We are all excited about a very special talent when he comes through there.
Advertisement
Kljestan, who earned the start in central midfield next to Michael Bradley with a superb performance off the bench last Friday, has clearly regained some of Jurgen Klinsmann’s trust and broke the ice for the US when it appeared the game would head to halftime scoreless. Both teams already had clinched.
The United States has not lost a home qualifier since 2001.
Referring to Fridays 2-2 draw at home to Guatemala, Hart said, both goals were preventable on Friday and we didnt deal with the situation well enough.
“Everything is laid out for us, fantastic with the Jaguars hosting us here”, said Klinsmann. Meanwhile, the U.S. (10 pts) is 3 ahead of Guatemala, meaning a win or a draw is enough for the USMNT.
Obviously, U.S. Soccer will take into account that playing on a mid-week night instead of Friday, and the difficulty of competing with football season, could mean a future change in game plan. “We are fully prepared to go 100 percent full speed”.
Christian Pulisic and Sacha Kljestan put on another show in a second consecutive blowout USMNT victory. Some changes will be made from the squad that beat St. Vincent & the Grenadines 6-0 on Friday, but the U.S. should still be good enough to get the job done against the Soca Warriors.
There will be changes to the lineup that started against SVG: Klinsmann has to account for the absence of Matt Besler (allowed to leave the camp to be with his wife and newborn child) and DeAndre Yedlin (suspended); Michael Bradley is back from suspension, and it is hard to imagine him being left out of the starting XI. As planned, Tim Howard started ahead of Brad Guzan, who played versus St. Vincent, in goal.
Meanwhile, midfielder Michael Bradley and defender Michael Orozco are both returning from suspension and could play.
Although advancement is, for practical purposes, locked up, the Americans do have incentive. If they beat T&T, they’ll have to face Mexico in the first game of the Hex. Its place in the six-team final round was all but sealed prior to kickoff.
Jurgen Klinsmann’s side had needed only a point to be sure of reaching the final round of qualifiers for Central America, North America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF).
Entering the second, it was much of the same for the United States, who enjoyed most of the control of possession. We want to finish first in our group.
Advertisement
The path has always been to develop young players and despite speed bumps along the way (that defeat to Guatemala away) finally there are signs of promise from the youngsters on the USA roster, as we saw in the last two World Cup qualifiers. He was by far the best player on the pitch for either side, and offered the USMNT an offensive weapon they’ve likely never had before. The Hex brings something of a re-set, but there was a fluency and potency in attack in this match that the U.S. will want to replicate in the coming months as they seek to secure their place in Russian Federation. “We wish it were a bigger crowd, but that’s OK”. And the USA soon put the game away. They have nothing to lose.
