Well, one thing we learned tonight is that Canada is defintely not Spain. The U.S. played a solid, although unspectacular, game against our Northern Neighbors in Detroit. The U.S. dominated possession and were patient in the attack, but Spain (and for that matter, Mexico) would have punished the USMNT's mistakes a bit more than Canada did. Nevertheless, it is a good start to the Gold Cup.
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Below are our ratings for each U.S. player on the night. The rubric being used is from SkySports (http://www.skysports.com/football/whatisthis/0,20945,,00.html?width=600px&height=450px).
Howard: 9 -- Howard always seems to need to come up with one or two saves to keep USA in the game, this time he made three. (Evan); 8 -- Showed why he is one of the best with his one-handed save on Gerba and the double save in the 85th keeping the game out of Canada's reach. (mwc).
Cherundolo: 6.5 -- First half was much better than the second, he was guilty of giving the ball away, but his runs gave Canada fits (Evan); 6 -- Had trouble with Simpson and Jackson's speed at times, but got into the attack and provided some needed width (mwc).
Goodson: 7 -- Formed a solid partnership with Ream and didn't really make any mistakes, was a threat on set-pieces as always. (Evan); 7 -- Won just about every ball that came his way and showed a bit more ability on his passing than I remembered. (mwc).
Ream: 6.5 -- Distribution was solid, but got beaten badly once and was fortunate with some offside decisions, a good impression for his first competitive start. (Evan); 6 -- His mistakes did not hurt us, but overall a solid effort (mwc).
Bocanegra: 6 -- Missed an easy chance to score, solid but unspectacular (Evan); 6 -- Got beaten a couple of times and mis-hit his chance in the first half, but overall solid (mwc).
Donovan: 9 -- Either Donovan or Bradley was the man of the match for me, probably Donovan. He played numerous nice through balls including the balls that sprang both goals. Donovan was very active defensively as well and later in the game dropped back to control the pace of the match. (Evan); 8 -- Assisted the first goal and helped Cherundolo on defense when needed. A very good two-way game tonight (mwc).
Jones: 5 -- Jones continues to be guilty of giving the ball away too easily and committing dumb fouls, he was probably the worst field player for USA. (Evan); 6 -- Solid in defense, good vision, and his long passes almost always find their target (mwc).
Bradley: 9 -- Bradley showed why he is first choice in the midfield, Bradley probably touched the ball more than anyone else on the field and gave it away just 3 times by my count. He played an excellent ball into Jozy that Jozy should have done better with (Evan); 7 -- Played well, but I could have done without that yellow card (mwc).
Dempsey: 7 -- Scored a great goal and nearly scored another on an amazing scorpion kick, but he wasn't involved in the game as much as he should have been. (Evan); 6 -- Not his best game, but I'm giving him a bump for scoring the goal (mwc).
Altidore: 7 -- His hold up play could have been better and he drifted for large amounts of the game, but he scored a very opportunistic goal and set up the second goal. It's good that Jozy opened his Gold Cup account early; USA needs a confident Jozy to win this tournament. (Evan); 8 -- A goal, an assist, good distribution, some good runs AND pressuring the ball on defense?? Don't tease me like this Jozy (mwc).
Agudelo: 6 -- Had a good first half, but tired after that. He was very ambitious with his shots, but didn't shy away from the moment, still he could have done better. (Evan); 7 -- Worked hard and had two good efforts on goal. He does a lot of good things off the ball. (mwc).
Wondolowski (sub 64th): Not enough time to merit a rating (Evan); 5 -- Never got into the game (mwc).
Klejstan (sub 74th): Not enough time or touches to merit a rating (Evan & mwc).
Edu (sub 79th): Not enough time or touches to merit a rating (Evan & mwc).
So, what did you think? Agree? Disagree? Let us know in the comment section below.
