Player Ratings
Zusi's Rough Night, Jones Experiment Play Key Roles
The night got off to a great start for the United States but ended with a deflating equalizer, and Blake Thomsen's player ratings reflect this decidedly uneven performance.
BY
Blake Thomsen
Posted
October 15, 2014
10:20 AM
October 15, 2014
10:20 AM
STARTERS
Nick Rimando: Rimando wasn’t terribly busy throughout the night, though he did make the occasional save as well as a few catches in traffic. His distribution was curiously erratic, though, including one shank that nearly led to an Andy Najar goal. On Maynor Figueroa’s late equalizer, there was very little he could do. Rating: 5.5 Timothy Chandler: Much like a standard Jon Arnold podcast performance, Chandler was steady but unexceptional. In a sense, this represents progress for the German-American, as he often mixes moments of attacking brilliance with thickheaded mistakes at the back. Tonight, he didn’t get much going offensively—did anyone, though?—but he made up for it with solid defensive work, especially on an impressive 47th-minute tackle on Romell Quioto, who had exploited the space left by an out-of-position Jermaine Jones. Rating: 6 Jermaine Jones: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the full Jermaine Jones Experience! If you thought you’d been getting everything Jones had to offer over the past four years, think again. The U.S.’s most erratic regular (and also one of its most talented) is now playing in the one position where mistakes are least acceptable… And to be fair, the early returns were pretty good. His U.S. debut as a center back was littered with superb recovering tackles, which caught the eye but may raise a few questions about his positioning. All told, a promising enough beginning of yet another Jurgen Klinsmann position experiment. Rating: 6 Matt Besler: Besler’s performances for Sporting K.C. seem to have dipped a bit since the World Cup, but proudly donning the U.S.’s golf shirt once again, he looked typically excellent. His perfect positioning was a nice antidote to Jones’ wandering. Rating: 6.5 Greg Garza: Garza continues to look the part in a U.S. shirt, both as a soccer player and as a dude you don’t want to mess with if a mini-brawl breaks out. With Alejandro Bedoya providing his standard defensive cover, Garza bombed forward at will and had a few nice attacking moments, including a fizzing half volley that didn’t miss the frame by that much. Several of the good folks amongst the ASN reader community have been pining for Garza for a while, and it’s easy to see why. His step up from Liga MX to the international level has been rather seamless. Rating: 6.5 Alejandro Bedoya: These Bedoya ratings are becoming very easy to write, as the FC Nantes man is about as consistent as they come. He delivered a perfect microcosm of his game with a mid-second half lung-busting recovery run to deny an advancing Najar. This rating could have been even higher had he connected with Clint Dempsey after a fine run early in the first half, but his squared pass was met by an outstretched Honduran defender. Rating: 6.5SUBSTITUTES
Bobby Wood: Wood looked lively for the second straight game, but again he didn’t produce too much end product. Perhaps this is to be expected from a player who is just 21 and earning his third cap. The Flyin’ Hawaiian’s* future looks bright, but he’s not quite there yet. All in all, Klinsmann should be fairly pleased with Wood’s efforts over the last two games.*In the comments section, please let me know if we can make this a thing or not. Rating: 5.5 DeAndre Yedlin: Yedlin has been consistently excellent in his brief national team career, but tonight may have been his “worst” performance in a U.S. shirt. That doesn’t even mean he played particularly badly, just that he wasn’t up to his own high standards. He defended manfully when called upon, but he failed to make anywhere near the attacking influence we saw on Friday or in Brazil. Rating: 5.5 Tim Ream: Most of Honduras’s attacks in the last 30 minutes came down the right side of the field, so Ream wasn’t too busy in his late cameo at left center back. With Jones now in the center back pool, it’s somewhat hard to see Ream getting consistent games over Omar Gonzalez, Geoff Cameron, Jones, or Besler, but at least he didn’t shoot himself in the foot tonight or against Ecuador. Rating: 6 Alredo Morales: [Insert write-up from previous two games]. In seriousness, Morales delivered a third straight cameo marked by dependable shielding of the defense. He seems to have taken to this late game sub role, and he may keep it for quite some time. Rating: 6 Joe Corona: In Corona’s 12 minutes (plus stoppage time), he didn’t see enough of the ball to warrant a rating. Rating: Incomplete Miguel Ibarra: Ibarra came on when the game was all but over. Still, what a thrill it must have been to get a U.S. cap as a Minnesota United (!!) player. Rating: Incomplete