US v. Japan thoughts

Well as you all know I'm sure the US is atop their group with a not so convincing win today. For the first 23 minutes or so the United States dominated the game controlling the ball, creating chances, and leaving Japan only with a counter attack. The domination ended with a cheeky set play from a corner which left a Japanese player all alone at the far post with an empty net..... but he was nice enough to put it wide! For the rest of the half McBride got fouled from behind around 72 times and Adu put numerous shots high and wide. In the second half the US jumped out to a 1-0 lead with a rip from Stuart Holden. The game was back and forth from there on out and ended with a 1-0 scoreline.


For the US here are some Pros and Cons from what I gathered:

First the Cons:

• Our outside backs were thrashed throughout the game getting beaten constantly. Wynne though he played a large part in the goal, was not good enough defending. Orozco did nothing......
  


• Freddy struggled up front I thought. I don't think he had any shots on goal for the duration of the game and he held onto the ball toooooooo long. He needs to be placed in the midfield for Kljestan who as far as I'm concerned was nonexistent all game and place Jozy upfront w/ McBride.
  


• We should have lost the game in a nutshell. The Japanese had much more chances then the US with empty nets and one on one headers that should have been buried. If the Dutch or Nigerians get any of those chances.... we're done.



• We needed to get our subs in earlier then the 75th min. some payers were dragging across the field and we almost paid the ultimate price.
  

Now for the good news.

• Holden and Rogers absolutely dominated the wings at the other end of the pitch. If Rogers keeps playing like he did today I wouldn't be surprised if he gets picked up at the end of the transfer market.



• Edu played great in the back, though towards the end of the game he did get a little chippy and dragged someone down in the box for what should have been a PK.



• We dominated the first 23 min of the game if we could keep that up for a full 90 min we could beat anyone in the tourney. But for now we've got 3 pts and are atop our group, all we need now is a win against either the Netherlands or Nigeria and we're through to the knockout stages.