Commentary
USA-Bolivia Men's International Friendly Player Ratings
- by Ridge Mahoney @ridgemax, May 28, 2018
May 28 in Chester, Pa.
USA 3 Bolivia 0. Goals: Zimmerman 37, Sargent 52, Weah 59.
Att.: 11,882.
Three young Americans gave themselves a Memorial Day to remember by scoring their first U.S. goals in a 3-0 defeat of Bolivia Monday in Chester, Pa.
USA-Bolivia: Highlights
Josh Sargent, making his senior debut, and Tim Weah tallied after a Walker Zimmerman header had opened the scoring to punctuate a dominant display against a very poor opponent.
U.S. keeper Alex Bono, another of six players to earn their first caps, rarely needed to intervene. Sargent and Weah were active and dangerous from the opening minutes as a strong showing by midfielder Weston McKennie squelched most of what Bolivia did offensively.
McKennie anchored the midfield in a 4-1-4-1 formation, and the USA outshot Bolivia, 23-5, despite a rather lackluster game by Christian Pulisic. When the subs generate more shots (8) than the opponent (5), that team has been dominated.
Toronto FC keeper Alex Bono and Zimmerman were the only MLS players to play in the match. Interim head coach Dave Sarachan is expected to call up many MLS players for the remaining two friendlies in Europe against Ireland and France.
USA PLAYER RATINGS:
Starters:
5 Alex Bono (Toronto FC), 1/0. Drilled a spectacular long kick that Pulisic should have collected. Collected a few loose balls and wasn’t required to make a save.
6 Eric Lichaj (Nott. Forest/ENG), 15/1. Pushed up the right flank in support of Weah and Sargent. Seldom tested by the Bolivian attackers. Won a free kick after a determined duel near the touchline.
5 Erik Palmer-Brown (Man. City/ENG), 1/0. Stepped forward into midfield to cut off passes, tackled confidently, left a couple of gaps due to incorrect positioning but did not commit any major errors.
7 Walker Zimmerman (LAFC), 3/1. Rose well and timed header perfectly to score his first international goal. Hit a couple of accurate diagonal balls, had a few words with the referee.
7 Antonee Robinson (Everton/ENG), 1/0. Confident going forward up the left flank to link up with Rubin and Sargent. Cruised into a good spot with a stop-start dribble and crossed for Weah to tap the ball into the net. Tracked back through the channel to snuff out a few Bolivian attacks.
6 Joe Corona (Club America/MEX), 21/3. Played a smart, effective counterpoint to the more active McKennie. Escaped pressure in the box but shot weakly. Excellent corner kick produced U.S. goal.
7 Weston McKennie (Schalke 04/GER), 2/1. Dominant in front of the back line and also pushed forward to contribute to the attack. Whiffed on a chance, had another shot blocked. Grew in strength as U.S. took command in the second half.
6 Rubio Rubin (Tijuana/MEX), 5/0. Drifted inside from the left flank to work combinations and leave space for Robinson out wide. Stopped Bolivia counter with yellow-card foul.
4 Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund/GER), 21/9. Quiet and lacked energy most of the match. Lacked sharpness on the dribble and seldom looked for space behind the Bolivian back line.
7 Tim Weah (Paris SG/FRA), 2/1. Involved often and could have scored early goal but blasted shot off the keeper’s legs. Got his debut goal early in the second half by running onto pass from Robinson and finishing crisply. Laid off a nice ball for Sargent on a one-two.
7 Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen/GER), 1/1. Pounced on a goalkeeper gaffe to deservedly score first U.S goal on his debut and reward his impressive work rate. Dribbled and passed confidently. Unlucky his shot was blocked on return ball from Weah. Combined a few times with Weah, scuffed a volley on a ball headed to him by Zimmerman.
Substitutes:
5 Andrija Novakovich (Reading/ENG), 2/0. Pressed the Bolivian defenders, won a pair of corner kicks. Headed his only chance past the post.
5 Keaton Parks (Benfica/POR) 1/0. Dug into a few tackles to aid control of midfield. Nicked through a challenge to fire a shot on goal, missed the target after a nice U.S. buildup.
5 Julian Green (VfB Stuttgart/GER), 9/3. Fired a shot wide from distance shortly coming into the match. Hit a good corner kick that Novakovich headed wide.
4 Lynden Gooch (Sunderland/ENG), 4/0. The quietest of the attacking subs but did contribute two effective touches during an attack that led to a shot.
4 Matthew Olosunde (Man. United/ENG), 1/0. Nearly lost a duel to Leonardo Vaca but recovered.
NR Jorge Villafana (Santos Laguna/MEX), 17/0. Held down the left flank in the final minutes.
TRIVIA. Weah and Sargent were the first teens to score in the same game for the USA since Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley did it in the 2002 Gold Cup opener against South Korea.
May 28 in Chester, Pa.
USA 3 Bolivia 0. Goals: Zimmerman 37, Sargent 52, Weah 59.
USA – Bono; Lichaj (Olosunde, 74), Zimmerman, Palmer-Brown. Robinson, McKennie, Corona (Parks, 61), Rubin (Gooch, 73), Weah (Green, 61), Pulisic (Villafana 89), Sargent (Novakovich, 61).
Bolivia – Vizcarra (Lampe, 46); Anez, Haquin, Raldes, Baldomar (Segredo, 32), Bejarano (Maygua, 78), Saucedo, Sanchez (Vaca, 66), Ribera (Rodriguez, 77), Ali, Castillo (Miranda, 63).
Referee: Oshane Nation (Jamaica).
Att.: 11,882.
19 comments about "USA-Bolivia Men's International Friendly Player Ratings".
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WTF? You click on "Highlights," and you get the highlights of a 2016 Copa America match between US and Bolivia, not today's match.
Youtube has tonight's match, ten minutes of highlights.
I was pretty disappointed in the team play. I had hoped to see better positioning and less booting of long balls up the field against a very weak opponent. To be fair some US players were well positioned, just not everyone.
Looked like the same old style of play, just with some new faces.
agree
I didn’t even bother watching the second half. I thought I was watching U18 game....
Oh, btw., as far as I’m concerned FIFA should ban wearing green jerseys, or for that matter all green outfits, or perhaps allow green on a white majority background. I’ve never understood wearing green when playing on a green surface. Color is so important, psychologically, for it is all about “ presence” . Cruyff, once mentioned that he preferred orange with black shorts but white shorts make you appear faster. He also prefers a strong orange color instead of a wishie-washie ,or faded type orange.
Geez Frank green is Eco logically correct. Kind of like Politically Correct with a Pitch.
Frank, FIFA is a trend setter.
My thought too. We need a MNT coach...six months ago.
Bob, Yeah, it is unbelievable we don't even have a coach, wouldn't be something if he hired Van Gaal or Erwin Koeman. I mean we have start with good coaches from the start. Right now , any of these games played right now are so meaningless for we have no idea, what's what as far as players go.
RW, It is amazing though why anyone would wear green. That Bolivian Team almost looked invisible, out there....
Yeah Frank. Why not play with a green ball while we are at it?
Bob, no kidding , I’ve seen kids buy black soccer balls. Now that’s fine if the field was white.
The "coach" last night did not think of using his last sub and instead let Pulisic struggle to maintain an interest in the game and then got smacked in the face with a concussion inducing ball. If you have 5 minutes of stoppage time - use it rather than complaining you want your game to end. It was a silly effort all around with Bolivia looking like a high school team and the USMNT not looking much better. Don't see why the US athletes were smiling at the end other than it was their first time on the stage. Time to start with something new and someone to get the young lads some discipline and humility with the ball - rather than shooting long balls from afar.
That was one of, if not the weakest opposition I have seen the US face in the last 25 years.
A good start considering age and amount of time together. Zimmerman and Robinson impressive. Couple subs lacked creativity in final third. Next couple of games will be much better test.
Weak opposition, but good confidence builder for a very young team.
Some players show great potential.
Sargents under 18 team at his old club Scott-Gallagher in St. Louis could have beat that Bolivian team.
Pulisic just finished a long season with Dortmund and Sarachan calls him up? Call up was for youth to showcase their metal. Pulisic has already demonstrated his metal that he can play...his call up is total nonsense on the part of Sarachan et al.
Time to unload coach Sarachan. Why ais the USSF wasting in promoting these friendlies with a system that is a failure. I could care less about the player ratings. What I saw were too many instances of players making bad decisions, not enough change of pace, unable to get into any kind of individual/team rhythm, unable to handle pressure when it counts, and not making things happen. Even some of our better young players find it difficult understand and execute some of the game nuances that NT players have. It starts with the coaches perception and player execution. The coaching change needs to be "executed" sooner then later.
Boy, you can't please some people. You'd think we'd lost by 3 goals. While the Bolivia team was weak, did we know that would be the case when we scheduled them? I was very encouraged by the young players on the field; I've heard about some of them (but many were completely new to me), and it was nice to see them in action. As for the green shirts, I like the color, but they do serve as camouflage, which is why I like that color for goalkeepers (so the opposition has more difficulty seeing the keeper's positioning). For field players, the opponents may have more trouble seeing them, but so will their teammates, so I think it's a wash. But banning them, I hope you're kidding...