The USA Send-off Series starts today at 8 pm EST against Czech Republic in East Hartford, CT. The dedicated fan may remember this as the location of the US vs. Latvia in the run up to the 2006 World Cup. And by dedicated, I mean that I was there so I remember it. This will be the last chance for some World Cup hopefuls to audition to make the 23 that will travel to South Africa. The bubble guys, in my opinion, are Heath Pearce, Alejandro Bedoya, Eddie Johnson, Edson Buddle, Herculez Gomez, DaMarcus Beasley, and Robbie Findley. That's seven guys going for three spots. Either Bedoya or Beasley are in as a back-up winger in one spot, while I see those two and Pearce going for a second spot. The third spot is at forward, where Buddle and Gomez are probably the leaders in the clubhouse as Johnson came in injured and the other two came in with ridiculous form. I'm banking on Gomez from what I have been reading about on SBI and ESPN. I'm hoping to be live-posting this one, so enjoy.
USA line-up is in: GK - Guzan DF - Cherundolo - Onyewu - Goodson - Bornstein MF - Holden - Edu - Torres - Beasley FW - Buddle - Johnson Interesting pairing in central midfield, but Torres' passing should help open up Johnson and Buddle with their speed. Lots of injury issues in defense, but I think we'll see Goodson go 90, Gooch and Bornstein get the first half, while DeMerit and Bocanegra get in the second half. Bedoya enters for Beasley or Holden in the second as well as he can play either side. No word yet on the bench.
Or I got that all wrong. Bench is Hahnemann, Spector, Ching, Clark, Kljestan, Pearce, Marshall, Rogers, Findley, Bedoya, Gomez. If I had to read into this, the forward spots are wide open. Altidore has been a definite for about three years, but it seems like the other five are all in it. I thought Ching was a guarantee as he is the target man in the group, but it appears that may not be so definite as Buddle can hold up play some. The DeMerit omission worries me some, but it could be that Bradley wants Onyewu to go 90 to prove that he can. Which he needs to do and Bradley needs to see. DeMerit has also been out with his own injury struggles and needs to see some time before traveling to the Cup. Despite the three MLSers (Marshall, Findley, and Kljestan) making this match squad, I don't see any of them making it on the roster.
First match in seven months for Onyewu. I'm not familiar with the forwards for the Czechs, so I don't know how well he'll be tested. Regardless, this is a classy squad as the Czechs are pretty strong. Kickoff time is now.
3rd - Play has been almost exclusively on the right for the US. Beasley has had to go to the middle to get a touch. He did get the ball in attack and took on his man and won. Sent in a dangerous cross to where Eddie Johnson should have been.
5th - Onyewu's body count is at one as a forward went at him for a header. Gooch won, but a foul had been called previously. Free kick for the Czechs, 30 yards out. Chased down and blocked, out for a throw. Buddle got his first run at a through ball from Torres. The pass was too heavy but Buddle can motor. Looked like Eddie Johnson, but Buddle is a footballer. Also on Buddle, this is his first cap in seven years. He got his first at age 22 and none since.
12th - Lots of possession for the US, but no chances yet as service in the final third is lacking. Lots of good passing along the ground, but when its time to get it to Buddle or Johnson, we send it flying through the air. Haven't seen much of anything from Onyewu yet. Started running stride for stride with a forward, but the ball bounced out harmlessly.
16th - First real touches for Gooch as he moves up into midfield...just to see what's it like or something. He put a swank little move on a Czech player, who hacked him down out of principal or something.
17th - GOAL USA - Buddle takes a foul near the touchline. Holden free kick into traffic, Buddle, Goodson, a Czech defender, and Petr Cech were there. Cech missed the ball on the punch and caught Buddle in the mouth. Edu slams home the loose ball in front of goal. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Edu just pops up in the right place in the right time like few other defensive midfielders I have seen. He and Bradley can provide some goals from central mid.
21st - Fenin beats Goodson, but Onyewu slides in for the cover and blocks the shot. It goes out for a Cezch corner. First chance defended, second is sent out for a throw. A cross off the thrown and a Czech forward tries keeping Guzan down as he goes for the catch. Easy foul call there. Good show early from Onyewu...but as I'm typing this, he gives up a free kick as he slides in on Fenin. Also, Buddle is still off the pitch as the US Trainers are trying to get him to stop bleeding from the mouth. They changed his shirt and are sending him back out there. As an aside, the shirt probably looks better with some red on it as an off-white sash on white doesn't quite show up on TV. The blue shirt is pretty sweet through.
26th - First chance for the Czechs. A winger gets open in the box and sends a low cross in fro Fenin who just bends one well wide for no evident reason. He was wide open as Goodson was standing still there. And the camera flashes to a shot of Dempsey, Altidore, and Bocanegra. Altidore catches a shot of himself on the TV. Bocanegra is eating dinner and clearly oblivious to the match and Dempsey is staring off in the distance.
30th - Landon Donovan goes to check out what Bocanegra is eating. He's taking apart some chicken wings. Czechs are having some possession now. They've picked it up quite a bit since the goal.
33rd - Bornstein is an interesting player. He just took a quick free kick in his own defensive third and played it short to Beasley who was in traffic. Brilliant stuff by the Chivas man. Rajnoch takes a yellow after giving a cross body block on Cherundolo.
34th - Johnson with his first touch on the ball that I can remember, but its called back quickly as Beasley was hacked down on the pass. Neither have shown a great deal, but Buddle has been mentioned a couple of times and was causing issues on the goal. 36th - Johnson falls for the offside trap. He's scored goals that show some footballing awareness in Greece, but I'm still not convinced that he actually knows what an offside trap is.
38th - Johnson holds up play near midfield and takes a shove for his efforts. Haven't seen him do much of that before. Overall, still lacking service up front for Johnson and Buddle. Just caught a close up of Buddle. He's got some serious swelling on the left side of his face and a terrific splotch of something to stop the bleeding to go with it.
40th minute - Beasley wins a corner. Onyewu walks up from central defense like he's going into a duel in the wild west. Corner sent in by Holden to the same spot, but Cech makes the catch this time.
41st. Buddle down the middle at the back four on a break away, Johnson running by his side out wide...there's that footballing awareness again. Buddle tries to lay off for him, but gets hacked down hard.
44th - GOAL CZECH REPUBLIC - Sivok gets above Onyewu and sends it in far post. Gooch didn't get up for that one at all. Eerily similar to the challenge he went down on against Costa Rica where he had to jump while backing up.
45th - Two minutes will be added. Both Edu and Sivok get their first international goals. Sivok in his 11th cap, Edu in his 13th.
Halftime - Best performances thus far are Beasley and Goodson for the US. Goodson has been all over the pitch thus far and doing very well in defense both with the ball in the air and on the ground. I know I said Fenin's open shot was Goodson's fault, but on the replay, you can see Goodson was tracking his man and noticed that Fenin got lost when the pass was sent in on him. Beasley has been all over the pitch. Doing a lot on the left and also getting in the middle to get the ball. Haven't seen a lot of effective service for him, but a lot of that is on Johnson who doesn't pop in where he needs to. Onyewu has been good when the ball is on the ground, but failed to defend his player on the corner and that's why the scores are even. Bornstein is also concerning, as usual, in defense. Beasley has done most of the work both ways on the left today.
