Klinsmann Era off to a good start

I’m not going to even talk about that pathetic excuse for a first half other than saying that we didn’t play aggressive and physical soccer. I have a timeline of my commentary on my site if you’d like to read more. (http://www.edwelshsays.com/?p=100)

But wow, what a second half. The United States made some serious changes in the second half against Mexico as the USA would have accomplished the national goal (beat Mexico) if a few calls went our way.

In the beginning of the second half, we saw play similar to that of the first, where Mexico possessed and controlled the game. Then the change happened. Edson Buddle and Jermaine Jones were subbed out for Juan Agudelo and Brek Shea. Immeadiately we started playing better as Landon Donovan was able to drop into his true role of roaming and attacking midfielder. Having Landon up top makes no sense, and we saw that when he dropped into the midfield. Then Robbie Rogers, a natural soeed demon, came into the match. He works very well with Shea, who has an innate sense of his field position. When you watch Shea play, you can see his head on the swivel always trying to make a run forward.

When we had the three young guns teaming up, we saw instant results with a goal. Really, we should have had two more. One, Donovan was blatantly tripped in the box and the ref didn’t call anything. Two, Robbie Rogers was breaking on goal when he was pulled to the ground from behind. This foul was THE DEFINITION of a red card, and our moronic ref saved the Mexican day by giving a yellow to the Mexican and then to Bocanegra for dissent, which is almost as outrageous as the first yellow.

Looking at the future, I think that we have positive times to come. Hopefully, we will accomplish the goal of beating the Mexicans, which should always be top priority. For now, keep DOOPing my friends, and hope that we beat Costa Rica in September.

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