{"id":1330,"date":"2010-10-12T23:34:34","date_gmt":"2010-10-13T03:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=1330"},"modified":"2010-10-13T00:06:34","modified_gmt":"2010-10-13T04:06:34","slug":"u-s-struggles-for-offense-in-scoreless-draw-with-colombia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=1330","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Struggles For Offense In Scoreless Draw With Colombia"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHESTER, PA. – The United States Men\u2019s National Team never really looked a threat to score as they drew 0-0 with visiting Colombia on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

The U.S., playing a 4-3-3 that looked more like a 4-5-1 with 3 holding midfielders, looked lifeless offensively. Brek Shea (FC Dallas) made his debut, starting for the U.S., while Eric Lichaj (Aston Villa, England) came off the bench for his first appearance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Former New England Revolution defender and Cranston, Rhode Island native Michael Parkhurst made his 9th appearance for the U.S. National Team on Tuesday. (Photo by Art Donahue\/artdonahue.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Colombia looked equally impotent, but a mistake in the 4th<\/sup> minute by the U.S. gave the South Americans the best chance of the match. Maurice Edu failed to control a pass from Michael Bradley, allowing Colombia to intercept and break forward. Falcao Garcia led the attack, sprinting forward and unleashing a shot from about 16 yards.<\/p>\n

Garcia\u2019s effort was blocked by a sliding Oguchi Onyewu, but the ball fell right to Giovanni Moreno. Moreno attempted a shot to the far post, but it was denied by a diving Brad Guzan.<\/p>\n

Onyewu had the US\u2019 first shot of the match, in the 20th<\/sup> minute, getting on the end of a Stuart Holden free kick, but his header under pressure was wide of the post.<\/p>\n

Head coach Bob Bradley made four changes to the U.S. at halftime, bringing on Lichaj, Eddie Johnson and former New England Revolution players Clint Dempsey and Michael Parkhurst. \u00a0Benny Feilhaber eventually came on as well as the U.S. switched to a 4-4-2<\/p>\n

The moves failed to spark any life into the U.S. attack and they didn\u2019t test Colombia \u2018keeper Farid Mondragon until the 53rd<\/sup> minute on a long shot from Stuart Holden. The veteran keeper made no mistake, diving to his right to make a comfortable save.<\/p>\n

Jozy Altidore had the best chance for the U.S. in the 87th<\/sup> minute, getting on the end of a cross from Lichaj. Altidore, near the penalty spot, powered a header on frame, but it was right at Mondragon, who easily made the save.<\/p>\n

The U.S. pushed numbers forward in the final five minutes of the match, but were unable to breakdown Colombia\u2019s defense and had to settle for the scoreless draw both teams deserved.<\/p>\n

The U.S. next travels to play South Africa on November 17th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHESTER, PA. – The United States Men\u2019s National Team never really looked a threat to score as they drew 0-0 with visiting Colombia on Tuesday night. The U.S., playing a 4-3-3 that looked more like a 4-5-1 with 3 holding midfielders, looked lifeless offensively. Brek Shea (FC Dallas) made his debut, starting for the U.S., […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/parkhurstfeature.jpg?fit=490%2C225","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1330"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1332,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330\/revisions\/1332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}