US vs. Canada

US vs. Canada

So I was somewhat disappointed with the formation that Bradley chose to go with last night, he diverted back to the 4-4-2. I was hoping to see the 4-2-1-3 or a variation on this, but I know that the team has not been performing well in this formation and need more time to get used to it. Maybe against the other two teams in the group he will feel more comfortable with experimenting, but I could see him sticking with what works throughout the tournament and then getting back to the 4-2-1-3 later.

The US performed well and dominated the first 20 minutes of the game and got a goal for their efforts, it was nice to see the amount of procession that the US had. Canada is no Spain, but they are an athletic side that knows how to move the ball and create opportunities. They are also an arch rival of the US, and that makes this game an important one.

I hope that we get to see Freddy Adu sometime in the group stage; all I have seen are some highlights of him in Turkey and would like to see him play a full game. He must be playing pretty well to have Bradley call him in for this tournament. We will probably see a similar line-up against Panama, maybe Edu will come in for Jones because he came off with a little bit of an injury against Canada, but when they play Guadeloupe I would expect Bradley to change some things. You might see something like this….

                                                                      Rimando

                           Lichaj            Ream                        Onyewu                Bornstein

         

                        Rogers             Edu                      Bradley                 Kljestan

                                                Adu                  Agudelo          

But you will only see something like this if the US beat Panama and Bradley wants to rest his starters. I could see Spector starting in the place of Ream and moving Kljestan into the middle for Bradley and and Adu out to the wing to make way from Wondolowski, but that would mean a line-up void of any of the starters from the Canada game.

Do you think that Bradley would do something like this in the Gold Cup? He did last year, and if they beat Panama and have a lock on first in the group, this line-up would not surprise me at all.

Here are some highlights from the game…