realize. Their Nat coach is also the USL side coach which is the majority of the team sprinkled in with some lower league English players. A&B is at least athletic enough to cover ground on defense. They know each other very well and are able to execute the bunker style well. They’ll cause each team they play in the group some fits at times.
They are showing the value of a national team that plays together all the time. ( AHEM: Spain)
Godd for them btw.
good
Is this game on TV?
So im a sucker and am just gonna pay the 30 to watch the game. Where do direct tv users go to purchase it?
Haha. Second for what its worth.
Watching the online broadcast and you can hear fans in the background chanting USA-USA
The event is now live.
Waiting for writer to provide content…
Are all of you seeing the same message?
Our 3-1 result feels a little better?
Where is the online broadcast?
US is now 9 points away from clinching the next round!
Dammit. Woke up for the 4AM broadcast to discover the ustream broadcast isn’t available in France. Any idea where I might find it? the firstrow links are all showing baseball and it’s 3 minutes to gametime!
Yes.
I do not like the lineup. What is the difference between Edu, Jones, and Bradley? Answer. Nothing. Altidore should be starting up top with Gomez.
where online? thanks
yes -what’s up with that?
Anybody actually getting a stream yet? All the links I’ve found say US-Guat but are showing a baseball game. Hope it’s just b/c it’s before 10…
The world above your rock sucks, go back.
Why is this game not on ESPN or Fox Soccer or NBC Sports Network? This is dumb not to have this game on national TV.
Nevermind, got it
cue the Fire Bradley chorus for starting THREE DEFENSIVE MIDS!… oh wait…
link to thefirstrow.eu
i’m watching the handshakes right now through sportlemon, i clicked on the third one i think
NM; it switched over at the last second. Whew.
This has been covered the last two weeks over and over
These phuckwits who are broadcasting the match don’t know what they are doing with the signal, i.e., showing a stretched image and then cropping it.
Waste of my $30!!!!
Directv .com or call directv, can do by remote on channel 124.
A bunch of useless 3rd world mofos who can’t even broadcast a WORLD CUP qualifier. They call themselves professionals???
US going with the mythical 4-3-3…Very dangerous move by Klinsmann to be trying out a new formation on the road…
I got the stream on here.
link to sportlemon.tv
Well, they were professional enough to get $30 from you.
Everywhere in the world doesn’t have the same access to equipment, bandwidth, power supply, etc. Cut them some slack.
Sorry but LOL. You probably could get a better picture online.
first row sports eu has the best feed I’ve found – 200k
Is the field grass or astro turf? Ball’s rolling very fast it seems…
It has already turned into a 4-3-3. And again, we can see the Edu’s touch screws everything up.
Don’t get too caught up in the announced formation. 433 can easily turn into 451 or 4141.
Worth pointing out they’ll pay to show the replay in two nights. ESPN Deportes Thursday. I’ll let you draw an easy conclusion about how necessary the live decision was.
Hah! Guatemalan coach forced to wear a red penny because he has a white shirt on! Sorry, that’s taking “you must follow the rules” a little far…
Fans (who paid $30) to Gomez, Fans to Gomez, don’t take free kicks…copy?
Don’t worry Guatemalan guy, my face hurts too when I get body checked.
Oye man, this is not the 1st time they have experience showing a world cup qualifer, so they are incompentent. Picture was fixed after 15 mins into the game. You would think people test the signal etc. Before a live broadcast.
Anyways, US running way too much like it’s Scottish soccer, 200mph. Need to settle down. Jones looking good and showing them Chapines he don’t take chit from them. Giving them a taste of their own medicine. Overall US heeded the advice from Klinsi abt being nice, lol.
Watching Carlos Ruiz dive is maddening. He is trying to give Luganis a run for his money.
Guatemalans predictably diving all over the place like the pitch is covered in land mines.
tonight is one of those Donovan nights.
2 forward alignment ASAP please. Sorry, I know 4-3-3 is in vogue, but we suck at it. It has worked exactly once for us.
Ever
When your LB is your best playmaker, you know you have too many CDM’s.
Thank you.
this has been awful.
set up by Johnson
Good to see Dempsey bringing his club form to the Nats.
now, that’s more like it!! Clint.
DUECE!!!!!!!!!!
K that was anything but awful. Sick.
Fabian Johnson…Goodness Gracious!
That’s what I’m talking about Fabian Johnson and Clint FTW!
DEUUUUCE!!!
Duueecceeeeeee
Fabian Johnson is filth……
We still look awful, but with Fabian and Deuce, we are dangerous. Great touch by Deuce. LD is having one of those nights where he looks lost out there. He just missed a wide open overlapping Fabian.
oh Herc. What was that?
Edu with a total shambolic whiff allowing Ruiz to almost score.
Why don’t any USA players go outside and try to get around and behind the defense? Seems like we are always passing it back from the wings. Maybe I miss Brek Shea.
What am I looking at right now? An ESPN logo! WTF!!!
Great call. Thanks
ha!
Dempsey with a sleek sidestepping glide to get the goal for the USA!!!! 1-0 Halftime.
Aside from that, Edu has been very solid defensively
This is the fairest reffed concacaf match i’ve ever seen. Also, hoping Altidore comes in soon. Would like some good hold up play up there.
Anyone listening to the stream with the awesome Guatamalan music
We are missing a creative offensive player. Wish Donovan could be that guy but he seems content to play on the wing. Instead of Jones or Edu I’d love to see Adu step up in the next year and take that spot Klinsmann wants to put Torres in. Wishful thinking…
El Salvador scores!!!! 1-1 v Mexico
There is a lot of creativity between Bradley, Jones, and Edu.
I thought that was a pretty decent away half for the US. I was thinking that I would come on here at halftime and complain that we weren’t going to score with only one striker, but Dempsey nullified that complaint. The field looks bumpy, but Edu and Cherundolo in particular seem to have horrid touches tonight.
We are playing pretty well, considering that Guatemala’s main tactic is obviously to foul like crazy to prevent the US from getting any rhythm to their game.
I was thinking the same thing. Although I think the guy that fouled Jones after he nutmegged him should have got a yellow…
Why are they playing with an overinflated volleyball, I wonder?
MB — not having a good night. All negative passes. But to be fair, nobody looks really very good. (Torres injured, yes?) I blame the overinflated volleyball. And the crappy pitch.
Question to all: why can we never spring a winger when there’s all that congestion at the top of the 18? Been watching so much Euro play lately, and every time there’s a scrum in the middle, a long ball goes to the flank and there’s an Arshavin or somebody to pick it up and whip a cross back in. Who should be waiting on the right wing?
Anyone else think that gomez needs to be paired up with altidore to be more effective?
But Jones is like the worst bad guy in just about every culture: American, German, black, tattooed, super muscular, mean-looking…he’ll never get the benefit of the doubt.
I think the USA needs to get behind the defense and cross the ball so Gomez, Dempsey, etc can get on the end of some crosses.
Landon has been sh!t this whole game.
Yes. Like at the start of the match.
I finally shelled out the 30 bucks through Directv, couldnt miss the game. Its the usual central american team flopping everytime they get into the box. Calls seem to be going towards Guatemala but not as bad as I have seen in the past. US still doesnt seem to be clicking together, like the game against A&B. Dempsey’s goal was great, in traffic he schooled them hard. Guatemala has been playing them hard, so the game is closer than I was hoping.
If I wasn’t a seasoned USMNT fan, I’d complain about the dirty guatemalans.
Being awesome, that’s what it is about.
There was a chorus of boos in response.
No penalties against the US or US players sent off yet. I’m impressed. Still early though. Wait for it.
Also the way he rolled around clutching his head, only pop up the INSTANT the whistle was blown was veeeerrrrrry Guatemalan.
some of these give aways by the US are astonishing.
What?? Yellow for Bradley??? And not for the guy standing 2 feet away on the kick?
There was the yellow for Bradley for not instantly restarting.
Altidore instead of gomez? Interesting.
I think Howard earned that yellow for Bradley. 30sec earlier, the ref was telling him to speed it up on the goal kick.
It’s nice at this point for the US. They’re pretty unlikely to lose and in this weak group in this weak prelim phase, it doesn’t really matter if they win this game. Road draw is more than sufficient given they are unlikely to drop many (any?) points at home.
Watching on myp2p.eu. It’s kinda funny because every time a foul is called on Guatemala, the feed (which i assume is ran by a Guatemala outfit) Goes dark on the replay as to not show what happened.
Watch the yellows boys, they add up..
Hearing no objections, the motion carries.
we are lucky we are not down 2-1
Donovan should do more? Like play down the wing instead of play an early ball into the defense.
Wtf this official is so ridiculous
I’m not even watching tonight’s game, I’m following the gametracker, but I feel like I have seen this scenario play out so many times before. Before the final whistle goes if Guatemala hasn’t scored it’s HIGHLY likely the ref will do something.
jones! wtf?
Wtf goal disallowed! !!!
and here I thought the ref at the Russia – Poland game was bad…
If ever that were an instance in which to allow the advantage and NOT call the foul, it was that one on Dempsey…
The worst part of CONCACAF qualifying? Joel Aguilar, Courtney Campbell, and the rest of the confederation referees.
Why no advantage?? Jozy would have scored!
Alas.
That was a great goal. That being said the US’s performance has been pitiful thus far.
I’m done with this Mickey mouse horsesh*t concacaf junk. F*cling rigged games.
sigh…
Wow Tim. He’s been in bad form.
Why is Jones taking a free kick 18 yards from the goal??? Why not Donovan, Dempsey, Bradley, just about anyone on the team? Unbelievable!
REf has been terrible. Not playing the advantage was terrible…
Not going to lie I believe that Gomez would have scored that one
Jozy altidore is a lazy pig. Continue your dreaking run you ungrateful punk
This USA team is too lazy it’s like they don’t want to play anymore they don’t deserve the win so dissappointed
Tim maybe couldve done a bit better on that one. Looked like he was flat footed.
Wasn’t this very game, 4 years ago a draw as well?
Our center mids have absolutley whiffed on 3 straight decent chances. Each at least 20 rows into the stands
Bradley having another bad game.
This is getting way too familiar.
watching the guats chase us back to our goalie is depressing.
Bradley Donovan and Jozy as te worst players
Howard needs to sit next game.
Everyone had a poor game it’s so sad all the us players play abroad in Europe and they can’t even beat a Guatemala team filled with nobodies it’s just super sad to see this not impress at all.
look at the bright side, at least we are AS GOOD AS guatamala
We had two penalties not given, a goal disallowed and some extremely pathetic offciaitng.
How does USSF not stand up for our teams in this crap.
Classic.
EDU Sucks!
That was horrible
I said it, this formation doesn’t cut it. It needs to be 4-3-3.
LOL, yeah… good thing you are not making the roster choices.
To me this was a game that screamed for Wondo to be the sub, not Altidore
yeah but not as much as Bradley does.
Marco Pappa sure looked good tonight. Wish we could have a player like that.
Time to stop blaming the refereeing.
^this post should be deleted…
Officiating was as awful as expected, but we didn’t deserve more than a point from that match. Why can’t we play inspired soccer? Why can’t Jozy run? Why can’t we do better on set pieces? We only have till September to figure these things out.
Far too casual in the middle of the park. Sloppy, mindless giveaways kill our game. (Edu, leading the charge on that front)
Wow! I think I’ve actually figured out why the USA sucks so bad. They play in Europe but they aren’t play makers. They are the ones that hand the ball off to play makers. (too many holding mids)No matter what team they play they get pushed back to tim howard! Bradley should have shot and idk why Altidore wasn’t making the run with him. Very disappointing and pathetic display by this USA team.
Embarrassing. We were outplayed. This team is not playing for JK and for 3 games in a row he has either not made the correct adjustments or had no game plan.
Such a comforting thought to contemplate as I go to sleep tonight.
Ummm can I get my money back? Well at least Fabian is capped.
Bradley, Jones, and Edu are very good players, the best midfielders we have available but I wouldn’t call them creative. We have a d-mid and two box-to-box mids out there.
Agree totally. If we do not have Bradley, Clint and Howard we might have lost 3-0. I am totally underwhelmed
Jermaine jones no more free kicks. As for Guatarapeourplayers played hard and beat us up yet we accumulate more yellows???? Landon Donovan SHOOT the ******* ball. News flash team we don’t make that final great pass instead put it on the goal keeper force saves and create havoc….
Cue the freakouts. We drew 1-1 AT Guatemala people. We’re tied for 1st in the group. We get them at home next time. The level of overreaction is amazing.
Donovan decided that he is not going try to dribble past anyone tonight. He has not tried to get around the defense save once. His free kick delivery is pathetic. . We need to get Johnson on the ball much more. We didnt create enough clear chances tonight. This was a game we should have stolen the 3 points. you can’t do anything about that kind of free kick.
I disagree on those who said Bradley had a good game. Liked his energy and positioning. Edu had too many turnovers. I want to see Jozy back in the starting line up. I think that he and Clint play the short game very well. That will come in handy in crowded CONCACAF road games.
It is obvious that Klinsmann was a figurehead when he was coach of Germany and Low was the real coach. Fact:Klinsman refused to call in 3 defenders who play in the best league in the world including 2 central defenders. But instead JK called in Gooch, Boca (who is clearly over the hill) Goodson, . Donovan is useless and squandered his talent by not staying in the Prem. preferring to play the 3rd rate MLS. Now that Donovan is slowing down his failure to sharpen his skills in the EPL are obvious. Also Kljestan has improved greatly but the pseudo coach Klinsman feels Beckerman is a better choice which is laughable. Look at Klinsmann’s record a figurehead coach of Germany with an unimpressive WC showing and then half a season at Bayern Munich before being fired. Maybe some day the US will have a real coach.
correction: I disagree with those who said Bradley had a bad game.
Anyone who has watch the USA play lately knew they would fade badly in the last 15 minutes. Klinsmann and his fitness coach need to figure this out. If you’re going to take all those fouls, you must have a idea/threat on set pieces. USA had a dozen sets without one shot on goal. Not Landon’s fault, and whats with Gomez and Jones taking free kicks? I don’t even like Jones crossing mid-field. Best game from Edu in a long time. Shame there were so many silly touches instead of shots late in game.
He’s 1-0-2 in 3 games. That’s was good enough to put us at the top of the table.
in 2008, US won with Bradley as coach-just sayin’
A much poorer performance than the AB game in my opinion. Maurice Edu is the king of bad giveaways at this point. Jozy Altidore is effing useless. Gomez didn’t have his best night but he was at least mixing it up.
No us game has ever screamed Wondo.
Playing three players down would be pretty tough.
True dat,Ozzy. And this was our best team unless JK finds more Germans with American passports. They are not buying in or playing hard for the guy
Why? It’s the truth.
Well Bradley isn’t good thats for sure. He is a little off on Donovan and Jozy.
I would say Bradley was leading that front followed very closely by Edu.
He was moving to a runner, don’t know why.
Yeah almost all of our midfielders in Europe play as “destroyers” for their teams even Holden played that role for Bolton before he was injured.
JOE HAMILTON for president of US SOCCER!
I think its time to put a military base in brazil.
Not really. Non of them can really carry it in or make that final killer pass that creates a shot. Klinsmann has to go back to the drawing board and get an Adu or Benny type player on this team. Were too deensive
What is your point steveo?
OK, enough of the panic. Is there a math major around to determine what we need in terms of points to get to the next round?
Also: Torres is the string puller we need.
Also also: Landon is very timid and seems to avoid all 1-v-1 situations. Didn’t take on a single defender.
Also3: Tough place to play a game; not the end of the world.
Ya and i hate to say this but i think this team needs a dose of some Freddy Adu!
bravo – or, in a lesser measure, simply let the secret service tool around a bit.
I feel sick. I am not an angry guy, but I want to punch a Guatemalan player. Dirty, mean, overacting divers.
Ref was crap. Altidore goal should have counted–why not give the advantage?!?
Easy goal at the end there…but Altidore makes a DEAD STOP on his run in the box.
US looks like crap these last four games.
He wasn’t a destroyer… Box-to-box.
Donovan needs to grow a pair and attack instead of pass off all the time.
Near the end he got the into the goal area with the ball, 1 man to beat, and he passes square rather than attack. Its no good
obviously a win would have been better but seriously, i did not think it was that bad. the criticism on this message board is a little extreme. I thought Edu actually had a good game as did Bradley and they controlled the tempo for large stretches. finishing needs to improve. and it just seems like Jozy is not putting in 100% and doesn’t try hard especially when you see Gomez flying around and putting pressure on the defenders. but i’ll take a tie and the point.
We need the creativity of a guy like Freddy Adu to bolster the attack. Jones and Edu don’t provide anything in that regard. Give me:
Altidore
Dempsey
Donovan Bradley Torres Adu
Johnson Bocanegra Goodson Cherundolo
Howard
Jozy needs to get fit without a doubt. I wonder where we would be if Onyewu, Holden, and Davies never suffered the devastating injuries that they have?
hahahahaha