Far From Finished

Even in a 3-1 loss, even on a night when every US MNT header and nearly every US MNT shot seemed to find the mitts of Paraguay’s keeper, not all was lost. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what went wrong: finishing. It’s an easy answer, but it’s the hardest part of the game. No single player is to blame, and except for rare occasions, every goal is a team creation. Rico Clark, the lone goal scorer for the Americans Monday night, said the following to USsoccer after the game:

“We created chances, and they came from all over the place. They came from our forwards. They came from our midfielders, and they came from out wide. It shows that we have strength in all positions in the field. We came out with good intensity. You’ve got to have that for 90 minutes, and I thought we brought a lot of energy tonight. I thought for sure we were going to get the equalizer.”



Think about that last line. For a man with less than ten caps under his belt, Rico bespeaks a confidence that the new US MNT has earned since last year summer. We expected to fly into Venezuela with a young, eager team and compete with some of South America’s best. The final score has yet to turn out in our favor, but it’s very clear that this group isn’t defeated. Frustrated, yes, but not defeated. That’s something that sinks in when you know you can’t hang. Bob Bradley’s team didn’t make the trip to pack it in and play for a tie.

A lot of Americans—Benny, Ben Olsen, JMapp—put together extended sequences of solid play. Rico was one of the few that put together an entire game’s worth. Known primarily for hard tackling and gazelle-like defensive coverage, his first international goal was something to celebrate—a low, near-post line drive from 18 yards out that came after Taylor Twellman one-timed a clever square pass with his back to the goal.

We created chances, and they came from all over the place.

Just the same, the Americans need to come away from the Paraguay game with some mental notes for the future. Jonathan Bornstein these words (good advice for any soccer player):

“You can’t look back at every game and only see the negatives. Obviously you have to learn from your experiences, but you also have to learn from the good things you do. I think we were the better team throughout most of the game. We didn’t get the result, so it doesn’t look that way. We had stretches where we were good on both sides of the ball. At the same time, you can’t be proud of a defeat.”

Expect Bradley’s squad to come out hard in its final Copa America game against Colombia. Time for the US MNT to finish what it started.