The first USMNT game of 2015 also marked the debut of Fox’s soccer coverage. The USMNT debuted on Fox Sports 1 that started with a pre-game show featuring Eric Wynlada, Stuart Holden, Alexi Lalas and Rob Stone. It was slated to go a half hour but they had a little trouble with the feed from Chile so it ran on to the fourth minute of the game. It had pretty much everything you would expect and they even talked a little MLS as they start covering the league for the next eight years. It seemed like everybody was quite comfortable right off the get go and they even had a segment with Grant Wahl as an insider segment.
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The USMNT starting lineup for today’s game was Rimando; Birnbaum, Jones, Besler; Yedlin, Bradley, Dempsey (c), Diskerud, Shea; Altidore, Wood playing a 2-5-3 formation.
Things started off quickly as Brek Shea put the US up 1-0 with bullet from the left side in the 6th minute of the game. But it didn’t last long as Chile tied the game up in the 10th minute with a goal from Roberto Gutierrez. Chile started to find their game with the goal and started to control the game until Jozy Altidore took a nice pass from Mix Diskerud and put in the far left corner to give the US a 2-1 lead that they would take into halftime.
The second half started with Lee Nguyen replacing Bobby Wood. The game went back and forth for a while but it looked like the US was starting to tire as most of the players are just starting preseason for their MLS clubs. Michael Bradley would hit the crossbar to almost give the US a two goal lead but that was about as close as they would come to scoring in the second half. With Chile starting to press the game, they tied it in the 68th minute with a goal from Mark Gonzalez making the score 2-2.
As the game wound down The US switched back to a 4-4-2 formation looking to escape with a tie but it wasn’t to be as Gonzalez scored his second and the game winner in the 75th minute to put Chile up 3-2. The US really couldn’t even get much possession to tie the game and they leave Chile with a 3-2 loss.
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The positive coming out of this game is three players picking up their first cap in Birnbaum, Trapp and Zardes. Jozy Altidore scoring a goal with a nice assist from “Mix” and DeAndre Yedlin, who was having a solid two-way game as a right midfielder.
Some of the negatives are still the same from the World Cup as they can’t keep any possession and giving up goals late in the game. Most the players wore down quickly as after the 60th minute it looked like they had lost their legs. They’ll have a chance to work on the 3-5-2 until they play their next game Sunday February 8, 2015 against Panama at the Stub Hub center with a 4 p.m. ET kickoff. Let’s hope for a big improvement at home as they face an upcoming Gold Cup opponent.