The U.S. Men’s National Team has traveled to the Caribbean for a crucial World Cup Qualifying encounter vs. underdog Antigua & Barbuda in a match the Americans need to win to stay on track for passage to the Hexagonal Round of CONCACAF qualifying (7pm, beIN Sport).
The Americans are currently in a three-way tie in Group A, with Guatemala and Jamaica, and can take control of their fate with a win against an Antigua & Barbuda side currently sitting at the bottom of the group table.
The U.S. will be fielding a short-handed lineup tonight, with injuries ravaging the roster. Landon Donovan, Fabian Johnson, Edgar Castillo and Brek Shea are all out for tonight’s match, which has led Jurgen Klinsmann to turn to Carlos Bocanegra to start at left back.
Eddie Johnson is in the starting lineup as the Americans trot out a 4-3-3 that will try to break down an Antigua & Barbuda side
SBI will be providing live commentary on tonight’s match so please feel free to follow along here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Tonight’s comment is after the jump):
This is hands down the worst pitch I’ve ever seen for a professional game. And there is no way Thia meets any standards. I don’t care what they claim it measures–i have eyes.
Any streams for those of us without stupid BeIn?
link to usagoals.com
Somewhere in the Netherlands…Josi continues to kick rocks.
EDDDDDIIIIIEEEEEE!
Eddie Johnson is a GAM
EJ! Man, I’m so happy for that guy.
here u go people
Goodson blows…Why is he starting again?
And the city park quality sh*t pitch costs us a goal.
Wow. Carlos, Cameron, and Goodson all get beat on the play. Horrible, horrific defending.
Dare I say, Shambolic?
it was ugly
Goodson falls over far too much for me liking.
Why did Goodson start in this key match? He did not have a good game Sept. 7 in Kingston and he was so bad in June against Guatemala was pulled out at half-time. Jermaine Jones should be on the field also. He is better than Williams. Not happy with the starting line-up. Yes, we got the goal, but Dempsey has hardly touched the ball. Zusi looking good though.
Cameron was beaten to the line for the cross too, both CBs struggled on that goal
Goodson fell down and the USA went boom
Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic, That was horrible. We can win 6-1 and the stink of that goal will still linger
very uncharacteristic of johnson on that second header. normally buries that
Certainly not a gimme tap in header. That was close to the top of the box.
Zusi looks sooooo good. He’s reading and connecting incredibly well with MB and with EJ. Could Zusi really be the wide answer we’ve been looking for so long? Why has he never gotten his due before now? He wasn’t even ever in the youth team mix, was he?
Look, Zuzi is a nice player, but you’re kidding if you think he brings more to the right mid than Donovan.
Uh – we need TWO wings, Tony. Perhaps you have heard of the LEFT wing?
I think Zuzi is making my case nicely. He’s having a horrid game
obviously he had an assist, but I think that was mote knock it forward and see what happens…since then he’s been horrible
W/o his assist USA would be losing
If you need a stream, here you go.
http://www.thefirstrow.eu/watch/146320/2/watch–fifa-wcq:-antigua-and-barbuda-vs-usa.html
MB has looked dangerous from range tonight.
USA looking very shaky on the counter.
I think i’m about to have a heart attack
USA playing a little too academically. I think that Klinsmann has put too much in their heads. They receive a pass and then it’s lateral lateral lateral and then you can see a little smoke coming out of their ears. A/B is more pedestrian of course, so they receive the ball and run run run!!
Make it happen USA!!
yeah, how did that corner kick roll through the ENTIRE box? I see a lot of USMNT members just standing around.
Yes, USA defense looks VERY slow but possibly due to caution re: their footing on the treacherous surface?
This is terrible. Completely embarrassed right now…
Lil Mikey lolly gaggin around all nite again, just like he always does….
Gomez’s name has not been called all night. Altidore anyone? we need to move up EJ so he can trouble the defense. It’s a waste to have him in midfield. Clint has been way off. His passing percentage looks about 50 percent. I am nervous about this result.
I haven’t been able to watch any of the game but I think this is like the Red Sox thing. Its simple… The US teammates just don’t believe in JK and his philosophy. He seems to have lost them or never had em. It was time for Bob to go but Jk it seems wasn’t the right replacement.
+1 I can’t put my finger on it, but for some reason the players always seem to be lost, as if they don’t know the game plan. At first I thought it was just adjusting to a new system, but now it seems to be more than that.
I agree that they seem a bit lost. It seems like every match, Klinsi employs a new formation, a new lineup, with players in new roles, and playing a different style. I’m all for creativity, but there’s also something to be said for consistency and cohesiveness.
The only thing I disagree with in your statement is that JK has a philosophy to disagree with. He is not consistent enough to disagree with.
Ha! That’s exactly what I said!
Pathetic! JK and Vazquez are completly lost. Dempsey crap, Gomez crap, Williams crap. One pass forward and three back. Not deserving!
USA playing a little too academically. I think that Klinsmann has put too much in their heads. They receive the ball and then it’s lateral lateral lateral and then you can see a little smoke coming out of their ears. A/B is more pedestrian of course, so they receive the ball and run run run!!
Make it happen USA!!
Ives, this new gig is not allowing posts if your post has certain keywords in them. If I type p_ss the ball, it gets kicked out. If I type as_ociation it will do the same.
How about ramping it down to PG-13?
Sharpening my pitchfork and getting the gas needed for my torch to join anyone calling for Klins head. How many games in a row will we look like mummies out there? I am officially off the Klinnsman bandwagon and joining the many others walking on the streets. This is a freaking semi-pro team for god-sake. AHHHHHHHSkjdfaskjldbfkjadslfsdljfkhv
This defense is crappy
We need a formation change. The field is too narrow to play with fullbacks. Tell Bocanegra to stay put and let Cameron play ahead of him and Goodson in a holding role. You only need one area of width, so put Corona in and let Dempsey and Zusi patrol the wings from the midfield. Corona and Bradley can pull the strings in the midfield and let Eddie and Herc put pressure on the backline. We need to crowd the midfield and play long and diagonal from those tight angles to open up wider channels. Unfortunately this is the point where Klinsmann’s ridiculous selections come back to haunt us.
After Johnson’s goal I thought, although not pretty, was going to be a cakewalk. Either Herc or Eddie Johnson need to be pulled out at half time for another midfielder, Corona, Kljestan or Jones. Goodson has got to go before he screws up again. I would say bring in Parkhurst and move Boca to center. Then at some point Williams has to go. But that will have to wait until later in the second half. I cannot believe Klinsmann started him ahead of Jones, Edu or Beckerman. A big mistake, I think.
Goodson is a stick figure
So difficult to make any judgement given the game conditions, but I have to wonder if Klinsmann’s constant messing with formations, personnel and roles has undermined the team’s cohesiveness. There seem to be a lot of guys out of position on the A&B counters. The advantage of the consistent 4-4-2 we’ve played over the last couple decades meant that everyone knew their roles and positioning in all circumstances. I wish Klinsi would find a formation/ style and stick to it. Or at least find two or three and stick to them. It seems that every match we are playing a completely different style, a different formation, with guys in different roles. I like to see creativity from my manager, but there’s also something to be said for consistency and clear expectations.
A/B keeper is a drama queen
Molvin stop being such a weasel. He can’t be hurt falling on his plus-size rear end
Who’s on the bench? You know who thrives on crap fields with chippy opposition?
ALAN GORDON!
This is a nightmare
Come on Herc!! Make a different run. You’re making the same run right behind Deuce. Spacing!
Why is Griffith in his boxers…shameful
This team sucks! Worst US team I have seen in years. I’m sick of hearing about those stupid friendly wins vs. Italy and Mexico. Who cares?
Gomez sucks!!
HERC!!! COME ON!!!
Herc’s touch is never anything special but it’s been putrid tonight.
Nice touch, Gomez. Scrub.
Would be nice to have an altidore to put in right about now…..
No, lazy is not what this team needs
7 yellows in the last 11 games for Jermaine Jones
Jones puts on a USMNT kit and immediately becomes useless.
Ok I love herc and his work ethic and all that jazz, but can anyone tell me Jozy wouldn’t have finished either one of those chances
because he wouldn’t have made those runs…
I know Jones brings “bite” and “grit” to the midfield, but what use is he if he’s accumulating yellows like they’re going out of style.
And the thing is we already have plenty of “bite” and “grit without Jones.
This is driving me crazy. My heart is beating through my chest. I can’t believe this is happening!!
This is our best team? f*ck!
No….. it’s not, that’s the problem.
Molvin is so out of shape. I’m not sure he can get down to stop a shot. SHOOOOOOT and let’s find out.
I hate to say it, but Jozy has the best long range shot on the team.
I feel like im watching a high school game
Alan Gordon …Face Palm!
Now you’re eating your words.
Oh my God, we need a goal. This is disastrous.
Jermaine Jones = Liability
Well almost time to go to a random bar and cry in the corner.
First beer’s on me
10th is on me
Jones very lucky not to get a 2nd yellow there. Get him out. Put in Kljestan.
On a lighter note…. A&B’s shorts seem to be getting shorter as the game goes on.
Noooo!!!! Take JONES out for Kljestan. What are you DOING???
USA, please prove all of the things I have been yelling at my computer wrong, please!!!!
Does this mean the U.S. fails to qualify for the Hex?
I believe a draw here and a win v Guatemala still gets us in.
Sacha DOES have a good shot from distance.
for what is US Soccer paying 2.5 million? after hearing manny schellscheidt mentioned by the commentators – he’s available and could at least get this squad qualified.
We should be pelting the goal with shots!!
Just shoot on goal. The A&B keeping is terrible. There has to be a rebound that someone can tap in…please?
I hate this team!!
This A&B keeper looks sooo bad. I can’t believe we can’t pump in some shots against him!!
He didn’t look bad on that last save…sigh…
HA! True. He seems to be able to make reaction saves but he bobbles every single easy shot.
HOW IS THAT NOT A PENALTY!!??
NOT A FOUL? Joke.
WHY THE HECK ARE YOU SHORT CORNERING WHEN YOU JUST HAD 2 GREAT CHANCES OFF OF CORNERS!!!????
COME THE F*CK ON. It doesn’t even look like they were trying on the 2nd corner. Bradley had a good shot on the first one though.
Here comes another corner,,,NOTHING. Awful.
Offside…Jesus, just fooking stay on side. IT’S NOT THAT HARD!
This is so weak.
EJ = Savior
YEEEESSSS!! EJ!!!!
YESSSSSSSSS! I take back all of those posts!
Nice!
=)
That might take some time, there were quite a few…hilarious posts. Are you okay now?
So that’s why Gordon is on the field…Klinsy is genius!
Alan Gordon and Eddie Johnson? WE. ALL. EAT. CROW.
No, just the eurosnobs
GAM!!!!!!!
Eddie Johnson!!!!!!!!!! I take back every bad thing I’ve ever said about you. I love you
DEFENSE! DEFENSE! DEFENSE!
THAT JUST HAPPENED!
WOWWWWWWWWW!!!!!
The highly regarded and feared Gordon to EJ connection!
I’m not eating any crow. I was all for the EJ call up.
I’m not talking about EJ, I’m talking about AG.
Well isn’t that special
WE. ALL. EAT. CROW.
= Eaten!!!!! Yum yum crow. As long as we win, I’ll eat it all night long.
And Gordon with a fantastic cross. I don’t know whether to laud Klinsi for bringing those two in or lambaste him for coming in with a lousy game plan.
+1
Yup, same here.. I hope he doesnt get too proud of this! Good game for EJ, could have done a lot more if he wasnt playing LM most of the game.. Still not happy with jurgens management
To those who questioned the Eddie Johnson callup…
I am so glad you were wrong.
It would be so good to have Johnson back as a producing forward in the US pool.
Go U.S.A.!
and Josi….still kicking rockls
how much stoppage time…… ?
Wow…Gordon was truly awful with the Galaxy just a few seasons ago. What has gotten into him?
Thank god no phantom penalty from this “ref”
YESSSSSS.
Crow eaten.
Great job Eddie and Alan Gordon.
Oh my god, I just said that.
=)
Klinsmann should get down and clean EJs boots with his tongue tonight.
Good lord, that was way more difficult and nervewracking than it should have been. What a cross by Gordon, though. Props.
EJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
horrible coach is JK horrible no more words
Way to go EJ!!!!
I have longer boxer-briefs than the shorts #11 for A&B was wearing.
Wow that was a horrifically disgusting game so about the usual for us apparently.
Just wish there was some way for both Guatemala and Jamaica to lose tonight =)
1 point for each is good enough…
If they tie, they will both drop two points. Now that the US has got three, this would be the best outcome for the US. The next would be for Jamaica to win.
We want a lopsided jamaica victory tonight. Then we’d still go through with a close loss to guatemala tuesday.
If jamaica and guatemala draw, we’d almost certainly be out with any loss.
Not that I think we’ll lose, but it would buy us some insurance…
The best scenario is for Janaica to win like 3-0 or more so then we would just not have to lose to Guatemela by the same margin.
Damn away goals… just beat me
Also great cross by Gordon
Wham, bam, thank you GAM.
Hahah +1
+1
Excellent +1
Way to go with the annoying money grab advertisements SBI.
I never thought I’d say thank goodness for Eddie Johnson, but thank goodness for Eddie Johnson. Great assist by Gordon. Everyone else played like S-H-I-T.
Been callin for EJ to have a look for a while. He’s flat out dangerous
As I (smugly) pointed out before; Alan Gordon brings a can-do blue-collar attitude to any game he is in. He gets the winning assist and (hopefully) more respect from the punters on this board lol. Good job Eddie!! Jozy Who??
Yep! Looks like brought the Goonie attitude to the game- the never say never and never say die attitude. Hopefully the EuroYanks will learn a thing or two from the MLSers!
With the way Gomez played, I’d keep Gordon in next match.
Well nothing positive to take from this game except the 3 points. But those 3 points are a HUGE consolation prize
3 points brought to you by MLS.
Probably uglier than warts on a warthog, but 3 points just the same.
OH…and the crow I’m eating aint that bad…little salt…salsa…and tortillas.
LOL!!!
Bet you that bad boy never tasted any better, huh? Kudos for stepping up and eating that crow!!
A good night for MLS I guess.
Don’t think you can draw too many conclusions from that game, pitch was absurdly small, i’ll take the 3 points and run.
Great: EJ
Good: Dolo, Howard, Alan Gordon, Bradley and Kjelstan
Meh: Goodson, Cameron, Zusi, Bocanegra, Williams
Bad: Dempsey, Gomez
Terrible: Jones
Thank God he’s out for Guatemala. He’d probably get a second yellow by the 20th for dissent.
I agree with this
Also, what the heck was up with Dempsey? He declined multiple times to pick up a ball and move forward. Several of those times the ball just flat out rolled OB and even more times it went straight to A&B. Come on man.
All you Eddie Johnson haters can suck the big FAT one!!! In a match we should have won 4 or 5 nil he bailed us out in a fashion that Altidore hasn’t done since the Confederations Cup against Spain!!!!
I don’t know about the big FAT one part, but EJ does deserve some love and JK for calling him and assist #2 dude, Alan Gordon.
why take this victory and make it into a US vs. US throw down?
I like both players as many of us do
way to keep it classy…
Take a look at the USL PRO standings. link to uslpro.uslsoccer.com
Antigua Barracuda FC is in last place. 5 wins, 18 loses, 1 tie. The US national team barely manages to beat it on a last minute goal. Klinsmann got to go. We may make it out of this group (and I’m not at all sure of that), but with this coach stuff we’re not going to Brazil.
You know, you’re overreacting.
…but you do have a point.
What makes you think Klinsmann being sacked is going to change the crap passing and poor finishing they’ve always had?
Yeah, and that’s one way to look at things…
But how about JK having the guts to call in guys who made it happen? Funny how EJ tucks not ONE but TWO goals in on a night when many regulars had an off night. It’s WC qualifying, away in not so decent conditions (I am only going by what others say because I did not watch the match).
Some of the reactions are baffling to me. We looked pretty bad, sometimes awful, for the vast majority of the night. Yes, it’s great that EJ scored two goals (although neither was a great goal or anything), but the generally poor play is the far more important takeaway from the match.
We *should* be beating A&B a lot more easily than we did tonight.
Guys the pitch….they might as well had been playing on a tiny gravel basketball court…
I agree. This changed the game so much.
+1 what a mess
Attn: Eddie Johnson h8ters. How do you like me now?
Wow, looks like making it out of the hexagonal will be a dog fight , having to face Costa Rica,Honduras, Mexico etc…
It’s like, impossible.
I never thought I’d say thank goodness for Eddie Johnson, but thank goodness for Eddie Johnson. Great assist by Gordon. Everyone else played like G-A-R-B-A-G-E
Well, I guess we should have known (as Klinsmann apparently did) that nobody scores goals on crappy CONCACAF teams like Eddie Johnson.
I’m still baffled by the lack of a sense of urgency from the US in these games. I’m not sure how much that is on Klinsmann, either. It seems like any 11 American players from MLS should have been able to win this game, if they played hard, regardless of coaching.
The approach that he has instilled in our team is sometimes too academic.
So much agreed. They never just open up the engines and run at the defense.
Agreed, the lack of urgency I dont understand. At first I chalked it up to field, which looked as poor as any I’ve ever seen. Like they were afraid of slipping, getting hurt. But then Antigua didnt seem to have the same issue…
Good god this team has some problems. Yet again the build-up was slow, uncreative, and they never has a sense of urgency until minute 85. But that pitch was horrible and the weather made it even worse.
Here are my ratings
Howard= 3
Dolo= 3.5
Cameron= 2,5
Goodson= 2.5
Boca= 2.5
Williams= 2.5
Bradley= 3.5
Zusi= 2.5
Dempsey= 2.5
EJ= 4
Gomez= 2
Subs:
Kljestan= 3
Jones= 2
Gordon= 3.5
Dempsey was atrocious. he hampered the offense more than helping.
Overall the USMNT was average on a night that they needed to be more than that. Klinsmann better call in at least one more player. Someon that has a tad bit more creativity.
Is Corona not producing in training because his call-up seems like a rather pointless roster spot selection.
Instead of the players’ performances being ranked from 1-10 like normal, they should be ranked from “ugh” to “bleh”.
Terrible performance 2-1 really….We have to do better going forward…..Pretty sad when other countries games are showed live while others are shown on tape delay during when our game should be shown live. Flipping through the stations on Comcast I saw live college soccer and live HS football and tape delayed soccer games from Europe. What are our options to watch are national team?? Hmmmm, we have to search online looking for a feed. What the heck?
If we were playing on the pitch that England got to play San Marino on today….we probably would have won 4 or 5 nil…
Yeah, and in Tampa it was the rain, and in Kingston it was the bad pitch again, and in Columbus it was the wind… and remind me, what was it in Guatemala?
I guess the blind mice found the cheese. Klinsman needs to go. He is not a tactical technician. He fielded a lousy team. We got lucky.
On the positive side; neither MB, Zusi or Edu (did not play) picked up cards. Jones is really working hard to lose his spot, not going to miss him. I was worried Bradley was going get in trouble
On the positive side; neither MB, Zusi or Edu (did not play) picked up cards. Jones is really working hard to lose his spot, not going to miss him. I was worried Bradley was going get in trouble
Normally I would agree with you…but go back and watch the game… the passes were literally ALL jacked up by the pitch and the weather…..I am telling you judging our guys on this is unfair…
ugly
Martin Vasquez must die.