{"id":5000,"date":"2011-06-15T00:34:14","date_gmt":"2011-06-15T04:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=5000"},"modified":"2011-06-15T00:44:13","modified_gmt":"2011-06-15T04:44:13","slug":"player-ratings-u-s-men%e2%80%99s-national-team-vs-guadeloupe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=5000","title":{"rendered":"Player Ratings: U.S. Men\u2019s National Team vs. Guadeloupe"},"content":{"rendered":"

After each match the contributors to New England Soccer Today will rate the performances of the United States National Team players who made an appearance on a 1 to 10 scale (1 horrendous, 5 average, 10 perfection). This week Brian O\u2019Connell and Sean Donahue contributed ratings for the USA\u2019s 1-0 CONCACAF Gold Cup Group C victory over Guadeloupe<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tim Howard<\/strong> \u2013 Average Rating: 6<\/strong> (Brian 6.5, Sean 5.5)
\nA few frustrating sequences ahead of him, but really wasn’t tested often; communicated better this time around. Solid performance. (Brian) \u2026 Little to do. Caught a bit off guard on a deflected early corner. (Sean)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Eric Lichaj put in a much improved performance on Tuesday. (Photo by CHRIS ADUAMA\/aduama.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Eric Lichaj<\/strong> – Average Rating: 6.5 <\/strong>(Brian 6.5, Sean 6.5)
\nStrong game for the attack-minded back; defended OK, added fire to the attack; early hiccup on a sloppy ball deep his only glaring error. (Brian) \u2026 Looked confident in the attack and added a lot going forward. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Carlos Bocanegra<\/strong> – Average Rating: 6.25<\/strong> (Brian 6.5, Sean 6)
\nAnchored the defense; effective in the center, linked with the midfield; Bradley would be wise to keep him there for the rest of the tournament. (Brian) \u2026 Added the leadership and stability the U.S. needed in the center of the defense. Wasn\u2019t tested often. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Clarence Goodson<\/strong> \u2013 Average Rating: 4.75<\/strong> (Brian 4.5, Sean 5)
\nAllowed an early Guadelope corner to squirt into the box; aside from that, could have done better to mark the ambitious Guadelupe attackers. (Brian) \u2026 Hard performance to judge with a general lack of pressure, but at times looked shaky defending set pieces. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Steve Cherundolo<\/strong> – Average Rating: 7.75<\/strong> (Brian 8, Sean 7.5)
\nA one-man wrecking crew; did everything but put on the goalie gloves; injected life in the attack, solid in the rear, excellent communication and ideas. \u00a0(Brian) \u2026 Fantastic performance. Played a huge role in the attack and shut down his side on defense. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Landon Donovan <\/strong>– Average Rating: 5.25<\/strong> (Brian 5.5, Sean 5)
\nShould’ve given it a go on the weak goal kick early; effort was there, but unfortunately, the execution was largely absent. (Brian) \u2026 Back-to-back average performances from Donovan. Had some chances, but the finishing wasn\u2019t there. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Jermaine Jones<\/strong> – Average Rating: 6.5<\/strong> (Brian 6, Sean 7)
\nOffered support to the rear, made smart passes; very few mistakes made. (Brian) \u2026 Credit where credit\u2019s due: Jones\u2019 Gold Cup performances had been underwhelming until this point, but outside of a couple misplayed passes in the first half, Jones did an excellent job keeping the ball moving and came up big on defense a few times. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Michael Bradley<\/strong> \u2013 Average Rating: 5.5<\/strong> (Brian 5.5, Sean 5.5):
\nThe ambitious shots were thankfully missing, put in a good effort everywhere on the field, but never really factored into the offense. (Brian) \u2026 Assisted Altidore\u2019s goal and should\u2019ve had an assist on a Dempsey chance had his finishing been better, but overall didn\u2019t have the impact on the game he has recently. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Clint Dempsey<\/strong> – Average Rating: \u00a04<\/strong> (Brian 4, Sean 4)
\nTalk about a game to forget; found a ton of chances, but missed on each of them; clearly fell asleep on the open netter in the 76th. (Brian) \u2026 Dempsey should have had a hattrick fairly easily with the chances he had, but his finishing was dreadful and combined with another lackadaisical effort tracking back, it wasn\u2019t a great night for Clint. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Jozy Altidore<\/strong> – Average Rating: 7.25<\/strong> (Brian 7, Sean 7.5)
\nScored a wonder goal to put Guadelope on notice; matched well with the physical Guadelope center backs; one of the best performances we’ve seen from the 21-year-old (other than, you know, his hat track against Trinadad & Tobago in ’09). (Brian) \u2026 Fantastic goal and set up Dempsey for what should\u2019ve been a sitter. Earned some dangerous free kicks for the U.S. and battled hard all night. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Chris Wondolowski<\/strong> – Average Rating: \u00a04.75<\/strong> (Brian 5, Sean 4.5)
\nPoached a couple of early chances, but seemed to fall out of the picture in the second half. (Brian) \u2026 Finishing was lacking again and Wondolowski didn\u2019t have enough of an impact on the match. (Sean)<\/p>\n

(sub) Alejandro Bedoya<\/strong> – Average Rating: \u00a06<\/strong> (Brian 6, Sean 5.57)
\nAnother good cameo for Dempsey, Jr; unafraid to enter offensive forays; almost put one through via the header in the waning minutes. (Brian) \u2026 Put in the effort a coach wants from a substitute and added needed energy to the attack as the U.S. was slowing down. (Sean)<\/p>\n

(sub) Sacha Kljestan <\/strong>– Average Rating: 5.75<\/strong> (Brian 6, Sean 5.5)
\nFit right into the attack, gave Dempsey a beautiful ball late; would’ve like to have seen him get more involved despite the limited minutes. (Brian) \u2026 Nice set-up for Dempsey, but the U.S. didn\u2019t have enough offensive forays to showcase his talents during his time on the pitch. (Sean)<\/p>\n

(sub) Maurice Edu<\/strong> – N\/A<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Outside backs Eric Lichaj and Steve Cherundolo impressed against Guadeloupe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5001,"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\/2011\/06\/lichajfeature.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\/5000"}],"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=5000"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5016,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5000\/revisions\/5016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}