The expectations were high for the United States Men's National Team as they entered Tuesday's international friendly against Azerbaijan at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Jurgen Klinsmann had already made his selections for the final 23-man squad and now it was time for the team to gel as a unit in preparation for June 16th against Ghana.
Across the field from them was a nation ranked 85th in the latest FIFA World Rankings in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan came into the match on some pretty good form with an overall record of four wins, seven draws and two losses since the start of 2013.
One of the biggest strengths for Azerbaijan is there tough nosed defense. This is evident by some of those recent results like a 1-1 draw with Israel in Ramat Gan during World Cup qualifying and another 1-1 draw with Russia on the final day of UEFA WC Qualification.
The biggest news of the match came before the teams even emerged from the tunnel for the anthems as Clint Dempsey was scratched from the starting lineup for what was reported to be “groin soreness.” Klinsmann said that the move was precautionary and that they did not expect it to be anything serious. Dempsey was replaced by San Jose Earthquakes forward Chris Wondolowski.
Wondolowski would have the match’s first big scoring chance in the fourth minute. Graham Zusi floated in a costless kick from the right hand side of the field about 25 yards from goal, the ball found a wide-open Wondo about 8 yards from goal. His header was straight at the keeper Kamran Agayev.
Azerbaijan would get the next opportunity, one of the rare scoring chances they would get, in the seventh minute as the United States defense was having trouble clearing the ball. Matt Besler lost control of his dribble giving the ball away to Vagif Javadov who fired a rocket at Tim Howard. Howard was able to get a hand on the shot for a corner.
Wondo had another massive chance in the fifteenth minute again off of a Graham Zusi service. This time it was a corner kick, another header and the same result; another huge save by Agayev to keep the match level at zero.
At this point, Azerbaijan really started to concentrate on their defensive efforts which would puzzle the United States for the first 70 minutes of the match. Berti Vogts men essentially played with 11 men behind the ball, clogging up the entire American attacking half. When the United States would find some space, they were quickly closed down by multiple defenders.
The United States finally found the breakthrough in the 75th minute as Mix Diskerud slotted home the eventually game-winning goal after a crazy sequence in the penalty area. Brad Davis whipped in a costless kick that pin-balled around the box before falling at Michael Bradley’s feet. Bradley fired a shot past the goalkeeper but the ball was saved off the line by a defender. The ball then rolled to Diskerud who fired it past Agayev again to give Klinsmann and company the lead finally.
The match started to open up after the goal as Azerbaijan started committing numbers forward in search of an equalizer. The USA would find some prime counterattacking chances during this portion of the match but the wind forced many of their long-balls forward to overshoot the intended target.
Set pieces would be the key for the second and final goal as Brad Davis found the open forehead of Aron Johannsson who guided the ball into the near side netting to double the lead to 2-0 in the 81st minute.
The match would finish with that score line; United States 2, Azerbaijan 0.
The severity of Clint Dempsey’s injury should be on the minds of American soccer fans. He is the team’s captain and arguably the most dangerous attacking player on the 23-man squad. Though it does bring up a very interesting potential storyline. If Clint Dempsey is not healthy enough to participate with the National Team, does that open up a spot for Landon Donovan?
It will be very interesting to see how this plays out over the next few days but as for this match this writer was not impressed by what he saw tonight from the team. Granted they were playing against a nation whose goal was to clog the middle of the field but still they should have converted on scoring chances early. Wondolowski had two prime chances to score in the first quarter of an hour, goals that would have put the result on ice. Unfortunately, those were not converted and fans were treated to 75 agonizing minutes second guessing Klinsmann’s choices.
If the United States comes out on June 16th against Ghana and plays like they did tonight, then it will be the start of a very disappointing tournament.
The team travels cross-country to New York for their next friendly. That match will take place on Sunday at 2:00 pm Eastern Time against Turkey at Red Bull Arena.