Sunday, June 10, 2007

Match thoughts

- For a team that was pretty much all brand new, I thought the U.S. did well to generate scoring chances. If Brian Ching was more accurate in front of the goal, the U.S. easily could have put more on the board.

- There were exactly 42 hours between the end of Thursday's game and the beginning of Saturday's. Benny Feilhaber and Landon Donovan played the most; they each got in 135 minutes. Eddie Johnson, Steve Ralston, Jay DeMerit, Taylor Twellman and Michael Bradley each played in both games as well.

- Landon Donovan showed in nine minutes why he's so dangerous. The guy's speed is unbelievable. Plus, he has the presence of mind to slip that ball to the other side of the box instead of shooting it on goal, when he could have done so without anyone second-guessing him. I didn't really like him playing on the right side. If he had freedom to roam, he didn't exercise it. He looked more comfortable on Saturday.

- Justin Mapp played well. His service from the left side was good. He gives the team a different look than DaMarcus Beasley on that side of the field. I'd still rather take Beasley because he offers so much but Mapp can be dangerous as well. He showed some speed too in getting around Silvio Spann on the first goal. Ching should have buried that instead of hitting a ground ball up the middle but Mapp's build-up was superb.

- The only players on the Gold Cup roster who haven't seen action yet are Pablo Mastroeni, who was suspended for the first two games, and third-choice goalkeeper Brad Guzan, who was in Chicago guiding Chivas USA to a 1-0 win over the Fire.

- It will be interesting to see who plays on Tuesday against El Salvador. You can't say there was a whole lot of continuity from one game to the next. In a few areas, there was some I suppose as Landon and Taylor Twellman played together in both games... okay, maybe just that one. My guess is that the lineup against Guatemala will mostly play against El Salvador.

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