{"id":19573,"date":"2013-05-30T00:22:01","date_gmt":"2013-05-30T04:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=19573"},"modified":"2013-05-30T00:22:01","modified_gmt":"2013-05-30T04:22:01","slug":"player-ratings-u-s-mens-national-team-vs-belgium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=19573","title":{"rendered":"Player Ratings: U.S. Men\u2019s National Team vs. Belgium"},"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\u00a0USA\u2019s 4-2 loss to Belgium<\/a><\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tim Howard<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: \u00a05<\/b> (Brian 4.5, Sean 5.5)
\nShould\u2019ve smothered the shot, but otherwise, a decent night from #1. Came off his line when needed, and tried to get his backline on same page after allowing first goal. (Brian) \u2026 Hard to fault him too much on the goal \u2013 made a good initial save, though perhaps he could\u2019ve held it, and his defense was slow to react. Made a solid save on Lukaku to keep it tied going into the half. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Geoff Cameron<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: 4<\/b> (Brian 4, Sean 4)
\nMade up for early transgression with first international goal; but after that, mistakes were evident, and never seemed comfortable. (Brian) \u2026 Scored his first international goal and overall passing accuracy was decent, but struggled all game defensively. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Omar Gonzalez<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: 3<\/b> (Brian 3, Sean 3)
\nSuffered communication issues with Goodson and Cameron; strong in the air, but weak touch on sequence leading up to 2nd<\/sup>\u00a0Belgium goal. Cost his team big. (Brian) \u2026 Rough night with several costly mistakes. Didn\u2019t look on the same page as his fellow defenders. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Clarence Goodson<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: \u00a04.5<\/b> (Brian 5, Sean 4)
\nEarly communication issues faded as the game progressed; shored up the backline in the latter portions of first half and earlier parts of second half. (Brian) \u2026 Struggled all night with Lukaku and communication issues and didn\u2019t assert himself enough in the backline. (Sean)<\/p>\n

DaMarcus Beasley<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: 4.5<\/b> (Brian 4.5, Sean 4.5)
\nInvolved himself in the attack as first half progressed; lucky not to have handball called near 40th<\/sup>\u00a0minute; a few mistakes, but savvy saved him for the most part. (Brian) \u2026 Good effort defensively and at times did well pressing forward. Still, against top class opposition, he never appears comfortable at left back. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Jermaine Jones<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: 4.25<\/b> (Brian 4, Sean 4.5)
\nSteady in the middle, and played a lot of safe passes. Longer ones, not too great. Defensive effort left a lot to be desired, especially on fourth goal. (Brian) \u2026 At times asserted himself well in the midfield, at others was part of U.S. midfield that was overrun. Picked up his typical needless yellow card late. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Sacha Kljestan<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: 3.75<\/b> (Brian 3.5, Sean 4)
\nPassing was awry, spacing with Jones was curious at times; a non-factor, which hurt the U.S. in the middle of the park. (Brian) \u2026 Needed a big game, but didn\u2019t do enough to assert himself in midfield as the U.S. was often overrun. Didn\u2019t create anything offensively. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Brad Davis<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: 4<\/b> (Brian 4, Sean 4)
\nTook much too long to get off shot in 35th; mildly effective, but found very few opportunities to use his lethal left foot from the wing. (Brian) \u2026 Best contributions were earning some corner kicks with decent crosses. Played too slow at times. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Graham Zusi<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: 4.5<\/b> (Brian 4.5, Sean 4.5)
\nMixed bag kind of match; passes weren\u2019t crisp, but had a couple of good moments tracking back. (Brian) \u2026 Looked solid early and put in some good set pieces, but faded as the match went on. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Clint Dempsey<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: 5.5<\/b> (Brian 5.5, Sean 5.5)
\nNice header back to Cameron on the goal; class finish on penalty. (Brian) \u2026 Excellent work to set up the first goal and coolly took the penalty goal for some late consolation. Otherwise struggled to get much going offensively and held the ball for too long at times \u2013 though much of the blame falls on his teammates for not getting open. (Sean)<\/p>\n

Jozy Altidore<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: 3.75<\/b> (Brian 4, Sean 3.5)
\nShaky first look; \u201ccoulda woulda shoulda\u201d kind of half before he was spelled at the half. Did little to prove himself. (Brian) \u2026 Failed to even manage a shot on the one good chance he had and often pulled too far wide to be a threat. (Sean)<\/p>\n

(sub) Brad Guzan<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: 4.75<\/b> (Brian 5, Sean 4.5)
\nHung out to dry on all three goals; otherwise, decent performance and strong off his line. (Brian) \u2026 Defense put him in a bad position on all three goals, but couldn\u2019t help but fell Howard might\u2019ve done better on a pair of them. (Sean)<\/p>\n

(sub) Eddie Johnson<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: 4.75<\/b> (Brian 5, Sean 4.5)
\nTurned a \u201cmeh\u201d performance to an \u201cehhhh\u201d performance when he earned a lucky penalty on what looked to be a cross; had another dangerous moment late.\u00a0\u00a0 (Brian) \u2026 Some life off the bench, but didn\u2019t get much going forward until it was too late.<\/p>\n

(sub) Terrance Boyd<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: 3.75<\/b> (Brian 3.5, Sean 4)
\nPoor beginning off the bench led to Fellaini goal; didn\u2019t pair well with EJ in the final third. (Brian) \u2026 Nothing going offensively and failed to make a clearance in the build-up to Belgium\u2019s third goal.<\/p>\n

(sub) Brad Evans<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: 4<\/b> (Brian 4, Sean 4)
\nLargely invisible on the offensive end; defensive effort easier to see. (Brian) \u2026 Effort was there, impact was not. (Sean)<\/p>\n

(sub) Matt Besler<\/b> \u2013 Average Rating: (Brian 4, Sean 4)
\nFortunate to not have penalty called on his tackle on Verthogen; escaped danger on a couple of chaotic moments inside 18 late.\u00a0 (Brian) \u2026 Tough spot to come into and understandably struggled. (Sean)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lots of poor defensive performances in 4-2 loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4859,"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":true,"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\/howardfeature.jpg?fit=490%2C225&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19575,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19573\/revisions\/19575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}