US Soccer Live Blog: US v. T&T (2nd Half)

Well,

• (46:13) T&T is attacking already. Luckily for the US, they were offsides.
• (48:22) Holy shit we are getting homecooked. Altidore is called offsides, but the replay tells a different tale. How many times will this happen? Hopefully, that’ll be the last one.
• (55:08) Yorke plays a nice corner in, and the US clears it out. Scotland (again) gets the ball back and takes a shot on goal but (again) he’s wide.
• (57:45) Altidore is taken down. No call.
• (60:11) I am really liking what I am seeing from Orozco. He looks very calm, cool and collected out there. He easily stopped Scotland from getting a shot off.
• (62:40) Goooooooooooaaaaaaaallllllll… But not for the “good guys”. T&T 1 - US 0
• (63:00) Carlos Edwards played a beautiful ball to the far post. Latapy scores on a goal I can’t even really describe. But I’ll try. Guzan deflects the ball, it takes a sketchy bounce and hits off the post… Then… yes… then it hits Guzan’s back and rolls into the net. Wow.
• (64:37) T&T almost scores again… Wow, the wheels are falling off.
• (66:00) Adu throws up a hail mary. It’s a little early for that, isn’t it Freddy?
• (66:01) Stern John is coming on for T&T. MLS fans everywhere rejoice.
• (71:34) Davies has been subbed in for Adu. Geez, Bob. If I was trying to score a goal to tie this thing, I think I would have left Freddy in…
• (75:14) Davies has scored in his first 4 minutes. Talk about fresh legs. T&T 1 - US 1
• (76:00) Charlie got the goal, but it really belonged to Altidore. I am still confused about how he didn’t lose the ball. To make a long story short, Altidore slammed into a couple of defenders and miraculously kept the ball. The keeper was forced out, and Altidore just laid it past him to the side for Davies to blast into an open net.
• (78:44) Orozco is my man of the match so far. He stymied T&T again. That Edwards is Dangerous. Note the Capital D.
• (79:57) Altidore has gone from hero to goat in a matter of five minutes. He’s called for a penalty in the box. Dwight Yorke (predictably) converts the penalty. T&T 2 - US 1
• (80:00) The crowd has gone from feeling dejected to insane with euphoria. Earning a draw here would be nice, but would we get out alive?  Oh and by the way, Altidore has also been booked.
• (81:13) The US is on the attack. Pearce looks like maybe he should switch with Edu. That guy can flat out run.
• (84:55) Davies and Altidore almost combine again for a goal, but the shot is wide.
• (85:10) Szetela is (finally) coming on. Altidore is out. He’s dead tired, and he’s got a card.
• (86:07) We’ve injured another player. Well, either that or he’s just lying down because its 98 degrees and he’s tired and he and his team would like a short breather before running out the clock. You be the judge.
• (89:00) Chris Rolfe will come on now too. Suddenly Bradley is like a t-ball coach. “Hey kids, everybody gets to play!!!”
• (Extra Time) We’ll have another 180 seconds apparently. Let’s hope for something magic, truly athletic or lucky. Well, let’s just hope for lucky I guess.
• (180 Seconds Later) Well, nothing magic or lucky happened. Not much athletic happened the whole game for the US. Overall, you have to be impressed with Davies. He played well (but not enough). Jozy is electric, that’s undisputed. But he’s also prone to making big errors. Both his assets and detriments were on display tonight. I actually thought Adu should have stayed in. He was playing better than Beasley and Kljestan. Torres was unremarkable, and don’t even get me started on Edu. I did like what I saw out of Califf and Orozco. Pearce needs polishing, but he could be a big contributor come 2010. Hejduk just doesn’t need to play so much. Frankie is a grinder, and I love him, but it’s time for Bradley to start thinking about the future. 2010. What I’m saying is: Wynne needs minutes.

Overall, we played OK. This was basically our B Team, and they showed some heart coming back from 0-1 on the road in a tough venue. T&T flat out played a better game. Now, the US did lose two huge opportunities to bad offsides calls. But, no excuses. A loss, yes. A learning experience?

I hope.

FINAL SCORE T&T 2 - US 1