Aug 02
Cameroon U-23’s Down USA U-23’s
In the final warmup before the olympics, the USA didn’t put out their strongest showing. They USA were beaten 1-0 on a 24th minute penalty in Hong Kong today, an event that won’t inspire much confidence in the team. A Michael Bradley trip led to the penalty which Aurelien Chedjou, who plays for Lille, was able to convert. After the jump is the lineup Peter Nowak used.
Here is the lineup the Americans trotted out against Cameroon:
————–McBride————-Altidore——————
Rogers——–Holden————Bradley———— Kljestan
Orozco———-Edu———Parkhurst—————Wynne
————————Guzan————————————
Freddy Adu came on for Altidore in the 64th minute. Charlie Davies entered for Brian McBride in the 69th minute. Dann Szetela and Benny Feilhaber entered for Michael Bradley and Robbie Rogers in the 79th minute.
What do you guys think? Nowak was obviously testing lineups out so this doesn’t exactly tell us much. What’s your opening game lineup? Who would you like to see more of and less of? Your thoughts below.
August 2nd, 2008 at 1:43 pm
I don’t think this is such a terrible result the lone goal came on a penalty and from what I can glean off of USsoccer.com the US had some good attacking play but just couldn’t find net.
August 2nd, 2008 at 1:50 pm
yea, i watched the first bit of the game and they looked a lot better than they did against Ivory Coast. It’s interesting to see how we can mix and match the lineups and then see how effective we are. this lineup is my choice for the opening match.
———altidore——–Mcbride———
—————-adu——————-
rogers———bradley————Kljestan
Orozco—Edu———Parkhurst—–Wynne
————–Guzan
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Guys, by my count that is two games with “0″ goals. This is not good. I think Nowak hasn’t found the chemistry.
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:57 pm
that’s the only thing that worries me, the defense is solid but the lack of goals worries me. Even with altidore and mcbride we’re struggling.
August 2nd, 2008 at 6:44 pm
I do not like the lineup at all. I know this isn’t the lineup for the olympics and Nowak is testing lineups/players but adu is too good to not be on the pitch, and replacing both altidore and mcbride for two smaller, faster guys was not a good move imo, it wont score goals. Nowak should have mixed it up and put a small guy (davies) up with either altidore or mcbride. then sub davies for adu and sub in altidore for mcbride or vice versa. That would have made more sense to me, but i still dont like that adu was not on the field for 64 minutes.
August 2nd, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Well Cameron its is like you said not the olympic line-up and this was a tune up. The main thing being looked at was what can his players do period, this isn’t like senior nationals where most players have been in that system for a while and you know what they are capable of. Nowak was just trying to get all his guys some time and try to learn from that what his best options are going forward.
We will all see exactly what we are up for this thursday early in the morning though (3:30 a.m. for me I believe) so get excited! I think we have the talent to do well.