US vs. China, and the role of MLS

As in last week, you may be hearing this here first. The U.S. just finished a friendly against China. The final score was 2-1 and MLS players had a big role in the game.

The first goal came in the first half and was completed as a beatiful series between Landon Donovan and Brian McBride. Donovan, who is currently playing with the researve team of Bayer Leverkusen, made a one-touch heel pass to a sprinting McBride, who took the ball of a bounce and one-touched it into the far side of the net. McBride plays for the Columbus Crew and has been on loan to Preston of the English First Division for several weeks, but was off the field for most of that time due to injury.

The second goal came as a result of the constant pressure that the U.S. men were putting onto the China defense. Jeff Agoos sent a pass into the center of the field just above the Chinese penalty area. A Chinese defender tried to get a touch on the ball and accidently lobbed it into the back of his own net.

Greg Vanney and Tony Meola inadvertently teamed up for the lone Chinese goal. Vanney attempted to make a back-pass to Meola with a Chinese player bearing down upon him. He didn't really get enough on it. Meola charged out to clear the ball. He couldn't pick it up because it was an intentional pass. He probably should have used a slide tackle to be sure to clear it, but instead tried to just kick it. The Chinese player snatched it away from him and put it in the back of the net.

Overall the MLS players showed very well. The majority of the players on the team were from MLS. Ben Olsen, as always, was a tireless workhorse in the midfield. The defense worked extremely well as one unit. It was consistently noted that the defense was always tracking back to make sure that any Chinese counter-attacks would come to nothing.

I firmly believe that MLS is having a wonderful impact on the quality of play for U.S. based players. We have more players regularly playing at some of the top levels of club ball. It is going to be exciting to see how the Galaxy do this summer in the World Club Championships.

Go To Page: 1

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic