It was a couple of U.S. national teaam noobies that helped create a late winner, scored by coach's son Michael Bradley, in USA's 1-0 victory over Switzerland in St. Jakob Park in Basel.
The game-winner started with Toronto FC midfielder and cap virgin Maurice Edu finding fellow first-capper Danny Szetela on the right. Szetela crossed to Clint Dempsey who played the ball off his knee to an onrushing Bradley who tucked it home just four minutes from time.
In a rather boring match, played in rainy conditions, the U.S. was able to feature some new, young faces and begin to determine if any of these new legs might run into the national team picture for World Cup qualification. Although coach Bob Bradley began with a somewhat predictable line-up, he managed to get everyone (save Jay DeMerit) into the match, including Freddy Adu who entered the match for Taylor Twellman in the 77th minute and nearly made it 2-0 after a nifty through ball by Dempsey.
The next match for the U.S. will be on November 17 against the 2010 World Cup hosts, South Africa in the Nelson Mandela Challenge Cup at Ellis Park Stadium in South Africa.
Scoring:
USA – Bradley (Dempsey) 86
Lineups:
USA: 24-Marcus Hahnemann (18-Brad Guzan, 46); 6-Steve Cherundolo, 22-Oguchi Onyewu (2-Dan Califf, 46), 3-Carlos Bocanegra (Capt.), 7-Eddie Lewis (9-Danny Szetela, 84); 5-Benny Feilhaber, 13-Maurice Edu, 4-Michael Bradley,17-DaMarcus Beasley (11-Heath Pearce, 31); 20-Taylor Twellman (25-Freddy Adu, 77), 8-Clint Dempsey (29-Robbie Findley, 90)
SUI: 1-Pascal Zuberbühler; 2-Johan Djourou (25-Steve Von Bergen, 17), 3-Ludovic Magnin (Capt.), 5-Xavier Margairaz (22-Hakan Yakin, 46); 11-Marco Streller (31-Blaise Nkufo, 46), 13-Stephane Grichting, 14-David Degen, 16-Tranquillo Barnetta (17-Christoph Spycher, 75), 27-Gokhan Inler, 29-Stephan Lichtsteiner, 35-Fabio Celestini (33-Gelson Fernandes, 46)
Patriot of the Pitch©: Clint Dempsey
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- TYH is a masked avenger for the righteousness of American soccer, converting nonbelievers and destroying those who stand in the way of our country's glorious destiny as a soccer world power.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Youthful U.S. slips one past Swiss
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1 comments:
the under-21's showed that they are ready to take the reigns. I'll agree the match was overall boring (until the scond half of the second half). Lackluster performance from Dempsey (looked hungover all game) and Twellman -- but I was really impressed by Bradley annd Adu's performances. I think had Adu come in earlier he would have scored a goal. Otherwise Boca was strong on D (as he hasn;t been lately for Fulham) and it was nice to see Onyewu play less like a linbacker. I'm content with the win.
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