Previous US Men’s Soccer Coverage

Things did not go too well for the US Men’s Soccer team in their matchup with Ukraine in Cyprus on Wednesday. Defensive lapses in the first and second half led to Ukraine goals and few players impressed in one of their final chances to make the case for inclusion in the preliminary 30-man Brazil squad that will take camp in May.

Three men who really did not help their cases were defenders Edgar Castillo, Oguchi Onyewu, and John Brooks. All three struggled with Castillo’s man consisting beating him down the left and Brooks heading a ball straight to a Ukrainian player for a breakaway chance that resulted in their second goal. Onyewu certainly wasn’t responsible for giving the ball away on that goal but he did not hustle back and after an initial save from Tim Howard the lack of his presence in the box was part of the reason Ukraine so easily scored off the rebound.

The US didn’t look great going forward either but were slightly better in the second half with Alejandro Bedoya making some nice plays. The best chances came after Aron Johannsson was introduced and he had a volley cleared off the line that could have put the US on the board.

It wasn’t a great showing but since this was just part of the squad the US will take to Brazil (This was almost entirely European based players) too many conclusions probably can’t be drawn. In fact of the four starting defenders in this game three of them seem unlikely to make the trip to Brazil and if they do will not be expected to contribute heavily. Geoff Cameron seems extremely likely to make the Brazil roster but whether he appears at right back (like he did vs. Ukraine) or is a midfield substitute is unknown.

The next game for the US is a friendly against Mexico on April 2nd that will allow the MLS and Liga MX based players to make their final case to make the May 30-man squad for the training camp before Brazil.