Relief and Disappointment For US After Draw With El Salvador

(Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

Phew, What a relief!

Down 2-0 in the hostile away environment of San Salvador, the USA gritted out a much-needed draw on the road. With that, we salvaged a point on the road which is important in qualifying for the World Cup.

I thank Bob Bradley for his second half substitutions and tactical adjustments that saw us find the spark we needed to rally back and tie.

But the problem is, we should not have gone down 2-0 in the first place to El Salvador. Sure, to the Salvadoreans, give them credit, they played with heart, passion, hustle, and they executed their game plan to perfection for 70 plus minutes.

Clog the middle, and either wait for the US to give away possession or take it away and start the counterattack. The strategy worked well and El Salvador almost beat us using it.

Credit El Salvador, but the USA is to blame for not playing with enough urgency and we lacked the tactics and personnel to win this game.

First off, the veterans did not step up before the game and get the guys fired up for this game. We simply overlooked this team and underestimated them. We should have come out firing on all cylinders.

I blame the leaders of the team like Carlos Bocanegra for not organizing the defense and getting the guys to attack after we got down a goal. It looked as if we were scared of losing at that point but unwilling to take it to the Salvadoreans. 

Second, our tactics and personnel were off. I don’t why we weren’t trying to work the ball up the wings but rather would resort to long “Hail Mary” balls and trying to work the ball through the middle which was playing into Salvardorean hands and strategy. 

Finally, we learned a lot about who deserves to start or get more minutes and who deserves to ride the pine for now. Here they are:

Heath Pearce- He looked absolutely lost on defense, and he was to blame for not following the opposing player in allowing the first score. He looked listless on defense, and was unwilling to bring the ball up the field to attack at all. It’s clear we need to make a change at the position, and I suggest either moving DaMarcus Beasley (more on him later) to left back or preferably putting Jonathan Spector in there for Trinidad on Wednesday. Going forward, Bradley should consider bringing Michael Orozco in to try him out at the position.

Sacha Kljestan- I thought we found our answer at central midfield to pair with Michael Bradley with Sacha but Kljestan has played like garbage the last two games. He’s disappeared for stretches, and loses the ball to easily. He’s supposed to help link up with our forwards and get forward himself and he has not done that at all of late. Time to replace him with Jose Torres, who was a revelation after he came on late in the game on Saturday.

DaMarcus Beasley

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