More than Just a Friend
The US plays a different game. They look at their International Friendly fixtures as the arena to pick up FIFA Federation
pts. Since their tournament play leaves a lot to be desired, the Americans look like no other team, with victory always surpassing obvious inconsistencies.
Yet, still the score line reads 3-1 the US, so Uncle Sam’s stands content that we are gaining in strides. Remember it’s an opening win to a build up that leads to the big one. Well unfortunately it’s our inability to see our program in the distance that gets lost in the immediate haze of sub-meaningful matches.
Having said that, you would still expect Ecuador to play with more desire in front of a heavy away faithful at the Pirate Zone in Tampa, as they played as if it was their first day back from a European vacation—just returned. True, though many of their power players were not around, it wasn’t as if the Americans had the same luxury.
Thankfully for the US, Landon Donovan showed some of that star-dust he will be hoping to find form with in the prospect of playing along side of Beck-stars in LA. From his astonishing opening minute strike to his 2 game killing goals, Donovan showed the ruthlessness in front of goal, that if found more consistently would keep him more familiar with the likes of Ronaldinho, Kuranyi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Toni, Gerrard, etc. (all also multi-goal scorers at the International break!)
The Ecuadorians were content to represent their individual ability; however, they never really looked like scoring and lacked any incentive or inspiration to really get it done in the final third.
If Clint Dempsey or “Wing-foot” Demarcus were sharper, then the uninspiring midfield fulcrum of young Hispelgier and Baby Bradley might not have seemed so absurd. I guess the oversea academy systems are good breeding grounds for the affluent American soccer world. See you against Guatemala!
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