USA vs. Slovenia: Americans Not Good Enough to Sacrifice Defense for Attack

The United States earned their second win of the Jurgen Klinsman era against Slovenia yesterday.

The international friendly was a rematch of the 2010 World Cup game that saw the US come from behind to tie Slovenia 2-2 in the second half before ultimately playing to a draw.

This time around, the US didn't waste any time getting on the board.

The Americans scored three goals in the first and held on to win 3-2 against the home squad.

In the first six matches of Klinsmann's tenure, the US men's national team netted only two goals and conceded five.

It was quite a striking change.

It did, however, cost the US team on the back end.

We've seen the American team struggle defensively and it was evident again yesterday.

Teams are bound to score goals, but the US needs to find a balance.

The win was meaningless outside of making strides as a team.

We saw Michael Bradley get much more comfortable in Klinsmann's set up and Clint Dempsey responded strongly with a goal.

However, the US team isn't good enough to sacrifice their defense for goal scoring opportunities.

There were several chances for Slovenia to tie the score in the late stages of the match. That type of performance will not suffice against better outfits.

The Americans played France close but lost 1-0. They also lost 1-0 to Ecuador, Costa Rica and Belgium. They even played to a disappointing 1-1 draw against a Mexican B-squad under Klinsmann.

Their first win came against Honduras. It was 1-0.

Needless to say, goals haven't come easy for the Americans.

Unfortunately, they aren't good enough on the back end to push further up.

Klinsmann has to find a way to keep balance in the US attack and still be able to defend.

The US just completed their first losing calendar year since 1997.

Something has to change.