Apologies for the post title. "Thoughts on USA-Chile" just seemed way too dry. Anyway, just got done watching the match on the DVR, and gee, I've got opinions on it.
- I think Bob Bradley had to tell his team at halftime that they don't have to wait for a corner kick to enter Chile's penalty area. At the very least, he told Agudelo and Bunbury when they came into the match, as the attacking play definitely picked up.
- That said, I liked how Brek Shea and Zach Loyd worked together on the left side during stretches of the first half. Loyd definitely likes getting forward, which I'm sure will endear him to U.S. fans. His workrate reminds me of Frankie Hejduk, but hopefully with more skill. I only hope he learns to keep his arms down, or he's going to be a handball and yellow card machine.
- Dax McCarty seemed to take the captain's armband very seriously. Right from the get-go he was making a concerted effort to control the play through the midfield. He wasn't perfect, but I thought he looked pretty good out there, and you have to like the willingness to try the long-range shot.
- It's going to be easy to beat up on Wondolowski and Diskerud up top, but they weren't getting much service. Neither of them did much when they did get the ball, but the touches were few and far between. On the other hand, Bunbury looked a lot better than Wondo pretty much immediately.
- I never did watch the South Africa match, so this is the first time I've seen Agudelo. If I'm not totally on the bandwagon yet, I'm pretty close.
- If I'm going to single out guys who didn't play well, Jeff Larentowicz, Alex Bedoya and Marvell Wynne are my choices. Bedoya had that one good run into the box in the second half, but other than that, he was pretty invisible. Larentowicz, too, and he compounded it by giving half-assed defensive help to Loyd on the cross that set up the Chile goal. And while it may not be fair to focus on one play for Wynne, the way he flapped at that cross didn't exactly scream out "national team material."
- As a Fire fan, it feels good to have another capped U.S. player on the squad. I think Sean Johnson only touched the ball once outside of taking it from the back of the net on the Chile goal, which he really couldn't do anything about.