Not a good result and not a good performance by USA. But at the same time, it wasn't that bad. Its easy to look at that score line and say Colombia is clearly a better squad and dominated the game but I don't think that's accurate at all. Indeed, I kinda USA dominated the possession and though USA never looked dangerous around the goal, neither did Colombia.
Colombia basically had three decent chances all night and they converted two of them (put the third off the crossbar). The corner kick was a perfect pass, a brilliant shot and defense that was only a half-step out of place; great strike, well played, but the kind of play that usually results in no goal, so we can credit Colombia's inherent awesomeness or we can just chalk it up to right place/right time. Their 2nd goal was a PK, can't fault Guzan's effort, not too many people gonna stop a James Rodriguez PK these days. (As for the penalty itself, I guess the ref could've let it go but it certainly wasn't a bad call: Yedlin's hand clearly changed the path of the ball, whether it was intentional or not, it was bad defense and it had an effect on the play. And if it'd been a Colombian defender on an American pass, I'd have expected the call) Colombia's only other moment of real expectation was when their forward broke loose at midfield and got to Guzan all by himself; the shoot was a bit too hard and it thudded off the crossbar. Personally I thought the guy was off-side; yes, the defenders made a late, weak attempt to off-side trap Colombia but it looked to me like he was already behind the D when that late shift happened. Oh well, he didn't score, so no harm, no foul.
So did Colombia run roughshod over on outmatched USA squad? No. Not at all. No way. Frankly, outside of the three plays I mentioned above, I didn't think Colombia did much of anything in this game. And while they got the positive result, I didn't see anything that leads me to think they're going to destroy Costa Rica or Paraguay. Especially if Rodriguez's shoulder really is hurt (I kinda thought he was jaking it, he knew USA wasn't gonna score, just felt like taking the rest of the night off). I figured Colombia would win this group and I still figure that but I wasn't blown away by last night's performance.
As for USA, I thought Guzan did pretty good. Colombia's three aforementioned chances were not at all Guzan's fault, thought he did as well as he could on all three and generally handled himself pretty well in the back.
I thought Brooks and Cameron were both great, USA's only unbridled shining stars. Felt like Brooks was gonna get himself a card by the end but he managed not to. And Cameron was slightly out of position on that first goal but, again, that was a perfect shot off a perfect pass (and still lucky enough to squeak by Guzan), I can't put too much fault on him, indeed, I feel bad for the guy.
Yedlin still has the problem of too much pace, not enough skill. You'd like to think Yedlin bombing up the wing is gonna pay dividends one day but when is that day gonna come? There were a few occasions in this game where he got forward and then couldn't do anything with the ball once he got it. And his handball that led to the PK was unfortunate but it was still bad defense. If he's a liability in the back and unhelpful up front, then what does he provide? Okay, that was too negative, he's still got plenty of talent and plenty of speed and he needs to be in there to provide a threat on the outside. But he needs to hit the jackpot one o' these days.
I gotta admit: I hardly even noticed Johnson in this game. The good version of that: well, like I said, Colombia never really seemed dangerous around the goal so Johnson didn't have to do anything too showy to be effective; the bad version: dude disappeared instead of contributing. I'm not sure which side I'm on. I think he played well but I'm not sure.
Bradley struggled badly . For years now Bradley has been that rock in the midfield (steadily sliding from offensive to defensive mid) and while he has moments of looking in control, just as often he looks over his head. More and more he reminds me of the later years of Claudio Reyna: confidently, assuredly settling the ball...so he can pass it backwards. His forays into setting up the USA attack never seem to work out and his defense is kinda raggedy back there. Not sure what it is he does any more. If Bradley can just be the guy he was always supposed to be USA could be a really dangerous squad.
Jones is like that old man that used to be good but now he hangs around the playground wearing his Kareem goggles and knee high socks and yelling at kids who are better than him. That's a little harsh, Jones still has good skill on the ball and solid instincts on the pitch. But, man, he is slow as Christmas out there and when he struggles its like watching a turtle flipped over in the sun. He can still provide some magic, that moment of inspiration that rallies the troops but I think I'm ready to see more of Nagbe in his spot. Maybe Jones could be the spark plug guy for the last 25 minutes of the game rather than Nagbe.
I thought Bedoya generally played pretty well. He had an ugly yellow card and he volleyed a shot into the 20th row late in the game, but otherwise I thought he played good on-ball defense, disrupted the passing lanes and did well to push USA forward when he could. Like Brooks, he probably needs to chill a little if he expects to make it through this tourney without sitting out a game. I think he's USA's best midfielder right now.
Dempsey is a conundrum: he's the one most likely to make the perfect pass to set up a teammate and he's the one most likely to ignore the perfect pass and try to force some crappy shot on his own. He has the best instincts on the whole team and yet the most hubris, as well. He needs to be out there, even with his faults he is still USA's best hope to stand up to a superior opponent. Last night he seemed bothered by the lack of friendly calls from the ref more than any time I can remember. He made a few nice plays but left a few others on the table.
I've been encouraged by Wood's recent performances but last night I barely even noticed him out there. The ball spent a great deal of time mired in the midfield, perhaps he just didn't get enough service. But I'm struggling to remember any high- or low-lights from Wood. My gut is he needs to be out there but I wouldn't mind seeing Zusi get more playing time.
Zardes had a few infuriating fumbles but he also made some interesting runs and got himself some space that was promising to see. Zardes needs a lot of service but he looks capable of doing something with that service. Last night he didn't get many opportunities and he didn't make the most of them, but I think the opportunities he did get were of his own making and I liked seeing that.
Nagbe, Pulisic, Zusi came in as 2nd half subs and while none of them did anything awful, none of them really wowed last night either. I'm ready for Nagbe to enter the starting lineup. And I think I'm ready for Zusi to be on the starting side of the Zusi-Wood platoon. But I think I'm still in on the idea of Pulisic as a spark plug off the bench but I wanna see as least 30 minutes out of him every time out for now. I suspect we'll see Besler and Beckerman but only off the bench. And I don't guess we'll ever see Tim Howard playing for USA again, this feels like Guzan's team now.
Curious to see that Costa Rica-Paraguay match (those are words you don't hear every day!) to get a feel for USA's chances in the next two group matches.
