U.S. Crumbles on Defense
It was only last week that Bruce Arena, coach of the U.S. national soccer team, was praising the defensive play of the Americans in giving up only two goals in eight games this year.
“It has been a total team effort,†Arena said. “The number of shutouts we have [six] is a credit to the [entire] team.â€
The entire team, therefore, must share the blame when the U.S. defense crumples, as it did spectacularly Wednesday night.
Germany, exploding the myth of U.S. invincibility on defense, scored three goals in a devastating eight-minute spell in the second half en route to a 4-2 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 28,835 at the Osteestadion in the Baltic port city of Rostock, Germany.
“I thought the key to the game was their physical strength,†Arena said. “We could have defended better and at times shown more commitment.
“They won a lot of the battles, and in the end they were the better team.â€
The U.S. was missing three potential World Cup starters: midfielders Claudio Reyna and John O’Brien and forward Brian McBride, all of whom were nursing injuries.
Even so, it was a strong team Arena fielded. Or so it seemed. He started Kasey Keller in goal; Steve Cherundolo, Eddie Pope, Jeff Agoos and David Regis in defense; Chris Armas, Landon Donovan, Earnie Stewart and Eddie Lewis in midfield, and Clint Mathis and Jovan Kirovski up front.
For a while, it appeared the Americans might give the three-time world champions all they could handle. Coach Rudi Voeller’s team, missing no fewer than 15 players from its likely World Cup roster, fell behind in the 17th minute.
Mathis took a pass from Kirovski and unleashed a shot that got past German goalkeeper Frank Rost but hit the inside of the post. Mathis was alert enough to pounce on the rebound and drive it into the empty net.
The goal woke Germany, which tied the score one minute before halftime on a 30-yard free kick by its captain, Christian Ziege, a teammate of Keller at Tottenham Hotspur in England.
“I’ve seen Ziege do this in training all the time,†Keller said of Ziege’s shot, which sneaked into the net just inside the right post and just beyond Keller’s reach.
“You can’t cheat against him. If you move a second early, he nails you to the other post. You basically have to give him the upper corner. And if he hits it, you shake his hand.â€
American heads were left shaking when Germany turned up the heat in the second half. Oliver Neuville started the spree by scoring in the 61st minute when the U.S. defense failed to clear a Bernd Schneider corner kick.
Four minutes later, Schneider found Oliver Bierhoff with a cross from the right and Bierhoff hammered home a shot from 10 yards for his 33rd goal in 61 games for Germany.
Still reeling from that blow, the U.S. gave the ball away again in the 68th minute. Schneider fed Bierhoff, who passed the ball for Torsten Frings to net Germany’s fourth goal.
“We let the Americans play the way they like to in the first 45 minutes, but after that we stepped up the pace and played really well,†Bierhoff said. “I think it was a pretty good performance overall.â€
Arena had sent Joe-Max Moore on in place of Kirovski an hour into the game and it was Moore who set up Mathis for his second goal in the 71st minute with a through pass that Mathis took in stride before firing the ball past Hans Jorg Butt, who had replaced Rost in the nets for Germany.
Next up for the U.S. is a game in Denver on April 3 against Mexico, which on Wednesday recalled former Galaxy goalkeeper Jorge Campos to its squad for that game.
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Road to World Cup
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