USA vs Netherlands

[Orangezoo]

Very fun and open game. Should be 2-2 or 3-3 at this point as both defenses have been porous. Bradley and morales playing well. Johannsson deserves a goal for his hold up play. Brooks and Chandler somewhat maddening with their lack of focus in the back. Chandler not finishing his runs either. Zardes with a nice goal should have 2. Story really is bradley. I like Johnson in a forward position a ton. He has made some nice tackles and the assist on Zardes goal. Now time to see what happens in the 2nd half when the usmnt has been handing goals out like candy.

 

[Moontan]

The 2nd Dutch goal shouldn't have been called off.
They'll need Sneijder next week.

 

[Orangezoo]

2nd dutch goal was a foul out of the play where they threw down chandler. Fair enough though as 2nd us goal would have counted minus a shady foul where zardes was being pulled down but called for the foul.

 

[Orangezoo]

Weird game overall. Our central defense has been awful.

 

[Orangezoo]

3-3!!!!!

 

[Moontan]

(With my Orange colored glasses on) an ugly game. Embarrassing, actually.
US wins 4-3.

 

[Orangezoo]

Wow.. while im happy the u.s. won... what a wacky game. In many ways the opposite of many previous friendlies where the u.s. was shocked late.

 

[Orangezoo]

That dutch core is aging much like the spanish core did. Transition is painful. Depay is a great creative player but he needs to learn when to pull back and stop dancing around so much. It looks pretty but is unproductive. He will irritate like nani did at times at ole trafford.

 

[Toga]

Holy crap I turned it off at 3-1.

 

[Bortukal]

Michael Bradley was excellent today; the best I've seen him in a while. It's nice to be shocked in a positive way at the end of a friendly.

 

[Orangezoo]

Watching this game makes me lament bradley coming to mls. He is a world class center middie who can play first team football in europe.

 

[ImperialOrange]

couchburncouchburncouchburn:Ecouchburncouchburncouchburn:Ecouchburncouchburncouchburn

 

[Toga]

Michael Bradley was excellent today; the best I've seen him in a while. It's nice to be shocked in a positive way at the end of a friendly.

Still trying to get over his brain farts at the WC. He can play though.

 

[Bortukal]

Just re watched the final minutes. That last run by Bradley to setup the winner was positively gorgeous.

 

[CanadianSU]

Netherlands ain't the same are they, 3rd place in euro qualifying group behind the Czechs and Iceland.

Glad I bothered to watch that Lol, that was fun!

 

[Orangezoo]

Netherlands ain't the same are they, 3rd place in euro qualifying group behind the Czechs and Iceland.

Glad I bothered to watch that Lol, that was fun!

Yeah they are aging for sure. With that said playing johnson as a winger in the 4 3 3 looked really good. As did the combo play when mix came in alongside bradley.

 

[Moontan]

Netherlands ain't the same are they

That's been the complaint as soon as Hiddink took over. They may well miss out on qualification.
Hopefully Danny Blind and some new blood will get things going again.

 

[CanadianSU]

That's been the complaint as soon as Hiddink took over. They may well miss out on qualification.
Hopefully Danny Blind and some new blood will get things going again.

I'd be shocked if they missed out on the euro, I just hope they don't meet my Ukrainians in the playoffs...

 

[storange]

People always take too much out of these games. Especially late results when there are about 6 or 7 reserves on the field for each squad. Klinsmann going bonkers like this was a game that matters makes me laugh.

 

[Forza Azzurri]

People always take too much out of these games. Especially late results when there are about 6 or 7 reserves on the field for each squad. Klinsmann going bonkers like this was a game that matters makes me laugh.

Agreed.

It looked to me like they knew they could score whenever they wanted to and got bored...

 

[IthacaMatt]

People always take too much out of these games. Especially late results when there are about 6 or 7 reserves on the field for each squad. Klinsmann going bonkers like this was a game that matters makes me laugh.

Yes, the Dutch switched off, but the young players ran them off the field in the final 20 minutes. Yes, it was a friendly, but the players gained a lot of self-confidence from their comeback. I put a lot of it down to conditioning. The Dutch were gassed at the end of the game and the young US substitutes simply out-hustled them.