Americans Fail To Ameliorate Against Netherlands, Lose 2-1

The United States played with nary any zest, nary any zeal, as they succumbed to the quality of third-ranked Netherlands, 2-1. Wednesday’s game (March 3rd, 2010), held in Amsterdam, was the last before coach Bob Bradley composes his World Cup, 23-man roster.

USA avoided the shutout when U.S. captain Carlos Bocanegra scored in the 88th minute heading in DaMarcus Beasley’s free kick.

Beasley entered the game after Stuart Holden suffered a contusion to his shin. Holden joins a long list of crippled American footballers: Clint Dempsey, Oguchi Onyewu, Ricardo Clark, Benny Feilhaber, Steve Cherundolo, and Charlie Davies.

“We had some moments in the first half that were OK, but I don’t think we put enough pressure on them,” said U.S. midfielder Landon Donovan, who saw little of the ball. “It took us too long in the second half before we made some real plays.”

The U.S. is ranked 18th in the world and has lost their last five matches on European soil.

“Certainly it was a good test for us, and I think overall the team played well,” said coach Bradley. “The collective effort was pretty solid. There were moments where it needed to be sharper, quicker and better, and we still need to raise the bar.”

U.S.A. Key Dates

• May 25 – Czech Republic at East Hartford, exhibition
• May 29 – Turkey at Philadelphia, exhibition
• June 5 – Australia at South Africa, exhibition
• June 13 – England at South Africa, World Cup Opener

In the first round, U.S. will also play Slovenia and Algeria.

Other International Friendlies

• England rallies to defeat Egypt, 3-1. Brit Peter Crouch had a pair of goals. The Lions were booed at halftime.
• Slovenia routs Qatar 4-1. Scoring accomplished by Milivoje Novakovic, Bostjan Cesar, Andraz Kirm and Bojan Jokic.
• Serbia big over Algeria, 3-0.
• Argentina defeated Germany, 1-0. Gonzalo Higuain scores.
• Spain defeated France 2-0. David Villa and Sergio Ramos found the back of the net.
• Defending World Cup champ Italy played Cameroon to a 0-0 draw.
• Sourth Korea turned back the Ivory Coast, 2-0, with goals from Lee Dong-gook and Kwak Tae-hwi.
• Uryguay zoomed past Switzerland, 3-1.
• Portuga hands China a 2-0 loss. Hugh Almeida scored twice.
• Senegal punked Greece in Greece, 2-0.
• Norway escapes Slovakia with a 1-0 victory.
• Denmark dispatches Austria, 2-1. Roman Wallner collected the game winner.
• Turkey silences Honduras 2-0.
• U.S. Women defeat Geremany 3-2 in Algarve Final.

Tags: America, Carlos Bocanegra, DaMarcus Beasley, Dutch, Holland, Landon Donovan, Netherlands, Netherlands defeat U.S.A. 2-1, United States, USA

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 10:46 pm and is filed under MLS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.