The United States opened its World Cup warmup matches with a sluggish 2-0 win over 85th-ranked Azerbaijan at Candlestick Park in San Francisco last night. With team captain Clint Dempsey a late scratch with a groin injury, the U.S. team played a 4-4-2 formation, with Jozy Altidore and Chris Wondolowski up front. Wondolowski had two excellent chances in the early part of the match off set pieces in the 4th and 15th minutes, but could not convert the opportunities into goals. It was only in the second half that the U.S. was able to break through, as second-half substitutes Mix Diskerud (wearing Landon Donovan's #10 jersey) and Icelandic-American and mini-Ivan Drago Aron Johannsson scored to give the U.S. the victory.
USMNT #10 scored in Tuesday evening's friendly, but it wasn't Landon Donovan (Photo: @MLS | Twitter)
Overall, in spite of the win, fans of the U.S. National team should be concerned about this performance. Although the U.S. looked dangerous off set pieces throughout the evening (including the two goals), delivered by Graham Zusi and Brad Davis, the U.S. wasted numerous clear-cut scoring opportunities in front of the goal. Although Jozy Altidore had a few moments where he was able to outmuscle a defender with his back to the goal, he created no real scoring chances and generally failed to impose his will on the match. After a disappointing debut season with Sunderland where he scored only one league goal, we would have loved to see more out of Jozy in this match.
The U.S. were also very sloppy in defending at the back. Central defender Matt Besler was particularly careless with the ball and turned it over several times in situations that gave Azerbaijan great scoring opportunities. Fortunately for the U.S., they weren't able to convert. However, with the quality that will be on the pitch in Group G, the U.S. likely will not be as lucky should these same mistakes follow them to Brazil. Additionally, throughout the course of the match, Azerbaijan was content to sit back with 11 men behind the ball. It is unlikely that any of the teams that the U.S. will face in the group stage will adopt that strategy and, with the shaky defending that was on display in this match, Ballon d'Or winner and Portugal international Cristiano Ronaldo has to be licking his chops (while staring in the mirror, obviously).
On the surface, the match seems like a comfortable win for the U.S., but a "comfortable" level of performance will not be enough to advance out of the "group of death" that the U.S. finds itself in at the World Cup. With the #2 and #3 ranked teams in the FIFA World Rankings and the country that knocked the U.S. out of the last two World Cups in its group, the U.S. team will have to raise its game in order to advance. It has two more friendlies to sort things out before the matches really count. Hopefully, the team will get things properly sorted, as otherwise, it will be a long four years until its chance for redemption in Russia.
